Resin 1972 Vega GT

[Modlerbob]

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Wow. I had two of them. I had a '72 just like that hatchback, and a year after I married, I got my wife a '73 Kammback. I had a 4-speed GT with the hotter engine, and my wife wanted an automatic, so she got the same engine with a huge Turbo 350 transmission, so sluggish, but she loved it. Both cars were silver, mine lasted 128,000 before I traded it, and hers went a whopping 189,000. Neither ever burned oil at all. I knew an aluminum block meant keep it cool, and we never had the least problem with them. My friends named my car the "Baby Race Car" because with upgraded shocks, I out-cornered Camaros and Mustangs.

[WB2]

Check out the Vega sketch in this link: https://octanepress.com/content/imsa’s-all-american-gt-spices-camel-gt-series .

[dreinecke]

I believe that is Chris Agee - he's been using the guy I started working with on Shapeways and is having him upscale all sorts of stuff and is back casting it.

[Modlerbob]

I'm also considering adapting the Olifer 2D printed chassis for the SRC Capri. I have the Capri and the chassis should fit nicely. I had my Vega for 7 years and had to replace the block once but at Chevys expense, later I had it bored and cast iron sleeves inserted. The car made it to 200k miles. My next car was a Buick Skyhawk with the Buick V-6. Outran a few Mustangs with that one. My Vega was red with a black racing stripe.

[bobbyraz49]

My 1st. car was a '73 Vega.

[Modlerbob]

I checked on Shapeways to see what a 3D printed Vega body would cost. It was right at $100. So I can see the economics of making a single 3D printed body and using it as a master for molding resin bodies. You would probably have to sell 200 bodies, say at $20 apiece to make a profit.

[dreinecke]

I was paying the $100 depending on the body from Shapeways. The issue is the hand finishing as I've mentioned. It takes a lot. If you saw the Monte Carlo, Laguna, Charger, etc, LOTS of clean up went into each of those. So, no way to charge for labor. Add to that the window plastic, resin, rubber, etc - it took me 5 kits to break even on these. All gravy until the next remold.

My service in the UK was much better as far as finishing, but I had to supply the model. So, the kits took about 8 to break even.

Sadly, I really appreciate what he's doing. But with them being simply slush casts - that's way too much resin for me to breathe and that's a shame. At least he's been leaving the model's windows in instead of the normal tape job on these. You could carefully cut them out and easily use them for a template for glass.

But, as he's the only game in town now, if you want it, you want it.

[williamg]

[dreinecke]

Sorry for the confusion - NO, nobody is selling my kits. This seller is using one of the same Shapeways body producers to 3d print and then back cast (slush) some of the same types of cars. Please do NOT interpret that to mean they look or are the same quality of my old offerings.

[williamg]

ok, thank you

So it comes down to how bad do we want it, and decide if it's worth the time needed to bring it up to snuff.