AMT Sunoco McLaren POS

[starfighterace]

After many starts and stops, this 1/25 AMT Sunoco McLaren POS was, by far, the worst model kit I ever tackled.

This is the 1973 Gary Bettenhausen Indy ride. I set out to detail it to the max. I always liked the Sunoco sponsored cars. I hadn't built this Indy Car kit before. I had built the Johnny Rutherford car as a kid. But this was the first issue of the kit and I liked the markings so much better than any of the Indy winning cars.

I did my homework. Read articles saying just how difficult this kit was. How is had so many issues with shape of the body, fit problems, bad tires, overly thick parts, and how it was best left alone. I took that as a challenge. I had tackled difficult Indy  kits before: AMT '63 Lotus kit; MPC '68 Gurney Eagle, MPC Lotus 56 Turbine; and the AMT '74 STP Eagle. How could this be any worse? Oh my, yest it can.....

Body work was easy enough. Sand, fill, repeat. Built up the engine, wired it. Scratch built many of the radiators and coolers the kit was lacking. Made copious notes on the instructions as I reversed engineered the kit to make the assembly easier and more logical. Breaking down many of the steps into better sub-assemblies to avoid many of the fit problems. I replaced all of the kit suspension rods with Aluminum rods. The kit shocks were replaced with R&D Unique coil-overs. Tires were resin replacements from Lance Sellers. Decals were a combo of the (rather poor) Indycals, Fred Cady, and my home made replacements. I used MCW Sunoco Blue for the chassis and lots of different metallic paints for the engine. Wheels were Magnesium, not chrome, so I used Metalizer sealed with Semigloss Dullcote. In fact I stripped all of the chrome parts (Purple Power!) and re-chromed the actual parts that were chrome with Alcald or Bare Metal Foil.

Finally, I had the engine/rear suspension assembly ready to mate to the chassis/tub. Lined up the mounting points and..... wowza. It was skewed about 20 degrees off.  Well, pooh. So I twisted the aluminum rods a bit, messed with the suspension and mounting points on the tub and got 'er level. Whew, glad I didn't use the plastic rods. Next up was the complex Turbo/exhaust. It didn't fit. Not even close.

Ended up taking more aluminum rod and solder, bending it, shaping it to replace the kit parts and match the pictures and diagrams I had for the Drake Offy. Took a few nights of test fitting, lots of ruined aluminum rod, and many new combinations of curse words before I was happy.

It had been 8 months of on and off working on this kit. I was about finished and it was looking good. This was 2013 ( I Think) and hoping to have it ready for the IPMS/USA Nationals...

Time to put the rear wing on. Another one of those separate sub-assemblies that was ready to go. Go to attach the wing and , what? The supports and the exhaust were suppose to occupy the same space? What idiot designed the kit to do that? The upper wing supports attached the the top of the Engine covers. The main exhaust went directly aft. Unless the rear wing was to angle upwards, it wasn't going to fit. If you did, the bottom wing attachment would not fit to the gearbox. In the US Military, there is a saying for something like this situation: "Charlie Foxtrot" As you see in the photos, this required a major re-work of both the rear wing supports and exhaust.  So I shelved it. I had enough.

Two years later after working on some build-ups for a Resin car company I discovered a way to fix that problem. It worked. Involved a jig, careful cutting of the wing supports, cannibalizing a third AMT McLaren kit, and more patients. Home free I thought. I go to put the tires on and the left rear was about 5 degrees up in the air. The way AMT molded the rear suspension, the fix I made to get the engine/suspension/tub to sit level and true messed this up. I had the hammer in hand to bust it up. Salvage all of the parts I used: the Detail Master Disc Brake rotors, RM&Co resin brake calipers, R&D Unique coil overs; rebuilt dash with new steering rack; and so on. Back in the box it goes. Gave up on car models. I was defeated.

About 2 months ago while working on another car project after regaining my "car modeling mojo" with 1/43 and some OOB projects, I ran into a problem with another old kit and fit/alignment problem. This time the fix was logical, easy, and risky.

