RoR Step-by-Step Review * 1967 Chevelle Pro Street review

Transcription

1 RoR Step-by-Step Review * 1967 Chevelle Pro Street review In the world of Chevrolet muscle cars, it is hard to beat the power and sleek lines of the late 60 s vehicles. These characteristics are exactly what makes the 1967 Chevelle so popular to both purist muscle car owners, and also to those with designs on improving an already awesome car. The term Pro-Street is a racing classification, it is a form of custom vehicle typically featuring large cubic inch engines, a tube chassis, oversized rear tires, narrowed rear ends, interior roll bars and flashy paint jobs. All of this, while still retaining enough of the stock vehicle to be considered street legal. The Chevelle model line was available from 1964 all the way through 1977 and was considered part of GM s A-Body platform. Super Sport versions of the Chevelle were available from 1964 through The 1967 model had revisions to the bodywork from earlier year models, these changes gave the Chevelle a longer and more straight-forward appearance. Coupling the revised exterior with a monster 396 cubic inch power plant that was capable of pushing out 375 hp resulted in a vehicle that now looked great and could out muscle much of what was on the road at the time. Purists believe the 1969 Chevelle was perfect just as it came off the assembly line, others thought it was the perfect basis to push the boundaries of the motoring scene.

2 For the modeler; This kit features fairly accurate assembly instructions, it is comprised of 150 plastic parts along with 4 rubber tires, two are skinny to be used on the front while the two rear tires are wide, well detailed Firestone s. They have also included a paint guide within the instruction sheet so you can replicate the box art if you like. The plastic parts have little flash on them and most pieces fit together well. Molding seams and ejection pin marks are minimal and clean up with a bit of attention from a sanding stick. This is a Great Box Stock kit but it would lend itself equally well to those who like to go all out and super detail their builds. To complete this model as I have you will need: paint, plastic cement, Bare Metal Foil, a hobby knife, sanding sticks and Elmer s glue ( for the windows and lenses ). Included in this review you will find slightly modified building sequences and tips on detailing, all of which are fully examined in this Stepby-Step review. While everyone does develop their own techniques over the years, this review incorporates my building style and this is what works best for me. Sometimes it is a bit different than what is considered the norm but it is what I am comfortable with and I get fairly decent results with it. All parts removed in this review were cut off of the tree by using sprue cutters and then trimming with either a hobby knife or sanding stick to clean up the residual plastic. Never bend or twist parts off of the tree s as it will damage the part and just make more work for you in the end. When I refer to glue in this review, I am referring to Testors Liquid Cement, I use the thin stuff in the clear bottle. I cut the stock brush out of the cap as it is too big and apply the glue with a fine hair detail brush instead for more control. Feel free to substitute any liquid cement you feel comfortable with. I build sub-assemblies and paint in batches this is both time saving and convenient although it will, in some cases, make you deviate from the kit assembly instructions. First thing we want to do take everything out of the plastic bags and give them a wash in some warm water with a bit of dishwashing liquid, this removes any residual mold release agents that the manufacturer may have left on them. Failure to complete this simple step could result in hazards later during the painting stages. (cps0a.jpg) Now lets take a look at what s supplied. These are all the pieces laid out in their plastic bags.

3 (cps4 & 9.jpg) This is old tooling so look it over carefully for flash and ejector pin marks. I have used a black marker to highlight the problem areas I have found on the next couple of areas. There is some flash around the rear of the side drip moldings. Ejection pin marks on the underside of the roof will need to be sanded so they are not visible after final assembly. Some more ejection pin marks on the underside of the cowl but these will not pose a problem as they are not visible after assembly Flash on the leading edge of the hood. Ejection pin marks on the underside of the hood. Molding seams along the top of both front and rear fenders. All of the previously stated defects are easily handled with either a bit of fine sandpaper or a sanding stick. (cps14 & 16) Now let s take a look at the engine itself, the casting looks good The only real thing I would have liked to see different is to not have the oil pan be molded in, but to have it as a separate unit either bare plastic or plated. Test fitting of the engine halves reveals that the mating surfaces are not perfectly flat, trying to glue them together without correcting this would result in either a gap that would need to be filled and finished later or excess glue which would have to be sanded smooth before painting. Taking the block halves I lay a sanding stick on the bench and lightly move the engine halves back and forth over it until the edges are true. This results in a much tighter fit which is what we are going for.

