Pontiac Catalina -62

[kjohan]

A quick build during the summer, based on the aMT  421 SD kit, the one with the dark blue car on the box

Just polished the body and car wax thereafter

The stock exhaust as well as the straight pipes are in place, re Y-connection on the ends of the headers

The engine should have had a slightly more greenish hue

 

[Hi-Po]

Looking good!  Nicely done.

[doorsovdoon]

Very nice. I really like that body colour. Loving the fat meaties on the back!

[espo]

I like the Drag Stripe ready look. 

[happy grumpy]

Nice Pontiac. Nice engine details too.

great work

[AMT68]

Great foil work and engine compartment detail. 

[Chuckyg1]

Nice, I love these old Ponchos. From what I can see, the interior is looking good too. Any pics?

[kjohan]

Thank you all for kind words on my simple build

Concerning the exterior colour: have found that in the cases
when I use the "plastic unpainted", either with wax or clear coat,
it is useful to have painted the inside a couple of times with a colour similar to the exterior,
or light/ medium grey
This to provide "shine through" in thin sections or when light can come in "from behind"
 

Concering the interior
Below is attached a picture take now, really nothing which should be posted.
But anyway, that is what I could get from a quick photoing with the phone of the finished car,
tried with additional light but that just became very harsh.

It is supposed to depict the Pontiac three colour scheme
The darkest part is Humbrol flat rust red no 73,perhaps it should have been mixed with a little more red
the medium red is the Humbrol satin red 174
and the light part is the Humbrol flat white, with just a little light grey in it, otherwise too bright
(actually thereby also matching the exterior quite well, though not very obvious in the photos)
Satin clear over everything afterwards

There is a lot of chrome on the interior, both on the IP and the door panels
I applied BMF, fairly "large" areas and then brush painted with the desired colour over what should NOT be chrome.
The chromed mouldings etc are more or less alwas raised,
that is you can paint with the support against a "raised wall", helps to get an even line.
and on top of the "ridges" it is possible to clean afterwards with i.e. a tooth pick if needed.
i.e. more or less the same method as described by i.e. Steve G for exterior badges
In narrow areas like in the instruments, the dark paint applied is very diluted (thinner, white spirit)
to flow down and lay only at "the bottom".
Tamiya black panel line colour also useful.
Have tried to apply BMF only "locally", but it is very difficult to have it stay in place on the small parts
like i.e. the window cranks or the interior door handles.

The belts I cut from thin "electrical insulation tape"
The buckles I cut from a 0.25 mm styrene sheet
The "female" buckle I make from gluing together three layers (sometimes only two)
to get the additional thickness of this buckle.
The centre "layer" made somewhat larger to accomodate the space required for the "loop"/"hole"
for attaching the belt to the buckle.
At least one additional smaller layer facing uppwards,being visible, 
or one layer on each side of the centre piece
So it is all very crude
 

[Zippi]

Nice build.  Looks really good.  I like the 2 4's on the engine with the fuel lines ran. Nicely done.

[kjohan]

The fuel lines were actually included in the kit
It is a OOB build with the addition of only the ignition cables, additional exhaust pipes, BMF inside and outside

In general a good kit

Only two items at least for me

1) The wheels are attached to the axles with bushings recessed in the inner parts of the rims.
The "hat of the bushing" was a bit thick = in contact/ interferred with the insides of the outer halves of the rims.
Preventing good rim-to- tyre fit and obstructing rotation.
Thus these "hats" had to be ground to reduce the thickness
AMT/ Round 2 would need to look at the dimensioning or the production tolerances here

2) The inside of the firewall should have two parallell small vertical ribs on each side,
these to locate the front ends of the respective interior panels in a positive way.
The interior panels are located at the rear wheel housings and along the floor, 
but it is very easy to get a minor dislocation in the upper corners of the front ends of the panels.
That is very sensitive from two aspects
- to have proper fit between the body and the panels along the upper contour
  no large gaps "sideways"

- IF one of the panels (or both) is slightly "scewed outwards", it (they) will interfere with
  either the body or the underside of the windscreen/ vent window glass
  Both interferences will prevent to body unit to come down properly on the underbody/chassis/interior unit
  In turn leading to the nose of the car being too high.
   Quite difficult to remedy as everything in the respective units are glued together at that stage.
  To introduce two pairs of location ribs on the fire wall would be a very easy tooling change
   before a next production run (if any), the tool most likely being apart in the preparational stages anyway,
   and it means just removing a little (very little) material in the tool.
   Why two ribs / a pair on each side ?
   That way I would assume most builders would understand the purpose
   and how to build just by looking at the parts,
   e.g. no need to change and reprint the instruction sheet = cost avoidance

Otherwise a fine kit from my perspective

Edited November 2, 2021 by kjohan
spelling

[carbuilder1950]

@kjohan

Oh yeah. This is nice.

I love 62's.

Interior is very nice, and I like the engine bay and it's cleanliness, and your foil work is supreme.

[slusher]

Super nice..

[TransAmMike]

Very nice Gunner, I just got one myself to do.  Cool car, love the big Pontiacs.

[crazyjim]

Looks ready to race.

[kjohan]

Thank you all for your kind words

@TransAm Mike : see my (lenghty) comments higher up in the thread about problems encountered.
Before building this one  I built another one, based on the later Polyglass/Gasser kit. (will post a new thread on that one shortly).
Same issue there with the "thick hats on the wheel bushings" and the positioning of the side panels in the front end / under the front glass etc.
Would advise to sand away / chamfer the lowest parts of the windshield / side vent glasses as much as possible
once glued in place or after a dry fit, this to avoid the potential interference but of course also not to create visible gaps along the undersides of these glasses.
A little chamfer on the top of the sidepanels just under the vent windows could also be helpful.
On the first build, that was necessary to get the body down into its proper position.
There are location tabs in the front , but they are far to weak compared to the sturdiness of an interference between the sidepanels and the underside of the side vent windows.
This is not to discourage, just sharing experiences, if possible making it easier