keviiin86

Worked on it a bit more today. Cut out the inner part of the frame rails behind the engine mounts and moved them out a bit for header clearance..will get sanded and smoothed out before paint. Also decided on the AMT 67 chevelle pro street headers but cut and shortened them up since they would hang pretty low otherwise, and don't worry the goofy super trap mufflers will go bye bye. Change of plans for rear wheels, got these rally wheels from Fireball modelworks which look awesome, so that's what I'm going with.

Haha yeah the front end and grille on the AMT 65 kits is what kept me from building this car for so long. I just bought both the revell chevelle and the el camino and took both bodies out and put them next to one another and stared at them for a while trying to figure the easiest way to combine them..and this is what I settled on.

Cut the 4 speed trans off and glued the resin th400 on. Modified the trans crossmember a little bit by grinding some plastic off to make it thinner and the engine/trans dropped right in place where it needs to sit. Next up is to clearance the frame rails for header clearance. Not sure which headers I will use, as of now I have some big block headers from the AMT 67 chevelle pro street kit..but might use some resin ones that are in the mail currently. We will see.

Small update..smoothed out the sidewall on the rear slicks and made up some center caps for the front centerlines, also cut off the back seat from the Revell chevelle interior tub and test fit it, lines up nicely to the firewall.

Shaved the emblems off the fender and sanded down the rocker trim and added some sheet styrene to the bottoms of the front fenders to make it all match.

Gathered up some of the parts I'll need for the build, mocked up what I have so far to see how it'll look. The scoop is a little tall so I'll have to shave some off the base to make it sit right.

I was only about 10 years old (turning 39 this summer) going with my dad to cruise nights and seeing some of these cars at one of the local spots..I remember there being a lot of fast cars that hung out at this place called Fluky's in Niles IL. this car included.

Got the body lines reshaped on the front fenders and added the lower windshield trim from the Revell chevelle. Chassis fits in nice and snug to the front end now.

Well I'm going to give this one a go. Wouldn't be too much of a challenge if I were to just build it as a curb side kit...but i just can't bring myself to doing that. The only kit that exists as a 65 el camino is the AMT that's been around forever which started out as a promo model with lackluster detail and a front end that looked weird to me. Something is off with the grille and the front fenders which is evident when you compare it to the revell 65 chevelle. The Revell kit is much more accurate...so I decided to cut off the front clip from the Revell 65 chevelle and graft it onto the el camino to get the proper grille, fender shape, no molded in wipers, and engine bay which lines up nicely with the Revell chassis. The chassis lines up perfect with the el camino and I will probably use the interior floor, partial door panels and dash from the revell kit as well. Shockingly I found this oddball snorkel hood scoop that he ran on the car from competition resins..which has now unfortunately closed up shop. Also got the front (correct looking) skinny centerline auto drags and some bare ralley wheels for the back. The big block will come from the revell kit and I'll have to saw off yet another 4 speed in favor of a th400 automatic lol. I have most of the little speed parts and pieces I'll need..but I'm sure I'll have to go hunting for something as I go. As a quick history lesson, anyone from the Chicago area that's into drag racing would know this car from the late 80s through the late 90s. Chuck Samuel worked for Fast Times Motorworks who build some serious engines for alot of drag racers in that era. This car was street raced alot around Chicago and in the mid 90s he competed in the NMCA fastest street car shootout (the precursor to drag week, sick week etc..) If you didnt know any better you'd think its a 12 second street car until you hear it start up and click off a mid 9 second pass. (Impressive for its day) I saw it in person once when I was a kid at a local car show and it left a lasting impression on me with the ratty, fast, beater look and an unforgettable exhaust note. So for all of those reasons I decided to build it. The side body lines on the revell Chevelle are a little softer than the AMT so I will have to sand down and flatten the front fenders to bring out the sharp body line to match the door..but aside from that it fits pretty well. It will be a challenge to restore the panel line between the fender and door..but I'll figure it out.

