Making a '78 Trans Am into a '77 Esprit

[CorvairJim]

Nice work. If it matters, the trans in the AMT Nova is actually a Powerglide. You could cut the pan off and stick a TH350 shaped one on there and it'll look OK from underneath. As mentioned, the Monogram '70 TA has a TH350, as does the Monogram Chevy van. There may be others, those are the only ones I've come across...

It is??? OUCH! There's still time to go with Plan B: I just received a Revell 1970 Trans Am glue bomb with a usable engine setup. I may switch over to that. Thanks for the head's up.

What I've ended up doing on several cars with the same color on the body and interior is give the interior a once-over with Dullcoat, but then rub it back to a semi-gloss with skin oil (yep, just like it sounds. lol). The Dullcoat clouds the color ever so slightly, and the oil from our skin rubbed into it is a pretty convincing vinyl sheen.

Keep it up!

I was going to try to find some clear semi-gloss, but your idea sounds like it would help vary the tone from panel to panel - the doors would look different than the seats, which would look different from the dash pad, etc. I like it!

Anyhow,here's what happened today: COLOR! I'll probably have to respray the hood because of some stuff that got in the paint (look at the tiop right of the hood in the photo), but the reat of it went down nice and smoothly. It looks a bit "Orange Peely" in the pic, but that's just the metallic particles. I didn't do such a good jub staging this photo - The bumper caps are hiding behind other stuff! In the front right is my first attempt at steering wheel for it. I don't have the right wheel, but I have a possible line on one. If anyone else out there has one, let me know! It's the regular 3-spoke wheel the color of the car's interior, with the Pontiac "Arrowhead" in a circular badge in the middle:

[CorvairJim]

Looking Really nice so far..You made me pull out my Gold 78 T/A that I am working on..

you going to do the mismatch rims like in the picture?

The woman I'm building it for asked me to go with one style of wheel or the other. I found the Rally II's before the other wheels, so that's what I'm going with.

Edited February 18, 2012 by CorvairJim

[CorvairJim]

I've FINALLY been able to get back to the workbench on the Firebird! I've had way too much on my plate recently (Taking care of my elderly parents for a few days - they were just in a bad car accident - didn't help matters any), and then my wife and I took a leisurely 4-day weekend Saturday through Tuesday in Colonial Williamsburg for Valentine's Day - we always take Valentine's Day off to be together, and with it being a Tuesday this year we just stretched it out a bit. However, that isn't good when I have a model that must absolutely, positively be delivered to the customer within about 3 weeks from today! She gave me an extension on the original date of, um, tomorrow! Anyhow, the interior is basically done with the exception of finding the correct steering wheel (HELP!!! If I don't find one, I'll have to go with a homemade replica), the sun visors and the dome light. The Rally II wheels are all set to go with the exception of valve stems. I've found a conventional air filter housing and have made a correct-looking snorkel for it. Thebody still needs to be polished out and chromed, but I consider the project to finally, officially be coming into the home stretch. Here's a shot of the basic components as it stood as of about an hour ago:

I realized after I posted this pic that I forgot to put the finished dashboard with it's homemade suspended brake and parking brake pedals in the shot. Oh well.

[charlie8575]

Very impressive, Jim.

What colors specifically did you use for the interior and body? Those look like very good representations overall of the original tones.

Charlie Larkin

[CorvairJim]

The paint is Chrysler Garnet Red both inside and out. The subtle difference in shade comes from using red oxide primer on the body and a light gray primer inside. Then the interior was dullcoated and lightly rubbed to add a slight vinyl-like sheen. Once the body gets polished, the difference should be even a little more pronounced. Still, the color is a little redder than the 1:1 car's Firethorn Red, which has a slight orangish cast to it in certain light. The guy who will be getting the model sold the car over 2 decades ago, so it should be close enough to suit his memory of it... I hope!

[montelsc]

Nice job i did this with a 79 Z28 to a stock camaro i was very happy with the results

my camaro is that same color

Edited February 20, 2012 by montelsc

[CorvairJim]

We're coming into the home stretch with this one now. The interior is done, with the molded-in pedals gone and new ones suspended under the dash, along with a dimmer switch. The homemade base Firebird wheel is in place. I put the glass in it this afternoon, followed up by the homomade dome light and sun visors (withthe driver's side visor folded down) I had to rework the wheels, since I'm using the tires and wheel fronts from the Monogram '69 GTO Judge, but the wheel backs from the Firebird kit. Those backs are too shallow for the tires and not quite as bug around as they need to be. I had to add a spacer between the wheel halves to get them to the right width and to trap the axle keeper between them so that the wheels didn't flop around. The finishing touch to the tires is a set of Shabo dry transfer Goodyear lettering.

[baloney]

good job . i like the detail with the dome light. nice touch!

[CorvairJim]

Well here we go. Last "Workbench" post for this one. Just a couple little oddn 'n' ends to finish up and it gets sent off to the young lady who asked me to build it as a surprise for her dad's birthday. It did throw me a curve this afternoon when I did the first test fit of the chassis intothe modified body: The reworked front wheel wells were too tight, and contacted the tires. The first photo shows how I taped a new cutline as a guide for V-E-R-Y carefully grinding it back a couple scale inches with my trusty Dremel. I had to redo the wheel lip moulding that I had already put on it prior to paint, but I didn't damage the paint itself. PHEW!

Anyhow, here are just a couple of shots of the finished product. I'll continue this one in the "Under Glass" section.

[Chris guthro]

very nice! the owner should be very proud to display it!

[charlie8575]

Excellent work, Jim.

Charlie Larkin

[CorvairJim]

Thanks, Chris & Charlie! I'm not nearly as accomplished as many of the guys on this site, but I like to push the envelope and develop my skills. I try to make each build better than the one before. I'm pretty happy with the way this one came out.