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1/16 Scale Army Vega Funny Car - Finished 10/14/2018


Mooneyzs

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Steve... thabk you for flowing along with this build for as long as its beeing going in. I am pretrysire everyone is wishing that I would finish it soon and not make a career of it...lol. you are right that Prudhomme ran Ed pink/Keith Black engines but keep in mind that this build is based off the restored car. I think I was only able to find 3 or at most 4 pics of the car when Prudhimme ran it. I believe he only ran it at 2 races. This build has been based off the pics on the snake racing website under his collection that they had posted on the Vega as well as the 3:00 min video on youtube that Prudhomme talks about the car.

Hakan... thank you for posting. You are correct about it being based off the restored car. And where there are missing links I am basing some parts or details off cars from thar same era or even making a judgement call and doing what I thought it may of beem like.

Bob... yep I will be adding butterflies to the injector. I have photo-etch butterflies from Future Attraction. I actually worked with Scott to have them made and he did a killer job sizing things and they are spot on. I will be redrawing the injector hat up this week to have printed at Shapeways. I would love to have a working linkage but notnsure If I will attempt in this build where you can press the gas pedal and the bitterflies open... for sure in a bigger build I have in mind. although I think I may try make it so I can positiin the butterflies open or closed. Now no promises on it because I am afraid and leary of having parts break if I try to make workable since they will be small.

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All I can add is that Brad's comment was understated. The pics you see here are spectacular and stunning. But they just don't do this build enough justice! You HAVE to see this creation in person to truly appreciate how amazing it is! It is beyond the limits of imagination. It is overwhelming.

If ever finished (LOL, Chris!), it will be truly a lifetime achievement. Chris will have to go into building ships in bottles, because there won't be any topping or even matching this one!

~Dann B) ~

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All I can add is that Brad's comment was understated. The pics you see here are spectacular and stunning. But they just don't do this build enough justice! You HAVE to see this creation in person to truly appreciate how amazing it is! It is beyond the limits of imagination. It is overwhelming.

If ever finished (LOL, Chris!), it will be truly a lifetime achievement. Chris will have to go into building ships in bottles, because there won't be any topping or even matching this one!

~Dann B) ~

I agree Danno……….and the sad part about this build ………is that he is going to give this build to Don Prudhomme the "SNAKE" when finished for his 75th birthday……….what a guy Chris :P ……….are you going to do the same thing for the "Mongoose"? :D

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Danno... Thank you so much for the kind words. Its always a pleasure to bring and share the build with you guys in person. LOL @ if ever finished....hehe You know I am trying to get it done in time for the Desert Scale Classic and Hope that I can but I know I won't rush it and skip over any detail just to make it so if by chance it doesn't get done by the show it will be ok. But I promise I will be trying my hardest to get it done in time.

Johnny..... You are alive...lol Sure miss ya buddy. LMAO at giving it to "The Snake" when its done. I would love the opportunity to be able to take it to Snakes Shop to show him the build for sure. I guess I could always do a replica of one of Mongoose's cars too. :D

Dale.... Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you Saturday at the swap meet. If you have questions on anything feel free to ask. Also I am still going to try and look for some pics about the details we talked about you were looking for.

Brad.... One Hundred pages??....... Not sure if you ment 180.... :lol::lol:

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Well Fellas.... I want to share with you some information I just received that I am really bummed about. Last week I contacted Hendricks Motorsports in regards to the Army Vega Funny Car. Mr. Prudhomme sold the Vega to Mr. Hendricks a while back. for a while know I have tried contacting Snack Racing to see if there was anyway to get some more pictures of the car since all I really have to go by is whats on the Snake Racing page from his website and the You tube video. So last week I wrote to Hendricks Motorsports explaining the build I was doing and that it was a replica of the Army Vega Funny Car that Mr. Hendricks purchase from The Snake. I gave them the link to this build to show them as well. Told them a little about it and I asked if they could take some pics for me. I had about 30 items I wanted them to shoot. Well I just got an email from them back today and here is their response.....

Chris:

Thank you for your interest in our Snake Vega Funny Car and it sounds like you have a tremendous project going. I will admit your request was unusual but I understand your need of detail. Unfortunately we don't have the personnel or time to do this for you. Photography is normally prohibited and access to the car is restricted in its current Hendrick Heritage Center location. Sorry I wasn't more help but best of luck to you in finding the information you need as well as the completion of your project.

Infrastructure Manager

Hendrick Motorsports

4400 Papa Joe Hendrick Blvd

Charlotte, NC 28262

704.453.2161 work

Needless to say I am a little bummed. I completely understand that they don't have the personnal or someone available to take to some time to take the pics and send them. I was sure hopeful that I would maybe be able to fill in those blanks on the details I was hoping to find. Its not going to stop me from continuing building this build at the level I have been doing, I am very proud of it so far and just hope it turns out as good as I hope. I think I am going to try and get a hold of the guys at Snake Racing again to see if they could maybe help. Maybe they have pics of when they build it back up. Anyway yeah.... I am a little bummed out that they couldn't help. If you guys would like I could post the actual email that I sent them...

