danthecapriman

Nice haul there. Pontiac is always a good find in either colour! I like the Visa too. Happy Birthday btw!

In another month I’d imagine the weather will be just fine. It is good fun running something old on a long trip, it might help take your mind off the reason for the trip too. I used to use my mid 80’s Volvo’s to do the run up to see family in Doncaster, didn’t get any problems. They’re brilliant for it too, so comfortable! Your Senator should have no problem whatsoever with a trip like this, it’s exactly what it was built for.

Deffo the Senator. Give a really good run out and the weather seems ok at the moment too so take advantage of that! It’ll probably do the car a world of good. Id offer help but I’m in the opposite direction😄

I do apologise, but just think what you’ll have when you get one!😄

Could very well have been. There’s another one of those vans in that series but it’s in Austin Rover livery. It has got a tow bar too so maybe it towed a trailer with the car on?

Got this today. Absolutely love it! One of the 1:43 rally support vehicle partwork ones. Right hand drive and just look at the number plates! Really captures the look of the old Freight Rover I think.

I love that! Very well bought. Pretty much exactly what a mk1 or 2 Escort should look like. If it was mine, the badges and spoiler would go in the bin, and I’d sell the Capri alloys in favour of a set of dartboard steels… but that’s just me! Well done👍

I’ll have a look for that AK stuff. These 1:43’s can be a twat for glazing. Most of them have an individual window unit for every opening and aren’t like the older single piece glazing units so you need something that’s strong enough to hold them in but won’t ruin the plastic. You can see it on this Sierra. Every side has a pair of pegs/rivets that hold one window section in place. Some are worse than this one! It makes the windows quite weak unless the glue is good, obviously once you do all this to the model you can’t do what the factory did and use the rivets.

Cheers! The paint I used on it is just a can of cheapo eBay metallic red motorcycle paint. I didn’t actually expect much of it but it goes on beautifully and the spray from the can is a perfect little fan pattern for stuff like this. Ive been trying a new (to me) glue for the glazing too. I was using non blooming superglue but had mixed results with it. It’s not meant to leave that white residue behind but sometimes still does so I’ve been using Deluxe Materials Glue n’ glaze glue, which so far has been absolutely brilliant on clear plastic.

Had a few new arrivals the last week. Down here at Dans Redneck Trucking inc business has gone through the roof. So much so we’ve had to buy a new tractor unit! Seen here ready to take out our new tanker trailer. Spanish Dodge. Originally built by Barrieros but the company was bought out by Chrysler Europe, who began selling these in the UK as the Dodge 300 from the mid 70’s to sometime in the mid 80’s. Never around in big numbers really but here they certainly were. And from the sounds of it, they were pretty rapid! This model is actually of a much later one after they raised the cab height and gave it a tilt mechanism. Eventually I’ll modify this one to become the older lower version. Did a bit of painting and other bits & bobs too. Got the ex 007 partwork Dodge RAM pickup finished. Can’t decide whether or not to paint the wiper arms & mirrors silver? I’m pretty pleased with this one.

Glad you like them Eddy! By the way, did you find the small bits I put inside the box truck body? I didn’t want them to get missed just floating about in that big box. That Caprice is a bloody lovely model too.

I’ve got the yellow cab version, still in its box and a really nice unboxed plain green one. They are really nice. One of my favourite Corgi’s in that scale. Im pretty sure the 2 tone silver & blue ones are the rarest. I think some of those ones also still used the earlier 4 spoke style wheels too.

Had a little box arrive today from @AndyW201 A rather lovely Capri! Im well pleased with it. A+ better than described would use again etc 👍

I’ve always kept old spare nuts, bolts, washers, screws etc etc. you never know when you might need them. Even stuff like plastic clips and blanking plugs. In my last job I even used to go as far as removing and keeping assorted nuts and bolts from scrap equipment when we raided it for spare parts before it went off to the scrap yard. All my colleagues used to wonder why I bothered, but then when they lost a bolt or nut, or something stripped off I was the only one with a tray of replacements! Most of that stuff was old whitworth sizes though so more difficult to buy new.

Just caught up with this! Glad you’ve (hopefully!) got it cracked. Those fake plugs are more common than you’d believe. I heard about these knock off plugs being about but thought nothing of it. Until I bought a set of allegedly Bosch plugs for my Capri. Of course they were absolute crap and worked if they felt like it. Showed them to someone I know who works in a garage and he immediately said they were cheap Chinese fakes. Apparently he’s had problems with them too.

