Leaderboard

Done! I posted a few other shots in the "Model Truck Show Room".

Took several large bites out of the Raider today. I'll start with the interior, which was actually completed a while ago- I just never bothered taking a pic until today. The interior is box-stock, aside from the high-back bucket seats, which were taken from a GMC Astro. The gauge panel would be incorrect for a '75, which had square gauges, but I kept it anyway. One of these days I'd like to rework the gauge panel to do a proper mid '70's DR dash. The chassis is more or less finished. Here you can see the Raider front bumper and grille insert installed. The 1:1 Raider's grille insert remained upright when the hood was titled, so I followed suit on the model. Since the original grille was so rough, I made a new "custom" grille using grooved Evergreen sheet. The Raider was only manufactured for about nine months in 1975, so I'm guessing a replacement grille would be a tad difficult to track down. I see i do need to perform a few touch-ups here and there, but overall I'm pretty happy with the "roller". The hood and cab were painted earlier today, and I just couldn't resist a test fit to see how everything was looking. After that, I was motivated to work on the trim. The Diamond Reo logo from the kit grille was glued into the Raider grille surround. Two headlight bezels were cut from .030" plastic, with a hole punch used to make way for the headlight lenses. These, and the grille frame, were treated to some Ultra Bright BMF, along with the bumper. Again, I notice a few areas where touch up is needed, mostly with that foil on the grille! All in all, though, I'm fairly pleased with how the Raider is shaping up.