Building a replica of my gf's '79 El Camino for an Xmas gift...

[brodie_83]

Well I had to put my '80s Supra project on hold so I can do a replica of my girl's '79 El Camino for her for one of her Christmas gifts. I think she'd absolutely love it! So anyways, here's what I'm replicating (and yes, that is my gf in the pic...my first modeling photo shoot):

And these are reference pictures of what I need to replicate:

Hood decal

Rear window decals (flaming bowtie and a Cherry Bomb decal on the driver's side)

Custom gauge cluster in the console blank

[brodie_83]

Another Cherry Bomb decal, an Honest Charley's decal and a Moon decal on the glovebox

Vacuum and tach gauge pods and door speakers

350 engine with Edelbrock air cleaner and valve covers, chrome valve cover breather and yellow spark plug wires

Hood pins with real chinsey transparent green wire

Edited November 8, 2011 by brodie_83

[brodie_83]

Here are the kits that will make up this replica...Revell '79 El Camino Lowrider 3-in-1 kit for most of the build and a Revell '86 Monte Carlo SS 2-in-1 kit for the engine and possibly a few other things.

The El Camino kit came with the correct hood decal, just the wrong color, as well as the wrong "Knight" package. Her decal set is for a "Royal Knight", and the kit's decal set is a "Black Knight"...the same hood decal, but nothing else is the same.

I bought the Testors decal maker kit (yeah I know, there's much better stuff...I'm gonna try it out) and scan the decal sheet, make my own colored decals and print them out.

I also bought a can of "Bahama Blue" Duplicolor paint, which I believe is the color of her car. If it's not, it's ###### close.

So today I will start on the project and I'll have progress updated sometime later today. Stay tuned!

[Dr. Cranky]

I can't wait to see more progress on this one. Very cool build in progress.

[Deathgoblin]

Looks like a fun project. Haven't used the decal kit, but the decal bonder spray works pretty good. The only drawbacks I've run into on printing decals is that you can't do metallics without having an ALPS printer.

[Hattley]

Cool!

[Foxer]

Should be an interesting build. I love building a replica with the 1:1 right in the garage,

The decal in the kit just looks like it just needs to be red where the gold is. You can do this in photo editing software after scanning it. Other decals you just have to get a good straight on camera shot and size correctly. It might be even easier for the hood to get a straight down photo (like from a bridge) and use that. You don't even have to trim it too close if you have a good natch on the paint. Do a few copies of the decals when printing as ink jet ink is a little transparent ans you might need to apply 2 decals on top of each other.

Edited November 8, 2011 by Foxer

[thatz4u]

if you have a Hobby lobby near you, you can find some green wire in the Beading section, close to the right color..fyi

[brodie_83]

Thanks guys, I've tried to build a 1:1 replica before, but with no luck. This time I'm determined, and with more skill than I thought I had, I'm very excited!

Well tonight's progress is pretty good...my first black wash "weathering" job on the engine. Turned out pretty good for my first time, but I think I did a tad too much black. Oh well...at least I have to make the intake manifold a little bit more brighter than it is now. The valve covers (I only did one tonight) are resin Edelbrocks that I bought from the Parts Box in Australia. I bought them for building a replica of my 1:1 Trans Am that I got rid of this late summer, but I think Laura will appreciate the detail I put into this, especially the Edelbrock covers. I don't have Alclad or whatever to make them chrome, so I just used my aluminum buffing metalizer. I rubbed a little too hard and went down to the bare resin, but that just made for a better effect when I black washed them. Granted, they look more like dirty polished aluminum than dirty chrome, but it can't be perfect.

Freshly painted block/heads

Ready for the aluminum buffing metalizer

Freshly painted intake manifold

Intake manifold installed and just about ready for black washing

[brodie_83]

My first black wash job

Like I said, the intake manifold got a little too dark with the black wash, so I'll have to do it over again with a little less black and more water. All in all, not too shabby. Tomorrow I'll have the other valve cover installed, re-wash the intake manifold, paint and install accessories on engine, and paint transmission.

[Beavis]

looking very good so far!! very nice wash as well keep us posted

[ItsThePaint!]

I think there are only eleven women on the planet that like El Caminos, and one is your girlfriend. Of those eleven, there are only two that are hot. And your girlfriend is one of them. She's gonna love the gift! And lucky guy to have a girlfriend cool enough to drive an El Camino of all things...

[Casey]

If the custom decals don't work out, you may be able to get very close to "Royal" using the "Black" letters. The "B" trimmed = "R", "k" trimmed and flipped = "y", the "a" and "l" stay the same, and you'll have to get creative with the "o".

[W-409]

Interesting project, how is the quality of that El Camino kit? I'd like to have one too, but I have no idea about the quality... Engine looks good, nice job with the weathering. Keep it going, I'll be watching.

[Greg Pugh]

This will be a cool one to watch! Nice work so far.

[charlie8575]

A cute girl that like cars, and not run-of-the-mill ones, either! You lucky guy, you! Great shot, by the way, as well.

Charlie Larkin

[brodie_83]

Thanks guys. The El Camino kit, like the usual Revell kits, is really nice. The only thing I don't get is that the only engine in the kit is a 6-cylinder...hence why I bought a Monte Carlo. I thought I might have a kit in my arsenal that had a carb'd 350 but I didn't, so I had to run to the LHS and find the Monte.

I got good results printing some practice decals on paper, but when I printed on the decal paper, the quality sucked! The black was all blotchy, so I think I'm just gonna cover the paper prints with tape and just glue them on the car. Should work fine. I've used this method for license plates in the past when I was a kid. Anyways, I should get downstairs and get back to work on it. Oh yeah, my dehydrator came in today so I picked it up. Now I just have to wait till I'm at the body painting process to try it out.

[Foxer]

be sure to let your decals dry, like for a day, and don't touch or go near them. It takes a while for ink to dry out as it's pretty much just sitting on the top of the decal paper. If it's gobbing up too much, try reducing the print quality slightly. To start, you should be using you printer's best quality.

Your engine weathering looks good.

[brodie_83]

Here's tonight's progress. Not a whole lot, but got far enough to where I'm satisfied. I added a little more aluminum to the intake manifold to brighten it up a tad, then drilled plug wire holes in the distributor piece and painted it black, then drilled plug wire holes in the heads, then I painted the other valve cover and weathered it, then painted/installed the carb, then I painted the transmission, and then I started to paint the plug wires yellow like hers are in her car. So far I'm very pleased with how the engine detail is going. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the air cleaner (maybe make my own?), but it's not going to say "Edelbrock" on it. On to the pics...

[Casey]

I want to say the air cleaner from the AMT '33 Ford Sedan (the late '80s, molded in red with the very '80s directional wheels) kit is very close to what's on her engine.

[Bill Edman]

very rare elky she has most royal knights were black white and red ultimate cool in blue can wait to see the model finished

[jeffs396]

Very cool project!

[brodie_83]

Hers isnt a real Royal Knight...she just liked the decals when she first painted the car years ago. It's her very first car, so it has lots of sentimental value. Oh yeah...I guess I'm horrible at keeping Xmas secrets cuz for some reason she knows im building it...

[Beavis]

there is a PE aircleaner top that says edelbrock but it is finned oh yea, superb work my friend, it is going to turn out awesome and if she is not pleased with it i'll take it lol

[brodie_83]

I saw that air cleaner before. Not exactly what I want, but thanks. Thanks for the compliments! She'll be pleased with it...if not, I'll use it as a voodoo model, and I may just break a few things