1988 Pontiac, Neil Bonnett

[Ben269]

I was watching several of the 1988 races on youtube while building the Bobby Allison Buick, and decided I liked the Valvoline Pontiac driven by Neil Bonnett.  Cool car, and now I picked up one to make.  I have several questions about cars from this time period.  The monogram Grand Prix body has a pretty thin B pillar.  I have seen guys add a strip of styrene to make it thicker, and shorten the window to make it fit.   Problem is, half the photos I find of this car, the B pillar looks thin and the other half it looks wider.   Not sure if I should make that mod or not.

Second question I have, when did the change happen where the oil tank moved behind the seat?  Looks like Monogram started in 1990 with the Lumina kits, but they didn't do the Fords, Olds and Pontiacs that way for a few more years?  Was there an official change in Nascar where that was required, or was it team by team preference?   I am planning a few builds from this era, 1988-1993, and would like to get them close if possible.   I'll add pics of the Pontiac tomorrow.

 

[Shark]

The B pillar would vary from track to track. You will find some that are "beveled" looking for aerodynamics where they weren't required to run the side window.

As far as the oil tank, the frame in that Pontiac was a carry over from the early 80's and not accurate. By then they were running single Bilstein shocks, the cross over headers were gone among other things. Some of the Lumina kits are cheap and it's not hard to put one under that body.

[Ben269]

 Shark, thanks for the input, that's what I was wondering about the chassis stuff.  I have one of those I can use.  

 

Here are a couple of examples of what I was talking about.   I already added a strip to the b pillar, but I may be second guessing that.

[Ben269]

Shark, I have been looking at your steps, and watching some video of that season on youtube.  I think I'm going to use the early chassis for the pan and the newer Lumina for parts of the front to get the suspension right.   I don't want to use the newer one because I don't see any with oil tanks behind the seats yet in '88.   

[Ben269]

I put the strips on the b pillar, then trimmed them back a bit.  I think they are good where they are.

[Ben269]

the first pic is of the kit decals.  the next one is a set I found on eBay.   They are 1/25 scale though, so they are just a bit small. the numbers are the same size, but the Valvoline for the sides is a bit short.  The decal looks a lot better though.  hmm, not sure what to do with these.  

[Ben269]

I started with a glue bomb.  Had to replace a few of the bars for the roll cage.  It takes twice as long to try and fix this.  I should have just bought an unbuilt kit.  

[Ben269]

Paint is on the main cage and the chassis.  I forgot to add the vertical bars at the front, so I added them afterwards.  I will have to hand paint them later.  

[Ben269]

Tires are looking good, just need to add a bit of weathering to dull down the white.

[bobss396]

On 10/16/2023 at 11:08 PM, Ben269 said:

the first pic is of the kit decals.  the next one is a set I found on eBay.   They are 1/25 scale though, so they are just a bit small. the numbers are the same size, but the Valvoline for the sides is a bit short.  The decal looks a lot better though.  hmm, not sure what to do with these.  

I just pulled out a set of old kit decals to use on some other stock car. They were old... I just used a portion of the sponsors and the border was badly yellowed. Not good on a white body.

[Ben269]

[Ben269]

Got some of this going, finally.  The paint hasn't been going great.  Had to paint the white on top twice, and it wrinkled up.  had to redo the red in some spots because the tape pulled some off.  I am going to clear it and wet sand before decals.  

[Rattlecan Dan]

Sometimes the ones that give you the most trouble end up giving you the most satisfaction for completing them. Hang in there Ben.

[MarkJ]

Looking great, Ben. Keep up the excellent work.