Going to resurrect a Daisy Dukes CJ Jeep "Dixie"!

So while the tail gate liner was drying to be ready for painting, I thought, what about the spare tire? The tires, on this remember are resin! The ones that the kit had with them were NOT the right for the kit! The rims you see here would simply fall through the openings in the tires!!!! SO I had to seek out other means for tires for on the Jeep PLUS fit the rims you see here! WELL then, originally the spare tire just glued to the back of the tail gate. Not exactly detailed at all, and sadly enough as you all know, you know that lacking bit with me well, I try to up the detail level to be more fitting to the build.
SO, I went on lookin' at "still" shots from the show showing the back of the Jeep to see the tire details....

This ---^
Is what I plan to try and replicate!

SO, I start out by going to my metal stock bin, to see what I had for brass wire, to use. I choose brass so I could "solder" it together for strength.... This ALSO allows me to make all the fine adjustments to fit the tail gate, as well as the custom made hinges!
I then got to looking to see HOW I was going to "hang" the spare tire on it, as well as it "close" against the truck, AND clear the rear bumper at the same time! Remember the tires are a bit bigger in size, AND slightly wider.... SO, on making the place for the spare, I made it all go to the location it be on the tail gate (was a glue pin on the spare tire hanger, and a dimple in the tail gate for this so I just carried it over to the newly made parts for the same purpose.


Brass sheet is soldered to the frame, this adds strength, AND holds shape to the wire really well! -Hinges, are made to the right, adjusted to the receptacles on the Jeep (that I also made) and this is how this detail is coming together!

Brass plate drilled for the spare tire and its mount. As well as a vertical brass bar by the hinges to hold the shape and support the tire and its weight, as well as look good detail-wise....
So since this brass work had to cool, AND be cleaned by a bath in Acetone I then painted the tail gate liner and got in place..... That way I could get the tail gate on the Jeep body too! SO on the liner went, and then on the tail gate went..... and this is how that all looks now:

A LOT better lookin' then leaving it as the kit box-stock would have been! The tail gate had a BUNCH of imperfections in the plastic so I sanded and filed it off and then with the looks of it by that time something "more" needed done! So thats when I sat out to make the tail gate liner. NOW however its all in place!


I think that looks GREAT! A LOT BETTER then if I had left it box-stock! NOW, I can focus on the spare tire rack and all that detail on the other side of the Jeep! Stay tuned everyone, more to follow! -I got A LOT done on this build in the past couple days/nights!
Thanks for lookin'!!! Comments welcome! ~Enjoy!

OK so to keep going a bit, I took the Jeep and got to making the hinges on the body so that the spare tire rack would mount up to the body and look somewhat decent too. HOWEVER in the process of doing this, I got the insane idea to make the spare tire rack..... OPEN.... AND CLOSE!!!!! Just to add to the detail and the work I had ahead of me! SO, I made this spare tire rack to open & close, and have a "latch" on the handle end.... SO, having said that, off we go! I took some plastic tube I had as scraps, and drilled them just enough to hold the brass wire spare tire rack and not be to tight, but loose enough to open & close!

The hinges had to sit for a day to make sure the glue was 100% dry and were fully attached to the Jeep! As the rack is getting a hitch too on the drivers side. That part is yet to come!

The rack is made, cleaned and painted, The "bolt" in the tire mounting plate is just to "hold" it while I painted it! The "latch is on the drivers side as well! made from a Model Train handrailing detail!

Looks really good! AND....


DAMN does that look GOOD!!!


And YES, the hinges do work! Thats what the last 2 pictures show! Opening and closing the spare tire rack!!!!



Looks really good! I do see some touch up I need to do, as far as the spare tire goes a little flat black touch up along the rim will go a long ways on that resin cast tire!

NOW you see the Spare tire rack in place, and latched, WITH the new tail lights in place AND the license plate too! WITH Daisy Dukes "real" plate number on it!



