MPC '67 Vette Construction (or destruction if you prefer)
Words, even pictures, fail to convey the true horror and ignominy this model had suffered. Imagine, if you will, dipping a hamster into a bucket of red vomit and then using the unfortunate rodent as a paint brush and you will come close to visualising the site that greeted me when I opened the box.
5 applications of Easy Off's finest oven cleaner struggled to rid the plastic of the gelatinous goo it had been coated in by some unholy child-monster, God knows how many eons ago. I'm assuming it was a child anyway; I suppose it could have been a mad scientist trying to perfect a re-entry ablative for the space shuttle program.
2 more coats of oven cleaner later - 7 in total - and I was almost there. At this point I lost hope (and/or ran out of oven cleaner) and resorted to sandpaper to remove the last stubborn vestiges of red goo.
In order to fit the wider rear wheels a wee bit of modification was neccesary as shown in these before and after shots. Don't ask me why I took the photos from two different sides of the chassis.
The scary part. First time I've attempted this kind of thing but hey, if it all went pear shaped I was only out 5 bucks.
Fortunately it turned out okay and with a couple of scratchbuilt axles and an added transmission mount (curiously absent from the mouldings) I was all set.
I wasn't kidding when I said there was often more glue than plastic as this photo proves. Ironically, all that glue didn't make the engine any more difficult to disassemble.
I managed to get most of the gloop off using the Dremel and a cutting bit. Not quite good as new but under a coat of paint it passes muster.
Above left: The original rear wheels had pretty much had the biscuit and they weren't deep enough anyway for the new tires. I scrounged some from the spares box and with a bit of modification they worked just fine. Above right: More gloop had to be Dremelled off the front hubs and drive shaft and the lugs reinstated with .040" plastic rod.
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