The Ultimate GTO

[jla]

Excellent work on the kit!

The pictures aren't too bad, you can always use Windows Photo Gallery, if you're running Vista, to fix the lighting. I grabbed a couple of your pics and just hit auto fix....





I think you're better off with slightly dark pictures as opposed to over exposed like the previous batch. The first batch you had looked pretty decent though?

[kitbash]

Wow! That's really amazing...I don't think I have Windows Photo Gallery...also, what's Vista??


(I'm a computer dumbshit, as you can tell...)

[kitbash]

I get restless working on the same piece of any given kit for very long....I tend to jump around a lot just to keep things interesting. I'm sick of the cylinder head and burned out on the valence...so I decided to get into the firewall.

Engine compartments are very important to an overall build in my opinion. I tend to do my best work under the hood, really leaning heavily on detailing and scratchbuilding there.

Here's what the real firewall looks like, from a restoration pic of a real '69 GTO:


...And here's the Monogram GTO firewall. Back in the day, this was damn good detail; few kits at that time bothered with a molded-in steering column.


Problem is, there's not enough detail to suit me. The molded-in heater box is okay, but stops short of the fender well, stopping in thin air. I'm just going to rebuild the whole thing.

Out comes the photoetch saw set; I'll use a .010 thick one for good flexibility.


And lickety-split, a firewall-ectomy.


The only thing I might try to preserve here is the lower chrome windshield trim, but of course I'll have to grind off the molded-in wipers first. Come to think of it, the top contouring might not be a bad start...Maybe I'll just dissect off the front face and go from there.


Here's what the top should look like.


More to follow.

[mrawl]

Nice! This is getting interesting now. I hope I didn't sound too critical about the pics - most of them are fine and the new ones are great, it was just that one batch that were a bit gnarly. I've been lazy with my pics lately, just shooting on the desk, I do have a swing-arm light though and it helps a lot to position that thing to get the shadows right - not too dark but enough of an angle to show up the edges a bit. A bright light smacked straight over top usually does wash out, that's true.

[kitbash]

What's going to be "interesting" is to see if I can stay inspired to finish this build! I usually burn out several times before I finish one. I was hoping that posting here would kind of spur me to keep making progress.

No worries on criticizing my photos; at best they're only fair. I'll get better.

[Jyriii]

Always nice to see real muscle cars being built carefully. In my signature you'll find threads of my own build of the same GTO kit.

The windshield trim is pretty difficult to get done right. I wasn't satisfied with my own attempt... And remember to paint the grille surroundings black. It's a commonly overlooked detail.

Good luck with the build!

[kitbash]

Okay so I did a little bit more on the valence panel.

I got the license plate mount issue corrected; I narrowed it at the top to the proper width. Also, I finished "fine-tuning" the turn signal light pockets.


The shape and size is about what I want it to be.


Now let's take a look at the real car again. If you look carefully, you can see a body-colored "liner" mounted inside the light socket hole. It looks like a thin strip of painted material, and it holds the actual turn signal. See it?


Here's a bare valence panel, and a separate turn signal mounting bezel, both unpainted:




I'll whip up that bezel. I screwed around with different materials until I concluded that the prototype needed to be made of brass. It needs to hold its shape without deforming for what I'm going to do.

I took a strip of .015 brass and coaxed it into shape...it needs to be rounded at the top to match the rounded contour of the hole in the valence panel, and have more or less vertical 'legs' sticking down. After quite a few tries, I got close...



...Anyway, close enough for the girls I go out with. So I started trimming up the legs. They need to be short enough so that I can stuff the prototype into the sockets to test the fit, but actually a little longer than they need to be when finished.



Finally it was trimmed up and deburred suitably enough to test-fit.



And there you have it.

Obviously there's no way in hell I'm going to try to sweat out four of those that are exactly alike. There's limitations to my obsessive-compulsiveness. I'll make a rubber mold of this one, pour four casts, trim the leg lengths appropriately, glue them together end-to-end and paint them separately. When installed, they ought to look fairly convincing.

More to follow...

