GONZOS "DUBYA-30" 1974 HURST/OLDSMOBILE
PRO BUILT ONE OF A KIND
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This is a 1974 W-30 Hurst/Olds. I built this using
a Johan promo body of a 74 Cutlass. The center
hump in the hood is fairly thick, so you can carve
out for the louvers. You will use 1/16th" Plastruct
channel for these. The roof band uses 1/4"
channel. Once you attach the band, sand the
channel edges down to leave just enough for a
chrome strip edge. The side rear windows are
shorter on the H/O than they are on the Cutlass,
so you will add a 5/32" strip as a down pillar on
each side at the edge of the band. The H/O had a
vinyl roof, so you will use a strip of round .035"
for the break line. I use the round material as it
will go around corners easier. You want to do this
in one swoop with no cuts. When attached lightly
sand the top flat for a chrome strip appearance.
Remove the side insignia's, and the trunk insignia.

The vinyl roof was applied using Model Master
two step vinyl spray, this is the only way to go,
works slick. Then paint the band black. Here are
the parts you will need. 1. An AMT 69 Olds 442
W-30 as a donor for the chassis, engine, wheels,
etc. 2. From Scale Equipment LTD, order the 73
H/O decal sheet, photo etch sheet, GM sport
mirrors, H/O sport steering wheel, and 15" tires of
your choice. Photo etch parts used are the dual
gate shifter plate, door and trunk locks, front
insignia, H/O insignia on trunk, hood ornament,
and front license plate holder.

The other decal sheet used is the Fred Cady 1974
Indy pace car sheet. A note. I had three sets of
these that looked fine. I struggled through with
them, until I got to the long side stripes. The gold
one broke in several pieces, I managed to get
them together. The black stripes that go over the
gold ones were hopeless. They broke in about ten
places. I ended up ordering a fresh sheet from
Cady to finish. Save yourself a lot of trouble, buy
a new sheet for this.

The 69 Olds chassis works well, but it is short. I
used a piece of stiff card stock sheeting cut and
sprayed to match to fill the gap in the rear of the
chassis. The W-30 had a 455, so paint it olds
blue. The H/O exhaust tips are aluminum bent
and cut to specs. The promo interior has no detail
so you will have to do this. The SEL decal sheet
provides some of the decals for this. The interior
here is from a different build, but is the same
except this car has black interior with gray seat
inserts, however the dash is the same as well as the
shifter, steering wheel, and foil work. The promo
grill has an oldsmobile insignia in it. This needs to
be removed.






I could not find a W-30 insignia, but in the 69
Olds kit, the decal sheet has a small W-30 decal
in black letters. I free hand painted these with
chrome silver paint, let dry, then I transferred the
decal onto the black hood decal in this sheet. I
then cut it down to size. Leaving the decal backing
paper on this piece I glued it onto the grill. Both
bumpers were then detailed and black pinstriping
tape was used for the rubber bumper guards. The
car was airbrushed in cameo white, totally foiled
and detailed from reference sheets.

This model was never produced by any model
companies. This is a one of a kind pro built car. I
had about 107 hours of time into this one. Seems
like a lot of time until you start doing all the little
details that make this model look as close as
possible to the real thing. I did not clear coat the
decals as they were not that way on the real car.

This is one of the last of a breed of muscle cars.
With a little work on these later 455's you could
male a very potent machine on the street as well
as the dragstrip
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