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The Straight Six community build


Chuck Most

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I attached the firewall and radiator support to the body shell, leaving the tiny bit of glue squeeze out between the firewall and inner fenders to be passed off as scale seam sealer. :D I sanded off the high points on the inner fenders, too, as they are way too sharp and crisp looking out of the box, looking nothing like mass-produced, stamped pieces:

71112one.jpg

71112four.jpg

I still have to remove that block-like protrusion, which is supposed to be the battery tray. :rolleyes: Granted, most of it is hidden when the battery is installed, but it's one of the weak points in the engine compartment, so out it will come:

71112three.jpg

I cleaned up the front frame rails, removing the bulges around the K-member mounting holes and filling in the holes, adding strips of very thin styrene to cap the top of the rails and provide a cleaner edge when I apply putty to fill in some sink marks and casting other small flaws. They needn't be perfectly flat and smooth, but they need improvement:

71112two.jpg

I also did some minor work on the K-member, removing the locating pins and making it look more like a Slant Six K-member, which required removing some of the extra big block bracing. I will make up some engine mounts and attach them to the K-member using the assembled engine as a locating guide.

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I guess it just looks brighter over white plastic than I thought. B)

I applied some filler on the front framerails, sanded and primed them, and they're getting closer to good:

712121.jpg

Looks like I need to pick up a '68 Dart kit for the interior bases...should've thought of that earlier. :blink::lol:

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Today I cut apart the two '68 Dart interior bases so I could use everything from the rear seat back on the stock piece, while using the opposite (front) half of the Hemi Dart interior piece. The stock interior piece has the console already in place, which is the same problem I had with the '69 GTS piece, while the Hemi piece has no console, and only a small, very subtle flat spot for the floor shifter- much easier the work with than removing the entire console and filling the opening, retexturing the floor in that area, and so on:

NewInt.jpg

I've decided to use the '68's seats and door panels, which are slightly less fancy than the '69 GTS pieces. I'm not going to be too concerned with what was correct for a '69 Dart (GT, maybe) on this build, so the '68 interior will work fine and require much less work on my part, increasing the odds of this build reaching completion by a good percentage. :D

I also decided to use the Hemi Dart hood, and fill in the scoop opening, an drill out and plug the hood pin depressions:

new69hood.jpg

I probably will create some type of underhood structure since as the underside is smooth now and lacks any detail. I'd like to have the hinges hold the hood open when it's completed, so the underside of the hood will be highly visible and should at least look passable.

Hopefully I can get the floor sections welded together tonight, then get the piece glued to the chassis and start patching and sanding on the trans tunnel.

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The interior floor halves are now one, and I'm happy with how they matched up since the only visible cut lines are located under the door panels. The seat base riser area from the stock kit was slightly higher than the Hemi's floor, but it won't be an issue once the interior is assembled and finished:

intjoined.jpg

chassisnint2.jpg

The interior base/floor was welded to the chassis/floorpan tonight, so I will get to work sanding, filling, and smoothing out the transmission tunnel and toeboard areas tomorrow. There's a huge ejector pin mark and some filler pieces will be necessary around the transmission hump:

chassisnint.jpg

chassisnint3.jpg

I need to find the headrests from the '69 kit, too, and install them on the '68 bucket seats, and I've removed the kit's torsion bars and started cleaning up the molded in overlap areas on the steering linkage, too. I think the strut bars are going to be removed next, as they don't look very good and shouldn't be too difficult to replace with some rod stock and scratchbuilt brackets on the K-member.

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Chuck, count me in with AMT's '50 Chevy Pickup. The current plan is a real wood bed, functional gas cap, modern (Read: BIG) rims and low profile tires, and a bunch of wiring and plumbing. Now, does anyone have any tips on adding a blower to a Chevy straight 6? ;)

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Liking what I'm seeing!

Mike- you could actually get special manifolds for putting a Roots-style supercharger on a six, but how cool would a front-mounted piece be? ;) I used a Paxton centrifugal blower on a Stovebolt I used in an Olds roadster I built years ago.

I might start on an off-the shelf project, as I haven't been able to get the Flathead six for the coupe yet. Need something to keep me going in the interim.

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I did a little more work on the K-member tonight, removing the torsion bars and strut rods (both of which will be replaced with rod stock) and brackets, then cleaning up more of he "overlap" areas where there is excess material between parts. I will add engine mount brackets to the topside of the K-member after I get it positively located against the frame rails.