[stump]

I mean that in a good way.....I am LOVING this build. Fantastic !!
You're obviously very passionate regarding the subject, and it is quite evident that this WILL be one of the BEST GTO's around when completed..

The front valance looks superb, and the turn signal bezels to die for....Nice..
And the head........jaw dropping work. I love the whole build so far...PLEASE keep at it.

[kitbash]

Thanks for the kind words, stump...and everyone else that's responded. This website really does help you stay focused.

Rest assured I won't quit...I like to tell people that perseverence is what I have in place of talent. I burn out on occasion....but I never quit.

Having said that, I'm off to a one-week Boy Scout Summer camp with my son...sadly I'll be separated from the project for a while. I'll hit it hard when I get home.

Until then, some inspiration...

[dlphnfn]

Your weeks up... Where are the updates? :sarcasm1:
Seriously, killer job with those details so far!
Erick --

[kitbash]

How flattering of you to notice...:sarcasm1:

Seriously, after polishing off a few Widmer Drifter pale ales, (no booze allowed at Scout Camp ) I started in working again. I'll post some photos in a day or so.

Nice to be back here!

[kitbash]

Okay, here we go once again.

Back on the cylinder head. First thing I noticed last time I sat down to this project, the bolt-hole bosses on either end of the head stick out WAY too far past the end of the head. I'll be adding some detail down there that would kind of compensate for that, but still they stick out too far.

Compare the photo of the real head to my head. The end bolt (the one with the little mounting stud sticking out of it) is nestled in much farther than mine is, even when I add the bit of detail I'm about to add.

Bottom line: the end bolt hole bosses need to come off and be re-located farther inboard on either end.

Sigh.


My X-Acto points to the bad boss. The one on the other end is bad, too. they stick out past the end of the head too far, see that?


I snapped the errant bosses off with a pair of pliers...sob



Then I cleaned out and deepened the slots with a needle file.



Once I had them like I wanted them, I glued in new lengths of plastic rod...


...and then struck them off on the bottom.

When done, it was an improvement; still it's not exactly right, but the upcoming operation should make everything look right, even if it's not.

Here's the re-worked head, compared to how it was before I fixed it. The new bosses are nestled in a bit more than before,which should help render the head just about the right length and shape when it's done.



More to follow.

[kitbash]

More cylinder head work.

If you take a look at this shot of the real engine, you can see a machined pad cast into the end of the cylinder head. It has a freeze plug in it and a few bolt holes.


I'll carve a representation of that pad out of .080 plastic and glue it to the head.

Actually, the head gets one of these pads on either end, so I'll resin cast the one I carve out and use two castings. That way they'll be identical and I won't have to make two by hand!

An old scrap of .080 Evergreen, a machinists scale and a drafting pencil are the necessary weapons to lay the shape out.


I started out by reproducing the cross-section of the head so I had an envelope within which to work.


Then, using the photo as a reference, I sketched in a rough representation of that machined pad. I don't feel it needs to be exact; just close enough to look right. I doubt anybody will put a micrometer to my model when it's done.


I drilled the freeze plug hole out first, drilling all the way through the plastic. What I'll do is install a piece of plastic rod to represent the bottom of the freeze plug; that way I can use this carving on both ends of the head. I'll just install the freeze plug bottom from one side or the other depending on which side of the head...get it?


Then I started hacking away everything I didn't need. this is slow, nerve-racking work, if you're me.




I changed and evolved my pencil sketch shape as I went; it's an artsy-fartsy process and the pencil lines are just a rough guide.

Finally I had what looked like a close proximity; I may fine-tune it a little more but this is essentially it.


Damn thing's pretty small...not as small as a lot of the 1/43 work I do, but still small enough to make me sweat a little.


The plastic should be thick enough so that I can back-sand and contour it to fit the shape of the head. And you can see that by casting it and simply turning it around I can use it on either end of the head.


Here's a VERY rough idea of what it might look like installed onto the head. Again, the shape might need some more coaxing.



More to follow.

[Viccario]

Wow! Amazing attention to detail, extremely impressive work!

[tuned.by.twenty]

You're overlooking nothing with this build!