1/18 custom 3rd Generation Camaro Trans Am racer

[ibj40]

Not sure why I haven't shared this build here.  Actually started it back in September.  I post all the messages I have posted elsewhere to catch everyone up.

Here's the first posting.

Around 1986, my race car partner and I were wanting to upgrade our C3-chassied/'82 Pickett-bodied Corvette for something a little newer.



We had been in constant contact with the prior owner of the Corvette (who produced fibreglass race car bodies), and when we mentioned to him that we wanted to upgrade, he informed us that he had acquired a tube frame chassis for a 3rd Generation Camaro in order to test fit bodies to, and that he was done with it.

Jake and I drove to Milwaukee from Dallas, TX with the rolling chassis of our Corvette in our trailer, and drove back with, essentially, a new car in kit form. The tube frame Camaro chassis had the rollcage, and front and rear clips attached, but that was it. The rest of the car parts, suspension, rear end, fuel cell, brakes, etc. were in boxes.

Along with a couple of volunteers, and through some troubling personal and economic times, we persevered and produced our Camaro.







We fabricated almost everything you can see in these pictures, including hanging the body (the seller had merely mocked up his body panels with tack welded brackets and racer's tape), completing the aluminum interior (firewall, cockpit, exhaust tunnel), completing all the plumbing (dry sump oil system, brakes, fuel lines, and engine cooling), completing all the wiring, and detailing and finishing.

I have been wanting to try to create a duplicate, so will be chronicling that effort here.

My donors will be a SunStar 1982 Camaro Z28, and a GMP 1996 Trans Am Camaro.





I'll skip the boring disassembly process and go right to the staging of the two donor components.



Here you can see from above that the componentry will be a nice fit.



Here from the side you can see that there are already some conflicts which don't allow the body to seat onto the chassis.



Going to be some major Dremel work.

[ibj40]

My goal is to retain the integrity of the GMP chassis. They are nicely detailed and becoming more difficult to acquire at a reasonable price. My donor was actually a previously displayed, no box model, that also had some issues with the paint.



The first issue to deal with on the body will be these "ledges" which stick inward from the skin of the Camaro body, and interfere with the rollcage of the chassis. They don't really serve any purpose.



Next, I will probably totally remove the section between the two A-pillars of the body. There is good detail in this area on the GMP chassis, which I want to have exposed. Plus the windshield of the SunStar Camaro should blend nicely and close any gaps.

  

 
Finally, all the detail at the nose of the donor body is not necessary, as with our fibreglass replica bodies, these were simply an aerodynamic skin over the functional parts of the racer. Additionally, the GMP chassis is also well detailed in this area, and any gaps, as we did on the real racer, can be filled with aluminum (styrene) sheet.

    
Going fire up the Dremel tool today (got five batteries for the bigger one, two for the smaller).

[ibj40]

So, several hours, battery recharges, and cutting blades later, here's where we are, and I was afraid of this.

Sides have been clearanced.



Areas below the A-pillars have been cleaned up after the piece connecting the A-pillars was removed.



Area around the nose has been cleaned up, and lots of detail of the GMP chassis are visible.



But Houston, we have a problem.



I was hoping to not have to make any significant changes to the GMP chassis, however these stalks are keeping the body from dropping into place.

[ibj40]

I bit the bullet, and cut off the plastic stalks on the GMP chassis, which helped, but then that just removes the first obstacle.


Much more clearance had to be created at the base of the A-pillars as the body slips down over the rollcage door bars, and then once we cleared that hurdle, then we had one last challenge.

Notice how the exhaust exits the GMP Camaro body.



Well, the good news is that it has to exit the SunStar body in the same place (meaning that the chassis and donor body at least match up favorably), but this required another hole and some clearance on each side, but I think I have reached a plateau.



Here are a couple more progress shots.







The doors don't fit, as the molded in diecast frames for the inner liners interfere with the cage, so another night of grinding and we'll have a look at the entire package.

[ibj40]

As you get deeper into one of these blending projects, the level of detail increases, with respect to the accommodations that need to be made to each major component.

Got the doors hollowed out, and mounted one onto the body.



One of the first things I need to consider is this major disconnect where the body and floor join along the rocker panel.