Thank you! I must say I got pretty lucky with finding most of the speed parts or add ons from other kits or online. The resin 3D printed headers I used look identical to what's on the car (which I thought would be a challenge due to the tight confines of the engine bay), the 9" rear is the exact same, the weld draglites, and that steering wheel came from the AMT baldwin motion 70.5 camaro..helps to watch alot of unboxing/build videos to see what some kits have in them.

Thanks! I used flat black and misted some gray primer over it to give the illusion of bare fiberglass.

Awesome! Looks the part for sure. Are those texas3Dcustoms carbs? they look incredible!

Thanks, yeah when I was doing final assembly and put the body on with the wheels attached and saw the final stance of it..I was pretty happy and surprised at how accurate it looked, wasn't expecting it lol.

Thank you guys!

Here's those bolt heads I was talking about, I just cut the end off and drill small lug holes and glue them in. As for front runners, I've been robbing these style bias plys to use as front tires (got them from the amt 62 vette and the revell 62 vette kit but alot of 50s-60s car kits use these). Used them on my 57 corvette that I got those super tricks for..they look period correct for the early-mid 70s..seems alot of drag cars used them since they were tall and skinny.

If you have any hobby stores that sell HO train accessories you can probably find them, don't recall the brand off the top of my head but they came in a small package and molded in brown styrene. I'll take a picture of the package tomorrow and post it.

Yeah Scott has some nice resin wheels, draglites, super tricks, centerlines and motorwheel Flys. But I used some HO scale train bolts I happened to find at the local hobby shop..they looked like they would be perfect for 5/8" studs and larger lug nuts.

If you're trying for accuracy on this kit I'll suggest a wheel change, I'm a stickler for wheel and tire choice and fitment and it looks like you've got centerline style wheels, however the California flash as well as many other pro stocks of that era ran cragar super tricks. Similar, but different if you know what you're looking at. I got these wheels and tires from futur attraction..really nice quality, I just added my own lug nuts and studs and the hub dust cap on the fronts. Or that revell flip nose Malibu has a really nice set, but might look a little big considering it's 1:24th scale. Very cool build though, I love these early 70s pro stocks.

nice job on the paint work..looks real good! Definitely like the formula hood better also.

I thought about doing that, maybe down the line I'll do one from the 80s era with centerlines and the flat hood..but I've got a few other cars I'd like to build before that..also replica builds.

Funny, my wife asked me if I was going to give it to my dad as a gift. I told her I'd love to but I can't let it just sit on a shelf and get ruined by my mom trying to dust it off every week lol...I've got too many hours into it for that. Thank you! It was a fun challenge. Thanks I appreciate it!

Cool car, I like the fenderwell headers..I'd suggest a little tamiya black panel line on the engine and carb to bring out some detail and shadows that don't show well on 1:25th scale. Overall really nice though!

Thank you! Yeah I wanted to make sure I got that aspect of the build just right.

Thanks! There's so many little details that are difficult to show on the model and the 1:1 car that I added..but really only I know they're there lol.

This car belongs to my dad who has owned it for 52 years and I've been around it my whole life, it's what got me into cars and ultimately model building, the car means alot to me I've always wanted to build a replica model of it and finally decided to give it a shot. The car has changed looks several times over the years with different wheels/tires and hood scoop and of course engine/trans combinations but I decided to build it pretty much as it is today. I started with the Revell 62 corvette roadster kit and picked up the revell 62 corvette gasser kit to use the hard top from as well as a couple odds and ends. The engine is from the kit with resin intake, valve covers, carb, headers etc...and I cut the 4 speed off and used a resin th400 in place of it. Rear end is a ford 9" from another kit, scratch built exhaust, wheels are modified resin weld draglites and the hood scoop is from a 67 big block corvette grafted on. There's several other scratch built details and kit bashed parts here and there but I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Threw in some pictures of the real car toward the end. Enjoy!