[Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line - Strickler's Car]

On 10/12/2025 at 5:17 AM, '70 Grande said:

It never occurred to me that this car had the large openings cut into the engine compartment's inner side panels... was that done for reducing the weight or for some other reason? 

Thank you Mark! I believe these square "cut-outs" within the side-walls on each side of the engine bays were the openings that remained when the shock towers were cut and shifted forward the 10" for the front wheelbase change.

I'm surprised the engineers at Amblewagen didn't patch these two openings with welded sheet metal, maybe they figured it provided a  slight weight reduction at the front end and that there was little concern about maintaining body stiffness?

[Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line - Strickler's Car]

3 hours ago, bytownshaker said:

Those carbs look great where did you get them?

Thank you Edgar!

I ordered these Holley 3116's from Fireballmodels.com ("Chief" Joseph Osborne), he offers a terrific line of reasonably priced resin upgrades for 1/25 model cars. I lost one of the door handles for my Mr. Norm build and was rescued by him with some beautiful replacement early Mopar handles. Highly recommended!

[Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line - Landy's Car]

4 hours ago, gtx6970 said:

It's why this car was campaigned with a dash mounted push button shifter. 

I didn't know this, thanks! I went with the steering column shifter that came with the kit for this and the other TorqueFlite builds. Landy must have pulled a dash-mounted push-button controller out of a '64, the last year they were offered? 

[Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line - Harrop's Car]

2 hours ago, bytownshaker said:

You may or may not know, this is the car that won the most infamous Drag Race of all time the 1965 Super Stock Magazine Nationals at York US 30

Thanks for heads-up. I read Harrop used 90% nitro on his winning run at this "the Woodstock of super-stock drag racing", pretty daring back then. Also interesting how a few of the big-name racers back then had day jobs selling cars on dealer's lots (Harrop, Gas Ronda).

[Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line - Mr. Norm's]

This one was the most challenging, the gutted supercharged NHRA rule-breaking match racer that Gary Dyer briefly held the 1/4 mile record for door slammers in Oct '65 at Lions. I had to scratch-build a straight axle for the front end, probably not accurate but good enough, grafted a resin AT to block and the blower, manifold and bug catcher/ injector are resin parts from Speed City. I also scratch-built the headers and fuel pump and had to do major surgery (after painting and decaling, I hate it when that happens) to get the aluminum nitro fuel tank to fit in front of engine bay. Paints used were ScaleFinishes HOC PBC36 TruBlue base lacquer over Tamiya Pearl Light Blue lacquer. Decals were from Fremont Racing Specialties. Really pleased with how this one came out, it's my favorite of the five. Thanks for looking! Cheers, John

 

[Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line - Landy's Car]

Here's Landy's car, Slixx decal set and painted in Tamiya Silver Leaf lacquer with Tamiya semi-gloss and flat acrylic back. I've always assumed that Landy had a black vinyl roof on this car so I bonded two strips of thin styrene on the roof to indicate seams. Other upgrades are similar to the other builds. I forgot to mention that I had to graft resin TorqueFlite 727 AT's onto the blocks of this car, the Harrop car and the Mr. Norm's car. I'm surprised that Moebius didn't supply an AT version of the hemi with this kit which was more common than the four speed.

 

[Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line - Harrop's Car]

This one used the excellent Racing Racing Specialties decal set and the kit Hilborn FI. Aftermarket parts (Detail Master distributor/ wiring/ Gopher harness parts, scratch-built fuel lines same as the other builds. Love these "flying carpet" markings.

[Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line - Strickler's Car]

This the first of the new Moebius '65 Dodge AWB A/FX cars that I built using the box decals. I used two resin Holley Carbs in place of the kit Hilborn FI to depict an earlier version of this car. I thought I this build would be a "dry-run" of this new Dodge kit but I made mistakes on the other three I subsequently built so sometimes one kits enough! Moebius did a great job on these AWB Dodges but I think the AWB Plymouth is like 10% easier to assemble. I found the chassis to body fit at the rear was really tight and took some finesse and tweezer crow bars to get positioned correctly. I used Gopher four point racing harnesses on all five builds but only on the drivers seat, conventional seal belts on the passenger side. I replaced the thick fuzzy belt material that came with the Gopher belts with finer adhesive-backed fabric from Scale Motorsports. The stainless steel Gopher photoetch was challenging to remove to the frets.

[Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line - Lee Smith Car]

It's been ages since I posted anything here in the way of drag car builds, hoping this report on my summer project, a "Moebius AWB Mopar Assembly Line", will make up for my lack of posted builds. I'll never catch up with Mike "Building the Covers" Elky (who will!?!) but this five kit build is new personal record for me. This assembly line consisted of the last AWB '65 Plymouth that was in my stash and four of the new AWB '65 Dodges. As always for me, decal availability drove my picks. Here's my latest AWB fleet:

Here are some picks of the '65 AWB Plymouth A/FX Lee Smith car below, I'll post the others on separate postings. Decals were from Fremont Racing Specialties (thank you Joe Curtis!), I airbrushed ScaleFinishes Plymouth Dark Turquoise Metallic base lacquer over Tamiya Pure White lacquer, it's more green than turquoise but I like the color with these decals. Some Detail Master parts and wiring/ fuel lines and Gopher racing harnesses were added, otherwise OOB. 