I can certainly trim back the floor pan of the GMP chassis (and again violate my own requirement to keep it as intact as practical), but there is still a gap that will need to be filled somehow.

Front (and rear) track is too wide, so I need to figure out how to flare the fenders to cover the tops of the tires.  I have a choice of several pre-molded flare lips that I will need to test fit.



Will also need to close this gap, at the rear, or at least detail it to where it doesn't simply look like two models squished together.



The dry break comes up short compared to the Sunstar rear window.  Thinking about cutting it off, bending some aluminum tubing, and actually having it come out at the molded in fuel filler location on the SunStar body.


 

[ibj40]

Going to try to pick them off one at a time, simultaneously.

Here's how we look at the end of today.



From the front to the back, I'll start with the hood.  If you look at one of the earlier pictures, the hood stood up at the base of the windshield.  There were some details cast into the underside of the hood that were interfering with the air cleaner and windshield base, so those have been removed.





The donor has T-tops, and of course, our car had a solid roof, so beginning to work on melding them together, and then closing the gaps with body putty.



And, of course, we've got the fuel filler relocated.



I will keep walking around the model, correcting items as I go, knowing full well that frequently a correction will require another one, due to the relationships of pieces changing as you go.

 

[ibj40]

Diecast pieces are at the stripper, so I've worked on the T-tops a little. As I was sitting in my shop, it reminded me of building the real one.

Sports Car Club of America rules at the time of our build required that the car have a stock roof and windshield (eventually we would add a Lexan windshield when the rules changed). The location of the roof heavily influenced where the rest of the fibreglass body was hung on the chassis.

You can see the stock roof in this picture, which includes the front A-pillars.



In order to get our roof located correctly, I borrowed a buddy's IROC Z and drove it down to the shop. We set the two cars side by side and moved the roof around on the cage until it looked right.

When then fabricated some mounting tabs and welded it onto the cage tubes.

With a realization that the A pillars of the diecast donor body are cast into the body, I thought these pictures, to some degree, represented the roof mounting process we went through back then.




I

And then just for fun, I laid on the front windshield and rear glass.

[ibj40]

I have come to the realization that this isn't going to work.









The body sits on the tops of the tires, which keep it from dropping down into the proper posture.  Without a great deal of cutting and then rebuilding flares, I am going to call the initial project a failure.

However, I have a backup plan.

I have a spare GMP Trans Am Camaro chassis.

   


The new plan is to scavenge pieces off the GMP chassis, and use a combination of the GMP pieces and the floor pan from the SunStar Camaro to create a new combined chassis. I'm essentially planning on adding the front and rear clips from the GMP to the mid-pan of the SunStar. Here's a few "teaser" shots.







And you might ask yourself, why not just drop the SunStar body onto the GMP chassis?



How many of you knew, without looking it up, that the 3rd Gen Camaro's wheelbase was 7 inches shorter than the 1st Gen?

[ibj40]

So this is where we currently are.



And you may ask, what have I been doing for the past three weeks?  Body looks different, have you already painted it?

Well, this one went sideways early, and it has taken a lot of effort, soul-searching, and additional expense to get to where it sits right now.

One of the most complex builds I have undertaken, and lots of errors in judgement along the way.

I'll provide the highlights, and then add a link to the full album for "progress" shots.

I ditched the late model GMP Camaro chassis, that just wasn't going to work.

There was just no way I was going to get the body to sit down onto the chassis properly.



So, as I pointed out in my last post, I looked to a 1st Gen GMP Camaro chassis.

After a great deal of effort, I was able to shorten the 1st Gen wheelbase by 7 scale inches (about .3895 true inches), and reassemble it.





Used two 00-90 screws in the stock location to attach the two pieces back together.



Here's a comparison between two, more or less, identical chassis.



Here's what I cut out.



The good news is that the cage remains intact, only thing I have to cut is to shorten the bars that go forward to the front suspension mounting points by 7 scale inches.

Of course, I will also have to shorten the drive shaft (done that before on some of my other customs), as well as either shorten the exhaust dumps or build some new ones.

With the major chassis correction behind me, I then tried to mount the body onto the revised chassis, but found I had made another strategic error.

I had cut the first 3rd Gen body apart at the base of the A-pillars, to emulate how we actually built our real racer.


