Grumpy's Toy 72 Vega

[Nitro330]

I just got around to building this.  I have seen many other builds and heard a lot of the complaints about the kit, but wanted to do it anyway because Grumpy was always a favorite of mine and I had this kit as a kid.  I was going to do a lot of detail on this, but once I got started I quickly changed my mind.  I couldn't get past the big block in the kit, so swapped in a small block from the 66 Nova pro street kit and headers from a 69 Nova kit.  Because of the engine swap, I cut out the driveshaft and built a new one.  The kit carbs also bothered me, so I used a pair from Pro Tech.  I did create a smooth firewall and cut out the inner fenders (just going to do some flat panels).  I saw in some pictures that there were cross bars on the back of the roll cage, so I added those.  Here are a few pics of what's going on with it.  I should have the body finished in a few days.  I painted the red a couple days ago and it came out nice. 

[Dragline]

Your mods are excellent. One of the best I have seen as far as accuracy. You are nailing the vibe.

[Nicholas]

looking great so far, the big  issue with those kits are the chassis,its nothing like the SRD chassis that was under the original car but its more of a passenger stock vega chassis.i have one in my stash that i want to tackle when time permits as well as some old hot rod mags that has some shots of the car and  the s/a designs book by bill jenkins that came out in the 70's for some reference, other than that i dont think there are a lot of pics of the chassis for it.

[Nitro330]

12 hours ago, Nicholas said:

looking great so far, the big  issue with those kits are the chassis,its nothing like the SRD chassis that was under the original car but its more of a passenger stock vega chassis.i have one in my stash that i want to tackle when time permits as well as some old hot rod mags that has some shots of the car and  the s/a designs book by bill jenkins that came out in the 70's for some reference, other than that i dont think there are a lot of pics of the chassis for it.

Thanks Nicholas.  Yeah, I could not find much for chassis pics.  Since it is a weak point of the kit, I am not doing much with it. The molded in rearend/suspension is pretty bad.

[Nitro330]

17 hours ago, Dragline said:

Your mods are excellent. One of the best I have seen as far as accuracy. You are nailing the vibe.

Thanks Bob, appreciate it!  Just trying to get it a little close.

[Dragline]

You are getting the overall vibe correct . you could get all crazy and all that but I suspect when it is done it will be a dead ringer.

[Nitro330]

Well since it was another cold weekend in Northern Indiana, I spent a lot of time on it and got it completed.  This build was a pain along the way in many aspects but came out pretty nice.  

[Tortuga Kustomz]

sweet

[Nicholas]

came out excellent!

[deuces wild]

??

[Altered Ego]

It came out very nice.  I love the aluminum work in the engine bay.

[bytownshaker]

One of best builds I've seen of the Vega.

 

[Dragline]

That is a real nice result. I may have to crack mine open so I can finally put one on the shelf next my other pro stock builds.

It clearly has possibilities.

[Scott8950]

Very nice job

[magicmustang]

Really good job on this Grumpy build. Great engine and bay work, the box parts were not  close.

I have a '66, '68, '74, '76, '81 and '83 Grumpy's Toys in progress.

Edited April 8, 2023 by magicmustang

[dragcarz]

Very nice! I agree the kit leaves a lot to the imagination and builds into a good shelf model, but requires a lot of work too make an accurate representation of the real car. The first Vega had a stock front suspension with everything behind the firewall being replaced or fabricated. The picture above appears to be the stock suspension. By 1973 all the chassis and suspension was replaced. The big block Chevy motor always bothered me as MPC had many small blocks from other kits they could have used. 

[deuces wild]

On 4/5/2023 at 7:40 AM, magicmustang said:

Really good job on this Grumpy build. Great engine and bay work, the box parts were not  close.

I have a '66, '68, '74, '76, '81 and '83 Grumpy's Toys in progress.

Looks like a pair of 660 center squirters on that 331 sbc....?

Edited April 25, 2023 by deuces wild

[larman]

Super nice job! I bought this kit too, but have put it off because of all the mods to get it right, yours looks great!

[Zippi]

Pretty kewl looking.  Turned out Super nice.  I've had this kit in my stash for a while.  May have to give it a try this fall.

[Nitro330]

Thanks for the comments everyone!  As I said, the kit has some issues, but can build up into a pretty cool replica of Grumpy's Vega.