1962 Pontiac 421 SD F/SA circa 2024 edition

[Tony Coomer]

The hood scoop and paint turned out great, nice and shinny it is…

[slusher]

Beautiful black paint and finish!

[R. Thorne]

On 7/13/2024 at 10:56 AM, JimmyRiggins said:

Awesome build! Your painting skills really are going to do this kit the justice it deserves!  The hood scoop and transmission are quite nice too, how long have you been casting your own parts?!
On a side note, I enjoy your placement of tools and paint colour codes next to a job to be done! Nice touch!

Thanks, Jimmy.  I just started casting back in January.  Instead of keeping a written log of what I used, I post it on here.  If (actually, when), I forget how I did or what color paint I used on a particular model, I can look it up here.  So, there is a certain amount of selfishness involved.

[R. Thorne]

On 7/13/2024 at 10:10 PM, Tony Coomer said:

The hood scoop and paint turned out great, nice and shinny it is…

 

16 hours ago, slusher said:

Beautiful black paint and finish!

Thanks, Tony and Carl.  Should be back on this one in a day or two.

[R. Thorne]

Got this kit in to look at the headers.  Also, have some aftermarket ones I am considering modifying to more closely resemble Pontiac ones.  Undecided at this point.  Assembling some chassis parts.

[R. Thorne]

Well, the oil filter/adapter ( a tiny little thing), went flying into the air I know not where.  After some scrounging, I remembered a build Of a friend of mine’s 62 Pontiac i started and stalled on about 5 years ago.  Lo and behold, in the box was the part I needed as I had used a different engine combination.  This time I glued a piece of sprue onto it, painted it, then glued it on.  Will remove the sprue after it is dry and paint the bottom of the oil filter then.  Got the frame installed and the rear end.  Gotta touch up the frame where a couple clamps had set.  It is what I get for using clamps that have been used to hold small parts for painting.  Lesson learned, hopefully.

[R. Thorne]

I was putting the front suspension stuff on, digging the springs out of the zip loc bag I keep small parts in after I have painted them.  Guess what else is in the bag?  The mysterious, missing, oil filter/adapter!  Evidently, the bag was open when the adapter popped out of my tweezers.  Strange.

[Tony Coomer]

I diss like it when things just pop off on to the floor. Everything is looking great. Making some fast progress…

[R. Thorne]

12 hours ago, Tony Coomer said:

I diss like it when things just pop off on to the floor. Everything is looking great. Making some fast progress…

Thanks, I don’t know about “fast”, but somewhat steady progress.  Got the front suspension on and fit the motor in temporarily to check the driveshaft length with the different trans.  Looks okay on length, so no shortening or expanding the driveshaft.  Trimmed the floorboard slightly.  Next is deciding on which headers to use.

[R. Thorne]

Looked through some kit and aftermarket headers.  Really liked the looks of NASCAR type, but Decided on the 68 Firebird headers, as the others would have required quite a bit of work to fit.   Poured a mold today, will cast some tomorrow, as there are more Pontiac stockers in the future.  Also, a mold for some racing seats was poured.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Looking good. Talk about a sleeper! 

[Straightliner59]

9 hours ago, R. Thorne said:

Looked through some kit and aftermarket headers.  Really liked the looks of NASCAR type, but Decided on the 68 Firebird headers, as the others would have required quite a bit of work to fit.   Poured a mold today, will cast some tomorrow, as there are more Pontiac stockers in the future.  Also, a mold for some racing seats was poured.

 

Ron, this is looking great--really coming along! It's so nice to be able to cast your own parts--it can save us a ton of money! ?Keep up the fine work. Enjoying watching it come along!

[R. Thorne]

On 7/23/2024 at 9:17 PM, Rattlecan Dan said:

Looking good. Talk about a sleeper! 

 

On 7/24/2024 at 6:32 AM, Straightliner59 said:

Ron, this is looking great--really coming along! It's so nice to be able to cast your own parts--it can save us a ton of money! ?Keep up the fine work. Enjoying watching it come along!

Thanks for the encouraging words, guys.  Trying to climb out of this slump I let myself fall into and finish this dad blasted model car.  Did some header casting.  Tried single envelope style and 2 piece molds with less than stellar results, but simply have to move on and try again at a later date.  Anybody have any suggestions on how they have done headers?

[R. Thorne]

Picked the best set of headers, cleaned ‘em up the best I could, put some thick primer on as pin holes surfaced after a coat of primer.  Then some Green stuff world chrome, shrink tubing slipped on, and installed along with driveshaft (no loop as the crossmember functions for that in this case).

[R. Thorne]

Some interior work, installed the body to approximate the available room for the slicks and wheel back spacing.  Now, try to figure out how to mount the aftermarket wheels.

[R. Thorne]

An experiment with Revell chrome spray.  Got some Testors different size spray nozzles a while back, but they’re made different than Revell, so wouldn’t work.  The first pic shows Greenstuffworld brushed on 4 wheels.  The next pictures show the Revell sprayed over green stuff and then sprayed direct on some resin wheels.  Will see what they look like tomorrow.

[R. Thorne]

The wheels 24 hours later.  Still shiny.  As these wheels are larger I.d. (.660”), I had to enlarge the I.d. of a tire (and smooth up the sides).  This “master” was made into a mold and cast up about 15 tires.  These have to be cleaned up on one side.  I used a .600” sanding flap on the inside, then held it with a 3 jaw chuck and sanded off the rough edges with a fairly coarse sanding stick.  Next is to apply some Tamiya rubber black.

[R. Thorne]

Brushed on some Tamiya rubber black (gotta get the spray can version), then some Testors 4637 semi gloss clear.  Next is Hoosier decals. Pics didn’t load.  Will post tomorrow.

[R. Thorne]

[R. Thorne]

Been watching too much drag racing on Nhra.tv since last Wednesday and, the previous weekend at Bowlingreen, Ky.  Anyway, back at it tonight drilling out the aftermarket calipers (in small increments) for a trial fit on the front end.  Next, I have to come up with something different for the rear wheels, as they aren’t made the same.

[R. Thorne]

Not much time at the bench lately.  After some head scratching, trial fitting, drilling out the holes, checking back spacing/clearance, I think i have the rear wheel situation line out.

[R. Thorne]

Ahh, those good old fashioned nail files are still some of the best (and cheapest) tools I have.  Had to sand the rotors/calipers down to tuck the tires in some more.

[R. Thorne]

Worked on converting the “9 inch” Goodyear slicks to Hoosiers.  First, tried a .600” 80 grit sanding flap (used for porting heads, etc.) to hold the tire, then spun in my old reliable B&D cordless drill.  Worked well.  Then, a 5/8” expandible rubber freeze plug to hold the tire on one side.  Then sand the sidewall with sanding sticks while it is spun, once again, with the drill.

[R. Thorne]

Then, some semi gloss clear on the slicks, and some aluminum paint on the front rotors.  Next is some Hoosier decals after some drying (break) time.

[R. Thorne]

Hoosier decals time.  Think I’ll let ‘em dry till tomorrow, then some dull kote and, finally, glue them on.  Gives me an excuse to work on the Moebius 65 Dodge.