The Ultimate GTO

[kitbash]

Hey gang. This is my first attempt at a thread so you'll need to bear with me.

I've always loved the 1969 Royal Bobcat GTO, the crystal turquoise blue and white car that ran the Ram-Air V engine. I'll use Monogram's '69 kit as a base.

The big challenge here will be the engine, since the Ram-Air V mill hasn't ever been replicated in scale that I know of. I'll need to come up with scratch-built cylinder heads and intake manifold for it to look real. There's pleanyt of aftermarket goodies out there to spruce up the kit, but I'll need to do a lot of modification and upgrading, too. I've spent the last couple of months gathering up research material on the car; enough so I feel I'm ready to go.

Again, this is my first thread post, so it might start out a little rough but I'll figure it all out.

Here's some pics of the car. Some of these are of the real car, some are of "tribute" cars.

[kitbash]

Here's some pics of the unique Ram-Air V engine. You can clearly see the difference between this engine and a standard Ram-Air IV, especially in the configuration of the exhaust ports. The Ram Air IV ports are siamesed like a small block chevy, the RA-V are spaced equally apart like a big block chevy.

[white97ex]

for a decent starting point for that intake check out some of the newer stock car kits. For the heads, I've seen similar looking units in some AMT ford kits

[kitbash]

That's a darn good idea on the heads....lots of Ford heads have that port configuration, only question is, are they generally the right size to fit the block without a bunch of major surgery? Definitely worth looking into.

[white97ex]

Originally Posted by kitbash

That's a darn good idea on the heads....lots of Ford heads have that port configuration, only question is, are they generally the right size to fit the block without a bunch of major surgery? Definitely worth looking into.

I'll have a look and see if I have some in the spare box, If so I'd be happy to send them to you

[tonioseven]

I knew of a Carousel Red '69 Judge that had a Ram Air V installed that was assembled from parts that were supposedly destroyed. I got rid of the magazine a few years ago but there should still be pictures of it around somewhere. Good luck on this build.

[kitbash]

Okay so I started to goof off with the body last night, I actually spent some time comparing the Monogram body to the recent Model King release Judge funny car. That funny car body is more or less stock and could be used....but in the end I still believe the Monogram to be superior.

All this shiny plastic has to go...fresh out of the dies it still has a lot of ripples and of course it has to be roughed up to take paint.

You can see the waviness of the body lines reflected in the (rather poor) light of my garage.



I'll get my photos up to standard soon; I've go to get around to setting up a studio.



You can really see the waviness there above the front wheel well. That slight yellowing on the door there is the remnants of an old paint job I stripped off. I could have started with a fresh, unmolested orange body (still available on the shelf) but the orange pigments in the plastic tend to bleed under certain conditions. I had this old cream colored one in the model graveyard so I decided to recycle it.



Also, the panel lines will need to be re-scribed. They're never deep enough to suit me. the door handles and key locks will be shaved and replaced with separate items.



So will the "GTO" emblems....



...and that lower rocker panel trim, which the Royal Bobcat car didn't have.



After a nice little heavy petting session, I have the driver side fairly sterilized; still a little touch-ups to do but it's getting there. With the rocker panel chrome gone, the panel lines need to be modified. The forward door line needs to be extended all the way to the bottom and the door sill line needs to be carried all the way back to the rear wheel well...



...like so.



I also took the opportunity to sharpen up some of the body creases, which out-of-the-box were a little soft. The wheel well moldings present a little bit of a problem. They aren't really accurate the way Monogram did them, so I might putty them in and re-scribe them to look a little more accurate.

More to follow.

[kitbash]

After a drunken, memorable 4th of July celebration, I'm back at the desk again. I have the body all sanded down and panel-scribed so I've moved on the nose of the car.

Monogram, for obvious reasons, chose to mold the rubber "endura" front bumper and front valence panel as one. This makes sense, considering the unique polymer bumper was painted body color.

The Royal Bobcat car, however, has the endura nose painted Crystal Turquoise blue while the valence panel is white.

Since I'm an obsessive-compulsive nut about everything being separate parts, and since I've unearthed some good shots of the GTO's front end, (and also since I hate, hate, HATE masking) I've decided to saw the two in half and detail them separately.

Fresh off the sprue, here's the Monogram nose; molded together.


See the molded-in air intakes below the main grille opening? After I saw the two sections apart I'll open them up, and also remove the molded-in chrome trim, which I'll remake from thin stainless steel. Real mesh of some type will replace the molded-in stuff there.


One other minor detail; the license plate panel sticks out a bit too proud of the valence panel. Not only is this inaccurate, but once the air intakes are hogged out, it creates a bit of a "stair-step" in the chrome trim that isn't there in the real car.


Here's the real car. You can clearly see the separation between the endura bumper and the valence panel; the chrome trim around the lower air intakes is recessed into the valence much more so than on the model part; and you can see how the license plate panel blends into the valence without that little stutter-step. Also, I'll sculpt the four little formed beads into the license plate panel and make holes and slots for the license plate frame.


A few quick swipes with a saw blade, and she's cut apart. the air intakes were an easy clean-up, but as you can see if you look closely, that license plate panel does indeed stick out too far; I'll knock it down a whisker.


