Replica of Dad's 66' Pontiac Lemans

[Snoopy47]

So, here is my current project. I am building this 1/25 Revell 66' GTO to replicate the 66' Lemans that my Dad bought new in 66. His cars' original color was Reef Turquoise with a black vinyl top. A year or so after he bought the car new, he dropped in a full race BBC 427 that he got from a drag racing buddy of his. Dad added some chrome reversed wheels with red-line tires, and M/T valve covers. His car also came from the factory with a 4-speed, bucket seats and console. 

So far, I have ordered the exact GM code Reef Turquoise paint, vinyl top kit, BBC engine, headers, M/T valve covers (3D model specialties-Shapeways), chrome reversed wheels and red-line tires for this kit. 

I would like to find a "Lemans" flat hood, does anyone know where I can get that?

I will post my updates as I go along. So far as pictured this is as far as I have gotten. Waiting for the paint, engine and vinyl top kit to come in. Still have quite a bit of body work to do in the mean time.
 

Here is a picture of Dad's car in 1968/69.

 

Edited March 26, 2019 by Snoopy47

[fordf-100]

For the hood I'm not sure if there is a resin one but one of the last AMT/ MPC 67 GTO's (I think red on the box)has a flat hood with a couple holes in it that might be able to fit with a little work. I'll try and post pics when I get home.

[Snoopy47]

That would be great! Thank you.

[eleanor_350]

I'm actually working on converting an AMT 65 GTO to replicate a Lemans my dad owned back in the 90's.  I don't have any pictures of it but I have the hood basically done.  I cut the scoop out of the GTO hood and pieced in a section from a parts box hood being careful to replicate the peak that runs the length of the Lemans hood.  I think the piece I used to fill the hole was cut out of the top of a cowl induction hood from a 69 Camaro if I remember correctly.  Seems like it closely matched the curvature of the GTO hood and had a fairly pronounced peak with a enough extra plastic to file and blend in.  I still need to come up with a piece of trim to replicate the Lemans hood ornament.

 

 

[Snoopy47]

Do you have any pics of your work? Sounds like the same kind of thing I will have to do. Thanks,

[Brutalform]

Looking good so far Zack. That body looks nice in primer. 

Did you scribe the panel lines? Or are that molded that deep. Either way it looks good. 

 

[kelson]

This should be good,i'm interested in seeing how you do the conversion on the taillights.

[rickcaps55]

21 hours ago, Snoopy47 said:

So, here is my current project. I am building this 1/25 Revell 66' GTO to replicate the 66' Lemans that my Dad bought new in 66. His cars' original color was Reef Turquoise with a black vinyl top. A year or so after he bought the car new, he dropped in a full race BBC 427 that he got from a drag racing buddy of his. Dad added some chrome reversed wheels with red-line tires, and M/T valve covers. His car also came from the factory with a 4-speed, bucket seats and console. 

So far, I have ordered the exact GM code Reef Turquoise paint, vinyl top kit, BBC engine, headers, M/T valve covers (3D model specialties-Shapeways), chrome reversed wheels and red-line tires for this kit. 

I would like to find a "Lemans" flat hood, does anyone know where I can get that?

I will post my updates as I go along. So far as pictured this is as far as I have gotten. Waiting for the paint, engine and vinyl top kit to come in. Still have quite a bit of body work to do in the mean time.
 

Here is a picture of Dad's car in 1968/69.

 

Wow.! I'm doing a 67 my dad had a 67 the same color with the black top the only thing deferent he had the OHC-6 this was the car I took my drivers test on in june of 67 .!

[Snoopy47]

17 hours ago, Brutalform said:

Looking good so far Zack. That body looks nice in primer. 

Did you scribe the panel lines? Or are that molded that deep. Either way it looks good. 

 

Thanks Tom. No I haven't yet but I will slightly. This build will be a special one for me. I really want to take my time and cover all the details.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Snoopy47

[Snoopy47]

14 hours ago, kelson said:

This should be good,i'm interested in seeing how you do the conversion on the taillights.

Hahahaha, me too Curtis. I have no clue how to do the taillights just yet. Should be fun.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Snoopy47

[Snoopy47]

4 hours ago, rickcaps55 said:

Wow.! I'm doing a 67 my dad had a 67 the same color with the black top the only thing deferent he had the OHC-6 this was the car I took my drivers test on in june of 67 .!

That's awesome Rick!   I would LOVE to find a 1:1 to replicate but that would take a lot of money that I don't have, LOL.

Edited March 27, 2019 by Snoopy47

[fordf-100]

On 3/26/2019 at 11:48 AM, fordf-100 said:

For the hood I'm not sure if there is a resin one but one of the last AMT/ MPC 67 GTO's (I think red on the box)has a flat hood with a couple holes in it that might be able to fit with a little work. I'll try and post pics when I get home.

This is the hood i was talking about, has two small holes that need filled and the peak in the center might need extended. Also it might need a little modification to fit the Revell body. Also here is a pic of a 67 Lemans I did, I also want to do a 66 as I had one when I was a lot younger!!!!

