Celica GT4 "Rebuild" Progress

Hi guys, while building my Hasegawa EVO III Lancer i went to a friends house and he was cleaning out his garage, he was throwing out some kits,i asked if i could have them all so i can add it to my bits box, among others i got this Tamiya GT4 which was in bits.

During the EVO III build up i was already thinking of my next project and looked across and saw this kit, to cut a long story short i thought hey why not strip this thing and try out some automotive paint since i have never used them, i have always used Tamiya paints but eventually im gonna run out of colours, first i thought just paint up the body just to see how it might turn out, but decided its a shame to chuck out a kit, i guess some of you guys can relate to this.


I examined the body work and all seems to be ok and proceded to remove the clear parts and other bits,headlights was also painted black.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-01.jpg

I started the paint stripping process, I used Poly S (ELO) Easy Lift Off, this stuff is awesome it took just around half an hour to stripp the body clean
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-02.jpg

Here is the interior, im still not sure what colour im going to do with this
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-03.jpg

The rest of the bits are here, all in good condition just needs a bit of cleaning.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-04.jpg

After cleaning up the body i thought i'd give the front of the car a different look so i decided to cut the bottom grill exposing a nice big mouth where i could place a huge intercooler.The bonnet was shut and puttied up since it was cracked in the edges it was originally glued so i will have to get creative with this later on, thinking of using black stripe decal to simulate the panel lines, more info on this laster on.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-05.jpg

The body has come up like new after being primed and cleaned up, you wouldnt have picked it that this car was a mess before
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-06.jpg


Anwyay i thought this might be an interesting project to experiment on while i tackle my next build up, always good to work on something while waiting for paint or putty to dry.I have picked a nice colour which is called Vivid Blue Pearl which has a nice shade of purple/blue I will spray it in the next few days.

REbuilds are cool

nice man! keep going :sunglasse

REbuilds are cool

nice man! keep going :sunglasse

Yeah i thought it would be a good thing to work on in between things plus always enjoy seeing something transformed to something good.

i'll be following this tread

Looks good so far. Keep us posted.

REbuilds are cool

:iagree:

looks like we are working on the same car my friend :D
funnily enough, my interior looks identical :D

DAYUM! From the sounds of it, this was a royal POS. Looks damn good in the primer. I'm liking the idea of black headlamps with the blue paint. BTW, who makes that paint? For the interior, go over the gray bits with some flat red, flat blues and such. I think the car looks great. Keep us updated.

All has gone well, this is the first time that i have experimented using automotive paints since ive always used Tamiya spray cans, the paint that i used cost me $6.50AU from Super Cheap Auto, which is half the price of Tamiya sprays.

I was surprised with the results since it looked really dull and patchy at the start, after just a quick polish it looked ok, cant wait to see it after i polish it properly.

The pictures below looks deceptive because its hard to see the purple hue, its a mix between purple an blue, the colour is actually Vivid Blue Pearl, this colour is nice with very fine pearl flakes through it, it also seems a lot more durable than Tamiya. If your in Australia give this paint a try you will be surpised on how good it is.


http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-08.jpg

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-07.jpg

WOooooW that is sooo Awesome !!! :evillol:

damn. nice paint. keep up your good work and you'll have and xtraordinary model.

Just a quick update, did a little bit of work on the wheels, i converted the rear wheels to a deeper dish just to give the wheel a different look im still going to keep the centre metalic grey and airbrush the otuter dish chrome silver , should i make the fronts a deep dish as well?? i guess it might look weird if its only the rears, i might make the fronts with a shallower dish, what do you guys think??

Im also about to begin doing some surgery on the suspension on this car, it just rides too high especially since its only got small wheels, might just lower it enough so that its tucked into the guards, the wheels are nice and wide though.

Im still pondering on the interior colour of this car,im thinking something really wild, im thinking a complete white interior or posibly with splashes of dark cream yellow or blue to go with the white, any thoughts or suggestions.

Here's a pic of the modified wheels.
http://modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-09.jpg

This is what it looks like on the rears.
http://modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-10.jpg

its a shame that this kit comes with such bad wheels :( I mean THREE SPOKES! I'm just gonna keep mine stock and spray them in TS-42 like its in the intstructions... I am really not experienced with ride height, so if you come up with a way to lower the car, please post so I can replicate it as well :D Thanks mate

As for interior colour, I'd say something bright to contrast the exterior. The metallic blue you are using is hard to work with, but maybe like a neon yellow interior? But make sure to do like cushion lines in blue to REALLY make it stand out. just my 2c

Nice rebuild!
:)
You should do all 4 wheels to deep dish since its an 4WD car, it looks a bit weird if the offsets on the wheels are different from front and back.

