Ace-Garageguy Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 (edited) I started this one same time back, to be Z-28 powered, and it will be (at some point there'll be two of these powered by American iron, as I have a few engine-less Ferraris), but I came across it again the other day, and had a rework of a Revellogram 1/24 Pontiac GTO engine on the bench, so I says to meself "self...why not a 3X2bbl GTO engine in a GTO? What could be more natural than that?" You have to remember that there was a time these things were just obsolete race-cars, and could be had with broken engines for pretty reasonable money. Not exactly cheap, but accessible for motivated normal humans. I actually worked for a guy who bought a RUNNING 550 Spyder for around 5000 bucks. Yeah...like how much is that worth today? So here we are. The original thread is below, for anybody who wants to see how we got to this point. I had to enlarge the old-school American mags to fit the fat 1/24 rubber I want to use, by wrapping the rims in .020" styrene. The engine is a 1/24 (supposedly) kinda blobular mess that's not real accurate, getting reworked to be more accurate at first glance. I like the trans, and the fact it has a 3X2 setup that should fill the Ferrari hood blister nicely. The blue one is a Revell 1/25 Poncho for reference. In her previous incarnation she never made it up on her wheels, but this time she has. Color will most likely be a light blue period GM metallic, maybe with white stripes. The dark blue hood is just a Tamiya paint test over a slightly crazed self-etching primer. Edited January 11, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raoul Ross Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 10 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said: ...a light blue period GM metallic with white stripes. Fix't that for ya! 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted September 21, 2022 Author Share Posted September 21, 2022 5 hours ago, Raoul Ross said: Fix't that for ya! 👍 Or maybe dark blue...with white stripes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
absmiami Posted September 21, 2022 Share Posted September 21, 2022 Funny - those mag wheels look like they belong … 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullybeef Posted September 22, 2022 Share Posted September 22, 2022 I dig this idea. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam I Am Posted September 22, 2022 Share Posted September 22, 2022 I really love when someone takes a car that many might say "that's sacrilege", and just do it anyway. I took a 250 GTO and made it into a dirt tracker. 😃 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang1989 Posted September 22, 2022 Share Posted September 22, 2022 This'll be fun to watch. Looking forward to more Bill! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadhawg Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 Great idea, as a Pontiac fan I approve! I've often thought about doing something similar except go the pro-street route.....maybe when I run out of other projects lol. Looking forward to more on this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bytownshaker Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 Looks awesome Bill ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Rivard Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 GTO powered GTO...took awhile to sink in but I dig it. Will follow with great interest! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TransAmMike Posted September 23, 2022 Share Posted September 23, 2022 Now thats a cool and novel idea. I'm a watchin' Bill. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spottedlaurel Posted September 24, 2022 Share Posted September 24, 2022 Nice idea, look forward to seeing how it turns out. I did a fairly crude but similar exercise on this Maserati: During the process I discovered that the body fitted quite happily on a Monogram C2 Corvette chassis. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted September 24, 2022 Author Share Posted September 24, 2022 (edited) On 9/21/2022 at 8:11 AM, absmiami said: Funny - those mag wheels look like they belong … Yup, a few others would agree too... Edited September 24, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted September 24, 2022 Author Share Posted September 24, 2022 On 9/21/2022 at 8:02 PM, Bullybeef said: I dig this idea. On 9/21/2022 at 11:32 PM, Sam I Am said: I really love when someone takes a car that many might say "that's sacrilege", and just do it anyway... On 9/22/2022 at 5:51 AM, mustang1989 said: This'll be fun to watch. Looking forward to more Bill! On 9/23/2022 at 7:21 AM, roadhawg said: Great idea, as a Pontiac fan I approve... On 9/23/2022 at 8:41 AM, bytownshaker said: Looks awesome Bill ! 22 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said: GTO powered GTO...took awhile to sink in but I dig it. Will follow with great interest! 22 hours ago, TransAmMike said: Now thats a cool and novel idea. I'm a watchin' Bill. 15 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said: Nice idea, look forward to seeing how it turns out. I did a fairly similar exercise on this Maserati... Thanks for your interest and comments, gentlemen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted September 24, 2022 Author Share Posted September 24, 2022 I came across this book while researching hot-rod Ferrari transplants, have one on the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted September 24, 2022 Share Posted September 24, 2022 Another one of my favorite cars perhaps because it reminds me of a Daytona. You have my attention Bill ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted September 25, 2022 Author Share Posted September 25, 2022 22 hours ago, cobraman said: Another one of my favorite cars perhaps because it reminds me of a Daytona. You have my attention Bill ! Glad to have you aboard, Ray. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Rivard Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 Hey Bill, any more work done on this GTO engined GTO? I've been looking at these Gunze Sangyo GTO kits and hesitated and chickened out and got the Fujimi kit. Now I look at what you did on the Gunze body...and it looks really good! