Trumpeter 1960 Pontiac Bonneville

[Sidney Schwartz]

I've never done a work in progress post before. I don't do much in the way of customizing, so I hope this won't be too boring. 

This seems to be a unique kit. Trumpeter makes mostly military models. This is one of very few car models they made, and it seems to be no longer in production. Guess I lucked out when I found one.  It's the most detailed and well made kit I've seen so far...very classy. There's are photo etched hinges that have to be folded and assembled...I'll probably mess those up. ?

Here are all the parts...

Very well organized. Every part's location is shown in the instructions...

Excellent instructions. Very clear...

Yow! check out the microscopic parts. These will be "fun".

All parts have been cleaned and primered...we're ready to go. There are 29 parts just for the engine. Sorted by color for painting...

Engine is done and I'm happy with it. I was able to drill and wire the distributor that came with the kit.

Next up will be the dashboard. I won't be able to do much beyond that until the paint I ordered arrives. Body will be metallic orange, interior two-tone red.

Thanks for looking. ?

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Good looking, very clean work so far.  

I bought one of these after seeing one built on this forum, and was pleased overall by the level of detail and overall possibilities.

However...the design of the engine in this kit was a big disappointment to me, and I'll be replacing it...but yours looks much better than I'd expected. 

[SpikeSchumacher]

This is looking really nice so far Sidney, will be watching ?

[RichCostello]

I've got the convertible version of this kit, and it has two complete sets of chrome parts, one in bright chrome, and the other with kind of a satin finish.

[Sidney Schwartz]

7 minutes ago, RichCostello said:

I've got the convertible version of this kit, and it has two complete sets of chrome parts, one in bright chrome, and the other with kind of a satin finish.

Interesting. This has just the one set. Did you build yours yet?

[Sidney Schwartz]

1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Good looking, very clean work so far.  

I bought one of these after seeing one built on this forum, and was pleased overall by the level of detail and overall possibilities.

However...the design of the engine in this kit was a big disappointment to me, and I'll be replacing it...but yours looks much better than I'd expected. 

Thanks! What did you find disappointing about the engine? I'm not knowledgeable enough about real cars to be able to tell if a kit is realistic or not, at least most of the time.

[peteski]

Looking good so far!

I recall when this kit first came out some inaccuracies were mentioned with the engine and thing with the body shape.  I don't remember the specifics.

I also believe that instead of the typical vacuum-metalized "chrome" using very thin layer of aluminum, Trumpeter actually electroplated the plastic parts with copper and then real chrome. Just like it is done for 1:1 cars.  It is almost impossible to remove. 

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

Good looking kit and car. Always wondered about this kit and its contents. I used to see the real thing when they were new in our neighborhood.Good going!

[RichCostello]

4 hours ago, Sidney Schwartz said:

Interesting. This has just the one set. Did you build yours yet?

No, I'm still trying to build up the courage to tackle this one. Some parts are so small that I can barely see them.

[Sidney Schwartz]

5 minutes ago, RichCostello said:

No, I'm still trying to build up the courage to tackle this one. Some parts are so small that I can barely see them.

I hear ya'. I bought this kit quite a while ago and have held off doing it for the same reason. I'll be dealing with a couple of those micro parts as I tackle the dashboard, which I'm starting now. I think one of them is the cigarette lighter. ?

[RichCostello]

1 minute ago, Sidney Schwartz said:

I hear ya'. I bought this kit quite a while ago and have held off doing it for the same reason. I'll be dealing with a couple of those micro parts as I tackle the dashboard, which I'm starting now. I think one of them is the cigarette lighter. ?

I might be having cataract surgery this summer, so maybe I'll have the eyesight to try it after that.

[Sidney Schwartz]

Just now, RichCostello said:

I might be having cataract surgery this summer, so maybe I'll have the eyesight to try it after that.

Best of luck with that!

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

4 hours ago, Sidney Schwartz said:

...What did you find disappointing about the engine?

The parts breakdown is very wrong.

Kits that have separate blocks and heads, rocker covers represented correctly, and distributors that don't hover in space but are located correctly to a hole in the block (the block should be considerably longer behind the intake manifold, with the distributor on a vertical shaft coming up from it)...things like that, that go together pretty much like a real one, just make it easier to produce a realistic looking engine.

But then I look at this stuff every day, so blobularity of kit parts kinda jumps out at me. Then again, most kits with older Pontiac V8 engines get a lot closer than this one did.

[RichCostello]

Just now, Sidney Schwartz said:

Best of luck with that!

 

Yeah, I'm still trying to build up the courage for that too.

