MPC 1967 FORD GT MARK IV - Update July 2 - Engine & Ancilliaries completed

[Phildaupho]

For my next Dan Gurney racecar build I decided it should be the 1967 Le Mans winning Ford GT IV Dan shared with AJ Foyt for probably the most significant international victory for a totally North American car and driver combination. My starting point for this project was a couple of swap-met purchased previously started MPC Mark IV kits which included only one set of incomplete instructions. Researching these kits I discovered that Bud “The Kat†Anderson was the project leader for the IMC Ford J-Car kit which begat the MPC MarkIV kits. Fortunately I found a web link with instructions for virtually every MPC kit ever made except of course for the Mark IV but the J-Car instructions helped fill in the gaps. Although I am fairly impressed with the body proportions and complexity of the running gear, there are many aspects that require revision. The biggest problem I had with the old MPC kit was the brittleness of the red styrene. The decals in the kit were not that great but I got a set of Fred Cady decals before he closed shop.

Gurney bump on driver’s side roof & door, engine cover hinges removed, added roof louvers, side vents molded, NACA scoops opened, brake ducts closed, filler door repositioned from left side to right side, scribed spare tire access door on rear cover, reduced thickness of rear spoiler.

Dashboard reconfigured

Scratch-built oil cooler ducting, oil tanks and suitcase box. Using engine from Revell Thunderbolt with oil sump configured for dry sump and deck height of intake manifold reduced, replaced styrene spare with vinyl.

Experimented with the spare body the possibility of opening everything up.

Edited July 2, 2011 by Phildaupho

[Len Woodruff]

Great start! Keep us posted!

[Phildaupho]

FORD GT Mk IV J-6 Interior

There are very few photos available on-line or in books of the interior of the Ford GT Mk IV. Fortunately I saved the Racer magazine In Focus featured on the J-6 from October 2001. I reconfigured the dash and installed safety harnesses and a fire extinguisher.

[Phildaupho]

It looks great! You're making some big improvements from the J-based kit in terms of making an accurate MkIV.

However, I'm pretty sure the IMC and MPC Ford GT/J-car kits were totally separate efforts despite the Toteff connection.

Hi Mark - I am not much of a model car kit historian myself. As a follow up to your comments, I found this interesting post regarding the history of the MkIV kits that Randy Vandraiss wrote on the GPMA forum in 2002 - I hope to shed some light on the matter of these kits for those interested. To the best of my information to date, the 1/25 scale IMC and MPC kits of the Ford Mk IV (and their earlier J-Car variants) were designed and engineered by Budd Anderson during his successive tenures at these two companies. He first did the J-Car for IMC, and then in mid-'66 his contacts at Ford informed him that the upcoming Mk IV would be mostly are-skinned version of the J-Car, and gave him info on the proposed body

designs, which Budd then had the IMC tooling engineers fit to the earlier J-Car chassis and running gear. When Budd was let go from IMC shortly after that, he accepted a position at the same level over at MPC, and (among other projects) talked them into doing the same J-Car and Mk IV models, and which were designed in much the same fashion as their IMC counterparts (which is why the IMC and MPC kits share many similar design features). So while the J-Car kits from both companies are fairly close to the actual car, the Mk IV kits are mostly repeats of their respective J-Car kits with different body panels. The engine and transaxle setups in the IMC kits have always appeared too small to my eyes, but those in the MPC versions appeared to be closer to scale and had better engraved details. The IMC Mk IV was later reissued by Testors in their "Those Famous Fords" series, and the tooling was

later used by Union for their issue of the kit. This tooling (along with some others from similar-era Testors kits) has been unaccounted since that time. A last item: if anyone has an MPC J-Car or Mk IV kit with missing or damaged

chassis or running gear pieces, replacement parts can be found in the old MPC "Hardcastle & McCormick" Coyote kit (which can often be had for a reasonable price), as it was merely a re-bodying of their Mk IV kit. Not a very close copy of the actual car used on the TV show, but a boon to those who want to repair or complete an example of the MPC Ford race car kits. I hope this helps. Have a nice day! - Randy Vandraiss

[123yokomo]

one of my favorite cars indeed

[Phildaupho]

The rolling chassis is complete except for engine and ancillaries. I am quite impressed with complexity of suspension, which was built box-stock. The wheel mounting arrangements was modified with knock-off hubs using an old set of Owen-Craft cast silver knocks-offs. The Mk IV used opposite threads side to side to secure the wheels. To avoid confusion, the knock-offs were red on the left side and blue on the right. The wheels were directional with turbine centers for brake cooling. The brittleness of the plastic continued to result in breakage during construction. Fortunately I had two kits to draw from.

[MonoPed]

Nice work so far!

[123yokomo]

I agree great work so far

[Jackson]

Looks like a lot of work, but it's really paying off!

[High octane]

Great job so far on the Mark IV, I just picked up that kit a couple of weeks ago.

[Boreham]

like the scratched extra detail..

any chance of seeing your souce of refernce ...? for the benift of others..

this is missing form the hoard....but not for long..

Edited June 18, 2011 by Boreham

[Phildaupho]

any chance of seeing your souce of refernce ...? for the benift of others..

For reference I used the J-6 In Focus from Racer magazine Oct 2001, a feature on one of the other Mark IV's that appeared in Vintage Motorsports Sept/Oct 2003, Dave Friedman's book Shelby GT40 and Ronnie Spain's book GT40. I also downloaded many photos from a google image search.

[rasafyff]

Something no one has mentioned is MPC's kit is the MK IV that won 1967 Sebring race.The car was yellow with black stripes.Note the front wheel lip flares.I don't think the LeMans car had these wheel flares.

[Phildaupho]

Something no one has mentioned is MPC's kit is the MK IV that won 1967 Sebring race.The car was yellow with black stripes.Note the front wheel lip flares.I don't think the LeMans car had these wheel flares.

Thanks for mentioning the front wheel lip flares which plainly were not on the LeMans car but were on the Sebring car. The winning Sebring car also wore the #1. It was driven by Mario Andretti and Bruce McLaren.

[Phildaupho]

ENGINE & ANCILLIARIES - Replaced engine with 427 from Revell ’64 Thunderbolt. Modified oil pan to dry-sump configuration and reduced intake manifold deck height. Parts by Park pre-wired distributor. Did some mods to the air-box. The exhaust system is disappointing. I used the kit headers connected to aluminum tubing. The GT-40’s had a very elaborate “bundle of snakes†exhaust arrangement, which would be difficult to replicate from scratch. I decided not to swipe the exhaust system off a rather nice GT-40 MKII diecast I have. I did make a heat deflector, which some Mk IV’s were later fitted with. The coolers and other ancillaries were scratch-built. This will be the last “On the workbench†update†before the completed model is posted “Under Glassâ€

[Ron a.k.a. Grouchy Pants]

I'm sure thats not the easiest build in the world. There are a lot of things crammed into the spaces in the rear of those cars. I'll def be looking under the glass for it.