Bills72sj

This is a ProShop pre-painted kit with mixing and matching of parts from my other Chevelles. Overall it turned out pretty well. I picked the Cragar S/S wheels because they look good on Chevys. I went with a red interior just to spice it up. The engine is a 454 Big Block with ignition wires added. Except for the side marker lights, no BMF was used. Just a touch of Molotow chrome here and there.

Thank you all for your comments/compliments.

This model is actually a marriage of two models. The chassis, interior and engine are actually from my old '70 Challenger TA. I traded the Challenger body off to a friend who races slot cars. I got the ex-racer Cuda body from him as well. I had always thought that Panther Pink was a unique Mopar color so I thought I'd would try it on this one. It took the second repaint to get it right. The original inner fenders were hacked up in order to provide tire clearance for the slot car chassis. I used a Pepsi can to create aluminum panels for the inner fenders and fire wall. The engine was built back in the 80's when I used thread for ignition wires. My first choice of wheels was the billet 3 hole directionals. But just before I sacrificed a set of Cragars (with bad centers) for the trim rings, I mocked them up. Even though I completed the effort of widening the directionals, I still kept thinking about 5-spokes. I ended up doing an informal poll of a few Yahoo modeling groups and the five spokes were the overwhelming choice. So... I widened a set of those to go on the Cuda. The only addtional item of note is the photo-etch triple gage set under the dash. For some reason it took me a long time to get this one done.

Thank guys. I am looking forward to my Freightliner triple drive under it. But first I must build a paint booth over the holiday weekend.

I know, I take mine to local car shows every summer. I am ALWAYS the ONLY Grand Prix of ANY year. The kids really like my killer stereo.

Put forth the effort and it will. If you look close, you'll notice I removed a couple of bars for a cleaner look. Be VERY careful with the fragile hinge pins for the rear ramp.

Welcome to the unofficial GP club

Here are my in-progress pics for the Lowboy trailer I am going to mate with one of the Freightliner cabovers I am building. I wanted to display 3 cars on it so changes had to be made. The upper deck and frame were lengthened. The axles also got decked over. I swapped rims with my doubles trailer as I wanted chrome ones to match the Freightliner. The wood deck came out pretty nice due to the effort of painting dark brown then tan and gently sanding until the woodgrain came through. The paint is Duplicolor automotive paint. I got the reflective tape from an ebay vendor. I had trouble with the center axle holding the tires off the ground so I built a jig to hold them in alignment when assembled. It turned out pretty nice.

The museum is about 1/4 mile from where I work. I have only been in it once. I drive by it at least 10 times a week.

1969 Rally Sport Camaros are one of my favorite cars and black and gold is my favorite color combination. I started with a Revell Z28 Camaro RS kit. As you know, a Z28 is a 302 small block and a ZL-1 is a 427 big block. I got the big block from an AMT 68 El Camino kit. For something different I used the Electronic Fuel Injection option from a 70 Chevelle SS kit. The gold SS stripes made by Keith Marks. http://public.fotki.com/mofobow/ During final assembly I found the hood would not close. I had to trim the motor mounts to set the engine a little lower, shave the throttle bodies and the EFI engine cover but even all of that was not enough. I then took a Dremel to the underside of the hood which was already painted and decaled. I ground down as much as I dared, and fortunately it was just enough. I got the Fujimi wheels & tires from ebay as I wanted the Pro-touring look. Wire wheels were not my first choice but it was the best I could do to get the 285/40 and 345/35 tires. In order to fit these wide tires, chassis modifications were necessary. First I cut away the inner fender wells in preparation for mini-tubbing. I used the rear wheel tubs hacked from a 71 GTX chassis I had left over from an eBay lot purchase. The stock leaf spring suspended axle could no longer work so I snagged the ladder bar rear from a 72 Nova kit. The front suspension and inner fender wells required serious grinding and trimming as well. Since the wheels were open enough, I added disc brake rotors from my parts bin. Other details include filling four of the rectangles in the grille for the ZL-1 emblem decal, adding back up lights from the parts bin, and meticulously painting the hidden headlight frames. Overall I am quite pleased with the result. If I had to do it over, I would NOT have used Testors clear coat over Keith’s decals. They wrinkled a bit due to some kind of reaction.

I am pretty good about finishing projects. The few that I have stalled, are skillset issues. A bad paint job, or the decision to add LED lighting AFTER it is already painted with no longer available paint. I also have the problem where I can dream up new projects faster than I can build. I have pretty good luck if I build similar kits in batches. Years ago I did (4) 70-72 Challengers all at once followed by (3) 68-69 Chevelles. This year I started and finished (4) 70-72 Chevelles. I am presently building (2) White-Freightliner cabovers at the same time. My newest hurdle is, after seeing so many HIGH Quality builds by many of you, I am putting in the effort to try to detail them much better. However it is time consuming to do so. On a separate subject, I somewhat kitbash. I absolutely HATE pulling parts which make a kit unbuildable but I am OK with swapping key items to get a build-in-progress to meet my vision. I am not a hoarder and I have very few duplicates, but I may have more kits than I can finish in the next 20 years. I am going to build a paint booth this month so I can paint year round. (I used to paint a bunch of bodies in the Summer then build them in the Winter).

OK I just cut open the sealed bag for the Rally II wheels from one of my GTO kits. Please PM me with your address.

Sam, I just started back into building semis this Summer. I am in the process of building two modified Freightliner COEs. I do not think would be much help identifying little parts but you are not that far from me. I live in Salem, OR. Sometimes it is helpful to have two heads instead of one.

Interesting subject. Following.

It may be too late but may I suggest opening the hood scoop the let your carb breathe.

That is a good tip. I'll try to add that to my builds.

I actually saw a 1:1 of a 57 El Camino in primer like 30+ years ago. The concept blew me away back then. The roofline on that one was close to the Diecast shown above.

I built this model because my neighbor had one when I was in Jr. High. His was orange and had chrome reverse wheels with chrome baby moon hubcaps. Later on he added a 69 Mustang hood scoop with with 351 callouts. It is basically a box stock build with a few minor mods. I built the streetmachine version with the two 4bbls and the chrome headers. The chassis has very roomy rear wheel wells so i opted to clearance them wee bit more for wider rubber. I widened the stock GT rims by adding chrome rings. The decal set is from Keith Marks and includes the rear tail panel grid, the hood scoop air inlet and all the Cobra callouts. The BMF on the front edge of the hood and the trunk lid was quite challenging as I had to cut them freehand. The side marker lights are Ultra-fine Sharpie on BMF. The whole body has been sealed with Future floor wax.

My friends and I would have been members of that club. We graduated in 1979 when most muscle cars were around 10 years old and still cheap to buy and not that hard to work on. Our pack consisted of a 1969 SS 396 4 speed Chevelle, a 1967 Firebird 326 3-speed swapped to a 400 4-speed, a 1969 Mustang Grande with a 351 and a Mach 1 hood, a 72 Plymouth Gold Duster with the leaning tower of power, a 1969 Coronet 440 with a 383, a 70 SS 396 4-speed Chevelle and my 1968 Malibu with a weak 307. My dad used to drag race in the 60's and 70's so I knew enough about cars to be the Guru among my friends.

Very nice Rambler Ramblerman.

This is the kit I built it from.

Above is the link to the AMT transporter rig.

This Mustang?

Steve, I just looked at some of my built A-bodies, The Monte has vertical pleats, A 69 Olds has vertical pleats with a little bolstering and and old 72 Chevelle has the with wider pleats on the outside edges

I like it. Very nice.