Edited by Mooneyzs
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I feel for you Chris....I've run into that so many times. Very few people outside our little circle really seem to care for what we do. Every once in a while you will find someone that does, but I've been let down more times than I can count.

Don't let it get you down though. Keep hammering away. You are doing some amazing work.

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Clay... Thank you so much for the words of encouragement. Oh n o I a not gonna let it get me down. I do have to tell you that I got a hold of Hilborn and they send me a coupe of pics with some measurements which I though was pretty cool of them to do. I know it was probably an odd request that I sent them but maybe it was overwhelming with the 30 things I asked about....lol I gotta get going and make some good headway on the build now.

Steve.... It was an absolute pleasure meeting you as well. I look forward to chatting more with you at future meets and shows. Thank you for the kind words on my build.

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That's sad news. Guess they don't need good P. R.

I contacted Don Schumacher Racing when I was researching the 66/67 Stardust AWB. Mike, the V. P. went to a lot of trouble to dig up reference pics. Although he came up empty handed, it was a valiant effort. Something the folks at Hendrick could learn a lesson from.

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Joe... Yeah its a bummer. Sad thing is that I am a huge Jeff Gordon Fan when it comes to nascar and I even put that at the end of the email guess it didn't help...lol. That is awesome that they tried to find pics for you even though they wern't able to find any pics. I will be honest I know that it would of taken maybe 30-45 mins to take the pics if that. I just wish there were better pics of the restored car out there.

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Ok Fellas... I want to show you what I have been working on tonight. Little change of pace...haha Yep I decided to work some more on the fuel pump. I am first going to show you the assembly view and an exploded view then I will show you views that compare the pictures that Carol Hilborn from Hilborn send me a little over a month ago. I used the three pictures to come up with the dimensions and get it sized just right. I drew it up in 1:1 and then I scaled it down to 1/16th scale. Here are some pics....

First off I would like to show the Assembly view, Now this isn't complete yet because I am going to measure some of my RB motion fittings and added them to the assembly model to make sure I have Holes sized properly for the fittings and making sure everything looks ok before sending it off to shapeways:

1-16_HilbornAssy_zps50826a0c.jpg

Here is an Exploded View, I decided to make this fuel pump consisting of 3 main pieces as you see here. I will be using Scale hardware bolts for the front plate:

1-16_HilbornAssy-ExplodedView_zps60c13d7

Here is Reference Pic #1 with a couple measurements from Hilborn:

DSC03904_zpsb7f7e8b4.jpg

Here is a view oriented similar to above of the 3D model:

1-16_HilbornAssy-1_zpse5e17078.jpg

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Hakan....thank you. I will definitely be showing pics of it when I get them printed. I was wanting to get a couple more pieces drawm up before I do another order from shspeways. What where you needing drawn up? Depending on what it is maybe I can help. No promises on how quick I could get to it though.

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Hello Fellas... so I did some more design work this evening.... I decided to draw up the injector hat and in the model I have the Butterflies modeled up that I purchased from Future Attraction. This injector hat still needs some more details. There is a lip that needs to be added to the front part. I need to get the inlet holes for the injector lines put in and I am also trying to figure a way to change the radius on the sides instead of being a constant radius to having it a variable radius. I should of shown the real hat but I don't have a very . I can see what I have to show as well as the resin one from Mark Johnson with is a very nice piece as well. The only reason I am going to have this 3D printed is becuase I was having trouble figuring out the best way to make the support pieces between the butterflies and for them to be identical plus I think it will help doing it this way to install the butterflies into the injector hat.

Here is the injector hat assembly with the butterflies, butterfly shaft...etc...

InjectorHatAssembly-1_zps68613162.jpg

Front View:

InjectorHatAssembly-2_zps10b51ab9.jpg

Back View:

InjectorHatAssembly-3_zps4c79c8e8.jpg

I also have to share a couple of pictures of a little something that I got in the mail today from a Very good friend of mine... Mike Garland. I got one of the 1/16th Scale Omni Funny Car Bodies that Mike and Jay Kamoto worked on together. Its is a very nice body. If anyone is interested all they need to do is get a hold of Mike. Here are two pics to share....

DP-Army-Vega6013-1_zpsaa1edb90.jpg

DP-Army-Vega6014-1_zpsdc52c38b.jpg

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Hot dang...that Omni is cool looking and I'm not much of an Omni body fan. Your injector hat looks to be spot on Chris and I can hardly wait to see this 3D printed as well.

Ok, so I gotta ask, what is the little tools sheet thingie at the back of your cutting board? Tools for some of John minions?

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Brad.... the body turned out really nice. I was jist glad to hear the Chuck will be doing decals of a car I rember as as kid. Just like you I cant want to have this printed. I am curious how it will look printed bit I have a litte work left to button it up

You talking aboit the plier rack you made and gave to a couple of us ;) I think hat Johns minions like doing sork for him they aremt very motivsted for me... haha ot may be the California Sunshine they are missing...lol

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