[Snoopy47]

16 hours ago, fordf-100 said:

This is the hood i was talking about, has two small holes that need filled and the peak in the center might need extended. Also it might need a little modification to fit the Revell body. Also here is a pic of a 67 Lemans I did, I also want to do a 66 as I had one when I was a lot younger!!!!

NICE!!! That looks like it may work perfectly. Now, I have to figure out something for the tail lights. How did you convert those from GTO to Lemans? 

[espo]

With just the two small holes in the hood you could use some scraps of spruce from the kit and fill the holes with that. With a very little body filler and a little sanding it should work perfectly. 

[fordf-100]

35 minutes ago, Snoopy47 said:

NICE!!! That looks like it may work perfectly. Now, I have to figure out something for the tail lights. How did you convert those from GTO to Lemans? 

The 67 was pretty easy compared to a 66. I ended up scratchbuilding them out of bits of stock. I should have put more time into the taillights as they are not that great. I may redo them someday. The only idea I can think of for 66 taillights would be to obviously smooth/fill in the GTO taillights and see if you could find a round part or round stock that you could match up to the radius in the outside end of the taillight panel then cut a pie shape out of the circle and sand to shape. It would be really nice if you could find a "ribbed" air cleaner or something that had concentric ribs/rings on it. A custom taillight lens might also work! 

[rickcaps55]

2 hours ago, Snoopy47 said:

NICE!!! That looks like it may work perfectly. Now, I have to figure out something for the tail lights. How did you convert those from GTO to Lemans? 

Hi that's the hood I used for the 67 Tempest I'm doing but it's to small for the Rev 66 I'm also doing a 66 I just cut out the hood scoop and filled it in and used a small piece of evergreen plastic strip to make the center line. I have also done a 64 Tempest and a 68 Tempest. here are some pic's of the 68 and 64.

[Tom Geiger]

A project on my to-do list.  My father also bought a 1966 Lemans 2 door hardtop new!  His was midnight blue, with a white bucket interior. 326 with a 4 speed.  It was our only family car.  My dad was in the military and no sooner took delivery of this car, then got orders for Izmir, Turkey.   So that's where the Lemans ended up.  He drove it there for the 2 1/2 years and then sold it to a rich Turk when we left!  

Back when that '66 GTO kit was new, I had prodded Bob Korunow of Model Car Garage to do a photo etch set for Lemans / Tempest.  The tough part for the Lemans will be the front fender gill trim and the rear tail lights and bright panel.   I'll be watching to see how you make out!

Edited March 28, 2019 by Tom Geiger

[eleanor_350]

On 3/26/2019 at 3:48 PM, Snoopy47 said:

Do you have any pics of your work? Sounds like the same kind of thing I will have to do. Thanks,

Sorry, haven't checked the forum in a couple of days so I just saw your message.  I'll try to remember to snap a couple of pictures tonight and upload them.  Although, it looks like the hood shown above from the AMT/MPC 67 GTO would be a lot less work even if you have to add some plastic strips to the edges to enlarge it to fit the Revel body.  I didn't know about that hood in the '67 kit or I would have looked into that for my project.

[eleanor_350]

Finally remembered to snap some pictures of the modified hood. I haven'tfinished the bottom yet which shows how much of the original hood I replaced.

[espo]

The hood looks perfect. I like the "post" body style. 

[Snoopy47]

That looks great! Thanks for sharing.

[Snoopy47]

Well, I am still wrestling with the idea of keeping this as a GTO or converting to a Lemans. Right now I am thinking of just making the GTO look as close to my Dad's Lemans as I can and call it good. I received the actual GM paint for the original Reef Turquoise and so far it is a perfect match. I LOVE this color!

1966	Pontiac	GTO	K	Reef Turquoise

Paint Manufacturer Codes
PPG/Ditzler : 43364
Dupont : 4628L, 4628, 181-97217, 97217
Acme/Rogers : 9664
Sherwin Williams : 2423
RM/BASF : A1718

Here's what I have done on the interior so far. Still have paint the door/window handle knobs black and a few other details.

 

 

I got the redline tires in today but I realized the tires I ordered are 1:24 and the car is 1:25 so, they fill up the wheel-well a little too much I think. What do you guys think?

[espo]

Back in the day every one went up at least 1 or 2 sizes anyway so I'd use them. If you change your mind later it wouldn't be that hard to change them. 

[eleanor_350]

On 4/7/2019 at 9:56 AM, Snoopy47 said:

Well, I am still wrestling with the idea of keeping this as a GTO or converting to a Lemans. Right now I am thinking of just making the GTO look as close to my Dad's Lemans as I can and call it good.

 

That's what I'm doing with my 65 GTO/Lemans conversion.  I'm getting as close as I can to the Lemans look but I'm not sweating every little detail.  I built a replica of a Fairlane my dad owned a few years ago and went all out on replicating every little detail specific to his car.  It was fun at first coming up with ideas to add to it but once I started there was no end.  I was burned out by the time I finished it.

[Tom Geiger]

The Model Car Garage photo etch set for the 1967 GTO has some Tempest and LeMans emblems. 

Note that LeMans is separate letters spelled out on the quarter panel on the '66 though.  This car in blue is what my father had.