[Sidney Schwartz]

I at least noticed the floating distributor, Bill. ?

[Sidney Schwartz]

Well this is so odd I had to post it here. I've never seen this method of building wheel/tire before, and never would have thought of doing it this way. Here are the parts for one wheel...

Left to right rubber tire, donut thingy, wheel cover, whitewall insert (not painted yet), rubber ring, backing plate. First the donut thingy goes in the tire...

Next wheel cover and backing plate sandwich together over donut...

Next rubber ring goes in around wheel cover...

Lastly the whitewall insert...

Can't help thinking someone overthought this one.

[Ace-Garageguy]

6 minutes ago, Sidney Schwartz said:

I at least noticed the floating distributor, Bill. ?

What you've got will look good installed in the engine bay, and that's the most important thing.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

29 minutes ago, Sidney Schwartz said:

Well this is so odd I had to post it here. I've never seen this method of building wheel/tire before, and never would have thought of doing it this way. Here are the parts for one wheel...

...Can't help thinking someone overthought this one.

Yup. KISS wasn't part of the design paradigm, nor was looking at how the rest of the world has been doing it for decades.

There's a LOT to like about this kit, but that's another oddity fer shur. 

Interesting they chose "P-metric" radial sizing for the tire lettering too, as the car would have been delivered on plain ol' 'murican sized bias-ply rubber.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[1972coronet]

Nice work so far with that rascal. Those tiny parts would drive me insane -- I've a difficult enough time with 'regular' sized 1/25 scale parts (even reading glasses aren't that much help) let alone twigs & berries (cigarette lighter, indeed !).

I'm fascinated with that Roto-Matic ( a/k/a "Slim Jim" ) transmission. not many of those in-scale (there's the Oldsmobile Jet-Away 2-speed and the same's Hydra-Matic 4-speed - in B&M Stick Hydro guise via the AMT engine Parts Pack) and definitely an obscure - and unreliable - 'stopgap' 3-speed auto (the Hydra-Matic plant burned down in in , what, 1958 ?).

Keep up the great work !

[Sidney Schwartz]

At least they look real good. You can barely make out the "Pontiac Motor Division" on the wheel covers. Nice!

So far no tiny parts have been lost! How long can I keep that up...we'll see. ?

 

 

 

[dino246gt]

There's always been a lot of criticism of Trumpeter car kits, but I've built half a dozen of them and they turn out looking very good actually.

The chrome was actually chrome plated over copper, and some kits had more of an aluminum look, so they sent free proper chrome trees out, or included them in later issues.

The hardtop Pontiac was criticized for having the roof too short, front to back, so many people swapped a proper '61 or '62 roof from AMT or Revell, convertible, no problem

Here's my Pontiac build, right out of the box, trunk mat is only paper:

[Ace-Garageguy]

17 hours ago, Sidney Schwartz said:

At least they look real good. You can barely make out the "Pontiac Motor Division" on the wheel covers. Nice!

They do indeed look good. I believe you've got this.   

[Sidney Schwartz]

2 hours ago, dino246gt said:

Here's my Pontiac build, right out of the box, trunk mat is only paper:

Wow...that's beautiful! Hope mine looks half as good. I was hoping to meet someone else who's built this kit because I seem to have a problem. I just finished the front suspension. It took me a while to figure out the right order to put the pieces together, but I think I got it right. As you can see in the pic, the wheels/tires have a very noticeable camber to them...

Do your look like that, or did I mess something up?. The parts fit very well...there's really no wiggle room. It looks deliberate since it affeccts both sides. I'd hate to have to take it apart since some of the part are quite small and may break.

 

 

[Sidney Schwartz]

Dash and chassis done. Lots of parts. ? The dash gauge decal tore - probably old - but I managed to put it back together pretty well.  Something else I've never seen before is the clear plastic piece that overlays the dash gauges and has gauge rims molded in. 

Hard to get good pics with almost everything being black.

Body color finally arrived.

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

When I first came across this kit in my LHS some years ago, it was quite an exciting revelation.

Initially, upon opening the box, it looked as if it was going to be a fantastic kit!

Of course, as time went by and all of the kit’s short comings became evident, it lost it’s appeal pretty quickly.

That said, I have one of the hard top kits, and if I ever built it, (which at this point is rather unlikely) I would absolutely be chopping off the top and doing a convertible.

There’s no way that I can unsee the roof/tulip panel proportions of the hardtop kit.

My opinion?

That weird wheel/tire configuration is the coolest part of the whole kit!! ?

 

 

 

Steve

Edited April 11, 2023 by StevenGuthmiller