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Monogram 1.8 scale C3 Corvette


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An online auction impulse bid see's yet another restoration/repair job join the others I have running at the moment. This time its Monograms first issue C3 Corvette from 1979. There was another issue in the eighties with slightly modified bodywork and decals.

 

Advertised and bought as a pile of parts, it's going to take a bit of effort to rescue it. I'm no fan of the later big back window fitted to this year Corvette, much preferring the earlier vertical one, with sail panels flaring out to the tail. I'll be modifying the kit to backdate it a bit to accommodate that. The '69 introductory car had a much nicer, simpler look about it with thin blade bumpers front and back. This kit has the bigger soft covered crash bumpers. I would prefer to build the earlier version but the big bumpers don't look too bad these days. I'll be keeping them in place.

 

Here's the kit as it turned up...

 

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It's propped together here, everything is loose. The hood has been painted with stoneguard! The red paint is a mile thick with another purple paintjob under that. 

First job was to remove the paint. An overnight soak in a strong caustic soda bath didn't touch the finish. Some of the loose parts got left in bleach at the same time. That was more successful but the yellow painted interior parts didn't co operate. The thought of sanding down the big beast didn't fill me with joy, so I tried upending the body into an icecream tub full of rubbing alcohol. I didn't have nearly enough of the stuff to soak the whole body. The alcohol softened the paint in minutes!

 

There then followed endless brushing on of the alcohol, wiping with kitchen scourers, more brushing, more wiping, QTipping, more brushing, and so on until the body is nearly back to bare plastic. Very messy but satisfying at the same time.

 

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There is quite a bit of bodywork needed. Various glue marks, seams, the new bodywork at the rear, along with a few areas where the paintjobs have wrinkled the plastic a bit to deal with. I'm looking forward to making a proper start on it, probably this week.

 

Here's an idea of the size of the thing. That's a 1.24 '70 Buick GSX sat in front of it.

 

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And with it's impact bumpers propped into place...

 

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The jury is out on what direction to take with the restoration.

The easy path would be to build it as a stock '74 model and resale red would suit it down to the ground. Maybe a bit too obvious though.

The devil on my other shoulder says build it seventies street freak style with a layer or two of that decades excesses added. New wheels and tires, custom paint and sidepipes would certainly take me on a nostalgic ride.

 

Check out this '70 Corvette, one of the more restrained modified cars of the time.

 

antidote-to-mid-engine-corvette-anxiety-

 

And here's the Wikipedia entry for the C3 Corvette. A pretty good entry, covering the life of the C3 shape in enough detail to show how the shape changed over the years.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette_(C3)

 

I'll roll along with things as they are and see how it all pans out.

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As we have discussed off-line, the car is so basic, it's akin to cheating. The sun-visors are moulded onto the windscreen surround, and it doesn't even have opening headlamps, one of the whizzy features that made the real Corvette so cool, and would be so easy to do in 1/8th scale. It looks like they got the shape right, but fell flat on their face with the details. On the plus side, if you want to make changes and/or add extra details as you have suggested (can you get 1/8th scale side pipes?), you can only make it better - You can't go wrong with Candy Apple Red and gold pinstripes! Which ever way you go, at least you're back to basics and the skies the limit as to which direction you go in.

 

 

 

 

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32 minutes ago, Mike Dean said:

As we have discussed off-line, the car is so basic, it's akin to cheating. The sun-visors are moulded onto the windscreen surround, and it doesn't even have opening headlamps, one of the real whizzy features that made the Corvette so cool, and would be so easy to do in 1/8th scale. It looks like they got the shape right, but fell flat on their face with the details. On the plus side, if you want to make changes and/or add extra details as you have suggested (can you get 1/8th scale side pipes?), you can only make it better - You can't go wrong with Candy Apple Red and gold pinstripes! Which ever way you go, at least you're back to basics and the skies the limit as to which direction you go in.

 

 

 

 

 

It seems Monogram went backwards on the detail front with these big kits. The C2 Corvette was a whole lot simpler than the earlier big XKE, or E type if you will. The C2 did have revolving headlights though. This C3 is simpler still. It might have been that sheer size alone was intended to give the impact with this range rather than minute detailing.

There really is no limit to what could be added to the kit, and there's a stunner in there for a dedicated builder. A decently put together stock build would still look the part though. I'll be aiming at the middle ground.

 

The side pipes in the picture above look to be a reasonably easy scratch build. Sausages of milliput fed into a bit of plastic strut should give the shape and Molotow ink would provide the chrome. I think it was Doug Thorley Hedders who made those pipes, or possibly Hooker. The other ones that turned up a lot over here were Thrush Sidepipes. I never liked those ones. They always looked a bit short and the alloy finish dulled very quickly. A brit flavoured build would need those pipes along with General Grabber 60 tires. Rock hard rubber, but perfect for smokey burnouts. 

Memories of the early Chelsea Cruise days are flooding back. A Corvette called Neon Sunset caught my eye as a teenager. I'll dig out my old Custom Car mags and take a look as it got a feature way back then.

