Fantasy 1/18 BRUT '71 Trans Am/IMSA Mustang

[ibj40]

Blending a first generation Welly '70 Boss 302 chassis and drive train with a '71 SunStar body.

Details to follow.

[ibj40]

Taking my inspiration from this recent 1/18 scale diecast from ACME, using a little bit of license since the model is already painted green.


Already found a decal set that should work, just got to get it in hand.

[ibj40]

SunStar body and Welly chassis really mate well.  Had to make a few Dremel adjustments, but all in all, a nice fit.



Still need to finish up the interior, the side door bars from the Welly chassis are too long when you place the interior into the SunStar body and dashboard.





Did my "magic" on the engine compartment, swapping in a Swede70 carburetor to take the place of the mess that Welly/ACME sustain until this day.

Also added in a Swede70 export brace to the engine compartment, painted the tops of the shocks red to match the red color of those on the rear suspension (supposed to be Koni's), as well as a Swede70 Harrison oil cooler.  Might fabricate a sheet styrene cover for the gap between the front of the body and the radiator support, which, of course, will hide the oil cooler.

Couple of photo reminders of what you start with, and what I change.

     

Nice stance, but going to need stiff shocks and springs to keep that spoiler intact.



Probably going to throw a GMP Trans Am Camaro fuel cell and filler neck into the back.  The Welly Trans Am Boss 302 trunk lid is fixed, so no details there.

[vamach1]

I will be following as this will be an interesting project.  The most famous 71-73 T/A was the one raced b Warren Tope.

[ibj40]

I did a "more or less" version of the Tope car.  Similar construction, using some of those techniques on this build.

I like building these as a "what if" exercise had Ford maintained their factory involvement in the Trans Am series.

Edited December 27, 2019 by ibj40

[vamach1]

Edited December 28, 2019 by vamach1

[swede70]

Neat project; i.e. I'll be looking on with interest...

Mike K./Swede70

[ibj40]

16 hours ago, vamach1 said:

Thanks for the pictures!

I've seen the Tope version, who/what is the #27?

[vamach1]

2 minutes ago, ibj40 said:

Thanks for the pictures!

I've seen the Tope version, who/what is the #27?

If you search on the drivers name Martin Reynolds you will find more info.  I saw the picture on Facebook and I am a big fan of any 71-73 Mustang, especially racing versions.

[ibj40]

Looks like more of the "Mach" versions competed in Europe than over here.  Interesting.

Quick update - Added fuel cell and battery to trunk.



Next up is braces for the rear window.

[kilrathy10]

This is an awesome work... Very nice... Man, that looks cool like that....

[ibj40]

On 1/10/2020 at 9:30 AM, kilrathy10 said:

This is an awesome work... Very nice... Man, that looks cool like that....

Yeah, these are fun to build.  The good news is that the Welly/GMP/ACME Trans Am Mustang chassis is pretty adaptable.

[ibj40]

Had some free time, so started on locating the rear window braces.  Remember that these were scavenged from a Welly '70 Boss 302 Trans Am model.

This is where I think they should align.



However there appears to be a difference in the size of a '71 rear window and a '70 rear window (of course, the body was substantially altered between the two model years, so no assumption of compatibility was made).



My desire would be to have the strap lay flat across the window, so a little more work will be required.

[ibj40]

Decal sheet in hand, want to lean toward the BRUT livery, but other options as well.

[vamach1]

Decals look nice.  Are they from Pattos in Autrralia?

[ibj40]

1 hour ago, vamach1 said:

Decals look nice.  Are they from Pattos in Australia?

Yes, they are.  I have used his decals on a number of custom models.

[ibj40]

First, I want to go on record that I hate to decal! I am a nervous wreck during the process, and it continues on through the first two or three beers after.

Here's where I ended up, clearly not back on the chassis, but just glad to have it this far along.

[Gramps46]

The decals are looking very well done.

[vamach1]

9 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

The decals are looking very well done.

Yes they do.  It gives me an idea to use the Warren Tope 1/25 kit which would be a lot less costly than Jim's undertaking.  I have a stack of bodies so cutting one up just to get a nice trunk is no big deal.  Now that I think about it instead of filling in those vents on all my MPC hoods, I should just fix one and get copies made.  I have spent hours getting just one hood filled in and smoothed out, not to mention cutting out holes for the scoop and fillling in the rectangular cutout on the underside of some of them.  I had another thought - that Testors metal kits (the "stock" ones) could also be turned into a T/A racer with possibly borrowing the chassis and interior of the 69 diecast from Autovalue. Ok - back to our regular programming and apologies for rambling on in this post.

[ibj40]

I really like the way this one came out.  Stance is nicely aggressive.



Since it is a Moffat-based build, thought I'd see that it looked like on the ACME 1/18 scale Moffat ramp truck.



Clashes a little bit with the Coca-Cola livery, but we do have a Coke decal on the racer, so there is some consistency.

Of course, Moffat was the only Coke-sponsored racer.  Just as an aside, here's the Coke ramper with a custom Bobby Allison Nascar Grand American Mustang.



And Allison didn't just race Nascar with Coke sponsorship.  He also drove this BRE Datsun 510 in selected Under 2.5 Trans Am races.



And just for fun, I loaded the Moffat Mustang up with the fantasy Warren Tope Mustang, and parked that rig with some period Trans Am/IMSA racers on their rampers.

[Gramps46]

Very impressive builds, all of them.

[vamach1]

31 minutes ago, Gramps46 said:

Very impressive builds, all of them.

Indeed.  The fact that these are all 1/18 scale is remarkable since they aren't really many kits around so there's a lot of mismashing of different cars.  The few 1/18 kits I have seen are noting more than an unassembled version of whatever diecast they decided to let the consumer build instead of the manufacturer.  Sometimes you even get to pay more for the priveledge of "building" one.

[randyc]

NICE!

 

[Hotrod 97]

Awesome Mustang, Jim. The decals look cool with that body color.