Black Gold

       

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Original Kit:
Deserter 1984 GMC Pickup
Made By:
MPC (kit #847/12)
Scale:
1/25
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After Bigfoot and Orange Blossom Special, I had exhausted official kit versions of the four cars in the SST/Muscle Machines series, and had to start looking at other kits. Black Gold was all the more interesting because the toy had at best a passing resemblance to Paula Geuin's S10. The toy was based on a full-sized C/K body with a totally different engine arrangement, different deco, and wheels/stance more like a crusher than a puller. But this project was more about personal nostalgia than historic accuracy, so I started with MPC's '84 GMC.

The engine was the first thing to go, as the kit had a small block that would in no way pass for a 540. I instead used the 454 from MPC's '76 Caprice mated to a resin Turbo Hydramatic transmission from Morgan Automotive Detail. The exhausts were scratch built, the supercharger was taken from the top fuel dragster that had previously donated its engine, and the carburetors and drive cover were from my parts box. It actually fit the frame surprisingly well, with only minor shaving of the engine mounts needed to get it in place.

I kept the ladder frame from the GMC, but just about everything else came from a partial USA-1 kit. This included the springs, axles, driveshafts, transfer case, braces, and shocks. Lots of test fitting, shaving, and alignment checks were needed to get everything in place, but eventually I had a pretty reasonable setup. The wheels from said USA-1 kit were long gone, but that was OK - I happened to have a 1/32 USA-1 parts kit as well, and the 60" tires in that worked out to be very close to 48" tires in 1/25. This also had the advantage of giving Black Gold a slightly different stance from Bigfoot, just as my inspiration had. The only thing I didn't like about them is the lack of chrome plating, but with some chrome vinyl and chrome paint I was able to correct that problem. They were mounted to the axles with the metal axles that came in the 1/32 kit.

The interior was kept close to stock, only receiving new carpeting in the form of embossing powder. I chose a tan interior with black accents as a nod to the color palette used in the cartoon.

Despite appearances, the body needed a fair number of changes. First was the hood: I cut out the hole and added 0.060" styrene strip to the new edge to give it a nice finished appearance. I then added fender extensions at all four corners, made from triangular styrene stock carefully bent and tacked in place with superglue before going back and setting it permanently. Finally, I added a filler strip to the tailgate made from thin styrene sheet. Tamiya putty was used to blend in all my changes, as well as to fill in the extra seams on the sides of the box. The headliner was coated with epoxy, both the smooth the panel and add a little extra material to prevent the sunroof edge from ghosting through the top after it was painted. While all this sounds straightforward enough, a catastrophic failure after painting it meant that I had to go back and do all this over again with a second body.

To finish it off, I used a modified winch and bracket from the GMC kit, the CD3-058 Silverado grille from Canuck 3D Model Parts, the spare roll bar from Bigfoot with scratch built braces and 3D printed lenses, and my own custom decals.

 

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