Ford Mustang GT500 '67
1June 20, 2024Always good to start a new project with a clear & clean work area - This kit was already started by the previous owner, but abandoned for many years - I have since dis-assembled it back to the bare parts by reversing the assembly steps. I'll be cleaning everything as I go.
2June 20, 2024The bare components after being cleaned up.
3June 20, 2024During assembly I noticed that the bumper didn't sit truly on the body - the RHS mount was ~1.5mm longer that the LHS!!
4June 20, 2024Marking the difference, then filing away the offending length.
5June 20, 2024So, what a great start - I've had to use a file, a 1.8mm tap to clear out some of the threads, some superglue to reattach the headlight lenses which were only clipped in (after one came out).
6June 20, 2024Step 2 parts, subsequently cleaned up.
7June 20, 2024Decided to indicate some disc brake usage on both sides of the disc, just enouigh to be seen through the wheel - will have to remember to do this on the other 3 discs.
8June 20, 2024Front wheel/hub assembly - decided to put some Aquadhere on the logo to protect it
9June 20, 2024Using the 'mini-me' workmat to hold the completed components.
10June 21, 2024Here the parts are being cleaned up, but I've noticed how prominent the seam lines are on the plastic parts. An "Assembler" of this kit might not have worried, but they're pretty obvious...
11June 21, 2024Scraped away the seamlines on these parts, which will require them to be repainted, and I'll be using the new DSPIAE Silver
12June 21, 2024Re-silvered, now looking much better. The quality of the plastic mouldings is pretty poor, considering this is supposed to be a high quality kit.......or is it??
13June 25, 2024Pulled the driving lights apart completely as they were VERY poorly assembled (by De Agostini) and the ?? glue was showing in the lens. Scraped away relevant chrome plated surfaces then glued all together, carefully
14June 25, 2024Driving Lights in & focussed
15June 25, 2024Front grille complete
16June 25, 2024All the exhaust pieces
17June 25, 2024Scraping away silver plated seam-lines, then repairing them
18June 25, 2024Exhaust assembled, waiting for a home!
19June 25, 2024RHS front wheel & disc & stub-axle, etc
20June 25, 2024LHS Seat completed - I can't believe how many steps the mag goes through to assemble this!!!
21June 25, 2024LHS Door completed.
had stripped the window winder, so had to CA glue in a toothpick, then drill, and screw again - All OK!
22June 25, 2024test fit of the exhaust on the chassis - but no screws yet.......
23June 25, 2024RHS Door completed - have lost the 1/4 vent clamp somewhere!!
24June 25, 2024Fuel tank & exhaust test fit - ya dont get the screws for another 2 steps - you'd be very frustrated if you waiting for each issue!!
25June 25, 2024RH Seat completed
26June 25, 2024chassis assemblage - much sturdier that it was, now with all the screws properley tightened.
27June 25, 2024Attaching the Exhaust system
28June 25, 2024End of step 24 - I am sanding away the seamlines on the diff, and gluing the joins with SMS Ultra thin cement, then a coat of semi-gloss black - so it'll look good when displayed over a mirror!
29June 29, 2024Diff finished & installed - came up quite well - painted with Tamiya Semi-gloss black
30June 29, 2024Mudguards installed (out of DeAgostini sequence!!) - I discovered a broken part for the rear leaf spring - now on order! (from within Australia!!)
31June 29, 2024More of the chassis floor installed.
32June 29, 2024yet More of the chassis floor installed - it's actually quite solid when all the screws are tightened & the plastic filling sections are installed as well.
33June 29, 2024Drive shaft assembly - more work on seamlines & filling - lots of clamping required - fortunately I HAVE LOTS of clamps!!
34June 29, 2024Completed, painted & installed
35June 29, 2024Transmission housing installed, plus cross-brace
36June 29, 2024Front piece of chassis installed
37June 29, 2024front mud-guards in too
38June 29, 2024Starting on the steering, connecting track-rods etc - I put a touch of CA glue on the back of the bolts after I adjusted the tighhtness/movement balance
39June 29, 2024final piece installed, waiting insertion
40June 29, 2024and in the chassis with bottom-mounts
41June 29, 2024then installed top-mounts - the installation order being slightly different to the instructions - especially if you have ALL the parts at the ready.