I'm VERY pleased with how this all turned out!!!! A bit of work sure, but this is the reason that makes it all worth it, the end result!
Thanks for lookin' Comments welcome, Thats it for now, more to come as the rest happens to finish up the model! The "end" is REAL close now!
~ENJOY!

Quick update for the Jeep here! The HOOD IS DONE!!!! Its about freakin' time!!!! LOL
I'm glad to see it done, I had to get it on the body and get some sort of picture of it.... And I'm pleased with the look of the hood, I just have to do a little trimming to get it to close right, as its uneven in places to keep it from closing right, but thats all work done from the underside and the edge of it!

I know whats keeping it on the drivers side from closing flat, its the way the firewall was glued in from when I got it, its not "straight" and even, so its throwing off how the hood closes. I'll remedy this by trimming the underside edge of the hood!

Passenger side closes pretty good! I'm happy with that side, but its the drivers side thats "off" just enough to not allow the hood to sit flat on its edges all the way around! Thats it for now! I'm pleased with the turn out of the hood (more like sick & tired of working on the damn thing LOL) but you all know how that goes I'm sure!
I'm calling the hood "good" and moving right along to whatever else needs done to finish the ole Jeep up and move on to another "partly built", build I got going on!
As for this Jeep, all things considered it WAS a glue bomb, plus its OLD 2001 is the year on the box and the instructions. PLUS, I added a bit to it, and changed A LOT to be more closely representation of Daisy's actual Jeep Dixie.... I put a lot into it, and I'm close, BUT I have yet to add that load to the back of it. AND get the little fragile details on it after that.....
More to come as I get closer to the finish line! Comments welcome, Enjoy!

Well as I said guys, there WAS more coming and here it comes!!!! LOL I took and got to lookin' at the Jeep and the wheels needed some added details! Valve stems would go a long ways!!! SO, I took and seen what I had for wire, and what drill bit I needed. I had steel music wire, that was .020" thick. SO, I went to make sure I had a drill bit to drill a hole just a bit bigger then the wire being used to allow glue to go around the wire in the rim. SO, that all worked out! Have a look:

Holes were drilled as deep as I could for valve stem length adjustment, while gluing. So the valve stems are just shy of 1/4 inch long.

Holes were drilled into the rims in staggering locations around its circumference to look realistic!
More to follow, The detailing of the "load" going in the back is coming! Stay tuned, Comments welcome ENJOY!!!!

So then I keep talkin' about this "load" going in the back. YES I DO. You all have gotten an idea of what its gonna be, BUT you all only seen some of it. The "loose" 426 Head, the block and some of its detailing.... NOW however its time to unleash the beast..... yeah?

Front of block, all drilled out, water coolant passages, oil passages, you name it, ALL drilled EVEN timing chain cover bolt holes drilled out!

Un-bored side of the block! Showing the valve push rod recesses in the valley as well as the cam center detailing to show cam lobes, as well as the locations in the cam for its bearings, I also added a lip to the rear of the transmission mount to show its detail, (you'll see more of that in a second!) -The 2nd head is setting in the fore ground waiting too!

Bell housing mount lip for the transmission, I literally MILLED out that white lip from stryrene to fit my resin block for this! Notice, the block also is drilled for a crank!
Ya can't tell I had a LOT of fun with this can ya?

Now you get to see the side of the block that I bored out! I also drilled in oil passages, and water coolant passages, as well as bolt holes for the head! Yeah, the head isn't going in place on this side, SO, this side of the block has to be fully detailed as far as I can get it.... Thats what you see here! NOT 100% true to life, but its close (some holes in 1/25th scale I just don't have small enough drills to do.... OR I WOULD HAVE!)

That lingering head that was in the fore ground is now in-place on the block. This is how that part will be till the end as I plan to add some more to it!

Showing a little more detail on the head. The head (just like the other one) got the intake ports drilled out as well as the exhaust ports! Also notice the distributor "hole" is drilled out too! This shot shows a good view of the bored out cylinders, as well as oil and coolant passages!

