'64 Corvette Finnish Hot Rodding

[W-409]

This is my new project. I bought this yesterday from model car show, here in Finland. It's a glue bomb. There is only body, interior floor, doors and chassis. That's good start for this, I'm building it because on the next year theme class in that show is called Finland.

So in late seventies or in early eighties, people build pretty wild looking street machines. Rear end was raised and front end lowered. Usually there were also wide rear fenders, because otherwise big wheels don't fit. It's not my favorite style but it's "must have" thing... Right now I have 362 days to finish this project. So I don't have a hurry.

It was cheap, only 3 euros, that's very good. It's very good basis for this, I take almost every part from my "million box". Powerful engine of course and "Back Off" mud flaps and everything like that. Maybe a sunroof...? Lots of ideas, that's good and now I made those rear fenders wider with little styrene part, now it needs bondo. I must make one for the other side still. Wheels are from Monogram '56 Chevrolet Bel Air, they are quite ugly, I think but very good for this... Tires are Good Year Rally GT, they are from million box also. It's quite good stance?

Comments and ideas are welcome, I'm trying to get some time for building next days, today I was building exhaust system to '79 Buick with my dad. Welding pipes together is fun and quite easy!

Edited April 20, 2011 by W-409

[W-409]

Some more work on this. I put some bondo to the body. I put it to the rear fenders, also those front fender needed some bondo, beformer owner has made his own systems to there, so I put some bondo to there... Now I must sand it smooth. I have the engine block right now, also I have the basis for front axle system. Rear axle needs some scratch building...

Thank you for looking, comments and ideas are welcome!

[whale392]

3 Euro is roughly 5 US dollars........not too bad.

We had the same craze here in the late 70s, rears jacked up high and 'Cherry Bombs' on anything with an engine. They did it to look cool (and clear those massive for the time) F and G series tires), and also to emulate the pro-Stockers of the day. The thought was that the Pro guys were doing the 'jack' for better weight transfer to the rear on launch........no; they did it to clear the huge slicks and stay within NHRAs mandates on rear fenderwell profiles.

[W-409]

Oh yes, that's the same thing, we had on the 80's! Great to hear. Always when I open V8 Magazine from year '82 for example, there is just like this, raised rear end and lowered front end... Thank you for the comment!

[W-409]

Time to post some new stuff to here also. Today I found another cylinder head to the engine, but it needs some paint stripper... But anyways, I painted also those Good Year Rally GT texts. They are looking pretty good, I think and that Corvette will look good with those wheels, I think. But here is the picture for you!

Thank You for looking!

[W-409]

Finally a little update to you... I have done some more body work. Sanded the body quite much and now I put some more bondo to it. It looks pretty ok right now, and I think that it doesn't need so much sanding anymore. Next step is sand the body smooth and then of course I must continue from axle systems or engine...

Comments are welcome...

[Smart-Resins]

This should be a nice one to watch!

[W-409]

Thank you, Jody!

I got some mork work done with this. I sanded those places, where I put bondo on the last update. I used 400 paper, it worked very well, as always. The body is now ready for the first primer coat, then it might need some more bondo and sanding a little...

Thank you for looking!

[Smart-Resins]

Looking good! I look forward to seeing how you do the work on the door area!

[Jeff Johnston]

I'll be watching this one too. I've always wanted to build one like this to replicate a car my uncle owned back in the early to mid 80s.

[george 53]

Niko, THANK YOU for posting it as you build it. I ALWAYS enjoy seeing the work that goes into seein a nice model built. Looks like it MIGHT have been an MPC 67 Vette kit. I like the way you took the doors off, are they going to be regular at the front hinge type, or you gonna go different, like gull-wing doors, or suicide? It's lookin good so far bro, don't stop now!!!

[imatt88]

Nice job on the body work

Nothing wrong with glue bombs, gives you a clean slate to do whatever you want

[W-409]

Thank you all for the comments! It's always very nice to hear some positive feedback.

Jeff, that Corvette looks just typical, and that would be pretty fun to build. Not so easy, but it's possible to build it. Start working, it would be nice to see some progress pictures about it.

George53, Thank you for watching my builds! I'm trying to build well detailed models all the time, I just don't like to build any out of the box models. Yes, it can be MPC '67 Vette. I have been also thinking, if it's Monogram's kit. I'm not sure. But anyways, Corvette models were same looking from '64 to '67 so that doesn't matter, if the kit says it is '67, I think. This is my first time trying to get doors open, so I maybe just make the typical front hinge type doors... Gull wings would look good and funny and they would fit to this but it's maybe too hard to me. Yes, I try to continue it soon, today I come back to home so maybe I can continue this one.

Thank you all for the comments, and yes, these glue bombs are very fun to restore! It's worth trying.

[Modellpularn]

It could be Swedish hot rodding also. We had these jacked up cars, the cops would sometimes terrorise car owners having Hi-jackers and other stuff, like hood scoops....That time has passed, fortunately!

Niko, your model IS a MPC '67. The front fender louvers shows it, and the chassis. Good luck with your project!

[Matt P]

Niko, you're off to a good start, keep it up as I'll be watching this one.

[W-409]

It could be Swedish hot rodding also. We had these jacked up cars, the cops would sometimes terrorise car owners having Hi-jackers and other stuff, like hood scoops....That time has passed, fortunately!

Niko, your model IS a MPC '67. The front fender louvers shows it, and the chassis. Good luck with your project!

Yes, Swedish Hot Rodding was pretty much same thing. But of course, when I'm here in Finland, this one is Finnish Hot Rodding Corvette. I can remember, I have read those Wheels magazines (looking pictures) it's bad that I have no idea about swedish lanquage... Alright, it's MPC kit now I know it, but yearmodel will stay '64. Thank you for the comment!

