Since I am on a sports car fling, my new project is one that I had started on about 3-4 years ago. The '68 Corvette ragtop roadster! I don’t remember how I ended up with the kit, but I really wasn’t a fan of the large hood bulge. Years ago, I was talking to the late Barry Fadden about this kit and how I didn’t like the hood and he offered me a regular performance hood from an AMT '71 454 Corvette and I tried it on the body when I got home and it did fit, but it was a little short. I have been working on this hood for a while and I may have it were I want it to be. I was originally going to paint this '68 Vette with Model Master Nassau Blue Metallic Lacquer, but I kept imagining a dark green and I settled on Model Master British Racing Green Enamel.
Now, my luck with old Testors/Model Master enamel spray paint is not very good, so I will try my best with what I have and if this doesn’t work, I will have to find an alternative. This Vette will be built kind of stock. The tires I might use are from the Monogram '55 Chevy Street Machine or the AMT Pad Printed Goodyear tires.
I assembled the basic engine and went to paint it. The Model Master Acrylic Enamel paint I had picked up was old and needed to be thinned. I thinned the paint with Acryl Thinner and now I will strip the paint from the engine and repaint it. When I wire an engine, I usually drill out the distributor and add my wires. This distributor has a mounting pin just under the distributor capand I drilled it out, added a short piece of 1/8th inch styrene tube and then I glued in the pin. Now I can add my wires.
I’m a huge C3 fan so I’ll be watching. BRG is a very nice color. I don’t recall seeing any US cars painted like that so it will be interesting. Not sure I’ve ever seen a dark green C3 either. This is gonna be cool.
Thanks Brandon! British Racing Green or British Green Poly was a color that was used on the '68 Corvette. We don’t see any out in public, but they are out there! Google Images has plenty of them.
I left the engine covered in Easy-Off Oven Cleaner for a couple of days since I had to do other things. In other words, life got in the way. I washed the engine this morning and I got 99% of the paint off and I have been scraping any other loose particules off. Now to repaint the engine after I drill for plug wires.
The 427 CI engine is wired and assembled. I ran some wires through the ignition shield and ran them to the cylinder heads. All that work done on the distributor and I didn’t use it, but I did add a piece of 1/16 inch styrene rod to under the distributor shield to the back of the intake manifold. That sparked the question, is the shield a part of the 1:1 air cleaner or is it a separate item? The air cleaner I found was on the part sprue, but not listed in the instructions. This air cleaner is for a “lesser” 427 engine which I have created.
I have never liked the alternator/generator hanging in the air and I tried to make a bracket for that. It’s not bad and probably a bit larger than it should be, but I did make a bracket for the alternator. Now to clean it up, finalize the shape and paint it!
Earlier this week I took a chance and painted the hardtop roof and it didn’t come out too badly. I painted the body this afternoon and I am not too happy as the body door lines and vent lines showed through the paint. Maybe another coat or two after this coat has had a chance to dry. I painted the underside of the hood and when this has had chance to dry, I’ll paint the top of the hood.
I have put the 'Vette body, hood and roof into a small tub with Easy-Off Oven Cleaner to strip the paint. The roof was ok, but the body and hood had way too many flaws even to sand out. I’m off to find a new can of dark green metallic LACQUER paint today. No enamel paint!
While the '68 Vette is taking a bath in Easy-Off, I decided on assembling the chassis. I replaced the kit tires with a set of white letter tires from AMT. The engine is wired with a triangular air cleaner over the single 4-barrel carburator. I replaced the kit front springs with a set I had found in my parts box and I paint them blue. I glue the front wheels on so the model wouldn’t roll off the table.
Mr. Mike, good luck with the paint on your Vette. I do like that color that you’ve selected. The chassis work is moviing along & looking very good too.
Thanks Tom and Joe! I went out today and I found another can of Dupli-Color Forest Green Pearl and that is the color I plan on using. A nice dark green paint!
After sitting for a couple of days in Easy-Off Oven Cleaner, I washed the Corvette body, hood and roof and the old paint just came off with some Dawn Dish Detergent and a scrub brush. Now to pick and sand to remove any unwanted paint and then a new coat of primer.
I don’t like the instructions on this model! Parts are included, but there is no mention of that part being used. There is a fan shroud on the parts tree, but no where in the instructions is it called for. I included it on my Corvette! I have started sanding the primer coat on the 'Vette hood and in some spots, The primer ran so I made sure it was flush before I add another coat, a little more sanding and paint.
I have finished the interior of my '68 Corvette. Since this is a L89 car and not an L88, I tried to create a radio in place of the block off plate that L88s have since they have no radios.
