SPA Modeler

Thanks Johnny. It's good to see you over here as well man. I should be getting a few more photos than I had. The owner is supposed to be sending me some more and an additional J2000 kit as well.

Paul wrote:Might as well get another case of beer and brats, boys. This is gonna be a while....

And a new week has begun...

Stikpusher wrote:

Paul wrote:Might as well get another case of beer and brats, boys. This is gonna be a while....

And a new week has begun...

We'll be starting up on this one again on Friday.........

I can't wait to see this further along.

Ok Lyle. You've got it. Here's the latest so far with the body work on the main body complete and the roofline about 80% complete. Still gotta work out the roof to body fit a little but it's pretty clean other than that and I'm feeling really good about the way that it turned out. Got the Camaro kit in so here's the wheels from that kit. I have another set coming from Revell though. A few blems on these but you get the picture of the shiny rims. Just couldn't risk screwing the resin ones up with my limited Alclad experience and besides, I need a break on at least one portion of this build.

Ok folks. Today I did some interior tinkering because I've got to figure out the seating and with that comes the question of how much of the forward part of the engine will be visible when the seating area is installed. I mean look..................this is the OOB seating:



The whole front of the engine will not be visible at all given that arrangement. So I got to thinking :What if I recline the firewall a few degrees and stick some better seats in there and widen the distance between the seats? This will allow the whole center section to have a clear panel in which to display everything up there since the engine is pretty much the showcase of this build AND what the entire build is constructed around. So I mocked everything up using the seats from the J2000 kit. Imagine this, with racing seat harnesses and everything in the middle clear.



I've got to move the seats back just a tad which means the firewall is going to have to be scooted back about 1/8-3/16 of an inch. Additionally I'll have to relocate the steering column to the drivers side to line up with the seats. Everything seems to clear the roofline as well:



While I'm on modifications, I had to correct a boo-boo. It seems when I tried to make the transmission cut out a little deeper the dremel got away from me and marred the cut out somewhat and I tried to correct it by widening it across the face panel:

Remember I stared here:



and ended up here. See how the cut out is now more of an arc than a half moon shape?



the only way around this was to cut the whole panel out:



and drill a whole in some styrene sheet stock and cut a new panel out.



This is the kind of stuff that I really enjoy about custom builds. It seems like when I change one thing then it bleeds over into something else and then something else again and again. The vision I start out with on any given custom auto project often gets changed several times and dictates to me how it's going to go and before I know it's happening the build takes on a while new direction. It's really a cool thing to watch unfold.

Got some work done this morning but like clockwork PB is down yet again. Really??

mustang1989 wrote:Got some work done this morning but like clockwork PB is down yet again. Really??

no surprises there...

Stikpusher wrote:

mustang1989 wrote:Got some work done this morning but like clockwork PB is down yet again. Really??

no surprises there...

That's why I switched to postimage...

I hear ya Stuart but I'm not quite ready to do the switch as of yet. I bought into PB so it seems a little faster than the free version and gives me "bitching" rights when they foul up.
Anyways I've got where I want the radiator to go planned out. First I robbed the radiator out of my Pro Stock Thunderbird kit and then robbed the cooling fans from the Pontiac J2000 kit. I sanded the back of the cooling fan assy to where I could cut the area between the fan blades out to give them more of a realistic look. I'll be cutting the floor of the chassis on the drivers side to allow me to install the radiator and cooling fan assy there. I'll also be drilling holes in the cooling fan "platform" in which to run the supply and return cooling system hoses through into the radiator underneath.
Here's the parts:


and here's where they're going to wind up when installed:



More cutting on the way......................