1975 Monza--Completed 12/25/2018

[espo]

I'm not a big fan of big body stripes so my opinion should be discounted here. The two Green stripes give the appearance of fish scales, and I'm not sure that is what you're thinking of. Either of the other two could be interesting with the body color showing thru. The wheels look perfect for this type and size of car and I really like how you did the finish on them. Now that I see it I like the Green color, this will be a great looking build which ever way you go.  

[Snake45]

1 minute ago, espo said:

The two Green stripes give the appearance of fish scales, and I'm not sure that is what you're thinking of.

That was a semi-common custom paint technique from about the same time as lace, spiderwebbing, and so forth, so I'd say that was exactly what he was going for.

[Straightliner59]

Thank you,  espo! Snake, you are correct, sir! I was attempting to do something that might have come from that period. I try to keep my models mostly anachronism free!

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

Thank you,  espo! Snake, you are correct, sir! I was attempting to do something that might have come from that period. I try to keep my models mostly anachronism free!

I think of lace, cobwebbing and fish-scaling as more of a late '60s-early '70s thing, but there's no reason someone couldn't/wouldn't have done it in the mid/late '70s. It wouldn't have been as out of place as, say, '50s-style scallops on a Monza. 

[Straightliner59]

I think of where I lived in the formative years of my love for cars, where the trends were about 5-7 years behind what they were, nationally. Yep! I grew up in the middle of nowhere!grin But, yes, I agree, those graphics were much more popular a few years prior, although they both hung on through the "van years" as HRM once called them. I still have the opportunity to make new graphics. I seriously considered doing a variation on the stripes from Chevy musclecars...something a little more plain, like Chevelle or Camaro SS stripes, or Z/28 stripes, like this:

Edited July 4, 2018 by Straightliner59

[Straightliner59]

A "little something" I'm working on. I didn't want to use the kit piece pictured (I'm pretty sure it's from a Johan Roadrunner), because I wanted a little more detail. I folded filed and sanded a piece of aluminum sheet to make the top handle, and flattened, and sanded to shape, the actuator handle. The valve body is a piece of 1/16" aluminum tubing, filed flat on two sides, and drilled for the hose nipple and on the near flat side for the gauge. I think I will also add a megaphone end to the hose, also. Still to come, the mounting bracket, once this is all put together, and it's decaled.

[Straightliner59]

As soon as the decals are dry, and the gauge is painted, this baby will be done. I used a 1/8" ball-ended mill bit to dish the bottom, since that will likely be visible when it's mounted.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Straightliner59

[espo]

The kit provided Fire Extinguisher looks very nice, but yours looks outstanding. Very impressive work. This stripe thing, again please take this with a grain of salt, depending just how dominant you want these to be, I have seen some Chevelles and Camaros  with one wide stripe centered on the hood and rear deck lid. Maybe you could cut up some masking tap and simulate different stripe shapes on the body before committing to any one design. I really like that Extinguisher.

[Snake45]

On 7/4/2018 at 4:38 PM, Straightliner59 said:

I think of where I lived in the formative years of my love for cars, where the trends were about 5-7 years behind what they were, nationally. Yep! I grew up in the middle of nowhere!grin But, yes, I agree, those graphics were much more popular a few years prior, although they both hung on through the "van years" as HRM once called them. I still have the opportunity to make new graphics. I seriously considered doing a variation on the stripes from Chevy musclecars...something a little more plain, like Chevelle or Camaro SS stripes, or Z/28 stripes, like this:

Black stripes might look good on that green paint. The stripes might also look hella in Testor Lime Ice flake, if you'd care to lay out the masking and paint them. 

[Straightliner59]

First of all, Snake and espo, thanks for your input regarding the stripes! Your thoughts led me to almost decide to go with no stripes, at all. However, my vision for the car, when I decided on green for the color was a single stripe of scales, although I was thinking more along the lines of snakeskin. It finally dawned on me--"Isn't the green mamba one of the deadliest?" I had my answer, although it also gave me a whole new line of thought to consider! So, as of now, I'm going with the darker set of scales, because I think they will show up better than the lighter ones, and I really don't expect them to be too obtrusive. I really appreciate your feedback!

[Straightliner59]

Here's what I am going to do with the headlights. I am opening up the Monza's bezels, and cutting the "buckets" from the backside of the headlights from Monogram's Pro Street Thunderbird. The T-Bird's buckets will be cemented to the rear of the Monza's bezels, and the lenses from the T-Bird fitted to the headlight assembly. I am looking for another headlight from the T-Bird this one came from, to no avail. At any rate, after digging through every body parts box I could find, and through boxes of parts kits, I am sorry to say, Rick, that I apparently no longer have the hood I was hoping to find for you. Would anyone happen to have a set of headlights for the Monogram Pro-Street T-Bird? The first-generation T-Bird Pro Stock kits have them, as well. I'm sure we could work out a trade, or I could buy them, outright. As many of those damned kits as I had, I can't believe I can only find ONE headlight unit, and it was assembled and painted. I know I didn't do that! Anyway, if anyone can help me out, I would greatly appreciate it!

[Can-Con]

This might be helpful with your headlights. Square headlights are actually pretty easy to make.

All you need to do to make the reflectors is make some square boxes of the needed size and shape like so ,, 

 

Cover them with that thick aluminim foil they use for heating ducts and polish it with a Q-tip in a dremmell tool at low speed with a small amount of polishing compound. 

