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.


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


Here is the interior, im still not sure what colour im going to do with this


The rest of the bits are here, all in good condition just needs a bit of cleaning.


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.


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



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.

[z_dutchie]

REbuilds are cool

nice man! keep going

Originally Posted by z_dutchie

REbuilds are cool

nice man! keep going

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

[z_dutchie]

i'll be following this tread

[EMAXX]

Looks good so far. Keep us posted.

[vwman]

Originally Posted by z_dutchie

REbuilds are cool

[Sebstar]

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

[86_SR5]

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.

[vwman]

WOooooW that is sooo Awesome !!!

[86_SR5]

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.


This is what it looks like on the rears.

[Sebstar]

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 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

[DORIFT]

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.

Originally Posted by DORIFT

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.