1/25 '99 Ford SVT Lightning

[smithery]

Greetings all,

This is my first WIP thread here, so you'll need to bear with me. I'll start off by saying I do not have nearly the same skills that a lot of you enjoy, and I don't have anywhere near the quality of camera that a lot of you have. With those caveats out of the way, welcome to my build.

By way of intro to the build, this is actually a commission build. My customer wants a model of his company truck, but with a twist. His company trucks are all Ford F-150's. We both agreed that the plain jane F-150 was simply too, well, plain. Seeing this kit on the shelf of the local shop put me in the right direction.



The direction I have chosen to take the project is to build it up "mostly" OOB, but with a few exceptions. The theme of the build is a "race-inspired" street truck. Color scheme has already been decided, with Pearl White as the main color, with GTS Blue Pearl accents, and a two-tone grey interior. The one non-negotiable thing is that his company logo has to appear with prominence....it is a company truck afterall.

To start off, I'd like to share some of the changes I have made so far. The exhaust exits through the side body skirt, just ahead of the passenger side rear wheel. The kit part didn't "sit" right, so I chopped off the ends, and glued on a couple of brass pieces I found in the spares box. I think they're actually 1/35 empty artillery shells, but they look right to me. They give a hollow appearance, and the thickness is much more to scale than what I could accomplish hollowing it out on my own.



I also modified the frame a little, as I knew I would not be hanging a spare tire.



The biggest change has been to the interior. The kit gives you a bench seat. I chose to convert the bench seat to a pair of buckets. I chopped out the center section, and filled in the voids with epoxy putty, and sanded to shape.



I then cut out the center console from a plain-jane extended cab F-150 kit, and I now have a unique interior.



That's about all for now. I still have to decide on a wheel tire package for the ride, and the other big change is to add a hard tonneau cover over the bed, as well as blend in the body skirt package with the rest of the body. So basically, lots of filling and sanding, filling and sanding........

I'll be back once I have something else worth sharing.

Thanks for looking. Comments welcomed.

[SkylineFan]

Looks good so far!!!

DaveT

[rsxse240]

Your modification to the seats is dead on to the 1:1 truck. They actually used that console as an option in the extended cab trucks and I am pretty sure it was an option for the lightning as well. My brother's extended cab had that exact seat/console setup.

[tuned.by.twenty]

Originally Posted by SkylineFan

Looks good so far!!!

DaveT

I agree, you're on the right path.

[scorpiopab]

me to, looks good so far.

[smithery]

Thanks guys, I'm pretty pleased with how things are going.

[MidMazar]

I like the center console.