Rotorbolt73

"Turbo pipe"?? Umm... That was a supercharger setup on that engine. Judging by the valve covers on it, It looked to be a Chrysler Hemi too. I actually considered doing that at one point.....But then it wouldn't be the car from the movie but rather a "what if" car....As in: what if the wraith didn't shoot up that engine and Packard managed to get rug head to "fit it in the vette"..Before the final race scene...Would have been cool if that happened though.. But I'm not going that route..Maybe I might build another later and do that mod..or someone else can..I'm going to stick with the obvious Chevy engine that was probably in it. Besides, I really don't want to cut a hole in that daytona hood I just made.. Just something I could never understand in that movie ...is how a shotgun could blow apart a fully assembled blown Hemi engine like that..It fell apart like it wasn't even bolted together..

Thanks guys. Those "motion vette" pics were some I referred to when I was making the hood. Yeah you're not kidding David about the hands. Mine can get pretty bad if I do to much with em. In fact, work on this build was held up because of that reason. Hands hurt too bad from projects at work and yard work around the house. But I did manage to get the quarter blend work done. Also I'm moving on to the engine. The 82 kit comes with a somewhat basic engine but has a manual shift transmission. The movie car had an automatic. So I decided to use the incomplete engine block with auto trans from the 84 parts vette. Not sure of what induction setup to use since the movie never actually showed an engine shot from this car. Guess I'll just use whatever setup I want.

Thank you for the comments and suggestions guys. Never heard of Apoxie Sulpt Ken..I'll check into it. Maybe its not too expensive or I might can find it at my LHS or hobby lobby. But chances are i'll be using the bondo filler I got. i don't know... I only need a thin swipe on both upper quarters. never had problems out of it before..Now the red bondo brand glaze filler will shrink and crack like you mention. I don't use that stuff anymore. I do like the CA glue and tissuie paper idea. But I have already put a bead of my sprue glue on the back side of the joints and it seems to be holding up. Good to see you here Mike. Sure I'll bring it to the meeting.

Thanks guys. The sprue glue method I used seems to be working great for me. I guess it depends on how you mix it. My mixture has a lot of plastic in it. I mainly use it to fill gaps when I blend in pieces like I did here. Sands pretty easy but in my case I have a lot of areas to work. The only part of the body that looks like it will require some actual filler is the quarter panels. The curve of the 82 and 84 side sections do differ. I won't use sprue glue to do that blend as too much would be required and I might have the issues like you mentioned. I just got a small pint can of bondo at the local auto parts store to use. So I'm just waiting to be in the right frame of mind to do that step..but the build is progressing. slowly but getting close. As far as all the cutting, chopping and splicing i'm doing..Sometimes you just gotta' jump in and do it. Especially if no one makes what you're wanting to build. Do it enough and then it becomes easier and not as intimidating.

The firewall from the eckler vette is better than the crude molded in 82 wall..To get it to fit, I trimmed off the molded in lower firewall sections from the 82 chassis plate. I then trimmed the upper cowl section of the eckler firewall to match the contour of the 82 cowl. I then positioned and glued the eckler firewall to the 82 chassis plate. I am quite pleased with the fit. As you can see, it went in quite nicely.

I spent some time sanding all the joints of the glued in body panels. I realized that the side markers on the front fenders had yet to be added. They were still located on the parts of the 82 body I had cut off earlier to make room for the eckler fender flairs. Rather than scribe the marker lights in, I trimmed the off the removed fender sections and cut a corresponding square hole in the eckler fender to transfer the 82 marker lights back into. While I was cutting out the marker light holes , I went ahead and cut out the molded in front nose inserts as well. Nothing seems to be there in the movie car except for some tow hooks. I also cut out the molded in upper firewall section to better detail this area later.

Very nice work. Reminds me of my stalled 57 Ford gasser build I started on years ago. Actually, mine looks like the top mock up pic and even has a teardrop hood. The weathered body on yours looks top notch. Love the use of various colors on it making it look like it is pieced together.. Nice looking vintage turntable by the way.

While I think on which seats to use, I decided to move on to the chassis. The 82 chassis plate has a molded in rear suspension and a separate but basic front suspension. I'm not digging the molded in rear so I'm going to replace it. I decided to use the rear chassis section from the 84 parts car that I cut the rear tail off earlier. As you can see the 82 rear chassis also has no fenderwell tubs while the 84 does. So I cut both in half and shaped the 84 section to fit the 82 chassis and hybrid body. while I was in a cutting mood, I removed the molded in side exhaust and driveshaft from the 82 chassis. As you can see, everything is fitting together nicely. At this point I am wishing my 84 parts car had the rear suspension and exhaust system with it. That would make things a lot easier in this area.

I agree. Thats very quick progress for one day. You're almost done..

