My son recently sold his '85 so my reference source has dried up; I think I have enough photos to finish the job. My kit is the MPC version and its not a bad kit overall. It has those pre-scribed lines for a Tee Top and they are like the Grand Canyon. The body and hood have had several purple baths, so I'll show some of the components I've finished.

Owing to the poor casting of the hood emblem, I had to scratch-build one. Some aluminum foil burnished over the trunk emblem then back-filled with epoxy worked pretty well.

Then came the mirrors! The chrome tree had some really thick lenses for the outside mirrors and the coating came off by accident; the entire inside rear-view mirror was chrome, so it got a bath in oven cleaner. I used Brasso, Novus, and Meguiar's to polish a soda can, then cut the lenses to rough size (pediatric fingernail clippers work quite well) then sanded them to fit.

I'm working on the engine now (its a turbo four) and should have some shots up in a few days.

The interior was straght-forward. I raised the driver's seat headrest up just for giggles, then used prismacolor silver pencil to do the edging.

Looks like you are off to a good start, BTD. I especially like the "casting' job on the emblem!

That's some amazing detail, BTD! Glad to see your WIP started! No doubt it will turn out great!

I tried to do the casting of an emblem that way but ruined it when I tried to get excess epoxy off. How will you get the excess off?

justmike:

I tried to do the casting of an emblem that way but ruined it when I tried to get excess epoxy off. How will you get the excess off?

Its already off. What appears to be yellow (excess epoxy) is actually green masking tape...I really need to work on my camera lighting!

I didn't use any release (PAM etc.) on the foil, just let the epoxy adhere to it. I took the foil and put it shiny-side down on some masking tape, sticky side up. A Dremel with a small sanding drum took most of it away, then hand sanding with some coarse (220) grit got it close.

Trim the outside off, sand the piece to its final shape, then dress up the back. The part in the picture is slightly over 1 mm thick.

wow that emblem looks great!! can't wait too see more!!!!

Thanks for the tip. I am going to try it again implementing your suggestions

Looks like you are off to a great start.The detail work looks good.Keep us posted.

Got the engine ready to go; other than the scratch-built loom for the plug wires and washing the intercooler, there is nothing out of the ordinary.

I really need to get a better photography set up!

Looking good! Great job running all that wire!

The engine looks good.Keep us posted.

The pesky "honey-do" list has taken some time, but I've got the wheels/tires done.

The wheel weights are from a soda can; the valve stems (shown at the 6:00 position on the larger picture) are pieces of wire painted black.

Looking good, Ray! I hate lettering tires but you've done a very good job!  Those soda can weights are great too. I'll be using them on my next build!