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I think that one and the third gen Camaro/Firebird are akin to scaled up 1/24 kits - a bit more detail, but not much.   Still want one though!    I like Plastruct rod for making headers, but in 1/8 scale, I'm not so sure... bending 1/4" rod would be  challenging.😐

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More sorting out and paint stripping took place today. Rubbing alcohol made short work of removing the yellow paint that covered the interior. There are traces still left, it seems that once paint mixes with glue there's not much chance of removing it short of sanding it off.

 

IMG-3973.jpg

 

Here's all the other bits to the kit, less the wheels and tires. It doesn't look a lot, and it isn't. It's nearly all that Monogram provide though.

 

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I found the Neon Sunset car. It was in Custom Car in September 1974. I bought the magazine as a teenager and the centerspread graced my bedroom wall at home along with a load of other CC pictures. The car has huge fender flares and the wheels look to be at least 10x15's. Enormous at the time and not exactly little today. Also a set of side pipes, Check. And a near obligatory custom paintjob, Check.

 

A couple of years after the magazine feature, I saw the car in the flesh on a garage forecourt in Clapham. The paintjob looked a little worse for wear as I recall. I won't be copying the finish but the pictures give a good idea of Corvette high style in '74. Yikes!

 

Neon-Sunset.jpg

 

 

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11 hours ago, TonyW said:

The '69 introductory car...

The nit-picker award of the day comes to me when I correct that the C3 was introduced in MY 1968. To my eyes, too, the '68-'72 models are the most pleasing. If I'd get to choose one for a driver, I'd choose a '70 (or '71) with the LT-1 small block instead of all those mystical 427:s. V-P

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If I was going to build a classic Vette from the early 70’s I think I’d do this one as it was always a memorable design. In today’s world with 3D printing the hood, tail, and nose would be easier to do. 
 

https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1972-CHEVROLET-CORVETTE--190295

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52 minutes ago, vppelt68 said:

The nit-picker award of the day comes to me when I correct that the C3 was introduced in MY 1968. To my eyes, too, the '68-'72 models are the most pleasing. If I'd get to choose one for a driver, I'd choose a '70 (or '71) with the LT-1 small block instead of all those mystical 427:s. V-P

I could get on board with that, a powerful and free-revving small block mated to the M21 close-ratio four-speed transmission in an early C3 Corvette.  I'd have mine in dark metallic blue ;)

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8 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

If I was going to build a classic Vette from the early 70’s I think I’d do this one as it was always a memorable design. In today’s world with 3D printing the hood, tail, and nose would be easier to do. 
 

https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1972-CHEVROLET-CORVETTE--190295

 

I was thinking of doing Frankenstein's car from Death Race 2000 until I found out it's a VW based lash up. It's nearly as subtle as the Corvette Summer car...

 

i006596.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

The big Corvette got a bit of bench time over the last couple of days. Front and rear bumpers have been refixed and a crack in the screen post glued back together. It's all going to spend a day sunbathing to set the glue good and hard. A bit of filling and a lot of sanding will follow. A start on that has been made with the hood. Multiple grit sanding followed by a couple of coats of hibuild primer got that underway.

 

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Wheel choice has been made although not sizes as of yet. The wheel of choice is the Daisey mag that comes on the back of the later Big T by Monogram. In stock form it's a huge 12x15 with enormous tire to match. I've made moulds to give me a few size options. I might use the big size with fender flairs, but I can also now use 8x15's as I've modified a wheel to take a smaller tire that will fill the stock arches. Going one further, I've made an even thinner wheel to give me a 6x15 option. That could get used up front. The permutations are endless.

The big wheel has been copied directly from the Monogram part. It's a swine to cast in one piece but I only need a pair for now. The smaller wheels have been cast as two part moulds, centres and outers. Different width outer rims give me offset and width options for just about anything needing these.

 

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The tires shown are the Big T monster one, the '32 Roadster rear, the stock C3 tire and the front from the '32 Roadster. I'll need to make moulds of each tire as a couple of them are showing their age a bit. Solid resin wheels and tires will sort out the decaying rubber problem along with giving the model a bit of heft. It feels a bit puny for its size at the moment.

Once I've got a few pairs of wheel/tire combos assembled I can try them out on the body to see what looks best to me. I'm going for a '70's custom painted street machine, so I have a ton of choices. 

 

I'm also in the middle of making moulds for a few other large scale Monogram parts that will hopefully make an appearance later on in the GB.

 

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59 minutes ago, Six97s said:

Is that a '46- ' 48 Ford it's sunbathing on?

It is indeed.

A two door, long window Deluxe coupe. That sounds fancy but it needs everything done to it. A long term project.

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I mentioned tire deterioration above. Here's what I mean. The big tire is cracking up in a radial pattern. Over time, all these soft tires change and deteriorate. My solution to the problem is to make the things in solid resin. It might be that over the years the resin will move about or something but I'll worry about that when it happens.

 

 IMG-4048.jpg

 

I've made a very basic rubber mould and slush moulded a tire from it. Nothing fancy, I just needed a decent copy to work on for a new, proper mould.

