Melrose Missile Completed 3/19/2018

[david]

[Deleted]

A 60s MOPAR! Hot dog! From that era when racing was racing.

Nicely done, David. Great looking MOPAR.

[70sprostockfan]

Super nice build up of a very nice model. Thanks for sharing it!

[41chevy]

Very nice! Good to see you did the vent window trick, many forget to remove them. Paul

[oldcoyote]

Gorgeous build sir ...... you did a great job on that Mopar.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2018 21:39:09 GMT -6 41chevy said:

Very nice! Good to see you did the vent window trick, many forget to remove them. Paul

Care to elaborate on that just a bit, Paul? Apparently this newbie is lacking some info on that.

[41chevy]

Mopar put on two door coupe doors on the factory race car bodies the solve the problem of the body deforming, when that was done the vent window assemblies were removed and one piece plexi was put in. Moebius does that in later race car kits.

[Deleted]

OK. So it's just a Moebius glitch? I guess it would be considered a "glitch". As many different early to mid 60s MOPARs as I have in my stash I want to be sure I'm watching for the right kits.

[david]

If it's a replica build I tend to search for photos of the subject and every one I came across had no vent windows so out I cut and sanded them out. All in all it's a really nice kit and I highly recommend it. Just be aware of the front and rear window glass that has to be installed from the outside and their very poor fitment (in my kit). They take a lot of tedious whittling and sanding to make fit and maybe they corrected that in later kits.

[41chevy]

Mar 20, 2018 12:44:29 GMT -6 @smhardesty said:

OK. So it's just a Moebius glitch? I guess it would be considered a "glitch". As many different early to mid 60s MOPARs as I have in my stash I want to be sure I'm watching for the right kits.

Not a glitch. The 64 and 65 Mid size Mopars with the "wedge" roof tended to buckle and crack the bodies in front of the C pillar. The Ramchargers and Chrysler came up with the factory solution of using 2 door sedan doors to stiffen the body. By late 65 into 66 Mopar installed what they called "frame braces" or as we call them now sub frame connectors. There was at least 50 to 100 cars running that way. Here is a factory photo, you can see the body from the door back is bent down. Landy's car had the doors swapped after it was bent. Look at the difference in the factory pic.

Hosted on Fotki

Factory photo

Hosted on Fotki

[david]

41Chevy is exactly right. Some of those tails were pretty bad before the efforts to correct the problem.


On this shot you can see that even the sheet metal behind the doors is buckling!

[70sprostockfan]

Thanks guys, I was aware of this alteration but was always told that the problem was weakening because of the altered wheel base modifications. Nothing like being there! This was just before I got into it other than building models and looking at hot rod magazines. I also wasn't aware that that was how we came up with subframe connectors. Cool!

[41chevy]

Mar 21, 2018 7:05:03 GMT -6 70sprostockfan said:

Thanks guys, I was aware of this alteration but was always told that the problem was weakening because of the altered wheel base modifications. Nothing like being there! This was just before I got into it other than building models and looking at hot rod magazines. I also wasn't aware that that was how we came up with subframe connectors. Cool!

Look at Davids photo of the Missile, see the rear quarter droop? That is the original reason the Ramchargers only ran their 64 Dodge hardtop (Johan kitted it) for around a month and replaced it with a sedan..

[Deleted]

I'll be darned! Thanks loads, guys. I never knew any of this. Can't believe I didn't read about it in some of the car mags I got back in the day. Or maybe I did read it and time washed it away. Regardless, really great info.

[70sprostockfan]

Yep I see what you're saying but now if I build the johan ramchargers kit I'll have to twist the back end out of kilter !! LOL