I also glued the 3-speed A-230 trans together, so this one's gonna be a three-on-the-tree. :D I have to admit it was a great idea on Lindberg's part to create both an auto and a 3-speed manual transmissions to go behind the Slant Six. :)

kntrans.jpg

I decided to use the '68 Dart's Super Stock style hood, which required filling the scoop opening with sheet styrene and eliminating the hood pin depressions. I drilled the depressions through and plugged the holes with styrene rod, then welded it all together. The filler piece is slightly lower than the rest of the hood, but a skim coat of body filler should take care of that:

hoodplugged.jpg

I wanted to use the smooth, base model rear tail panel from the '68 kit, so I cut the '69 tail light buckets free from the '69 bumper (the Revell '69 GTS kit's bumpers have molded in bumper guard depressions, so you have to use the bumper guards...no thanks! :wacko: ). I will use the '68's rear bumper, remove the '68 buckets, add the '69 buckets and the '68 plain tail panel, and hopefully do it well enough that it won't need to be rechromed. I don't think the thin filler strip will be used with the plain tail panel, but I will see how it looks without it, and add it if necessary:

tail.jpg

The trans tunnel filler pieces I glued in last night were roughed into shape, then I discovered a small gap where the tunnel and firewall meet, so I welded two filler strips to the backside of the firewall to close the gap. The filler strips will also provide a little extra thickness where some of the firewall will be removed for bellhousing clearance:

tunnel1.jpg

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Thanks, Stephen, it's moving in the right direction. :)

My plan to keep the rear bumper chrome intact didn't last long, so it will need to be re-plated. I was able to get the '69 tail light bezels and plain tail panel test fit against the body, then welded all three pieces together with Testors liquid cement. I need to add two small filler strips beneath each bezel and better tail panel-to-bumper attachment points, but it all fits pretty well at this point:

newtail.jpg

I fine tuned the firewall blister and did another test fit with the engine and trans, so I will make any final adjustments once the engine is positively located:

fwblister.jpg

fwblister2.jpg

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Casey, you're doing some awesome work on this one, the attention to details that most people would never notice is unreal. How many of you guys would honestly have noticed the missing blister on the firewall for the starter? I know I wouldn't have, what other little gems have you got in store for us?

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Casey, you're doing some awesome work on this one, the attention to details that most people would never notice is unreal. How many of you guys would honestly have noticed the missing blister on the firewall for the starter? I know I wouldn't have, what other little gems have you got in store for us?

Thanks, for the kind words, Mike. I think people would've probably noticed, though, as the engine would've been tilted even further to the passenger side without the clearance blister. :D

I try to improve upon the kit parts without completely replacing them when possible, as sometimes just thinning, cleaning up around each part, or giving the individual parts a bit more definition makes a difference when viewed as a whole. Things like thinning the steering wheel rim, drilling out frame drain holes, and separating parts which were molded together but should be separate help to add some realism and are relatively easy to do.

Still undecided on the battery tray, but I've been looking at members' projects over at FABO.com, and I see some more changes I want to make on the '69. I may try to whip up an 8-1/4" rearend, too, as an 8-3/4" rear seems like overkill in a Slant Six-equipped car.

I'm really enjoying this build and have been very motivated to keep working on it, so kudos to Chuck for getting this CB started.

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Casey, you're doing some awesome work on this one, the attention to details that most people would never notice is unreal. How many of you guys would honestly have noticed the missing blister on the firewall for the starter? I know I wouldn't have, what other little gems have you got in store for us?

I know! If I were doing a project like Casey's, I'd have just ham-fisted a Deora six into an otherwise box stock Revell Dart and called it a day. :lol:

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Chuck, you got a picture of that set-up? I want to do something different with the engine, I just don't know which way to go yet, so point me in a direction!

Here it is... remember, I built this about seven years ago, my standards are a lot higher now! :D

1-vi.jpg

2-vi.jpg

3-vi.jpg

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While sanding the trans/bellhousing, the light bulb came on and I remembered the parts came from one of the Lindberg '64 kits, both of which are B-bodies. A- (and F-)bodies used a shorter tailhousing on the trans, so I pulled out my AMT '71 Duster kit to see if AMT got it correct:

Looks like they did, so I will need to shorten the Lindberg tailhousing a few scale inches and clean up and slightly modify the linkage, too.

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