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35 Yr Old Monogram Camaro Z/28 to SS-Project Completed-08/17


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I built this kit when I was a youngster (about 14 or so) right around the 1983 time frame. It was my first car model I do remember that. Despite being a beginners build and a rough one at that, it has survived 31 years and is in my display case almost as it was when I built it. The engine is long gone, the paint is all original and the passenger seat in the interior is loose but other than that it's all there. A couple of years after I built it I robbed a set of wheels from a "Street Demons" 41 Willys kit that I had just because I couldn't stand the rear wheels that came on it originally. Last year I took this one out of the case and repaired the suspension so that the body doesn't rest on top of the rear tires any longer and re-adhered the rear bumper and "dolled her up" a little bit for some decent photo shots.

Here are the photos from last year when I did a freshen up. I've got plans in store for it in the posts that are to follow......sSig_Muahaha_zps56835599.gif

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Edited by mustang1989
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Here’s a picture of what we’re going to start with as it sat on my bench before going under the knife:

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The options were wide open as there hasn’t been anything in the engine compartment in 30 years now:

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A picture of the interior:

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Now apart on the bench:

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To start with I have managed to come up with another hood thanks to a friend on the forums:

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Nice, I was already out of the car building mode by 1983 (with the exception of building an AMT VW Rabbit, since my very first new car was an 84 Rabbit). I was never a Camaro liking guy, always leaned towards the smaller Japanese sports cars.I still have troubling motivating myself to finish building automobiles.

 

I like seeing old builds get new life, good luck.

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Wow! That's a great looking model for a 14yr old! I know I wasn't anywhere nearly as skilled at that age. In fact, cars still give me fits!

 

This is a cool project. Your original build is worth restoring and rebuilding, just like a real classic Z-28 would be!

 

GIL

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Thanks fellas.

 

Rob: I made the switch from aircraft back to auto modeling in late 2014. It's been really hard to go back as I'm having a blast with this stuff given my automotive background and all the cool AM stuff out there now.

 

Gil: Thanks and they still give me fits. lol

 

Say good bye to the paint fellas. The body in a bath of Dot 3 Brake Fluid:

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and I acquired this to go along with it....

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Ok folks. This is the very best that Monogram could do in the late 70's and throughout the early 80's I guess. It's not very accurate but it's what I've got ................so we'll deal with that.

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It's not going to be perfect but I'm shooting for the best I can do with this interior bucket to transform it into something that somewhat resembles this....minus the wood grain of course. Yuck!

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Edited by mustang1989
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Hi, Joseph,

 

I love your plan to repair and restore this old Z-28. I hope the transmission is a manual so you do not have to remove the clutch pedal from the interior tub. If you put floor mats on the front driver and passenger foot wells, you can cover up those wonderful ejector pin raised disks without having to shave them down and rescribe the missing details.

 

Thanks for starting another of your interesting project cars.

 

Ed

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Thanks Ed!

 

Sorry guys. I've been working on this thing but there are a lot of corrections to make. First off the PE bezels are NOT going to work with this dash ....................BUT I've got a different plan. Here's where we start .....

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I drilled out the IP gauges and sanded down the back of them for the scale thickness factor and sanded the Camaro emblem off as well as cleaned up a bunch of flash and sinkholes that I found not only on top of the dash but the face of it as well. I also sanded that Camaro script from the dash.



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And here we are with the dash completed. I got the film instruments and the "Camaro" script from the PE set. All dash trim was brought out with a silver lead pencil. While it's not the best dash you'll ever see, it's a far cry from what it was.

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Some more work on the dash. First off I took the OOB steering wheel and cut out the spoke holes and shaved off the horn pad. I then drilled two holes in the column. One on the right for the ignition switch, key and key chain and the one on the left for a turn signal lever. I painted the steering wheel spokes with the newly acquired chrome pen that I just got in the mail and installed a PE "SS" horn pad. I then took a PE key along with a PE ignition switch bezel and a PE key chain with a "Bowtie" on it , made a scratch built key ring and put it all together and installed it into the column. The turn signal lever is made from a .019" needle I had in the spares box and I'll be painting a black knob on the end of it . Any ways here it all is. I'll show the before picture (which I knew I should have taken a more clear "before" picture of the dash beforehand but this is all I've got) and then the improvement pics:

Before:

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After:

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Thanks Gil!

