WHEN YOU DEMAND HIGH QUALITY AND ACCURACY, GO WITH........ SPEED CITY !

"FUEL CUDA DRAGSTER INSTRUCTIONS"

To create a replica of the original fiber glass body,
I'll be starting this project with an original AMT 1966 Plymouth Barracuda "glue bomb" built model that will need to be repaired.
The right side A Pillar needed to be cut out and replaced, the glass was scribed out and carefully removed.

The glass was glued in pretty bad with glue slop.
This will be challenging and time consuming to get the glass removed and trying not to ruin the body.

With the glass removed, the cowl is very rubbery due to the vinyl tire burn over years.
The right side A Pillar needed to be cut out and replaced, the glass was scribed out and carefully removed,
I'll be replacing that section with another AMT Hemi Under Glass body.

Using a jewelers file for the last part of clean up.

1. After looking at a 1:1 1966 Barracuda (on the computer screen), I can see some things are wrong with the AMT '66 Barracuda body.
2. Notice the wrong shape of the front wheel well. It should be more square at the top, not round.
3. I found out that the wheel lips were carried over from the original AMT 1965 wheel wells (those were round) and was not corrected for the 1966 annual kit.
4. Notice there's no lip flare on any the wheel wells.
5. I will need to correct these issues as I will need to mask, paint & pin stripe those area's on the wheel flares.

You can see how the fender flares are very prominent on the Fuel Cuda body.

Using .040" strip on the rear wheel wells to bring them out further.

The rear bumper needed to be lowered by 2 scale inches and pushed out 2 scale inches and was filled in with sheet plastic.
Wing window trim was removed.

Now the bumper lands where it should!

The front wheel wells are moved forward 6 scale inches using front wheel wells from a H.U.G. Barracuda.

The wheel wells are round on a 1965 Barracuda, but are squared off on a 1966 Barracuda.
Somehow AMT kept the round '65 front wheel wells on the '66 Barracuda.
I'll need to fix this problem since the paint job & pin striping follow the curves on the '66 wheel wells.
First- the wheel well is squared off at the top. Then .060" strip is glued all around the lip.
The hood was glued to body after repairing tire melt marks. The door handles were removed and the front door line was filled in.

Orange Pin Stripe Tape is used to get a perfect contour on all the wheel wells.
The sail panel on every 1966 Barracuda is also WRONG.... There is no step on the roof..... IT IS ANGLED..... (not a step).
The roof and sail panel are also taped off in yellow tape and putty was applied to all.
The trim was removed from the windshield & rear window.

The side window trim recess' were added with .020" x .020" plastic strip.

The first coat of putty was applied to the wheel wells.
The grill was altered and block outs were added using a 3 ring paper punch on .020" sheet.

The rocker panel trim was removed (as it was not on the original Fuel Cuda fiberglass body).

All 4 wheel wells had .060"plastic strip around each wheel lip to be more protruding to match the 1:1 car.

First coat of primer after re-scribing hood and door lines.
The rocker panel area was notched out to fit the headers that will be exposed.

CHASSIS MODIFICATIONS

Moving on to the chassis, I'm starting with a MPC Don Garlits WYNNSCHARGER frame that needed to be cut back.
I'll be using a Speed City Resin- 392 Hemi Engine, Driver Figure #2 and other assorted Speed City Resin items!

Time for the interior tin and headers placement. Interior panels were all made from sheet plastic.
Headers are from the Revell Miss Deal and hollow round tube extensions are added for extra length.

Firewall is also sheet plastic.

Front of interior tin work.

Now I have to cut out the trunk for the driver location roll bars.

Body is finally sitting on its own!

The Speed City Resin Driver Figure #2 is all ready to go.

A correct Fuel Cuda Body !

I had Olga from "Jadda Lady Decals" (on Facebook) alter the decal sheet to have the correct amount of silver pin stripes.
These decals are incredible as they have a silver base with the purple printed over them to achieve a "Candy Color".

REVIEW:
Sadly, this will not be cast in resin due to the fact that an old resin company "afxnscale"-
has already saturated the market with their resin body (that was not accurate) many years ago.
And.... it takes a lot of dedication, time, work & money to put these resin models into production.
At this point it just doesn't seem worth it.