Series II GTO is one gorgeous race car - one of my all time favorite Ferraris. I really wanted to do justice to the car with this model. Hiro kit is a jewel, but I wanted a one-off! So I decided to modify the kit. Before cutting the doors out, I made a template with Tamiya 40mm masking tape.

The body was really thick! I had to go and buy me a fret saw in order to cut out the doors without breaking the body. But resin thickness was also a plus, since I didn't have to make a door jamb from sheet styrene now. Picture shows rough cut I made to get the door out.

I couldn't leave side fender vents the way they were, so I started carefully grinding resin with round cutting bit in my Dremel. The closer I was to the surface, the harder it was to work, but my patience paid off and I got most of the resin out.

Vents were cleaned with sharp Exacto blade, and door opening re-shaped first with flat cutter, then with sanding sticks, and finally with needle files. It is still rough on this picture, but closer to what it should be.

Once left side was more or less done, I continued with similar "surgery" on the other side of the body. At this point body was really fragile, especially at the bottom of the windshield frame, so I had to work really slowly and carefully.

Roof spoiler was superglued to the body (for additional strength) and seams were puttied with Tamiya putty. Left side is almost completed on this picture.

Once I had both sides opened up, I needed to make the doors now. Since there was no way I could use resin doors, I decided to make new skins out of sheet brass. Using template that I made with masking tape in the beginning, I made several brass door skins.

After several attempts to bend brass to shape with various tools and fingers, I had two door skins that I was satisfied with. Then I started a very tedious process of matching the skins to the door openings.

After few more hours of test-fitting and filing and grinding, and test-fitting and filing and grinding, (both brass and resin) I had matched both door covers to the body.

Next were the hinges - I wanted to make the hinges as close to the original ones as possible, so after studying reference pictures for some time (and with help of fellow modeler Ramon Garcia) I decided on the following design: tiny brass strips were cut to the shape shown on the picture...

...then they were bent to shape over brass rod using needle pliers as shown on the picture. Four strips would make two hinges for one door.

After the hinges were completed, I made a temporary plastic hinge support and glued hinges to it to test the doors. This was necessary to see how the doors will operate and mount on the hinges.

Similarly, hinges were glued to the brass door skins to check the locations, etc, and temporary door walls were made out of sheet styrene to check for door jamb clearances, etc.

Then this temporary support was glued to the body so I could mount the doors and see how they work. Lots of test fitting and adjustment was done at this time.

The design of the hinge worked really well, allowing the door to go "inside" the body, just like it would do on the real car.

I also played a little bit with door inner walls and panels, mostly to see how they will work with door jambs and interior floor, etc. The design you see on the picture was later scraped due to some fit problems and inaccuracies.

At this point I started thinking about opening the trunk too. I decided that it would be easier than opening doors, and would add great deal to the model. Trunk was cut out with my fret saw - thankfully resin was much thinner in that area.

I had to remove quite a bit of resin from the rear panel though, as it was one thick piece of resin - this wall would serve as on of the trunk walls.

I had one spare Hiro tire from some other kit, and I decided to see if it would fit in the trunk as is - and it did fit! That was one less thing I had to do. Now I just needed to make the walls, trunk lid, and order another wire wheel from Hiro.

Trunk lid was cut from brass sheet and roughly shaped to match the trunk opening, Since the lid was almost flat on the real car, I didn't bother to shape it at this point.

Test-fitting of the trunk lid to the body and checking clearance of the spare wheel. On this photo, trunk lid is actually resting on the spare wheel. It was still to early to tell whether I need to make any adjustments because I had no idea how the body would fit over chassis after final assembly.

Mock-up of the body with cut out doors, drilled out fender vents, opened trunk, and roof wing. At this point I had about a month invested in this model and it was not even close to primer stage!

I had enough of the bodywork and decided to turn my attention to something different and more interesting - engine! Most engine parts were white metal - they were cleaned and polished with wire brush. Engine block was assembled and weathered.

Gearbox parts were cleaned and mated to the bell housing. Separate box cover is a very neat touch - this part of the engine won't be even seen on the completed model...

...just like this flywheel won't be seen after the gearbox is attached to the engine, or pistons, when cams are glued on top of the engine block. But its just so much more interesting to build!

A better look of the engine block and gearbox with flywheel and box cover before they were sealed forever.

After gluing the gearbox to the engine block, entire assembly was one more time carefully sanded and cleaned with wire brush, then polished with felt wheel in my Dremel.

Cams, cam covers (fitted with Crazy Modeler photoetched Ferrari scripts) and six Weber carburetors were cleaned and assembled.

