1959scudetto Posted January 30 Posted January 30 (edited) This is my „cosmetic restoration“ of my old Gunze kit. Built in 1989, I never installed the bars in the nose opening and lost some wind deflectors (on both sides and on the hood) over the years. I was never satisfied with the rear window - see below. When starting to restore the model, it dropped onto the table: the spare wheel fell out, parts of the roll-bar also, and the fuel -filler cap dropped into its hole in the body (was glued from beneath) – let’s get started repairing it (pic below is from 2005)! Rollbar and spare wheel mounts out- time for restoration ! (October 2024): I scratchbuilt the missing grille bars and the hood deflector from thin aluminium sheet, tinted the rear window with 2 shots Tamiya smoke clear and cut a window seal out of black electrical tape. The loose parts could be reglued again, license plate was removed and the number decals got a second layer. The left side rear lights came from the spares (again lost the originals) as did a windshield wiper for the driver’s side (no wiper included in the kit !). The spare wheel was fixed with 3 leatherstraps which is wrong but I did not have another solution) - all the following pictures shot today: The car is similar to the Sebring ’65 class winner, but it should have # 15, the sponsor decals are not complete and slightly too large. I added #13 at the rear, but could not remove the “USA” sign any more (superglue, and I have long run out of this blue paint, so I let it be) Edited February 13 by 1959scudetto 19 1
Rich Chernosky Posted January 30 Posted January 30 This Gunze kit is getting rarer and rarer. You were wise to restore it and bring it up to specs. Looks real good now. Thanks for sharing.
rrb124@sbcglobal.net Posted January 30 Posted January 30 Wonderful work on a historic by Gunze. Fun to see the spare under the clear rear window. Don't know if Gunze is still in business but I have a few nice kits.
Pierre Rivard Posted January 30 Posted January 30 Very nice refresh Helmut. I love the paint on this, just the right sheen for a period race car. Cherish this one, replacements are almost impossible to find.
vamach1 Posted January 31 Posted January 31 Very nice job restoring it. I built the same kit in the 1990s and was fortunate enough to get an extra set of the photo etch parts to replace any the get lost along the way through two moves. Cobraman was selling a complete kit a few years ago and I bought another one as these are getting hard to find and expensive. I wish there was a complete engine but the HRM kit does. ABSmiami did a very detailed build of the HRM kit as part of the 64 Sebring challenge.
Dave B Posted February 2 Posted February 2 Another missed one. This is a great kit and yours looks better for the tidying up. Thanks for posting Helmut. Dave B
1959scudetto Posted February 5 Author Posted February 5 On 1/30/2025 at 3:40 PM, Rich Chernosky said: This Gunze kit is getting rarer and rarer. You were wise to restore it and bring it up to specs. Looks real good now. Thanks for sharing. Thanks,Rich - biggest improvement is without doubt - for me - the tinted rear window with the black seal. On 1/30/2025 at 3:45 PM, rrb124@sbcglobal.net said: Wonderful work on a historic by Gunze. Fun to see the spare under the clear rear window. Don't know if Gunze is still in business but I have a few nice kits. Thanks, Robert - I think Gunze does not make kits any longer, under the name GSI creos they are making paints and other modeling material, but no more car kits, IIRC. On 1/30/2025 at 4:51 PM, Belugawrx said: Beauty renewed ! Nice job cleaning that up 👍👍 Thanks, Bruce. On 1/30/2025 at 5:29 PM, Pierre Rivard said: Very nice refresh Helmut. I love the paint on this, just the right sheen for a period race car. Cherish this one, replacements are almost impossible to find. Thank you, Pierre. I will do because it is such an iconic car and back then, by far my most expensive kit: I remember paying 590,00 ATS in 1989 (= equal to ca. € 45,00, this was before the Euro was introduced), when the Italeri Ferrari 250 SWB was sold for 120,00 in hobby stores. On 1/30/2025 at 9:43 PM, Jim B said: Very good looking Cobra. Great restoration. Thanks Jim. On 1/31/2025 at 1:36 AM, vamach1 said: Very nice job restoring it. I built the same kit in the 1990s and was fortunate enough to get an extra set of the photo etch parts to replace any the get lost along the way through two moves. Cobraman was selling a complete kit a few years ago and I bought another one as these are getting hard to find and expensive. I wish there was a complete engine but the HRM kit does. ABSmiami did a very detailed build of the HRM kit as part of the 64 Sebring challenge. Cheers, Rex. I was angry when most of the P/E came loose and several got lost. At least the deflector on the hood had to be replaced (the side mounted ones were not installed at Sebring). The missing engine is no problem for me, as I don't like to detail engines. On 2/1/2025 at 12:50 AM, PappyD340 said: Very nice restoration! Thanks, Larry. On 2/2/2025 at 1:56 AM, Dave B said: Another missed one. This is a great kit and yours looks better for the tidying up. Thanks for posting Helmut. Dave B Thank you, Dave, I really like this car. On 2/2/2025 at 6:13 AM, Rattlecan Dan said: Great-looking car. Very nice job. Thanks, Donato !
