'55 Chevy Bel Air A/GS -Finished!-

[johnbuzzed]

Niko, that's a lot of work you're putting into an ooooooollllllllld kit and it shows- it's looking good. Who makes hex styrene tubing? Combine that with a short piece of wire and a slice of styrene rod and that would be a good bolt,nut,washer detail.

Mitch P- Evergreen makes hex styrene rod in different sizes; you can use their round styrene rod as washers, too.

[2many]

the 55 is looking great . great job building it can't wait to see it finished ! clay

[W-409]

Thanks so much everone ! I appreciate the kind words.

Mitch: Thanks for the offer on a Top Fuel Hemi! Unfortunately it would have been a bit too modern for this car, but I have a couple of other builds where I'm installing one of those Top Fuel Hemis. Those engines are true monsters.

Some of those aluminum fittings are really pricey. That is the reason why I decided to try creating my own. The end result isn't probably as good as it would be with those metal parts, but it's better than nothing anyway. I've been painting these with the Tamiya clear colors, too, and they work great but on this build those would have been too modern so I decided to paint the fittings with Revell's gold. I remember seeing those on some old pics. The hex tubing is made by Plastruct, but I guess Evergreen has them as well. There are many different sizes and I'm using .060" for the fittings and for the bolts I've used .030" size tubing. Actually those fittings and bolts are really easy to make. For the fittings, I drill a hole for the tubing with 1 millimeter drill bit before cutting the fitting separate from the rest of the tubing. That size hole is perfect for the braided lines I'm using.

Thanks for the tip with the roll cages, too. That really helps and I will have to try that in the future as I have many projects that are in need of a proper roll cage, but I haven't figured out yet how can I make one easily. That method sounds good so I'll definitely give it a try.

Next time I will try not to red light.

Michael: Yep that car launches pretty nicely even if it's really heavy. 5:38 Final gear ratio helped a lot (it had 5:13 before) and the engine is really good. It's built by the fellow who sold us the car and he is a real wizard with these Stock Eliminator engines.

I agree, 12.20 is really good ET for that one. We need a new torque converter for the next season with some more stallspeed. That way we can raise the lauch RPM a little and get a better ET. It's true that a 13 second car is a really fast one, especially on the streets. Of course nowadays it's possible to see for example nine second street cars on Cruisings here in Finland too, but in the old days I believe that there weren't many 13 second street cars?

Yep, the bolts are worth trying, I think it's a neat little detail.

John: These old kits are a lot of fun to build, even if they might need some work (or a lot of work). The styrene tubing is made by Plastruct and it is a great stuff. That is a good idea of combining it with a wire and styrene to make it as a complete bolt & nut. I will have to try that!

Clay: I can't wait to see it finished, too. When I get this one done, I'll post a picture of this next to the one I built from this same kit years ago. I hope this one will turn a lot better than my old one did.

Again, a Big Thank You for you guys! These comments keep me motivated with this build. I've been building header flanges for the engine and hopefully today I can start scratchbuilding the headers, because I didn't find a set that would fit with the Big Block Chevy. I hope the headers will turn out okay....Stay tuned.

[W-409]

I found a set of valve covers from my parts box. I don't know where they are from, but I had to remove the chrome plating, because I think chrome valve covers won't look realistic in the engine bay. Then I painted them with Chrome Silver and I think they look like aluminum right now.

I also scratchbuilt the Fenderwell Headers. Header flanges are scratchbuilt from sheet styrene and the headers are made out of Evergreen's .080" plastic tubing. Those headers were actually quite easy to do and I think building the headers from plastic is a lot of fun. First I did the pipes for cylinders 7 and 8, then 5 and six and so on. It's just important to heat the plastic as little as possible, but yet enough so that it will bend. I used a candle and it worked perfectly. Now I have to do the collectors for them, I'll see when I have time to make them, at least tomorrow looks really busy.

Looks like the pics are really bad. I had too little light so I had to use flash and now the parts look a lot worse than they really are. I will take some better shots tomorrow.

[DynoMight]

Woooowww Niko those headers.. amazing... some scaled-down heatwrapping tape on those would set those off. Amazing. What color are you painting the body? Is it going to be a two-tone jive or a single color? Weekend dragger but a daily driver? Or a sponsored dragster rig that runs high 12s? Just some ideas.. keep up the good work

Edited July 13, 2014 by DynoMight

[W-409]

Thanks so much, Glenn! Yep my plan is to go with a Two Tone paint job. I've already ordered some light blue from Tamiya and the other color will be white. And it will be a "Full Drag Car" so I'm not going to make it streetable at all, my idea was that this would be a car that could race in Nostalgia events, in Bakersfield Nostalgia Races, for example.

