I went on a silly kick wanting to buy the die-cast models of the Intrepid that Brookfield put out - they did some really nice models before going belly-up, both of Dodge and other Mopar, and some others. They seem to have made some metal, and some plastic, dealer models, but the 1st Gen Intrepid was a die-cast metal model. Made of over 60 individual pieces, I do believe that much, if not all, of it was hand assembled.
Anyway - PICTURES!
Me:
Mini-Me:
The car was originally a very dark charcoal, near black, with silver bumpers and side moldings. I completely took it apart, except for the trunk lid, headlights and foglights. The 'chassis' drops out the bottom with two screws, taking with it the seats, axles, wheels, etc. The hood comes out with two screws and a little bar on the underside of the dash, and then two screws remove the dash. The doors in front come out with one screw each from underneath, and the back doors come out with one screw from each side. The rear window and front window are glued in to the roof, easy to pop them loose, and same with the long OTIS/mirror. The door panels are hot-glued in, they pop off nice. The rear parcel shelf also pops off easily. Then the engine, cowl, and wipers come off all together by popping the glue loose. The tail light lenses come out really easy, not hard at all to break the glue bond on both the quarter panels and the center bar on the deck lid.
With the body completely stripped, I scuffed the whole car except for the B and C pillars by hand using a white Scotch-Brite pad. This knocked down the gloss on the factory paint. I did the same with the doors, except everything above the belt-line. The curves in the bumper and molding were very hard to scuff, and I thought I did well enough - turns out I sucked at it, and should have used a chemical scuffer or something.
Anyway, I then shot it with single stage rattle can paint that is pre-mixed in Indy Red PRB. Bought it on eBay just to do this model. The paint laid on just fine, except where I didn't scuff it enough. It beaded up like water on wax really bad. So, some of it didn't go so well.
I then put it all back together using a crafters superglue gel. You can see the paint beading problem in the photo below pretty well.
And as long as I'm at it, here is my new exhaust, along with my new license plate, and the car sitting on the trunk.
The car was a gift for my nephew - he is autistic, and he has a car for everyone who visits the house... Last time my car was there, he had an ugly 2 door Camero to represent my car - but it was his only red car... So, I gave him this one. The only difference is the wheels.
Anyway - PICTURES!
Me:
Mini-Me:
The car was originally a very dark charcoal, near black, with silver bumpers and side moldings. I completely took it apart, except for the trunk lid, headlights and foglights. The 'chassis' drops out the bottom with two screws, taking with it the seats, axles, wheels, etc. The hood comes out with two screws and a little bar on the underside of the dash, and then two screws remove the dash. The doors in front come out with one screw each from underneath, and the back doors come out with one screw from each side. The rear window and front window are glued in to the roof, easy to pop them loose, and same with the long OTIS/mirror. The door panels are hot-glued in, they pop off nice. The rear parcel shelf also pops off easily. Then the engine, cowl, and wipers come off all together by popping the glue loose. The tail light lenses come out really easy, not hard at all to break the glue bond on both the quarter panels and the center bar on the deck lid.
With the body completely stripped, I scuffed the whole car except for the B and C pillars by hand using a white Scotch-Brite pad. This knocked down the gloss on the factory paint. I did the same with the doors, except everything above the belt-line. The curves in the bumper and molding were very hard to scuff, and I thought I did well enough - turns out I sucked at it, and should have used a chemical scuffer or something.
Anyway, I then shot it with single stage rattle can paint that is pre-mixed in Indy Red PRB. Bought it on eBay just to do this model. The paint laid on just fine, except where I didn't scuff it enough. It beaded up like water on wax really bad. So, some of it didn't go so well.
I then put it all back together using a crafters superglue gel. You can see the paint beading problem in the photo below pretty well.
And as long as I'm at it, here is my new exhaust, along with my new license plate, and the car sitting on the trunk.
The car was a gift for my nephew - he is autistic, and he has a car for everyone who visits the house... Last time my car was there, he had an ugly 2 door Camero to represent my car - but it was his only red car... So, I gave him this one. The only difference is the wheels.