Going slowly with light pressure will work the foil into the square shape and form the reflector for the back of your headlight. I've done this to make reflectors for square and round headlights as well as oddly shaped tail lights a few times. 

Lenses can then easily be cut to shape from clear sheet and prism lines added with a ruler and the back of an x-acto knife. 

The lenses on my T/A below are supposed to represent the one-peice units of an '87-/90 Caprice but you get the idea.

Edited July 9, 2018 by Can-Con

[Straightliner59]

Perfect! Thank you, Steve. one of those "Why didn't I think of that?!" moments. Those look excellent!

[Can-Con]

Happy to help out. 

[mlomaka]

Whats funny is I used the head lights from the pro street Camaro kit & they fit right. Great job so far!

 

Mike

[cobraman]

Really nice work going on here !

[Straightliner59]

Thank you, Mike and Ray. I'm using Steve's method to make the front turn signals/parking lights, as well. First I built the form to create the reflector "pans" for the headlights, etc. Then I used tooling aluminum to create the pans.  I discovered that it would likely be difficult to assemble three pieces just to make the reflective backs for the turn signals. So, I formed a piece of the tooling aluminum over the model's parking light. I then measured where the pan for the turn signal should be, and, using the form, created the dish where the amber bulb sits. I stretched some amber sprue, then melted end after end of it, to make a supply of bulbs. I'm not sure if I'll use them yet, or see if I can find/figure out something else. I found a pair of lenses in my spares that should work beautifully, once they are fully sanded, polished and shaped to fit. Thanks again, Steve. That's an awesome way to make lights! More, as the story develops!

I've also attached a couple of photos of the painted body on the wheels with the interior in place. The completed fire bottle is visible in its bracket, between and behind the seats. Thanks for looking, guys!

[Can-Con]

Looks good Daniel. 

And again, glad to help.

[Oldcarfan27]

On 7/9/2018 at 8:23 AM, Can-Con said:

This might be helpful with your headlights. Square headlights are actually pretty easy to make.

All you need to do to make the reflectors is make some square boxes of the needed size and shape like so ,, 

 

Cover them with that thick aluminim foil they use for heating ducts and polish it with a Q-tip in a dremmell tool at low speed with a small amount of polishing compound. 

Going slowly with light pressure will work the foil into the square shape and form the reflector for the back of your headlight. I've done this to make reflectors for square and round headlights as well as oddly shaped tail lights a few times. 

Lenses can then easily be cut to shape from clear sheet and prism lines added with a ruler and the back of an x-acto knife. 

The lenses on my T/A below are supposed to represent the one-peice units of an '87-/90 Caprice but you get the idea.

That's a GREAT idea! And the best part is, once you have the buck, you can make as many headlight buckets as you want - no more searching for the right headlights in the parts box or having to buy a certain kit just to pluck it's "eyeballs" out! Make molds for the lenses and resin copy them and you'll never run out of realistic headlights again.

You know that old saying "give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day"? Well, "give a man an idea for realistic headlights and he'll be set for life"!

[Straightliner59]

One down! I am pretty happy with the way this looks!  I'll never use any other method to do light assemblies again. I'm going to hit the edges of the lens with silver, to hide its thickness. There's no comparison to the plated original parts.

Edited July 15, 2018 by Straightliner59

[Snake45]

3 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

 I'm going to hit the edges of the lens with silver, to hide its thickness. 

 

White might work better. I use it on the end of the "stems" of headlights of diecasts and some models to avoid the beady google-eyes looks and it just makes that black center disappear. Might work for you in this case, I dunno, worth a try. 

[Straightliner59]

I think you may be right.

[rsxse240]

I usually edge all of my "glass" and clear Parts with black to add depth and hide the thickness of the lens.  You may, however be on to something with the silver.  It would carry the reflection bucket out to the edge of the lens.  What you have done so far is nothing short of amazing.

 

On a side note.  My method of making clear headlights to replace the chrome plated ones is to use filler/putty on the back side of the chrome headlights and shape it into a reflection bucket, then make a mold and cast it in clear resin.  Paint the back of the "bucket" chrome with a Molotow pen then drill a tiny hole and fill it with Amber or silver paint to represent bulbs. 

 

These are from my current project, SVO Mustang.  It came with chrome turn signals and clear headlamps.

Edited July 20, 2018 by rsxse240

[Straightliner59]

I usually edge all of my "glass" and clear Parts with black to add depth and hide the thickness of the lens.  You may, however be on to something with the silver.  It would carry the reflection bucket out to the edge of the lens.  What you have done so far is nothing short of amazing.

 

On a side note.  My method of making clear headlights to replace the chrome plated ones is to use filler/putty on the back side of the chrome headlights and shape it into a reflection bucket, then make a mold and cast it in clear resin.  Paint the back of the "bucket" chrome with a Molotow pen then drill a tiny hole and fill it with Amber or silver paint to represent bulbs. 

 

These are from my current project, SVO Mustang.  It came with chrome turn signals and clear headlamps.

 

Ken, those look great! I've always pretty much ignored the lights (Of course, building mostly fuel coupes, roadsters and dragsters, I haven't had to deal with a lot of them!), but, breaking parts down to their components works so well for everything else, I am not sure why I never really thought about it for lights, before. It's the only way to go! Thanks for your kind words, regarding the Monza!

[Art Laski]

Hey Dan! Just catching a glimpse of this build for the first time, and I'm totally diggin' it! There's a lot of nice work going on here, and I love the stance of this car. The wheels came out great as well. I love your drag cars, but cool to see you build something else too. I'll be following to the end!