MODEL BUILD: 1974 Plymouth Road Runner "Superbird" aka Dayclona

I'm sure a lot of you know that Ma Mopar had a prototype 71 wing car built before Big Bill dropped the hammer in NASCAR and outlawed them. AMT and MPC both added the nosecone and spoiler to their 71 Annual kits to make your own "Dayclona" what-if, but they were cheesy and not well done. When AMT updated the kits for 73, they dropped the nose cone. I had a reissue 74 Road Runner that was part of a large lot I bought out that had been started so I couldn't sell it. I debated on what to do with the kit, NASCAR, stock, make it a drag car, etc. Then I realized that I had a genuine 69 Charger Daytona nosecone and wing in my spares from a busted glue bomb that I got in a lot years ago...

Well now, that seems to fit pretty well! The squared-off nose of the 74 works with a nosecone way better than the up-turned nose of the 71, this could be fun!

So the saw cam out and after hacking 1/4" off the nose of the RR and trimming the Daytona nose at an angle, I got a good match up. Then came filler and sanding.

The rear looks easy but was stupid hard. The wing in the kit was designed to go on the decklid, which is lame and totally defeats the purpose of it being so high, but the Daytona wing is designed to go on a broad, flat quarter panel, not the RR's angled thin ones. I added a small lip spoiler to the decklid as a way of "furthering the concept".

Plus I needed to even out the added chin spoiler, too.

Next came a good coat of filler primer.

To make way for more sanding. I may do another coat of filler, too. The chassis and interior are both painted black and I have a 440+6 from the Daytona kit to use as well.

Now I want to start building another model also! Thanks a lot man, like I have time right now! Good work so far, you going to scribe the line between the nose and fenders to be a little pronounced or will it be smoothed? What color are you thinking for the finished car? Some stipes like this might work nicely.

After another coat of primer, it was time for color! This is Tamiya Camel Yellow.

Then I realized that the original mostly-molded chassis had a sad single-exhaust, which would never do with a 440+6! So I handmade the other pipe out of spares and sprue.

Then it was time to cut and buff the paint:

Nice. Can't wait to see the finished car.

Mock up time!

And now to admit something... I polished right through the paint on the hood trying to get an imperfection out, then when I added more paint to the hood, it changed colors in relation to the car, so the whole thing went back in for more paint...

Luckily the more paint turned out great and now everything matched again. Time for another cut and buff.

And that's pretty much where it sits now. It's time to get the interior and engine together and start working on how the tub and chassis fits into the body.

In reply to t25torx:

I scribed the line and I will paint it black as well to represent the giant seal Mopar used on these noses. It will have stripes, I just haven't decided what yet.

I decided to paint the front and rear spoilers gloss black along with the "power bulge".

The detailed Daytona 440+6 didn't fit due to all of the molded on suspension, so I built the 383 in the kit and added a 6Bbl manifold. The interior is all stock and straight black with a few silver highlights. I painted the stainless trim and then glued everything together. This is not a detailed build, just a fun one.

And with the hood on:

All that's left is the rear bumper/lights, painting the marker lights, and decals.

Cool.

Not sure they were outlawed, just that they had to run 305's while non-winged cars still got the 7 litres

Nice!

And finished! It was a good fun build to get me back into wanting to build more. Enjoy!

That looks amazing!

Very cool. I used to build model cars, and hope to build some with my kid(s) soon.