Rick Hunter's 1977 Dodge Monaco

My new project is the Dodge Monaco driven by Rick Hunter, an LAPD Detective Sergeant. Hunter was broadcast on NBC TV Network and starred Fred Dwyer and ran for 7 seasons with several reunion movies. I am using the Yodel American Police San Diego County Plymouth Fury that I can easily swap over to a Dodge Monaco. The body is already molded in green plastic, but the model will be painted with Tamiya TS-43 Racing Green with Tamiya TS-65 Pearl Clear and Tamiya AS-15 Tan interior. The Monaco is listed as a 1977-1978 model and I believe that there are very, very few differences between the two years and this is also the pinnacle of badge engineering.




Hunter will return...

The chassis is a battery powered self propelled unit and I will not be using that feature. I opted to fill in all the holes for switches and electrical componants with sheet styrene and fill the short rear axle with styrene tube.




Hunter will return...

I got the wheels and tires assembled, but I'll have to trim the rear wire axle since it is too long. I made a backer for the front bench seat and I detailed a lot of the chrome with a black wash by Tamiya and the parking lights where detailed by using an orange Sharpie.




Hunter will return...

Either I screwed up or the instructions are wrong. I had the wrong wheels in the wrong places on this build and I don't remember if I ran into this issue with the Plymouth Fury that I built a couple of years ago. I put the wrong wheels on the front spindles which put the wrong wheels on the rear axle plus I needed to add a spacer to the rear axle for proper spacing. This entire operation took me about 1 1/4 hours to assemble, take apart and re-assemble this mess. Along the way, I broke the tie rod which I fixed with a piece of styrene that was on the bench.




Hunter will return...

Looking good, Mike. I was recently watching this show again, Good times

Thanks Dirk! I watched this show infrequently, so I don't know the ins and outs of everything that happened. I had this kit in the stash and I thought I would build this as the San Deigo County Sheriff's car until I thought about Hunter. Thank goodness for Wikipedia! I went out and bought the Tamiya paint needed to build this as Rick Hunter's car.

I washed the body and the interior and radio in prep for primer and paint.




Hunter will return...

Looking good, Mike

Thanks Dirk!

Looking good, I had thought of doing Hunter's green car when I did mine but to be honest while I love doing the TV detective show cars more times than NOT they are green so when I found an alternative to his green car I jumped on it.

During the Seventh season, Hunter drove a Ford Crown Victoria. In silver I think.

I have painted my '77 Monaco with Tamiya TS-43 Racing Green. Another coat or two should darked the color some more. I also painted the interior bucket with Tamiya AS-15 Tan. Now to detail the dash and interior and paint up the radio.




Hunter will return...

Coming along nicely. Hope you had a Merry Christmas

Thanks Dirk! Sending you and yours a Very Merry Christmas!

Spent some time polishing the Monaco today with NuFinish Scratch Doctor. The results were stupendious! The paint is so shiny that you could read the Scratch Doctor label!




Hunter will return...

I have completed the interior. I added the front grille and headlights and I painted the center grille divider.




Hunter will return...

coming along nicely, Mile

Thanks Dirk! I should try and finish this build!