42June 29, 2024ONE-Piece exhaust with seamlines coated with silver - more labour required......
43June 29, 2024Exhaust reworked & recoated - happend to be the exact colour of the DSPIAE Metallic Silver Pen..
44June 29, 2024exhausted in place
45June 29, 2024I noticed when I got this kit that the gearstick had been broken - I can fix that!!
46June 29, 2024Gearstick reparation toolkit
47June 29, 2024and repaired - just have to trim off the excess .8mm bronze rod & recoat the chrome
48June 29, 2024SMS Hyperchrome pen did the trick
49June 29, 2024Gearstick in place
50June 29, 2024Pedals installed & aligned with microswitch for accelerator & brake activation.
51July 4, 2024Rear of the dash showing the accelerator & brake pedal switches
52June 29, 2024Dash cleaned up
53June 29, 2024and test installed
54July 4, 2024Not happy with the alignment of the Shelby dash-badge - I think the sticker might be a bit crooked, so I set about modifications as getting the sticker off might not be an option
55July 4, 2024Success!! - Much delicate scraping, knifing, then re-chroming, and eventual gluing in position
56July 4, 2024Dash now complete
57July 4, 2024and connected to floor
58July 5, 2024Flashback - the RHS door window was missing the quartervent handle - bought a new part & rectified that!!
59July 5, 2024Here's the catch - who remembers these? They were all the "rage", once!!
60July 5, 2024Had to repair the seatbelt buckle after the seat belt broke.
61July 5, 2024Front seatbelts in place
62July 5, 2024All the floor mats in place - this was a VERY difficult step!!! !;^)
63July 5, 2024Rear seat base
64July 5, 2024rear deck base
65July 5, 2024LHS side part 1
66July 5, 2024and part 2
This is such a tedious process - imagine getting these weekly - how frustrating
67July 5, 2024rear back interior fitted - I find myself longing for the installation of the interior rear-view mirror - so I can hang an air-freshener off it - The previous owner must have been a smoker - I can smell it with every part I'm reinstalling - Using "wet-Ones" to clean each part......
68July 5, 2024rear deck flip-over with hinge - the glue that the De Agostini part-assemblers use must be a a2-month-glue as so many parts have come apart revealing how little glue they used - a lot of fresh glue in place now!
69July 5, 2024Voila - same here
70July 5, 2024see
71July 5, 2024Rear completed with seat back
72July 5, 2024and seat cover, in place
73July 5, 2024Roll bar & seat belts
74July 5, 2024rear seat base
75July 5, 2024rear deck installed - hey, it's a station wagon!!
76July 5, 2024Next comes the steering - all the parts laid out
77July 8, 2024The previous assembler had screwed through the wires, instead of routing the wire around the post - I increased the space behind the post, tested, sealed the bared wires, mounted and re-tested the wiring - AOK!!
78July 8, 2024The completed steering column
79July 8, 2024Next step is to mount that cabin internals onto the chassis
80July 8, 2024careful insertion and testing eentually got it all fitted - 4 screws securing the cabin to the chassis.
81July 8, 2024Next Step is where the kit was up to with the previous assembler - was missing the RHS boot trim
82July 8, 2024Nice new parts - odourless!!
83July 8, 2024Boot walls mounted
84July 8, 2024Spare tyre on the boot mount
85July 8, 2024and in the boot!! No screws, it just sits there with one locating pin.
86July 8, 2024Now for the radiator, which had been assembled before - now cleaned up & rebuilt - had to trim the fan mount (silver) in the middle of the radiator as it had about a 15 degree lean on it!!
87July 8, 2024- a ridiculous amount of instructions for such a simple
88July 8, 2024which was covered by 3 issues of the magazine!! - so I spent some time deburring the fan blades, which are overley THICK!!
