The incredible shrinking resin Pontiac!

[Chuck Most]

Gang-

Here's the situation. I recently picked up a resin body for a '62 Pontiac kit. It looks good, and it didn't need too much cleanup, so I thought it would be smooth sailing. Then I started fitting pieces from the donor kit and noticed that just about everything seemed too big to fit the body. I started measuring, comparing the kit body to the resin one, and the resin one is roughly 2 scale inches shorter (or narrower) in almost every dimension! I've seen more than a few warped and distorted resin parts in my time (I'm a big fan of R&R! ), but this is the first time I've seen one that appears to be shrunken!

I'm pretty sure there's no way to fix it aside from trimming the AMT parts to fit it, but I'm worried about a couple of things. Is it possible the body could shrink even more? I'd hate to get this thing done, only to have the body spit out its chassis a few years down the road! And I've got quite a few other resin bodied models- could this happen to any of those? Like I said, this is the first one I've seen that looks like it shrank a bit after it was cast. The body has no other distortions or other problems besides that.

[george 53]

Chuckster, IF it was copied from the old ORIGINAL 62 kit, it just MAY be a different size than the NEW AMT release. I DON'T know FOR A FACT, but there ends up bein quite a bit of differences in alot of the kits coming out as compared to their ORIGINAL counterparts. Maybe they've finally gotten ALL their scales TOGETHER! Was it a R&R kitbody?

[Chuck Most]

This was patterned after the new- tool '62 body (the one that's out now as the Passionate Poncho). Theoretically the body should drop right on, but the fact its just a little bit smaller than it should be is the problem. The body is by Jimmy Flintstone.

[george 53]

Jimmy's a pretty nice guy, Chuck, I've met him many times, so MAYBE if you contacted him just to ask, he could let you know. If not,maybe he'll replace the body for you. Couldn't hurt just to ask.

[Trae]

Hmm, I've never heard of shrinking resin, but I wonder if its possible for the mold to shrink.

[jeffb]

some slovent based resins will shrink for quite awhile. you can tell by the smell usually.

[Trae]

some slovent based resins will shrink for quite awhile. you can tell by the smell usually.

Cool, I learned something new today!

Now I just have to learn how to shop for resin by smell.

[Craig Irwin]

The mold making and resin casting process does cause some shrinkage, and if a caster uses one of his castings instead of his master when replacing his molds it can become a problem. I've never had problems tith Flinstone bodys thoe.

[Chuck Most]

Yeah- this is the first time I've ever had a real issue, too!

[spkgibson]

I have one of the 70 Nova Bodys He makes, Mine was the same way, It's been in my parts box for over 7 years, I had it all painted ,Went to build it, and NOTHING FIT. I was going to order one of those 67 Dodge Van Bodys , Now I'm thinking twice about it, Anyone on here built that one? That Nova And the 70 Challenger SE were both the same, Great Price,But if you can't build the stuff whats the use?

[Craig Irwin]

My A-100 van dropped together nicely.

[Chuck Most]

Every other Flintstone body I've used fit perfectly over its intended donor kit, as I've said, this one's a first!