1971 Pearson GTO

[Pierre Rivard]

3 hours ago, james220 said:

Looks lovely. The fender bulges the way you have them are the way to go. Doug Wythe's beautiful 69 Charger wheel wells were done that way. I've also seen it done that way on several other builds. Once the glue is added it makes for a strong finished product. Now I'm just asking but to me it looks as if the front fenders are dropped over the front end to give the car a lower front profile. I think you can see that in pictures of both #17 cars. Does anyone else see that are am I just old and crazy. I mocked up the AMT 72 Pontiac body and drooped the front fender assembly over the wheels and it looks right. You have made a great start and made me want to get my Pontiac out and finish it. 

James, thank you for the nice feedback. This is the first time I try to flare fenders and I just guessed my way into it and it worked our reasonably well.

The front sheetmetal is definitely dropped relative to a stock body but I did not feel capable of doing it properly, so I will give the car some lean on the chassis side instead. I got this pic from a fellow builder on Randy' site and it shows it clearly.

 

[james220]

Again you have performed some nice work on the Pontiac. What I did to drop the fenders was fairly simple, and it gives the car a nice look, was cut along the front of the door seam, I think the plastic remove from cutting was just enough to accomplish the look, and reglue the door seams. Add a little filler to the bottom seam and there you have it. it doesn't seem to affect the motor location and the droop looks good. Again nice work on the Pontiac. Pontiacs were some of my favorite cars. 

[Shark]

Earlier discussion on the chassis, just thinking and I don't have one to check with, but the AMT 1970 Monte Carlo might be a suitable back half with it's short truck arms.

[Pierre Rivard]

10 hours ago, Shark said:

Earlier discussion on the chassis, just thinking and I don't have one to check with, but the AMT 1970 Monte Carlo might be a suitable back half with it's short truck arms.

Thanks Todd, I happen to have one of them in my spares and the fit is good.

[Pierre Rivard]

Update on the chassis work. Here are 2 reference pictures from the build stage in Nichels' shop.

My take away is a H&M Galaxie style fabricated front end. Floorpan could be fabricated but I'll assume reinforced stock.

No information on the rear suspension. I'll go with assumption of a modified short arm.

Also taking note that the rear upper spring and shock mounts are not exposed but boxed in.

[Pierre Rivard]

Chassis will be a bit of a dog's breakfast with parts coming from various sources and some scratch building as well.

Starting at the front I grafted a Salvino's clip. Looks reasonably to a H&M setup except for the shocks which are more like what Nichels did on Dodges. I might keep it like that. It's a Nichels car after all...

 

[Pierre Rivard]

Spending lots of time setting track and ride heights. Here the front is still a bit high, I'll just bend it a bit before I add the upper structure.

The rear is not started yet, just the base kit metal axle. That'll get chopped up.

[Pierre Rivard]

Starting work on the rear end. The donor is the rear axle from the AMT Bobby Allison Monte Carlo. 

I will upgrade the components but for now it's all about setting the attachment points to get the proper location and mostly ride height,

I have 6 mm front and 8mm rear measured from ground to rocker

[Pierre Rivard]

Fabrication around the MC rear axle. I fabricated spring mounts and the springs are from the spares.

I added a styrene 0.5 x 1.5 mm for axle reinforcement and shock mounts brackets from the Salvino's kit.

Shocks scratch built from 1mm and 2mm rods. Diff cooling pump from the Salvino's kit

I chose not to do the 2 upper links for lateral control and chose to add a panhard rod.

 

[afx]

Nice fabrication.

[MarkJ]

This is the right way to go about this chassis. Better than taking a chassis from another kit and making it fit into the body. that would be more of a dog's breakfast then what you are doing. You have the ref photos right there to build off of . What could be better than that.

[Hobbyguy]

HI Pierre looking great so far I just finished mine .

[Bills72sj]

Cool project. Following.

[Pierre Rivard]

Thanks for the feedback guys. It's a bit more work than expected but a fun challenge nevertheless.

Nice GTO Hobbyguy, how did you make that net. It's very nice!

