Tom McEwen 1971 Plymouth Duster Funny Car

My thanks must go to JohnJ, who kindly sent me this model some time ago.



I started it over on the now defunct zbucksters model cars site but it got abandoned.

Sprue shots:











The work so far:

The chassis is mostly one piece and has a lot of mold lines to clean up.





The front and rear panels are a real poor fit and needed a lot of work.





Almost fixed.





A member on another site pointed out that the rear on these kits sits to high....



....and showed me a fix for same.



The fix also included modifying the hinge point on the rear bulkhead.



The corrected stance:







That's where I left it sixteen months ago.

During that time however, the chassis warped and I had to start again!!!  





I now have it back almost to where it was. I think the nose still needs to go down a bit more.

Because the chassis now rides higher at the rear in the body than originaly, I had to modify these pieces on the roll cage as they were touching the roof and wouldn't let the fron of the body down far enough.



The member on the other site also mentioned this. I may have to do some more mods to these pieces yet.

So six hours work to-day has got me not quite back to where I had it!!!

The stance still didn't look right to me so something had to be done.

So I raised the rear end by 1mm. This allowed more clearance for the roll cage and let the front end go lower. Now I'm happy with it.

I had forgot all about you starting this one. Looks like you got the stance nailed.

I have been looking at photos of the real deal and the stance still didn't look right. Too low at the rear and to high at the front. Just to muscle car esque!

So I re-worked it yet again!!!

Has a nice lookin profile.

The instructions colour call outs for the body are 'red' and 'medium blue'..... oh yes!!!

So looking at the box art, I went with Zero Paints base colour coat bright red and Sunoco blue. A bit over exposed in the photos but in reality they look close enough to the 1:1 for me.

I got a nice crisp separation line along the sides...... shame, as most of it get's covered with the body long white English Leather  decal!!! LOL

I did have an issue on the blue at each front lower corner but with some masking and a .3mm AB, I was able to prep. and blend in some more paint!!! Phew!!

Looking very pretty. I especially like an interesting paint job on the frame. We too often ignore the design and look of a chassis, even sheet metal work is a skill! Thanx for the work. I have models probably 4 decades old I haven't looked at. I wonder how warped they are!!!??? Have to go dig 'em out!

I was looking at the separation line and thinking "man that's clean". Then realized you are right about the decal. LOL Looks great Al.

You're right Buck, it's damn near perfect, even if I do say so myself...... BUT all except about 5mm at each end gets covered in the decals.......

I'm not normally a fan of funny cars, but you've pulled this one off superbly, Al. The overall stance looks spot on. It's a shame to hide that lovely crisp line though...

Paintjob looks good!

Looking great Al. Much, much better than I would ever have done it.

Thanks guys.

I got the clear coats laid then applied the decals with somewhat mixed results.

The big side decals went into place without problems but even with microsol, were difficult to conform at the rear and the wheel arches. Front right need a little touch in. The rest were no problem.

Nice work on the decals Al. They look really good from here.

Bummer..... this one is going back in the box until I can find a pair of sutable slicks for it.  

Decals and paint make the kit! Funny cars were essential to putting fans in the stands back then and the SNAKE vs MONGOOSE match races were a big rivalry. Thanks for living history.

Great work Al I agree with Buck those decals look good in the pics and man that seperation line was awesome what type of masking did you use on it? I saw your post about looking for some slicks I'm going to look in my stash in just a bit for you, hopefully I will find something you can use to finish this killer build bud.

Thanks for the kind words Chris.

I did the separation line with good old Tamiya yellow tape. It's nice and thin so leaves almost no ridge at all. It also has the best edge of any tape I have used.

The real secret of course is to burnish the tape down well, and give it a couple of coats of clear. Then if anything does creep under the tape, it will only be the clear coat which won't be seen.

Also thanks for the very kind offer to look for some slicks for me.

However, I don't think I'll need them.

I got to thinking that heat caused the warpage so maybe I could apply heat to correct it.

I placed the tyre in a shallow container, (an empty cat bowl.... LOL) and poured freshly boiled water over it. (Kill or be killed!!.... nothing to lose.)

I picked it out with teweezers and inserted the wide wheel back. With some manipulation with my fingers, I held it as 'round' as I could and ran it under the cold tap.

It worked to a degree but with a couple more attempts I had it where it's acceptable. It's only on one side of the tire, so I'll place that side on the inner. May even try to get it round  a bit more. Then again I may leave well alone!!! LOL

That's a trick I will remember. Those slicks look good Al.

I'm back on this one and have two questions.

The fuel tank has two outlets, so I assume there would be two fuel lines running to the engine.

The engine comes with a fuel pump which has three connections. Which connections should I run the fuel lines too and where does the other one go to?

The engine also has an 'oil line manifold' and I assume oil lines should be connected to it. There are three connections..... where do they go to?

Al, on the fuel pump there are three lines to the tank, 1 is the supply line which is at the bottom of the tank and two on top for the return lines.



the supply line goes to the bent part of the pump and the return line goes to the straight part of the pump.

On the oil lines



There are four lines, a pressure line from the pump to the block, a return line from the bottom of the oil pan to the pump and two lines in front going to the oil filters




Hope the pictures help.

First of all my apologies must go to john2308, for not replying to his post in response to my request for information. Sorry John!!

So... thanks for the info John and I'll do my best with what the kit supplies.

It's over two years since I last touched this one and about three and a half years since I started it!!

I got the tyres pretty much sorted out, there's just a tad of distortion now. I also had to narrow the front track as it was to wide.

Here's where I am at now:

No problem Al and I know about stalled projects for years, I think I got like 5 or 6 of them myself.

It's looking good Al, like the paint and decal work and the stance looks right on

If you get stuck with the lines I'll try to make it clearer.

Looking good, Al!

Decals look the part, nice looking motor and chassis.

Is it me though, or is the right rear wheel sitting a good couple of mm further back within the wheel arch?