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As I finish up this build here are some final details.
One of the interesting things I learned while working on this car was something about the Buick Nailhead V-8. Apparently if you check out the parts numbers for the heads on this motor you will see the same number for both the left and right head. The two heads are identical. In fact they are symmetric front to rear and side to side. They have water intake/exit ports on both ends, too. So you simply attach either a plug or a connector to the appropriate hole. As is common practice on lakes cars I omitted a radiator. Radiators generate an enormous amount of drag with the air passing through them. Instead LSR style racers equip the cars with a large coolant tank loaded with cold water in a sufficient amount to keep the motor at acceptable temperature for the time the car will be running. As mentioned earlier, on my car I “imagineered” it to have the coolant tank in the rear of the car. So when it came time to rigging up the coolant lines I simply ran rearward facing pipes off the rear of the heads.
Of course, with no radiator there is no need for a grill, allowing for a blank panel. In this case I used transparent red “plexiglas” (actually acetate sheet) as also used in the windows. Again, this was a common practice back in the day, and allows for a “peek-a-boo” look at the front of the motor.
As I button this car up I have fabricated the steering system for this car from styrene rod and strip. In the composite photo below I’ve included a detail shot of the steering linkage, along with shots of the coolant pipes and the see-through grill panel. I will mount the moon discs to the wheels at the very end to protect the metalizer paint from too much handling. In the shot of the back side of the motor you can also see where I had to cut away the back of the bell housing to clear the firewall and kick panel. Modeling is a world of illusion and this project is no exception!
Thanx for lookin’,
B.