Cam covers were painted semi-gloss "crackle" black, and rest of the parts installed on the engine block.

Started, alternator, oil filter, fuel pump, and breather tubes were carefully sanded and polished.

Carburetors were fitted with turned-steel velocity stacks and venturi tubes inside, cam covers were glued to the cams, and engine weathered with back wash. Distributors were drilled and wired with ignition wires.

Then all additional equipment was painted and fitted to the engine - oil filter, alternator, generator, oil breather tubes, fuel rail with fuel lines (guitar string) and fuel pump. Ignition wires were routed to the spark plugs and firing order plate fitted on top of the engine block.

Another look at the completed engine block from a different angle. Note photoetched shift gate.

After the engine was assembled, I continued with the bodywork. Trunk walls were made with Tamiya Epoxy putty, and shaped to fit the chassis plate. I had moistened putty surface while it was still soft, and made an impression in the putty with the chassis plate, then let it cure like that.

Rear trunk wall was ground even more, and side walls shaped and sanded with sanding sticks. I was continuously spraying some grey primer to check the surface and kept sanding until I was satisfied with results. This picture shows one of the intermediate steps in the process.

Working on the trunk walls and roof wing. Trunk turned out to be more problematic than I thought it would be, but it was too late!

This picture shows the fit of the chassis plate and trunk walls. I also wanted to open up the gas cap, but trunk hinge and spare wheel prevented me from doing that.

Mock-up of the body with finished trunk, and installed engine to check for fit and hood clearance. Model started to take shape.

Next were the door frames. After some thinking I decided to make them from brass too for strength. Piece of brass was cut and shaped to precisely fit the frame opening.

Then the frame was carefully cut of using cut-off wheel in my Dremel and shaped with flat needle files and sanding sticks.

Soldering was the only way to securely join two brass parts together. I have never done any brass soldering in my life. But after reading some online tutorials I soldered the frame to the door - there was no looking back at this point.

Door skin with window frame soldered to it.

Next were the hinges - they were soldered to the door skin just like the window frame. I had to be really careful not to melt solder on the frame joints while soldering on the hinges!

Left and right doors with frames and hinges soldered to them.

After frames and hinges were securely soldered to the door skins, I had them sanded and cleaned with sanding sticks and needle files. 

Chassis was a bit too short (I had removed to much resin from the rear trunk wall) and there was a small gap in the trunk floor. This was fixed with a thin styrene strip glued to the trunk floor. The seam was covered with Tamiya putty.

As you can see on this picture, styrene strip covered the gap perfectly. Picture also shows the fit of the chassis and trunk walls. Trunk edge was carefully cleaned with sanding sticks and trunk lid bent to fit the opening.

I made hinges for the trunk lid from some brass rod, and soldered them to the lid.

Trunk lid was primed and sanded to level the brass panel out. Edges were rounded to fit the opening in the body.

Extra solder was carefully removed with pointed metal cutter in my Dremel. Not only they looked much cleaner this way, but now I could fit the door panels and trunk lid lining without any problems.

At this point I re-did the hinge supports in the body with brass and soldered the hinges to the supports. Then supports were epoxied to the body with J B Weld epoxy. After cleaning some excess epoxy from the joint, I sprayed some grey primer to check the assembly.

Same was done to the right side door hinge.

With hinges in place and both sides soldered for good to their places, I hinged the doors and started adjusting them to the body. Window frame in this shot still needs some additional adjustments to fit flush, but I was satisfied with overall fit of the doors and hinges worked perfectly.

Similar to the technique used for the trunk lid hinge, I made the hinge for the hood, and soldered it to the hood.

Top surface of the hood was sanded and smoothed. I still needed to thin the entire hood down a bit, and cut open the hood scoop.

After tedious and careful sanding the hood was thinned down to acceptable thickness. I also drilled out the scoop, and made trunk lid frame from styrene strips. Both parts were primed with Tamiya metal and grey primers.

Then I constructed door walls from thin sheet styrene and again, primed both parts with Tamiya metal and grey primers. They still needed a bit of clean-up here and there, but I left them like that until white primer coat.

Outer surface of both doors was carefully leveled with putty, primer, and sanding blocks, and then sprayed with grey primer. I think it required three coats to look this good.

Lower brake ducts panel was glued to the body and seams puttied with Tamiya putty. Here you can see it after first primer shot to test for flaws. Duct openings were later corrected with needle files and re-primed.

All real cars had thin metal lip at the rear end that was missing on Hiro's body, so I imitated it with a strip of thin styrene glued to the body and carefully shaped with sanding sticks.