1949 Resin Merc

[fireguy14]

Great job Buck! The engine is awesome, and I really like how you did the window trim, I'll have to file that tip away for later use! Sorry to hear about the chassis incident, but seems like you got it fixed pretty quick.

[zbuckster]

Thanks for the comments guys they are always welcome. I do agree the engine is this builds strong point so far. I guess that's the way it should be on a race car. At least a drag car, the more motor the better.

Last time I left off the chassis was a roller and I was looking to set the ride height on the body. I used my pieces of styrene under the body and then put 3 business cards under the front spoiler. That is were I wanted to be.



I needed to have someway to hold up the body off the chassis. Because the engine setback outs the carbs under the cowl I decided to build a box that would firewall them from the interior and serve as a rest for the body also.




Here is the finished box. It is still rough I haven't sanded the epoxy down.



This keeps the body right where I want it. Plus I can remove the body for display with no problem. Then I made paper templates of all the windows.



That was it the body was ready for paint now. I was excited. The first time I have used the HOK candy paints. So I put the Gold undercoat on the hood. What I mess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I put this paint.



On this primer.



And got this result.



I am so glad I didn't start on the body. So now what do I do? I have used this primer with all other paints and never had a problem. I use it all the time when I can't find any Dulpi-color. I know the problem is a reaction between the paint and the primer.

So now for 2 questions.

Is there anyone that has used the HOK paint and what primer did you use?

Can I put a resin body into the CSC with out damage to the resin?

Until I can resolve this paint issue the project goes on hold.

[dogfish7]

One of the best How toos ever!!

[prumus99]

Hey Buck,

Try tamiya primer, I've used it with HOK paints and it seemed to work fine.

Alan

[zbuckster]

Thanks for the heads up. I will try that primer. The main problem I have is the closest hobby shop to me is about a 100 ,ile drive. That's 200 miles round trip. So everything I use I have to buy on line and have shipped in or use what I can scare up in my local market. I have a want list that I add to now and then. When I go to a town with a hobby shop I take it with mer and try to do my shopping all at once. I was told at the NNL that Plastic-coat primer worked with HOK and Dulpi-color also.

[prumus99]

No problem if you don't want to make that long drive try squadron mail order they seem to carry tamiya and sometimes they have sales on the primer. By the way I can't wait to see this done! Loving this build.

Alan

[zbuckster]

I want to thank you guys for your fast replies and advice. I have used 3 cans of this primer with no problem. I put Dulpi-color,Testor's and Krylon over it without a hitch. They were all poof cans.

So what I have done so far. I took the advice of a fellow modeler in Portland. I mixed a 50/50 Lacquer Thinner and Rubbing Alcohol. Then using a damp (not wet) soft cloth (old T shirt) I started rubbing. Here is what I have after 3 hours.





So I will finish stripping it then use a good primer. I will probably paint a test body first to make sure this time.

I was told that this only works on yellow resin, if you try it on white resin it will melt. I don't know about all the chemicals involved but it does work. Thanks for looking in, be back soon.

Since I had this problem and had to strip the body. I have talked with several other builders about it. I was told by 3 different people that there is no difference between the yellow and white resin parts. Also found out , from the same three, that resin is more durable than the styrene. I could have taken pure lacquer thinner and stripped it. Lacquer thinner will not effect resin. I thought I would pass that along.

Thank you to everyone that is following along.

[zbuckster]

OK I am back. I bet you guys thought I gave up on this one and moved on. Well no way.

I want to start by saying thanks to everyone that was right here with help and advice on the paint problem. I found out that the half and half (lacquer thinner and rubbing alcohol) worked but was a slow process. I had a little over 9 hours in stripping the body back down. I can say there was no bad effect from the stripper mixture. Side note again DO NOT DO THIS TO WHITE RESIN IT WILL MELT. IT ONLY WORKS ON YELLOW RESIN. At least that's what I was told. Hope I never find out. The Dulpi-color self etching primer worked awesome. So here it is in gold base coat waiting for the candy.



I let that sit overnight and then put on the Candy Root Beer Brown. I know I didn't need to wait overnight but was being very careful at this point.Here she is in Candy.There is no clear on it yet just base and candy.





That left me with 2 questions. What would it look like on the chassis with the gold bead lock rims? Second how would the Aluminum and Metalizers look with the brown? Here is the answer to both questions.
Question 1


Question 2


About 3 years ago I bought 6 model boxes full of parts for 15 bucks. When I got home I found this treasure in one of them.