Also, those molded-in signal lights have GOT to go...I'll hog out the openings and build up separate ones to replace them (Bare-Metal foil and clear orange paint just don't make it, y'know?)


There's the license plate panel blended in flush to the valence...


And the driver's side signal light socket roughed out.


More to follow....

[white97ex]

I love the attention to detail!

[kitbash]

CRAPPY PHOTO ALERT!!

I tried to shoot this next sequence at my desk, but the results sucked. Live and learn. From now on I'll shoot in my garage "studio".

After some rummaging through my kit collection and the model graveyard, I've elected to create the unique Ram-Air V heads and manifold from scratch. Well actually not entirely from scratch; I'm using the heads from AMT's '62 Catalina as a rough starting point. They're very nicely detailed and I'll be able to say I used actual Pontiac parts!

Off we go.

I blew $20-plus on this kit; since I'm using only the heads, the results better be worth it!


If you look at the real head, you can see the difference between the RA-V head and the garden variety Ram-Air head. The RA-V has evenly spaced exhaust ports, the standard Ram-Air head has siamesed center exhaust ports.



Step one will be to grind away the center ports of the AMT head.


There's the unmolested AMT head on top with my modified one below, the center exhaust ports dissected away.


Step two is to hand-file out a couple of slots in the empty space to accomodate the new ports. I love those diamond files even though they're tough to card out.



Step three is to create the new ports. I sacrificed the other AMT head, hacking away everything I didn't need with a saw and files until I had the two outside exhaust ports separated away.





Man, these are the shittiest pictures I've ever seen.

Once the ports are cleaned up and ready to go, step four is to glue them into my modified head with a tiny bit of CA. I'm only creating one head by the way, I'll resin cast it for the build.



There's the basic head. There's a LOT more detailing to do, but this is a decent start.

More to follow.

[kitbash]

Here's some more; and these will be the last of my lousy photos (I hope).

Now that the ports are looking more or less right, it's time to add some detail. If you take a look at the real head, you can see lots of little cast-in bosses on the ports themselves; see all those little cylindrical shapes sticking out there?

Plus, there's the bolt hole bosses. I need to make those and glue them on.



I'll reproduce all this stuff using a few different diameters of plastic rod. Out comes the drills....

...And there's the first row of holes.


Then I glued in some short lengths of what appeared to be the correct diameter of plastic rod. I think I used .040. This is the kind of thing that it's more important to have look right than be absolutely accurate.


I didn't worry too much about the length, since I sanded them all down to the same level at once using a sanding block.


Then I used a slightly smaller drill to make the lower row of holes...


...And cut four lengths of smaller plastic rod, I think .030...


...And carefully glued them in.


While I was at it, I drilled spark-plug holes since I plan to install scratch-built spark plugs.

The last job before I hit the sack was the bolt-hole bosses. I used .045 rod for that, cutting short lengths and gluing them onto the head in the appropriate locations. I'll install a scale bolt head onto each one before I make a rubber mold of the head.





And that's that.
It's still not done; there's the ovular exhaust flanges to cut out and glue to the exhaust port ends, plus the end bolt-hole bosses rendered the head too long (which is all right because the block I'm using is longer than the head; the 1/24 to 1/25 bugaboo strikes again) so there's some contours that I need to add for accuracy anyway.


Getting closer to a finished cylinder head...

...More to follow.

[MidMazar]

Sweet progress on the heads, ill keep an eye on this one.

[kitbash]

Not much to report on the cylinder head; I added the center raised portion and drilled a hole in it for the final bolt head boss.


I also started fiddling around with the exhaust flanges. The shape is pretty weird; neither of the pieces there is acceptable. I'll keep trying.



Since I was kind of burned out on the cylinder head, I went back to the front valence panel. I wanted to replicate the four stiffening beads on the license plate face; you can see them in the photo of the real car.

I laid out their approximate location in pencil using a machinists scale.


Then I put a round-head scribing point into my trusty Bare Metal Foil scribing tool.


Then I carefully scratched the four little divots into the plastic.


I was happy enough with the results that I went ahead and drilled the two lower bolt holes.

But then I compared my part with the photo and saw a problem: the top of the license plate face, where the two air intakes curve in, was way too narrow...


I hate this kind of crap. The scriber points to the problem area.


Out came the .040 sheet stock; I banged out a couple of filler pieces, glued them in, and blended them.



But now it looks too wide at the top, so I'll narrow it later. Come to think of it, the stiffening beads themselves look too skinny...I'll hog them out with a larger tool.

More to follow....

[mrawl]

Love your approach to this one. It'll be a ton of work, but the result should be excellent. Your pics look washed out - are you processing them with Photoshop or something? Try to preserve the contrast. If they're coming out of your camera like that, then, um, time for a new camera I think

[kitbash]

My photos are definitely the weak point of this thread. The last batch look washed out because I shot them under bright, incandescent light. The ones I took of the body work, the ones with the blue background were shot in my garage under white flourescent tubes. They're a little 'dark', but in my opinion they're acceptable.

I'm still experimenting with my photography; wish I had the bucks for a good camera and I'm going to set up a dedicated "studio" area in my work room with flood lamps, a diffuser, etc.

Frankly, I'm worried I might burn out on this project before I learn how to turn out decent photos!