Speedmaven

They did do the Chief car, I still have some of the decals for it..

That's him. I've known him for about 14 or 15 years. I am alos on the Y blocks forever forum from time to time, go by Speedmaven pretty much everywhere.

another outstanding `57! These just keep getting better and better.

Beautiful collection of `57s. Just outstanding work, something for me to aspire to. Thanks for the inspiration!!

That line on the side of the Y block's oil pan is the oil pump and pickup tube. The 292 and 312 have an external oil pump at the back of the driver side of the block, and the pickup tube runs along side until it goes into the pan and down into the sump. Coolest thing about it is if your pump goes bad, there's no need ot drop the pan. The bad thing about it, is that it leaks all over everything...Hard to keep it sealed up. Those auxiliary lines went into the valve cover from a pressure source, like a oil pressure gauge fitting with a TEE added to transfer the oil to the rockers. Mainly, those were needed because of the low quality oils available back then, paraffin based oils would sludge up and clog the small oil galleries to the rocker shafts. Sorry to ramble on, just shedding a little light on the old Y block...

Looks great...Love the teardrop hood and yellow paint. Yellow is my favorite on these cars, my last 1:1 57 Custom was yellow, and my current Custom is halfway there, jambed out in Boss 302 yellow, waiting for the weather to warm up so I can get the rest of it done...

This car is being built as a companion piece to my Parham and Payne 57 4 door Fairlane. This car actually belongs to a friend of mine, and I took several pics of it to use as reference for this project, which after 10 years, am finally getting around to. John Feistritzer bought this car in 68 or 69, a real F code supercharged Fairlane. It is not a 500, and this isn't the very cool resin body that i probably should have started with. I made the side trim with strip styrene and Bare Metal foil. This one is a long way from being finished, still needing door handle work or replacement, bumpers, grille, motor/trans, interior, etc. I just set it together for a quick photo. ONly one came out light enough to use, so I will attempt it again later. I need to set up a work light to make sure everything is all brightly lit up. Anyway, the real car has been raced continuously since the late 60's, and can go deep into the 11's, but to keep from having to add roll bars and other safety equipment which ruins the vibe of this old school warrior, John keeps it running low 12s. You can check out videos of it running on Youtube, just search for Y block shootout. There are a bunch of videos of the car as it is in this photo, and a few in its last incarnation. I will put a pic of the real car and my rendition below. Yeah, I realized after I already installed the Rebop decals on the quarters, that I had made them a bit too big. I will be removing them, and resizing them , redoing them before it is finished.

What do you guys use to recut the door lines? I don't know if any of you remember or not, but back in the old days, Auto World did models and stuff, not just slot cars. I bought this really cool tool, pretty much a wood burner kit with a blade attachment, made for cutting open body panels on models. My blade is getting about done, after 35 years, lol, but it is what I used to rescribe the door lines with. It was actually more work filling in the old ones than cutting the new. I am pleased with how it is coming out so far. Seriously, the body was in bad enough shape, I almost threw it away two or three times. I just can't bring myself to get rid of cool old stuff like that. I figured, if I can fix it and use it for something else, at least it will be out of the scrap box, finally. It will be getting ready for my soon to be built pine and glass display cabinet, so hopefully, I can get all my finished ones out and repair the damage from being stored that way for years, being moved, etc. Hopefully, I can get them all so I can see and enjoy them. I do love these old Fords, owned 7 or 8 of the real thing, including my current in process supercharged Custom tudor. Some of the photos, you can see the cowl of the real car in the background. Thanks for all the encouragement and kind words. I never really thought of myself as any kind of good builder, I just enjoy it when it's too cold or wet to work on the real deal.

I still have a long way to go. I will be rounding up some door handles for it, washing out the grille, just a lot of stuff left to go. It kinda sorta looks right now, but I have to get the side glass chrome edges done before I do much else. I am kinda in the middle of casting a bunch of small tire weld wheels right now. I made a master and bought an RTV mold set, and that stuff sucks. Alumalite RTV cannot compete with Micro Mark, and I will be ordering some MM RTV asap. Anyway, I will be making a few sets of the draglites in the next few days, to complete some of my other projects. I got a couple pics tonight, photography isn't my strong point, at least lighting isn't. I will post a couple pics as it sits now.

I have a real 57 Custom, tudor sedan with 312 VR57 supercharger. The 312 is at the machine shop right now, and the body is getting ready for paint. Hope to have it ready for Cruisin the Coast this year. Interior probably wont be done, but the paint and engine should be.

I haven't forgotten or given up on this project, just been away visiting family for the holidays. When I returned, not only did I make some progress on the Parham and Payne Fairlane, but I also started making some progress on another famous 57 Ford, the Hoosier Hurricane of John Feistritzer. John is a friend of mine, and I was able to get pretty close replicating the lettering on his car, being as I have a large number of photos of it that I took myself just for the purpose of replicating. I will be taking some photos tomorrow when it warms up, pretty cold out in the shop or I would do it tonight. I have both cars up on wheels with windows in, but the P&P car needs the chrome dividers put in between the front and back door glasses. I have them made, just need to put them in. Then the grilles need black wash put in, bumpers and splash pans installed, and finally, window lettering and then I can concentrate on the engines. Both are supercharged 312 Y blocks, with the VR57 Paxtons taking center place. I have replaced the square box from the AMT kits with scratch built bonnets that match the one I have for my real 1:1 scale supercharged 57 Ford. Sculpey is a good tool to have around the shop. I will get some photos up tomorrow, and if I haven't bored you to death with 57 Fords by that point, I may post up some prelim photos of another friends 57 in 1/25, along with the decals I just finished for his car. Finally getting time to build a lot of my friends and some of my hero's cars, having a blast doing it.

That is a cool 57...I hope you don't mind, I saved the photo. I collect photos of old race cars when I find them for reference on future projects. Was that car red and white or black and white? Its hard to tell in the B&W photo. Very cool pic. I see it ran B/MP..that would have been for the bigger cube cars, this one ran a 406 4 speed? Should have been a killer on the track, 406 was one heck of an engine. The Jr Stock and Modified Production cars are my abslute faorites. I can relate to them better than the gassers and early funny cars. Thanks for the link gman, that's exactly what I was looking for.

I forgot that the Revell 57 had separate door handles...May look into that. All of the Revell kits I have now are slated for a build of some kind, I have a lot of friends with these cars, lol.. Thanks for the tip. I will be busy for the next several days with Christmas, so I probably wont be on much, but I will try to post some photos of my progress today or tomorrow.

I'm going to be looking for some door handles, some like maybe the Thunderbolt kits, or even some aftermarket pewter items. Any ideas?

I made my decals while I was waiting for the paint to dry. Days go by, finally get around to getting out the foil. After I fought with the bare metal foil for about 2 hours, I deemed it good enough, and began applying the decals.. I have the chassis about 2/3 done, but have no photos yet. I am doing the earlier version of this car, with stock steel wheels all around, and no black stripes on the roof. More photos when I get a chance to take some...