In the short few years I knew Bob Paeth I bet he told me the story of this decal 10 times. He even had one of the original kits that it came in still sealed. He had this decal sheet printed and put into the kits without Revell's approval. It almost cost him his job. The names of 4 Revell employees are on the sheet. Keeler,Paeth, Jones and Winslow. I know who Keeler and Paeth are but the other 2 not sure. I know they worked with Bob and Jim in Research and Development. After finding it I knew I would use it one day. After seeing the wing on this car I knew this was the one.So I put it on.



While I was digging I found a decal sheet with a "Ted's Creamy Root Beer" graphic. I decided to put it on the root beer car.



Then I remember that all 1949 Mercs are supposed to have pin stripes of some kind. I found 2 1/2 sheets with the same decals on them.





Added the Team Revell decal and an old time NHRA decal.



The hood scoop got striped also.



Then I used BMF on the side molding and the hood emblem.



After looking at it for a couple hours I decide to call it quits. I am not going to add anymore. So now the car will be clear coated. Then while it is sitting I will go back to the chassis, interior and fuel system.

Thanks for looking in. All comments and questions are welcome. Now that I am back on track I will go back to regular updates. See ya later.

[prumus99]

That color looks great Buck! decals are pretty cool looking too, great so far!

[ferrarichip]

I met Jim Keeler at GSL this weekend, what an interesting guy with lots of cool insider car stories about famous people in motorsports that he knew while at Revell.

[fireguy14]

Looking real good!

[zbuckster]

I have never meant Jim but I was good friends with Bob Paeth. I used to stop at his house when I was on my way to Woodburn, Oregon for a drag race. I could listen to him tell stories for hours and did.

Time for another update on the Merc. Thanks to those that looked and those that replied. Your opinions are always welcome. I didn't get a lot done this week but what I did get done is good stuff.

I got the body Clear coated, sanded, polished and waxed. Here is a picture of the "reflection of a silver dollar trick".



Needless to say I was very happy with the finished paint job. Also started working on the roll cage. Because the dash was brought backward and lowered the front half of the cage will have to be modified to work. Here is where I am at with that.





Started working on a grille for this monster. I have it down to 2 choices and don't know which way I will go yet.





I am leaning toward the egg crate effect with the wire mesh. So that's where it's at. I hope to have more done next week. Only one "Honey Dew" project slated so more build time. I would like to debut the car at The Good Guys Model Contest July 24TH. We will see.

Thanks for looking in. Your comments and questions are always welcome.

[Gary Kulchock]

Looking great. Fantastic shine. The 2nd photo for the grill looks better than just the screen.

I can't wait to start modeling again.

[fireguy14]

Second grill!

[wtsf150]

This is looking great i have a question for ya where did you get the HOK paint from again great job i really like the work you've put into the engine
Willie

[zbuckster]

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

Willie I get my HOK paint here.

www.tcpglobal.com/

A couple years ago I bought their HOK Candy Starter kit. It comes in 4 ounce bottles and is pre mixed for the air brush. I live in a very small market and have to order everything from the Internet. I can't remember who turned me on to them, but they are great to do business with. You can buy 4 oz. of pre mixed candy paint for about 10 bucks. I also use their gold metallic under base. I hope this helps.

A second thought one 4 oz bottle seems to be enough paint to paint about 3 models. Candy paint is transparent so it depends on how dark you want the color as to how many coats you have to put on. It drys fast and is easy to work with. Any more questions just ask.

[68chevy]

The car is come along great I like second grill myself keep up the good work.

[zbuckster]

Wow almost a month since the last update. Where have I been?

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone that replied to the last update. Comments from you guys always make this more fun.

To tell the truth I got more done in the last month than I thought I did. As far as the grill goes I still haven't decided. My wife really likes the egg crate. If I follow my heart it will be egg crate. If I do it like a car guy would it will have teeth.

The body and paint being 95% done I needed to put some glass in this ride. I had tried to plan ahead and did the craft wire frame work for the windows to fit into. I thought it would get rid of the thick resin body showing. Well that didn't go so well.



Being a resin rookie and learning something new everyday on this car. I found out that the primer, undercoat, candy paint and clear coat was really thick. The paint filled in the gap under the craft wire. As you can see the glass stood out to far in the window opening. On the plus side, putting the wire frame in and then painting it had the effect of cutting the body width in half. (Hope you followed that) So now with the glass inside the body it looks normal. I was lucky this worked out it was not planned.



With that behind me I started working on the interior. I fitted the roll cage bars and mocked the whole thing up. Then I put this much of it together and using 3 minute epoxy I put it on the floor pan.



