1976 gran torino

[Luc Janssens]

13 minutes ago, Bob Ellis said:

Shown interior with leather seats is a1977 torino-ized T Bird. Same car but different sheetmetal. My '77 TBird had this dash . Had a 400 c i mill too.

Good catch, for those who don't see it, look at the script on the faux wood trimpanel above the glovebox

Edited May 10, 2018 by Luc Janssens

[disconovaman]

5 hours ago, NYLIBUD said:

 

To bad they don't make this kit into a four door

 

I thought about converting one to a 4 door, and this is fitting because I would like to build the Dude's car. Nice looking build so far. That clean strip thinner isn't harsh on bare plastic? 

[NYLIBUD]

Yup just picked up one of those.The Dude.

[1972coronet]

On ‎5‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 11:57 PM, Filthysanches said:

Also completed the dash to the best of my ability. The decal doesn't fit perfectly which is disappointing, but I figure the steering wheel will hide most of the crimes. I noticed in my research they have plated moldings around the vents. So I'm posed with the dilemma to take the risk of messing up the dash paint by painting it on or leaving it clean and somewhat flat. 

Have you tried the Molotow Chrome Pen(s) yet ? The 1 mm tip is perfect for interior trim ; and , it's easily covered (e.g. , painted-over) if one "colours-outside-the-lines" .

Great work on this beauty from the Malaise Era ! Keep up the beautiful job !

[DEL]

On 5/7/2018 at 9:44 PM, Ron Hamilton said:

Looks very nice. The back of the front seat on the 76 Gran Torino was vinyl.

What he said, and here you go.  Any seat surface not where the body contacts will be color keyed vinyl.   The backs & sides of the seats, headrests, and the panels below the seating area on the front and back seats. Ford in that era did not waste upholstery fabric on areas not making booty or back contact.

Here is in the first pic, a picture of the interior of my restored 1978 Ford LTD Police.  Have a look at those areas mentioned and you will see they are all vinyl. You can even see a bit of the back of the front seat just before it disappears down.  the area you said you couldn't find a pic of.  Also here are two more other LTD's, 75-78 and they will show it done the same way. Ford did all their cars in this fashion in that era. I used to strip out interiors to use in copcars that's why I'm fairly certain of it. A Torino or any other Ford offering with cloth upholstery is done the same way.  Even the Landau's if I remember right.

Doing a great job on this model, I LOVE your carpeted areas. Super realistic looking and in scale to boot Kudos!

The one below is a bit more upscale version, a lower form of the Landau, and a 2dr to boot.  Hard to tell but the surface seating areas and the contact points on the armrests are CLOTH. All else is vinyl.

Hmm..Looking at the pic below I notice that the front seat back valance under the backrest, leading off the seat surface to the rear is also a piece of color-keyed CARPET.  Forgot about that.

Edited May 11, 2018 by DEL

[Tom Geiger]

On 5/10/2018 at 3:53 PM, NYLIBUD said:

To bad they don't make this kit into a four door.Its nothing special,My first car was a 76 Brown 4 door,brown Torino,brown top,a a brown interior.My father got it new when he worked at a former job.Then I got it.Great car.And yes I miss it.Ah but then I quickly got a 69 Dart,but sold that too.The Torino just died one day,but it had almost 200K on it.The tranny wined so bad.But that's Ford..Maybe I'll just build a two door version.I mean I remember that I always wished it was a two door car.Maybe I can do it.

When I was growing up in the 1970s my family lived across the street from a small office building that was a field sales office. They had a fleet of Torino 4 door sedans, each in a different color.  They'd replace them like every two years.  I think of those whenever I see this kit.

BTW, I had a triple brown 1978 LTD II that we put way over 200,000 miles on.  Later on I had my grandfather's 89 Crown VIc... same dark brown, that we also put over 200,000 on. 

[Filthysanches]

On 5/10/2018 at 6:27 PM, disconovaman said:

I thought about converting one to a 4 door, and this is fitting because I would like to build the Dude's car. Nice looking build so far. That clean strip thinner isn't harsh on bare plastic? 

Man. Now I really want to make a dude torino complete with the failed quiz in the back seat. 

When I was making my supernatural impala, the only model they have is of the 2 door. Some guy made a four door by frankenstiening another sedan. Looked tedious. I have modified a dinosaur model in a different pose, but man it was a pain in the arse, I can only imagine having to keep the body straight in all that. 

