2004 Tom Daniel contestant

Now, here's a little machine near and dear to my heart! I fell in love with the whole dune buggy

scene at the age of 5 years old, 1968! Now that I'm an old kid, I have a 1:1 buggy out in the garage!

This Dune Rat is a resto refugee. I had one of these as a kid, long gone, of course. I threw some love at this

model last year, and even tried out a color combo I would like to do a 1:1 in.

The body is finished in Boyd's Orange Pearl, with a Testor's Radome Tan top and interior. I had the wheels

chromed, but shot all the other chrome bits with Alclad. The engine was missing a header pipe, so I made a new

pair from aluminum welding rod, and some megaphones that were living in the parts box. I added a shifter,

and a better detailed steering wheel as well. Oh, those taillights are Revell Bug, funny how 1:25 stock taillights

look just right on the tail of that rat! And of course, it's tail matches the interior!

A definite favorite of mine in my collection.