I also added the guages and pedals.



Before the rest of the cage goes on I needed to put the seat in. I decided to trim the inside of the car with red to match the high lights in the engine bay. So I used the Pro Tech 5 point racing harness. Their part number PTMC 17. I did the belts in red and the seat in flat black. Here is where Iam at on that now.






I plan on putting in some type of regulator for the NOS system. Makes it easier to run the lines. So I started with this. It looks like the regulator off a welding bottle.



I found them in "Butcher Bob's" junk yard so not sure where they came from. I went with the blue one. After some work it looks like this.



It will go in the back by the batteries and NOS tanks. Not sure where yet.

Also decided on the control boxes. They are the ones from the Christine donor kit. They were chrome so I painted them with Dulpi-color Anodized Red paint.



So that's where we are at. It is supposed to rain for the next 2 days so I will be inside working on this car. Next is to finish the inside. Mount the seat, hook up the 5 point, run the wiring for the boxes and radio. I didn't show that but it is right above the driver on the front of the roll cage. This thing is almost done. (Gray haired old guy does back flip of joy. Nails the landing) It really hasn't been that bad. I learned a ton about working with resin and have a one of a type build with mass history. I'll up date again in a couple days. Thanks for looking in.

[snapper]

Interesting info with the resin and wire frame on the window - I had seen that attempted before, and yours looks really good - glad this worked out for you on the resin too.

[68chevy]

Buck you have did an excellent job on this car so for keep up the Great work.

[zbuckster]

Thanks for the comments guys. Man it feels good to be back at the bench. First my computer crashes, then I get a bum computer, then I loose my vision. I am gonna tell you that vision is like air. You don't know how important it is until you do with out it.

So i got some done and wanted to update. The roll cage is finished except for the paint touch-up. Got the boxes wired and installed. The steering wheel is finished and I made a clock spring for it. So here we go.

Here is the steering wheel. I drilled out the holes and detailed it a bit.



Here is the finished 5 point with head rest installed.



Here are the boxes all wired. I used different colored 28 guage craft wire to break up the interior color. To much Dull Aluminum.



Boxes on the roll cage half ready to install.



Here it is installed into the car.



Here are a couple shots of the finished cage. I still need to make a support bar from the steering column to the cage. The one that's there doesn't quite reach. I will do that when I add the rest of the steering stuff.







To make a clock spring (that's the coiled wire from the steering wheel to the electronics in the car) I used 34 guage craft wire (.007) and wound it around a .015 drill bit. Then painted it flat black.



Now that I have it done I might make another one and paint it a anodized red. The black just gets lost in the scheme of things.

That's about it for now on this end. I will update again in a couple days. I can see a faint glow ahead. I think it's the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for looking in, all comments and input are welcome.

[mrglubaum]

Great build! A lot more work than I will ever do, but it's fun to read about it! A lot of useful tips!

[zbuckster]

Thanks for all the comments and support through this 6 month long build. Now I can say "Ding,Dong the Merc is done" to paraphrase the Munchkins.

As I post this it is sitting in the photo booth waiting on the last of the glue and touch up paint to dry. I wanted to add a little here because of the detail on this build. There is no way that 6 pictures in the NMA will allow me to show it all. When I take the finished photos I will post a link to my Fotki and you can look at it there.

I wired the radio with 28 gauge black craft wire.





Next I added the fuel lines and NOS lines and regulator.



With the batteries and fuel system in place it looks like this.



Tach, clock spring and shift levers in place it looks like this.



Headers installed.



Last was the drag chutes.



That really wraps this build up. I want to thank each and everyone of you that followed along. Could I have done it faster than 6 months? Probably, but this was a learning experience for me. It was my first time for a resin body. First time with House of Kolor paint. First time with Krylon Crystal Clear clearcoat. I learned a ton and the next one will be a lot easier. I made so many mistakes that had to be corrected it wasn't funny. Even now when I look at it I see things that I should have done different. Oh well next time. See ya at the New Model Announcement.

[Eddie]

Wow!!
Amazing detail.

[Nacho Z]

Like other have said, this was a great build to watch. Lots of great ideas and tips. You've done a lot of work on this, thanks for sharing it with us.

[zbuckster]

Thank all of you for following along. I did learn a ton about this type of modeling from this build. I have 2 more in the plans. I am getting the parts and pieces together for thwm now. I hope to do a little better on the next one.

You are a quite,orderly group that is welcome in my shop anytime.

[whtchevy]

Buck, I just got to see the finish of this and it really turned out sweet .