Collaboration project competed...(Camaro ´69)

[DukeMan]

Hi everybody!

Here is mine and S.P.Y.R.O´s pro-touring Camaro ´69.
I did´nt have the time to do a progress thread so if anyone have questions regarding details and such I´ll be more that happy to answer and post more pics (got 200 pics in total). This project was sponsored by Hobbybiten (that´s what it says on the decal, "hobbybiten.se", unfortunally it does´nt show very well), my LHS here in Sweden.

In the ground this model is the Revell ´69 Camaro Yenko S/C (1/25 scale), but it actually consists out of about 4-5 different kits. The body is pretty modified from the original and it takes a trained eye to see what changes I´ve made.

For this project I scratchbuilt a lot of parts, many of them was machined out of aluminum on a lathe and some were made from thin sheetmetal and beer-cans:



We decided it´d be nice to have a fuel cell and a LCD-TV in the trunk, but to my great disappointment (because when you have a deadline it´s a good idea not to give yourself extra work... ) the trunk was molded closed. I used a dental probe to cut the trunk open, and I gotta tell ya´ll, a dental probe can hardly be compared with the "overpriced" BMF panel scriber. Using the probe was great, just moving it back and fourth with a light pressure resulted in a clean cut, no problem. But as for scribing lines, the BMF tool beats the hell out of a probe IMO.
(Sorry for the blurry pic but it´s the only one I´ve got):



As for the interior, using the stock one was out of the question, both me and Spyro thought it was butt-ugly and so it´s not going on the car. As we both like the "pro-touring"-style (mixing old stuff with lotsa new stuff!) we wanted racing seats, a t-shift gear lever, billet steering wheel and column, a clean look and loads of ICE (In Car Entertainment). The subs and amps are close matches to Rockford Fosgate´s stuff.
I machined the rings for the subs and I made the metal covers for the amps out of a thin metal sheet:



I have no idea where the instrument panel is from (came from Spyro´s "misc"-box), the black thingy in the middle was cut out from a Tamiya Nissan 350Z, the center-console is also "misc" by Spyro.
Spyro did most of the work on the interior, puttying, sanding, dry-fitting and all that:



We decided on using a Model Car Garage PE-part on the dash, but that required some sculpting á la dremel:



First prime-coat, as you can see there is still a lot of dry-fitting, filling
and sanding to do:



I´ve always been amazed by turbo-powered engines so I knew I wanted to put one in this car, but for a turbo-powered engine you need a intercooler, right? So I tried to knock that idea out of my head because I figured it would take to much time (we had a tight deadline to keep in mind, IPMS Open 2005) to make place for the intercooler. That´s until I came across Banks Power, they offered twin-turbo packages that are so good and so efficiant they don´t even need an intercooler (having a intercooler would still produce more hp though).
I´m pretty proud of the engine and the whole turbo-setup. Look at this page and you´ll get the idea of how I made the turbos. I scratchbuilt the air filters, the intake and a bunch of other stuff.
First mock-up on the engine to check clearence:



Here are the finished air filters, the red "silicone-stuff" I made from a balloon and the clamps are BMF strips:



Here below is the finished engine minus the turbos (had to install them after I put in the engine). In the pic you can see my machined pulleys, I used a balloon for belts and it looks great IMO. Also visible is the fuel rails (did´nt have the time to mount a fuel line), the wired distributor, I used black Detail Master ignition wires. I made brackets for the alternator pulley and the other one down to the right (I have no idea what it´s actually for but I´ve seen it on a other Camaro ´69 with the Banks TT-engine and it looked good!) out of thin metal sheet. The actual alternator is from a Ford Mustang lowrider kit, I had to have a smaller one in order to make room for the turbo-piping:



I´ve used Alclad II metalizers on this engine, Dark Aluminum on the block and Aluminum och the heads and intake. Spyro made the manifolds/headers and I painted them, the big round thingy in the from is suppose to look like the wastegates. Painted the starter and oil filter the same color as the car body. Can you spot the oil-stick too?



Enough of in-progress pics for now, lets have a look at how it finally turned out shall we?

The rims are Pegasus "T´s" and the tires are from a Tamiya 350Z, the mirrors are from a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 ´68, we discarded the stock grille and replaced it with some fine mesh (painted flat black):



"Shaved" door-handles, exhaust pipes made from rectangular styrene tubes and painted with Alclad II Polished Aluminum, brake-discs from a Tamiya Porsche 911 Carrera (did´nt have the time to drill them out or to give `em a wash, one of many things I don´t like about this model):



The engine has finally found it´s home! Hood isolation made out of wrinkled BMF, made the heat shields (mounted over the turbos) out of thin metal sheet:



Engine again from another angle:



Sexy-ass Camaro posing, you can see the 17" LCD screen in the trunk. I´ve modified the rear bumper and painted it with Alclad II Chrome (the front is also painted in the same color):



Fuel cell, the fuel hose was mounted shortly after taking this pic. Also the exhaust pipes are sticking out way too much, but that´s soon to be taken care of:



Here you can see the gas cap that I machined with a polished center, flocking used on the inside of trunk lid. The lights are mounted the "wrong" way, I was sure in the beginning that they were suppose to look like that until I saw pics of real Camaros. But I like how they look a bit more "3D" the way they are now.



The paint is Tamiya X-27 (clear red) over Humbrol no. 11 (silver) and it has a "Kandy"-effect which is very hard to capture with a camera, you have to see it for yourself. I had to spray about 10-15 layers of X-27 to get it, well, red... After drying the paint was gently sanded with 2000 abrasive, followed by a micromesh treatment (3600 all way up to 12000) and finally Tamiya rubbing compound and a layer of Tamiya modelling wax.



