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A much larger problem arose; actually two related problems. 1) The suspension and exhaust system is all molded as one piece, looking toylike 2) The rear suspension needs to be boosted to accomodate larger rear tires. This will necessitate the total rebuilding of the aft ends of the leaf springs. First, separating the exhausts: Then, adding to the chassis frame to accomodate the extended rear suspension.... Also found the new engine was too short for the driveshaft; so the driveshaft had to be lengthened by 3mm. Amazingly, the left exhaust also had to be shortened by the exact same length to fit the new engine.

The new engine arrived Friday; smaller-block engine from AMT's 71 Duster, will be heavily detailed and wired. Still needed modifications to the front area with making an attached alternator and other mounts for the pulleys. Also drilled out holes for the spark plugs and wires (very time consuming on a tiny distributor). Also modified the engine mounts so it could accomodate the smaller engine block. Not a perfect fit, but it's better.

I'm sorry to hear about that! I hope everybody is doing well. I lost my mother in Feb., so I'm kinda with you guys on this!

Well, unfortunately I'm totally ditching the engine....finally the evidence was overwhelming that I needed to go with the smaller-block engine, finished in blue. So I purchased the engine parts from the AMT Duster. Starting over. In the meantime, here's what happened with the interior. Two modifications to be made: the steering wheel and the air vents. In one episode (Gold Fever S2E2) the instrument panel is visible, showing the dashboard to be the style with two air conditioning vents. I discovered this after I'd started painting, so, strip the paint, add the parts and start over. Steering wheel should be a more standard type instead of the stock racing item in the kit. I started with the steering wheel from a Chevy pickup, carved down the central spokes, added a third spoke plus some other detailing. The wood paneling color is done by painting it Military Brown, then going back over it with Tamiya Smoke. This is basically a transparent black, and when applied unevenly over brown actually looks like wood paneling. An all-black interior is a problem since if you just paint it black, then almost zero details will show. Here's how I bring it to life: -Flooring/carpet flat black -All the rest in semi-flat black -With a wide brush, drybrush dark gray all over the semi-gloss black areas to highlight and bring out the details -Mask carpet and then spray semi-gloss areas in a satin/flat clear mix -Drybrush dirt onto some of the carpet, especially driver's area. Again, wood paneling done by painting first with Military Brown, then going over that with Tamiya Smoke transparent black. Scratchbuild a CD radio for under the instrument panel, and voila!

One more for today. For the filming, all identification logos/scripts on the vehicles were removed (i.e. all the "Charger" logos, the "FORD" from above the grill and tailgate on Jesse's truck, "PLYMOUTH" and "DODGE" from the Sheriff cars, etc). Most of this is easy for Daisy's Plymouth, except for the grill and in front of the hood. We'll deal with the grill later. For the removed emblem in front of the hood, there is a recessed area that was left untouched once the emblems were removed, and then painted over. I tried removing the bit inside the recessed circle with a roto-drill, but I couldn't make it into a flat disc surface. So I cut a tiny circle of sandpaper, smaller than the target area, and glued it to the end of a toothpick. This, with a tiny dab of putty, exactly did the trick. There was CONSIDERABLE bodywork to be done with the Front Body Pan; this appears seamless with the rest of the body, so I wanted to install it before painting. The rear one will be blended in after assembly and carefully retouched. Additionally, the Front bit didn't completely fit, and the trim around the wheel well had to be rebuilt onto it and everything blended together.

Hollywood almost always uses more than one copy of any featured vehicle due to tight filming schedules plus mechanical issues. Some features on these cars are often fictional. This said, in my Dukes builds I try to balance or combine the sometimes fictional features with reality. I went through all the episodes in question searching for even one photo of the hood up on Daisy's car, maybe parked in front of the farm with the boys doing some minor maintenance. Couldn't even find one; this actually made things easier; it means whatever I do can't be proven wrong. I did find one scene with the hood up on the earlier-used '74, from the episode "Limo One is Missing," but of course it was the wrong car, and we couldn't see much anyway. It was suggested that Daisy's character might have driven the Plymouth variant with the smaller engine, with a blue engine block. I'm not sure if any muscle car kits actually offer smaller, "tamed" small-block engines, so I went with what I had. Had to strip the paint and redo it in a more correct color. I added a few details for the wiring, plus an aftermarket set of belts and pulleys. Alternator came from Revell's '68/69 Charger. There will be more hoses and wiring added after it's installed. I also removed the molded-on battery and water reservoir from the engine bay. See, the trouble with molded-on details is that they LOOK molded on, and therefore more toylike. So once removed their respective areas were rebuilt. Those specific items will have separate items installed to replace them.

