1/18 1968 Trans Am Barracuda

[ibj40]

Someone else already had this wet dream.



Can I finish it in 1/18 scale?

Here are some stock photos of the two donors.

Highway 61 1968 Barracuda (this is from the eBay auction I won)



ACME 1970 Dan Gurney "Street" Trans Am Barracuda



Chassis Comparison:  Top - Highway 61 1968 Barracuda/Bottom - ACME 1970 Barracuda Trans Am



Got the body off the donor '70 ACME Barracuda, and with a little bit of disappointment, looked at some of the details (such as the A-pillar/front of the roll cage - pure BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH), but figured it would make a suitable donor. Last night I got the body off the donor Highway 61 '68 Barracuda, and put them together to see how much work we are talking about.



Not a bad fit, wheelbase and track-wise, but going to take some shaping of both the front and rear wheel tubs to allow the '68 body to sit down onto the '70 chassis, but first blush, doable.





Stay tuned!

[ibj40]

Progress shots.



Closing the gap between the fastback early model and the slant back of the '70 model will prove to be an origamic challenge.



Had to sand both sides of the chassis, and at an angle at that, in order to get the late model chassis to fit into the early model body.



 

[Gramps46]

Good looking project.  Please keep us posted.

[randyc]

Liking it - keep it coming.

[swede70]

Looking good - thanks for the visuals!

Mike K./Swede70

[ibj40]

So, an update on a little bit of forward progress, and as usual, a little bit of rearward regress.

So, you fit some parts together, and for simplicity and ease of working, you leave other components off, assuming that it will all come together eventually.

Well . . .

Got quite a bit of work done on the new rear package tray, which will separate the fuel cell from the passenger compartment (per SCCA rules).



I will not disclose how many pieces of cardstock were sacrificed to get to this point.  However, before I took this picture, I thought the fit was much closer.

I had not replaced the front inner fender panels onto the frame, but thought that was a logical next step.

Looks pretty good.





But wait, if you look above (in my February 5, 2019 post), you will see a very close fit between rear inner fender well and wheel opening, but alas, when the front panels are in place, we're off close to 1/4 inch!



Turns out that there is some interference between the later model inner panels, and the diecast metal of the early model body.  Now, which do we trim, and how much?

Might be hard to see, but the pencil line on the black paint is where the interference is.



Time to take Dremel in hand!

I'll be back.

[ibj40]

I was pretty sure that the new package tray I had fabricated fit better than the picture showed, and I was right (this picture is taken without the rear window in place, the two notches are to clear its attaching points).



And, of course, now the rear wheel wells match up much better.



Had to take a bunch of material off the inside of the lower part of the body under the A pillar, plus still had to provide a little clearance on the fender well itself.  Took about an hour to grind down all the diecast metal.



Now, on with the show!