Butch Leal

[Old Coyote]

This kit was a nightmare build. It took me nearly a month to finally get it to a point where I could call it finished. Below are the texts from three different posts on another forum detailing the problems I ran into with this kit .............

 

"I have been attempting to finish the assembly of this kit for over a week now, and it has just been one problem after another. I wanted to use this third generation Firebird kit as a basis to build Butch Leal's Castrol GTX Pro Stocker. I realize the wheelbase on the kit is not proper to build an accurate Pro/S, but it is the only full kit available.

I remember building this kit 20-25 years ago as the Pro Street version (white Firebird, Gold Chrome tree, blue decals) and it went together fine. However, this kit which I got off ebay about 2-1/2 years ago has been nothing but problem after problem. It's not the fault of the ebay seller, as this was a sealed kit and the box didn't seemed to be damaged at all. But, nothing fits properly. I remember reading somewhere that Revell/Monogram's re-issue of the Reher-Morrison Camaro had some fit issues and I was just wondering if any of you know about problems with the later pops of this kit.

Here are some of the things I have encountered:

1. The roll cage will not fit properly into the attachment holes and also fit through the dash at the same time. I had to narrow the dash and clip the front of the side cage units to be able to build the cage so it would attach to the chassis unit.

2. The rack and pinion steering unit was almost 1/16th" too wide to fit the attachment points on the front of the chassis. I had to shorten the unit by cutting a section out of the center.

3. The engine compartment "fender wells" which also contain the mounts for the front springs and spindles would not fit the attachment points on the chassis.

4. The rear suspension/rear end/wheelie bar assembly did not match up to the mounting slots in the rear of the chassis unit. Finally was able to get it mounted with a generous amount of super glue.

5. When the chassis was finally completed, dried, and the tires and wheels mounted, the right front tire was way off the ground. I had to cut the spindle off the suspension unit and re-attach it almost 3/32" lower. We now have all four tires firmly on the ground.

6. According the the instructions, the rear window is supposed have two small holes which will attach over two small pins molded to the underside of the roof. However, this kit has pins on both the roof unit and on the back glass. "Male" and "Male" attachment won't work, so I will carefully have to shave off the pins on the glass and drill corresponding holes to get it attached properly.

7. The aluminum shroud which attaches to the body and lines up in front of the radiator was almost 1/8" too wide. It had to be narrowed and shortened to fit into the body unit  and allow the hood to be installed properly.

8. The tail light unit was slightly too wide to fit into the recess in the rear of the body. It had to be trimmed on both ends to keep the center section which holds the drag chute to line up properly in the center of the car.

I still have to install all the glass, install the drag chute, and secure the body over the chassis. I have no clue as to what other issues I may run  into just accomplishing those few items.

If any of you have built this kit recently, or know of any of these problems, I would surely appreciate you letting me know. I don't know whether or not I'll be able to complete this monster, But I'm going to try anyway. I really don't want to throw away the ten days I've spent on

this build."

 

"I hate to admit defeat, but I give up on this kit. 

In addition to the issues I have already mentioned, when I went to finish the build this morning I ran into these further issues:

1. The arc (or lack thereof) on the bottom of the rear wing did not come close to matching the curvature of the trunk lid.

2. The drag chute (which came with the kit) did not come close to fitting in the recess between the taillights, it had to rest on the rear bumper. It probably was included for the Camaro version of the kit.

3. The only piece of glass that fit the body was the rear window, the windshield was too long and also too wide, and the side windows did not fit the contour of the body.

4. And finally, the hood would not fit correctly when the body was attached over the chassis. However it fit fine before the body was installed over the chassis.

Had the body finished out properly, I was contemplating trying to fit the body over the chassis of one of the '99-'00 Firebird Pro Stock kits. But this body isn't worth making that type of attempt. The whole thing will just be relegated to spare parts.

The only thing I can come up with as a reason for all these strange problems is that somewhere along this kit's life it was subjected to some excessively high temperatures and many of the pieces wound up getting slightly warped. The failure of the glass pieces to fit and the rear wing having no arc while the trunk was slightly arched leads me to believe that may have been the case.

On to the next project."

"Many of you saw my frustrations and failure with this build in the "in-progress" section.

I refused to give up .............. sitting here this morning watching the rain from Hurricane Florence come down I decided to see what I could do to fix the problems with this kit that caused me to give up on it .......... I reworked the chassis to correct the stance and the body fit, trimmed and shaved the windshield to get it to conform to the body, trimmed and reshaped the scoop/hood opening to allow the hood to fit down over the carbs, reworked the radiator shield to fit the body contour, adjusted the position of the engine, etc. etc. Just a bunch of adjustments to allow it to become a decent shelf model even though it's not one of my better efforts. I was not able to get the side windows to conform to the body but I'll continue to work on that."

 

I have included some pictures of this beast to show what I was finally able to come up with. As I said, it's not one of my best, but it looks OK on the shelf.

John

 

 
 

Edited September 21, 2018 by Old Coyote

[NYLIBUD]

Great job.

