'57 Thunderbird Land Speed Racecar

[EngineerBob]

Hi All. I just finished my version of a supercharged 1957 Ford Thunderbird Land Speed Racecar. My version is inspired by Ford's Battlebird and modified for land speed trails at places like Bonneville and Muroc. The model is based on the AMT/ERTL kit. I created the front end from the back end of a '34 Ford fenders and roll-pan and scratch-built the tonneau cover. I scratch-built the McCullough supercharger from left over misc parts. I kept it simple by not detailing the molded chassis and even still used the metal axles. By the way, the vintage-style trailer is a modified race-boat trailer from a Bronco combo-kit. I hope this inspires more kit bashing and customizing. Enjoy.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Very nice. Reminiscent of the '57 Mercury Mermaid too.

[Curt]

Amazing model!  Nice work and the choice of color and graphics make it sizzle!

[Claude Thibodeau]

HI Grant!

Very nice, and imaginative, bravo! The "cowcatcher" front air dam out of a 34 Ford is a clever idea. There can never be too many lakesters!

CT 

(Self-proclaimed chair of the Flat Earth Society... LOL!)

[Kah puts]

That's killer, and we'll executed. 

[cobraman]

Very nice, well done !

[slusher]

Very sharp!

[TarheelRick]

Beautiful work on that T-Bird. Really has the feel of land-speed.

[EngineerBob]

18 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Very nice. Reminiscent of the '57 Mercury Mermaid too.

Thanks All for the kind words. This was a fun one to modify. I had never heard of the Mercury Mermaid. You've got to love the ingenuity and experimentation back then.

[Phildaupho]

WOW - great looking streamliner T-Bird. Very well executed and presented.

[1959scudetto]

1 hour ago, Phildaupho said:

WOW - great looking streamliner T-Bird. Very well executed and presented.

x 2 - great execution !

[Bruce Scully]

I like this , a lot of nice work , well done .

[PappyD340]

Awesome bird!

[1930fordpickup]

Nice Thunderbird. 

[unclescott58]

Beautiful. I like it. 

[EngineerBob]

I appreciate the nice comments. This was a fun build.

[alan barton]

Sensational.  I have a black version from Hot Rod magazine on my to-do list.  I will be coming back to this thread for clues!

Cheers

Alan

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[MeatMan]

Very nice!

[Kit Karson]

Well done!  Blue Phoenix rising!! 

[EngineerBob]

13 hours ago, alan barton said:

Sensational.  I have a black version from Hot Rod magazine on my to-do list.  I will be coming back to this thread for clues!

Cheers

Alan

Thanks for the nice comments. Looking forward to seeing what someone else does with a Tbird kit.

Here are a couple of W.I.P. pics to show some of the changes I made to this kit. Cut out the molded-in seat and added driveshaft tunnel and floor; used old airplane horizontal stabilizer as fairing/rudder; cut molded in exhaust.