And, so it begins....

For the "Pimp a Ride" Campaign, I will be building MPC's 1/25th Dodge Deora. A what you say?

The real deal:



The kit and parts layout:





As far as "pimpin' it" goes, the plan is to have it done up in two-tone; Arctic Blue Metallic below the trim line and white above. The interior will also be two-tone, using French Light Blue-Gray and French Dark Blue-Gray.

Now, I've started the 225 slant six, and does this remind me of the days of "old-school" kits; flash, bad alignment, gaps...you name it and I've already got it with the first three parts of the engine!

Anyhow, you won't be able to see the top of the engine but I do plan to plumb it as much as possible. However, the bottom and most of the sides will be fully visible.

Something else I've realized that (as an armor builder it's not a problem) I can't do is build it then paint it! I have to just about paint everything before I can put it together....so, this should be interesting for me.

More to follow as I progress.

Mike

Oh, I won't be putting the "camper" shell on it.

you'll see some obvious "sub assemblies" that you can paint..... then assemble....... Auto's can be a decent break from armor sometimes............. I reall think I need to go wipe the bench clean and get goin' on one..................

Cool subject Mike.


But isn't that were the mega stereo and the Cristal should be

Fun build - should be great for the imagination.

Nice looking showcar Mike!
Really looking forward to your build!

Good luck with the bad fitting parts!!!!

Paul

Hey all!

I did some surfin' on the net last night and found a few decent pics of a 225 slant-six so I can attempt to "plumb and wire" it. I haven't quite figured out the color scheme for it, but it'll be a nice contrast to the undercarriage (which will be shot with gloss black)....maybe the blue and one of the grays?

The chrome parts are going to get soaked (probably in bleach? - Thanks Matt for the links!) to remove the chrome. There's a couple of reasons for this: 1) when you remove the part from the sprue, there's no way to "hide" the yellow plastic that shows (I tried the idea of chrome paint, but that does not work) and 2) the chrome is pretty thick and does not look very good. I may go to the LHS and see if they have the shiney chrome sheet or I may play with the idea of gloss black mixed with a wee bit of silver to see what happens. Another option is to just paint the parts that were chrome, gloss black...I think it'll look good, but not sure yet.

Ideas? It's still real early in the game for me adjust my initial thoughts (though the main colors will not change (blue, white, grays)).

Jesper, I simply refuse to put a dingle-berry disco ball in my car! NOT happening! I know this is "Pimp a Ride," but I ain't pimpin' it dat much! Fuzzy dice? Maybe.

MTF.

Mike

I just saw Rides yesterday and a hot rod called Hammer had mat black rims - killer look.
The exhaust will have to be re-chromed. Of the methods I've played with I'd go with a metal paint on exhaust pipes, no seams, decent coverage. You could always put mat black tips on the pipes.
How about a flat bed cover? Another area for either a killer decal or a great paint canvas.

Rims, tires, and disc-brakes have been ordered and should show next week.

Scott, I like the idea of the Toneau cover....the cargo area has a very nice lip this could fit on. I did a search for the meaning of Deora and it appears that one of the meanings is that it is the name of a branch of the Chauhan clan of rajputs in India. A little more digging and ran across a picture of a rajput saber....so, crossed sabers on the Toneau cover??

Something like this??:


Took a saber I found that "fits" that era and local, turned it, copied it, flipped it, and combined.

Chrome is soaking right now, so once that's done I can begin again.

Mike

Those sabers look cool - they'd be great on a cover you could also do a detail down each side at the windsheild pilar over the door. Swoop a sword up across each side.

Scott, like that idea of the sabers going up the frame!

I picked up a sheet of .040 for the Toneau and some L-connector for it to slip in. The L-connector has a nice round edge that'll do a good curve. I'll probably paint the Toneau white and the L the body's blue. I also picked up some Bare-Metal chrome to redo any parts that I may want to keep chromed. Once the putty on the engine is dry, I'll clean it up and do some paint (finally).

Mike

It's a really weird car... I wish I had one.

Well, parts are still soaking in the bleach...going to get some oven cleaner and see if that'll speed things up. For the most part, I'm stuck until the chrome is off...

So, I began the Toneau cover. A shot from the top with the rear and side channels on:


And a loverly thumb print in glue Oh, engine will probably be blue and the French dark gray blue. When the engine is all said and done, I'll shoot it with gloss clear....the French colors are flat....bummer.

And the side showing how raised it is:


I can leave it as is or I can lower it some by trimming the bottom edges of the channel...not sure yet.

I'll have to retrim and fit the channel for the front (need to determine the exact placement of the rear window) to give it the proper curve. Once all the channel is done, I'll putty/sculpt the corner joints.

Mike

Lookin' good. When I was reading about the pieces you had for the cover I was unsure of the look it would create - then I saw the pictures. Great outcome. The cover looks good. I agree, you're going to have to wait and see how the rear window fits before you decide on how thick the cover should be.
If the window extends down too much for the cover you can always modify the seam between the window and cover to blend it in. Go full custom and modify it with some sheet styrene and putty to make a nice blend. A bit of an up-curve will take a bit of the window away but I think it would be cool.
Another idea is to make your oun custom back wall to the cab. Make a small custom window out of a large sheet of styrene - may be a theme related shape.

Okay, here's a bit of a "tease:"





Ahhh, now we're talkin'! I wonder what a "cut-out" in the shape of the specific rims I'm getting would look like....two thin pieces of styrene the size of the back window, with the design of the rims cut out, and blue clear styrene sandwiched between?

