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69 COPO Camaro with extras...


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Over the Holidays, I had 3 big projects... (sorry for repeating myself)..  the Better Off Dead Camaro, the Revell 70 Cuda and the Revell 72 Cutlass... all are posted here.  In addition, I bought the Revell 67 Chevelle, as I needed the Chevelle's short-cap rally wheels for the BOD Camaro.  But now I had no wheels for the Chevelle!  I was going to use parts box wheels, but another kit I'd always had my eye on was the 69 COPO Camaro from Revell, and checking into the box contents, I found out the kit came with the Chevy Rally wheels as well as the dog dish set, so that was perfect!  I got a kit I had always wanted, and got wheels for my Chevelle.

I started researching and doing some work on this kit back before Christmas, but the other projects were in front of it when it came to my finishing order, and I wanted to really work this one up as much as possible.  This was my first build of Revell's 69 Camaro in its various iterations, and it really is an amazing kit.  Very few build issues.  As I've built my last few with extra details, I felt a little more confident and took some extra steps with this one, and went a little further...  I know there's a few things I haven't tried yet, but this one will have a place of honor on my shelf... and it's probably my favorite car of all-time.  Here are a few details and then pics:

PAINT - With this car, I wanted it to be a color I really liked, but also maximize the "sleeper" effect of this car...  so I chose a light blue metallic.  It's pretty enough, but also has a "grandpa" vibe, which I was after.  I bought a Duplicolor Honda light metallic blue.  It's a little lighter than GMs Glacier Blue, but close.  For the interior, I wanted to mimic the dark blue interior:

69_COPO_interior_1.thumb.jpg.45eae4ee01b

In trying to get it right, I came up with a "process"... I first painted the whole interior Testors flat sea blue.  Then, for the seats, door panels, steering wheel and lower dash, I painted on a second coat of Testors arctic blue metallic, which is a gloss color.  When that dried, I shot the seats and door panels (below the top trim line) with a dull clear coat, but left the lower dash, steering column and wheel gloss.  I wanted to create the subtle differences in the carpet, dash and vinyl colors. Finally, I filled in the control areas in the dash with either flat or semi-gloss black.  Not perfect, but it was mostly successful.

Copo_Camaro_4.thumb.jpg.070785b9617a546d  Copo_Camaro_6.thumb.jpg.bfdfd1b8b00931fa.

Then I added my seatbelt hardware in blue, and painted the buckle housings with the sea blue.

 

ENGINE -  I added a Parts by Parks pre-wired distributor and battery cables.  I then used some spare hose to add a  hose to the master cylinder, and spare spark plug wire to add in the jumbled gray wire coming from the bottom of the master cylinder.  That was a bit of a failure, only in that it got a little squished.. you attach the firewall to the body/interior, and the engine and firewall come together near completion as the body goes on the chassis.  The wire got pushed down, and is hardly visible.  The other major things I wanted to create were the smog system, which appeared in almost every reference photo, and the heater hoses.  Reference pic:

69_COPO_engine.thumb.jpg.e5d1bfa7726852a

I searched my parts box, but didn't have any piece I could utilize or modify to make an alternator bracket.  For the smog system, I used a heavier gauge wire as the runners, and inserted some hose material over the two ends to make the center piece.  I was going to paint the wire, but honestly, I had to push it in to get the engine to mount properly between the fender wells, so only the top hose is visible... would have been a waste.  For the Heater hose, I messed up.... I drilled two holes in the firewall, but since the firewall and engine don't come together until the very end, I didn't realize my miscalculation.  I drilled the holes too small, so my hose material wouldn't fit into them.  I was able, with a little digging, to get the heavier wire into the top hole, so my heater hose is a little too small, and I could only get 1 instead of 2, but I wasn't willing to take everything apart.  It's not great, but it's serviceable:

Copo_Camaro_1.thumb.jpg.139bd1f879a02b2d  Copo_Camaro_19.thumb.jpg.38abc1f165ba674

I also think I found my paint system going forward.  I used the Duplicolor I mentioned, but for a clear coat, I tried something different.  I had a can of Krylon Colormaster Acrylic Crystal Clear that I had purchased as an option a few months ago.  I tried it on my Donnie Allison Mercury, and it was fantastic!  But, that car had been painted nearly 5 months earlier...  I tried it again on a kit I was painting, and had a bad enough reaction that I had to drop it in brake fluid and strip it.  Well, my automotive clear was getting low from my Cutlass, BOD and Cuda builds, so I tried the Krylon with the Duplicolor.  All I can say is WOW!!!  Easily the best finish I've ever gotten.  I shot it with 4 wet but relatively light coats (it flows smoothly enough that that is easy), and I was floored with the results.  It self-levels for the most part and dries to a beautiful shine.  It IS a little softer of a clear coat, but for someone who doesn't have an airbrush, this was a revelation.  I wet-sanded the paint to give it a smooth surface, hit it with 4 coats, and used a little compound to buff it out.  I even had a disaster.... my paint that I had been admiring for a month got a huge scrape in the roof, but I was able to wet-sand it, compound and shoot another coat, and it was perfect.  As an example, I'm also working on another 67 Camaro, using this same combo but a darker color...  here's my painted body. You can see a reflection of my ugly mug in the roof:

67_Camaro_paint.thumb.jpg.96a235fe4d7bce

TIRES - I was going to use the kit tires, but would also have liked something "beefier" without killing the sleeper look.  I had some Fireball Modelworks decals, but ended up using the AMT pad printed Goodyear Polyglas.  The F60s were a little wider than the kit tires, but still right for this car, so on they went.  I know they won't be seen, but I had to detail the lug nuts and center lugs:

Copo_Camaro_2.thumb.jpg.6deb7f23ebd9a0f9

 

OK, enough of the build notes... she's done.  I tried to get it in a few different light conditions to highlight the finish and the color.  Hope you like it:

Copo_Camaro_11.thumb.jpg.5185847186400bb

Copo_Camaro_10.thumb.jpg.2838b6bf79c3072

Copo_Camaro_12.thumb.jpg.ae65a5ab9ce2cad

Copo_Camaro_13.thumb.jpg.44e8ecad162296f

Copo_Camaro_16.thumb.jpg.2e11d3074b6a2cc

Copo_Camaro_15.thumb.jpg.50680775f8829bb

Copo_Camaro_18.thumb.jpg.9c3debed439ade3

 

 

 

 

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Not sure if it would help, but since the stock hoses went to a heater core and not through the firewall, you could have used some copper wire from the inside of the firewall and slid your hoses over it, then added a couple of hose clamps to complete the look you wanted.

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Not sure if it would help, but since the stock hoses went to a heater core and not through the firewall, you could have used some copper wire from the inside of the firewall and slid your hoses over it, then added a couple of hose clamps to complete the look you wanted.

I thought of something similar after I posted this... I'm going to cut the wire I used for the heater hose at both ends.... Basically cut the middle out, and then attach hose over the two ends to at least make my single layer hose look better.  Thanks for the suggestion!!!

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