Other side of the block, showing the head detail from this side. I also went as far as drilling out the water plugs in the block sides, They will be replaced with the "caps" painted in-place! The oil filter passage is also drilled out!

A somewhat "OK" valley shot with the head in-place.


Front of block with the deep sump oil pan on the block. Almost ready for paint she is! This shot shows all the holes drilled in the face of the timing chain recess!
Stay tuned, there will be more of this detailing to come, I'm waiting for the block to dry of its second coat of Hemi Orange.... I then will be able to do the bare metal areas for where seals and gaskets will be! MAYBE even a little more hole drilling, where applicable!
Detail is coming!
Thanks for looking, Comments welcome! ENJOY!

WELL LET 'ER RIP!!!!!!! 8D
So then you all wanna see the NICELY detailed unpainted 426 Hemi, PAINTED?????

Engines is painted, and has the head in-place, with it topped with a nice Chrome valve cover. You can see some special details I made with my Unimat Lathe. I turned all those round metal parts in the Timing Chain recess. A little glimpse of the valve push rods as well can be seen here.

Looking down onto the engine! ALL edges of other parts require seals and or gaskets painted to show "bare metal", as well as all the areas needing to be Hemi Orange painted too! Looks real good!

Other side, showing the oil filter & pump area, drill passage, and nicely built "crate" for shipping! -Stained to look old and has been in a garage!!

A real good side-shot!!!

The back of the block! This shows the Flywheel..... a left-over gear with thee FINEST teeth I could find! (NOT able to be used on a HO scale train. A bit course teeth, but as fine tooth as I had! With the edge of the bell-housing edge mount bare metal too!

GREAT "Valley" shot! NOW ya can see those push rods! as well as all the areas that are bare-metal..... NICELY done I have to say..... I'm pleased!

A bit better angle? Maybe... to show the depth of detail!


Just a few "extra's" I thought I'd toss in here!!!!! Notice the pistons aren't in-place yet, as well as the "cam" isn't there either! Its coming!
More to follow stay tuned! Comments Welcome, ENJOY!!!!

So while the engine sat for a bit, I decided to get that head that I super detailed and stick some boards under it to show to some extent that the valves stuck down out the other "top" side and needed to be lifted up to haul it..... SO:




I THINK that looks pretty good! I thought to show the valve detail I had to come up with something in order to show this in the "load".....
I'll be now going to show you the engine after it sat for a bit to dry and sure up ANY glue joints I made in my last posting to then move onto adding the pistons and cam parts!
Stay tuned and like always comments welcome! ~ENJOY!

NOW I'm gonna be showing you all the engine BEFORE it goes into the back of the Jeep!

I learned a valuable lesson adding the pistons! DO NOT use "gel" type glue!!!!! It creates a pressurized cylinder! That top-dead-center piston was a PITA to get to sit right! It kept coming out of the cylinder WAY TO FAR!!!!! I had to remove it, remove the glue from the piston, and use liquid CA "Krazy Glue" to get it to "stay" top-dead-center!!!!! LOL

A bit better angle, showing depth of the piston detail, as well as the cam parts in-place!!!! The cam parts are a bit difficult to see..... The paint and color of the cam parts are real close the same color..... BUT had to be!

And there ya have it guys!!!!! Next post will be of this detailed beauty in the back of the Jeep!
Comments welcome, ~Enjoy!!!!

So I had to sit and move things around in the back of the Jeep to get it to fit and look right. Naturally, the engine had to be "centered" to some point and have as much of it to sit over the axle as these 426 Hemi's in real life were in fact HEAVY...... I made the engine cradle from REAL wood, and stained to looked "used" but had to have a wide stance for side-to-side stability..... This took up some space to make that happen and gave it a wide "foot print" With space at a premium, I had to shuffle it around a little to see what worked best, and looked right and all still fit! SO, here is how that all worked out....

