ea0863

Quick shout out to @Straightliner59 for much of the inspiration of this build...

The story goes that Larry Erickson designed and Boyd Coddington built the Aluma Coupe originally with an American powerplant in mind. When Mitsubishi sidled up for a project to showcase their products, somebody had the brilliant idea to drop a two liter four cylinder Eclipse motor in the trunk - which angered the hot rod gods. Marcel DeLay fashioned the lithe body out of aluminum, and thus was born the Aluma Coupe. Fast forward a few years, and rich car collector David Sydorick bought the car to show off at obligatory Saturday morning "Cars and Coffee". Only problem was, this was the heyday of JDM sports cars, not to mention American beasts such as the C5 Corvette, Dodge Viper, and Ford GT. So, practically at every stop light, the Aluma Coupe was left in the dust of some quicker and faster car. So, Sydorick pulled out his checkbook, and the project was underway for the "Angry" Aluma Coupe you see below. The motor was to be a Scale Repro's Plus top fuel dragster creation. The decision was made to put this motor up front, both because of favorable weight distribution, and also to show off this gorgeous hunk of American iron. That may have meant moving the firewall back, and a little less legroom for the passengers, but hey - life is all about priorities... The interior came out no less sexy with its bare transmission and new tunnel - so much so that the owner seriously considered making the car into a roadster. Cooler heads prevailed though, and the signature roof of the Aluma Coupe was left in place. Together with some rims and truly meaty rear tires from an AMT Nova Pro Street, it hit the road to embarrass all who dared challenge its dominance of speed. Only minor problem was that right from its maiden outing, the freaking thing was so fast that it started to strip the yellow paint right off the car! There was some talk of going with some blingy vinyl wrap, but in the end, the decision was made to leave it alone and let the beauty of the original hammered aluminum body shine through. Whether indoors or out, with hood on or removed, Aluma Coupe was a poseur no more. Now, of course, you can look up the specifics of "Angry" Aluma Coupe for yourself. However, please note this is my story and I'm sticking to it!

I found some Scotch 3M Foil Tape # 3311 at Autozone, and have been using it instead of BMF for a while. I like it because it's just a bit thicker and goes on smoother. And, it's cheaper to boot.

Loving it. More chrome the better!

Fantastic in every view, but the engine compartment is out of this world!

Great paint on a great body, but that engine is WAY cool!

Just wonderful Tim, and thank you for bringing it back to original. For some reason, it just seems apropos.

Es ist wunderbar!

Thanks Jeremy. Luckily the decals will be easy to replicate. As for the safety glasses, I picked up a couple extra as I can see me using the louver section in the future for other builds.

Just a little update; I picked the model up today to show it to my wife, and the "Howmet II" decals literally crumbled in my hands. Apparently, the decals were new-old-stock, so for those looking to build this kit - - - extra caution. I will personally be using this as a learning moment to use Micro Sol and Micro Set in the future...

I'm loving watching your build Mattias!

Beautiful! It looks like a Futura resto-mod.

Your carbon fiber work is spectacular! I know how difficult it is to do, especially on such complex surfaces as the dash. Well done!

This paint and stripe combo came out perfect! I see ones running around my neighborhood from time to time, and they are stunning vehicles - - - but as you say, almost all are Ford blue.

Very interesting build Ismo. I'll be looking forward to your progress.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed Jeremy! I love the green, now hopefully it lays down nice for you.

Thank you Carl. I had a lot of fun using my new vacuum forming machine to make the windshield. Also, the rear glass was quite fun to cobble together from an unlikely source...

Suhweet ride! Well done

Here is my interpretation of the Howmet turbine; mostly the MPC Howmet II, along with inspirations for the rear glass and extra parts from the Howmet I, and a few tidbits from other racers of that era. Oh, and a paintjob stolen straight from the beautiful car done by @aurfalien and shown on this forum. I hope he considers imitation as the greatest form of flattery! Anyone looking for information on this MPC kit or my build, check out the WIP section under the same title as this post. And I double-dog-dare you to figure out what the real glass was made from without checking out the WIP! As always, feel free to critique as you see fit, and thank you for your interest.

The MPC kit also had a number of parts from their Howmet I kit of yore, including a second set of exhaust tips, additional dash, spare tire, front bonnet, rear grill, etc. From these spares, I repurposed a set of rear lights to use as sideview mirrors. I then placed Howmet I rear lights on my build. Finally, I added a pair of flip-top gas caps to my quarterpanels. Thus was borne my Howmet rev 2.0 - a combination of the Howmet I and II, with a little outside influence thrown in. I will be posting the finished product on the Models page forthwith...

Finally, I decided my Can Am racer needed a windshield like the Chapparals of that era. To that end, I sprung for a dental vacuum forming machine from Amazon. I made a mold from wood and made my own windshield. I gotta say, what a ton of fun!

Next up, I tried another technique new-to-me by adding rivets to the body and scribed front bonnet. I used a Trumpeter/Revell rivet making tool with some success. This tool of course makes embossed "rivets" that are concave on the surface. Thus it uses visual trickery to make the surface look like rivets. I would have loved to use the techniques employed by @Pg265 in building his Dan Gurney Weslake racer, but I do not have the skills, eyesight, or patience for such stunning work!!! So, for me, this tool was good enough.

With each of my new builds, I have been trying to learn some new technique. In this case, I wanted to wear down the tire treads and used a jig described online at

The interior got a little extra love with miscellaneous tidbits from other kits on the dash.

The chassis was quite beautifully rendered in the kit, and very detailed in the areas of front subframe, rear subframe, and suspension. The instructions left a little to be desired, thus I relied on other builds documented online - not the least of which was our own @aurfalien who built a gorgeous version of the Howmet II. A big shout-out to him for his photos, because without them, I would have had a lot more trouble figuring out how the front and rear subframes went together! The subframe and chassis got Testors one coat lacquer in bronze. I used only mist coats, and skipped the final wet coat so as to leave the grainy effect of powder coating. I relocated the battery (here shown in black) from the front clip to the rear. Instructions showed it in the front, but there it interfered with the location of the front sway bar. I noted that the tie rod ends were connected with one bar, and this bar was too short. It caused the front tires to toe-in way too much, thus I cut and elongated it. What a dainty - but beautiful - substructure!