That proved to be a fatal flaw, as I needed the structural integrity of the entire body to allow me to mount the 3rd Gen body onto the 1st Gen chassis.



Hence, I had to source another entire model, in order to start over again with the modifications to the body.

Took delivery of the new model yesterday, and stripped it last night, and tested some fit.

You can see above that I think I nailed the wheelbase, but now I have to grind away, again, everything that conflicts to get the body to fit.

First target will be the bulkhead at the front of the engine compartment, which will then dictate as we go front to rear.

[ibj40]

Having defined which chassis I am using helps me visualize where the conflicts are, and a potential cure (which usually means breaking out a Dremel).

Here's what I have removed as of now.



The two little round threaded pieces are attaching points for the SunStar body the SunStar chassis, and interfere with the rocker panel of the GMP chassis.



The other pieces are from the front of the engine compartment, which interfere with the radiator mounting frame of the GMP chassis.



That work allows the body to drop down onto the chassis.  Still not perfect, but closer than I have been at any other time of this build.



Now I can reassemble the cage, and give some support to the bodywork.



 

[ibj40]

This is my most recent posting, dating back to December 12 in real time.  With this, you are up to date.

Quick update.  Been piddling and dabbling, still trying to wrap my head around where to take this build (plus, it's been cold here, and my garage/workshop is unheated).

I have come to the conclusion that I won't be able to duplicate my racer, so going to take this and go a slightly different direction.

Looking at hoods now.

Here is the stock one.

r

Looking at two alternatives.  Will be using the same technique I used to create this hood for a fantasy Mustang.



What I did for the Mustang was laid the hood from a GMP '69 Z28 over the Mustang hood, taped them securely together, and used a Dremel cutter to slice through both of them, and then used JB Weld to blend the scoop into the hood.

For the Camaro, I have the choice of two different hood scoops.  First is the classic '69 Z28 scoop; and next is the 2nd Gen Baldwin Corvette L88-based scoop.

Here are some side-by-side comparisons.







Each one has its own character.

Any preferences?

[cobraman]

It is a shame you did all that work and it didn't pan out. Been there. I think you may have it on the run now. As for hoods, I like the first one.

[ibj40]

14 hours ago, cobraman said:

It is a shame you did all that work and it didn't pan out. Been there. I think you may have it on the run now. As for hoods, I like the first one.

Thanks, it has been a tough build.  Was really hoping I could have made the original chassis work.

As I have two donor hoods, I may make both of the custom hoods.

Stay Tuned, and I will post here as I update.

[ibj40]

So I took courage (and Dremel) in hand, and launched off on a hood build.

Here it is after it had been cut and blended back together.  I forgot to take a picture before I starting to JB Weld them back together, but here's a picture of what is left of the other two hoods, compared to the new one.



So what I do is tape the pieces together, and then lay in a layer of JB Weld.

    

I inserted a wooden toothpick to give me what I thought would be a good angle.

   

Test fit on the car (I'll lay in another coat of JB Weld on the outside to blend everything together).









Got the replacement Solar seat installed, as well.

Here's a comparison of the stock GMP seat and Swede70's custom resin Solar seat.

  

Swapped the seat belts from the GMP to the Solar, and plugged it back into the chassis.


  
 

[ibj40]

JB Weld - Phase II

Pictures tell the story.















Needs a little more work, but close.

[ibj40]

Taking a pause, stepping back and seeing what we have.

Put all the components together that can be.









Only got to figure out how to get these pieces installed.



Stay Tuned!

[ibj40]

So, real paint brings out the flaws, and the hood really shows it.  Was working up some details on the engine compartment, and since the hood will be stripped before I go to a final, thought I'd put a gloss black coat on it for shits and giggles.

Picked up some other details along the way, still not complete, but "Casey Jones you better watch your speed"!





Had to shorten the exhaust headers the same length as the chassis, built a couple of aluminum couplers to make them match.







More soon, getting close.

[ibj40]

So this one is finally about to tax my abilities, as well as patience.

Wish I could chalk this one up to a "lemons/lemonade" scenario.

Got the chassis all together, including regluing all the cage bars, and the firewall.  Loose fit had appeared that everything was going to be close but acceptable.

