jjsipes

Mark, haven't really gotten into much other than the body. The way the body was molded sucked! Not saying mine is perfect but I feel it looks closer to the actual car. What little rollcage I have looked at, it is different than the old Monogram TBird. The passenger side door bars have padding molded on them, I did take time and cut them out and replaced them. The firewall looks to be a little narrow. Will let you know the other stuff as I move forward.

Took a minute before the rain and storms hit today and sprayed some primer to see what I had and what I need to work on yet.

That dash looks great

I've studying what to do with the bulging front fenders. Looked at the front track width and determined that I could not narrow up the front fenders without alot of suspension work. Started measuring the body and found the the width from driver side to the passenger side in front of the rear wheel opening was wider that the width right behind the front wheel openings. That means the body pinches in from rear to front in the door area. Just determined that maybe the best avenue to take would be to try and blend the front fender bulge into the doors. The body is looking better to me. Need to finish up cleaning up both sides and to see about whether I need that body line back in through the doors or not. I feel like it's hard to get a picture to illustrate what I have done.

Looking great Mark

I have decals for kit decals for the 7-Eleven Kyle Petty, kit decals for Cale Yarbough Hardees and an aftermarket set of Bill Elliott Coors from MPR. Not sure which I will build first. I have 2 of these Thunderbird kits that I picked up locally at my Hobby Shop that bought them from a collection. I think he still has the 85 Richard petty Grand Prix kit but, I already have one of those in my stash.

https://www.mikesdecals.com/fireball-roberts-1961-pontiac-powerslide-251-p-4738.html

Has anybody built one of these? I remember building one in my youth but do not remember how badly molded the body was. Trying to work on it to getit to look better. The window side looked to big, the window sill looked to low, the quarter window wrong shape, the body line through the door appears to low ( should align with the same line in front bumper and behind the rear wheel opening). I grabbed my razor saw and started to cut. I moved the window sill up and recontoured the flow into the quarter panels. Reshaped the quarter window. I still need to look at the body line through the door. Would like to do something with the bulging front fenders but not sure about the front track width yet. First picture is what is in the box. The second picture is what I have done so far. Thinking it looks better to my eye.

After meeting Butch at the 2023 Carlisle Chrysler Nationals for the 2nd time and purchasing his book, I thought I'd attempt to build a couple more of his cars. I build the Moebius 1965 Plymouth and loved the way that turned out so, I started gathering items for the Camaro while I wait for the weather turn warmer to do some painting. I grabbed the latest AMT 1970 1/2 Z-28 with the full front bumper and the AMT 1970 1/2 Baldwin Motion Camaro. I will take the nice looking Cragars from the Motion kit as well as the big block to use. I have already removed the rear seat. Purchased some nice Racemaster slicks off Ebay and got the Slixx decals. I couldn't find a good source for the hood scoop so, I attempted to fab one myself. To me it looks like it may have some of the bulge from a L-88 hood with the scoop on top of that. Took the Motion hood and started to modify it to accept the scoop I fabbed up. It's not perfect but not sure what else to do with it.

Working on the trim some more. Took my razor saw cut down perpendicular to the body in alignment with the trim that was left on the door and then trimmed away the rest. Needs a little clean up but I think it will pass for Bel Air trim.

Going to need to figure out the decals.

In my quest to build the Championship cars, I thought I'd see what i could do for the 1961 winner. This will be a slow build, I believe. Started with Amt/Lindberg 1961 Impala studying the different trim levels and thought maybe I'd start by trying to use some of the kit molded Impala trim. Started by removing the upper molding and leaving the lower most piece intact. I think this will work. Need to see what I can do with the forward most trim now.

Thanks. I had to modify the upright hoop to move them out and under the main underwood hoop to have room for the 429

Just completed my 1969 Nascar Championship winning Ford Talladega driven by David Pearson to his 3rd Championship. Polar Lights kit, Tamiya Gold, Scale Finishes Acapulco Blue, Powerslide Decals, PPP resin tires.

Just uploaded in the Under Glass Section