gonzo64nova

Im a big fan of this style of truck, so I'll be watching for up-dates. Please show the chassis so we can see how you will go about lowering it that much.

I am really liking the look of this, the whitewall pie crust slicks on the steelies were a perfect choice. One small suggestion is to shorten the exhaust a little so it isnt shooting straight into the rear tire and maybe an angle cut on the end, and that will allow you to move the engine back toward the firewall a bit. This is inspiring me to dig out my DD kit and create something cool.

I picked up this kit for cheap at a LHS, covered in dust on a back shelf. Its a pretty basic kit but Ithought it had potential. I started gluing all the separate pieces together on the nose and molded them together to represent a fiberglass pro stock nose clip. Then I started on the chassis and added the cage and big wheel tubs. I've also scratch built a lenco trans and hood scoop. I hav'nt decided if this is going to be a "what if" of a well known driver / team or just a paint scheme representing a local team or speed shop. I still have tons more to build so enjoy the beginning pictures for now.

I like the very slight weathering ,that's the way I always build mine. I think this is how you take a basic build and hit it out of the park. Do you have any chassis shots????

That was quite a score dante, Ive been looking for one of those kits for some time. You did a great job on it!

Wow you guys were really diggin to find that old build. I cant believe its been 5 years! I still have it in prime with alot more fab work done on it. I dont know what motivated me to build it but it just started to come together and the pieces started to fall into place. The engine is totally scratch built from various magic marker tubes,marker caps,1/25th wheels, copper wire and some aluminum bits. If you look closely at the side shot youll see a air cleaner duct from a truck kit. I was at a race at Atco Raceway and some jet cars were running so I got to look them over pretty well to help out with the details.You can see some more build pics at the link below. John- I dont mind the hijack when you share your builds, its just awesome , I am always blown away by the details in your vehicles. http://public.fotki.com/gonzo64nova/jet-dragster-build/

Nice job on the 41! I really like your choice of colors. Do the wide whites and steelies come with that kit??

George,thanks for the help ,but your measurements seem very small,are you measuring in milimeters? If you could measure them with a digital micrometer that would be a big help. BILL

Do you have any dimensions on the M/T radials (both sizes) , I would like to see if they will fill out the wheel wells on a couple of projects Im working on.-Bill

The shifter with the ball on top controls the forward and reverse functions of the trans. The buttons(air shifters) control the other gears. To make a run the shifter with the ball is moved forward. The linelock button on top of the shifter is engaged (to hold the racecar at the starting line) when the starting lights flash the clutch and linelock button are released simultaniously and as rpm increases the shift light comes on 3 times(4 speed) and the driver pushes each button to engage the next gear when the light flashes. The top button is 2nd gear and goes down in order 3,4 ,and sometimes 5 speeds.

Your Gremlin could be built as a M/P,gasser or Pro Stock car. M/P rules stated any American made enigine and trans could be used. Same for a gasser, the Pro stock car would need an engine the same make as the car. Hope this helps

John, your scratch building skills are nothing short of phenominal, I look forward to each up date and learn something new everytime I view them. I have worked on both blown and nitrous Pro/Mod combinations so I appreciate your level of detail even more. The one thing that stands out to me are the addition of the nitrous bottles, if your building to standard association rules a second power adder would not be allowed but if its an outlaw build then all is well. Very impressive, I cant wait for the painting stage. BILL

I love these unusual builds,they always require alot of scratch building but thats half the fun.Does it still vibrate so the girls will like it too!

I started on this MPC switchers kit phaeton body with a scratch built frame and Halibrand quickchange rear.It has balsa wood floors,stained to age them.I've also scratch built the inner door panels to make it look like a stripped down hot rod that ran at Bonneville and the drag strip occasionally.I also built some bomber seats for it.It will be powered by a Parts Pack Caddy engine with 6 strombergs on top.

Nice job on that old digger.The body you've created really makes it look retro.All the early diiggers had body work that wrapped around the back of the car like yours. Is that the Hemisphere chassis?

