Revell Monza

On to my next build ... Revell's Monza "Street Machine."  I picked this up at a local hobby shop that finds out of production kits at reasonable prices.  The box was rough with some water damage and most of the parts off the spruce but it looks complete.  



I started off by repairing the frame.  A cross member at the front and back were broken.  



I considered drilling a hole on opposite sides of the crack and pinning it.  Nixed this idea because the plastic used is rather crisp and brittle.  Instead, it was repaired by laminating "L" shape plastic stock to the damaged frame with liquid styrene glue.  



There were a lot of molding flash and injection holes on the undercarriage.  Because the injection pits were so close to the molded in fuel and break lines, I decided to sand all the detail off and start over.  Starting with 150 grit, I progressed up to 800 grit.  A bit of putty work was needed to recover from a poor attempt at scraping off some of the detail.  It still needs a few primer - sand cycles to get it where I'll be happy with it.

Nice job on reparing the chassis Chris.

Always liked Monzas.

Never actually seen one. Nice start

Is that an IMSA racer converted to a Custom/Street Machine and what engine is in it Chris?

DB, this kit is pretty much a street machine with IMSA style.  Faust in the "Other Stuff" forum has a recent post that does an excellent review of this kit issued as the "Spyder" (along with the AMT and MPC Monza offerings).  To add to his on-point comments, this kit shares the underpinnings of the Monroe Mustang from the same era.  On the engine, it had Big Block style exhaust manifolds along with a front-sump (Ford style) oil pan.  I thought about reversing it but that would require more suspension hacking to adjust the front cross member.  

On to the progress:  

I never like molded in under hood details and the master cylinder was just awful.  So out came the saw and knife to remove them.  




In my earlier post I mentioned how brittle the plastic Revell used on this molding ... and true to form I cracked off a piece of the inner fender (in front of the molded in battery) during the hacking process.  Also in this shot you can see a piece of plastic stock I glued to be the backing of the fill pieces.  



Here is where I am at this morning with plastic stock used to fill the gaps.  Up next ... putty, sand, repeat.  Also note my fat fingers struck again and broke off the passenger side front fender leading edge.  I also started on the engine with sanding the seam (on the transmission bottom, water pump and bell housing) with a coat of silver applied.  

Cool.

Nice job on crude old kit. I've got the Sunbird version, complete with cart springs like yours.

Continuing to dial in the body on the Monza:  

First, the connection joint for the front fascia had no mounting tabs or ribs.  I added these from thin plastic to help with with aligning the part to the body.   Also, the tabs helped make the joint substantial enough to aid in the repair of the break in the front fender along with being able to hold up to the putty & sanding & putty & sanding to come.  



After blowing up the under-hood area I am pleased with how it turned out.  After the glue dried on the fascia, it required a lot of leveling between the two surfaces. Tamiya putty followed the sanding to fill the seam.



I am not very good at painting molded in details ... as with the rear lights on this kit.  As an alternative, I grabbed this Lamborghini item from the parts box to use and decided to sand off the kit detail.  



After cutting (and once again causing the brittle Revell plastic to break), I trimmed and molded in the tail lights with Milliput.  This would have been easier if I had thought of the modification before glueing the rear fascia to the body ... but it worked out.  



Chris

First time a Countach has been cut up to make a Chevy!

Up next ... on to some minor refinements to the interior tub.

Never a big fan of the molded in spare tire and did not like the fire extinguisher blob on the console. Also pleased with the look of the new rear tail lights.



Took my time with the back of an 11-Blade and was able to cut out the offending pieces (this time without breaking the brittle plastic used to mild this kit).



After plugging the openings with scrap plastic followed by (at the time of this shot) two putty - sanding - primer cycles.

Nice patch job.

Great work on this especially given the brittle plastic you mentioned. The tail lights look great and the other modding is coming along really well.

Thanks again for all the comments & encouragement.

After some minor refinements, I decided to progress forward with a box stock - shelf build.

Looking good! I really like that body colour.

Super nice!