[Filthysanches]

On 5/10/2018 at 6:55 PM, 1972coronet said:

Have you tried the Molotow Chrome Pen(s) yet ? The 1 mm tip is perfect for interior trim ; and , it's easily covered (e.g. , painted-over) if one "colours-outside-the-lines" .

Great work on this beauty from the Malaise Era ! Keep up the beautiful job !

Molotow is my go to if I had a more steady hand I'd use it in place of bare metal foil on a lot of places. 

[Filthysanches]

UPDATE: here are some interior shots more complete.. 

Moving on to the engine details. One of the biggest criticisms I received on my last build was of the distributor. I used wires that were larger than scale, and had zero attention to accuracy. 

 

After some soul searching I decided I was going to have to start making my own distributors for now on. Easier said than done, through trial and error I came up with a passable solution that seems to be pretty simple in comparison to the other solutions I could find. 

I cut a scale aluminum tube and stuffed it with sculpey clay. I then took the kit distributor and pressed into the clay that is stuffed into the tube in order to imprint the 8 plug mounts pattern into the clay. I then took an old airbrush needle and deepens the hole to slip the wire into. Then with a heat gunI baked the distributor clay and aluminum tube in all. This hardens the clay, essentially making a plastic distributor. The clay will rise a bit if you have the heat too high but you can sand it down.

Behold, this is painted, I ended up stripping the distributor below the cap to reveal the aluminum tube, as the images I found of the torino had an aluminum body and plastic cap

For whatever BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH reason I forgot to take images of the wire creation, I'll do my best to explain. 

I found a spool of fine wire used for fine electronics, looks to be the perfect size. I then stripped an ethernet cable, pulled out one of the smaller wires, and removed the copper within leaving just the rubber shielding. 

I cut the ethernet cable to make the sparkplug boot. I had to stretch the hole of the boot in order to slip the electronics wire in. 

I pulled the blue electronics wire through a bit past the border of the boot and glued the bit Tha is past into the distributor. I then crimped at a 90° to resemble a spark plug cable. 

The results are below. Keeping track of the firing order is a pain in the a§§ at this scale but at the end of the day I sorted it out. 

I used some scale details wiring whichamacallits to keep order and make a tidy setup. 

I really really need a spray booth. This clear is so strong and I can smell it through my respirator. But ill be damned if it doesn't come out great. The dust is an ongoing battle, if anyone has tips on keeping dust out id love to hear about it. I'm fairly new to this and I'm mostly flying by the seat of my pants. 

I decided not to use the "chrome" under the clear as it's not realistic, but looking at the moldings after I cleared, I noticed that the clear pretty much drowned the relief of the moldings making painting nearly impossible. So I regret this decision and now I have to figure out how to make this look realistic. Again if anyone has a tip to pull this off let me know. 

The last build I used the suggested 4:1 ratio of the u-pol clear coat system but it came out soft so I upped the hardener by a half making the ratio 4:1.5

This did the trick no more permanent fingerprints that need to be polished out. 

Anyway this is where I landed so far 

Edited May 14, 2018 by Filthysanches

[NOBLNG]

Wow, beautiful wiring job on that engine! That's a nifty little trick with the tube and sculpey clay. I will have to try that one. The interior is fabulous also!

[Can-Con]

Dosen't that kit come with a proper single carb intake manifold? That one is for the dual quad setup.

[bill lanfear]

Nice work on this!  I was going to build this kit in light blue also whenever I get around to it.  Yours looks awesome so far! Excellent detail work!

[Filthysanches]

6 hours ago, Can-Con said:

Dosen't that kit come with a proper single carb intake manifold? That one is for the dual quad setup.

Well look at you. Yeah it does but I got some paint on it and attempted to clear it off by the aforementioned paint stripper, and boom it went from single manifold to pile of goo. Sooooo, I pivoted checked the build in its mock up and decided the air filter will hide most of this, so I used the starsky and hutch dual. Plus I plan on modifying it to appear to be single. But that is further down the line. I'm going to start to buy 2 models at a time cause it seems I always have a sacrificial part that immediately gets pointed out. 

[Oldcarfan27]

4 hours ago, Filthysanches said:

Well look at you. Yeah it does but I got some paint on it and attempted to clear it off by the aforementioned paint stripper, and boom it went from single manifold to pile of goo. Sooooo, I pivoted checked the build in its mock up and decided the air filter will hide most of this, so I used the starsky and hutch dual. Plus I plan on modifying it to appear to be single. But that is further down the line. I'm going to start to buy 2 models at a time cause it seems I always have a sacrificial part that immediately gets pointed out. 

