I’ve been tinkering around with this build now in the Red Hot and Rollin’ GB for about 4 months.
. I built this kit as a kid and had a blast with it even though it turned out mediocre…well…bad. Here’s the kit I’ll be starting a WIP here with.
I have been working on getting the rear suspension lowered and the rear tires to tuck under the rear fenders and so far have had some decent luck at it… I have narrowed the rear end and repositioned the rear spring perches to drop it a scale 6" and am going to tub the inside of the fender area / truck bed to get this to work. It’ll be a slow build because I’m taking my time on this bad boy so I don’t mess it all up. The paint job will be exactly as it appears on the box top but the stance and wheels will all be different/ better. With that, it’s going to be a catch up game to get to where I’m at right now with it but am looking forward to having this sucker done so I can show it possibly in October in Austin. At this point it’s a long shot but we’ll see.
I’ll see if I can catch up to my current progress fairly quickly.
I bought a total of 4 kits for this build. I’ll explain here:
Kit #1: This is my main kit where all productive assembly will take place:
Kit #2 : I will be using various parts that kit#1 does not have. The brake calipers are one example.
Kit #3 is a copy cat of kit #1 but has been half built (it was a terrible effort on somebody’s part but the kit is PERFECT) that I got off of ebay. This kit will be the sacrificial donor for all initial cutting / hacking and placement of the powertrain and drivetrain components as well as where and how much to cut out of the bed for the wheel tubs. I couldn’t care less about the appearance of this thing but it serves its purpose in this build. I’ll post pics of this thing in a minute…
Kit#4 I have just in case something breaks or if I need another part (which happens a lot with my modified builds):
With all this in mind I’ve got the 429 test fitted into the donor kit …aww man! I forgot kit #5 for the hood scoop, 429 Boss decals and the engine donor:
Here’s the sacrificial donor kit:( I only hope the original builder was 6 years old!!!LOL)
and the 429 bare block and transmission test fit. I’ll haf to move the transmission crossmember back a little and fabricate some motor mount bosses. The engine had to go back a tad in this photo.
I had run up against an issue already in the build and I hadn’teven started yet. The rear tires are a two piece design so I either needed to use another set of one piece design tires or work with these. I chose to work with these and use Permatex gasket sealer (thanks to a tip from a friend here) to assemble the tire halves and help with getting rid of that nasty seam that runs right down the middle of the tires.
What I did next was, from my way of thinking, a little unorthodox in the fact that I removed the original spring perches from the build frame and graphed the ones from the spare parts frame onto the one from the build. I know it’s not correct but I’ll be able to lower the rear suspension down about 1/4" to put the wheel/ tire assy where I want it and have about 1/8" tweeking room. I’ve still got to brace them up a little better with some spare resin stock that I’ve got to clean up the appearance and have to trim up some on the truck bed so that it sits all the way down on the frame in the front (about 1/32"-1/16") but here’s the current progress so I can at least show that I’m building on this.
and a little closer:
Next I graphed a few things from one frame to another so I’ll post the major update pic first that has green callout lines. I didn’t label the lines but I’ll start with the lines starting at the front of the frame and work towards the rear.
Here we go:
For line #1 at the radiator core support area I cut out the large area so that my belt, pulleys and fan would have a place to sit in place.
At line #2 I cut out the transmission cross member and relocated the cross member to the 4 speed transmission mount location.
At the 3rd line I relocated the rear leaf spring front perch on top of the frame and the 4th line is where I relocated the rear spring perch on top of the frame.
The transmission sits in like so:
I’ve still gotta install fabricated motor mounts from the frame to the engine but this is where that’s gonna sit: (this body is ONLY used as part of the test fitting)
A little crooked but I’ll straighten that out:
Next up will be motor mount boss fabrication and rear suspension and driveline work…
Ok fellas at this point I felt like I was finally getting somewhere here with this build! The rear springs were set into place with white glue just for test fitting and measurement purposes and the axle was just about where I wanted it as it’s around 1/4" lower than what it was. I got the fabricated motor mount bosses glued into position also. The engine was still sitting at a weird angle even after motor mound mods so I added a transmission mount to the cross member which fixed the front high angle problem I was having out of the engine.
So far here are all the parts so far in white that have been added and/ or modified…
and here’s a comparison from frame to frame on even levels where the rear end is supposed to be if I were to build it how I was supposed to and where it is currently on this build. I just had to clean up and narrow the rear end to move the tires inward.
All of this has proven to be a lot more tedious than I originally thought but I think it’s going to pay off…eventually. A lot of time has been spent on other things like getting the wheels to fit the front AM tires and smoothing out the two piece rear tires (this all boiled down to money folks-I could have just bought another kit with one piece tires in it or gone AM with this but I’ve already exceeded the budget BIG TIME with this build so if it aint paint related stuff I’m buying then it aint gonna happen) and drilling the holes out in the Draglite wheels. I did manage to narrow the rear end and get a couple of pieces glued on to the frame though.