[Surfers Funny Car]

Excellent execution of a "what if" subject. I love the creativity of thinking they would have used their push car for the basis of this AWB drag sedan and recycled the yellow scoop. It made me think of all the recycling that "Ohio" George Montgomery did in the same years when he morphed his legendary '33 Willys cammer gasser into the '67 Mustang which I believe then morphed into his '69 Mustang "Mr Gasket" FC. Love this period when money was tight and ingenuity was prolific.

[“BUILDING THE COVERS “ Vol # 120 BUD FAUBEL’S HEMI HONKER 1965 AWB DODGE]

Cool build & magazine Mike! I agree with that this Bud Faubel "Hemi Honker" is one of the more striking cars of the '65 Mopar AWB A/FX's. I would love to build his "Hemi Honker" version with the twin turbochargers if there was an aftermarket/ resin mod kit, it would be a challenge beyond my skills to scratch build the engine bay details:

Question: are "Chris Walsh decals" and the eBay vendor "The Glory Years Decals & Graphics" one and the same? The decals on your build above appear  to be of pretty good quality (vector graphics, Alps printed with white as well as the colors?) and the decals listed by this eBay vendor include this car, are reasonably priced and offer a lot of mid-60's SS subjects which I wasn't aware were available. Have you bought decals from this eBay vendor and would you recommend them? As always, decals tend to be my determining factor of what door slammers I build. 

[BMW Isetta 250 (a whopping 13hp)]

Great job Vince on this big Revell Isetta. That two-tone blue&white is a perfect period correct choice and looks really good with the plaid. I love that Revell engineered the kit so that the steering column/ wheel articulates outward when the door opens, a really cool feature.

I built this kit when it was first released (2016?) and remember it going together like a Tamiya, your build makes me want to do another one.

I did a search and it looks like the original kit is no longer available. Revell Germany has just released a new "70th Anniversary" edition which includes a book but unfortunately it doesn't appear to be available within the US yet:

I purchased the Revell Trabant Anniversary edition with a paperback history book included from HLJ (pre-tariff) and the book is excellent.

[“ BUILDING THE COVERS “ Vol # 117 MY DAD’S 1965 AMT RAMCHARGERS SURVIVOR]

What a treasure this model must be for you, the decal patina, the cigarette smell, the dusty interior, a link to your father and a love for cool cars that you both shared. I have a few hand tools that my father etched his name onto using an electric engraving pen. They are old and worn, nothing special to anyone else but very special to me. 

You should display this one Mike with all your beautiful SS builds, they belong together. Thanks for sharing.

[“ BUILDING THE COVERS “ Vol # 118 THE RAMCHARGERS 1965 AWB DODGE]

More big decals Mike and you did a great job on this one too! Those long ones along the middle of each side profile must have been a challenge. At this rate you're going to have a 1/25 reproduction of every one of the '65 AWB Mopars.... impressive!

Once you've completed everyone on your list, please line 'em all up and post a group pic of them. I  would love to browse through your SS magazine collection, it would make for some fun mid-60's drag racing reminiscing!

[Cadillac V-16 1931 Trio: Cabriolet, Sport Phaeton and Town Brougham (Jo-Han)]

Really nice trio of Cad's Kari. That grey roadster is my favorite. I've built a few of the classic 1/24 Monogram kits (Packard, RR) and loved them. Your builds are inspiring me to track down and try one of these 1/25 Jo-Han kits which still appear to be available on eBay and at reasonable prices.

[“ BUILDING THE COVERS “ vol # 116 CANDIES & HUGES JAKE’S SPEED EQUIPMENT AWB 1965 PLYMOUTH SEDAN]

Wow! Amazing difference in length between the AMT and Moebius '65 Dodges! I would think the factory Dodge and Plymouth sedans utilized the same chassis geometry and AMT probably undersized their Dodge kit?

Thank you for posting these comparisons and for showing the mods required to make the AWB version of the  Dodge sedan using the Fremont resin body with the Moebius chassis. I've built two AWB A/FX cars using standard WB kits (a Revell '65 Mustang FB and a Revell '65 Chevelle) by shifting wheel wells forward on both and neither effort was a picnic. I'd much rather slice & dice the chassis than the wheel openings on a body!

[COLOR ME GONE 1965 AWB DODGE]

13 hours ago, M W Elky said:

I almost forgot the story I got was that Chrysler took it away from Roger for doing to many bumper dragging wheel stands after they were warned not to .

Interesting, didn't know that...wonder why they let Dick Landy keep his car?  I got to see the original Landy car around 12 -15 yrs ago at a vintage drag event at Famoso and boy-oh-boy the back end of that body was really sagging down at a weird angle. Would love to see someone here try to reproduce that "bent body" look on one of the Moebius AWB '65 Plymouths/ Dodge kits.