That´s all folks!
Any comments are greatly apreciated!

[Amazon]

Well , what can i say? 2x ! You have my admiration for the serious schratchbuilding,the engine and its turbos are a piece of art ( although the upper radiator hose is gone..)
And that paint is there anything more sweet to the eye than red candy?

[DukeMan]

Originally Posted by Amazon

Well , what can i say? 2x ! You have my admiration for the serious schratchbuilding,the engine and its turbos are a piece of art ( although the upper radiator hose is gone..)
And that paint is there anything more sweet to the eye than red candy?

Thanks, yeah it´s pretty obvious that the hose is missing, but when you´re sitting at your modelling desk, 30 min before a show and you still don´t have the mirrors mounted I actaually could´nt care less about a radiator hose. However it´s soon to be mounted as I have it laying somewhere on my desk.

[AstroRide44]

nice camaro, it might be nicer than the one in your sig..

[99civichic]

Originally Posted by AstroRide44

nice camaro, it might be nicer than the one in your sig..

I may be mistaken, but I think it's a Cuda in his sig...

Awesome work on the engine, I love the color of the car and attention to detail. What did you use for the turbo plumbing, and how did you bend it? Also, about the MSD box, did you make the decal or buy it somewhere?

LOL, reading this thread is like watching a SEMA buildup!

[PRIVATEER]

Very Impressive !!!!!!!!!1

[kunta]

Nice build.
body color is sweet and love those engine bay detailing.

[Wheelin75r]

Originally Posted by kunta

Nice build.
body color is sweet and love those engine bay detailing.

[mike united]

This is another build i had the pleasure of seeing at the weekend, i must have looked at it at least 10 times at the show. Stunning looking model !!!

Great work.
Mike

[DukeMan]

Thanks everyone for your kind replys, reading such nice comments from people like yourselves really mean a lot to me.

Originally Posted by 99civichic

I may be mistaken, but I think it's a Cuda in his sig...

Awesome work on the engine, I love the color of the car and attention to detail. What did you use for the turbo plumbing, and how did you bend it? Also, about the MSD box, did you make the decal or buy it somewhere?

LOL, reading this thread is like watching a SEMA buildup!

Thanks, the plumbing and the turbo is one piece, made out of 2mm lead. If you looked at the link I posted, you can see how he cut off the turbo on both sides, I only cut it on one side and kept the other one as plumbing as it was correct scale. Lead bends really easy without kinking, but be careful as it´s very soft and can easily snap if you bend it to violently. As for the decal, I made it in Word and printed it on transperant decal paper (regular deskjet).
The air filter and the exhaust part is made out of aluminum tubing (3mm), I had a hard time bending it without kinking it, but then I put a 1 mm brass rod in it and that helped a lot.

Hope I made myself clear, please post again if I did´nt!

[will69camaro]

I think the car looks really good. Engine is absolutly stunning and the color is awesome. However, i dislike the rear of the car. The trunk looks "cheesy" to me, the exhaust is too big, and the tail lights are in backwards. Also the wheels are a little big i think, if they're going to be that big you need to tub the car and drop it so it hides the wheels some. As it is it kinda looks like it has a lift on it. Not exactly "pro-touring."

William

[DukeMan]

Originally Posted by will69camaro

I think the car looks really good. Engine is absolutly stunning and the color is awesome. However, i dislike the rear of the car. The trunk looks "cheesy" to me, the exhaust is too big, and the tail lights are in backwards. Also the wheels are a little big i think, if they're going to be that big you need to tub the car and drop it so it hides the wheels some. As it is it kinda looks like it has a lift on it. Not exactly "pro-touring."

William

Thanks for your two first sentences, unfortunally I have no idea what you mean by "cheesy"...
I just have to ask you a simple question, did you even read the text?
As for the wheels, maybe it´s got a Air Ride suspension, what do you know?
Is´nt "pro-touring" kind of like a modern hot rod, I mean your own interprentation of how you would like the car to look like? At least that´s mine and (I think) many other´s idea of "pro-touring" since there is a "pro-touring"-meet thread here on AF.
What is "pro-touring" to you then I must ask, if you don´t mind?

[Snooker]

Awesome!

[will69camaro]

Originally Posted by DukeMan

Thanks for your two first sentences, unfortunally I have no idea what you mean by "cheesy"...
I just have to ask you a simple question, did you even read the text?
As for the wheels, maybe it´s got a Air Ride suspension, what do you know?
Is´nt "pro-touring" kind of like a modern hot rod, I mean your own interprentation of how you would like the car to look like? At least that´s mine and (I think) many other´s idea of "pro-touring" since there is a "pro-touring"-meet thread here on AF.
What is "pro-touring" to you then I must ask, if you don´t mind?

I didnt' see your comment on the tail lights. I'd say try and change them as the 3-d look doesn't fit the car... As for the "air-ride" suspension, most cars at shows which is what i'd expect a model car to be built to represent (a car at a show) the air ride would be dropped to give the car a nice look and not look like a 4x4. By cheesy i was trying to put a nice spin on saying that the rear of the car doesn't do the rest of it justice. From the front that car looks stunning (stance aside), then i got to the rear/trunk area and was let down. I know what pro-touring means to me as well as the people that actually BUILD 1:1 pro-touring cars as i've been a member of sites such as www.pro-touring.com and www.lateral-g.net since WAY before pro-touring became the mainstream and hit every major magazine and turned into cars like the one in your signature (more looks than function).

William

[DukeMan]

Oh come on William, "more looks than function"? That´s exactly what it´s not:

any guess how much it puts out?