Monogram '66 Malibu SS

[Speedpro]

While working on the rear axle i had this feeling it wasn't right. Something has changed! I only remember it had a 12 bolt chevy axle. I guess i'v only built But this kit has a dana 60! When did they change that i thought. After some research i found that the first edition '77 kit #2219 had the 12 bolt. Then in '91 the reissue came out and it has the dana 60. And so does the '98 issue. The sister kit '66 malibu street rat (the red car) still has the 12 bolt axle. So why on earth would they retool with a dana 60 and ditch the chevy axle. The cover on the left is from the street rat. i have a couple original rear axles but they have been narrowed. I will have to do some surgery to fix this as i want a 12 bolt in the car. Any body notice this before?

e

[Plowboy]

The three I built that were molded in black all had the Dana rearend under them. Is it possible that the twelve bolt cover is from the Street Rat version? If it's orange under the chrome, it's from that kit.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Plowboy

[Speedpro]

After looking at my old parts it looks like the malibu SS (the black car) had a dana and the red or orange car had the 12 bolt. But if you look at the '77 box art of the original issue black car you can clearly see it has a 12 bolt as does the street rat. I think trying to remember back 40 yrs confirms it, I'm just getting old!!  By counting the old parts i could find it looks like i built more street rats than super sports so maybe that's why i'm thinking they all had 12 bolt rears. And all the 12 bolt covers are molded in red or orange.

[wrenchr]

Never noticed that but this was a kit I built a lot of growing up, seemed to always be on the shelves at Kmart or Meijer and was one of my favorite kits.    

[Plowboy]

If I'm not mistaken, the Monogram '69 Z/28 Camaro also had a Dana rearend under it. 

The upcoming reissue supposedly has parts to build either version. I wonder if it will have both rearends? Did the Street Rat have the same induction on the engine?

[Speedpro]

The malibu ss had a tunnel ram intake while the street rat had a blower. They had different hoods. The street rat also had a roll bar and no back seat. Other than that (and the rear end deal and decals) they are the same. Oh, Can't forget the wheels!

Edited September 21, 2021 by Speedpro

[geemoney]

1978

i got $8.00 allowance on a friday morning...

i walked to the hobby shop , came home and started in on it, it was sooo cool to me!!

i still have a few parts of it, i have another "parts" car as well.

its getting re-issued?

YES! 

[Bball]

On 9/18/2021 at 1:30 PM, Speedpro said:

This is a kit that i have built several times over the years. The first one i built was in '79 and through out the years used up many of these for parts for other builds. A few weeks ago i had a visit from my friend of many years @Kit Karson and he surprised me with a couple of chevelle kits. This kit from '98 being one of them. So now here i am at my bench building one again. Only this time i have a few miles under my belt building models and am going to have a go at this kit one more time. One thing about this kit is its name on the box '66 Malibu SS. While the car is a 1966, It is not a malibu SS per say. It is a chevelle SS. The malibu is a base model car. When you bought a super sport model it was call a chevelle super sport. The malibu SS is a canadian built super sport and is quit a bit different the the american built car. I'm not going to get into that here thought. So here we go.................. 

Pulled all the parts and took inventory of them. They were then washed and let dry. All the parts were then cut off the tree's and each one will get cleaned up and test fit. These kits have a few problem areas and i will address these areas for proper fit. The first thing i worked on is the fitment of the dash to body. If this is not done the rear axle will not be in center to the rear wheel opening because the chassis to body will not fit together properly. The chassis will instead fit to the rear because the interior bucket is not in the right position caused by the dash fitment. Starting with the glass, All the numbers and letters on the bottom of the roof were removed and the area sanded (still needs more sanding done) smooth so as the glass will sit flat inside. The dash was first lowered a little in the interior bucket. Next i started filing on the leading edge of the dash till the body and interior bucket fit together nicely and the chassis was center in the rear wheel wells. Been working on cleaning up other parts of pin, sink marks and casting imperfections due to the old molds. 

 

More to come and thanks for looking................

 

 

 

 

[Bball]

Just now, Bball said:

I'll be following this also!  I love Chevelles!

 

[Rob Hall]

On 9/21/2021 at 11:47 AM, Speedpro said:

The malibu ss had a tunnel ram intake while the street rat had a blower. They had different hoods. The street rat also had a roll bar and no back seat. Other than that (and the rear end deal and decals) they are the same. Oh, Can't forget the wheels!

The wheels are what I liked about the red version. Never got one, though. 

[Speedpro]

After kicking around a few ideas that could maybe help the spars interior of the chevelle, It has been decided to first construct a cage for it. I have a roll bar out of the street rat kit that i thought i could start with, But it is too narrow. I want the cage to tuck up to the interior panels tighter. So one will be built to fit right. And i want to be able to take it out and put back in for what ever reason while i'm doing the interior. I'm going to build the cage using evergreen .093 dia hollow tubing.  I've found that the hollow tubing is easier to bend and is much more forgiving. And you can make a tighter turn without it breaking. When i'm making my bends i just use my fingers. As you are making the bend you want to go slowly. Don't just try and make the full bend you are going for. Just work it slowly with your fingers. The tubing seems to get a little softer while playing with it just from the heat from your fingers. I've also found that wicking the bend with a very small amount of heat it will help hold it's shape to get the part in place sometimes. Only do this if you "really" need to. The part will distort very fast and guess what! Just takes practice. This is my fist cage in about 5-6 yrs.

First thing was to file new holes in the interior bucket for the main hoop......................