You did an amazing job on those big blue decals, other than the impossibly tight corners near the rear tail lights, I don't see a wrinkle or tear anywhere. Bravo!

[“ BUILDING THE COVERS “ vol # 116 CANDIES & HUGES JAKE’S SPEED EQUIPMENT AWB 1965 PLYMOUTH SEDAN]

Really nice kit-bash Mike. Did the Moebius chassis/ interior fit within the Fremont resin body or was a lot of surgery required?
You need to line up all your mid-60's door slammers and post a few photos someday, I'm sure your collection way outnumbers mine and most others here. You are one prolific builder!

[COLOR ME GONE 1965 AWB DODGE]

Another very nice one Mike of a very short-lived car that morphed into the Gary Dyer/ Mr. Norm's Grand-Spaulding match racer. We're all the blue areas on the body (including the roof?) decals or did you paint them to match the blue of the Color-Me-Gone door decals? Whether painted or decaled, I'm impressed with how neat this all came together, not an easy looking decal task even if just the red pinstripes. 

I have three of these AWB Dodge kits along with the last AWB Plymouth that was in my stash on my bench now proceeding as a very slow production line. A plumbing issue in our home (hot water line slab leak 😖😫) shut my line down for the last month but I'm just now cranking it up and hope to have some of these builds to post in the coming weeks.

[“ BUILDING THE COVERS “ vol #115 BUTCHER LEAL’S 1965 SUPER STOCK PLYMOUTH]

On 9/10/2025 at 10:09 AM, M W Elky said:

Thanks John I sure wish I could get to those calif. events . Mabe some day soon they’ll build a 6 train from my to calif. if you’re in my neck of the woods  look me up

Thanks Mike! The Nitro Revival is unfortunately no more, they shut down the 1/8 mile Irwindale drag strip last year (it was not the original legendary 1/4 mile strip that disappeared decades ago). The only drag strips left in S. Cal are Pomona (open only twice a year for NHRA events although NHRA museum is at the same complex) and Famoso (way the heck out in the central valley north of Bakersfield and hidden in amongst the farms off hwy 5). The only new vintage drag racing destination worth seeing is the Lions Automobilia Foundation Museum in the Carson-Wilmington area and it is EXCELLENT!!!! Check out their website here.

[“ BUILDING THE COVERS “ vol #115 BUTCHER LEAL’S 1965 SUPER STOCK PLYMOUTH]

Nice job (as always!) Mike on this '65 C.F. You did a particularly excellent job on the large white Mobius decals, not an easy task to apply/ align/ smooth out and not tear. I'm a big Butch Leal fan and got to meet him a few years ago at a "Nitro Revival" event in Irwindale, CA, really nice guy. I'll have to look for that book.

Also thanks for posting your massive car model collection/ man cave. I would love to spend an afternoon pulling each one off the shelf and examining each with my 3X readers.

 

[1965 Nova]

Beautiful job Tom on this Moebius(?) kit. I love Evening Orchid and remember it being a very popular color choice on new '65 Impalas when I was a kid. We car modelers are very lucky to have paint vendors like Scale Finishes that can mix up and match original factory colors for us. Jameston Kroon is the MAN!

['60 Corvair A/FX /pre-funny car]

On 9/7/2025 at 3:31 PM, Quiet Eric said:

Made a lot of stupid mistakes that I had to sort out

They sure don't show Eric, I think the chassis/engine looks fantastic and with the body in place, this build screams "wild/ experimental/ break-all-the-rules" mid-60's drag racing. Really loving what you've done here and looking forward to seeing it UG once the final details are installed.

['60 Corvair A/FX /pre-funny car]

Hey Eric, really enjoying watching all the scratch-building you're doing on this one. This build is making me fantasize about building a later body ('66 - '67) Doug Thorley/ Hayden Proffitt/ Randy Wells topless Corvair early funny. Wonder if the recent AMT Chezoom ('69?) Corvair body could be a suitable donor to cut the top off and use for a '66 -67 body?

Mike (iBorg) - thanks for posting those two history links....the source of my scale modeling fantasies! What a brief but awesome period of drag racing history!

[Ordering From Overseas Still?]

Initially, like many here I figured I'm safe because of my extensive stash of unbuilt kits (cars, planes, tanks, ships) that I've accumulated over the years. Then it occurred to me....Oh No! ....Paint! Supplies! Decals! AM stuff! Many of these items are foreign sourced (Tamiya, Gunze, Zero, Cartograph, AK, MiG, Eduards,....). I guess US dealers will still be ordering big orders (> $800) from any foreign manufacturers and selling to us domestically but I can also imagine a possible supply chain slow-down due to bureaucratic issues/ customs process chaos over the coming weeks (months?).....

We may all want to take inventory on our paint & building supplies and order a safety stock as required from US dealers soon???? God forbid we all run out of paint & glue!