1972 Pontiac GTO

[95neon]

Well I took a 2 month vacation from this build, but I'm back at it and the goat is almost done

thanks for all the compliments, Charlie that is a great idea, maybe someday I'll attempt a bash like that but my skills aren't there just yet, 

Raoul, the bumper situation is puzzling, I'd like to build one of the '88 issued 70 goats, it's nice to know it doesn't have this problem but yes that is weird

 

alright so I got the front wheel spindles moved on the '72, so the front wheels are now in their correct locations, I moved the rear wheels but they're still too far back, I need to drill holes way farther forward

under the hood, the motor is installed and complete, no fancy detailing here, I figured it would be a waste on this kit

next up: cut up the back bumper, move the rear wheels, foil the door handles and done!

[Dogfish_7]

Lookin gooood!

[95neon]

Thanks Bruce!

i just started hacking away at the bumper, I don't have a razor saw so I use an old sawzall blade held in my hand,

im removing about 3/32 from each side. I couldn't cut it down the middle because then the license plate panel wouldn't look right

[95neon]

My fingers are now all superglued together, but the bumper is chopped and drying. 

Next I'll cover it in foil and trim the taillights

[louie]

Looking good. Absolutely love the subject and is on my ( really soon )  list to build. Thanks for sharing.      Jeff 

[Can-Con]

I have 2 of those bumpers cut down and mounted on my tree that's being sent of for replating.

One of the red '70 bumpers and one from the last issue of the '72. They are different bumpers but I really didn't notice one being any wider that the other.

[95neon]

Thank you for the compliments Jeff!  I can't wait to see your build, while this kit is junk it is still a beautiful car. 

Dan, yes this kit is garbage, good to know about the street custom, I think spotlight hobbies has it on sale, my next '72 will be from that issue

I'm still working on the bumper and taillights but I did manage to move the rear wheels, I ended up ditching the metal axle and just gluing the wheels to the car with superglue. The rear tires supplied in this reissue are waayy to big for the wheel wells, making it hard to center the wheels. 

I just picked up the revell '69 nova today so I'm eager to get this gto finished and move on to greener pastures...

[Bob Ellis]

Sorry you are having problems with this 72 GTO.

I built the 1971 and 1972 when they were new. Got them at Woolworths for 99 cents ant the end of the year. Didn't have much money so 99 cents was more than a half hours wage back then.

I never had any problems building them back then and the rear bumpers fit perfect. I can only guess that MPC and ERTL modified the tool greatly. I have recently compared the originals to recent Round2 issues, and you are correct, they don't fit. I tried slicing both sides of the trunk and pulling the sides in. Modelhaus bumpers seem better than the recent kit.

This kit became a Street Funny, NASCAR, Modified Stocker,backdated 1970, re-updated 1972 and whatever over 40+ years. Something happened to that kit, somehow. It is what it is, and that's the only 1972 GTO you will find in 1/25.

 

[Bob Ellis]

Just for chuckles, I decided to dig out all of the variations of the MPC '72 GTOs that I had, from the annual to the latest Round2 version.

I compared the rear bumpers. The overhang on the annual body was minimal. Looked okay. All the bumpers appeared the same width from the annual to the Round2 version.

Then I decided that the problem was the body, not the bumper. I checked the fit on the 1980 reissue by MPC. It fit fine. I checked the fit on the Round2 issue and the bumper stuck out way to far. I realized it was a body problem. Everybody that has had a complaint about building a 1972 GTO recently is correct; something is seriously wrong with the body and bumper situation.

I compared the body of the 1980 issue to the body of a recent Round2 issue. Voila, it becomes obvious. They are different. Nothing is the same. Even the cowl tray that was added by MPC after the annual run is a different pattern than the Round2 issue. The vent opening on the side of the front fenders is a different shape too. I like to compare the inside of kit bodies. You can see where the engineers design the vents and travels for the plastic when it is filled with plastic. These two bodies, MPC and Round2 are totally different inside. I am guessing that Round2 uses the same cavity of the tool, but the engraving has been redone.

It is a problem is mixing old parts with new parts. I think the bumper is basically the same, but the body is different. The old kit from 1972 was fine.

The only way to really tackle the problem is slicing the new Round2 '72 GTO at the trunk lines, pry the body wider and then fill with Evergreen styrene. If you have already painted the body that won't work. You need to re-start or get another body to fix.

 

[Can-Con]

That's very intresting Bob. I knew they did a new body after running the '70 sometime in the later '80s but never thought about comparing for width. I had always thought the bumper was too wide right from day 1 with the first '70 annual.

 

Thanks for discovering this little bit of very useful info.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Can-Con

[Can-Con]

Hi Bob: i'm thinking the 1972 GTO annual body finally ended up as the 1970 GTO Super Stocker #77 car and a new body mold was cut for the current 1972 GTO. Besides having an all-new mold core, just about everything on the current body shell is different from the 71/72 annual except the front fascia/bumper/front lower pan and the hood outer.