Engine centered, like I said, and just enough space to place that loose head to the drivers side to even weight.... NOT really, but for the "look" of it........

Showing the head a little to see what it all looks like over-top! JUST ENOUGH space to fit it all!

A look from the outside..... NICELY put. BUT as you can see it sits "high" BUT has too........ The engine has a deep sump oil pan so the craddle had to be deep to support the engine by means of the oil pan lip..... Like they would be in real life.

From the back, showing the center of the engine to the head on the drivers side, with the passenger side kinda "bare"..... this will have other things in there, like chain to be used for holding it in-place, OR loose chain to look like its being un-chained from place, to be unloaded!

other side.....

Outside passenger-side shot.....
Thats it guys!!!! As of this last pic, the engine, the head, is drying IN the back of the Jeep! Some small extra details will be added, and a loose valve cover will be placed I think, yet, BUT thats about it for this part of the build! Coming will be the finishing details! The hood latches, the mirrors, the rear-view mirror just above the windshield and I have yet to paint the valve stems & then the CB's "Whip" Antenna! After that, this build is D-O-N-E!!!!
Comments welcome! ENJOY!

Well guys, a little further.... I sat down, dug out what I think will look GREAT as "chain" to tie-down the Hemi load! WELL this chain is necklace chain that I picked up somewhere a long time ago for when I was detailing HO scale train cars with heavy loads on flat cars. BUT each package, I have has 10 feet in it (The bags I originally bought were HUGE and from one or 2 moves they had gotten lost or forgotten somewhere, (Who knows) BUT I had 5 or 6 sandwich bags full! LITERALLY!
So anyway, when I got all this chain, it was merely "brass" and nothing more, bare brass. SO I took it and I have a chemical thats for stained glass "blackening" known as "patina" -Just like our rat rod thing and clear coating over rust, as a "patina".... SO, with this chemical, you can get it for all sorts of metals, as well as all sorts of color patina's. I use it A LOT in "black", the silver-ish shade, is a tad expensive and you only get 1/2 the amount as you do the black for any of the different metals. (They make it for brass, die-cast, lead, silver, Antimony, etc....) I have black for all of these metals.
ANYWAY take the chain and dip it in the container allow to sit for a couple minutes, pull out and lay on a paper towel and this is what it looks like when its dry:

I think in-place it will look GREAT!
Heres a close-up:

This isn't ALL I got done tho! I have some more ot add when I can get pictures of it. I have the white "Whip" antenna done ready to go onto the model, as well as something "more" to fill the space on the passenger side of the Jeep beside the engine! I thought that looked a little to empty.... I'll be getting pictures of that little gem when I can handle it. As once thats ready its going right in the Jeep. As you'll see!
I then while doing this was planning how I was going to attach the chain to the engine and to the floor of the Jeep, to look as its being held down. So its coming together......
Stay tuned, more will follow (probably tonight!) Like always, comments welcome, ~ENJOY!

So guys, how about some REAL updates on this build? Shall we? YEAH lets go..... LOL
I took and got to the point of the back getting the engine in, as well as the separated head, and just, that passenger side was well, LACKING badly... it needed something, but what? -You know, I GOT IT! PERFECT!!!!
The engine, as I add to the story, was bought, for the General Lee, in case they tired the 426 Hemi in the Generals limitations. SO, they found one, that was being built, locally, and the owner, well sort of ran out of money to complete the build, and with that, he decided to sell it to catch up a few bills. Cooter on a tow truck run, and the boys Bo & Luke, both out somewhere not answering their CB as Daisy yelled for 'em. SO Uncle Jesse, told her to take the Jeep to this guys house and pick up the engine.... As he had paid for it. SO, with that.....
I took that thought, and began thinking of that "empty" space, the engine was missing THE INTAKE!!!!