Matt P: Thank you for the comment, now I'm trying to get some time for building, let's have a see when comes the next update.

[W-409]

Thank you for the comments, again!

Here is the next update! I have hinged the doors now. It was very hard to do, and took very much time. I made many, many many of them but now these ones are the first good enough, and they work fine. That ligh blue pipe is cotton stick. The main hinge is MIG welding wire, it works fine, it's quite easy to bend with forceps but it keeps the shape, doors aren't too heavy to them. Today I finally got correct ones done. I just glued the other end of the hinges to the doors, door panels maybe needs some modifications, but I must just do it. Cotton stick piece is glued to body, but MIG wire is not glued to that pipe, it's moving "for free" there and now it works great. Next step is engine work or chassis work.

Huh, that was my first hinged doors... I'm very happy how they turned out. What do you like?

[W-409]

More stuff. I finally managed to get firewall, interior and chassis parts for single pieces, they were glued with so heavy stuff that they were almost inpossible to take apart. But now when I got them for single pieces, I cut out some plastic from interior to get door hinges fit. Those doesn't matter at all anyways. Also I started building the front suspension. Still lots of work left, but I lowered the suspension, which is from '57 Nomad. I must get it to fit fine for the Vette. It's for example too wide. I also started working with engine. I removed the old paint and glue from where the oil pan and cylinder heads must go with hobby knife, because they were too hard places to sand. Then I sanded the other engine and it looks pretty good now- ready for paint. Cylinder heads needed some putty. That's why I used Green Putty to them and now only thing, needs to go is sanding. Body is almost ready for primering now, but the hood is the only thing, I'm not sure yet. Maybe I must make a bigger scoop there...

Now I have lots of Corvettes under construction. This one, that Historic racing Vette, then I'm building '67 Corvette Roadster, and from the same kit I'm also building protoype, it's '67 Corvette with '57 'Vette's roof and windshield screen. I must build '54 Corvette Nomad protoype too, when I get correct kits for it.

Here is the wheel knob whatever cut off...

Here you can see, how much I did lower the front.

Interior cut.

Puttied cylinder head and original one:

And I think, that it's not the MPC kit. Look over here, please!

Thank you for looking, comments are always welcome.

[W-409]

Finally an update! I really wanted to use L88 scoop for this. Chevy used L88 scoops in Corvettes. This hood had quite bad scoop for this style car. Here in Finland, they used lots of L88 scoops in the early 80's. I got one for a trade while back, and it's now installed. The scoop is from '68 Corvette, which means that it's too long for the hood. I opened holes for the scoop. I did it with Trumpeter Panel Scriber and a hobby knife... Then I did some test fitting with this scoop. It was almost longer than the hood! So I made the scoop shorter. I did some test fitting and drew lines where to saw a hole for this new scoop. I cut quite muxh stuff from the hood, now the scoop fits fine. I glued the dcoop to its place. It was time to put some bondo to the hood. Now it just needs lots of sanding. Also I put bondo to the fenders. Now, I think it's some sanding left and then I can paint primer on it.

Original scoop

Here it is with holes opened...

Test fit...

[W-409]

Few more photos, thanks for lookin'!

Feedback is welcome...

[Greg Pugh]

That looks like a lot of work! Looks like you're doing good though!!

[W-409]

Thanx, Greg! I have sanded some of the body, the hood is pretty good right now. Rear fenders are pretty good too, but theu still need some bondo... I think, this build will continue pretty soon. It needs also work with the engine and interior and chassis...

[W-409]

I'm moving bit forward with this one. I have worked with front suspension now. First I sawed lower a-arms off and some other things too. I did some test fitting, sawed more plastic off, sanding and removing material. Then I test fitted lower a- arms, and glued the cross member to them... Now it looks pretty good, needs some filling and sanding, but it fits quite good now. I also started making rear axle to fit correctly, but I have no pictures from it yet, I post that thing later. I painted the engine block by red and transmission by silver. With that front axle modifications, I used my '69 Corvette as a reference. I must continue this one soon, I haven't too much time to finish this one, about seven months time to finish it, it's going to be tough...

My '69 Corvette front axle system, used for reference.

And here you can see this '67 Corvette's frame, where the axle system would fit.

It didn't fit so after some sawing it looked like this:

Parts glued on their place.

And engine and trans' painted.

Edited April 18, 2011 by W-409

[W-409]

I glued the front axle system together, but there is still steering linkage missing... I must try to get that thing fit right. But I put those front spindles on their place and I found correct wheel backs for this one. They were quite hard to find, because the tires are quite large, I mean that wheels must be quite big, otherwise they don't fit. But correct ones are from Monogram '56 Chevrolet Bel Air kit. They are in pretty good shape... I did some test fitting. First time, the rear end wasn't high enough, but then I raised the rear end bit more, and now it looks pretty good. I'm happy that this test fit is made without tapeing the wheels and tires to axles, but of course those axles are needing lots of work. I think, the chassis work is now the hardest thing in this project, and it takes much time... And every time, I look at the body and think, that now it's ready for primering, there is some place which needs more filling, or sanding... That's annoeying, but I must make that thing smooth enough. Well, here are some pix for you all.

Front axle glued to one piece.

The First test fit, not good, rear end wasn't high enough...

The Second test fit, now it looks better with higher rear end...

Thanx for lookin'!

EDIT: On the second test fit, rear tire seems to be bit badly on its place... I must fix that problem when I glue those things together. I must also look that those tires are in good position, so that they aren't too front or too rear...

Edited April 19, 2011 by W-409

[Janne Herajärvi]

Looking good Niko. In stance mock up and fittings straigt smooth table is better than newspaper what is wawing under your build. It helps you a lot to have perfect stance and all tires sitting in ground. Hope you get my point and it helps.