ibj40

So the size of tubing I needed was brass 3/8" square, which in spite of one dealer who promised accordingly, doesn't exist. Evergreen makes it in styrene, so I sourced some. The good news was that a slip fit of the two chassis was perfectly accommodated by the interior dimension of the tubing, so taking SuperGlue in hand (actually after cleaning all the paint off of both chassis), I "welded" the two chassis together. Painted them Gloss Black to match the two chassis. Starting to frame up the new box bed for the shortened Sino chassis. Using styrene angle to define the bottom (the screws are just to allow me to reference the angle pieces, they won't survive the final build. Got some roof panel pattern styrene sheet, which was pretty close to the pattern on the box of the donor (see the first pictures), will cut it to size, place some angle on the outside, and then build a roof. Probably put a facsimile door in the side, as well. Hope to have the side cut and roughed in by the end of the weekend.

Did a test fit, and comparison to the donor ramper. Brass channel came in yesterday, but so did cold weather and a snow storm, so won't be spending a lot of time out in my unheated shop.

Here are our victims, I mean, donors: 1/18 Scale China NJ IVECO Light Truck I've got a couple of these in my collection already. I customized one to make it a flatbed with an enclosed trailer. Pretty neat truck, lots of detail. Had a chance to pick one up cheap (considering shipping from China to the USA), as it was missing the rear box. Of course, there are plenty of these 1/18 scale ACME Rampers around, in a variety of colors. I picked this one to contribute its ramp bed. So, we begin with disassembly of both, to see how compatible their respective construction techniques are. Fortunately, both use a diecast frame with plastic pieces for the beds and diecast cabs. Here's a test fit. Looks promising. I will build a new box out of styrene sheet and angle, kind of like I did for this custom extended length GMP trailer. Since both frames are diecast, I laid them over each other and determined that by opening up the insides of the ACME frame, I could slip it over the outside of the NJ frame. Here it is with the bodies back on. Got some brass channel ordered which I will use to wrap around the join, trying to decide whether Super Glue or JB Weld will be the best solution. Also thinking about bolting them together with some small brass nuts and bolts. Stay Tuned!

On the Superbird, there's an extension of the under tray to support the nose. I had to remove this much of it to get the original test donor body to fit. Here's our new body donor, straight out of the box. Chassis ready to be recycled. Underside of the body. Knew it wasn't going to fit, but just for frame of reference. I know from playing around with the original body donor, that these tabs will interfere. So, a little bit of Dremel later. Test fit again, but still some interference that I was expecting. I knew a couple of other things would have to be removed and/or eventually modified, such as the dashboard and the hood (due to the discrepancy in the dog leg hinges noted above. With those two elements removed, we now can proceed to see what needs to be put back on, and to what extent it will need to be "adjusted". On of the thing I will do is see if the dashboard from the Superbird will help. Can't use the Superbird hood, though, as I am going for a no-repaint solution. Stay Tuned!

So, I took a step back from this one, and pondered my options. Here is the set of models that I have access to for this project. The top one, of course, is the body donor, the next two are a Toys R Us exclusive Nascar Superbird and the initial potential donor, a Petty Roadrunner. Well, just the other day, I was able to score another TRU Superbird, and upon delivery, I got this. So, in a lemon/lemonade funk, I decided to take it apart and see what it looked like as the chassis donor. One thing about the Ertl Superbird mold is that you have to remove the rear wheels in order to access a screw in that wheel well. I was able to acquire a tool that helps in removing those wheels, and with little bit of effort, was successful. The issue is that the rear axle has a mushroom head with a slot, and you have to compress that slot to get the wheel to pop off. Looks good from the top. I particularly like the black interior against the red exterior. If I am lucky, no painting on this one, only decals. Before I put the wheels back on, I made a test fit. Looks good from the side, as well. Getting excited about this build. So popped the rears back on to get an idea about stance and rake. Now that I have a clearer definition of the body/chassis donor relationship, the build can continue.

The subtleties will kill you on a build like this. Both the chassis donor and the body donor are, more or less, Plymouth B-bodies, and both are Ertl. So, what could go wrong? When I initially bolted the GTX body onto the Roadrunner chassis, there was an interference that did not allow the hood to close. As a matter of fact, it stuck up at about a 30 degree angle. WTF, Over? (I worked with a bunch of ex-Air Force guys for a while). If you are familiar with this era of diecast, hoods, doors, and trunks (when they open) all have dogleg hinges. One would think that if you've seen one hood dogleg, you've seen them all, especially if the models appear to be identical. In my case, the doglegs of the GTX body donor were thicker than the doglegs for the Roadrunner, and would not clear the Nascar chassis cowl air induction. So, I swapped hoods between the two models, and, Eureka! A few progress shots follow. One thing I am going to half to solve is whether to simply drill two holes and allow the roll cage to tie into the package tray, or carve out slots in the package tray to allow the roll cage bars to attach back to the donor interior.

