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Chevy '57 beaten-up Dirt Tracker


Reuhkapelti2

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Some years ago I got this '57 Chevy 2d ht body, that has slightly chopped roof, opened trunk, and the hood. Frame came along too, but that's all there is. 

I opened the wheel wells and now started to make some serious wrinckles to the sides. Let's see how that goes. 

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Edited by Reuhkapelti2
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Thanks everybody! 

Some progress here:

made the roll cage, installed a small 283 cid engine, painted the sponsor texture, dash from a old nascar, drivers seat, steering wheel, front bumber. 

Now is the time to give me advise, if something is going wrong, as I'm building this racer just by looking photos online. In Finland we drive Bugs, Volvos and Fiats etc on dirt tracks, not classic US cars. 

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Rubbing is racing, and from the looks of this one he has definitely been racing.  One thing a lot of us that build circle track cars forget is the rotted out door sills and rocker panels.  A lot of these cars were drug out of a field, junkyard, or someone's backyard and they had some lower panel rust.  Yours depicts that very well.  Good looking build.

From the picture it is hard to tell if the bar beside the driver is parallel to the floor or if it is diagonal.  You might consider replacing that with a couple of parallel bars along the drivers door as a bit more protection in case of a T-bone hit.

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Thank you very much everybody. 

As adviced, I made some changes to the roll bars. I took the existing side tube off and added two parallel tubes each side. 

The rear lights are gone and their places covered with "metal plates" . 

Stay tuned and feel free to comment. 

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Edited by Reuhkapelti2
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Depending on the era you're building this model to represent, NASCAR in the late '60's would have required three side bars and the bar behind the driver's seat would have been straight across going side to side and mounted at the about the window height. This would of had additional bracing from the center of that bar down to the base off the Hoop, which should be just behind the driver.  

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Thanks espo for your good advice. I'm not quite sure, what era this racer is, but if '57 Chevy has first been driven daily lets say 15 years, then the son/daughter drove it to school and McDonald's 3 years. Then it sat 5 more years in the back yard waiting daddy to fix it good, (never happened). George from the scrap yard took it away and Chevy sat two more years until Hank from RTR Illinois was looking for a fixable project for his new hobby - dirt racing. I would quess october 1982 is the time of reborn of this mighty Chevy. Hank has driven it for 3 seasons now, and it's got new paint everywhere, numbersmatching engine overhauled, new tires etc. ready to enter new season. 

How's that sound? 1985?

I added third bar both sides, and the other one you mentioned. I hope I understood and and got it right. 

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Edited by Reuhkapelti2
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