1/16 Pro Street 55 Bel Air Update! 1-19-16 New Parts have Arrived!

[Armornv]

Not sure if this belongs here or under Big Boyz??

This is going to be a VERY ambitious project for me. A scale I've never touched, scratchin' and fabbin' like I've never done but hopefully... just maybe with some help and guidance, I can create something halfway decent.

 

To show my complete lack of experience (please don't laugh at me...yet) I have a question that I cannot for the life of me find an answer to. Maybe I'm over thinking it but here goes...

 

How exactly do you figure out where to start the "back half" for a pro street car?

And how high up to have the frame rails? (the part that goes above the rear end)   

I hope I'm explaining those questions well enough.

Is it just a matter of whatever works? I'm sure it depends at least a little bit on the car your building. Is there any kind of standard or rule of thumb to follow?

It's sad that I'm already kinda lost when I haven't even started it yet lol.

If anyone could help me out with that part and get me started in the right direction that would be awesome!

 

Edited January 20, 2016 by Armornv

[RAT-T]

LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS CLINT

YOU COULD USE A 1/25 PRO STREET KIT AS REFERENCE.

[Armornv]

Thanks. I'm pretty excited to get started on it.

That's a good idea. I'll have to do a little research to find out what range of years shared the same frame as a 55. I don't recall a 25th scale 55 pro street? I could be wrong. The noggin ain't what it used to be!

 

[Nytrozilla]

While my primary field is vintage funny's and miscellaneous oddball concepts, it seems to me that this might be a good starting point. It's an older kit that you might have to search for, but it's a good jumping off point.

Keep up your research because there are probably differences in the age of the design and it's also Pro Mod vs. Pro Sportsman. I assume you'll be using the AMT 1/16 body?

Good luck. We'll be watching.

[Mooneyzs]

Hey Clint... its great to see another 1/16th scale build going on here. I love me some 1/16th scale builds. I was going to say that you could back half the car. Just add tubbs to the back half. Now you would have to  change the back suspension and scratch build the back half frame.

Hope you don't mind me posting a pic of a '62 Bel Air Pro Street I did many years ago. I actually used a '67 Chevelle pro street back half of  a chassis that I grafted onto the 62" frame. so right at the end of the X in the frame and where the wheelie bars start is where the two different frames meet. this is to give you an idea of what you could do with the 55 frame other than having to scratch build it yourself since there are no 1/16th scale pro street kits.

here is  a couple of links for you that you can see some rear clips from some after market companies to get an idea

Chris Alston's Chassis works:

https://www.cachassisworks.com/c-477-frame-clips-rear-weld-in.aspx

Art Morrison Chassis:

http://www.artmorrison.com/homepage2.php

 

looking forward to seeing progress on this build.

 

[Armornv]

Joe - Yep. It's the old AMT kit that I have. The red and white box art.

Chris -  Thanks for stopping by. I'm still quietly lurking around your Army Vega build.... Stunning work as always sir! I have zero problems with you or anyone posting pics in my thread. Especially if they help! I've looked through Chris Alston's site and S&W racecars site a bit. Forgot about Art Morrison though. I'll have a look see when I get a chance.

From what I've found, the frames were the same from 55-57. I found a couple of pics that appear to show the "hump" in the frame above the rear end don't go much higher than stock, but still can't find any that show much of anything else. My only problem is I can't find a good pic of where exactly the "back half" starts on that frame. I don't want to start hacking the kit up only to find out I cut it in the wrong spot. Just don't want to do more work than is necessary. I knew I would have to scratch the back half suspension. I've got a 9 inch TDR rear end on the way and already have the plastic stock for the 2x3 frame rails. 

Thanks for the info so far guys. I'll keep digging for more info. Can't wait to get started!

 

Edited January 10, 2016 by Armornv

[Armornv]

I think.... I have a slightly better idea of where to start the back half now. Still can't find more than a couple of pics of where someone has shown it though. I have also come to realize that I need to have at the very least, the rear tires, and rear end before I can start hacking and bending. The rear end is already being printed at shapeways so I decided to whip up some mostly generic rear tires. I'd really like to have Some Mickey Thompson Sportsman Pro's under it, but my 3D skills aren't quite good enough to do that pattern. I instead used a pattern similar to their E/T Street Radial tires. Not perfect but good enough for now I guess. 

Here's a shot from Inventor. 31x18.5-15 is the size. Might go a little bigger. I'll just have to see how it looks when I get it.

Edited January 10, 2016 by Armornv

[RAT-T]

I HAVE ZERO 3D SKILLS, SO THAT LOOKS GREAT TO ME.

YOU COULD ALSO CUT SOME DIFFERENT SIZE CIRCLES OUT OF CARD STOCK FOR MOCK UP

[astroracer]

 Hey Clint,

There is a TON of info on the net about back-halving a car. Chris Alston, Art Morrison, Chassisworks, etc. Look thru some of those sites for idea's. Here is a PDF of Morrison's catalog. There is a lot of Pro street stuff in it.

http://www.artmorrison.com/2006cat/2015catalog.pdf

Mark

[Armornv]

Thanks guys.