Take a length of .093 Hollow tubing And make the first bends. Don't worry about how long the rod is. Push the rod through the hole in the floor. Put the interior bucket into the body while feeding the long part of the rod through the window opening. Fit the rod the way you want it. Mark where the bend will be. Take rod out and bend. Now put the rods through the floor and pull through until the hoop is short enough to get the interior bucket to sit how its going to sit in the body.  Push the hoop up till it is hitting the roof and check your work. If all looks good, you can cut the tubing on the bottom . I leave about 1/2 in long. Now i have full adjustment of the cage so it can move up and down. I will not be installing the chassis at any point during any of the building of this cage. Just the interior bucket.

Built the hoop for the halo and put in place. Added a stiffener and then the front bars. I wanted to go through the top of the dash but not enough room. It is what it is! Another thing i do is fisheye the the ends of the bars for a better fit......

I added side bars and rear bars. The rear bars will not be installed until the interior bucket is done. 

Here is the cage out of the bucket. The ends will get cut as one of the last interior things to do. The thing looks like it's built for a truck or something. Not a chevelle! LOL

 

 

Thanks for looking.................

[Kit Karson]

You, my friends are being treated to following one of the best model builders I have met in my lifetime!  Keep on keepin' on, Brother! -KK

[espo]

Great looking roll bar setup. 

[slusher]

Really nice work on your roll cage..

[David G.]

Great work on this so far, love the cage!

David G.

[bisc63]

Nice engineering of that roll cage. Can't wait to see more of this build!

[Bills72sj]

I love your technique on fabricating the roll cage. The holes in the tub for adjustments is genius!. Regarding the pick up truck look of your cage. Many 1:1 cages rear down bars pass through the rear package tray on their way to the inner wheel tubs. You may wish to consider changing them.

[disconovaman]

Awesome! You are doing this kit justice! I have a 66 flipnose junkyard I hauled one out to restore last week... inspiring work here for sure 

[FLHCAHZ]

Looking forward to your progress!  I just picked this kit up at a show over the weekend

[Snake45]

17 hours ago, disconovaman said:

Awesome! You are doing this kit justice! I have a 66 flipnose junkyard I hauled one out to restore last week... inspiring work here for sure 

I picked up a junker for a couple pieces I needed to finish mine off. If you need any parts, let me know. 

[Steve H]

Hi Paul, this is great stuff. This kit brings back memories, I built 2 of them. One was built almost box stock, back when it first came out, the other one ended up with flip nose  glued closed, hood opened and full pro street treatment. I will be watching with interest, thanks for sharing. Excellent tutorial on building a cage.

[Speedpro]

Thanks everyone for the comments and thoughts. Its cool to here the memories of you guy's building this kit! I'v built a few too. So far my cat only has managed to get off with one part only because i left the door open to the room. She got off with the steering rack. Not to fear..... I went to my parts and pulled out a brand new one. Now i just have to make sure that don't happen again. Found the old one all chewed up! A good thing that came out of my trip through the parts is i found a better set of front seats. The seats that came with the kit have quit a few flaws. I have them all cleaned up and ready for paint but the ones i found are still better so i'm using them. Sorry it's been a bit since the last update. I'm not the fastest builder, I just have a bad case of ocd. 

As of now, All the basic parts ready. Most of the chrome parts have been stripped. One more wash and the parts are on their way to paint. Oh ya, No idea yet for any colors sooo..........? 

Working on the front end and the side frames.

 

 The side frames that the engine plate mounts to i think needs some kind tube in that area to make it look like the engine plat has something to bolt to. I used a piece  of .060 half round to give the effect i want. I'm thinking about some other things i maybe want to do with these parts. That will be later on.

 

The parts are mocked up again and firewall is taped (not glued) to the body. I want to make sure everything is perfect before the firewall is attached.  

The front axle and radiator are in place. Mocked up with some parts box tires. What I need to look at is how the front tires center in the wheel openings. I'm expecting problems in this area. 

Put the front clip on and..............................

 

looking at this, You can see there is a definite problem. I'm thinking the front clip needs to get a better fit to the body so that will be the first step. I'd hate to think the side frames need to be extended a little. I think that will cause a whole different set of problems. 

Thanks for looking and more to come.................

 

 

 

 

[Plowboy]

Paul, how about moving firewall and all forward? Looks like you add styrene to the backside of it where it meets the body and floorpan.

[Snake45]

53 minutes ago, Speedpro said:

 The side frames that the engine plate mounts to i think needs some kind tube in that area to make it look like the engine plat has something to bolt to. I used a piece  of .060 half round to give the effect i want. I'm thinking about some other things i maybe want to do with these parts. That will be later on.

 

 

THANK YOU! That goofy engine-mounting arrangement has always been one of my pet irks about this kit. That's a pretty simple and elegant solution! Drive on! 

[Speedpro]

On 9/30/2021 at 8:02 PM, Plowboy said:

Paul, how about moving firewall and all forward? Looks like you add styrene to the backside of it where it meets the body and floorpan.

This might sound good but the hood/fenders are attached to the side frames but at a pivot point so the hood can tilt. If you move the firewall forward, The hood/fenders go with it. So then the pivot point becomes the area of needed adjustment. There is not enough room in the pivot slot on the side frame to make the difference and it would look hacked if you tried to elongate the slot so the hood/fenders could move back to the body. And the fender lips will still not line up. So what is the best way to deal with this? This is what i did......................

My thought is to remove enough material on the back of the hood/fender to move it back. By doing this it improved the centering of the wheel and tire in the wheel opening. It also fixed the fender lips lining up. I'm pretty happy with this but the hood scoop will need some work to get it to fit right. No big deal.

 

 

 

Glad this worked out. Still going to work more on this area and fine tune a little more. Need to make some kind of stop for the hood/fender assembly so it won't just flop forward like it does.