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68 Firebird before it was rebuilt as a street car


Chris D

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Hi all,

Not sure where to post this as it is my first post and my first car (both in real life and in models).

I am building 4 firebirds showing the life of my favorite real car. I am building them out of order because I am doing what strikes my fancy at the time, so the second car gets shown first.

I bought the real car in about 1978, pretty much in the condition you see it here. It was a rust bucket and every piece of sheet metal on it was either dented or rotted out.

The scene in the diorama shows it the way it was the night before I parked it for rebuilding into a street car. Me and a buddy decided to see how well a firebird could perform as a mud - racer or 4 wheeler. Had some fun till it got stuck in the mud and had to get it towed out. It was a fun night of indiscretion.

I took a couple of photos of the car the next day but over the past 35 years or so, those photos are in poor condition but they helped me recreate the car better than my poor memory could.

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Here are some construction photos of the car in progress. My first attempt at distressing a body and cutting out a door. In fact, it is my first car model build in about 40 years. Things have changed a lot in those 40 years.

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The paints are all Tamiya acrylics. The engine compartment is wired. The interior is flocked. Brake lines were added to the master cylinder but don't go past the bottom of the firewall. The fuel lines run from the carb to the fuel pump then back the gas tank.

When I tried to replicate the dents on the car, especially the right rear quarter panel, I ended up distorting the body a bit to much so the rear window doesn't fit right - tried to fix it but failed after many attempts.

The other three cars I am building are of this same car in different stages of its life.

#1 = Factory original (I didn't buy it new). That version of the car is about 80% done.

#2 = Mud racer - almost completed, still some more details to work out on the car and the diorama.

#3 = Street car - Midnight metal flake blue, White vinyl top, 455 Pontiac engine, traction bars, Blue vinyl and velure interior.

#4 = Drag car in its final version before I sold it. That will have 454 Chevy big block, back half chassis, 4 link suspension, etc.

I am planning a diorama for each version of the car and have the street car diorama completed (nearly completed) already.

Anyway, thanks for taking a look and taking a few minutes while I relived the fun days of youth.

Chris D

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