I've made some more progress with this thing, actually the headers are now finished. After the last update, I continued by scratchbuilding the collectors for those headers. First thing to do was to find a proper size plastic tubing and gluing it on where the header pipes meet each others. I found some thick mold sprue that worked perfectly for this.

Then I took some thin sheet styrene and glued it as round piece, around the mold spure I did on the pics above. After smoothing out the seam that came when I glued the styrene to round shape, I took a screwdriver and heated it hot with a candle. With that, I could push those little dents on it. It's very hard to say how I did this step, but I hope the pictures will talk themselves.

Then I painted the headers with Revell's #91 Silver. I'm going to add heat staining on them later on, but otherwise they are done now. I also glued on the blower and valve covers, painted the magneto and drilled holes for the plug wires.

And finally I found some Dymo Tape that I can use to re-scribe the panel lines on the body. It worked really nicely and now the panel lines are good to go. The body will need lots of bodywork, though before I can shoot some Primer on it...

[JTalmage]

Looking good!

I gotta ask.... what is the rockabilly thing that the engine and stand are sitting on? I like some rockabilly/psychobilly music!

[slusher]

Man Niko you have made some good progress since I checked in last. Those headers look great. Real nice work on those. So for the end of the headers you used Round styrene tubing..??

[W-409]

Jesse: Thanks, I appreciate it! That's The Go Getters' No Brakes DVD that has great live material. The Go Getters is my favorite Rockabilly band and it comes from Sweden. I recommend this for everyone who likes Rock 'n Roll or Rockabilly music.

Here is a trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDxTRgI0uls

Carl: Thanks for the kind words! My description wasn't the best possible, but let's see if I can say it a bit better. The ends are regular sheet styrene that I bent as round pieces and glued on place. I hope this makes better sense, but if not, I'll post pics how I did it.

[1 bad55 stan]

Those headers are really neat,very nice work on those,as is the hole build.Top work!!

[tooltas]

name it ''THE GO GETERS'' it got a old school name so it fits the car

[DynoMight]

Those came out good..

[Brett Barrow]

NEEDS WHITE HEADERS!!!!! For a vintage look, anyway. Those headers look awesome, BTW. Maybe I'll send you some evergreen and you can crank out a few sets for me?

Man Niko you have made some good progress since I checked in last. Those headers look great. Real nice work on those. So for the end of the headers you used Round styrene tubing..??

I think I understand how he did it. Niko said he used sprue for the inner core so I think it's actually rod. Maybe in Finnish it's the same word for rod and tube. Then wrapped in thin sheet and formed to the contour with a hot screwdriver. I've thought about doing collectors like that with embossing foil, but haven't got a "round tuit". I can't find any kit collectors that look quite right.

[slusher]

Carl: Thanks for the kind words! My description wasn't the best possible, but let's see if I can say it a bit better. The ends are regular sheet styrene that I bent as round pieces and glued on place. I hope this makes better sense, but if not, I'll post pics how I did it.

Thanks Niko, I understand now...

[JTalmage]

Jesse: Thanks, I appreciate it! That's The Go Getters' No Brakes DVD that has great live material. The Go Getters is my favorite Rockabilly band and it comes from Sweden. I recommend this for everyone who likes Rock 'n Roll or Rockabilly music.

Here is a trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDxTRgI0uls

Cool, I'll check that out! I've always liked very guitar-driven music, and a friend of mine turned me on to Link Wray, and I couldnt get enough of the guy, then that sorta transformed in to looking for the next genre of music I could get in to, and I came across Reverend Horton Heat... and I cant stop listening to him, he's fantastic! Always looking for a good Rockabilly/Psychobilly/Roots Rock/Rock n Roll band now... soo much undiscovered stuff out there

I'd say I like that kind of music the most now, and I used to love me some heavy metal!

Edited July 18, 2014 by JTalmage

[Greg Myers]

Those headers are really neat,very nice work on those,as is the hole build.Top work!!

makes the build. I like 'em.

[W-409]

A Big Thank You for You all !

Todd: I'll need to think about the name of this car. That would be a good one for sure, let's see what happens.

Brett: Yep I was thinking about the white headers, but I decided to go with silver instead. But painting them white would have looked really good, too. Actually it's not that hard making these headers, and I bet your headers would turn out really expensive because of the shipping if you sent them here.

Thanks for clearing out on making the collectors. I mixed up with the words again and you said exactly what I was trying to say. The collectors on my headers aren't perfect, but I learned a lot while making them. Next time I think I will end up with a bit better result when I have already experience on making them.

Carl: Great! I'm always happy to help.

Jesse: I'm a great fan of Rock 'n Roll and Rockabilly music as well. Some Psychobilly bands are really great too and I listen to music a lot. Link Wray has great stuff, especially I like his song "Rumble" that comes from local radio (Radio Golden Classics) from time to time as well. When I first heard it, I started immediately to search Google what could be the song, but as I didn't find anything, a friend told me it's Link Wray's Rumble. But as I said, he has other great songs too. Reverend Horton Heat is another great one.