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 8, 2023 Author Share Posted January 8, 2023 On 1/7/2023 at 11:28 AM, Pierre Rivard said: Hey Bill, any more work done on this GTO engined GTO? I've been looking at these Gunze Sangyo GTO kits and hesitated and chickened out and got the Fujimi kit. Now I look at what you did on the Gunze body...and it looks really good! Thanks for your interest and comments. I got bogged down on the engine, as my source, supposedly 1/24, is on the small side, and some of its details are blobular and toylike. I've got to get the engine dialed in, mocked up in place, and headers made so I can see if the 3X2 induction will clear the hood blister before I go any farther with the body. The engine is actually back on the bench as I write this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 11, 2023 Author Share Posted January 11, 2023 (edited) The specific issue is that the engine I elected to use is, as I stated above, somewhat small for 1/24, and several details are toylike and blobular. The distributor is molded into the intake manifold, and after removing it and extending the rear of the block and re-contouring the rear face of same to more accurately represent the real engine, and to provide room for a nice distributor, I ended up with a hole on top of the rear of the block that would normally be closed with a valley cover. The kit engine doesn't have it, of course due to the shortcuts taken in modeling it, so the manifold needs to be shaved on the underside and an approximation of a valley cover fabbed up. It's barely visible on an assembled engine, so it doesn't need to be anything too complex. No biggie, but just another of the myriad things that crop up when you chase reasonable accuracy. Edited January 11, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy CLARITY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 11, 2023 Author Share Posted January 11, 2023 AND...both cylinder heads need to be lengthened slightly, to properly line up with the intake manifold, and the manifold itself is lacking the thermostat housing / water neck detail of the real engine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 15, 2023 Author Share Posted January 15, 2023 (edited) Researching the shape of the top of the block, to get the valley cover in the right relationship... ...and aluminum 3X2 manifold detail. This stuff matters to this build, as a real 250 GTO would have been not competitive as a race car by about '67, might have become a street car, could have had its engine blown, and a junkyard-sourced Pontiac GTO engine and gearbox installed...but an alloy intake manifold and tubular headers would have been important weight-reduction items. Edited January 15, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy CLARITY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 18, 2023 Author Share Posted January 18, 2023 No pix, but as with most of my builds, the research into getting things right...this time with the Poncho engine block, primarily...has sent me down innumerable internet rabbit-holes. The upside is that I now know much more about Pontiac V8s than I used to, and it turns out some of my real parts are definitely the good ones. But there has to come a time I say "good enough" for a model, and settle for a reasonably correct representation, but even that is taking some fairly serious rework of the kit parts I have readily available. Pictures shortly, as I decide what to fix and what to let slide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gramps46 Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 Well you fooled me. I thought you were going to do a take off on this C&D road test. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted April 24, 2023 Author Share Posted April 24, 2023 (edited) Allrightythen. As mentioned earlier, I started with the engine from a kit piece marked 1/24 on the box, but it had a slew of problems...one big one being it's WAY too short, so there was nowhere to mount the distributor correctly. And the oil filter mounting point on the block was totally wrong. This required extending the block and pan to the rear, fabbing a valley cover, and removing and filling the oil filter mount from the block. Not surprisingly, the exhaust port spacing of the 1/24 engine doesn't match anything from 1/25 kits. And I'm not going for anything like "perfection" here, just "good enough" so everything looks reasonable to anybody who's actually ever seen a Pontiac V8 from this era. Yes, it looks grotty at this point. Stay tuned. All the block mods are done, including casting details at the bellhousing end that were missing, the block is in primer, the heads have been drilled to represent freeze-plugs on the ends, and the plug holes have been drilled and spot-faced. Not apparent are some subtle mods to the ends of the heads adjacent to the end exhaust ports to better represent reality. The timing cover / water pump is from a Revell parts-pack engine kit, slightly height-adjusted to work with the "1/24" engine. The front face of the block has also been massaged to look reasonably correct with this cover. Still looking for an exhaust manifold that's close at this point, too. The white one is pretty close. Major engine mods done, and painted with gen-u-wine Duplicolor mid-production Poncho V8 blue, which represents the right period if this was a junkyard GTO engine. The first test fit in the chassis required the removal of part of the driver's footbox to clear the LH cylinder head, and would most likely be required on a real one too. The head stagger is the reverse from the Chevy engine this project started with, so the footbox intrusion is worse. Still, it looks like it would work on a real one, just requiring something custom in throttle and possibly brake pedal linkage. Rear trans mount and a support under the engine are temporary. Brake master / booster unit will be used to determine pedal mods required. Also visible here is styrene strip fill of casting voids in the tops of the frame tubes adjacent to the engine. As the kit was intended to be a curbside, this was not an issue. You can also see the thermostat bypass tube added to the front of the intake manifold, to mate correctly with the timing cover passage. Intake manifold flanges have also been thinned and reshaped. And still looking for workable exhaust parts. NOTE: The original Ferrari engine is a 60-degree V-12, considerably narrower across the heads than a big fat 90-degree American V8, hence the footbox intrusion. I checked the ground clearance with the engine mocked up, and it's a tick low. No fun denting the oil pan or breaking the cast aluminum bellhousing on every speed bump. The next trick was to get a rough idea of what kind of hood clearance issue, if any, there'd be with the engine at that height. Remember...the whole point of doing the engine NOW was to see if I'd have to mod the hood prior to paint, as the light metallic blue she's gonna be (NOT the blue on the hood now) needs to be shot with the hood in place on the body...just like a real car. We have a problem. Even with the engine a little low in the chassis, the hood isn't going to clear the carbs, and there's not enough meat in the hood panel to shave it on the inside. Yes, I know it's down in front. It's still not gonna work. Looks like we'll need a custom hood...which I kinda wanted to do anyway. Edited April 24, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.