That was the colour my old school bus mk2 was in. As you say, very common. It was a B reg that they’d had from new. They sold it eventually to a church at the end of the road I live on now where it sat outside slowly rotting into the ground because they only used once or twice a year for day trips. By the time the scrap man took it away it was absolutely hanging! It was actually in a combination of green mould, orange rust and a little patch of faded blue here and there!

Here’s the other versions I’ve got. Mk1 diesel, lwb, tailgate, solid side door on correct side. Mk2, lwb, double rear doors, window side door on correct side. And another one of the blue French rally vans. Somewhere!

That should make future vans easier then! A mk3 low roof in long wheelbase?? I’ve never seen that! I bet it looked weird. I wonder sometimes who and why those oddball vehicles were ordered.

It’s not my only one!!😄 Did any of them have the twin side doors? I can’t remember seeing one with both doors, but you definitely could get them with the door on the other side over here, just not so common. This ones a tailgate van too. One of my others has doors.

A few more projects on the freshly cleared workbench I’ve started. Transit mk2. These are the van for me! They look like a van should look and I remember them being everywhere when I was a kid. Then of course I got to own one of my own so they’re a favourite! There’s a few available from IXO, which I have too, but this version is the IXO casting from the rally support vehicles partwork. Looks like this to start. Nice looking model but not the best looking livery for it. Loads of details should be in different colours too which make it look a bit odd in places. But as a partwork magazine issue they often are more basic than the premium releases. Stripped. This took a bit of work to get right for a UK van too. Being a French team van means it’s left hand drive which also means the side door is on the wrong side! I measured up the original then transferred the sizes over to the other side then used my razor saw to cut into the body around the outline of the door. Then added hinges and a handle from scrap plastic card. The original door was filed down (hinges & handle) then a skim of filler over the detail before a rub down, then coat or three of filler primer and further rub downs. Painting started. Because I’m such a boring sod I’m going to go for a plain white van this time as so many of these were. It’ll need a good few coats to get good coverage but so far so good. While I was doing that I started stripping down another model ready for another truck conversion. A while back I bought a pair of these RABA wreckers. RABA trucks weren’t available here but they used cabs from other manufacturers for a long time. Starting with DAF cabs they moved on to MAN cabs like this model… which we did get here from the late 70’s on. Im keeping one as a wrecker but the second will become a tractor unit (probably!). I got as far as stripping it for now. Cab is excellent! Really does look like the MAN original, all it needs is the holes in the roof from the light bar filling. Chassis is very nice too, it might need shortening a bit yet but I’ll have to offer everything up and compare to photos before making any cuts. Do I do it as a 6x4 or lose an axle and go for a 4x2?? I might use this as a tractor unit for my low loader trailer so a 6x4 might look the part a bit better. I’ve got a plan for a load on the trailer now too involving another truck I’ve got (which has been packed away!!) so this might be a long termer. But, I’m well pleased with that MAN cab!

I remember my little sister having one of those!

I use white spirit sometimes to degrease these models with, which seems to work. Although someone once told me white spirit isn’t the best to use for that. Can’t remember why though.

Those transporters you’ve done look lovely. Great colour combo’s on them. I had a similar reaction on one of mine a while ago, but on a newer casting. Absolutely no idea how or what caused it but I had to do the same as you, and bare metal it again. I wasn’t taking any chances the second time so I poured some automotive silicone remover panel wipe over it before priming! It worked.

Nice work on this! That ultrasonic cleaner looks like it’s done the business. I’ve thought about getting one but never bothered. Perhaps I should!

Great to see all the progress on this, and it being out on the road being enjoyed. You’ve done really well with it. Talking of exhaust smells, when I put the exhaust system back on my Capri after its restoration I was getting a little blow from the centre joint. I thought I’d be clever and sort it permanently by mixing up a bit of chemical metal putty, rolling it into a sausage shape then pushing it into the leaking joint, then tighten the clamp up. It’s worked at sealing the joint, but it absolutely stinks to hell when it gets hot. Everywhere around the car has a horrible fishy smell!😅 obviously that putty stuff doesn’t like getting hot!