Graveyard Cars - Mrs Oregon

Possibly the worst Cuda you'd ever consider restoring, but this one was restored on the TV show 'Graveyard Carz'. the show is about Mark Worman who restores Mopars in his specialty shop. This 1971 'Cuda 440-6 was wrecked back in 1980 at over 80mph. The guys picked up the twisted pieces back in 2007. Unfortunately someone told these guys that American Chopper is popular because of all the fighting, but didn't tell them that the people come for the fights, but STAY for the craftsmanship. The result is the show is all but unwatchable as they bicker and scream at each other and occasionally tinker on cars in between. I'm staggered they get anything done.



I was testing out a technique for creating duplicate model car panels with foil. I pressed the foil onto the donor and burnish the shape into it. i then back filled the new panel with body filler to keep it's shape. this works well for Mrs Oregon as I could dent the panel before setting it. It also meant i could build this car without sacrificing a perfectly good Hemi Cuda kit.
This was assembled into a body shell by using a junk chassis from my spares box, that came off an old MPC pontiac. It was spray painted International Orange. the luggage rack was built from styrene rod.

Wow, incredible work on that piece! The damage looks in scale and the paint work is incredible! It reminds me of the wrecked Challenger seen in the beginning of the original "Gone In Sixty Seconds". "Hey Atley, is your girlfriend named Jill?" "Yeah, why?" "I'm going to name this car after her because she's a wreck too!"

I know what you mean about that show. I saw an episode a few years ago and I couldn't stand it as it was only 15 minutes of serious work and 45 minutes of bickering. But the past two seasons have been A LOT better since they moved into a new facility. One of the main idiots (Dale) got the boot and since that happened, the focus has been more on the cars, especially with some new crewmembers added to the team. Mark Worman still has his weird quirks, but it is much more fascinating to watch now as he talks about the cars and replicating the appearance of stuff. It is also amazing to see the documentation he has amassed to do the work in order to ensure the restorations are proper, right down to the factory correct painted stamps on the parts. THAT takes dedication to do right. So at least I can watch it now without feeling like I need to throw something at the TV set. Yes, it still has some reality television staged drama, but it is a lot less than it was and everyone in front of the camera has redeeming qualities. It is a much more professional looking group now.

JMChladek said:

Wow, incredible work on that piece! The damage looks in scale and the paint work is incredible! It reminds me of the wrecked Challenger seen in the beginning of the original "Gone In Sixty Seconds". .

Click to expand...

oh, you mean 000-GAL?

Yup, that is EXACTLY the car I mean... the one that just became a statistic.

*files foil technique away in mental stash of tricks*

Great technique. Looks totally like realistic damage

What a crazy project idea, says the guy who made too many wrecked WWII aircraft dioramas when he was a kid. I would have tried (and failed) to do that all with plastic, so I'm filing that foil trick in my swipe file. That looks like a much easier way of getting a surface imprint than heating/folding styrene, you get more detail but it's a bit more flimsy.

That looks fantastic. When I was a kid I liked to make foil copies of Matchbox cars and protocol droids, then subject them to various forms of damage. A fun way to play, but I never thought the idea could be applied to modeling and taken to this level of realism. I, too, will be filing this trick to use someday.