Camaro Pics!

I guess I am about to find out how weirdly the blog will post these pics, usually I pic a spot and post them and then it moves them anywhere it pleases....

The Camaro is nearly finished finally! As you can see the engine compartment is not done, but I ran out of ignition wire....

Also one of the front bumpers ran off, so unless I find it , or a replacement the car may not get finished completely.

I dropped the hood and chipped the paint in the back corner as you can see... bummer!

The car actually doesn't look to bad for all the hacking and problems I had on it. So until I get some wire or a few other parts this one is done at least temporarily.

Until next time when we see what else I am up to... keep building.

The Camaro is Coming Along

I extended the axle housing slightly. (I cut it to short...) and attached the rear end to the frame. I have also glued in the front tires and wheels.

The mold lines are removed from the headers, and the headlights, grille, and tail lights are in place. The rear spoiler is glued in place and the broken hood support has been repaired. I like the new stance of the car much better than the way it was before.

The hood scoop will be donated to the Dodge Demon model (I think) as I find I rather like the looks of the model without it.

Maybe I will get far enough in the next several days to get some pics that show the difference. I would like to post some before and after pics as well once it is all finished up.

Camaro Pics!

It still is not finished, but it is closer... The body is waxed, I tried Carnubba wax, but it has left a few streaks. I will try something else next time. I think the paint might not have cured enough yet.

I am considering not using the scoop, but the wing will go on the model. There is still quite a bit of work to be done even though the model looks nearly done.

I narrowed the rear end and opened up the rear fender wells to fit the slicks under the car. The engine is still needing some work before it is set in place, and I want to lower the front a bit.

The Camaro Continues

I did manage to cut out the rear fender wells today to get the rear tires under the fenders and lower the rear of the model. I am also in the process of polishing out the paint.

The paint has been wet sanded with 1500 grit wet or dry paper, and all the little defects are gone. All that is left is to polish the paint back to a shine and wax it.

The rear axle was cut down again to fit the new narrower theme. I probably will not tub it since I am wanting it to look more like a bracket racer.

I still need to make a set of leaf springs to support the rear end, but that is pretty easy.

I am hoping to get the time to work on it this weekend and finish it or at least get it some what closer.

It is starting to come together now and I am looking forward to finishing it up.

Polishing Clear Plastic

I had the need to polish some scratches out of the windows of a couple of the old models I am rebuilding.

I thought this would be a good tip to pass on to newer builders out there.

You need to sand out the scratches with 600 to 800 grit wet or dry paper to start. This should be done under running warm water to carry away the sanded off particles. once a uniform surface is attained move on to 1500 grit paper and repeat the process.

There are several products that I was told about: Novus polish and cleaner, Kit clear plastic polish and a few others as well. What I found at the local Walmart was Meguiar's PlastX, clear plastic cleaner and polish so I decided to try it instead of driving all over town....

Rub it in with a soft cloth (like an old cotton t-shirt) and buff the part. Switch to a dry soft cloth and buff it dry. You may have to repeat this process a few times to get the whole part clear again, but it does work!

New Projects

I received a box full of models and parts from a Friend of mine that her sons no longer had a use for. I finally got the chance to go through them and separate the usable items out and thinned the herd....

I ended up with a model box 3/4 full of parts and about ten usable bodies for future projects! There was also an incomplete kit of a USS Enterprise aircraft carrier as well.

The nicest part about the bodies is all of them are models that I don't have.

There were a lot of broken parts and parts of things I had no use for, but it was a great gift bag and a lot of fun to dig through!

One word of caution, do not store glue or paint in your parts boxes! It can really make a mess of some decent pieces and ruin them for future use. There were several items like that in the box, including what could have been some very nice pro street tires.

I ended up with wheels and tires, engine parts, frames, bodies, seats, and many other usable items.

Thank you Cyndee!

Camaro Pictures!

A couple of mock-ups of the camaro. It still has a way to go before it gets done. The scoop is just sitting on the hood and the rear spoiler is taped on.


The tires and wheels are sitting under the car unattached, but they are about ready to install once every thing dries and the touch up is done.

The interior still has some detailing left to do, and the engine is still incomplete.

But I am gaining on it! I think I'll lower it a bit too while I am at it as I really don't care for the ride height or the high front end.

I still am trying to decide whether to paint the padded (top) part of the dash black yet. I can't decide if I like the tan there or not....

That's all for today.

I got a Gift in the Mail!

The camaro is in the stripe mode, and as you can see it is still wet. I will try and get some pics of it without all the masking and run another post later today.

A friend of mine sent me some of her sons old models, and a bunch of loose parts.

It looks like I'll have projects for quite a while now. They will take a lot of TLC to clean up enough to be usable, but they will work.

There is only one model that is nearly all there so I think some imagination is in order....

This is just a few of what I received in the mail and I am still going through the box and sorting things out. Most of the parts were loose in shopping bags so it is going to take awhile.

Well I am going to get on with the camaro and see what I can accomplish with it today!

Camaro Progress!

The interior tub is almost done now, lacking a bit of detail painting and touch up. I had to decant (spray some paint into a jar) some of the tan paint for touch up, and fixed the yellow paint that managed to get on the seats and door panels.

The seats, dash and shifter are now glued into place, as is the steering wheel. I wound up cutting the top rim of the steering wheel away as it had a some warp to it.

The hood is repainted so with a bit of luck the striping can begin in a couple of days! Now I need to decide if I want a single wide stripe or two narrower stripes from the nose to the back of the trunk.