4 (cps20.jpg) Holding the engine halves together, I use my detailing brush to apply a dab of glue to the seam itself in two or three different spots around the assembly. Once you have applied the glue to the joint, wait a few seconds and gently squeeze the halves together. The liquid cement is so thin that this is all that is needed, capillary action draws the glue into the seam and creates a tight bond. When the glue has dried, use a small file or a sanding stick to carefully clean up the seam that is left behind. If you have done your cleanup properly, you should barely be able to see the joint when you are done. Now, since I am batch painting and want the block to be one color and the cylinder heads another, I am altering the kit instructions only by way of the assembly sequence. (cps24) The headers are the next things to be assembled and get ready for paint. I trim them from the tree the same way I do all of my plastic pieces. There are seams on the round tubes that need to be either scraped flat with the side of a hobby knife or sanded with a sanding stick to make them look presentable. I then assemble them flow in a bit of cement between the two parts and put them in two of my extremely expensive clamps. Now while those dry I am going to clean up a few of the other parts that I will be painting in this first batch (cps28) The Chassis pan needs minimal cleanup, just a bit of cleaning up of residual flash but otherwise it looks good. The Radiator will need a bit of attention as there is a seam running down the exposed length of it. For this I use a needle file and a sanding stick to smooth things out and make the seam disappear

5 A lot of the other parts will be initially painted while still on the sprues, this is to keep them from blowing away in the stream of the airbrush. I have occasionally used masking tape, folded back on itself to secure small parts for painting. For me it is easier to initially paint them on the trees and then to the little bit of spot touch up after you cut them away from the tree. (cps29.jpg) This is the first batch of items that get some color. The engine block gets shot with Chevy engine red (deviating from the instructions) because I like the contrast of the red over having it all aluminum, the cylinder heads get shot with aluminum as per instructions. The rest of the parts you see start out with a gloss black base coat. Some will stay gloss black while others will get a bit of shine in the coming steps. (cps30.jpg) I am fortunate to have on hand some Alclad II Lacquer, which is excellent for modelers that want to produce a chrome-like effect on plastic kit parts. I Use the Alclad over the gloss black base as per the manufacturer s instructions and get the desired effect. The fan, steering wheel and fire extinguisher all get a coating of the Alclad. This is followed by the water pump, the fan belt assembly, steering column, oil filter, distributor, coil and upper control arms. I also sprayed the radiator, the rear traction bars and coil over shocks and lastly the headers. (cps35 & 36) Once the red is dry on the engine block, I mask it off and spray the transmission with aluminum. Personally I don t really like kit chrome as it doesn t look real to me. Some parts really shouldn t be chrome anyhow; the intake manifold is one of them. We can improve the look of the intake by using one of two methods, either strip the chrome using a stripping solution ( household bleach works well ) and repaint it aluminum, or we can tone down the shine of the chrome by spraying the kit chrome part with Testors dullcoat. This takes just enough shine off the part to make it look more realistic, like polished aluminum. ( the small bit of flash you see is scraped off with the side of a hobby knife before installation) Once the Paint is allowed to dry completely, I can get back to the basic assembly.

6 (cps42 & 43) I install the cylinder heads onto the engine block; I think the contrast looks good between the red and the aluminum. I then install the oil filter, detailing it by painting the filter housing itself white and leaving the upper mating surface chrome Alclad. The starter is the next piece to be detailed and installed; I used flat black on the rear section and left the rest chrome so it looks like one of the performance units. The Chrome fuel pump is the next bit to be installed on the right hand front of the engine block. I then fit the intake manifold and valve covers in place followed by the two carburetors which I have left chrome for now. To give the illusion of the exhaust being blued a bit from use. To do this I use Future Floor Polish ( now called Pledge with future shine ) tinted with blue food coloring. I keep a bottle of this on my bench at all times as it has many uses. Using a brush, apply light coats of the blue to the tops of the headers where they meet the block. After two or three coats it should look dark enough to be convincing. (cps44 & 94) At this point I also decided I wanted to give a blue anodized look to the carburetor float bowls, so they get 3 coats of the blue as well for the finished engine. This is another portion where I am deviating from the kit instructions for ease of assembly, according to instructions, they want you to wait until after the engine is installed into the body to fit the fan belt, alternator, and fan. I test fit the block into the body and I really don t see how that can be accomplished while still being able to keep things straight. So I build up the front of the engine before it gets fitted in the body. I also installed the velocity stacks onto the engine to complete the look.