89July 13, 2024The original fan-belt mix - no means of determining which are belts & which are pulleys
90July 13, 2024So I painted all the "belt-ish" bit with semi-matt black - then masked everywhere & painted the remainder with gloss black.
Voila!! - also did quite an amout of chiselling, scraping, filing of the part to better show the differentiation. And who (??) will get to see this??
91July 13, 2024another view
92July 13, 2024assembly & fan mounted on engine front
93July 13, 2024I wasn't happy with the exhaust manifolds either, so broke them apart to do a better job
94July 13, 2024Now properley glued together, and all the seamlines & poor joins treated
95July 13, 2024some creative rubber-band clamping
96July 13, 2024Did the gas recycling filter too
97July 13, 2024completed the step with the radiator sub-assembly
98July 13, 2024Engine assembled - just needs a sump
99July 13, 2024Mounting the pipes around the engine - discovered that the breather from the RH crankcase head went nowhere - photos showed that mounting to the post at the front of the engine.
100July 13, 2024modified the post to accept the hose - drill, 0.8mm brass rod, etc
Then discovered that there's no way the hard plastic hose will fit...... went searching for 2.8mm rubber tube....
101July 13, 2024Days later, all I could get was 3mm rubber round from Clarke Rubber, so bought & used that - same drill & 0.8mm brass rod used, but at both ends. - a touch of silver too
102July 13, 2024breather installed - still missing some wiring here?!?!?
103July 13, 2024Aha, next step adds the distributor, wires & coil
104July 14, 2024Nah - not that passionate about the Mustang - so then I installed the motor in the chassis
105July 13, 2024Better, but there are many more wires present on photos that I have seen..........will I...????
106July 14, 2024The parts for step 77 - for the engine bay
107July 14, 2024and installed
108July 14, 2024Radiator & RHS engine bay wal installed
109July 14, 2024LHS Engine bay parts - and a speaker!!
110July 14, 2024the LHS features the shocker - After the RHS work, I decided to do the same here to avoid stripping thread with short screws.
111July 14, 2024Speaker installed
112July 14, 2024LHS added to chassis
113July 14, 2024voila
114July 14, 2024Washer water bottle - but it's near empty - how do they expect you to fill that??
115July 14, 2024Step 79 parts - battery looks pretty good
116July 14, 2024and installed - the chassis brace is just a push-in job
117July 14, 2024Step 80 feature the serious electronic components - here with 9 of the 10 connecting wires installed on the chip
118July 14, 2024the final connection of the speaker gets plugged in, then the whole thing get mounted, and the wires routed through the inner guard, where leads 1-5 get connected to parts installed much earlier.
119July 15, 2024The next 2 steps provide the LHS guard & the front brace, shown here
120July 15, 2024and here's the 2 of them screwed together.
121July 15, 2024The next issue presents the RHS guard, so you get to screw that together too....
122July 15, 2024and then get to mount that whole front assembly to the body (step 84)
123July 15, 2024starting to look like a Mustang...
124July 15, 2024the next ieesue presents the air intakes, on the left...
125July 15, 2024and on the right - Word of warning here, the screws provided for the lower intakes are too short, so if you try to make them too tight, there's not enough screw in the plastic vent, and it will (did) strip the hole....
126July 15, 2024Next step get you to retrieve the bonnet that you got in issue #4 (yes, FOUR!!) and have been storing safely!!!
This step provides all the bonnet hinge mechanism - the plastic parts need to gentle cleaning up. - Be careful which screws you use as the instructions are mis-leading, if not, wrong!
127July 15, 2024LHS hinge attached - looks pretty good
128July 15, 2024Careful handling of the bonnet is required to get it in place - be careful when FULLY opening as there's very little clearance at the rear of the bonnet with the body cross-beam.
129July 15, 2024Also get to bit the bonnet pins, and they align nicely.
130July 15, 2024Bonnet fully open
131July 15, 2024The following step get you to start the headlight installation, then installation of the car front to the main body.....
132July 17, 2024Some cable management required
133July 17, 2024looks much better for the "face" being added
134July 17, 2024Boot lid badge - instructions are to just "push" it in......
