customline

Doesn't look half bad, JR! Purple works well for the era.

A little update...scratched a couple of springs, set up framework for springs, added cross member to front and made clearance for bottom pulley of blower drive. Scratched spring mounting hardware. Wired engine and added blower drive. Thanks for your unalterable interest.

Some great work, Greg. I've got a bunch of 'Vettes to build but the '61/62 body style is my fave. I'm following ?

Well, I'm the only dummy in this house, just ask my wife. ? My collector is a fast-food soda straw. I grab extras whenever.....many different sizes....good to have on hand. I didn't even need to glue them on.

Thank you, Wayne, 10% should do nicely.

ATTENTION I made a correction to an earlier posting so in case you're interested..... I stated I used .080 styrene rod for the header tubes. I did not. I used 1/16" styrene rod. Which is not to say .080 wouldn't work but I can't vouch for it. ?

Just a few pix to keep it on the front page. I got headers! ? I found the blower drive is forcing the engine to move rearward. I'm concerned about the front cross member. Hearding cats comes to mind. I gotta make some room or I'm headed into "altered" territory. I think some gasser rules allow for a small amount of set-back. I'm sure someone will be happy to advise me. Thanks for looking! ? ? ? ?

Well....GET STARTED!.....thanks Brock. ? There's no way to use the tub as designed. I may need parts of it but can't use it whole. There's a lot of work ahead. Gotta make a new firewall and coordinate the interior floor with it. That transmission has a huge bottom pan and I had to cut away some of the Challenger's floor pan. I'm way down the rabbit hole now, Carl. I couldn't do this if I was totally sane. I surprised myself, Greg. I figured on trying styrene and whaddaya know? .080 rod will bend more without breaking than I thought it would. Cold. No heating other than my hot little hands....I took a quick measurement, made some pencil marks and simply bent the rod slowly. The two center pipes first to establish a foundation and then the outer ones which require a little more manipulation and I glued the straight runs together with solvent. The pipes are not glued to the flange yet. I will need to paint the flanges separately as they are glued to the block. The flanges are .010 or .015sheet and they were drilled before they were cut to size and shaped with sanding sticks while taped to a rigid backing. The heads were drilled first and the flanges were matched to the holes in the heads. This engine, because of the spark plug locations, is pretty difficult to do this with. Not much room to work. Thanks, Bob. The solder I have is just too big for this engine but I have made headers with it several times on larger engines but it's kinda heavy and I prefer not to if there is another way. The 1/16" styrene seemed like the ideal size for this one. It looks in scale. In 1:24 it's an 1-1/2" pipe.

Ta freekin da ?

Yeah, John, what Bob said. But it might be fun to just build another frame and use the kit frame for reference. Maybe just replace the rails. Use what's good and replace what ain't ?. Above all, Make Big Daddy proud! (and don't be a Rat Fink!) I'm following, get busy.

Yeah, I don't think I'd have jumped on that deal either unless the '59 was a ragtop and my Nomad was completely rusted out. ?. As far as solder goes, I have used it a few times on larger engines but I don't like it because it's heavy. I'm planning on using styrene rod this time. Wish me luck ?

Thanks, RRR, I'll try not to disappoint. Thanks for your interest, Bob. That Nomad - a phantom? Cool idea. The latest mock-up. I decided to go with the SBC from the '30 coupe kit, blower and all. But I gotta make proper fender well headers. ?. Ignore the wires ?

Congrats, JR, it's a beauty! On to the next!

Though they are still quite prominently featured, I was able to rectify the situation without a total re-do (and I am no stranger to that ?). As I explained earlier, I love the way they look ?.....so now I need to concoct a front axle and suspension, modify the interior tub or abandon it altogether in favor of a scratch job. And somewhere along the way I gotta come up with a proper engine. Do I smell a rat? Maybe, but a blown small block might work for this. I think I have one or two. What about a 455 Olds?....Stay tuned.....

Thanks, Carl and Guido, I appreciate your interest. I enjoy building something that was not intended by the kit maker. We are all learning, Carl, and I'm happy to share what I learn with anyone who is willing to tag along. I fixed the ladder bars that were almost scraping the pavement. They were glued to the rear axle housing but, luckily not very well ?. Pix later today.