I say, don't even sweat it. The stock air cleaner is so big, it'll cover all that anyway. 

However, I've been counting your rivets and don't know why your spark plug wires aren't numbered and date coded? Sheesh!

Just kidding, hope you got my little dig at the nit-pickers. Yours is looking good.

[Filthysanches]

4 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

I say, don't even sweat it. The stock air cleaner is so big, it'll cover all that anyway. 

However, I've been counting your rivets and don't know why your spark plug wires aren't numbered and date coded? Sheesh!

Just kidding, hope you got my little dig at the nit-pickers. Yours is looking good.

Gotta keep me honest. Haha I appreciate it. 

[randyc]

Here's mine finished.   Similar color but yours looks more correct than mine.   My mom had a 72 in this same color scheme so mine is a tribute to that car.   Mom's was a base model so I didn't use the wood grain - just black pastic in there.  And you;ve gone farther than I did with some of your detailing.   great build you have so far.

[espo]

Outstanding work on the distributer, it looks better than most aftermarket units I've been buying. The interior is very realistic looking also.  

[Can-Con]

18 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

I say, don't even sweat it. The stock air cleaner is so big, it'll cover all that anyway. 

However, I've been counting your rivets and don't know why your spark plug wires aren't numbered and date coded? Sheesh!

Just kidding, hope you got my little dig at the nit-pickers. Yours is looking good.

If you think that's nit picking Patrick, just wait until I get through with your build posts. LOL 

[Oldcarfan27]

13 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

If you think that's nit picking Patrick, just wait until I get through with your build posts. LOL 

Oops, touche! Shots fired.

That's why I haven't posted pics of any of my projects, I'm afraid - very afraid!

[Can-Con]

20 minutes ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Oops, touche! Shots fired.

That's why I haven't posted pics of any of my projects, I'm afraid - very afraid!

[Filthysanches]

13 hours ago, randyc said:

Here's mine finished.   Similar color but yours looks more correct than mine.   My mom had a 72 in this same color scheme so mine is a tribute to that car.   Mom's was a base model so I didn't use the wood grain - just black pastic in there.  And you;ve gone farther than I did with some of your detailing.   great build you have so far.

This looks awesome. The washes in the grill make this look real. I'm terrible at bare metal I hope mine comes out as well.

[randyc]

10 hours ago, Filthysanches said:

This looks awesome. The washes in the grill make this look real. I'm terrible at bare metal I hope mine comes out as well.

This kit is one of the easiest EVER to foil.   Great kit to practice with.  The engraving is deep enough to make it easy to trim.  As nice as the rest of your kit looks, I expect your foiling will be better than mine.

Thanks for the compliments

[Filthysanches]

Update on progress. 

Got started on painting some of the pieces to complete the kit exhaust and engine. I will likely scratch build vacuum hoses and what not once I get the body on. 

I did my best to create a somewhat anodized look for the normally aluminum parts with some clear yellow. Straight flat aluminum looks a bit flat in my opinion but I Dont know. 

Here is my attempt at creating strut compression springs. The kit only has a post to represent this part of rear end, likely because it won't show all that well. Here is the process I went through. There is little clearance between the shock and the spring so I used the shock for spacial comparison, as there wasn't much room to fit both. 

I then soldered the ends for a smoother finish and painted them gloss black. 

Next I'm on to finishing the body likely. 

[Anglia105E]

Jason..... your interior, including both seats and carpets, and the dashboard is the best I have ever seen.... not just on these forums, but the best I have EVER seen.

I get the feeling you like blue. What a superb build, and lots of detailing too.

Like it a lot.

David

[Filthysanches]

Update,cause I got nothing better to do. 

Sanded and finished the paint job. Started with 1200 grit then 2000 then 2500 and cause I'm a glutton for punishment, 5000. From there I used a scratch remover to remove the fine scratches left by the 5000 taking care to have my dremel at a slower speed. Learned that the hard way. Faster does not equal less effort, instead it leads to melted styrene. 

After all this, it was time for bare metal foil. While this car is easier than most to foil, certain areas were just too difficult. The front wheel well lacked any relief to be able to cut against. For this i had to use good ol molotow liquid chrome and a paintbrush. The metal matches optically but now I have to handle the car as if the paint is wet, even if it isn't. I've experimented with different clears and all I have come across leave it looking gray. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

While the paint was drying, I also finally attached the rear end and tires. 

Nows about the time I get too excited and impatient, hopefully I can keep it together, because I have the cabin to complete. 

 

Edited May 24, 2018 by Filthysanches
Wrong image