1974 Bobby Unser IROC Camaro

[MarkJ]

Finally got this one finished. It took 333 hours to complete or 8 months, whichever way you want to look at it. It is my first totally brush painted model. I used Vallejo acrylic paint throughout the build. The 1974/75 IROC season was the first that the Camaro was used as the make for the series of 4 races. Two were at Riverside and one each at Michigan and the finale at Daytona during the 1975 Speedweeks. Unser just beat Foyt by a nose to win the race and the series championship. The Camaro was basically a stock car with unibody construction. They did not use a Banjo chassis till 1977. It had a Traco Chevy 336 cubic inch engine pumping out 440 horsepower. The engines were built within 5 horsepower up or down between them and tuned for longevity not raw power. Revs were kept at 7200. Roger Penske and Les Richter came up with the IROC series and decided after the first year using Porsches they would switch to the Camaro. 15 identical cars were built for the series with 12 actually competing and 3 kept as backups. Unser had to use a backup after crashing his car at the start of the first Riverside race. He was lucky to have escaped without any injuries. The right side of the car was caved in right to the transmission tunnel. Dave Marcis, Jim Sauter and Dick Trickle set the cars up for competition. The 1974 Camaro body was used for the 1974 through the 1980 seasons. Unser won 50,000 dollars for his championship. I learned a lot about IROC from doing this build.






















   

[Tom Birky]

Cool build Mark! I can see where those fender flares would be a ton of work. Nicely done!

Tom

[Bob P.]

Very nice build. I can tell you put a lot of hours in this build.

Bob

[MarkJ]

Cool build Mark! I can see where those fender flares would be a ton of work. Nicely done!

Tom

Tom, here are the wips if you want to see how the model evolved. Look at the first one first



http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/162792-1974-camaro/

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/163477-1974-camaro-continued/

[MarkJ]

Very nice build. I can tell you put a lot of hours in this build.

Bob

Thanks, Bob. Yes, 333 hours was the most I ever put into one build. I almost quit a couple of times.

[Duane Garner]

What a cool build! Sometimes the research is as much fun as the building of the model. You've done a great job, you should be proud. Also, it's a timely build with the passing of Al on December 9th

[MarkJ]

What a cool build! Sometimes the research is as much fun as the building of the model. You've done a great job, you should be proud. Also, it's a timely build with the passing of Al on December 9th

Yes, the passing of Bobby, who was my favorite Indy car driver, made me realize I had never done a build of one of his cars, and since he won a championship in this basically a stock car, which is what I do, I decide it was time to do a car that he competed in.  Some people might not realize that he did, because early IROC was pretty obscure.

[Duane Garner]

Not much the Unser Family hasn't raced. My favorite CART driver was Al Unser, Jr. Again, nice work!

[Brian Conn]

  ...Read your thread's that you linked to....I was never made to realize just how basic of an IROC stock car those era of Camaros where until now. I had no idea that Dave Marcis, Jim Sauter and Dick Trickle set the cars up.  Definitely it was an all driver race and not so much the the car.  Incredible build and thanks for sharing your research.

[Duane Garner]

Been following the SRX series? It's basically the reincarnation of IROC with equally prepared cars, superstar drivers at historically traditional tracks. I like the added twist of dirt tracks and adding a local track personality into the mix. I've been gathering up parts, pieces and kits to build a model of one, probably do the prototype instead of a particular driver

[MarkJ]

  ...Read your thread's that you linked to....I was never made to realize just how basic of an IROC stock car those era of Camaros where until now. I had no idea that Dave Marcis, Jim Sauter and Dick Trickle set the cars up.  Definitely it was an all driver race and not so much the the car.  Incredible build and thanks for sharing your research.

Yes, with only 440 horsepower I don't think these cars could even get up to 180 mph at Daytona in 1974. They did a lot of bump drafting and caved in their grilles a lot. the last picture below is an artist rendering of the finish of the Daytona race that Unser barely beat Foyt. The artist did not quite get Unser's car color correct. It was a pale yellow like I did on the model.

[Fordguy01]

That is a beautiful Camare Mark.  Be proud of that.  Question for you, when using the Vallejo paint and painting with a brush did you have to thin the paint at all and how many coats were required.  Again beautiful build Mark. 

Al AKA Fordguy

[MarkJ]

That is a beautiful Camare Mark.  Be proud of that.  Question for you, when using the Vallejo paint and painting with a brush did you have to thin the paint at all and how many coats were required.  Again beautiful build Mark. 

Al AKA Fordguy

Ford guy, yes you have to thin the paint about 8 drops paint to 8 drops thinner. you mix it in a painter's pallete just like an artist would. You put as many coats as necessary to cover the white primer where you don't see it. you thin it so it flows well to get rid of the brush marks. I also polish it to make sure the brush marks are gone and when done you put a coat of pledge floor finish that is just like the old future floor finish. I had to mix the paint to get this light-yellow color. it was about 6 drops white to 1 drop yellow. the vallejo paint comes in dropper bottles so it is easy to mix the paint in a palette and get your ratios correct. Thats why I like brush painting.

[Brian Conn]

   I do have a couple of questions related to your build....
  At the Model Cars Magazine Forum you said "......... to take an image from the internet and turn it into a decal image that is 600 pixels per inch. you then print it on decal paper......"  Are you changing the image to 600 pixels in the Photoshop program or choosing to print 600 pixels with your printer?  Reason that I ask is that I use the PhotoScape program where I can dial in pixels per inch where I need them but I can not change any print settings as far as the pixels per inch go on my HP printer....its either 300 or it automatically chooses .....I think???
 
  Also, would I have any luck getting rid of the ridge that the decal has if I was to apply a thin coat of floor polish on it after it has been placed on the body?  I faithfully use the Micro Set and Micro Sol solutions on my decals , but still have a tiny ridge, at times, on the decal.
 

[MarkJ]

   I do have a couple of questions related to your build....
  At the Model Cars Magazine Forum you said "......... to take an image from the internet and turn it into a decal image that is 600 pixels per inch. you then print it on decal paper......"  Are you changing the image to 600 pixels in the Photoshop program or choosing to print 600 pixels with your printer?  Reason that I ask is that I use the PhotoScape program where I can dial in pixels per inch where I need them but I can not change any print settings as far as the pixels per inch go on my HP printer....its either 300 or it automatically chooses .....I think???
 
  Also, would I have any luck getting rid of the ridge that the decal has if I was to apply a thin coat of floor polish on it after it has been placed on the body?  I faithfully use the Micro Set and Micro Sol solutions on my decals , but still have a tiny ridge, at times, on the decal.

Brian. I change the image to 600 ppi in the photodeluxe program . I do that because the printer can handle that size image. The floor polish helps a lot to get rid of the ridge but you will still have one from my experience.