7 (cps46.jpg) Now we move on to the chasses assembly. It is currently all gloss black and needs a bit of definition all I do to give a bit of visual interest is to paint the frame rails themselves flat black. (cps51) The interior is the next assembly to get my attention. The rear of the front bucket seats had dimples in them from ejection pin marks, these I filled with spot filler. Once the filler dried, I sanded the seat backs smooth with some fine sandpaper. (cps52.jpg) I then laid out all of the interior components on a piece of wood, mounted with tape so they would not blow away and sprayed them all with the same gloss black basecoat as before. Then after the black was dry, I sprayed the door handles and speaker grilles with Alclad chrome

8 (cps59.jpg) Once the Alclad had dried on the interior; I used a brush and some flat black paint to detail the interior. Thinning out the paint to help it flow around the newly chromed accents. (cps66 & 67) The fire extinguisher needs to be detailed before it can be installed. I have already started by painting it with the Alclad earlier. This makes it easier to detail now by painting the body red. It is much easier to flow paint into recesses than it would be to try to hand paint the chrome (or silver) later.

9 (cps79) Here is a shot of the interior bucket with the door cards installed, seats fitted ( more on this later ), the speaker decals in place, the shifter and fire extinguisher installed. The decal sheet comes with five point harnesses for each seat. While they are flat, they don t look too bad once applied. There are also decals for the door panels and speakers on the interior. The door cards look good with the decals in place. The rear speakers consist of a center subwoofer decal and two 6x9 decals which fit in the speaker housings near the top of the rear panel area. The shifter handle, this was a chrome kit part, but can be easily detailed with some flat black to make it look more realistic. I used the black to detail the shift boot and knob on the shifter. The shifter has a small decal for the top with the shift pattern on it that will be installed once the paint dries. (cps75.jpg) The steering wheel I previously painter with the Alclad. I painted the outer grip ring with flat black and a dot of gloss black in the center where the horn button would be.

10 (cps82) The Dashboard is a well engraved unit but the decal sheet has decals that really help to bring it to life if you do not want to try to hand pick out all of the fine details. With decals in place, I flow a drop of white glue on top of every round gauge, you will see why once it dries. (cps91.jpg) This is how the dashboard looks once the Elmer s glue dries on the gauges. Once the dash is fitted into the interior bucket, it is pretty much complete. (cps81) While the roll cage does assemble fairly easily there is a bit of a problem when it comes to fitting.

11 (cps83 & 84) With the seats installed as per the instructions, the roll bar does not fit between the door card and the seats. The only solution was to remove the seats to install the roll cage. Doing it that way makes everything fit peachy. (cps98.jpg) The body took very minimal work to get smooth and primed. I am painting it with a nice shade of dark blue nail polish shot through my airbrush at 12psi using a reduction of 1:1 with automotive quality medium temp lacquer reducer. One mist coat and three wet coats look like this. I prefer using nail polish for paint jobs for a few reasons, first is color selection, you can find more colors in nail polish than you can in the hobby paints, and second is the price. Currently the hobby store near me charges roughly 4 dollars per ½ oz bottle of model car paint. I get my nail polish at our local flea market for a dollar a bottle, two bottles gives you enough to do 2 mist coats, three or four wet coats and still have plenty left over for touch ups if needed.

12 (cps99.jpg) I decided to use the kit supplied tribal decal set for this build because it went well with the color. The decals themselves went on without the use of a setting solution or softener and I had no problem whatsoever with them. Also included on the decal sheet were the V badge for the front fenders and the Super Sport badges for the rear quarter panels. (cps102 & 104) I like my seams and panel lines to contrast a bit, I think it gives the entire model a more finished look when its done. I Make a thin wash of flat black acrylic paint and flow it into the front cowl to bring out the detail. I use acrylic because, if you put too much or go a little off course with your brush, all you need is a bit of water on a q tip to remove the mistake. I do this for all of the panel lines on the vehicle