Thanks, Mike and Dave. The Chevy Nova seems to be a very popular platform for a gasser. Dave, the unibody construction necessitates adding a solid member to catch the front end of the ladder bars (on my gasser, anyway). I am a ladder bar freak. I love the way they look. My ladder bars are heavy, over-built monstrosities that are a prominent feature of my gasser builds. I love them. They say " There is so much torque here that I need these huge ladder bars to keep the rear axle in the car." No clamping , no bolting...only welded to the rear axle housing with full penetration welds with 3/4" filets, pre-heated, post heated. MT'd and x-rayed ? . Anyway, I fixed the wheel openings with some half-round and raised the front end of the springs another 1/8" for tire clearance. I closed up the wheel wells with .015 sheet. Also, I over-built a pair of ladder bars which will be painted yellow ?. Nothing says "GASSER" like 5 foot long , yellow ladder bars. That, and over-sized sheet metal, homemade hood scoops (oh yeah ?). Yeah, they're kinda low.....?

The radiused openings will need to be "molded" to make the job look "professional". The top of my radii are very close to the side trim which I would like to keep, and many of these cars are devoid of side trim. I think I can do something like "Gangreen" here.? and still keep the trim. Maybe. ?. Not like this ?

A little progress today. I found a wheel/tire combo that I feel works well for a gasser style street machine. Cragar SS mags surrounded by '60s era white walls. I fabbed a crossmember to hang the ladder bars off of with integrated driveshaft loop. I had it "welded" on the outer framework but thought maybe it should be built from aluminum and bolted onto the framework so I removed it and added mounting plates. The ladder bars in the picture are from an ill-fated '39 Chevy gasser that hit the wall when I broke the one piece flip-nose. I will probably fab up new ones for this one; they need to be a little more prominent than the ones pictured. The Challenger floor pan needed some wider rear fender wells so I grabbed the Micro and went outside to grind away with impunity. I experienced some indecisiveness about keeping the wheels inside as opposed to butchering that nice body but regained my focus and just did it. Next task is to close up the rear wells (tubbing?) And figure out how to create the rear floor because it's going to show. I need to consider the whole interior at this point because the kit tub will not be used, at least not the way it was intended. The roll cage and some sort of spartan upholstery will be needed. Thanks for checking up on me. ?

Oh.....perfect! Mickeys and red lines. Icing on the cake, JR. ? EXCELLENT ?.

Amen, Graham, only limited by the builder's imagination and the rule book.

Thanks for jumping in, Rick and Bob. I'm following my nose on this one. The last time I did a gasser it ended badly. I need to dig that one out and maybe use some parts from it. I'm still gathering ideas and it's the technical stuff where I need to concentrate because I have no "hands on" with 1:1 race cars. My imagination will take me only so far. There's much freedom of expression involved with the genre. It's an art-form but it's also a race car and I want to be fairly accurate in the technical aspects. Any help with that stuff will be greatly appreciated. All comments, positive or negative, are always welcome. Thanks for those great pix, Rick, that stuff is extremely useful. Any photos taken in the pits that show the way things are built are pure gold.

Just musing over some photos of 1st generation Novas out in the ether. I kinda like the "street-gasser" idea; just a gasser with mufflers and tags. The first one may be nostalgic for some of us- it was easily a $250.00 car when I was a Junior in High School. There's some cool ideas down below. Thanks for hanging.

Covered up the surgery with ( aluminum ? ) diamond plate, seemingly for covering up a rusted out floor. To raise the car I added styrene strip to the framework and "reinforced " the framework corners to prepare for heavy duty rear shackles. That's it for now, thanks for looking . Hey look, I'm winging it. Very shade tree.

I jumped in with both feet and grabbed the big razor saw. I wanted to use the last few mms of the Nova floor pan to add to the back of the dodge unit to facilitate a clean joint with the body. The wheel base is virtually the same but the Nova is a bit wider and somewhat longer. I added 1/8" Evergreen strips to the edges between wheel wells. I figured I should raise the car in the rear and I plan to radius rather than tub; I like the look. More to follow,, Thanks for stopping by ?.

I know, right?