Hmmmm.....

Mike

I like!

Little playing with Fireworks......

The rims I've bought:


Uh, copyright Pegasus Hobbies....

and the idea for the back window:


Not to scale yet and the blue would be darker...like blue window tint. Freehand drawing is not the best, but I think you get the idea. Blue area is what you would "see through," white would be solid.

Mike

I like it even more now......
You could feather some body putty up the edges and scolup (sp?) the back edge of the cab down to the edges of the cover. Kinda like the current Avalance or Ridgeline are made. Only make it a bit like a bucket seat, scooped and scoluped.

I really like the look of the bed cover. The very cool rims goes well with the crossed sabers.

Hey guys,

Every good "shiney" needs a licence plate and the Deora is no exception....so, here's the one I'll probably put on it:



As most have never seen this vehicle, I figured I do a play on what a lot would ask: "Just what is it?" Depending, I may change the WAT to "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot"......I like the latter better but figured against posting the pic of it.

Neat link to making your own plate is here

Mike

That's pretty cool. Thanks Mike.

Hey ya'll!

Quick update: forgot to soak one of the tree's with the engine parts. Soooo, I'm hoping Friday I can continue on that. The Tonneau (this happens to be the correct spelling ) cover is primed which showed a couple of spots I need to fix....shape and size wise it looks really good. I also hope to go to the LHS on Friday and pick up a few sheets of styrene and the sheet of blue "window tint" plastic.

Scott, the kit's rims are cleaned of chrome, so I may try that flat black look and see what comes of it....may be able to use them for my Ranchero .

In the mean time, I have some King Tiger zimmy to "touch up." More to follow.

Mike

p.s. Found out the kit I'm building is a "second gen" kit. Appears the first gen came with a traditional "pickup truck" rear shell (the kind that's pretty level with the cab's roof) and a Tonneau cover. Second Gen came with the "camper shell;" what I have.

Ha ha! Went shopping today and picked up a variety of styrene sheet....to include the sheets I need to do the back window (white and the "in between" blue "tint"). I also picked up a "special" black color to do the undercarriage...ya just gotta wait to see! Lil' hint: I'll pre-paint with straight enamel silver......

And, yup...the tires/rims and disc brakes from Pegasus showed today. WOW! The rims and tires are really nice..the disc brakes are simply superlative! They will be the "teets backside" to the rims....fabulous looking, fabulous detail...must have's here. More to follow with this!

It's late tonight (for me that is), so I'll put up a couple of pics of the Tonneau cover, rims and tires, and disc's tomorrow.

Oh, all the chrome is now gone....oven cleaner is the, bar none, way to go. OVEN CLEANER! Don't waste the time on other things. I've put together the headers/exhaust and carb and plucked about 18 pics of a slant-six to detail the engine. I won't do much on the top, but will do a fair amount of what you'd see from the bottom.

More to follow (MTF),

Mike

Good morning ModelGeek!

The Tonneau cover is built and primed:



The chrome is about 95% removed using Easy Off (there will be some scraping to be done):


The parts were put in a glass dish and liberally covered (a couple of times) with the EO. It took about three or so hours to get as good as it was going to get. The parts were then rinsed and washed with liquid dish soap. All the chrome parts will be primed before they get painted.

The engine so far:


I still need to add the alternator, pullys, timing cover, and distributor. Once they're on I'll do some wires and lines.

Here are the Pegasus rims with tires and the disc brakes:


The rims have a couple of very small areas that need to be "cleaned up;" probably about five minutes total. The tires are really nice but a little more "low profile" than I thought but will fit nicely to the Deora. The resin disc brakes and calipers are very sharp! There's just a little bit of flash to clean. I chose the "paintable" version (over chrome or gold plate) so I could match the calipers to the Arctic Blue.

MTF,

Mike

I also picked up some aluminum tubing; I'm playing with the idea of replacing the kit exhaust with it...more than likely cut the muffler off and reuse it with the tube.

Very cool. The disk brakes Are nice! The engine is looking good.

Are the brakes going to be red or a complementary color?

Kinda thought about the discs being silver and the calipers being the Arctic Blue (turned in such a way that they'll be visible through the rim cutouts). If I'm tracking on your question, I think the discs in a different color would be nice, but just not realistic as any paint on them would be worn off within a few minutes of use. Oh, if I can, I'll run some brake lines too...from the calipers to the engine compartment. There's no master cylinder, but I don't think that'll matter. Heck, the entire engine "compartment" is pretty "nekked."

Engine: the rest of the parts are painted the base color; I just need to paint the fan belt and put them on. Not that they'll be seen, but the carb will be painted aluminum and the valve cover "caps" will be silver. The distributor base will the be blue-gray and the cap will be black. I'll probably leave the plug wires their natural copper color unless I wind up using the military trip-wire wire (it's green in color) in which case those wires will get painted red(?) or some other visibly contrasting color.

Oh, as afore mentioned, here's the kit muffler/pipes with the muff primed and the aluminum tubing I'll use:


The tube is a little oversized, but I actually think it'll look better. If I had some styrene tubing of various sizes (of which I don't [yet!]), I'd just scratch the entire exhaust. I'm pretty sure using the kit muff and the tubing will work out just fine. The other thing I'll do is drill out the tube some to thin the walls (but only go in about an 1/8th of an inch) at the exhaust ends. I've done this on "type of surgery" on my Polish Armored Car and that turned out much nicer than the kit pipes.

Mike