13 (cps123 & 127) Since I have my black wash out, I am going to flow it into the front grill opening to give it some depth. I set the chassis aside to dry for a while and move to adding details to the front bumper. I used Elmer s glue to install the clear plastic headlights into the buckets and followed that with the decal from the decal sheet to accent the SS in the center of the grill. The chrome tree also comes with a set of License plates. I use one of the two sets of supplied decals to have them ready for later. Moving over to the rear bumper, there is a decal for the top blacked out area so that gets applied first, followed by the Elmer s glue for the four red tail lights and the two clear reverse lights. (cps111 & 114) Now I am going to wrap up the body by using bare metal foil on the trim. You do not have to use bare metal foil, I have had great results in the past by masking off the body with a quality masking tape and spraying the trim silver. Start by cutting a strip both longer and wider than the area you want to cover, use a sharp hobby blade for all your bare metal foiling, otherwise a dull blade will rip the foil instead of cutting it. Start by loosely applying the foil to the area you want to cover. In this case it s the lower front window trim. Using a q tip and starting in the middle, slowly burnish the foil down and into place. Once it is close you can use a rounded tooth pick to help it get into the hard to reach areas. Be careful not to rip through the foil while you go. Now using your sharp hobby knife blade, carefully trace your trim lines and peel off your excess. You should be left with something like this. (cps140) Side wing windows get the same treatment followed by the drip rails. Foiling was completed the same way on the rear window frame, door handles and even the windshield wipers, the blades were later painted flat black.

14 Now back to the suspension. The instructions want you to build and install the suspension after you mount the chassis pan into the vehicle along with the windows, interior and engine. That doesn t make sense to me as I really don t want to scratch the roof of the nice paint job I just did. So I am deviating once again from instructions and going to complete the suspensions before mounting it in the car. (cps116 & 117) I built up the rear differential and spring assembly as per kit instructions. Except that I am not installing the coil over shocks until the rear end is in the chassis pan. Otherwise, if you are off by anything at all with your angle, they will not fit.

15 (cps 119 & 120) I did find the chassis mounting holes for the suspension to mount to did need to be opened up just a bit to make them fit nice. In all fairness, this could be because of the paint thickness and not a problem with the kit. The instructions also call for you to install the tires before fitting the suspension unit into the chassis pan. That would make the assembly way too clunky to try to line up the mounting tabs. They will be installed later once the finicky gluing is done. (cps128.jpg) Slide the engine into place, followed by mounting the rear tires. The rear tires have had their tread sanded and the sidewalls hit with a coat of dullcoat to make them look more realistic.

16 The front suspension built up without incident as per kit instructions. Kit glass was also a no hassle either and was installed with Elmer s Glue as regular modeling cement can fog the clear plastic. It is now time to start bringing things together. Install the interior bucket into the body and the body onto the chassis. Remarkably that was hassle free; I don t remember when something went together that easily. (cps129 & 130) Once the main kit is assembled, I can start adding the rest of the parts, I start with the rear bumper and license plate followed by the front bumper and license plate. (cps131 & 132) Next I flip it over and get ready to install the exhaust but there is an issue. everything is exactly where it should be in regards to the engine but the exhaust pipes are just a bit too short. Only one real way I can see to remedy this without major reconstruction or building my own exhaust. If you flip the exhaust over, you will see the mounting pegs that stick out from the top of it.

17 (cps133 & 134) I nipped these off with a pair of sprue cutters and touched up the pipe with a dab of gloss black. Refit the exhaust and just nudged it far enough forward on that everything mated up. (cps54 & 55) I decided to detail the radiator a bit. This I did by masking off the center fin area with a piece of masking tape, and then sprayed the tank and frame gloss black. I like the look of the finished product.

18 (cps141.jpg) I flipped it over top side up to add some finishing touches. Overflow tank for a coating of flat white on the bottle with a gloss black cap, the battery got a gloss black coating and red fill ports along with silver on the terminals. This would have benefitted with a battery decal but there wasn t one included and the radiator was installed. All that was left was the upper and lower radiator hoses and some detail painting of the velocity stacks by flowing some black wash into the center area of each. That s it! She is done. Overall I was very impressed with the quality and fit of this kit (aside from the exhaust) I would recommend it to anyone who wants a fairly straight forward build of a great version of an iconic muscle car. The kit builds up beautifully and would very easily be enhanced by the addition of aftermarket goodies and scratch built detailing.