[DumpyDan]

Real nice build

[Rick Wolfe]

Ok..... so where is the model you said you had problems with. Looks great you did a fine job. good luck on your next one, Rick

[Nacho Z]

Looks like a case of a silk purse from a sow's ear!  She looks good to me, John!

Edited September 21, 2018 by Nacho Z

[Jmaracing]

Great looking build.

[Old Coyote]

I forgot to show you that it still has an engine in it

[GoatGuy]

Looks great to me...

[Force]

On 2018-09-20 at 11:19 PM, Old Coyote said:

I realize the wheelbase on the kit is not proper to build an accurate Pro/S

Nice build, but I'm curious, what's wrong with the wheelbase?
The third generation Camaro and Firebird have the same 101 inch wheelbase and I assume the Pro Stock Camaro and Firebird race cars back in the day shared the same chassis specs...and as far as I know there is no limitation on the wheelbase other than it has to be right for the specific car type in the Pro Stock class, so the wheelbase is different depending on what car you use.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Force

[Old Coyote]

22 hours ago, Force said:

Nice build, but I'm curious, what's wrong with the wheelbase?
The third generation Camaro and Firebird have the same 101 inch wheelbase and I assume the Pro Stock Camaro and Firebird race cars back in the day shared the same chassis specs...and as far as I know there is no limitation on the wheelbase other than it has to be right for the specific car type in the Pro Stock class, so the wheelbase is different depending on what car you use.

If I remember correctly, the Pro/S rules in the early to mid '80's allowed a wheelbase increase to 105 inches or so to help improve stability.

Edited September 29, 2018 by Old Coyote

[dragcarz]

A while ago I purchased the Revell Motorsports version for the Reher & Morrison Pro Stock Camaro. I think what you ran into is what Revell did with this kit as it’s unbuildable as is. The body is the original 1984 released body with correct Crome tree and the newer version Summit Firebird Pro Stock chassis. I,ve included pics of original and the newer kit chassis. The chassis pans are completely different, and if you look closely at the body pic, the wheel base is close, but too narrow for the early Firebird/ Camaro bodies, the roof on the newer Firebird is substantially lower. This would create all kinds of fit issues.

[Force]

14 hours ago, Old Coyote said:

If I remember correctly, the Pro/S rules in the early to mid '80's allowed a wheelbase increase to 105 inches or so to help improve stability.

That's probably  true, in my 2014 NHRA rulebook (I just looked) the maximum allowed wheelbase for Pro Stock is 105" and the shortest is 104"...but I don't know how it was before that as I don't have any older rule books.
I know the Generation 3 Camaro and Firebird didn't handle that well on the track as the wheelbase was short, and when the longer 107.5 wheelbase mid 90's Olds Cutlass came it became popular as it handled a lot better than the Camaro/Firebird did and many used it as long as the body style was allowed in NHRA (5 years) and finally had to change to a newer style.
Another factor wich decide what the Pro teams use is what the Official Car for NHRA is at the time, I know it has been Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and I believe it's Toyota now...but you don't see many Toyota bodied Pro Stock cars...yet.
But with the current rules it's for sure possible as you can have any body/engine combination as long as the body is newer than 5 years.

7 hours ago, dragcarz said:

A while ago I purchased the Revell Motorsports version for the Reher & Morrison Pro Stock Camaro. I think what you ran into is what Revell did with this kit as it’s unbuildable as is. The body is the original 1984 released body with correct Crome tree and the newer version Summit Firebird Pro Stock chassis. I,ve included pics of original and the newer kit chassis. The chassis pans are completely different, and if you look closely at the body pic, the wheel base is close, but too narrow for the early Firebird/ Camaro bodies, the roof on the newer Firebird is substantially lower. This would create all kinds of fit issues.

The early Generation 3 Firebird John built here is the Pro Street "White Lightning" version from 1986-87 and if I remeber correctly has never been reissued....it's based on the Monogram Camaro Pro Stock kits and it has the first version of the chassis (Reher Morrison and Frank Iaconio Camaros).
This chassis evolved two times from the original one from 1984 as they changed bodys and as you say the chassis in the recently reissued Reher Morrison Camaro and the upcoming reissue of the Frank Iaconio Camaro is from the latest Firebird versions from 1999 (Summit Racing and GM Goodwrench Firebirds), they did a slightly updated version before that in 1991 (STP and Pennzoil Firebirds and L.A.P.D. Camaro).
They modified the tool for the chassis when they did this so they can't go back without cutting a new tool as the old one doesn't exist anymore.
Monogram did a couple of Pro Street kits in 1986-87 based on the first Pro Stock tooling and they did the "Mean And Nasty" Camaro, the "White Lightning" Firebird and the "Red Hot" Thunderbird...all with slicks and front runners, gold plated shiny bits and tinted windows.
The "White Lightning" Firebird was never released as a Pro Stock, just the Pro Street version.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Force

[3men2s]

I FEEL YOUR PAIN...GOING THRU IT MY SELF WITH A FIREBIRD PRO STOCK .