1974 Hurst/Olds Indy Pace Car

[Bills72sj]

14 hours ago, FLHCAHZ said:

Fantastic!

Thank you Chaz. ?

[Bills72sj]

Started on the chassis assembly and glued in the interior.

[Mattilacken]

Beautiful work!! 

[ModelcarJR]

Looks great, Bill! Really nice work, especially with the decals!  ??

[Bills72sj]

21 hours ago, Mattilacken said:

Beautiful work!! 

 

14 hours ago, ModelcarJR said:

Looks great, Bill! Really nice work, especially with the decals!  ??

Thank you Anton and John.

[Bainford]

Looking sharp, Bill. Nice work on the decals.

[Bills72sj]

Now that my Ford Race Car Hauler is finally done, time to get back on this.

I need to know how much room I have available for my Olds 455 with '70 Monte Carlo air conditioning installed. So, I gently stuffed my GTO/Chevelle Frankenstein chassis into the body. I took some finesse as the chassis is oversized for the opening in the body. Now that it is in, it is not in my best interest to ever take it out again. However, I just about painted myself into a corner so to speak. Adding a '70 Monte Carlo firewall to a '67 Chevelle chassis with a '75 Cutlass body wearing a '62 Catalina cowl AFTER the chassis is in makes for some fitment issues. I managed to trim the '67 Chevelle firewall/footwell enough to drop in and align with the floor. Fortunately it sits back far enough from the front edge of the cowl to permit adding the '70 Monte firewall in front of it. Once that is glued in, I will work on mating the BBC front pulley system to and Olds engine and tranny.

Pic 1 parts for the engine bay. Pic 2 Foot forward footwell/firewall installed. Pic 3 Monte Firewall installed.

[Bills72sj]

Back on this again in order to help clear my bench of projects. Time to tackle adding a 455 Rocket to my promo.

Sam donated a 69 Olds engine awhile back for this project. THANKS SAM! I cleaned up all the pieces and was sorting out what goes where.

The 70 Monte Carlo firewall gives me the A/C box but the Monte's A/C compressor is on the drivers side. It needs to be on the passenger side.

Steve H. replied on another topic that the 68 El Camino has the A/C compressor on the passenger side.

I raided the last El Camino kit I have for the required components. A new hole in the Olds water pump fits the BBC front engine dress very nicely.

While inventorying and surveying everything, I noticed I do not have any valve covers. Bummer.

I do not want to steal them from my 66 or 67 442 kits as they are needed for them.

I have a started 69 Olds 442 kit but it too needs to keep its valve covers and they are already installed on the built motor.

I built a 69 Hurst/Olds quite awhile ago and I am using the directions from it to build this engine.

The instructions show optional valve covers which were used on my build. Scrounging through my engine parts box, I found the stock valve covers loose in the bottom. YAY!

Now I can continue without having to beg, borrow or steal a pair. ?

[Bills72sj]

Made a little more progress today.

Test fitted the engine in the car. Minor trim of the top rear of the front crossmember for the oil pan.

The top of the transmission was shaved to clear the driveshaft tunnel.

The drive shaft was shortened to fit into the holes in the the diff and the tail housing.

Removed the chassis' forward-most crossmember to permit the 70 Monte Carlo radiator and shroud to fit low and forward enough.

I hangs perfectly on the bumper mounting slots and the shroud is the same height as the fan.

I tried to clear coat the headlights with Dollar store clear fingernail polish long ago. Unfortunately, while clear, it was full of bubbles. Surprisingly, both blobs picked out in one piece with no affect on the part. (Never would have predicted that!)

Found a/the genuine Olds intake manifold in my parts box. Dechromed it and the valve covers. They are now attached to the engine ready for paint.

Now to find the right color...

 

[Bronzekeg]

lookin' great!

[TonyR]

Awesome work! My father has a 74 Cutlass Supreme that I'd love to make a scale version of, its cinnamon with a tan interior.

[carl63_99]

1 hour ago, TonyR said:

Awesome work! My father has a 74 Cutlass Supreme that I'd love to make a scale version of, its cinnamon with a tan interior.

Save up and get the Johan kit. I got a '74 and a '75 around $50 each. Can make a simple curbside from it.

[Bainford]

Looking good, Bill. Glad to see this one back on the front burner.

[Bills72sj]

21 hours ago, Bronzekeg said:

lookin' great!

Thank you Ken.

13 hours ago, TonyR said:

Awesome work! My father has a 74 Cutlass Supreme that I'd love to make a scale version of, its cinnamon with a tan interior.

Thank you Tony. I say go for it.

9 hours ago, Bainford said:

Looking good, Bill. Glad to see this one back on the front burner.

Thank you Trevor. It deserves to be finished.

[Bills72sj]

Since I am about to assemble the engines for my Pontiacs, I figured I would try to get my Rocket 455 put together as well. I detail painted everything so assembly begins. I will try to accompany as many the bits as I can to simulate a smog era engine compartment.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Bills72sj

[Bills72sj]

My 74 Hurst/Olds engine bay is finally done.

While not 100% accurate, I threw as much at it as I could.

Be advised I had to start with a Johan promo which has no opening hood and engine bay.

A lot of kit bashing and parts box raiding took place to make this happen.

 

Cowl is from a 62 Catalina with cowl vents printed on paper.

The engine bay is from a 67 Chevelle Pro Street kit.

The firewall, with A/C box, is from a 70 Monte Carlo.

The A/C parts are from a 68 El Camino.

The engine block and transmission are from a 69 Olds 442.

The dechromed intake and valve covers are from the parts box.

The Olds engine blue was custom mixed from blue, black and silver acrylics.

The air cleaner came from a 72 Grand Prix annual.

The snorkel flex tube came from some Mustang kit.

The chrome heat riser tube came from the 72 Grand Prix spoof exhaust.

The fan belt and pulley assembly came from the 68 El Camino.

The radiator is from the Monte Carlo.

 

The Parts box contributed the following:

Master cylinder and booster

Washer bottle

Battery with photo-etch battery clamps (I'll never do that again!)

Emissions evaporative canister

Tubing from semi truck kit air lines.

Home made decals for Caution Fan and “Oldsmobile Rocket 455”

(Clear decal laid over BMF)

Scratch built distributor and ignition wires.

 

This task was definitely a challenge motivated by seeing what fellow modelers have shared in their builds.

Comments welcome.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Bills72sj
Error correction

[kelson]

Incredible work on the engine bay!!

[Maindrian Pace]

Now that's some kit bashing. Fantastic result, very convincing looking.

[mustang1989]

This is a really enjoyable build to watch Bill. Good looking results on that engine bay and your efforts on the car body are pretty dang good too. 

[Mattilacken]

Great build! Engine and bay came out as good as the rest!

[Bills72sj]

8 hours ago, kelson said:

Incredible work on the engine bay!!

 

8 hours ago, Maindrian Pace said:

Now that's some kit bashing. Fantastic result, very convincing looking.

 

8 hours ago, mustang1989 said:

This is a really enjoyable build to watch Bill. Good looking results on that engine bay and your efforts on the car body are pretty dang good too. 

 

8 hours ago, Mattilacken said:

Great build! Engine and bay came out as good as the rest!

Thank you gentlemen?

[disabled modeler]

WOW...!!!!   Very nice work..!!!   We once owned a few Oldsmobiles and one was a Hurst Olds...very nice..!

[NOBLNG]

That engine bay looks superb….and so does the rest of the build. You certainly are resourceful.?

[Sam I Am]

Unbelievable!  Bill, that looks incredible! 

[Bainford]

The engine bay really looks the business, Bill. Nicely done.