Nascar Convertible Division Sample body on the chassis, actual donor, mint in box, in the background.

Thanks, it has been a tough build. Was really hoping I could have made the original chassis work. As I have two donor hoods, I may make both of the custom hoods. Stay Tuned, and I will post here as I update.

This is my most recent posting, dating back to December 12 in real time. With this, you are up to date. Quick update. Been piddling and dabbling, still trying to wrap my head around where to take this build (plus, it's been cold here, and my garage/workshop is unheated). I have come to the conclusion that I won't be able to duplicate my racer, so going to take this and go a slightly different direction. Looking at hoods now. Here is the stock one. r Looking at two alternatives. Will be using the same technique I used to create this hood for a fantasy Mustang. What I did for the Mustang was laid the hood from a GMP '69 Z28 over the Mustang hood, taped them securely together, and used a Dremel cutter to slice through both of them, and then used JB Weld to blend the scoop into the hood. For the Camaro, I have the choice of two different hood scoops. First is the classic '69 Z28 scoop; and next is the 2nd Gen Baldwin Corvette L88-based scoop. Here are some side-by-side comparisons. Each one has its own character. Any preferences?

Having defined which chassis I am using helps me visualize where the conflicts are, and a potential cure (which usually means breaking out a Dremel). Here's what I have removed as of now. The two little round threaded pieces are attaching points for the SunStar body the SunStar chassis, and interfere with the rocker panel of the GMP chassis. The other pieces are from the front of the engine compartment, which interfere with the radiator mounting frame of the GMP chassis. That work allows the body to drop down onto the chassis. Still not perfect, but closer than I have been at any other time of this build. Now I can reassemble the cage, and give some support to the bodywork.

So this is where we currently are. And you may ask, what have I been doing for the past three weeks? Body looks different, have you already painted it? Well, this one went sideways early, and it has taken a lot of effort, soul-searching, and additional expense to get to where it sits right now. One of the most complex builds I have undertaken, and lots of errors in judgement along the way. I'll provide the highlights, and then add a link to the full album for "progress" shots. I ditched the late model GMP Camaro chassis, that just wasn't going to work. There was just no way I was going to get the body to sit down onto the chassis properly. So, as I pointed out in my last post, I looked to a 1st Gen GMP Camaro chassis. After a great deal of effort, I was able to shorten the 1st Gen wheelbase by 7 scale inches (about .3895 true inches), and reassemble it. Used two 00-90 screws in the stock location to attach the two pieces back together. Here's a comparison between two, more or less, identical chassis. Here's what I cut out. The good news is that the cage remains intact, only thing I have to cut is to shorten the bars that go forward to the front suspension mounting points by 7 scale inches. Of course, I will also have to shorten the drive shaft (done that before on some of my other customs), as well as either shorten the exhaust dumps or build some new ones. With the major chassis correction behind me, I then tried to mount the body onto the revised chassis, but found I had made another strategic error. I had cut the first 3rd Gen body apart at the base of the A-pillars, to emulate how we actually built our real racer. That proved to be a fatal flaw, as I needed the structural integrity of the entire body to allow me to mount the 3rd Gen body onto the 1st Gen chassis. Hence, I had to source another entire model, in order to start over again with the modifications to the body. Took delivery of the new model yesterday, and stripped it last night, and tested some fit. You can see above that I think I nailed the wheelbase, but now I have to grind away, again, everything that conflicts to get the body to fit. First target will be the bulkhead at the front of the engine compartment, which will then dictate as we go front to rear.

I have come to the realization that this isn't going to work. The body sits on the tops of the tires, which keep it from dropping down into the proper posture. Without a great deal of cutting and then rebuilding flares, I am going to call the initial project a failure. However, I have a backup plan. I have a spare GMP Trans Am Camaro chassis. The new plan is to scavenge pieces off the GMP chassis, and use a combination of the GMP pieces and the floor pan from the SunStar Camaro to create a new combined chassis. I'm essentially planning on adding the front and rear clips from the GMP to the mid-pan of the SunStar. Here's a few "teaser" shots. And you might ask yourself, why not just drop the SunStar body onto the GMP chassis? How many of you knew, without looking it up, that the 3rd Gen Camaro's wheelbase was 7 inches shorter than the 1st Gen?

