Model Cars? now that's Grassroots!

Started on the Pinto tonight. It's a crude kit, tiny parts molded badly and frankly I'll be surprised if it all goes together nicely. I made a sandwich of the body, interior and chassis and the rear third of the chassis seems to take about a 20 degree turn towards the ground and I can't see it coming together nicely without an intervention.

Not sure if this can be addressed by heating up the chassis pan and convincing it to take a new shape, or what. Where that leaves the rear ride height afterwards will be anyone's guess.

Having said that, I will press on regardless. I'm not going to build the car completely stock, because that's silly. I am leaning towards using the turbocharger just to better fill the engine bay, though that means my typical never-fitting exhaust will absolutely not fit since the turbo requires using the side pipes (welcome to the '70s) and I'm not using those. I'll use the optional front and rear spoilers but not the awful bumper replacements, and the wider wheels & tires. Still thinking of painting it grandma-spec light blue metallic with darker blue interior. We'll see.

In reply to Claff :

Can I interest you in a free new Thunderbird Turbo Coupe kit so you can properly 2.3T swap it?

I built one of those back in the day, loved that body. I'd be happy to swap with something from my stash if you're interested.

In reply to Claff :

I've had good luck bending parts in hot water to correct damage like that. 

Wait? Are we doing a Pinto build?

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

I don't think there was a topic for January.  If it's pintos I'll look for one

Pintos were suggested, and some folks were onboard. I am not. I am doing a Chevy with a Jaguar engine.....

I wasn't sure if there was enough interest in a forum build theme so I just figured I'd start on mine. 

Backwards Chevy-Jag. Save the best part of the Jag..... The Nova is a re-pop of the original with all the simplicity that incurs, but the body shell is spot on. I have made all 4 pedals for it and am using Datsun roadster bucket seats with a center consol from sheet styreen. Engine from the old Revell E Type that I built when I was still in grade school.

So I got a set of 1:18 scale rims and tires for my 1:20 scale build. No body has modern rims and tires in 1:20. Too big? In 1:18 they'd be almost 27 inches tall. Other options? This is really holding me back on the build.

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

Woof that's a pass for me. Did you ever pick up that 1/20 AMX kit? It has some appropriate wheels and tires.

Javelin said:

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

Woof that's a pass for me. Did you ever pick up that 1/20 AMX kit? It has some appropriate wheels and tires.

Haven't looked yet.

vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:

Javelin said:

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

Woof that's a pass for me. Did you ever pick up that 1/20 AMX kit? It has some appropriate wheels and tires.

Haven't looked yet.

I'm not going to use the optional wheels from mine. Happy to send them to you.

Dropping these here, since I haven't been participating in the past couple of contests. Tamiya Porsche 956 with Indycals decals. I learned too late that this car was actually a short tail, but I didn't want to spend another 50 bucks on a conversion and replacement decals to fix it.

And Hasegawa's recently reissued Porsche 944 Turbo. Very nice kit for its age (1987).

My latest is a Porsche Indy V8 swapped bug for the local club build here in VT. Inspired by the Hammerhead bug that was shared here a while ago. Top is chopped.

I trimmed the top above the window and door at the drip rail.

Then took out a section on the A pillars and B pillars. It's a subtle, but I like it.

I slid the roof forward, reinstalled the trimmed B pillars, and glued the roof along the drip rail to bring it back in line.

While watching Ian Rousel on MT he narrowed the front of a bug to avoid widening the roof. I did the same. And the hood still works.

Nice!

I finished these 3 over the past month. Fujimi MR2 and 240SX and Monogram 308 GTB. Funny, a couple of days after I finished the MR2, a real version went up for  sale on Bring a Trailer.

Oh man I love your color choices on the Ferrari and the Toyota. I have the Nissan part built, started around 1987. I went to the dealer and bought a touch up bottle of the pale green metallic which is where it sits now, about ready for clear...  Not red Ferraris are a thing in my display cabinet too. I may have posted some of these before. Esci/Italieri kits.

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Thanks! 

Yours are really nice builds! I'm like you, I'm not a fan of red Ferraris. I only have one and that's the 330 P4 that I built as part of the GRM pandemic group build.

In reply to BenB :

Look great. Only Ferrari I've done is a yellow F40.

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

Nice!

Yeah, anything but red.

More not red Ferraris. These are 1/43 kits I built in the early 1980s. All of the windows have yellowed out in the last 5 years. The SWB 250GT is a white metal FDS kit. the LWB 250GT and the Daytona are French MRF resin, and the 330GTC is a Record resin kit. I just noticed in the photos I just took that the wheel inserts on the GTC are departing. Off to the repair bench....

I'm getting close to being able to build again!

In reply to Javelin :

Nice. 

In reply to Javelin :

Nice set-up!

I'd need to add on to my house to have a space that organized.

When I build, it's done on the dining room table. Paint and glue and stuff are stored in a drawer of our kitchen island. So every day, everything has to be put away out of sight so we can prepare meals and have a place to eat them.

In bachelor life I had a dedicated desk in a dedicated nook for stuff like this. Now there's not enough space, too much clutter, far from ideal.