Chinacar Posted February 9 Posted February 9 This definitely gets the SHELBY design award for today! Good job on a rare kit!
Brudda Posted February 9 Posted February 9 To me, a restore is harder than building from a fresh start. Great job on the build and great job on the restoration.
Nacho Z Posted February 9 Posted February 9 I’m glad that you were able to repair / restore it. Such a good looking piece!
1959scudetto Posted February 13 Author Posted February 13 On 2/9/2025 at 1:07 PM, Chinacar said: This definitely gets the SHELBY design award for today! Good job on a rare kit! On 2/9/2025 at 5:00 PM, Brudda said: To me, a restore is harder than building from a fresh start. Great job on the build and great job on the restoration. On 2/9/2025 at 5:22 PM, Nacho Z said: I’m glad that you were able to repair / restore it. Such a good looking piece! Thank you, Alex, Bruce and John - even if not perfect, it is one of my favourites in the collection !
SpeedAndViolence Posted February 20 Posted February 20 I really wish I could get my greezy mitts on one of these kits... I would absolutely love to build one. 1
Hoffman Posted March 4 Posted March 4 Looks very presentable, Helmut! I think any of us would be proud to have that Daytona in our collections. Great photo's too. Thanks for posting. 😀
1959scudetto Posted March 14 Author Posted March 14 On 3/4/2025 at 10:20 PM, Hoffman said: Looks very presentable, Helmut! I think any of us would be proud to have that Daytona in our collections. Great photo's too. Thanks for posting. 😀 Thank you Tim - I'm happy to have it in my collection (when it was still affordable, though almost at 5 times the price of an Italeri SWB). It belongs to my favorites.
Bainford Posted March 21 Posted March 21 Nice resto, Helmut. It's good to see these Gunze kits built. Looking really good, especially the back window tint. It's hard to believe just how much difference that makes to the overall presentation. I have one of these kits in the stash. I had been looking for one for quite awhile in the 1990s when I saw an ad in Scale Auto for a hobby shop in the US advertising them for $60. That was more than double the price I had ever paid for a kit at that time, but after much personal debate, I pulled the trigger. I'm very glad I did. I really do hope it ends up on the bench some day.
1959scudetto Posted March 22 Author Posted March 22 On 3/21/2025 at 2:14 PM, Bainford said: Nice resto, Helmut. It's good to see these Gunze kits built. Looking really good, especially the back window tint. It's hard to believe just how much difference that makes to the overall presentation. I have one of these kits in the stash. I had been looking for one for quite awhile in the 1990s when I saw an ad in Scale Auto for a hobby shop in the US advertising them for $60. That was more than double the price I had ever paid for a kit at that time, but after much personal debate, I pulled the trigger. I'm very glad I did. I really do hope it ends up on the bench some day. Thanks, Trevor - the same here: I was also thinking of buying it or not because of its high price back then. But I'm glad I did (a month ago I saw one for sale for € 150,00 + shipping and that is a good price nowadays). Work carefully and with patience, and it will come out fine - no doubt about that!
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