Here is the Eckler door panels glued into the 82 bucket. After positioning the dash in to check the fit, I noticed this large gap between the dash center and the molded in console. Not to mention a hole where the 82 dash locates in. To fix this, I removed the front of the eckler console to use. Before gluing into place, I ground off the molded in 82 shifter boot and sanded the top of the 82 console smooth and then filed down and shaped the eckler console to fit. After gluing the 82 dash top to the eckler dash, I rechecked the fit..much better. Now here is my delima. Which seats to use. The eckler seats I like but they are too short and sit too low. I like the high backs of the 82 seats but they have the wrong upholstery pattern. Not sure yet what to do here. Maybe combine the seats...Unless I can find something better from another 70s era vette kit. Any suggestions?? The 82 interior has no pedal detail. I had a scrap interior toe board section in my parts collection that I cut the automatic style brake pedal and gas pedal from to use. The eckler vette does come with a steering wheel that does match one used in the movie. But the rim diameter is too small for my liking. Fortunately I have an identically styled one from the AMT 72 Nova kit to use in its place.

Thanks guys. Hopefully I will get this one actually completed. Now that the body is roughed in, I'm going to move along to other areas that need work. The interior is next. According to the film, the interior is a 70's style as best I can tell. I'm not vette expert but it appears there are two different cars used in the movie as the interior details change scene to scene. Especially the seats and steering wheel. So this area kinda' gives me some flexibility. According to the eckler instructions, the eckler vette kit is a 76. This has the dash, door panels that would be more correct for the movie car. Compairing the two interiors, the dimensions between the 82 and eckler 76 are pretty close. Actually the eckler interior bucket will fit in the 82 body but the floor is not deep enough and the rear "cargo" area is shaped differently to accomidate that kits hatchback feature. So I will be using the 82 interior bucket with the door panels and dash from the eckler kit. First step is to cut the door panels from the eckler bucket. Also the top of the 82 dash will be used as the eckler dash top is too short and doesn't meet the cowl all the way. So I carefully cut the top of the 82 dash off. The eckler dash top also needs to be removed and cut back to allow room for the 82 top so that when they are glued together they will clear the windshield. I then used the eckler door panels as a template to scribe on the sides of the 82 bucket on where to remove those panels for an exact fit. The use of the eckler door panels makes it easier to locate the dash in as well.

Interesting pic of the seat and door panels. Why does it look transparent if the cable material is grey? I'm gonna' guess that the cable is used as a mold pattern for the tuck n roll and that the dried wood glue is the material that you actually used on the seat and panels to simulate the tuck n roll and not the computer cable itself. This is why you poured glue on the cable to begin with..correct? Odd that the rear end, suspension parts and gas tank are painted white..I always thought that was a 70's era thing.. Also odd that the flames end right at the front door line and don't extend into the door itself..

Yep, "Two lane Blacktop", released in 1970, used 3 cars. One was the "hero car" used for exterior shots and such. one was the "camera car" with camera platform mounts on the outside used for the closeup interior shots. and the last one was the "crash car" equipped with a full roll cage to be used in a roll over scene at the end, which was deleted in the final cut..Interesting fact though: the "hero car" was eventually reused later in 73 as the black 55 chevy in "American Graffiti".

I built the Corvette from the movie "Hot Rods to Hell" a few months ago. It too had flames and I had nothing in my decal collection that looked liked what I was needing. I ended up hand painting the flames on. Turned out alright. Might have to do the same with this one to make it accurate.. Making a masking template and airbrushing the flames might be better. I think I have some of that flat cable leftover from my old computer back when I used to upgrade that stuff. Might give that a try myself. What is your opinion on this method since you have tried it? any pros or cons to this material? Why the use of white glue? Obviously there is a paint adhesion issuie ??.. Looks nice in the pics. Can you give us a close up pic of the backseat there? Looking more closely at the engine, It looks like a pressure box fed by a paxton supercharger. The weird looking thing on top of the box appears to be a dual ignition coil setup mounted in a chrome box..Also note the fuel distribution block with three fuel outlet lines on the firewall above the master cylinder and the matching distribution block on the side of the pressure box. Strange setup indeed.. I figure the best parts to start with would be the optional setup from the AMT 57 Ford and modify from there..

Yeah. I was thinking the same about some of the builds I've seen here..Great work, but kinda' falls outside of a sleeper for a cross country race like a cannonball. some almost resemble drag strip sleepers instead. Just my two cents but I could be wrong as I'm still trying to figure out how to do my entry to fit the guide lines..So no progress as I haven't done anything with it yet...The main important thing is perhaps something that will not attract the attention of the various law enforcement authorities rather than something that looks like it was built to outrun them in a pursuit which is unrealistic. An old car does stick out on an interstate. It would be helpful to maybe have an idea of what year or era this event is set in given the type of models that are avaliable. Most of the kit subjects offered are typically from 25- 30 years on back..If this was being held today in real life, I'd be more prone to choose a late model painted in the same colors as any everyday vehicle on the road to blend in as any bright color will stand out in a automotive sea of everyday white, black, silver , grey or tan gold. Even though my entry is a 76 Caprice, I still believe it would stick out in a real life race of this sort and I am seriously considering changing my entry.

