AM Corvette Grand Sport Chassis #004 1965 Sebring

[torinobradley]

I have started the Accurate Miniatures Grand Sport Corvette. My goal is to replicate Chassis No4 in it's 1964 Sebring trim. To begin with, I got the Accurate Miniatures kit:

Along with this, I have purchased the MCG Detail set, VRM Decals, HRM Halibrand wheels and tires (for the spare), HRM upper control arms and exhaust headers, along with MCG nuts, bolts and screw heads and Detail Master velocity stacks.


The velocity stacks are not exactly what I was looking for as they are a bit long and not hollow enough for my taste. I may go ahead and make my own so I can include the small jet tube inside. The VRM decal sheet is amazing! Almost every detail is on this sheet and this sheet does 5 cars! The gauges can be made with black centers or silver centers and you can actually read them! Almost every detail is on there including radiator stickers, inspection stickers, gas filler indicators and even the copper strips my chosen version has down the back of the car for the CB radio.

I have had this kit in my collection for some years now (since it came out, actually) along with the detail set and was only receintly inspired to build it. My good friend Cratecruncher here on AF builds world class models and encouraged me to build such an animal. Three of my kits fit what I like to build along with the potential to build it to the max. This Corvette Grand Sport, the Gunze Cobra Daytona and the AM McLaren. This one won the opportunity and away I went. All other projects were put on hold and this one was dropped on the bench. I ordered the remainder of the needed parts and the Grand Sport book and I am set.

I started this kit several weeks ago in my spare time. Not by opening the box but by doing as much research as I could regarding the actual car. Bookmarking websites, finding out just what tires and paint were on the car and all that stuff us anal modelers do. It wasn't until Friday when I actually cut the first part off the sprue and dug in...

The frame has slots on the bottom of it because of the thickness of the casting to prevent the plastic from caving in as it cools. These needed to be addressed so I started shoving plastic into the notches, let them dry and started hacking them down to size. For the most part, all is pretty smooth but it will take some more filling and sanding to make it all pretty in gloss black.

All the cast in mounts and brackets were removed so they could be replaced with the photo-etched wonders in the MCG kit. One of the first modifications to the GS Corvettes was moving the battery to the rear of the car. So, I cut off and sanded smooth the battery mount on the front of the frame. The AM frame also does not have any front spring detail. It only has a boss on the bottom of the frame where the lower control arms sits. I started to grind this off with a ball bit and a low speed mini cutter being careful to avoid the radiator mounting support. Once the area was fairly flat and matched the inset area indicating the bottom of the frame, I switched to a smaller bit and started to grind out the pocket for the spring. In the pictures, you can see the unmodified frame (groves and all) along with the modified smoothed frame, one of the spring pockets has been flattened and the other hogged out.


Here is the frame with both hogged out and ready.

Next, I got out my trusty Flex-I-File and after giving the entire frame a once over, started to thin down the radiator supports. The kit supports are about twice as thick as they look on the real car.

You can see the difference in size on this picture.

And here is the thined support with just a little cleanup left.


I put the frame aside to work a bit on the body. I started by grinding out the inside of the cowl vents until I could see the white edges of the vents starting to show through the back. Mind you this was with a very small burr and working very slowly. Then using a new blade, I trimmed the vents so they were open.



After this one was done, I followed suite with the second side. I then tried to gently cut out the doors and trunk lid. I have a few cuts and marks to clean up but the deed is done.


That's all for this weekend. Stay tuned for more...

[Jamme]

Really interesting start !
As I have the same kit in my stock, I will follow your WIP with much interest.
Greetings,

Jamme

[CrateCruncher]

Well ALL RIGHT! The plastic chips are flying and everything looks great. The way you opened up those fresh air vents in the body is really impressive. That GS frame IS completely different from the mid-year production frame.

Thanks for doing this thread Andrew. It's motivating me to start that stock '63 Split Window Coupe I've been jabbering on about.

[rollin80s]

this is a great project you have going here. the vent idea is genius and crazy at the same time. gotta give that a shot some time.

[tuned.by.twenty]

Very ambitious project here, I like it! This should be an impressive model when done, since you're taking care of all of the little details.

[da_ashman]

Great Build so far, I saw an article in Scale Auto a few years ago with that kit & the builder used a PE set that replaced all the chassis mounts, it was pretty awesome..
Cant wait to see more!!

[klutz_100]

Will be following this for sure

I have the kit and some of the same upgrade parts so will happily learn from your experiences

[jano11]

Great start. You've got a fan here!

[Tim25]

Looking good!

TIM

[junkman9096]

On the theory that you can't have too much information here's a website you may find helpful.
http://www.racingicons.com/gs/index.html

[torinobradley]

Originally Posted by junkman9096

On the theory that you can't have too much information here's a website you may find helpful.
http://www.racingicons.com/gs/index.html

This is the site that pretty much started this project! Thanks!

The restoration of #004 (my girl) is my number one source for this build. I am working a little bit every other night on this one but haven't been able to sit at the bench for more that a few minutes a night, you know, Christmas, family and all that but it's still moving forward. Will post an update when I have a few more things done. Meanwhile, check out the #005 being done by Jon MW
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=613653
He's a bit farther along than I am.

[Shunter]

I like you start so far, keep it up.

[millersbrm]

One thing I recently noted about this kit that I never noticed before are the angled flanges(trumpet side) on the Weber sidedrafts that appear to be backwards compared the reference material in the Dave Friedman book. They angle in at the top on the kit carbs, and out on the top in the references. I wonder how that happened!

[250 Testa Rossa]

Did the Grand Sport Vettes have kidney bean Halibrands ?

[torinobradley]

Originally Posted by 250 Testa Rossa

Did the Grand Sport Vettes have kidney bean Halibrands ?

Only the initial Grand Sports did, when they first raced. Then, the cars were returned to Chevy where they added the big flares and 11" Halibrand 5 spokes like the kit. I bought a set because the GSs still had a kidney bean spare tire and the kit provided one is not very pretty and is molded to the rear body supports. As I have opened the trunk, the hollow backed piece of plastic frame, tire and wheel would not do!

I'll have an update posted fairly soon. Got a new gas cap done and cleaned up the rear vents a bit. Also started sanding the carpet off the interior tub as there was no carpet in the car in the race I have chosen. So much to do...