I even found time to test fit a few parts to the engine while I was at it. So he water pump and starter need painted and holes need drilled into the fan and pulley assembly, and the engine will be a little farther along.

The demon has some putty in it now and soon I can begin to shape and smooth it up as well.

I had originally hoped to keep this blog up every day, but it has come to my attention that that is a lot harder than it would seem. My days are pretty full already for now and building time is getting precious. So, I am going to blog every other day unless I happen to luck out and find some extra time somewhere.

Hopefully that will work, and I will try to post at least every other day as much as possible.

The Camaro

I finally did manage to get a little bit done on that poor neglected ol' camaro tonight. Not a lot though. I went over the two tone on the seats by hand with a brush since the spray paint was not behaving.

I have come to the conclusion that that yellow spray paint has been the problem all along. I had not moved the hood since the last coat I gave it and it had some bubbling in it too.

Now I don't mind painting at all, but doing the same car over, and over is getting old....
I'll try sanding out the bubbles and re-spraying the hood one more time.

I started some of the detail on the dash while I was at it, and the console too. I will try and get them far enough along to get some pics up today sometime (since it is after midnight here.)

I was going to shoot the black stripe, but the hood is going to stop that progress in it's tracks for now. I can always work on the chassis and motor now I guess while the hood is getting ready for new paint.

There is also the rear end and tire clearance to work out as well. I need to drop the rear of the car a bit to get the stance right. There is also the headers to be built from solder still.

I want to finish the camaro and the 54 Chevy before I try getting to involved with another project.

Post is delayed, but should be up later today!

Sorry about the delay the last couple of days. Life has gotten hectic around here and some things tend to suffer from it.

I hope to post some progress later on tonight!

Thanks for checking in.

GTO Review Continued

Sorry for the delay in getting the blog out today! Things got a lil' hectic today.

Continuing on with the kit reviews, we are looking at the difference between a 66 Revell GTO and a 67 AMT GTO.

Though the AMT had the better tires, I think that Revell won out in the wheel department. The Revell wheels are a much cleaner casting and as an added plus they threw in a set of stock wheels to boot! The AMT wheels are a rough cast with excess flashing and the wheels are not cut completely out, leaving a backing that will need cut out if you are into detailing and realism.

The AMT grille/front bumper has the headlights and turn signals cast into it. The AMT also a solid piece, where the Revell has an open slot in the bumper like the real cars.

The AMT kit has a few extra parts like headers and two sets of side pipes on the chrome tree, which is nice. The Revell kit has a chromed steering wheel, and windshield wipers for a nice touch.

AMT has quite a few extra parts in colored plastic and they are not as nice a molding as the Revell kit, because of all the extra mold flashing. There were extra inner wheels, an extra dash board (although it may not even be for this car...), racing bucket seats with head rests, and a roll bar.

The AMT kit will make a nice model with work, but the Revell is the winner in molding and detail.

I can't tell you about fit yet, but I will get around to it eventually.

Keep on building!

GTO Kit Review

Here it is! The AMT 67 Goat VS the Revell 66 Goat.

Both boxes are quite heavy for a model and possibly a good sign of things to come.

AMT's instruction sheet is rather simplistic and lacks detail. The decals that are supplied in the kit are a set of custom graphics and two license plates.

Revell offers a more complex set of instructions, though easy to read, with a short BIO on the car thrown in. The decal sheet includes floor mats, gauge cluster,six license plates, emblems, pin striping decals, and what looks to be red line decals for the tires.

AMT does an excellent job of packaging the kit with the body in a separate bag and the glass packed inside of it to avoid scratching. All of the chrome parts are bagged separately as are the tires, a very nice touch.

The revell kit loses a few points here as the body is in with all the other white plastic parts, and the glass is bagged separately but loose to get knocked around inside the box. The decals are nestled inside the instructions to avoid scratches and laid in the bottom of the box.

One obvious difference I can see is the tires. AMT did a really nice job on theirs with crisp casting while Revell's are not a bad casting they are attached to a tree and have blow off on the opposite side, requiring some very careful trimming. Also the Revell tires have that wonderful mold line down the center of the tread although very small.

Tomorrow I will take these two kits for a review spin and see what turns up. Until then, keep building!

Painting problems

This weekend was a lost cause from the start. Sometimes painting is simply a matter of stripping it all off and starting over...

The body is done, except polishing, but the hood is not cooperating and needs more work. The interior was masked for a two tone look and it went south quickly. I applied the same paint as what I used on the body, but it bubbled and got under the masking in places even though the tape was burnished down with a dental pick.

The colors used for the two tone were not bad, but I really was not thrilled by them either. Good thing the yellow came out badly, because it needs stripped again. It is beginning to feel like this camaro is fighting me every step of the way!

There are days like that, which is why I usually work on more than one model at a time. If one is giving you problems, switch to another until you can think the first through and work with a clear head.

I will eventually get the hood finished and then I can add the stripes to the top of the car (gloss black), the hood, the trunk, and the nose. I want to be able to tape the hood to the body for that, so the hood has to be done first. That way all the paint lines match up as well as the color of the stripes by painting it all at once.

I need to order a few things to finish the car, gauge decals and carpet flocking are still needed.

The engine still needs work and a few parts to finish it, like the starter, and water pump, belts and pulleys, and a fan.

Then I will move on to wiring and plumbing.