I don't think that's quite right. 

The red early '80s issue of the '72 used the same body as the clear bodied Pearson nascar.  You can tell because the inside of the body's polished. Same with the late '80s issue of the '70. 

Looks to me that the '72 was backdated to the '70 and then a new body was created for the '72 sometime in the mid to late '90s. 

[Dandy Dan]

The 1972 GTO annual body ended up here VVV. And i already said that a new body was cut for the current 1972 GTO reissue.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Dandy Dan

[Bob Ellis]

I thought about the modified stocker and NASCAR but didn't mention it. I also did not mention the '70 body, but I checked the bumpers on it earlier, and they were fine like the original '72.

I am still not sure where the original '72 body went, but the current one is an imposter. All your theories are possible.

[Can-Con]

Um, Yes Dan, a new body was cut for the current '72. It's not the same body used for the '80s issue of the '72. 

 

Not sure how to explain this,, but,, 

 

The Super Stocker kit was first issued way back in the early '70s. Way before the kits in question in this thread. 

Don't know if you're aware of this or not but there was a seprate '70 done by MPC back in 1970 or so. It and a '69 Firebird hardtop were done curbside style with thin wire axels to race down ramps, kinda like 1/25 scale Hotwheels cars. I understand both were quite rare.

I suspect that's where the body for the super stocker came from as there's no evidence that the wheel openings were repaired on either the red '72 or the '90s '70 issues. 

BUT, if you have the super stocker issue [I don't] you could check the inside of the body to see if any tooling marks match any of the other issues or if it's polished inside.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Can-Con

[Dandy Dan]

Con-Con : There was no need to 'repair wheel openings' from having run the 1971 GTO Street Funny nor the 1970 GTO Super Stocker. All that needed to be done to enlarge the wheelhouses for those issues was to build up the core to seal off to the outer body mold section in a different place. Then, as in the case of the 1971 Street Funny, buzz the extra weld off the core to run the 1972 promos and annuals. The outer quarter panels did not need to be altered to enlarge the rear wheelhouse openings.

As far as the Fast Pack GTO and Grand Prix goes: those bodies were made when the mold was still set up to run promo bodies and before the core was changed to run kit bodies. The promo, the Fast Pack bodies and the kit bodies all came from the same mold.

 

 

[Can-Con]

So, if you're right , then they repaired the inside part of the body mold after running the racecar versions and polished it out again?  

What I'm saying Dan is there's no evidence of any tampering on the inside of the bodys at all that I can see but if you're right then you're right. I'm not gonna argue with you about it.Really not worth it to me

But you could at least spell my handle right  

Edited March 6, 2016 by Can-Con

[louie]

I've been following this discussion with great interest. I say this in the upmost positive way as I am definitely learning a lot more about this and previous kits of the 70 - 72 GTO. Also, really like the pictures of the past kits. Really good stuff.  Thank you.    Jeff 

[Bob Ellis]

The plot thickens. It's not at all as I imagined. Some of you have enlightened me. I was also suspicious that the Round2 chassis was supplied with screws to hold it together. So, I look for more answers.

I have 3 annual '72 GTO originals, 1 '72 GTO by MPC issued in 1980, 1 '70 GTO MPC issued in 1987 and a bunch of later Round2 reissues. I inspect the insides. Only the 1972 issued in 1980 and the 1970 issued in 1987 are the same inside. The original and the reissues resemble nothing of the other. The original and the Round2 reissues have screw hole chassis posts and post locations for the interior. The "REMOVE" of the 1972 issue in 1980 has a different remove than the 1972 from Round2. All 2 have the same frame having a location for the 1966-67 funny car driver seat. The original 1972 and the Round2 1972 have glass where the front and rear are connected and have location holes at the rear.

What does this all mean? There are 3 unique 1972 bodies.

I figure this. The original body got ruined when it became a NASCAR and then a Modified Stocker. MPC before ERTL in 1980 decided to build a new 1972 body. They separated the glass front and rear during the racing issues. So the glass became 2 pieces. In 1985-87, MPC decided to make a 1970 again. They had all the tool inserts for the special parts of the 1970. Later ERTL or Round2 wants a 1972 again, but the body is a 1970.They have all the 1972 special parts tool and decide to make another 1972 body.

The original body is probably a modified stocker now. The second body is probably a 1970, but maybe they lost the 1970 parts that go with it. It's been missing for 28 years, like the 1971 Roadrunner. And finally, there is the 3rd 1972 body recently in use.

It seem obvious nobody at ERTL or Round2 ever built or admitted to building one of these recent 1972s. They would have reconfigured the rear bumper so that we would not be talking about it now. But now the bumper problem solved.

Can a creative modeler fix it? Absolutely. Just a little more work and the result will look good. It's your only chance to get a 1972.