Diecast pieces are at the stripper, so I've worked on the T-tops a little. As I was sitting in my shop, it reminded me of building the real one. Sports Car Club of America rules at the time of our build required that the car have a stock roof and windshield (eventually we would add a Lexan windshield when the rules changed). The location of the roof heavily influenced where the rest of the fibreglass body was hung on the chassis. You can see the stock roof in this picture, which includes the front A-pillars. In order to get our roof located correctly, I borrowed a buddy's IROC Z and drove it down to the shop. We set the two cars side by side and moved the roof around on the cage until it looked right. When then fabricated some mounting tabs and welded it onto the cage tubes. With a realization that the A pillars of the diecast donor body are cast into the body, I thought these pictures, to some degree, represented the roof mounting process we went through back then. I And then just for fun, I laid on the front windshield and rear glass.

Going to try to pick them off one at a time, simultaneously. Here's how we look at the end of today. From the front to the back, I'll start with the hood. If you look at one of the earlier pictures, the hood stood up at the base of the windshield. There were some details cast into the underside of the hood that were interfering with the air cleaner and windshield base, so those have been removed. The donor has T-tops, and of course, our car had a solid roof, so beginning to work on melding them together, and then closing the gaps with body putty. And, of course, we've got the fuel filler relocated. I will keep walking around the model, correcting items as I go, knowing full well that frequently a correction will require another one, due to the relationships of pieces changing as you go.

As you get deeper into one of these blending projects, the level of detail increases, with respect to the accommodations that need to be made to each major component. Got the doors hollowed out, and mounted one onto the body. One of the first things I need to consider is this major disconnect where the body and floor join along the rocker panel. I can certainly trim back the floor pan of the GMP chassis (and again violate my own requirement to keep it as intact as practical), but there is still a gap that will need to be filled somehow. Front (and rear) track is too wide, so I need to figure out how to flare the fenders to cover the tops of the tires. I have a choice of several pre-molded flare lips that I will need to test fit. Will also need to close this gap, at the rear, or at least detail it to where it doesn't simply look like two models squished together. The dry break comes up short compared to the Sunstar rear window. Thinking about cutting it off, bending some aluminum tubing, and actually having it come out at the molded in fuel filler location on the SunStar body.

I bit the bullet, and cut off the plastic stalks on the GMP chassis, which helped, but then that just removes the first obstacle. Much more clearance had to be created at the base of the A-pillars as the body slips down over the rollcage door bars, and then once we cleared that hurdle, then we had one last challenge. Notice how the exhaust exits the GMP Camaro body. Well, the good news is that it has to exit the SunStar body in the same place (meaning that the chassis and donor body at least match up favorably), but this required another hole and some clearance on each side, but I think I have reached a plateau. Here are a couple more progress shots. The doors don't fit, as the molded in diecast frames for the inner liners interfere with the cage, so another night of grinding and we'll have a look at the entire package.

So, several hours, battery recharges, and cutting blades later, here's where we are, and I was afraid of this. Sides have been clearanced. Areas below the A-pillars have been cleaned up after the piece connecting the A-pillars was removed. Area around the nose has been cleaned up, and lots of detail of the GMP chassis are visible. But Houston, we have a problem. I was hoping to not have to make any significant changes to the GMP chassis, however these stalks are keeping the body from dropping into place.

My goal is to retain the integrity of the GMP chassis. They are nicely detailed and becoming more difficult to acquire at a reasonable price. My donor was actually a previously displayed, no box model, that also had some issues with the paint. The first issue to deal with on the body will be these "ledges" which stick inward from the skin of the Camaro body, and interfere with the rollcage of the chassis. They don't really serve any purpose. Next, I will probably totally remove the section between the two A-pillars of the body. There is good detail in this area on the GMP chassis, which I want to have exposed. Plus the windshield of the SunStar Camaro should blend nicely and close any gaps. Finally, all the detail at the nose of the donor body is not necessary, as with our fibreglass replica bodies, these were simply an aerodynamic skin over the functional parts of the racer. Additionally, the GMP chassis is also well detailed in this area, and any gaps, as we did on the real racer, can be filled with aluminum (styrene) sheet. Going fire up the Dremel tool today (got five batteries for the bigger one, two for the smaller).

