Monogram 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A-"Under Glass" 03-15

[mustang1989]

While the body was gassing out I turned my attention to the exhaust system. Folks to say that this exhaust out of the box was a complete nightmare would be an understatement!! Before I proceed here I'll say that this is one of the most unusual exhaust systems I've seen on a car from the factory.

First, the seam lines on this whole assy is terrible!! And that's the clean version. Look:



I did the best I could back then by painting the exhaust silver and applying chrome silver on the exhaust tips:



So started the seam removal process here (which took like............forever!!):



and drilled out the exhaust tips:





Then I shot some paint on it in the form of aluminum for the exhaust and flat black for the muffler outlet pipes:



I later found out that the mufflers were black from the factory so I fixed that:



and applied some satin aluminum BMF to the muffler hanger straps:



then some high gloss chrome BMF to the exhaust tips and rolled the ends over the exhaust tip edge for that "rolled steel" look at the tip ends. These I later cleaned up quite a bit after two more applications of this stuff to iron all the rough edges out. I'll look around for the pics.



and finally a pic of the completed exhaust system:

[LyleW]

Okay....where do you keep the aliens? Did you kidnap Fermis'? How the heck do you drill that stuff out? I'd have more puncture wounds than I care to think about.

[mustang1989]

Lyle: Thanks man! Well as far as drilling out stuff goes (and no I didn't kidnap Fermis lol ) you start with a pin vise and just drill out a pilot hole. For these tips I stepped it up to a really small "real" drill bit from my tool box and then broke out the x-acto to finish up. Round sanding sticks (available at Hobby Lobby on the other side of the isle from the car section ..lol) finished up the insides. I painted the insides of the tips black and then added ground up black pastel for that sooty look inside the tips. It's as easy as that...no muss no fuss!

Jimmy: Jeeeeheheesus! 400 parts like that!!!?? I thought I had my hands full with the Corsair (and that is a POS kit BTW). Thanks for the encouragement brother.

[mustang1989]

After I was sure that the gloss had fully cured out , I started the chrome bare metal foil process on the rear deck area...



Then the L/H rear window post/ track :



and then hit the roof drip rails on both sides:



then the windshield area:



then the front fender at the grill area on both sides:(this has a pic with the original grill /valance in it-This....is going to be replaced!)



then I turned my attention to the outside rearview mirrors. This is what they looked like on the sprue......Jesus wept.....



Again I left the outside of the mirrors a the body color ( Did I mention that I had to buy a spare "old" kit that was molded in red for the outside mirrors, front grille/valance and rear valance?--I did! Kit #3 to be exact! ) The gloss coat on these was easy--I just applied Future to them. Then I installed the chrome mirror "glass" in each mirror. I drilled holes in the body and into each mirror so I could pin the mirrors to the body later. While I was at it I cleaned up and re-worked the original fuel cap. Originally I did not fill in the center of the cap where it says FUEL. I took care of that here.

[Stuart]

That's a beaut! Great work on that exhust system!

[mustang1989]

Thanks portman! Next...................................we start with a new front clip from kit#3 that I purchased for this build so I could have the body color.

We start here:



This is a shot of the original grille fitted into the "mock up" car. Of particular note are the headlights. See the "dots" in the center of each headlight for the mounting posts on the back? Yeah those! When I build the new front clip up , these "dots" will be gone!



More on the way today..........

[mustang1989]

For starters, I cut the post off of the back:





Got a small file and filed down the post until it was gone:





Which left the back looking like this:



I took my assortment of sanding sticks:



And started with a medium grit (about 2800 grit) and worked it up to the the polishing stick (about 12000 grit) until they looked like this:




I then added a drop of Future to the outside of each headlight lens:



Dots..................are gone!

[LyleW]

Dots a good thing! Well done.

[Stuart]

Dots a good thing! Well done.

Groan...

Dots lucky....

Really good work on those dots!