This part was from a kit!!!! NOT my casting, and for what I had done to it, I could NOT have done with my resin! Why? WELL its simple, the inside of an intake is "open" for the porting, and the carburetors to feed that..... The resin ones I make are cast SOLID. Meaning that open interior was unobtainable due to the resin being solid, AND I could have "milled" it out, sure, BUT I have so many of the 2x4 barrel "Inline" intakes, whats one for a detail! Plus if I need one for a build, I'd be then lookin' for its exterior looks, NOT the ability to have open insides, SO, having said that. I milled a little inside, flat, and then plated the bottom. Then only to drill out the carburetor feed openings, as well as the carburetor mount bolt holes!

I think it turned pretty good, I see a few things now that I would have (SHOULD HAVE) done differently, BUT thats OK, it fits the purpose here!!!!

After all the drilling was done, and the bottom was plated to have a nice sight inside-wise, I then painted it with Testors model masters "Metalizer" paint color of Aluminum NON-Polish. I did not however "seal" it as they say as I didn't even "polish" it, It looked GREAT as-is when it dried! So it got painted, and sat aside, to dry.....
While the intake was drying, I turned my focus on the CB whip Antenna..... The kit-supplied part was not going on this model! NO WAY NO HOW it looked horrible!!!
SO, I cut it off the sprue, and then tried my hand at cleaning up the parting line on it, to a decent look. BUT the "antenna" part, had nothing round about it! I just then cut off the what is to be round, from the flex stress-relief. And then center drilled it to take .020" stainless steel wire, that I had laying on the bench, glued one end into it, and then got to looking for that "ball" part, to see what I had, and low-and-behold, I have beads in the shop, for all sorts of different modeling reasons (I use them a lot on model train stuff for the telephone poles to look like anti-conductor cups) BUT this time the other way around, on a model car, they work for gear shift knobs, as well as what your about to see, and measured in 1/25th scale come out to be around 2 inches in diameter.... NOT to bad I have to say, so I figured out the length of the Antenna and cut it to length, and then BEFORE I added the ball to the end, I thought, the flex Stress-Relief needs something more too.... Thinking of this, don't they have a sort-of spring in them to "whip" the antenna up and down vertical? OR is that so-called "spring" just part of the stress-relief? Anyway, I took out my spring arbor, and wrapped one, to just to touch over what it was going to go around.... Got the nice "start" on it, and then got a equally nice "finish" where the wraps of the spring are close together.....
I think it turned out pretty damned good!

As it was, the parts made had to be CA glued together, so drying did not take long at all.... SO once it was all thought out, I sat right out to begin painting the antenna WITHOUT the spring in-place or the ball end! The Flex stress-relief was done first in semi-gloss black, let to dry. Once dry, it got the spring slide over it, and then CA glued from the back side, and then held the black mount with an alligator clip, and glued the ball onto the end,again, with CA. I then painted the wire part, and the ball end gloss white....
The actual spring I made, will remain un-painted.... Its made from stainless steel music wire!

I'm pleased in how that all came out!

It sure will look good in-place on the Jeep when the time comes, (and that time is VERY close!)
More to come, stay tuned and as always comments welcome, ~ENJOY!!!!

So I got the antenna painted and drying, I had to come up with a way to chain that 426 Hemi down..... What fun! -I sat for a bit to think up a few ways to make chain bracket or tie-downs (loops) and then was like yeah thats either not gonna look right, or simply be "too big" for in the Jeep.... The remedy? A simple hole drilled and then some softer wire, to bend made into a "U" and then one open end of the "U" slipped through a link in the chain, and then BOTH ends of the "U" guided into the hole that was drilled and CA glued from underneath the Jeep. Worked for this task, PERFECTLY!!!!
I then had to come up with a way to attach the chain to the engine block. WELL thats easy, same way its done in real life, a bolt through a chain link, that goes into the block from the back side where the transmission mounts, and in the front where the timing chain cover or water pump mounts! Easy enough. WRONG!!!!! Getting a few short sections of wire to "stay" put as the chain was guided onto them and then CA glued to the wire was a bit fun, and a little challenging I have to say!
I started in the back of the engine to mount just behind the seats.... The hardest part, first!!! -As the front of the engine to the back of the Jeep would be easier.... and it was!!!!

