Monogram 1/24 scale 1984 IMSA Ford Mustang GTP car
Aug 26, 2022 8:51:38 GMT -8
Chris K. Hale, 2whl, and 1 more like this
Post by Joel_W on Aug 26, 2022 8:51:38 GMT -8
After time off from finishing the Fujimi Porsche 917K, it’s time to clear off the workbench and start my next build. This time I turned the clock way back to the 1985 Monogram release of their 1/24 scale IMSA Ford Mustang GTP car.
During the 1980’s Ford was once again involved in a big way with motorsports on almost all professional levels, and that including IMSA Sport car racing in it’s top class: GTP. That would pit Ford against Porsche, Jaguar, and Lola. But Ford decided to go a different way with the latest technical advancements in chassis, body, and engine designs. So the car chassis was Kelvar and Carbon Fiber, and the body was all Fiberglass, that was changed over to Carbon Fiber for the 1984 season. Going with a 1.7 ci 4 cyl turbo engine placed in the front of the car vs the usual mid engine design allowed Ford to create a bottom air flow that produced more down force then even Indy Cars did. Now that’s amazing. In short the car was about the fastest car on every track that year.
The 1st race of the 1983 season was at Road America, and Ford entered both cars. Motorcraft was one sponsor and 7 11 the other. The Motorcraft car won the race, and set the lap record! now there’s a great start for a new car. Unfortunately they didn’t win another race that year
For the 1984 Ford upped their game and replaced the 1.7 ci engine with the 2.1 ci turbo 4 cyl. This required to move the driver from the right side to the left side of the car. Once again the car was super fast but didn’t win a single race. Ford canceled the program and went with the Mid engine Probe GTP car.
Monogram still went ahead with plans to kit the 1983 winning Road America car, but somehow screwed up and photographed/measured the 1984 7 11 sponsored car. So that the kit had the wrong car but right sponsor. Yet they released the kit #2708 as the 1983 car while it was the 1984 car. Go figure that one out. Then they went and released the 1984 car as kit #2709. And finally they did a re-release of the #2708 kit once again.
Trying to correct the molded body to the correct 1983 car is a major undertaking, something that honestly I’m not capable of pulling off. But the car that I wanted to do is the 7 11 1984 car. And guess what, Indy Cals has the correct sheet for both years. So my build will be the correct version of the 7 11 1984 car. Not the one in the picture which is the 1983 car but the decals look exactly like it.
All I’ve managed to do after a few hours of prep work is rescribe the panel lines especially for the doors, and start to clean up the mega sized mold lines.
Time to start with the body corrections and fixes, so the body sections and the chassis can get to the paint shop sooner then later.
1st up was doing something to make the front air brake vents looks some what better then what must have been considered cutting edge back in the mid 1980’s, but not so much now as it’s just a 90 degree step for each vane.
The body plastic is rather thick so I decided since the decals will go completely over the vents, just creating the illusion of an open vent would be the best and naturally the easiest course. So using two different scribers, and the back of a #11 blade, I scribed each vane. Then I tested the effect with some Tamiya Black PLW. Still some clean up is needed, but you’ll see the effect I’m after.
Next up was trying to solve two issues with the same fix. 1st issue was to work on getting the rear quarter panels and the back of the rear deck which are part of the top and bottom body sections to perfectly align, and yet be removable so that I can mask the interior as needed, and then be able to remove the masking. The left quarter panel has a rather large lip and the rear end deck just plain doesn’t fit flush nor square.
1st step was to add sheet plastic alignment tabs on both sides to
force proper alignment. As you can see they’re rather large, but work perfectly. Then sand and file the left side that has the lip.
Then I sanded the rear seam flush
I ended up sanding off quite a lot of the plastic to do the correction needed.
And now the two body sections fit properly, and can be removed and put back together with the same fix.
joel
During the 1980’s Ford was once again involved in a big way with motorsports on almost all professional levels, and that including IMSA Sport car racing in it’s top class: GTP. That would pit Ford against Porsche, Jaguar, and Lola. But Ford decided to go a different way with the latest technical advancements in chassis, body, and engine designs. So the car chassis was Kelvar and Carbon Fiber, and the body was all Fiberglass, that was changed over to Carbon Fiber for the 1984 season. Going with a 1.7 ci 4 cyl turbo engine placed in the front of the car vs the usual mid engine design allowed Ford to create a bottom air flow that produced more down force then even Indy Cars did. Now that’s amazing. In short the car was about the fastest car on every track that year.
The 1st race of the 1983 season was at Road America, and Ford entered both cars. Motorcraft was one sponsor and 7 11 the other. The Motorcraft car won the race, and set the lap record! now there’s a great start for a new car. Unfortunately they didn’t win another race that year
For the 1984 Ford upped their game and replaced the 1.7 ci engine with the 2.1 ci turbo 4 cyl. This required to move the driver from the right side to the left side of the car. Once again the car was super fast but didn’t win a single race. Ford canceled the program and went with the Mid engine Probe GTP car.
Monogram still went ahead with plans to kit the 1983 winning Road America car, but somehow screwed up and photographed/measured the 1984 7 11 sponsored car. So that the kit had the wrong car but right sponsor. Yet they released the kit #2708 as the 1983 car while it was the 1984 car. Go figure that one out. Then they went and released the 1984 car as kit #2709. And finally they did a re-release of the #2708 kit once again.
Trying to correct the molded body to the correct 1983 car is a major undertaking, something that honestly I’m not capable of pulling off. But the car that I wanted to do is the 7 11 1984 car. And guess what, Indy Cals has the correct sheet for both years. So my build will be the correct version of the 7 11 1984 car. Not the one in the picture which is the 1983 car but the decals look exactly like it.
All I’ve managed to do after a few hours of prep work is rescribe the panel lines especially for the doors, and start to clean up the mega sized mold lines.
Time to start with the body corrections and fixes, so the body sections and the chassis can get to the paint shop sooner then later.
1st up was doing something to make the front air brake vents looks some what better then what must have been considered cutting edge back in the mid 1980’s, but not so much now as it’s just a 90 degree step for each vane.
The body plastic is rather thick so I decided since the decals will go completely over the vents, just creating the illusion of an open vent would be the best and naturally the easiest course. So using two different scribers, and the back of a #11 blade, I scribed each vane. Then I tested the effect with some Tamiya Black PLW. Still some clean up is needed, but you’ll see the effect I’m after.
Next up was trying to solve two issues with the same fix. 1st issue was to work on getting the rear quarter panels and the back of the rear deck which are part of the top and bottom body sections to perfectly align, and yet be removable so that I can mask the interior as needed, and then be able to remove the masking. The left quarter panel has a rather large lip and the rear end deck just plain doesn’t fit flush nor square.
1st step was to add sheet plastic alignment tabs on both sides to
force proper alignment. As you can see they’re rather large, but work perfectly. Then sand and file the left side that has the lip.
Then I sanded the rear seam flush
I ended up sanding off quite a lot of the plastic to do the correction needed.
And now the two body sections fit properly, and can be removed and put back together with the same fix.
joel