Tom - Great idea. Never thought about using card stock, or anything for that matter for a mock up.

Mark - Thanks for the link. I've looked through Alston's and S&W race cars, Haven't looked at art morrison or chassisworks yet though. I have a pretty good idea on how I'm going to go about building it, just can't find any reference on where it's supposed to attach on the 55 frame. Once I get my initial parts in it should get me a better idea at what I need to do.

Thanks folks! Keep the info flowing!

[astroracer]

The Tri-Five Chevies use a perimeter frame. The frame runs around the outside edges of the body. If you trim off the frame where it tucks back in, right at the front of the rear wheels, that is usually where the modifications begin. You will have to add tubing to each  inside corner to get to your new rear rail width but you can see all of that on any of the chassis sites.

 What rear suspension will you be building? Leaf spring? Triangulated 4 bar? Parallel 4-link? That will have some impact on your back half design.

Mark

Edited January 11, 2016 by astroracer

[Armornv]

Mark - I'll be using (attempting) a 4 link on it for sure. I did find some instructions on Chris Alston's page that gave me some good info for different measurements that should help me locate things much better than eyeballing it. 

All the research I've done, pics I've seen of the frame for 55-57 show it as a standard two rail frame with no lateral deviation except for up towards the front, so I'm not sure where you mean the frame tucks back in?

There is a curved body reinforcement "strip that is located around that area. No sideways dips to speak of around there that I can see.

 

Edited January 11, 2016 by Armornv

[astroracer]

I should have been clearer. If you look at the "Pro Street" and "Pro Touring" versions offered by Morrison you will see the frame nips in to give wider tires more clearance right in front of the rear tire. And yes, stock 55-57 frames run straight back.

Mark

[Armornv]

I gotcha. I know exactly what you're talking about now. The info is very much appreciated.

 

 

[Armornv]

Looky what I got in the mail today!!!

Got the "first draft" of my tires in. I think they look pretty decent if I do say so myself.  Time will tell if I stick with these or modify/redesign them. These were done in Autodesk Inventor and printed by Shapeways in the strong and flexible polished. I was a bit weary of that material as I've done a couple of pieced in the un-polished and they are ROUGH. At least for 1/25 scale they are. Anyways, I tried the polished for these and they are pretty smooth. Still will need some clean up I'm sure. I'll try and get some primer on them before I do any sanding to see how they look.

Also got the 9 inch rear end, and the dual carb blower. Both from TDR and both in frosted ultra detail. They are absolutely beautiful! I can't wait to start tinkering with them!

 

There are still some parts I need to source before I can really dig into it, but I can at least start planning things out. I should be able to get the rear subframe mostly built... I think. I'll need to whip some wheels as I had to wait till I got the rear end here so I could get measurements off the rotor hub to make sure the wheels will fit. 

I still need to get a four link from somewhere, the tubing and rod ends to go along with that. Tubing for the axle housing and some coil overs( not sure I could build those from scratch).

I at least did get a tiny start on things. I had enough info to tell me roughly where to cut the frame off the kit. I didn't... but I did cut out the molded in floor between the frame rails. My thought is to keep the kit rails in place until I get the sub frame made to the correct length and height so I'll still be able to put the bumper on... Not sure how well that'll all work, but that's my plan for now.

 

I did the cutting with a new toy that I picked up a week or so ago. I knew that the Dremel Stylus isn't made anymore. Tim (Codi) seems to be really happy with his. (2 I think  ) I just happened across this one on Amazon for a pretty decent price and it had some decent reviews so I said why not? Never heard of the brand Genesis. This is the first thing I have done with it, but I like it so far. 

That's enough rambling for now. Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Edited January 20, 2016 by Armornv

[RAT-T]

TIRES LOOK GOOD CLINT, WHAT HEIGHT & WIDTH DID YOU END UP FOR THE REARS?

[Armornv]

Thanks Tom. The tires (rear) are modeled after 31x18.5-15's. I could have gone bigger now that I have them in hand and shoved them up under the body but I think they'll do fine.

I don't have the actual measurements in front of me at work. I'll take a look when I get home this afternoon.

 

Edit: 

Tom: looks like about 1.93 inches in diameter and 1.10 width overall.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2016 by Armornv

[Mooneyzs]

Clint... Nice work Those 3D parts looks nice. Looking forward to seeing you put them to use on this build.

[Armornv]

Thanks Chris. The more stuff I order (it's already getting VERY expensive lol), the more excited I get. Hoping to get some good build time in this weekend.

 

[Codi]

Hey Clint, you're off to quite the start with the parts you've chosen.  Let me know what you think of that Genesis unit....at some point I'll have to replace my dremels and I'd be curious to know if they're a reasonable replacement.  Good luck with your build.  cheers

[one_eyed_croaker]

Hey I know this is an old post but I was wondering if you could tell me how much it cost to have those parts printed? I have thought about doing this myself.

Thanks

[Armornv]

Hey Chris, I sent you a reply. Basically, it depends on the part. Size, amount of material, what material you have it printed in etc.