Le Mans Contest Entry: 2001 Corvette C5-R

[Murray Kish]

Hello everyone! The kit I’ll be building for the LeMans build is the Revell 2001 C5-R pictured below. The kit has decals for the #63 car of Fellows/O’Connel/Pruett that finished 1st in the GTS Class at LeMans in 2001. The real car is also pictured below



I actually started on this kit about mid-June, so some of this progress is being ‘back-dated' a bit. The kit itself is fairly complex, and has quite a good amount of engine/chassis/suspension/interior details. I believe it would build into a fairly decent kit if built box-stock, however I’ve chosen to *challenge* myself with several changes to the kit. I’ve never undertaken this level of modification, so who knows how it’s going to turn out!

1. Cut out the hood. The body is molded in one solid piece. Why they did this, I don’t know, but there is all kinds of decent engine detail that needs to be seen. The hood will have to be removed. I considered removing the rear section as well, but ruled it out for now.
2. Lower the ride height. A quick mock-up shows that the whole thing will sit way too high (particularly the front). A ‘lowering’ job is in order.
3. After looking at various reference pics (thanks to AF members for some site suggestions!!), I realized that there are several body/panel lines on the kit that will need to be filled/removed.
4. Side vents behind the wheels need to be widened. After looking at ref. pics, I believe the side vents in the kit are too small/narrow.
5. The hood vents need to be opened/rebuilt. The kit’s hood vents are molded in, and very thick. I don’t like ‘em.
6. Other vents around the car will be opened
7. The side window frames need to be shaved down/redone
8. The rear diffuser at the back of the car seems to thick (and warped) to me. I’ll build a better one from brass/styrene
9. The rear wing in the kit looks pretty good, but I may replace the end pieces with thinner brass sheet (trying to find a good ref. picture of this.)
10. The interior seat has the seatbelts molded in. These will need to be removed and replaced with something else (scratch? Aftermarket?)
11. The interior has some molded in wiring and electrical boxes. These will be removed and scratch-built
12. Engine headers will be scratch-built (plastic kit version is pretty poor)
13. Suspension (shocks) need to be scratch-built)
14. Various wiring/engine plumbing/etc will be attempted. Just how far I’ll go is yet to be determined (and will likely depend on how well everything else goes…)
15. I’m not sure about the windows/glass yet. I’d like to put in some replacement (thinner) windows, but this model is molded so that the windows go on from the *outside* of the body, rather than the inside. This could make it a bit more challenging to get the new *glass* flush with the surrounding window edges…
16. The wheels/tires are a bit of an unknown right now. I’m not sure what it is, but they just don’t really look right to me. Maybe they’ll be better once they’re painted and the tires sanded…

So here’s an early build-up of the kit pieces to see how everything would fit. I’ve already cut the hood free and started on re-building the hood-vents in this picture. I’ve also fudged the ride height a bit to lower the front end for the pics. It probably needs to go even lower…




The hood was removed using the ‘sewing thread’ method. This was the first time I tried this and it worked very well. I was amazed how well the hood fit after I had removed it. Here’s a pic of the section that was removed (again, you can see that I’ve started some work on the hood vents…)



As already shown, the hood vents were a bit of a challenge. I removed them with a dremel and realized very quickly that the plastic around these areas is very thick. I cleaned up the edges (and repaired a few nicks!), filled in the incorrect panel lines, and started to install thin strips of styrene cut to size. I CA glued them in place as best I could. They’re not really a perfect representation of the real thing, but in my eyes they’re a LOT better than what was in the kit. I still need to figure out how to put the 'center support strip' into the vent in the middle of the hood. Here’s a pic of the real thing compared to my almost completed hood.





Here’s a before and after photo of the expanded side vents:





The rear diffuser was built from thin brass sheet and some styrene strip:




Here's a few other misc. pics of various things:

[StephenDeli]

I was thinking of doing the same kit for the LeMans contest. I built it before and had no problems except for the exhaust which just didnt fit right and looked wierd. You said you cut the hood out with the sewing method? Never heard of it. Can you enlighten me on that. The progress looks great so far and looks to be very promising. I can also sense you are going to put in some photoetch stuff. You cut/sanded the exhaust, front intake and window trim which I assume are in place for photoetch parts. Keep up the good work!

[Inservible]

StephenDeli: Simply use a polyester thread as a saw!!
Wow I like it!!!
Where did you get those pictures?
I want to make this car!!!

[PRIVATEER]

Looks like some stiff competion is the order for the day.

[labandabonnot]

Impressive work! And an incredible attention to details! Looks on the way to be a masterpiece!

[OrangeR]

Very Nice!
I'll follow this like crazy!

This will be the best contest/learning experience of the year... really.

[JTRACING]

Very Impressive work!!, i will be following this progress thread!

[Murray Kish]

Thanks for the comments. Some answers to your questions:

StephenDeli: Sewing thread will cut through plastic if you have a bit of patience. I found that stringing the thread in a home-made flexi-file worked perfect (see pic below). You have to saw back and forth for about 30-45 seconds before anything happens. The thread has to heat up from the friction. Once it starts cutting, you'll be amazed how well it works. Careful not to use too much pressure on the thread though, cuz it will break. I broke the thread about 3 or 4 times before I found the right balance. After the cut is done, there will be lots of little 'burrs' on the edges, but they brush off really nicely with a scouring pad. The end result is an extremely thin cut. As for photoetch, I don't really have any plans, because I don't know of any that is availalble. I'm planning to improve the exhaust, intakes, and widow trim somehow, but I'm just not exactly sure how. The window trim I see in pics is fairly 'flush' to the rest of the car, so I may just use paint (or possibly black BMF)



Inservible: I got the pics from various sites that people have referred me to (from various forums). I'll add them all to the 'reference' thread here.

Murray

[StephenDeli]

ScaleMotorsport has a photoetch kit availible which looks rather nice. But it is $20 (im to poor to afford one). Keep us posted!

[Cychalen]

Very impressive.

[Murray Kish]

I just looked at that SMS PE set. It looks like a pretty good set. I was going to try to scratch-build lots of that stuff, but now that I know the PE is available, it may make sense to just get that??

Haven't decided yet, but thanks for letting me know about it!!

Murray

[StephenDeli]

It would save you alot of time and it would be accurate as well so I would get it if I were you.

[Vric]

This one will be very nice. It should be added to the "How to" section about "How to turn a revell kit to a master piece."

I might get one of this kit too

[Merkava]

It is great to see this kind of scratchbuilding. And it will indeed be a work of art once finished!
Keep it up!

[asaenz]

AWESOME!
Cannot wait to see it completed. I have that same model but I chickened out and went and purchased the Autoart 1:18 completed ones.

I am just wondering how you got such good detailed photos of the C5R?

Did you go to the Pratt&Miller plant?

Thx

al