 

Here's a tire fresh out the mould. Rough as anything, but more than good enough to work with. It will get smoothed out and refinished, then remoulded to provide nice smooth tires.

 

IMG-4047.jpg

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Saw this story the other day and thought about this build. 
 

https://www.thedrive.com/news/apollo-15-astronauts-grandson-is-restoring-this-original-1971-chevrolet-corvette

 

Someone just found the white car rotting in a field and is going to restore it. One of the three schemes might make for an interesting build ? 

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16 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Saw this story the other day and thought about this build. 
 

https://www.thedrive.com/news/apollo-15-astronauts-grandson-is-restoring-this-original-1971-chevrolet-corvette

 

Someone just found the white car rotting in a field and is going to restore it. One of the three schemes might make for an interesting build ? 

 

An interesting look, but backdating mine to a car that early is more work than I want to take on.

Another car that won't get done is Joan Didions Corvette. She's right up there with Michelle Phillips as a sixties face, sadly she traded the Corvette for a Volvo. That was me and her over before it started.

 

 

our-lady-of-la-joan-didion-john-gregory-

 

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On 07/08/2022 at 19:36, TonyW said:

Another car that won't get done is Joan Didions Corvette. She's right up there with Michelle Phillips as a sixties face, sadly she traded the Corvette for a Volvo. That was me and her over before it started.

 

 

our-lady-of-la-joan-didion-john-gregory-

 

 

I'm sure she looks back and regrets missing out on you Tony, which of course is the current Mrs W's gain :wink:

 

Going by the size of this one, do you want to paint it pink so you can have Barbie and Ken sitting in it ?

 

I'm sure my daughter still has hers in the loft :whistle:

 

Cheers Pat 

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There is a bit of the Ken and Barbies about it, I'll give you that. Mind you, real Corvettes can be accused of the same thing. The C3's were a bit mid life crisis for a fair part of the run. The early ones could walk the walk, what with the big 427's and 454 motors and all that. The later ones were a bit sad really. 

 

I'm not sure at what point a model becomes something else, but these 1.8 scale kits are pushing that boundary. 

 

 

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The Corvette has had a bit of surgery done on it. That dopey back window had to go and the purer looking tunnelled back light and sail panels substituted.

 

Out with the saws and cutters, and off with a big chunk of the rear...

 

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The removed panel has a curve on it that looks familiar. A bit of hacking around sees it not a million miles away from the shape of the old sail panel. It's a start, a more refined shape will come later.

 

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A big lump of 40 thou plastic card has been cut and fitted into the rear panel as a base for further work once the glues dry.

 

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More later...

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2 hours ago, TonyW said:

The removed panel has a curve on it that looks familiar. A bit of hacking around sees it not a million miles away from the shape of the old sail panel. It's a start, a more refined shape will come later.

 

IMG-4066.jpg

 

 

Now THAT'S clever! I can see this turning out to be a good 'un. Watching with interest.🔍

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The plastic card insert got a heavy scoring on the top surface to give a good bite for the car body filler that followed. The undersides got reinforced with plastic beams to make it a much more sturdy structure.

The rear panel is quite a simple shape, thankfully. Leaving aside the sail panels for now, the horizontal area gently rolls over the fender top crease into a virtually flat trunk area. One heavy coat of filler got the area bulked out. Once hard, that got sanded back and a thinner layer added that now needs flatting into the final shape.

 

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Using what seemed like an enormous amount of filler, along with full size bodywork spreaders and sanding kit made quite a change from the miniscule amounts used on 1.24/5 scale stuff. I'm quite enjoying the change.

 

A couple of tire sizes got tried. All need a bit of getting at. The size, arch fit and height of the front and rear wheels and tires makes or breaks a car for me. Getting things right to my eyes isn't easy. 

The car seems to ride rather high to me. As I'm building a Street Machine rather than a stocker, I'll be hogging out the wheel arches a bit to help with getting the car to sit lower. The arches will get a bit of a flair as well. Not crazy, full on '70's style, but enough to change the look subtly, if such a thing is possible with this type of build.

 

To make things a whole lot simpler for me, I won't be adding much in the way of detailing on this build. It's all about the overall shape, sit and paint job.

The hood will be closed up as there seems to be a bit of a fit issue.  Things nearly fit properly, but that won't do on a model of this size. The eye would be drawn straight to any panel fit issues. The plastic on these kits is very thick and somewhat brittle so the scope for bending things about is limited.

 

To give back a bit after backing off with a closed hood, I'll add a dual carb settup poking through the hood, much like the 1.25 Matchbox/AMT C2 I built recently. Very in period. A Supercharger might be better, but I don't have one to hand. If the carb settup doesn't work out for any reason, plan B will be a hood scoop of some sort. Plenty of choices here, maybe too many. 

 

IMG-3505.jpg

 

I've taken a mould off the carb in the Monogram/Revell Trans Am kit to provide a couple of carbs to work with. Brass tube has also been cut to make a start on building a couple of intakes for the carbs.

 

 

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