 

This interior just keeps getting better with each addition. I've got the door handles and window cranks as well as the Camaro badges on the door panels and the console is finished. The shifter is a bobby pin that I bent and sanded the shifter ball to get rid of a seam it had. Center gauges are from the PE set I bought. I'm going to buy another set of floor mats so I can fix that drivers side floor area. I'm not happy with that but I'll fix it. Here we are so far guys:

 

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Gil: LOLOLOL

 

When this all started the interior didn't have a back seat. I think it was in the kit but for some reason I chose to omit it on the original build. When I got the spare kit it had one in it but it was notched out on the sides for the dang roll bar braces.

 

This is after stripping the white paint from it:

 

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Here it is after filling in the cut outs with some Evergreen sheet styrene and filling and sanding everything smooth. Additionally, I made some small cut outs where the seat back and seat bottom meet for seat belts which are now installed with the PE seat buckles. Man I guess I need to fill the center "dot" in on those buckles. I'll also be working on the front seat finishes to match the rear seat. No biggie on that though.

 

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In the 1960's Webster's dictionaries, if you looked up the word "ignored" there'd be a picture of those rear seat belts..... :D

 

More impeccable work...can't tell what you did just by looking since it came out so well!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
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Thanks Gil.

 

Well guys, the floor mats came in the mail yesterday and I went right to work finishing the interior. All I have left at this point are the door lock rods/ knobs at each door but that'll be one of the last things to take care of with this model. I will, however, go ahead and drill the holes in the door panel. Here it is with floor mats at all four seating positions , the front seat belts installed and a Hot Rod magazine to round it all out.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Dang guys! It's been a while since I've been on here! Busy summer around the house and got the chance to actually finish this one up over the course of it all.

 

When I started this project in January I thought I was looking at a 3 month project. What followed was a seven month venture to pump some life into my first ever auto build which dates back 35 years. All in all the old build was in decent shape as I'd managed to keep it encased since first building it at age 13. When I left home at age 19 for the Army I left this build and several others behind where it stayed all this time until I finally picked it up from my parents house and put it in my display case here at home where it's spent the last 5 years. When I started on it 7 months ago there was no engine and the interior was.......well ........you know ...........very "Monogram" basic. I had alot of work ahead of me which I found out throughout the course of the re-build. I ended up using a total of five other kits to piece some of the missing pieces together (one of which was a newer Revell Camaro release kit to "update" this old dog of a kit with some of the parts that Monogram had failed to put in their kit) , hood and wheels were donations from good friends here on the forums (thanks be to Dee Cee and Paul). Powertrain/ drive train was from the AMT Chevelle SS396 kit. I ended up spending ALOT of time in the interior as well as the engine compartment. All badging is from PE fret for the Revell Camaro kits and the paint is GM paint code 79U--Mystic Teal Metallic, a paint that was used in the late 90's/ early 2000's on GM vehicles (Camaro's / Firebirds being in that line up). I also opted to transform this into an SS which took a little fancy foot work with the grille but I managed to pull it all off okay. I'm pretty happy with the results although the kit (as well as me) had it's limitations. lol.
With that.......here's the shots.

Before:

 




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After shots:


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Edited by mustang1989
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Congrats! Looks like the labor of love restoration project any proud owner would do to their 1-1 Camaro. Slick new paint job, restored interior with some updates, and new tires and wheels. And to top it off, it looks almost just like by buddy Billy's 3-speed Camaro that I learned to drive a stick shift with! Love it!

 

GIL :smiley16:

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Man Joe....You really did a GREAT job on this Camaro. That color of blue is killer...the engine bay is full of nothing but kick butt engine! Man...it looks good Bud...Great job!

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I agree, you've done an awesome job refurbishing this old kit. One of my splinter hobbies is trying to dress up my old builds by bringing them up to modern standards using my current skill set.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the late reply fellas. Dodging hurricanes and busy cleaning up after the mess it left. Thank you all for the very kind responses/ comments.

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