Nice rebuild!
:)
You should do all 4 wheels to deep dish since its an 4WD car, it looks a bit weird if the offsets on the wheels are different from front and back.


Yeah i thought so, i will a 4 wheels deep dish, this car was a bit of a mess however its starting to look good, i still think its always fun to do rebuilds and restorations, my friend that prieviously owned this car must have painted this car with a roller since the paint was so thick LOL, starting to do a bit of work on the interior and some surgery on the suspension, will keep you guys posted on how things turn out.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


Just a quick update nothin ground breaking, started doing a bit of surgery on the suspension and cleaned up interior and gave it a nice fresh coat of Tamiya white primer, its now good as new. Im starting to get excited about this car, seeing it change into something good from the mess that it was before.

Image below shows the before and after ride height difference, to lower this car i simply cut sections of the suspension struts and then drill both ends this is then followed by inserting fine K&S music wire to strenghten the suspension, this was done front an rear,you can easily glue both parts rather than pinning it however i found that it weakens the suspension.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-11.jpg

The whole chasis and interior was sprayed with white primer, will start on the interior soon, im thinking of a complete white interior with tonnes of carbon fibre thrown about, i think i will make the interior a focal point of this project and open up the windows, since i have run into a few problems with the original window panels, more on that later.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-12.jpg

looks good. I personally think, since the car is blue, you should do the rims in white! To match that fine white interior.

Nice re-build, thats nearly the same colour as my 1:1 GT-Four, mines more bluey-green with a bit less purple pearl though.. Just ordered myself another GT-Four from HLJ since the one Ive got now was my first model and it didnt come out too well, damn that bonnet (hood) is so hard to sand properly :p If you need any parts, PM me, Ive got 2 half-built kits here, the only thing you cant have is the engines, they're for some of my other celica projects ;) . Keep up the good worK!

Hi Guys

Another progress update on this restoration project, momentum has slowed down a bit on this build up since a few problems have poped up unexpectedly :banghead: however its really starting to look good, always feels great when you get pass a major problem but more on that later.

After painting the body i wasnt sure where i was heading with this car eventually i decided to give it the carbon treatment, the bonnet was covered and it was quite a challenge since there was a lot of complex curves and gave me a bit of trouble in some places.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-13.jpg

I also added some decals on the door to give it that drift look,take note of the newly converted dished stock gt4 wheels, currently in primer but i will paint it pearl white and possibly a chrome lip around the edge.The panel lines has also been filled in.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-14.jpg

Im tossing up on the seats, the kit seats seem too small and out of scale, it just looks weird in my opinion, im thinking of dropping in a pair of Fujimi MR2 seats out of my bits box to replace it, to me it just looks better.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/gt4-15.jpg

Anyway i should have a few more pics up in the next few days mainly the interior, unsure what im going to do with the wing, im thinking of a GT style wing or maybe keep it wingless. thanks for looking any input or constructive critisism always welcome, thanks for looking.

Great work on the hood dude!

Wow...where did you get the Greddy decal? Make it yourself?? Wanna flow me a copy?? lol
Awesome work. Youve really changed this model.

WOW! The hood looks terrific! VEry sharp separation lines and works great with the color. What decal did you use for the cf?

That blue is mind-altering!! :sunglasse You're dong an excellent job so far!!!

F****** sweet

That's totally sweet! My simple mind STILL can't decipher how the heck you lowered the thing. I managed to score a Hase black EvoIII, and looking at it I still scratch my head on how to lower it and fit deeper rims on!! Totally makes me rethink my GT4. Word about the MR2 seats: I actually laughed a little when I saw them. Driving an MKII in real life, I'd have to say it just looks kinda wrong (but that's just me). You need a nice racing bucket in there! Keep it up!!

clem..

hellica nuff said

Thanks for the encouragement guys, this project has been a lot of fun! a lot more than i expected.

ozstrider: I got the Greedy decal from a Fujimi Lancer Evo V kit, yeah this model was quite a mess at the start, this was only suppose to be an experiment LOL.

slk320 : The carbon decal was from scalemotorsports, ive used a few others but this is by far the best especially when it comes to applying it to complex curves.

clem24: I will make sure I document my lowering technique in my next project, im still bouncin ideas around for the seats,i will probably end up casting resin copies of some recaro seats out of an integra type r.Great to hear you got yourself a hasegawa evo III, i also picked one up for $8.00 on ebay, im going to be using the interior to convert my hasegawa evo IV rally into street trim.