Not sure why I haven't shared this build here. Actually started it back in September. I post all the messages I have posted elsewhere to catch everyone up. Here's the first posting. Around 1986, my race car partner and I were wanting to upgrade our C3-chassied/'82 Pickett-bodied Corvette for something a little newer. We had been in constant contact with the prior owner of the Corvette (who produced fibreglass race car bodies), and when we mentioned to him that we wanted to upgrade, he informed us that he had acquired a tube frame chassis for a 3rd Generation Camaro in order to test fit bodies to, and that he was done with it. Jake and I drove to Milwaukee from Dallas, TX with the rolling chassis of our Corvette in our trailer, and drove back with, essentially, a new car in kit form. The tube frame Camaro chassis had the rollcage, and front and rear clips attached, but that was it. The rest of the car parts, suspension, rear end, fuel cell, brakes, etc. were in boxes. Along with a couple of volunteers, and through some troubling personal and economic times, we persevered and produced our Camaro. We fabricated almost everything you can see in these pictures, including hanging the body (the seller had merely mocked up his body panels with tack welded brackets and racer's tape), completing the aluminum interior (firewall, cockpit, exhaust tunnel), completing all the plumbing (dry sump oil system, brakes, fuel lines, and engine cooling), completing all the wiring, and detailing and finishing. I have been wanting to try to create a duplicate, so will be chronicling that effort here. My donors will be a SunStar 1982 Camaro Z28, and a GMP 1996 Trans Am Camaro. I'll skip the boring disassembly process and go right to the staging of the two donor components. Here you can see from above that the componentry will be a nice fit. Here from the side you can see that there are already some conflicts which don't allow the body to seat onto the chassis. Going to be some major Dremel work.

Thanks! Sorry about the late reply, but the re-org of this Board is kinda confusing. Done anything with the one I sent you?

Inspired by this story, as well as a visit to the 1983 IMSA 3-Hour Season Finale at Daytona (where my partner and I bought the 23rd finishing #46 Corvette), I came up with a custom that coulda/mighta happened under other circumstances. The Group 5 March M1 – History Here's a close-up of one of the cars mentioned in the article. With access to the entire garage area, we had the opportunity to look closely at a number of different vehicles, and were especially attracted to two BMW M1's that were competing that day. The first was entered and driven by a Salvadorian with the nom de plume of "Fomfor". Fomfor BMW M1 . This car actually finished 9th overall and 1st in GTO. The second was entered and driven by Canadian Uli Bieri. Bieri BMW M1 . This car was a DNF. What was interesting is that both of these chassis had considerable race history, and upon closer inspection, were a little long in the tooth, if you know what I mean. Having owned and driven my own '69 Camaro, I was well aware that good cosmetics and livery could conceal some pretty rough mechanicals, and both M1's showed their age. There had clearly been some crash damage that got into the rear frame rails of one of them, and there was evidence of what we used to refer to as A-Sedan repairs, which usually amounted to the search for bigger hammer until the damage in question had been beaten into submission. Fast forward to this build. Minichamps makes a very nice BMW M1 racing version. And GMP makes a really nice Small Block Chevy engine. The question was, can you fit the engine into the chassis. Needless so say, I was willing to try. Pulled the body off and the BMW engine out, and did a test fit. Then the hard part began. For simplicity of fabrication, I simply flipped the GMP headers over and swapped them side to side. And for whatever reason, and Minichamps is the only one to know, the entire back of the body of the M1 is solid diecast metal. So the route through this bulkhead was going to be laborious. Needless to say, I do not believe I have ever used a 5/16 inch drill bit on any other diecast build. By the way, at the rear of the engine you can see the styrene adapter I built as a transition between the Chevy engine and the BMW transmission. All told, not a bad build. But clearly, a different approach to creating a competitive race car. Here's the Build Album.

Thanks! Well, if you only put them on at night, which at LeMans isn't that long, the rest of the time in the daylight it wouldn't matter. The donor Superbird body was a racer version, and the headlight covers were cast in place. Would have required quite a bit of work to open them up, however I didn't look into grafting some Corvette endurance covers on. Now I need to go back and revisit the build.

Found one more. 1/18 Scale Racing Champions 1996 Petty Enterprises Rich Bickle Nascar Craftsman Truck

Done, and trying to figure out what to pose it with. I don't have anything contemporary in a Dodge or Chrysler product, so it's going to be hauling vintage racers. 1/18 Petty Enterprises 2004 Nascar Dodge (custom) 1/18 Grand American Road Racing Championship - 2000 Daytona 24 Hours Overall (and GTO Class) winning Dodge (Chrysler) Viper [/a] 1/18 United SportsCar Championship - 2014 Circuit of the Americas (COTA) GTLM Class Winner

I was going to use a bed from a recently released 1970 Dodge Ramp Truck, but they ended up being more of a Burnt Orange than red. But hold that thought and watch this space for more information on that project.