Here’s the difference after removing some off of the differential mounting pads. I think we’re going to be ok in the “lowering department”.
and then the difference in the tires from before and after seam filling and sanding work:
I test fitted the carberators and air horns on top of the engine.in addition to prepping and priming the front suspension parts. I’ve got the exhaust mostly figured out so that’s all but in the bag. Engine build up will commence shortly!
I’m wondering if this is gonna work from the Mustang Boss 429 kit? It’s growing on me by the second…
I’ve got most of the frame and suspension set up the way I want it. I’m not as far along as what I wanted to be but I’m one heck of a lot further than what I was. I kept the front suspension OOB for two reasons: 1) I wanted to keep it that way for nostalgia’s sake and 2) in keeping it OOB it made things a lot easier so I’ll be able to concentrate most of my efforts on under the hood the same way I did my recent Challenger build( Oh man! This is gonna take forever!!)
Then engine assy was next. I primed the long block in black in my typical fashion. I like walking my shades of paint dark to light rather than the other way around and this offers some level of pre-shading for the dark crevices and all.
I’ve already smoothed out most of the seams on the pan and transmission. The ones behind the water pump will be hidden.
The first few coats of paint. At this point I still needed to apply a few coats of paint to bring it to the right shade.
Ok I applied the wash and let it dry for 3 hours…did I mention I had been up since 1:00 AM on that particular morning??? Couldn’t sleep so I hit the bench…I figured, oh well, I’ll pay for it later! After drying I hit the engine with a coat of Vallejo Matte Finish. It worked like a charm. Then I Easy Off’d the chrome rocker covers as these will ultimately get an Aluminum Silver coating. A few cups of coffee later I managed to base coat the starter and the exhausts. I installed the steering linkage on the front end (this may give me a little trouble later but I think I can tweak things a little and get by with the oversight), sand the other rear tire and spray another coat of gloss black on the front wheels in preparation for the Alclad that will be applied next week.
In the pic below if you look closely you can see subtly darkened areas on the timing cover. Just enough to get the effect going. The intake manifold side of the L/H head shows the residue left behind by the wash. I also did some carving on the rocker covers to get them to fit flush.
Here’s with the engine block pretty much done. I still have some weathering to do to the exhausts and I have the intake and rocker covers just resting on the engine. I also have some touch up to do to the rocker covers and the intake but I’ve gotta show some progress to show that I’m still active in this WIP. The funny thing is that this pic does not show the weathering that I’ve done. I didn’t go overboard with that but wanted to at least make the truck look like it had been driven.
Thanks Lee! If I’m not mistaken this is the kit you have…
It was re-boxed and put on the market in 1995. If you need any help with some of the pitfalls and niceties of this kit regarding the build let me know. I’ve got spare parts out the wazzoo as well. lol
Well I chucked up my 12mm deep socket again, mounted the front tires on it one by one and spun 'em up a piece of sandpaper to give the tread that worn look like I did on my Challenger build.
Here’s the Challenger tire mounted up on the drill:
After that I shot a coat of dull coat on the sidewalls of the tires and mounted my wheels on 'em:
Here’s the tires and wheels for this build after all the sandpaper and dull coating:( the funny thing is that you can’t see any of the coverage problems on the wheels with the naked eye. If I were going off of these pics I’d start over on the wheels. Believe me, they look a helluva lot better in person)
Then I started back on the motor a little. I sanded the distributor cap down a little on the top and started drilling holes to put the ignition wires in to:
“Whew” about sums up that mouthful of posting I just did! lol
I spent a whole afternoon (while I was working around the house) daydreaming up ideas to get the wheels mounted up on the axles and finally got it. I have a piece of brass tubing that’s going to fit perfect inside the front wheel center hole(after I cut the tubing to fit the width , they’ll ride perfectly on the front axle spindles) and ended up JB welding some washers to the rear brake backing plates to space the rear tires out just enough to clear the springs (took too much off of the rear diff) and not be seen.
Here’s a mock up so far. ( So far I’m happy with it)
Here’s with the spark plug wires and boots installed. I used wire from Lex’s scale modeling and cut sections of wire insulation one gauge thicker than the spark plug wires and slid over the wires to create the “boots”.
I really started getting the hang of this whole alclad thing at this point and was freekin’ loving it!!! I also had just installed the brass rod section in the center of the front wheels to take up the extra “slack”.
The rear wheels are painted!!! I’m happy!!!
and the product of the planning and suspension re-work so far…(I’ve been just waitin’ for the opportunity to do this) and to recap I 'm going from this:
correct 
…I figured, oh well, I’ll pay for it later! After drying I hit the engine with a coat of Vallejo Matte Finish. It worked like a charm. Then I Easy Off’d the chrome rocker covers as these will ultimately get an Aluminum Silver coating. A few cups of coffee later 
I managed to base coat the starter and the exhausts. I installed the steering linkage on the front end (this may give me a little trouble later but I think I can tweak things a little and get by with the oversight), sand the other rear tire and spray another coat of gloss black on the front wheels in preparation for the Alclad that will be applied next week.