[DoctorLarry]

Pierre: I have used fiberglass window screen painted white with white pinstriping tape on the edges as well as gauze bandages with striping tape for window nets.

[yellowsportwagon]

Pierre this car had truck arms in the back. Was one of the first cars to use them along with Juniors Monte Carlos. Rob a truck arm set up out of a AMT Tbird kit and graft it in. Here’s mine.

[Pierre Rivard]

Thanks Tim. I had failed to find this info in my research and took the guess... and I guessed wrong. 

Chassis is all done so I have to make a decision about it. Leave it as a short arm knowing it's wrong, rip off the back end or shelve the project.

I'm a bit gutted but I'm glad you pointed out this major mistake of mine.

[yellowsportwagon]

2 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Thanks Tim. I had failed to find this info in my research and took the guess... and I guessed wrong. 

Chassis is all done so I have to make a decision about it. Leave it as a short arm knowing it's wrong, rip off the back end or shelve the project.

I'm a bit gutted but I'm glad you pointed out this major mistake of mine.

I was hoping you hadn’t glued it all together yet. Just leave it nobody will know. I’ve got plenty of builds with incorrect stuff. They still look great on the shelf

[Pierre Rivard]

10 hours ago, yellowsportwagon said:

I was hoping you hadn’t glued it all together yet. Just leave it nobody will know. I’ve got plenty of builds with incorrect stuff. They still look great on the shelf

Tim, I'm very happy you pointed me in the right direction and after a good night sleep I am fully in solution mode. I'll make the mods to a long arm setup.

Looking at your beautiful build I noticed  2 other things I was unaware of. Only 2 shocks in the rear and the arrangement of the engine oil vents. 

Thanks for the help

[yellowsportwagon]

41 minutes ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Tim, I'm very happy you pointed me in the right direction and after a good night sleep I am fully in solution mode. I'll make the mods to a long arm setup.

Looking at your beautiful build I noticed  2 other things I was unaware of. Only 2 shocks in the rear and the arrangement of the engine oil vents. 

Thanks for the help

It really probably had 4 rear shocks that’s my mistake! The biggest thing is the cylinder heads. These used a Ram Air V cylinder head which doesn’t have Siamesed center exhaust ports like all other Pontiac heads. I reshaped the ports on an AMT 90s Nascar Ford head to mimic the Pontiac heads.

Edited March 8, 2022 by yellowsportwagon

[MarkJ]

Pierre, check your private messages.

[Lowlife ! !]

 

Great work on this Pierre, thought the way you flared the arches out was very clever !

 

[Pierre Rivard]

While I am planning away on how to modify my chassis I decided to do a bit of an update on the interior.

I don't plan to use the kit's interior tub and will build up from the chassis floor.

I chiseled out the almost inexistent trend and driveshaft hump and built replacements from old MPC Nascar parts. Not accurate to the real car but I deem it to be "goodenuf"

For the roll cage I will start with unused Salvinos 70's Monte Carlo sides, shortened length wise.

Lately I have changed strategies with roll cages to build from the roof down rather than floor up. I'm trying to get a better contour relative to the roof and A-posts. I don't know if others do it that way...

What you see on the picture: I shortened the cage B post to allow a level cage but a match to the sweeping roof. I then taped the 2 sides inside the body where I want them and glued the forward roof cross bar to the sides (not to the roof lol). I then glued a temporary base to the cage to keep it all square.

 

[Pierre Rivard]

Roll cage has been pulled out and I trimmed and glued the rear roof cross bar. The hard part is done.

 

[Pierre Rivard]

The next 3 pics show how I plan to do the rear of cage horizontal and diagonal cross bars.

I placed the cage on a piece of paper to draw the shape. I then drew the location of the horizontal bars. The upper one at belt line level and the lower one to clear the floor driveshaft hump. Then the diagonal bars were sketched.

Then I cut and glued together the pieces from 1.6 mm Evergreen.

I made sure to make the pieces longer than desired where the contacts to the cage will be. I will trim and adjust at the assembly stage.

Allowing the night for these sub assemblies glue to harden.