1/8 Camaro IROC-Z

[Plastic_Passion]

Can't wait to see what you do with this. I have 5 of these 1/8 scales now. I just picked up a mint condition 82 z body and related parts. I have a partially smashed 85 iroc. Im tempted to kit bash an earlier z with the iroc parts however I feel conflicted about it because the 82 is quite rare. I've been trying with the idea of claying and casting both the 82 z and the 85 iroc as I have two of them. Revell should really re-release both kits. The did it with the 79 ta. 

[avidinha]

I got the front bumper painted and I wanted to get the lights mounted to it, all 8 of them. I wasn't able to get the turn signal lenses off so I had to mask them off and paint with them installed. The fog light lenses had a lot of glue on them, but I was able to sand them smooth and put some clear coat on them to make them look a bit better.

The headlights were a little more troublesome. The headlight buckets had been modified. The bulbs had been drilled out and the mounting post had been removed and glued into the bracket. They should look more like the fog light also pictured. Seems like the previous owner might have been trying to install LEDs like SpikeSchumacher was saying.

The first thing I needed to do was replace the missing lenses. I made some clear lenses from an old food container for an H4 conversion look.

Then I made some "bulbs" out of some round stock I painted with a chrome marker then went over with a blue sharpie for an H.I.D. look.

The back of the bulbs are now the new mounting points.

I mounted the bracket first, then the lights so I could make sure they weren't crooked.

The 1/25 was much easier.

More next time.

 

[avidinha]

I got the interiors done. That's when I ran into the next surprise missing part, the shifter. Luckily the shifter knob was there so I just made the new shifter out of some round stock. I thought it was interesting that the 1/8 is an automatic and the 1/25 has a standard transmission. Both kits came with gauge decals that are pretty nice.

The 1/25 kit had posts that go from the chassis through the floor pan that the seats attach to, which I thought was clever. 

And here they are side by side.

I got the frit painted on the Windows. The 1/8 was super easy, it had nice crisp separation lines. The lines on the 1/25 were kinds vague, so I had to wing it, but I think it turned out okay.

I got the paint jobs done. I had to buff out a couple runs from the 1/8, I'm just not used to painting something that big.

Here are the decal sheets, the 1/25 has so many options, it's almost as big as the 1/8.

Now that I've gotten the major sub assemblies and the windows done, I can get the chassis mounted to the bodies and get to work on the suspension.

More next time.

[avidinha]

I'm getting the sub assemblies together when I ran into a problem.

I did a little detail painting in the engine bay first.

Then I had to mount the windshield and ceiling console before I installed the interior. The rear window mounts from the outside, so I'll install that later.

While installing the interior I noticed that both cars have mounting slots that are hidden by the taillights.

Now that the interior is in I can mount the chassis. That's where I ran into the problem. The chassis mounts to the body/interior with 4 screws. The front 2 screws won't screw down all the way with the radiator installed, I even removed the fan shroud for more clearance and they still won't screw down all the way. I'll have to do some thinking to figure out what I'm going to do about it.

More next time.

[avidinha]

I decided I'd just leave the radiator out for now so I can continue working on other parts. Since the chassis screws on, I can always unscrew it and add the radiator later.

I rigged up a stand with some rolls of masking tape and a bottle of Mod Podge so I could work on it up side down without putting pressure on the already fragile roof.

The exhaust had to be installed after the chassis was mounted because it hides the rear screws.

To mount the wheels onto the rear axle I was going to need a spacer. In order to figure out how thick of a spacer I used some modeling clay and pressed the wheel against it then measured it.

I found these nylon spacers at the hardware store that were perfect for what I needed.

I painted them to match the brakes, then glued them in place.

Then I mounted the wheels.

Here's the axle in place with the stock height suspension, way too high with the low profile tires, let's fix that.

I was thinking I wanted to lower it about 3 scale inches, but didn't want to cut too much off on the first go, so I removed 2 scale inches off the "springs"

Much better. I'm glad I didn't cut 3 inches off, I think it looks just about perfect like this. It lowers it enough so the tires don't look way too small but it's not so low that it's sitting on the ground.

I lowered the 1/25 the same way, I cut 2 scale inches off the rear "springs" to get it sitting just right.

And here's a mock up of how it's going to sit.

Now that I have the rear sitting where I want it, I can get to work on the front.

More next time.

[roadkill]

Hey Andrew greetings from down under, I use a few different things to hold/rest my models on when working on them, I have a couple of what were heat packs, one is filled with very fine sand, another is filled with wheat, and the last ones are filled with bean bag beans. The mini bean bag would have been perfect to support your car with the fragile roof as this is what I use when I'm working on my 1/8 scale cars, also the bag of sand is incredibly heavy for its size so it's also handy for a weight etc. Hope this helps in your future modelling, and the Camaro is coming up a treat, ride height is great, and you've done a stirling job of saving a wounded model.

 

Kind regards

Michael Pederick, aka roadkill.

Perth Western Australia.

or the left coast of the big island down under.

[avidinha]

Now it's time to tackle the front suspension.

The spindles are hollow and I wanted to beef them up.

I used a couple different diameters of tubing to fill in the gap with a brass rod in the center to add strength.

The passenger side spindle broke so I fixed it with some brass tubing. Then I converted the spindles into struts. Converting them into struts made it much easier to lower the front. I simply added some tubing to the bottom equal to the amount of drop I wanted, about 2 1/2 scale inches.

I also made some spacers for the steering knuckles to give the tie rods some clearance.

The tie rods were going to need a little more clearance.

I modified them by drilling out the joints so I could change the angle and rebuilt them with some styrene rod.

Because I converted the spindles into struts I was going to have to modify the mounts too.

I started by cutting off the upper mount where the lip is.

Then I rounded them off for some clearance.

Here's everything mocked up.

The 1/25 was much easier. It has posts coming from the wheel wells that go through the frame that the front suspension mounts to.

I simply cut 2 scale inches off.

Then drilled them out and made new mounting points with some styrene rod.

That's about as low as I could get it without major surgery.

More next time.

[avidinha]

I got the front suspension painted and installed.

While it was upside down I made some turn signals out of some clear plastic, BMF and an orange sharpie.

I figured out why the radiator wasn't fitting. When the previous owner installed the pulleys they didn't push them in all the way and they were hitting the fan and pushing the radiator forward. I decided to solve the problem by just leaving the fan off.

After I installed the radiator I ran into the next surprise missing part, the radiator hose. Easy fix, I just mad a new one by bending up some solder.

After I got the radiator hose painted I installed it, the master cylinder, the core support bracket and the battery decals to finish off the engine bay.

With the engine bay complete it was time to install the front bumper.

Then upside down 1 last time to install the bumper support bracket.

Then the tail lights and custom plate that I made.

Then I finished up by installing the mirrors and rear window and putting on the hood. I used some bullet caps from my parts box to cover the holes in the center of the wheels.

She's all done. 

The instructions were pretty deteriorated, but they lasted long enough to get me through the build.

Now comes the hard part, figuring out where the heck I'm going to put it!