Joe Handley

He had even said that if he had been younger after the whole Daimler mess was over, he would have returned to try and help turn things around again.

Thanks Tom! The only real complain I've had about it is the lack of suspension represented since the rear coils would look more like inflated airbags than coils and there is no strut assembly to speak of up front what so ever, the 4 lug "custom" wheels that stuck around long after Chrysler changed the Daytona to a 5 lug pattern (5×100mm or 5×4", like the 1960-mid 70's A-Bodies) with any engine, suspension, and wheel/tire combo offered, then finally the optional "V-8 Swap" that would make it truely a "No Go Show Boat" since it had no real, useable transmission (basically a PTO drirectly off the bellbousing) and then the driveshafts from a Non Turbo car that would steer the car into what ever happened to be to it's right if you could get it moving without stalling in the first place!

Thanks!

GreenJeep1998, I just posted up a bunch of pics of an '88 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z I also have posted on here and some of the Hot Wheels Diaper Dragger I plan on taking apart and refinishing.

These were an offshoot of his K-Car and mechanically related to their early minivans (although the brakes on Dad's '06 T&C look like they might still bolt on) as well. This was kind of their version of the Pony Car at the time and built using their current economy car platform, much like the Mustang being built from the Falcon back in the 60's. This box art does give you a better idea what's in the box than the AMT/ERTL era boxes did, just not as well presented as the original MPC box art for their issues of the early "4 eye" ('84-'86 or '87) cars. It honestly looks like it was built by somebody who knew little of the cars and didn't bother to learn much about them to build the red box art car.......like the buckets the headlights fit in are matte black, not body color One interesting thing about this kit is that they include half the parts to build this as a Turbo 1 "draw through" car that could be built with the A-413 3 speed auto as well as the Getrag 5 speed manual. Probably wouldn't take much to open the gates to the early "Draw Through" T1 engine pieces that are missing as well as tool the few pieces needed to build later "Blow Through" T1 that would both be right for this version of the Daytona as well. The V-8 swap parts offered are horrible and make the car less than driveable, even if it was show only! The V-8 looks like no domestic Pushrod engine I've ever seen, it doesn't have a transmission, just what is more or less a power take off or V-Drive assembly that attatches directly to the bellhousing and goes into a driveshaft assembly that would be right for a 2.2/2.5 TBI build, but would induce violent torque steer with anything that looks like it might have enough power to get out of it's own way. It also bugs me that AMT/ERTL never updated the aftermarket wheels to represent something with 5 lugs after Chrysler made that change to all the Daytonas and Lazers starting in '85, no matter the drivetrain, suspension, or rolling stock.......that said, those look like they would work well on a Japanese tuner car from that period!

Ok, couldn't sleep and ended up doing more work on the Daytona. To start, I got the front bumper assembly put together and cemented into place, as was the firewall and sunroof panel. Also tucked the rear bumper some, looks better now that it isn't sticking as far out as it had been. I also moved onto assembling the front seats and then getting into what would be the greasy bits...especially now that the 1/1 cars would be 30 years old and likely "unloved". I partially assembled the engine and transaxle and removed the A/C since there was no bracket for it on the head or on the trees. Finally, I'm putting a rather simple little handling trick for the K-Cars and their offshoots on it that has been know by the Shelby Dodge community for a couple decades now. The stock axles on all of the K-Cars (the L-Body Omni-rizon and Charger/Duster don't count here) use a u channel axle that is welded to a pair of swing arm like arms under the back seats then located with a track bar then dampened with normal tube shocks (which apparently can be used on a pre Tri-5 Chevy when the coils have been cut to drop the front ends?!) For the trick, if you clamp or weld steel strip or L-Channel over the channel in the rear axle, it changes the roll stiffness like a rear sway bar would and you can tune the effect by how it's welded or how many u-bolts you are holding these parts together with. More welds and/or u-bolts used stiffens the U-channel and tightens up the cornering.

Just getting this Daytona started. The headlight doors, nose piece, and sunroof filler will be glued in, with the latter being smoothed into the roof so it looks like a normal coupe. Now I'm probably going to tuck that back bumper in a bit, even though that shelf like appearance is about right, it would look better if it was less "Dorkfish" like. There are some sink marks in corners of the spoiler, any suggestions on the best way to fill that would be appreciated. Now here's the chrome tree, not sure if I'm going to use the Turbo 1 valve cover on this tree, or use the unplated Turbo 2 valve cover (no script on it). No matter what, the T1 cover and the wheel faces will be dechromed and finished more like stock for the T2 covers and the wheels may have the centers painted body color with the lips painted in either silver, aluminum, or with a Moltow pen.....not sure yet since I still would swap them for a more period correct aftermarket wheel and tire of some sort.

Started my Daytona.

So, who's with me here?

Did you post these on your Instagram? I think I might follow you there and these pics look familiar.......

Congrats! It's difficult staying away from my local Portillo's stores!

Thanks Guys, I know the wheels and tires on the Pontiac are a little on the large side (had one or two of those kits), but I've yet to look at one of the Probe kits. I have to figure out where I put it (it's probably in the back of my Jeep), but I did buy one of the 90's AMT/ERTL '49 Ford Coupe kits a couple years in 2017 or 2018 and those came with the 80's Gatorbacks that might work with the kit supplied OEM Mopar Sawtooth/Eggshell wheels (below) instead. This is the kit, the rims need a dip in the purple pond to remove the heavy handed chrome plating from them! The box art wheels would be great on a period Japanese tuner car, since they're the right size and 4 lug, but the Daytona was running 5 lug (A-Body style 5x4"/5x100mm pattern, IIRC) from '85-'93 on all the cars, even the 2.2 TBI/Auto cars.

That is stunning!

Why do I get the feeling that it's going to be like that once my niece is old enough.

Just paid off the last of what I owed for my hospital stay!

Lucky you

Either did I until I found that store by accident in Lombard one day, mentioned one time while picking up an order at the Winfield location and one of the young ladies working that night told me that.

If we're doing a memorial build off, I already found one of my RC2 reissue Daytona Shelby Z kits!

Does anybody make sets of 1/25 5 lug FWD style 15" or 16" wheels? Any kind of basketweave/BBS or Minilight/Watanabi 8 spoke would work well, or anything that will look period correct on the AMT '88 Daytona Shelby kits. I'd even go for just a good set of Gatorbacks to use with the kit wheels, since the tires really don't look right on any of the Turbo K-Cars.

Many times, turns out there's one in Lombard as well and they're each run by a sibling. The sister runs the Winfield store while the brother has the Lombard store. Lately Mom has wanted pizza from a new place on Geneva in Winfield across from where Adamo's was that's called Maciano's. Next time you're back up this way, check out this Little Italian place, they're also eat in and are worth it being on the cool side if you drag them back up West Chicago like I did last night, very filling too. Next time we try this, I need to bring an insolated bag with me.

It was so hot in here, I still didn't get to sleep until after 4am. Kust happy I have the 10am-7pm for the next 2 weeks vs the 8am-5pm shift I've been in the last couple months, 4 hours of sleep is better than 2!

That was my friend's other complaint about the car, compared to the Mustang and Challenger, you couldn't see out of it.

Power just came back on, at one point ComEd said it was going to be 1am, they got my area powered back up by 12:38am!

I don't believe he had anything to do with the Delorean.

Kinda want to dig out one of my FWD Daytona kits now too.