MarkJ

Bruce, you and me both. Plus, they made the bars too fat throughout the whole cage. But I don't think I want to scratch build a cage just to fix that. I think I know how the cage is supposed to look so I just need to add one bar to do that and live with the fat bars everywhere else. It's like they padded the bars on the right side of the car which wasn't done in real life. There was no reason to pad the bars at the right window.

I believe I'm finally finished with the front of the build as far as building goes. Now it's time for primer and paint. That adding material to the front pins makes the parts all hold together tightly but I'm still able to take it back apart. Of course, I will glue it at final assembly.

Oops, that's no seat. That's your work surface. Very fancy.

Yes, the car seemed to change a lot from race to race or maybe they had a two or three car fleet but I kind of doubt that. I'm actually thinking the car he had all year was actually the same car Charlie Glotzchbach used in the 71 season. They just kept working on it and hoping they never had a bad wreck in it that would have forced a new car to be built but I don't think he actually had one of those even though he had many fender-to-fender battles with King Richard all season long at the short tracks.

Thank you, Steve. I always appreciate your takes on the builds. I too really like the Monte Carlo as a race car especially the gen 1 from 1970 to 1972. Did you know that only about 3 or 4 Gen 1 Monte Carlos competed in the 1972 season and none of them were 1972 Monte Carlos. They were Bobby Allison, Coo Coo Marlin, Fred Lorenzen and Buck Baker.

The pins at the front of the chassis that go into the tubes at the front to hold everything together are just the right size for sliding in and out easily. I have decided to add a little styrene material right at the end of the travel of the pin and make it increasingly fatter so when the chassis is put together right at the end of the travel the pins will get tight in the tube and hold everything together tightly without having to glue it. I should still be able to take it back apart by prying with a small screwdriver. I will just make it snug so its tight without getting too tight which could become a problem if I'm not really ready to actually install chassis to body. I'm having to mock the fit a lot on this thing to get it right.

Yes, Bruce. On that car it does for sure. On the Southern 500 car, I'm not so sure. I'm working on the roll cage to see how much room I have to add some more fairing to the a-pillar. The door number on your photo is not the same font as the Southern 500 car. I wish I had a better picture of the real roll cage and the bars where they start and end. the kit cage is not very accurate from what I can tell so far. But I might just leave it that way instead of guess.

I found another captured image from the Southern 500 video itself. This one shows that the fairing is probably raw aluminum not painted at all.

Andrew, absolutely love the polished guage enclosures and the seat. Talk about putting huge effort into a build. You are all into this one big time. Really looking forward to showroom for sure on this one.

I found a photo of the car at the rebel race in the spring and the fairing appears to be body color gold, so it was probably still gold by the time they got to September.

Added some material to the front of the build to shore up some gaps here and there and finished the fairing at the quarter glasses. I can't tell if the fairing is raw aluminum or body color gold. Thats the trouble with captured you tube video photos. The colors get washed out a bit.

I had to add some tubing to the top of the tubes on the front of the body where the pins on the chassis slide in to attach the body to the frame. The kit comes with very short tubes that will not fit the front bumper when trying to attach body, bumper, and frame together. I then did a total mockup to see if everything will fit well when I try to assemble this model together. i need to finish the fairing at the quarter glass area and work some more on grille to body and hood to body fit before I can start painting. I have decided that I need to prime at least the body before painting.

Started adding fairing at the front of the sail panels to keep air from getting in and causing the back glass to act as a parachute so to speak. A lot of Nascar racers did this to make the cars more aerodynamic. Also added the rear spoiler.

Dave, from what you started with you have done a magnificent job of cleaning up. A lot of people would not know you started with a 3d printed build.

Glad you conquered it, Bruce. Looks awesome. When will we see this excellent build in the showroom? That small version of Dan adds so much to the build.

Bruce, looks like you did a great job on the foil. How did you get it to stick?

Thanks, Kevin. It's still not quite right but I need to move on and not make this into another Camaro build. At least the hood seals to grille. Thanks, Carl. I always wanted a 70 through 72 Monte Carlo with a 454 back then, used of course. I found a 70 in north Houston and as I was driving up to the guys house, I see it pulling away. I stopped and the guy told me he had just sold it. I can't remember what the selling price was, but I was prepared to go higher with the cash I had on me. I ended up later buying a brand new 78 Monte Carlo which was a total dud of a car. It was the first year of the downsized version. Had a 305 in it and so much pollution equipment on it, it could hardly get out of its own way. We were actually buying it for my wife to drive. I had a 76 Laguna S-3 with a 350 2 barrel carb which was also a dud. But it looked real racy because that was what they used in Nascar back then till Nascar outlawed it because of the aero dynamic nose. Then GM drivers switched to The Olds Cutlass and the big Monte Carlo.

Thats it? You'd think there would be many more. You almost have that many that you have scratch built. I'm guessing "Sports Car Graphic" but have no idea what issue. Sometime after that car won the Indy 500. 1965, maybe?

Simply WOW, Chris. This build is so perfect it's blowing my mind. How do you make it so clean and perfect? Is that a decal on the nose or did you paint it? Either way it's perfect.

Wow, that's some extreme close-up shots you have there, John. No way I could work with parts that small.

Thank you so much, John. It just bugs me when a kit could be engineered correctly, and it doesn't get done by the model maker. Thanks again.

I just had to add some very small amounts of putty to the front of the hood and I think I will be through with the front of the build. now it's on to the fairing around the front of the sail panels and adding the rear spoiler in the correct location. After that I can think about painting again.

Thanks, Donato. It's been dicey getting the hood to seal against the grille, but I think I finally have it the best I can get it with what I'm working with. I'm going to do a complete mockup with body frame and tub just to make sure it's all going to go together correctly. I'm glad to see the spell check is working again.

The outer outline of the grille is not chrome so the white I added will be the same color as the outline material which will be aluminum. Will dark wash the grille to fill in the background and make the mesh stand out. Hopefully the mesh is not too tiny to do this. My spell check keeps telling me no suggestions. Is this happening to everybody else? I kinda like that feature since I don't type very well.

Got some more stuff done to the front end of the build and think it will turn out okay when all is said and done. I have decided not to prime this build. I watched a guy on a you tube video painting with Createx paint and he just roughed up the body with the hercules cloth and went straight to paint and got spectacular results. I have heard before that you don't really have to prime for acrylic paint unless the original body is cast in a dark color. It would be great to leave out a step in doing this build. I hate to have to prime and sand.