135July 17, 2024but there's a hole in the centre, so I found a suitably tiny screw & washe
136July 17, 2024This is really somethiung that should have been done BEFORE the bonnet pins were installed - so I removed the brackets and did it outside of the car - much easier!
137July 17, 2024In place, but I've left the cable just a tad too short......can fix!
138July 17, 2024Rear panel preparation & boot hinge
139July 17, 2024boot installed - it fouls the rear cross beam.....hmmmm
140July 17, 2024Next Step, tail-lights installed - more cable management required
141July 18, 2024Voila, cables managed & reinforced with superglue
142July 18, 2024Grille & wiper mount plate.
143July 18, 2024These wipers were over-chromed to hell, with an on-screen surface of about 4mm!! Looked ridiculous, so I reshaped them severely - lots of whittling!!
144July 18, 2024Then painted the "blades" with a semi-gloss black - used a Posca pen - much easier than a brush.
145July 18, 2024front window & trim in place - might need some delicate super-gluing at the sides to keep it flush
146July 18, 2024Aerial in place - Drama! I thought I'd be clever & put the screw in before mounting, just to ease the thread - and the screw sheared off deep in the hole..... and it's soft so getting a grip on it was VERY tough - had to gouge out the aerial base (took several minutes) before I extracted it - again not a long enough or tough enough screw, so reinforced it all with superglue!!! UUGGHHH!!
147July 18, 2024rear window & trim in place
148July 18, 2024Door trims!
149July 18, 2024inside showing the door-trim push-in ends - i've given them a cover of superglue, so they won't budge - some didn't want to stay 'home'
150July 18, 2024bottom door trim in place - a touch of superglue here too after scraping away some of the chrome
151July 18, 2024top door trim in place
152July 18, 2024Use some sort of a pad to protect the door mirror..
153July 18, 2024Ensure that the hole in the hinge is all the way through & clean - use a 2.2m tap
154July 18, 2024You need to be able to screw this door-mount screw ALL THE WAY IN!
155July 20, 2024Both Doors now on
156July 20, 2024Fit is OK
157July 20, 2024Looks good from this angle too
158July 20, 2024as does this side
159July 20, 2024Step 98 fit out the interior headgear
160July 20, 2024The finish on the mirror stalk is pretty poor - chrome over seamlines again - so stripped it & cleaned it up & then chrome penned it again.
161July 20, 2024Roof lining complete
162July 20, 2024and fitted - its a good fit!
163July 20, 2024Step 99 components - just installing the rear fog lights into the rear plate.....
164July 20, 2024and then the big merge - connecting cables 7, 8, 9 & 10
165July 20, 2024The first fit is done right-side up, pressing down the rear of the body - it has to be taken slowly, carefully - because then you have to turn the whole thing over!!
166July 20, 2024More gentle, but firm pressing until you cann see the receiving holes line up - rear 2 screws, then four in the middle, where you may have to squeeze the body together at the side to get line-up - then 2 at the front
167July 20, 2024Right side up again.....
168July 20, 2024and there you have it!...almost
169July 20, 2024Step 100 is the rear panel completion & fitment - add the rear number plate, then screw to the body, then press in the rear bumper - carefully checking alignment as you go
170July 20, 2024Plug in the batteries
171July 20, 2024and the lights work
172July 20, 2024as do the brake lights, horn, and (pretty crappy) engine noise....Oh, and I later discovered the alarm, when you turn the steering hard right (but not sure if this is by design??)
and would you believe, then I realised that I hadnt mounted the seats!!!! (Missed that when I was repairing the seatbelts) So that will be a fun back-track & fit!!!
Commentaires
25 November 2024, 09:25 -
Album info
I acquired this "kit" from an Acquaintance of Harry Edmond, and had to source a couple of the magazine "issues", including the body of the car.
Now complete, I can begin.....
July 6th - up to step #60.....steering
July 13th - completed step 75 - motor completed?!?!?
July 13th - Chip & some wiring installed
July 15-16th - Working on the body, bonnet & lights, boot & tail-lights
July 19th - DONE!@!!!!