As usual your attention to detail and execution are top notch Wayne! The paint scheme is really great.

Thanks for all the compliments it keeps me building! Rich Cummings- by all means Rich use any or all of them,thats why I post my builds,and enjoy looking at other builds here.If you have any questions along the way just ask. CB-Yes it is 1/12th scale... all the RM chopper kits are the same,I've also found alot of the 1/25th scale car kits like the Revell 70 Dodge Challenger has an enormous Hilborn style scoop and carbs that work well in the 1/12th scale.

I started with an RM Torch kit and modified just about everything on the bike in some way or another.A lot of people build the "bling-bling"bikes (not that theres anything wrong with that!) so I figured I would build this bike as a sort of back yard build.Flat black,a little rusty,with the frame painted to look like bare metal with the welds showing. Frame: I de-raked it and bent the back bone to lower it slightly.I then cut out the 2 forward down tubes and made a single one with lightening holes in it.I found some very small chrome twisted rods used in making necklaces at Michaels,so I removed the kit shiter arm and brake arm and replaced them with these.A neck gusset was created out of some styrene diamond plate material. Tank and Fender: I stretched the kit tank with another one I had to better match the proportions of an old Sportster tank.I then added some rivets and a small strip around the bottom and painted it silver.I repeated this on the rear fender and added small small diameter styrene rod to the edges of the fender to give it an older look and resemble a front fender turned around backward (a common trick in the old days).I then added a hood ornament from a 55 chevy kit to top off the tank Billy Lane style. Forks: Shortened them a little,with fork boots made out of bendable drawing straws painted flat black.The upper tubes were covered in BMF. Engine:Dechromed some and black washed added to dull down the remaining chrome.An overly large velocity stack from a 1/25th car kit donated the stack and its carburetor,and a fuel line was added.The oil tank got stripped and painted gold metal flake with a spinner cap from a 1/25th car wheel as a fill cap.I scratch built the primary cover to look like an old aluminum cast cover.I cut the maltese cross out of the original cover and added it to the sissy bar.I also converted it to a jockey shift and added a shifter handle.The exhaust was made from the kit pieces by shortening them and adding the machine gun ends on them.I then wrapped them in masking tape cut down to a more realistic looking width and painted it flat grey. I also hand painted some flames on the primary belt. Wheels and Tires: I dechromed them and painted them black with silver spokes.I painted on the white walls and dirtied them up a little. Handle bars and Headlight: The "ape hangers" are made out of plastic rod with the kit hand grips added and painted semi gloss black.A throttle cable was added. The head light got a small strip added down the center and a visor was added to the light,then both were covered with BMF. Enjoy the pictures and if you have any questions fire away.

Your funny car builds are always perfect! The colors,ride height,everything

The engine mounts look pretty accurate to me.The reason they didnt break in the "old days" was because the chassis flexed so much,they were constructed of muffler tubing back in the day.I read a story about Wild Willie Borsch and he said if they bounced it off the guard rail at an event,that night they would look for a local muffler shop to get some tubing and a welder.Pretty scary considering the horsepower they had,but thats what made the men that drove them drag racing "gods" The overall detail in your build is outstanding! I really like the brakes and all the linkage,you usually dont see clutch linkage added very often.

I think your description in your heading is a little confusing...normally when you say dragsters you are refering to the long(or sometimes short) open wheel drag cars ie. top fuel,alcohol dragster,etc.You might want to rephrase it to read Drag Car Build Off I think it might help the response with the "door slammer" crowd.

Are those older style contingency decals still available? Great job on the 55!

Tim,do you have any engine pictures of the the red Rat Packer?

I just started this project about a week ago,it's an old Garlits Swamp Rat XXX model I built years ago.I scratch built the jet engine and the back half of the chassis.I've also used the nose piece from the Castrol T/F kit and added the ground effects lip to the lower body.More photos on my Fotki site...Enjoy! fotki.com/gonzo64nova/

Here's a 55 Gasser I started a while ago and just getting back to finishing