Monogram Tide Monte Carlo WIP

FearlessFarless, I'm so sorry about your father passing away.  I say that you should build it in his honor and I'll bet that you'll enjoy every minute of the build.  These are the kits that end up being our favorites over time.

tjs

Thanks for the kind words Tom. 

I have been researching this kit for a while, accumulating aftermarket parts, decals, stencils, etc. Right away I was able to put the engine together and modify it to accept a wired distributor. 

Instructions call for a blue engine block, but the forums I have read indicate that many NASCAR engine blocks were not painted, and even if they were the paint would burn off quickly leaving bare metal showing. I painted the engine Tamiya bare metal and the valve covers and other parts with Tamiya shiny aluminum to give a subtle contrast.

That's a classic.  Loved those Monogram NASCAR kits.  Following.

Thanks keavdog,

While the engine paint was drying I moved on to the interior modifications. After comparing the kit parts to pics of the real car it became apparent that these were not close to correct... 

First step was removing the headrest that was built into the rollcage. I cut it out and stretched down some styrene rod to the correct diameter.

Some superglue to fill the seam, some sanding, and a few thick coats of Mr Surfacer 1000 fixed it up

Finally, I found a resin seat on eBay that matched much more closely what the pictures show than what the kit parts offer.

 I also need a seat liner/padding material for the seat. My current plan is to trace out the seat and cut one out of gray card stock.  

Great looking seat.  Curious where you found that.  The kit seat looks like those old swivel buckets lol

LOL You ain't kidding about that ridiculous looking seat.

Honestly though, I do believe older race cars did use that style of seat, but by the late '80s they were long gone. Monogram just thought they could slip the old style in and no one would notice...

You can search eBay for: RESIN 3D PRINTED 1/25 SCALE ALUMINUM RACING SEAT DRAG DIRT TRACK to find the resin one. It wasn't cheap for one little seat, but IMO, worth it. Rivet counters will undoubtedly point out that it is not exactly correct, but it's a major improvement over the OOB parts. The one mod I did make to the seat involved opening the two separate slots for the over the shoulder belts into a large single slot to feed both belts thru.

I started examining the rest of the kit more closely and found a crap ton of sink marks on both sides of the frame rails. Tamiya putty and some sanding took care of that.

Here is another update. I started on the tires. I sanded the mold marks down and removed the raised lettering. Then I painted the lettering on with a photoetch stencil.

Looking good so far!

Thanks Pat!

In between the varoius steps of sanding and painting on the tires, I was able to get the fuel cell sorted out. There are no pics of the exact car that I have been able to find. There are pics of other cars of that era, based on these, I think I have a pretty good facsimile going...

Howdy folks! 

I've been working on this resin seat for awhile. Somewhere along the line I realized this would need a "cloth" seat cover. My first thought was to print a fabric pattern and seat manufacturer logo on a piece of card stock then cut the shape of the seat out and use some canopy glue to tack it in place...

It was a failure of moderate proportions. I couldn't get a realistic fabric pattern, and a seat cover wraps around the edges, which paper cannot do. This approach would not work.

Next, I thought that perhaps I could use flocking material and once it was dry, apply gentle pressure and flatten it to the seat. Please don't laugh...

I ended up creating a driver's seat for a 70s shag van. Epic failure 

Finally I decided to turn to Youtube for inspiration and in a video comment someone mentioned using fabric medical tape. A raid of our home first aid kit provided exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks for taking a look!

Love it! Love it! Love it! 

You'd have to be a non-smoker to have one of those furry seats in your vehicle. Had a friend who had a customized '56 ford with seat covers that looked like that until he tossed a cigarette out the window and it went right back in the back window. Didn't notice anything until people started blowing their horns and pointing to the back of the car. Luckily he had a fire extinguisher in the trunk. It took a long time to get the stink of the burnt material out of the car.  PS-He quit smoking as soon as he put out the fire. Never touched another one.

Stay Safe.

Jim 

Now that's one heck of a story, and I'm glad your friend got away from a nasty habit!

This weekend has been productive.Several of the small pieces such as the fire extinguisher went in first. Then I was able to get the rest of the roll cage painted and installed it along with some padding to protect the driver. I also painted the instrument panel and then pushed the dashboard/upper firewall into place. The resin seat is in the right spot, but I need to install the harness before gluing it down.

Slow progress is still progress...

I decided I could not live with one piece plastic belts and pulley combo, or the alternator suspended over empty space BY the belt with no physical connection to the engine SMH

I snipped the plastic belt off the pulleys and sanded them mostly round 

Next was positioning the pulleys and creating a bracket to attach the alternator to the engine. Finally, I sliced thin strips of masking tape to create the belts. A coat of black paint finished it off.

fearlessfarless

<SNIP>

I also need a seat liner/padding material for the seat. My current plan is to trace out the seat and cut one out of gray card stock.  

Yeah, While dark blue was the GM 'Corprate color' back in the '80's for the V8s, the NASCAR engine builders would usually leave them bare metal.  Paint is an insulator, we don't need that!!  If it were painted, it would probably be black. 

The kit seat looks like something from '60's NASCAR racecars, not '80's!  How about rolling out some Milliput for the seat pads?  You could replicate folds and give it a bit more 'pad' than card stock.  Just a thought. 

Thanks for the suggestion. As you may have seen I used the fabric medical tape on this one. I have an '86 Petty car for my next race car project and I may try the Milliput on that one. It's good to hear ideas I've never even thought of!

Coming along nicely

Looks great! Sure hope the decals cooperate!