I am a member if a Internet modeling club. These guys build amazing aircraft modelers. Many are IPMS/USA award winners many times over and judges. One member ran into an alignment problem with is aircraft model. The literately cut off the wing

 and reattached it to the correct the flaw. Another fixed a problem with his canopy (clear plastic, not the frame) the same way. Saw it off with a microsaw and reattach. That's what I did with the engine wouldn't fit thru this suspension part (This case it was an instructions flaw that was corrected in later re-issues of the kit). Voila', I now had a fix to the Sunoco McLaren suspension problem.

It was tricky, very risky, and messed up a bit. However, the car now sits on all 4 wheels, is aligned and (mostly) square. I had to use 5min epoxy to re-attached the spindle and lost some of the details. But I have prevailed over this kit.

In the intervening years, Indycals made a 3D Printed engine/suspension fix for this kit and another company has released a full resin kit of this exact car. Mine has neither. It is the AMT kit with only Lance Sellers Resin wheels and tons of aftermarket photoetch and scratch built parts.

I can say, I won't be building another one of these AMT McLaren kits ever again!

[robhart]

Your perseverance paid off. That is one of the nicest Indy car models that I have seen. The older AMT Indy car kits leave a lot to be desired. After just looking at some of them I decided that all of my open wheel builds would be in 1/43.

[arcticwolf]

Thank you for posting this.I mean, thank you, it might help me regain some of my sanity. I bought this kit (part of the hall of fame set) maybe 25 years ago. I should have left it in the box.
The first hint was that the kit didn't match any of the McLarens I had any photo documentation of. Even the wheelbase is wrong. But I tried to build it anyway. Like you, the engine assembly was waaay off from mating straight on the bulkhead. Take it apart and try again. Twice. The exhausts / turbo, not even close. Then I realized the wing mounting bracket was missing. Not lost, missing as in was never on the sprue - bad casting.
I threw the whole thing back in the box. That was when I decided model building wasn't a hobby, it's a mental disorder. Felt liked kicking the dog around a bit (except I like my dog). It's still in the box, along with the Lotus and Watson (untouched). For sale to a good home, I don't build anything smaller than 1/20 anymore.
I admire your perserverance and tenacity, you have a beautiful end result.
Nice job!!

[4wheels]

Nice build, way to persevere! While not the most accurate kits (by far), the AMT Eagles and McLarens have never given me too much grief. I built at least 3 of each as a young teenager and still have a couple of the McLarens in my display case. While obviously OOB, spray can painted and kit decals, they still look decent. As an adult, I learned how to correct the AMT McLaren tub to match Bill J.'s resin version ($$ saved) and to sand the nose to get rid of the curve and create the angle the McLarens actually had. Yes, some assemblies are a little bit fiddly, but I've never had any serious problems with the rear suspension or wing. A while back I sold most of my AMT Indy kits in anticipation of the new resin releases, now I wish I had kept a few more! The resin kits are awesome but require a LOT more work, IMO, just to create a nice shelf model. I don't build for contests anymore, and if I detailed every model I'd only finish 4 or 5 more before
I die! I'm sorry you had so much trouble with this one, we've all had a nightmare model or two over the years. Glad you stuck with it, the end result is awesome!

Brian

[starfighterace]

AMT did fix the rear wing issue with the second release forward. It's only the first "Sunoco-DX / Norton Spirit" issue that has it. If I still had the kits, I could photograph it so one could see the changes. Other parts that were changed was the cowl, wings, and glass over the several issues.

[2whl]

Excellent result from a dog of a kit.

[pnance26]

Woof, woof, woof ( to quate a certain someone from "Kelly's Heroes")... all dogs have their day. great perseverance! And a great looking build.

My Eagle went together ok, if I remember correctly... whole story reminded me of the Polar Lights #27 Bobby Allison Talledega that, in the last step, discovered the engine did not sit down into the engine well correctly and pushed up the hood. I said, "screw it" and display the model with the hood off to the side!

Thanks for the share and the read!