Jump to content
Model Cars Magazine Forum

Pontiac Tempest 4 Banger from Attempt 1


jbwelda

Recommended Posts

well picked up a fairly trashed original Attempt 1 kit the other week on ebay and after surveying the contents decided I got less than what I bargained for so I decided to make some lemonade out of these lemons.

first of all that kool berserk half a Pontiac V8 with the supercharger hanging off it! and there are TWO of them in the kit, plus a totally kool engine stand to display the second motor on if you don't want to "upgrade" to two of them in the frame!

I actually bought the thing for the trailer to use in another project, but it is terribly warped; I'm letting it sit with weights on it to see if that helps. I will probably end up reinforcing it with plastic tubing but I was trying to avoid a major job.

but meanwhile this display engine is a terrific slump buster and is pretty darn detailed. I believe I remember 30 some parts per motor, and some of those are very detailed (cogged drive belt and gears for instance with nicely engraved hex nut heads) but some are just totally ruined with deep sink marks, check out the valve cover breathers...the bigger ones in the center cover I stripped and cleaned up and then reshot with Chrome Silver and foil but the small ones I could hardly see and what I could see I didn't like! the headers which I don't show here because they are still in a rough state, are some nice weed burner downswept pipes that were one manifold piece and four pipes that had to be jigged up to keep straight during assembly. typical early 60s Revell fiddlyness, but it looks good when its done halfway cleanly.

paint on block is Tamiya metallic blue and rest is mixture of metalizers and mostly model master enamels and metallic shades.

nearly complete now so probably first and only post here, comments and criticisms gladly accepted!

noyg.jpg

ack1.jpg

rkta.jpg

bktv.jpg

Now am I correct in thinking this Attempt 1 only came with the trailer and open parachute, and none of the reissues through the years included those pieces? this one I have has the trailer and all the pieces to it including a nice trailer hitch, but does not have the open parachute, though the exploded open pack for it is with it. I always liked that open chute when I was a kid, used a couple of them on different builds over the years.

many thanks again!

jb

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

finished this one up this evening, nice to have something done at least! looks pretty kool but I gotta say, just from handling this thing I can tell it was one beast of a motor and probably not very balanced at that. everything seems off camber and very difficult for me to hold still or grab somewhere secure and that whole thing with the blower mounted sideways and its all just kinda hard for me to take in! what I mean was it was more fiddly than it looks and was pretty challenging in its own right. turned out nice but I ended up breaking the stand trying to get it to line up (way more difficult to do than it looks like it would be). that kind of "get out of bed on the wrong side" of challenging. still quite a neat looking little mill and probably look neat in a digger sort of rail.

this was entirely out of box except the turned aluminum distributor and of course the wiring and detailing. fit and finish was atrocious in some areas, particularly the two piece scoop with the seam running right up the sides, and the absolute refusal of the front drive belt pulleys to line up with their hole in the block and pin on the blower drive. still looks funny down there so I just haven't been looking down there. other than that and the above mentioned inherent clumsiness of the one-head-missing design, and of course the prodigious sink and ejection pin marks in the most awkward places, the thing went together and fit together well especially considering the era.

any comments criticisms questions cheerfully responded to!

jb

vbrz.jpg

ge48.jpg

8brp.jpg

o7bt.jpg

Edited by jbwelda
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like it William... I have a old AMT 63 Tempest model trying to restore to factory stock it will have the little slant 4cyl too just need to find the missing parts for the old Tempest yet to start it. Always like these cool little engines there basically 1/2 of a Pontiac 389ci engine...the head is the same on the actual 1 to 1s

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...