Again, Thanks everyone for the kind words! I really appreciate them very, very much!

No new pics yet, as I spent last weekend at Kalajoki Airport where the fourth race at Finnish Drag Racing Championship Series was driven. We had new tires under the Chevelle, but I had traction problems during the whole weekend. On first Qualifying round I failed myself and the car crawled forward from Stage too early and the 60 FT was really horrible. On the second run the tires spun a little when I shifted to the 2nd gear. Anyway I ran 12,32 so I was really happy with that run especially when it was ran at an airport. The third Qualification run was not that good, I had major traction problems right away when I lifted the brakes. Fourth run was good without traction problems and I ran 12.33.

On the Eliminator, my first round opponent was last year's Finnish Champion in his Pontiac Firebird. I took a .003 Reaction Time and even if I had traction problems, I crossed the finishing line first and won the race! The 2nd round was also a Semi Final, there I red lighted by -.007 and of course I lost because of that. But there it was really slippery and the car was drifting quite a lot at the start. Anyway I was able to run full throttle all the time without lifting.

My plan is to get something done with the engine or chassis tomorrow. So Stay Tuned.

[DynoMight]

Good job on your draggin'.. What was wrong with the traction? Not used to the new tires? or something else?

Excited to see a update. Engine or chassis, doesn't matter to me.

[Dragfreak]

Nice job on the .003 reaction time, that's definitely something to be proud of! You'll get the car dialed in eventually!

[W-409]

Glenn: Thank You! I believe the problem was in the new tires. Mickey Thompsons maybe just don't fit under that car...Maybe. There is another Drag / Street Race event at Pori Airport next Saturday, so we'll go there and do more runs with those tires to see how they work. I will have to try different burnouts and different air pressures to have enough traction.

I did some work and I have an update. I said I'd work with the engine or chassis, but I worked with both of them instead!

Jason: Thanks! That Reaction Time was by far the best one I have ever had in my time slip. And I must say that this was the correct place to get it, otherwise I would have lost because I wasn't that close to my dial in, as I had traction problems at the start. I had 12.37 dial in and I ran 12.42. But adjusting the dial in is hard. But I like to set the dial in so that it's a bit slower than what the car might run. Then I can hit the brakes before crossing the finishing line...

So as I said I made some progress with the engine and chassis. I started from the engine by installing the spark plug wires. They are made from Scale Dreams' material, which works great. Someone might notice the little holes where valve covers' bolts are. Yes, I have Pro Tech's T-Bolts for them...

I must repaint the transmission, the silver paint is coming off because of handling...

I also worked with the chassis. Some modifications were required in front and rear suspensions. On the back, only thing I had to do was to modify the inner wheels / wheel backs to fit with the rear axle. Originally, there were kind of "tubings" (Hey, now I used correct word !) where metal axle would go into. With the rear axle from this kit, those wouldn't work so I cut them away and drilled new, bigger holes to the inner wheels. Now they fit perfectly with the rear axle. Unfortunately though, I was too exited to work with these, as I forgot to take pictures of them. Only picture is from the finished parts that still need paint.

Front brakes (or inner wheels) are taken from AMT '70 Camaro. That will be built as a Stock Eliminator car that could race nowadays, so I must install disk brakes on it. Anyway those brakes were too wide for these tires, but I narrowed them by sanding the excess material off. Now they fit nicely to the front tires.

Narrowed brake assembly on left, original one on right.

Finished brakes test fitted on tires:

Now it was time to do a first Mock Up to see if the stance was what I was looking for. I installed the axles and tires on place and everything looked good! Ride height was just correct and tires were on correct position, too. Now when the car looked good, I could move on to the front axle, but more on that in the next post.

[W-409]

As I promised, here are a couple of pictures of the front axle. The axle that comes with the kit has one problem: The wheels could not steer with that axle, as it has no spindles (Or whatever they are called in English?). To make them, I took a piece of the kit's roll bar that is way too thick and some silver that I bent to shape. The spindles are really simple, made out of three pieces and glued together. Tomorrow I will modify the front axle to fit those spindles on place, add a couple of bolts and paint everything. It should look better once it's done than the original kit's axle...

I had to remove the chrome plating, too. The axle had mold seams in it so the chrome would flake off anyway, but even without those seams, I would have wanted to paint the axle...

[1 bad55 stan]

That stance is sweet.your doing a great job on a kit that is well,not so great.I like what your doing with the front end too!

[slusher]

Niko, your doing some impressive work on a very plain kit. I am really enjoying this build...

[DynoMight]

That stance is just right.. I take you're going to paint it blue?

[Dragfreak]

The stance looks great Niko, nice work with the straight axle too, it looks very good!

Edited July 24, 2014 by Dragfreak