Well, when I dropped the body back down onto the completed rolling chassis, all the tolerances went in the same direction.

The original roll cage, starting with the roll hoop itself, are way too tall.  I ended up taking all this off the car.



With these bars out of the way, I began measuring how much room I actually do have, and got out some 1/8 inch thin wall aluminum tubing, and my handy-dandy trusty tubing bender (we used it to create the stainless steel hard lines for the real race cars), and started cyphering.

Got the width of the main hoop on the first shot, which was encouraging.  Then started on the halo bars, and did an A-pillar cross roof bar, and that's where we sit.





At least the body does now sit down properly on the chassis, but I have a lot of work to do.



The first issue I can into was notching tubing that small to get it to fit together. Back in the old days, we had a "fishmouth" cutter/tubing notcher.



Going to build a stand for my Dremel to hold it steady. Trying to notch tubing with a tube in one hand and Dremel in the other was less than successful.

Second issue will be compound curves to get the tubes to follow the contour of the roof and A-pillars.

Thanks for hanging in with me, hoping I can.

[ibj40]

Okay, so had a couple of days to work on this one.

First, found a DIY video on YouTube about how to make a mount for a Dremel.  Involves attaching a joist hanger to a board, and drilling a 3/4 inch hole in the joist hanger.  Very ingeneous.



With the Dremel stationary, very easy to fishmouth a piece of tubing.



So I set about reconstructing the cage.  I cut out all the old roll hoop crossbracing, except for the piece holding the shoulder belts, and built a new single crossbrace.

   

These are the first halo bars I formed up (at the front of the car) and the original plastic side protection pieces (which I intend to still use). This is the tubing I will be using.

  

Need to stabilize the roll hoop, so going to bring a bar from the middle of it to the passenger front foot well.

  

And then there will be one rear brace on each side, from the main hoop to the rear spring perch.

  

Then let's check some body fit, just to make sure.









So far, so good.

Going to build the second rear brace today, and go back and revisit the halo, now that I have a little bit more confidence.

Thanks for your support and encouragement!

[ibj40]

Had some new energy and inspiration, so tried to forge ahead yesterday.

Here's where we are in pictures.























Going to sit on this one for a few days (weeks), and let it sink in.  Still not sure I like the halo bars.

Also need to focus on a couple of other projects.

However, stay tuned!

[alan barton]

Hi Jim, that is a very challenging project you have on your hands there. I only just stumbled on it today and have read through the entire thread.

It makes me laugh when plastic model builders turn their nose up at diecast model builders - I have done a few and they require an entirely different skill set to plastic, plus you have to take the things apart before you can even begin making all the changes, and a lot of them are not designed to be taken apart!

Going back to your first project, and please forgive me if I am overlooking something or teaching you how to suck eggs.  The problem that I see in your melding of the Transam chassis with the Sunstar body is all about the shape and location of the wheelarches.  When I see your photo of your real racecar, the wheel arches are a lot closer to the top of the fenders, plus the tyres are sitting inside the wheel openings, not through them.  The racecar body sits far lower to the ground than the street car body, and the streetcar body will never go any lower until there is room for the tyres to travel upwards.

From your side on photos just before you parked it, the distance between the Transam floor pan and the Camaro rocker panels is very similar to the distance between the Transam rollcage and the roof. I don't think you need to make many more changes to the Transam chassis, but you do have to cut those wheel arches much higher into the body and at the same time bulge the fenders out at each end of the car to match the Coke bottle shape evident in your 1:1 photos.

I too am a big fan of JB Weld.  If it was mine, once I had got the wheelarches hogged out with a Dremel and confirmed that the body will indeed snug down on the chassis without that gap evident now, I would then use flat styrene to build up the bulging contours of your vertical surfaces on the fenders, attached with JB Weld and then contoured with Bondo or similar.

You made such a courageous start on this project, maybe now that you have had a a break from it, a fresh set of eyes might see you get that model of your real racecar back on track!

Good luck,

Alan

[ibj40]

Thanks for the comment, and insight.

When we were racing, bodywork wasn't my specialty, and I think it has carried over into my model making.

I have looked into sourcing some pre-made flares, and still may do that.

Have you checked my other 1/18 diecast customs?  I've got a couple more in the WIP forums.