’73 Camaro

[Scale-Master]

This is going to be a model of my car. I’ve owned it for some 30 plus years and have made several changes to it during that time. It was bone stock when I bought it, but as it aged, I did some upgrading.
I’m using the AMT ’70 Z/28 Camaro kit as the base.

The body needed some standard clean up and there were a couple sink marks in the left front fender and header panel that needed to be filled and one in the center of the roof (from the interior dome light).

The Camaro script on the deck lid, the lower rocker panel trim and the upper side window drip rails were removed. All the panel/trim lines were scribed in deeper including the line between the Endura nose (now fiberglass on mine…) and the sides of the tulip panel/trunk torsion spring cover.


I also removed the rocker panel trim and rescribed that area.

[Scale-Master]

I sanded out the molded in headliner detail since my car has the one piece style. I’ll replace the dome light and shoulder harness (on the passenger side only) later.

[Scale-Master]

The hood had a very noticeable sink mark running half the width of the hood in the center in front of the louvers (from the molded in under hood blanket). That and a couple other small ones were filled and the chrome trim at the rear was added with sheet styrene. It was also warped so I massaged it to fit the body better.

[mrceej]

I don't know anything about this kit so I'm watching patiently. Looks clean so far.

[Scale-Master]

This is an early version of the kit, bought when it was first released. I worked on a current issue of the same kit last month (molded in orange) and noticed the mold now shows signs of wear all over and has a lot more flash.


The front valance in the kit is shaped like one from a standard nose Camaro on the outer corners. (For those that are not aware, the front fenders and the valence are a bit different between RS and non RS Camaro’s.) To make it look more like an RS unit I sanded and reshaped those areas; I also filled in the detent for the front license plate since my car doesn’t have one, and the mounting notches for the front spoiler (my car sits too low to run the spoiler and actually leave my driveway with it).

Note the gray slag imbedded in the plastic...
The front valence fit too far forward and the rear edges did not line up with the wheel wells on the body. I cut the mounting tabs on the body and made it fit better. Then I added some sheet styrene to the front where it meets the Endura nose to make up the difference. The Endura nose is a little lower on the bottom than the valence where the two meet, just like on the real one.

[Scale-Master]

After I cemented the rear panel in I scribed the weld seams in. I also scribed the rear edge of the trunk lid but did that section deeper as it appears on the real car.

[Hemi Killer]

Lookin' good

[Scale-Master]

Thanks.

The front seats in the ’70 kit are not the same style as in a ‘73. I used a seat from an old built up MPC ’76 Camaro in my collection as a base to convert into the passenger seat in my car.

I will make resin copies so I can restore the interior of the donor car. I’ll add the velour texture after casting.

The back seat is also different, but I used the ’70 piece and modified it into a ’73 pattern.

Ready for the velour, after I make the rear speakers for the package shelf…

[tonioseven]

Terrific work so far!! I'm taking notes. I have two of these in my stash that I'd like to build this year.

[Scale-Master]

I'd like to finish it this year... But since I'm so close to finishing something else, I'm starting a few others I've been putting off for years (decades even).

For the driver’s seat I cast a copy of a somewhat similar style seat from a Tamiya kit (maybe from a Skyline?) to make into the Flo-Fit I have.

I reshaped the bolsters and made the center cushions out of sheet styrene. I had to shave the cushion areas of the cast seat down before adding them.

The reshaped headrest was mounted on a couple steel pins.

[das_auto]

Great start, keep up the good work!

Emil

[Scale-Master]

The dash on the AMT kit is closer to being accurate than the one in the ’76 MPC kit, so I will use it. The first step was to drill out the holes for the gauges and thin out the bezels around the gauges.

[Scale-Master]

My car has ’92 Trans Am GTA wheels. They are 16 x 8s. The front wheels on the TA were offset by 16mm making them a little deeper dished. On my car I put the “fronts” on the rear and vice versa to give it the appropriate look of a ‘70s car.
I cast two sets copied from the Monogram ’89 Trans Am wheel. They are close, but they do not have the proper offset, (or even different offsets), the offset appears to be an approximate average of the front and rears.

From one set I made the outer rims with the proper depths. This is a front and a rear.

The other set also had the outer rims removed so I could use the centers. I found a set of tires that look about right size wise; the rears are larger than the fronts.

[Scale-Master]

After blowing up the car’s original 3 speed automatic back in the 80’s, I installed an (at the time) “exotic” 700R4. For the model I sourced a 4L60E from the Monogram Impala SS. I cut the transmission from the engine and the torque converter/inspection cover from the pan and assembled the trans and pan so I could fill the seam above the pan because of the way it was molded. I cast that and the plastic cover as two pieces for easier painting.

[Hemi Killer]

The infamous 4L60E, I'm on my 4th.