Drivers side end of chain, in-place..... THEN the first mount to the engine in place added a little "sag" in the chain, and then moved to the next bolt hole location to have 2 bolts on the engine and then the left over chain flows over the passenger side.... Looks good so far!
I really struggled with getting the passenger side end of the chain in-place, DAMN is that tight in there!!!! (My hands not being what they once were showed out here, BUT I got it, with a little frustration on the side, but I got it in-place! Same way I had planned, a "U" bent piece of wire slipped through a chain link and in it went.... I left some of this end of the chain "loose" -to look as tho the chain was longer then actually needed.... Tightened on this side!


Front of engine got its chain, mounted to the floor as I have been doing, then ran right to the block, only this time I used 2 thin (really little) straight pins, and did the same thing as I did on the back, tight on the chain going to the engine, and then sagged a little between the mounts on the block and then tight on the other side to the floor......



Chained all 4 corners down to the truck as well as got that intake in-place too! NOW it looks better. Not so odd-lookin' because there was nothing "there"..... I'm pretty pleased with this whole part of the build! I actually can not believe just how good it turned out.....
Stay tuned, more to come right after these short messages!!!! Comments welcome! ~ENJOY!!

So then I went right to getting things on this model, next up? The mirrors!!! Sadly, the kit supplied parts were again WAY OFF.... I took them and used them to guide me to making ones a little closer, to what Daisy Jeep "Dixie" had.... They were chrome in the kit, but the real Jeep they were Semi-Gloss Black! SO, I did in fact paint them to reflect this!


Got them made, and then got them in-place on the Jeep, and painted them right after the CA dried..... I made my OWN Mirror parts here, the kit-stock parts were nothing really, I even used the actual round mirror they supplied as a "mount"..... The brackets are made from straight pins! I then CA glued them to the Jeep.
AND as you can see, I also got the Antenna in-place too... Not the actual true location for the real one but this Jeep is so far off, at this point, I had to use that little mount area for something other then to "plug" it up like I did the same thing on the other side..... SO....


Looks pretty good considering! I also put the spare tire and rack back in-place, (it will remain functional the spare tire rack!)


-And just a couple extra's......
ENJOY............... There are a few more to come!!!! -Stay tuned, Comments welcome.

So then, as you all can see, I got a LOT of detail into this build, and you all watched it come together, (I have to say all things considered) I am very pleased with it. Heres Daisy Duke's Jeep "Dixie" COMPLETED!!!!!!












And there ya have it....... a SAVED build from, start to finish..... (I have to say, its feels GREAT to have completed yet one more model, thats been in the works for over a year now, with a few issues and bumps along the way, but as said several times throughout the build this model was a glue bomb when I got it, and it was old...... SO I restored what was needed, replaced what was missing, and made it as close as I could to the real Dixie (Even tho it really isn't even close to the real one) I'm happy with it............ Enjoy!

Resurrected Daisy Dukes Jeep! COMPLETED 6-4-2016!!!

Took "Dixie" to her Third contest this year, on October 2nd 2016 and She brought in a 3rd place win in the "Light Duty Trucks" category. Pretty please that this model has "placed" in every contest shes been put in!

incredible !!!!!

your works is marvelous, a very great jod and build
thank John to show us this
and the engine..... so nice !!!

great art

A+

franck

Awesome Android marvelous works

I love the Doh. Big!!

Thanks guys! This build I didn't post....... -Till I noticed I didn't have a thread for the truck, to add the pics to it with the Trophies!

Then I went on to add the WHOLE build, As I type ALL of my builds out in Microsoft Notepad, and add in the Image code so that I can copy & paste it all quickly, anywhere on any forum! -And if you look, this model was a built "Glue Bomb" that was pretty much a junker!!!!! I restored it back to its final glory!

Much appreciated guys, Thank You!