'75 Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna S3

[echoxrayniner]

I've always loved the Chevelle Lagunas, especially the 1975 Laguna S3, so I figured I'mma try to find a middle ground between having to spend over a hundred bucks on kits just to gut 'em for a few pieces and the supposed-to-be Laguna stock car. So I'm thinking, instead of buying a '77 Monte Carlo kit just for the chassis and closer-ish interior(which for a Dutch person is sadly near 70 bucks with shipping included and this AMT/Model King Laguna already cost me 70), I'll keep it at "street stocker" with the NASCAR chassis, bare dash, though no roll cage and I do wanna end up putting two good ol' regular GM seats in there. Keeping the framed up engine bay and the likes, too. However, I atleast wanna try and get the exterior looking like a normal Laguna would've.

Recently I've been having a bit of fun trying to scratch up some decal sheets for potential future builds and figuring out how to do nail the scale and it's been going pretty smoothly so I thought alright, let's try and craft a set and keep trying 'til I nail the looks of it. Still undecided on just slapping decal tail lights on there or trying to fashion some out of some clear plastic sheets given I am gonna use headlights(stolen from an AAR 'Cuda kit, which apparently fit like a charm!).

Definitely going for an all white color though, for some reason I really dig it. Anyway, keepin' y'all updated as it comes along!

[KWT]

Man, I really need to figure out how to make decals... 

I have this kit, gonna watch very closely to this one.

[echoxrayniner]

Tried the stripes, side markers and the logos so far - all fit quite nicely! Of course the issue with hand made decals instead of properly printing 'em is that the ink'll bleed even if you coat it with bonder spray/varnish so it's not perfect but it'll do. And in the fashion of half-assing it supremely, of course one giant problem with it being a NASCAR body is the fact that the wheel wells are way off to compensate for the gargantuan slicks, which is why I skipped on the curved part of the stripes for now. I think I'mma try and scan it again and see if I can hamfist a few more together - though for now I'm gonna try and get the tail section together, see how the tail lights look in decal form or whether I should still cut 'em open.

Also for those who'd like to know just how easy it is:

I literally scan the kit's body in using a printer with a scan function or a photocopier(with some green tape on the hard edges of it so the depth loss doesn't cut off the corners and blur 'em off) and match all the stuff up of what I made in Photoshop(which is just hand-crafting the side lights and stripes and carefully editing some badges down to vector-ish state so not all the detail is lost upon printing), edit if it's too big or too small and hey-presto. It's somewhere around a hour or so worth of effort to get something somewhat accurate, if you're like me and you tend to just kinda roll with it on face value.

Granted, if there was more source info on the car available I'd go the whole mile and accurately measure it all off... But with that in mind and seeing as it's a NASCAR body, meh, half measures!

[DoctorLarry]

I did a copy of my street car. I'll post the picture when I find it.

[DoctorLarry]

This was a model of my car.

[Modlbldr]

Would a 73 Caprice interior and chassis work? I have an interior with bench seats, dash and steering wheel  and a rough chassis.

Later-

[MrObsessive]

Wow! I'm definitely following this! Of all of GM's 1973-77 Colonnade Coupes, this is among my favorites! First would be the 1973 Grand Am, and thirdly a 1976-77 Olds Cutlass Supreme (Driver's Ed car).

Beautiful start, and those decals are nice and clean!

Sigh...........I have this kit too BTW, but I've too many projects and not enough hours in the day!

[DoctorLarry]

More fun here. My semi-completed 75 Grand Am Pro Touring car, my 73 GTO kit, and HB Bailey's Nascar Grand Am with my resin body, courtesy of YellowSportWagon:

[Bill J]

I had a  1:1 76 S3 Laguna that was in pristine condition, sold it about 1993. Pretty big car compared to what we have today. I have some of the Model King reissue NASCAR Laguna kits but never gave much consideration to modeling my old car. Too many other irons in the fire.

[Lizz62]

I had a girlfriend that drove a 77 can am. Was really cool . your build is looking good.

[DoctorLarry]

Did that one too. This was a build of my 77 Can Am resin that someone else did:

 

[BigTallDad]

Of course the issue with hand made decals instead of properly printing 'em is that the ink'll bleed even if you coat it with bonder spray/varnish so it's not perfect but it'll do.

Sounds like you might not be allowing enough time for the ink to dry before using a clear sealant. I'm not having that type of problem.

I generally let the ink dry overnight, hit the decal with a few light coats of Krylon glossy clear acrylic, and let the paint dry overnight.

[mustang1989]

Man you guys are popping up with the RARE ones here. In my entire life I've seen two of the Laguna cars and that was as a kid. I thought those things looked awesome. I don't think I ever saw the Can Am car. I did see alot of the Grand Am's though. Cool mix of cars here.

[DoctorLarry]

There was an old Model Cars magazine article about transforming the Nascar Laguna into a street car using mods from a Jo Han 75 Cutlass. If I can find it I will post it.

[echoxrayniner]

Sounds like you might not be allowing enough time for the ink to dry before using a clear sealant. I'm not having that type of problem.

I generally let the ink dry overnight, hit the decal with a few light coats of Krylon glossy clear acrylic, and let the paint dry overnight.

I had 'em dry for 18 hours all in all before hitting 'em with the varnish, I think the issue then likely lies with the decal paper being of a cheap as sin seller on Amazon.co.uk D:

Did that one too. This was a build of my 77 Can Am resin that someone else did:

 

Man, Larry, I would do so many bad things if it meant to be able to get a good resin cast or old Johan promo and have it look anywhere near as good as that one. Especially the Pontiac Grand Am, woof.

[bisc63]

There was an old Model Cars magazine article about transforming the Nascar Laguna into a street car using mods from a Jo Han 75 Cutlass. If I can find it I will post it.

Would love to see that, these body styles can look good!

[NYLIBUD]

I have a friend who is been trying to restore a 75 Malibu,and turn it into a Laguna S3 replica.He's got a nice worked Chevy big block sitting on a stand in his garage,just waiting to be dropped in the car.Unfortunately the body,and interior have a long way to go.They are pretty cool cars.

[kelson]

There was an old Model Cars magazine article about transforming the Nascar Laguna into a street car using mods from a Jo Han 75 Cutlass. If I can find it I will post it.

Car Modeler #23 from jan'94 has the article by Dean Milano and also car modeler #36 mar'96 has a fantastic build of a 73 Grand Am built by Juha Airo.

[DoctorLarry]

Got both of them. I have a scan of the Grand Am one because I used it when I built mine.  The other I have somewhere but I just moved so who knows where it is! I'll post it when I find it.

[Lizz62]

Did that one too. This was a build of my 77 Can Am resin that someone else did:

 

thats her car!!!! She wrecked it. And every other car you let her drive. CRAZY!