'70 Grande

My initial plan was using the "Street-Freak" kit's 427 engine, but not with injector stacks; instead using a high-rise, dual-carb set-up coming outta that hole in the hood.

In 2022, I will have been a part of this forum for 10 years, and this is my first WIP post. Looking forward to your comments, suggestions and criticisms. With all the excitement for the upcoming Moebius '64 Nova kits, I wanted to present a project that I started when the first shots of those Moebius' kits were seen from a model show that I think was about 1-1/2 years ago. This WIP is the ancient, AMT 1/25 1965 Chevy-II "Street-Freak/Gasser" kit that I originally intended to do a standard wheelbase chassis swap and still build as a Gasser drag car. I was going to call my Gasser the "Money-Pit", because I spent a chunk of $'s to gather-up all of the things needed for my intended build! Well, as many of you know, initial build-intentions frequently morph into something else, and that's exactly what's happening here. These first pics will show you my initial intention and project-start...

Glad to see this project coming back to life! And I certainly appreciate your tip on the front clip of the AMT Shelby kit... I never saw that before and your revision makes it so much better!

All beautiful builds! I'm a Mustang guy thru-n-thru, but all my completed builds this past year were Chevrolet's!?!?&!

Fantastic build! This build perfectly represents one of my top-3 "dream-choices" of cars I'd love to have in 1:1 scale parked inside my own garage!

Terrific build! Please post a straight-on side-view pic and maybe a pic underneath so we can see the overall stance, wheels and suspension a bit better!

Wow! Fantastic build! Are the Black side stripes/decklid areas painted or decals... either method, it sure looks awesome!

Outstanding build! I'm curious what Tan paint color you used for that stunning interior, do you happen to know?

Excellent build! Looks like it's going to have to really fight a bunch of Mopars for some shelf space!

Another aspect to consider, like many small businesses in the US, November and December are the busiest times of year due to the upcoming holidays and other factors. Having produced dozens and dozens of promotional product videos like these monthly presentations from Round-2, I know that one of their typical videos probably takes a minimum of 1 business day to get shot plus another business day to get edited and ready to publish. Having the time to get a December video out there might be pretty tough to accomplish right now with so many other priorities. I agree, a short "State-of-the-Union" message would be better than nothing, but even that would take a bit of time which is probably quite precious right now.

Great looking build! It'll be good to see it again after those new decals are on, be sure to update your post when it's complete! My all-time favorite Cup driver.

Agreed... simply stunning! Your pics can so easily be mistaken for a 1:1! I've always thought this generation of Corvettes transformed quickly from a powerful muscle/sports car "look" into an elegant/sophisticated sports car "look" with the simple wheel swap you did with those '70 Impala wheel covers... outstanding work!

I've been building that same Revell Hemi Cuda kit and made the following conclusions... that motor has some quirky design flaws that make the basic block about 15% longer from front to rear, (not including the trans), and about 10% too tall than it should be in 1:1. (Look at all the blank extra space on the long intake manifold). The oil pan depth scales-out to be pretty close to 1/24 scale, but the heads are also 10%+ taller than in the 1:1 world. I don't think the engine is simply 10% larger overall... it's just a messed-up design in multiple places.

Next, I glued the cut-down/reassembled heads and valve covers to the block. I modified the intake manifold by cutting it down in two places, (1st: taking-out a small-section between the radiator hose hole-opening and the front of the intakes and a 2nd: in the same location right in front of the distributor mounting hole). These 2 cuts kept the intakes into the heads pretty-much "as is" from the V8... probably not correct for the 1:1 world, but the air cleaner covers-up so much of that intake manifold anyway that I don't think it really matters. By weathering this engine, I think it'll hide some of the imperfections in this cut-down V8. The following pics will show you how it will look from the front view and also inside the kit's frame/body.

Vince, Hopeful these pics might help you some. I started the same 1990 BGN Pontiac project a few years ago and the following pics will show you just how far I got. I am using the 1/25 AMT/Ertl 1990 Pontiac Grand Pix Nascar kit for this build... here's a brief description of how I downsized that kit's Nascar V8 to a BGN V6. I started by gluing together the engine block halves, and then I cut the engine block at the centerline on the side. I did this same cut for the heads and valve covers, too. I wish I could remember how much I cut-out to equal one bank of cylinders, but I'm hopeful the ruler showing in these pics will guide you to where I ended-up at length-wise. I cut/shortened the oil pan just ahead of it's deeper section; if you look closely at the 2nd pic, you can see a small nick in the edge of the oil pan which is the cutline's location. I also planned my build to be an after-the-race, short-track race car, so I've weathered the engine to represent that.

Looking good thus far. Just curious; what's the reason/motive for lowering the chassis, (overall look of the finished build)? Does a lowered chassis represent a specific Diamond Reo?

Stunning conversion and finish-work on this build! Looks like something the Design Dept. at Lincoln/Mercury could have considered for the '71 model year! Now... I gotta ask; are we going to see a follow-up/vice-versa build transplanting that Mercury roof onto a '69 Ford Torino body??? (hint/hint... if not, send me that Mercury roof piece and maybe I'll give it a try)!

Agree... it's hard to tell that this is a scale model and not a 1:1! Fabulous work on this build!

This vintage AMT kit has been one of my favorites ever since I was a kid. Yeah, it's got a lot of flaws, but once built always seems to look pretty good to my eyes. I think your build also looks really good. Haven't seen one built using those "Snakebite" decals in a long, long time and they look really good and bring back some memories... nice job on your Shelby!

I don't remember this car from back then, but it is certainly a stunning paint scheme that you have executed perfectly! Your super-clean paintwork replicates the car extremely-well in pre-race condition... it probably would've looked a "bit worse" in post-race condition with Michael behind the wheel!

I'm anxiously waiting for this new kit, but my guess is that it is still in the early-development stage meaning there is nothing to show yet. Seems to me those pics of a 1:1 '71 Mustang, (Mach-1)?, that had reference points taped all over it for scanning and digital file preparation were from late-2020 or early-2021... I'd bet it'll be awhile before we hear or see anything about this new kit.

The first word that immediately popped-into my head regarding this build was, "Handsome!" Not sure I can add to that... truly an awesome build of a "handsome" Mack!

Agree with you there Tom, but there is a certain "nostalgia" factor that I get when working on one of these old Revell Tri-5's! ( I've currently got a '56 being converted into an old, beat-up late-1960's dirt track car).

Love this build! Imagine it in the 1:1 world... you'd be able to hear it coming from a 1/2-mile away!

I grew up in eastern Iowa in the 1960's/70's. Whenever Ramo visited our regional dirt track it was always a big deal and the grandstands would be full! I'm pretty certain he won every race I saw him in watching from those grandstands... an incredible driver.