Is this that flat wide pin connector cable used inside computers to plug in various drives to the mother board? The stuff i'm familiar with is grey in color. It looks to be some sort of plastic vinyl for the wire insulation. Maybe a water based acrylic paint would work? How are you going to do the flames? I've been looking for decals but none I have come close..The trophy display in the trunk is gonna be interesting too..Dig the fluorescent trunk light..I never noticed that before..Also the complete lack of rearview mirrors on the interior or doors. Doesn't even have sunvisors..You can also tell this car once had rear bumper guards too. the license plate is lacking in what state its registered in as well..

Here is the hood on the body. I think it is pretty close. Its rough looking right now but I'll smooth it out after it has dried. I also cut in the vent slots on top of the front fenders.

Thanks guys. Well I think I have this hood figured out. After looking at several photos of these daytona vette hoods, I determined the shape I need. To do this, I used masking tape to create a template of the wierd contour shape hump just ahead of the cowl that flows down on both sides. I transfered the pattern to some evergreen sheet that was thin enough to bend into a curve. I flipped over the 2nd right side to make a reversed match for the left side side.Both side converge into a V'd point in the middle. Also, I cut out the two triangle holes for the twin scoupes. I glued both sheets to the front of the hood after carefully bending them to the contour needed. Note at how i had to notch the eckler cowl to clear the scoupe openings. After both sides dried enough, I made small side panels out of evergreen sheet to fill in the exposed openings along the sides of the new hood skin. Did the same for walling in the dual hood scoupes with each opening using three small pieces of evergreen sheet. I applied some of my sprue glue filler mix to help blend in all the joined edges. I'll sand these down later after it has dried fully.

Yeah..summer of 58... Right...with all that dead foliage all around and those kids in town getting out of school to cruise down to the local burger joint..Theres no school in the summer... Another thing I found weird about the time frame was the scene where he goes and gets him a "five finger discount" helping himself to the side glass from an abandoned 57 chevy convertible off the side of the road. I find it hard to believe that a 1 year old late model car like that would be sitting there looking like some kinda' parts car out of a junkyard. Also the primered 55 chevys around the burger joint. 3 year old late model chevys and already a primered high school kids car? It woulda' made more sense to set it in the early spring of 62. Ohh. Very interesting material to use for that tuck in roll..Thats one of those parts I kinda' dread since I've done a full tuck in roll before using evergreen half round.. Took forever and was somewhat difficult..

Awesome..I've got this same project planned using the same kit as well. Probably won't get around to it until I finish my cars from the "Wraith" . You got some better shots of that wild looking engine than I could find. They only show like a glimpse of it in the movie. I've never seen that setup before so duplicating it will be tricky. Nice collection of referance photos. I'll be keeping a watch on your progress with this one!

Excellent work on this kit. I have one of these kits myself and yes the chassis is quite crude. I made all sorts of mods to it to make it better. Ended up giving it to a friend who needed it more than I did. Still have the body though, gonna convert the body back to stock and make it a pro streeter one day. By the way, this kit is a 1965 Nova. Not a 62.

Wow, great photography! I never thought of using a calender as a backdrop. Simple and VERY effective.

Thanks for the comments and following along with this. Its been a while and I've been working off and on with this project. Lots of body mods with this one, but making progress. Continuing where I left off: The bottom area of the front nose needed some attention to bend it in with the eckler flairs. Basically I just angled back the deflector to match up with the flairs and filled in the gap with some evergreen strips. Also, the eckler flairs have an open cove on the sides that needs to be filled in and converted with a slot vent style as per the movie car. I did this by carving some slots in a piece of evergreen sheet cut to fit in the flair cove, then glued into place. i'll sand this down to level it with the flair surface after it dries in good. Moving back to the hood, I glued the eckler cowl to the 84 hood. I then carved in the slots in the rear to match the movie car.

Glued in the headlight buckets and they fit great. I'll now let all this dry real good and continue work on the hood. Stay tuned.

Moving on to the headlights. Because of the scale difference possibly, the Eckler headlight buckets are slightly narrower than the headlight openings on the 82 body. To fix this, I had to cut off the bucket sides and make some new sides out of evergreen sheet. By placing the new sides on the outside of the buckets, they are widened so they will fit better. Another area I have to tackle is the hood..The 82 hood has very shallow "cowl" compaired to the Eckler hood. The movie car has a custom Daytona hood that is not made in 1/24 plastic. So I will have to make it by using the 82 hood combined with the cowl from the Eckler hood as a starting point.