All I have to say about yesterday's winner is...

Well if y'all haven't guessed or saw it, we are under rain delay at Chicago. Have been waiting all day for it to get started. Though Chicagoland has lights so they may be racing under the lights tonight...which would be great with me. I just hope they get the race in tonight. Would hate to miss a Chicagoland race. RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY, COME BACK ANOTHER NON RACING DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Race day today...now watching the prerace show. And guess what? It's raining!!!!!!! ERRR Wish it was raining here and not there! Let's go JEFF GORDON and TEAM 24!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once again...rain, rain, go away, come back another day...like tomorrow!!!!!!

They are going road racing tomorrow at Watkins Glen. Kyle Busch won his first pole of the season. Race is at 1 EST on ESPN tomorrow...that is if it doesn't rain. Looks like they are predicting rain, if so, they'll race on Monday. In which case, I won't be able to watch...because someone has to work for a living! *Starts singing: Rain, Rain, go away, come back another none racing day!*

Well the race is not yet over but they are now red flagged for now about an hour due to rain. It is now not raining, but they said it would take two hours to dry the track. They are on lap 124 out of 200...over halfway through the race, meaning that if they don't go gree flagged again, it will be over. I hate rain come race day! And since I am anxious for the green flag to drop again, I will write my review while I listen to the driver interview that they've been doing for an hour now. Now they are talking to Dale Jr who has been pretty good today and is now sitting fifth. Could probably move up again if it does go green. Joey Lagano started from the pole today and as of right now, is sitting first. He had won his first race in the last rain shortened race...his team mate Denny Hamlin, who is known to be great at this track, led the most of the lap and is now sitting third. First part of the race, Kyle Busch spun himself out and then was penalyzed for pitting early. Went from the thirties to second within a matter of minutes. Asked his teammate Hamlin if he could pass to lead which is what Hamlin had done, but Busch didn't give him the lead back as would be expected to be done. Hamlin took the lead back after a green flag pit stop. David Ragen, who sits on the bubble of the chase and needed a great race, drove aggressive in the first several laps only to make it three wide and spun himself out into the wall. Was in the garage for fifty laps. Not the kind of race he needed. But lucky for Ragen, Tony Stewart who sat nine or tenth before the race, had tire issues and at one point was a lap down. Dropping him to eleventh. And since this year the eleventh and twelveth place is devoted for drivers in points from 11th to 20th with the most wins, it would put Stewart out of the chase for the first time if the chase started next week (which it doesn't.). David Regan has a win so he would surpass Stewart...but they still have five races left til the chase. Gordon started 31st and stgruggled with a loose race car for most of the race and they finally got the car fast and now sits sixth. Jimmie Johnson started 18th and now sits second. Well here is the first top ten of the race as of now: 1. Joey Lagano 2. Jimmie Johnson 3. Denny Hamlin 4. Kyle Busch 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr 6. Jeff Gordon 7. Clint Bowyer 8. Carl Edwards 9. Mark Martin 10. Ryan Newman They are still red flagged, but if they do go green flagged, I will add onto this post as of w hat happens until the end of the race. Hard to believe Brad Keselowski broke his ankle on Wednesday and he is out there in his race car. I am now highly hoping for no more rain despite them calling for more win. Gordon was moving up the field during the race as was Johnson and Earnhardt and they all could move up higher if the race would go green once again. RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY, COME BACK ANOTHER DAY!!! (JUST NOT RAIN DAY!)

Thank goodness Kasey's OK. Hey Garrett, I imagine you're feeling a lot of pressure to win since JG has been so successful there. I only have one thing to say. GO DAVID RAGEN!!!

It wasn't a faux pas - that list wasn't the race result, it was the drivers' points standings after the New Hampshire race, so it's quite conceivable that there were three drivers tied on points for 6th place. That would explain why the next driver was in 9th. You can see the full results of that race here.

It's a rough Mother's Day around here. My wife's mom died this morning. She was the last survivor of 12 kids so an entire generation is now gone. Most men complain about their mother- in-laws but not me. I loved her and will miss her. RIP Mom.

Well just wasted a Sunday by watching three hours of driver interviews...in between switching to watch my beloved Cubs game...only for them to cancel the race! The race will be at 10 on ESPN...looks like a great day to be calling in sick tomorrow. HA HA. Wish I could do that, would feel too guilty even thinking of doing that. So I guess I'll have to sit this race out. Very frustrated right now!