Jim Bailey's '71 El Camino

[Greg Pugh]

Nice work here Art! Can't wait to see what you come up with! And Jason, you need to post up some pics! Your elky turned out awesome!

[Danno]

Great project, Art!   Nice enough of you to tackle it for your friend, but even greater that you are going to so much work to make it accurate rather than j ust going with 'close enough' like so many people would have.  

Carry on, my friend!   I'll be watching, too.  

[Art Laski]

Thanks for all the comments, guys!

Jason, when I mocked it up, the kit chassis seemed just fine. The lengthened resin chassis seemed too long to me as well. The Elco does seem slightly shorter than to scale, but overall it will work well. I would love to see some shots of yours.

I've been making some more progress on the interior. This is probably where most of the detail will be to replicate the original car.

I completed the bench seat. I wasn't sure what to use for the seat cloth. I was looking for some images of a weave to use as a decal, but nothing seemed right. Then I happened to be looking at a carbon fiber sheet that is part of my product inventory in my store and it looked like it might be perfect. So I applied it and shot it with some flat lacquer after is was on and it's about as good as I am going to get it.

The real seats...

I made a shifter handle and the wheel adjustment handle. The shifter is a bit out of scale, so I won't be using it. Another one is in progress, so keep that in mind as you look at the further pictures.

Finished the dash up, including new gauge and lens.

All the parts before assembly.

Thanks for looking!
 

[Slotto]

Great build. I am enjoying this

[Mooneyzs]

Art... those interior components are looking killer. You are hitting it out of the park and lobe the details you are putting into it. Love your work!

[Art Laski]

Steve and Chris, thanks for taking the time to comment!

Interior is done! I added pedals, which you can't see too well, the dash cover and some seatbelts.

 

Edited December 7, 2017 by Art Laski

[68shortfleet]

Art, here is a quick pic of the Elcamino I built. I'll try to make an Under Glass thread for it here soon with some additional pictures.

Nothing too special, Basically just the resin body, and rear bumper. I think all other parts came from the donor kit except the Pegasus wheels and centercaps I made. This car was a few firsts for me. First resin body, first hinged hood, first bare metal foil. Also had to splice the rally stripe decals on the hood to get them long enough(another first). Donor kit didn't come with any decals, so I swiped some from a Camaro kit.

And let me know if you want my images out of your thread.

Edited December 7, 2017 by 68shortfleet

[Mooneyzs]

Art... that Interior turned out Killer. It looks so good. Nice job Brother, I Love it! 

[El Caballo]

El Caminos are so cool, good job.

[Ron Hamilton]

Excellent work!!!!

[John Teresi]

Art.......WOW man!!!!!........that interior is killer.......great job ....he`s gonna love this model

[Art Laski]

Thanks for commenting, guys!

I took the headlight buckets from a Revell '70 Chevelle kit and cut the round part off and mated two of them together to make a square lens bucket. I still need to smooth them out and drill the holes for them in the grill, but this is going to work out, I think.

 

Edited December 11, 2017 by Art Laski

[John Teresi]

Art.......Very Creative........your doing some excellent work.

[Belugawrx]

Man that is some awesome small part making right there...

Where are all the fingerprints like I get on mine ?

[Mooneyzs]

Art... Awesome work Brother!!! Love how you are doing the headlights and the trim around the grill. Looks perfect!

[Modelbuilder Mark]

 Art, great work you have going on  here,  so much for not being too detailed. 

[Art Laski]

Thank you for the comments!

I had to stop posting as time was getting short and I needed to finish this build in time for Christmas, but I still managed to take some pictures along the way.

I had to modify the hood a little to mimic the '71.

Jim's car had a small block in it, so I stole one out of an '86 El Camino kit. I weather it up a little and used a MAD pre-wired distributor, which is available at Laskiscale.com

 

 

[Art Laski]

I had to reroute the exhaust due to the engine swap and to accomodate where Jim's exhaust dumps out.

Also had to make a new driveshaft.

I also took the tonneau cover from the '86 and cut it down a little to fit. The texture molded into it was much better than trying to use flat styrene.

I sanded the Goodyear logos off of the tires and applied the Cooper decals. Unfortunately, even though I wanted a little bit of a weathered look, they got a bit worn during assembly and I didn't have time to restore some of them.

Edited December 27, 2017 by Art Laski

[Art Laski]

Here's the paint prior to BMF. I used Tamiya Chrome yellow and TS-13 clear out of the can. I wish I could say it was good to go, but I had to spend a night polishing.

I decanted a little paint to paint the grill.

Here's the completed grill.

[Art Laski]

I also used a different brake booster and master cyclinder to match the real car.

I ended up using the rear bumper out of the AMT '68 kit. I had to narrow it a little. 

[Art Laski]

Here are some shots of the finished car. See the rest under glass!

 

See it Under Glass here:

 

 

Edited December 27, 2017 by Art Laski

[John Teresi]

Art.......FANTASTIC build.......turned out great........I`m sure Jim will be very happy with it

[68shortfleet]

Well done Art. 

[Mooneyzs]

Art... this is just a killer build. I know Jim will be happy with this. Love how this turned out.