Rocking Rodney Rat

Thanks, Mike. That's very kind of you to say that. -RRR

Well, it's been the better part of a year since I worked on this build. Once I got it painted, the fitment of the fenders to the body was leaving a gap. The driver side has more of a gap than the passenger side (?). I got frustrated with it and threw it in a box. New year, new opportunity. I started fitting and futzing around with this again yesterday... sorry for that crappy pic.... ------------------ I glued on a wedge shaped piece to the the bottom of the fender where it meets the frame. This forces the fender up in to the body. I also carefully (since it's already painted) sanded down the fender opening on the body where the fitment was the worst. This seems to have fixed the problem. I did add a small strip on the passenger fender as well to snug it to the body. I painted up the white wedge with the Tamiya Pure Red. It will be hidden by the tire, so it won't be obvious... Now, let's see if I can throw this together. It's interesting revisiting a build that sat in a box for the better part of a year, as I try to remember how this was all going together... -RRR

Thanks, Bill! -RRR

I believe that's on the Time Machine Chevelle AWB decal sheet. -RRR

My building has slowed way down lately. I had a few builds that got mothballed for a variety of reasons this year. The only three I finished were all drag cars... -RRR

Amazing variety in your stellar work, Claude! -RRR

One final build for the year! This is a mash-up of the MPC "Streaker Vette" and the AMT "Rat Packer" altered wheelbase Chevy II with a few added bits and pieces. Paint is Testors Extreme Lime Ice with Mystic Emerald accents. More pix here: https://public.fotki.com/jferren/67-corvette-gasser-/ -RRR

Here's the final mockup. This one is done, I'll be posting 'under glass' soon.... -RRR

Rule #1. Don't use Rustoleum. There is no rule #2. -RRR

Thanks, Tommy. I do occasionally check out SEGA goings on posted on H.A.M.B. -RRR

Thanks, Jim! Happy Holidays!! -RRR

Moving along to the engine placement and exhaust now...I glued the firewall in place and cleaned up the intersection of the Corvette floorpan and the rear tubs... I added an extended tail piece to the transmission so it now meets the crossmember..... The next step is to extended the primary tubes of the headers so they reach the heads. I found some pieces of old AMT funny car exhaust tubes that are roughly the same diameter of the headers for extensions... ---------------------------------- Header extensions have been glued on.... -------------------------------- both headers have been extended, sanded down, puttied in and sanded some more... --------------------------- The headers are a very snug fit.....new motor mounts were fabricated up, slightly behind the original mounts that were removed...the driveshaft will be shortened an RCH or two.... That's all for today... -RRR

Time to turn to on the body. The first task is to remove the wing windows. Done. I glued on the front fascia and eliminated the side lights. I'm no expert on Corvettes, but that front wheel opening looks way too long to my eyes... ----------------------- Let's close it up a bit, even if it's not really accurate, it looks better to me... ----------------------------- a schmear of putty and some elbow grease will make that look smooth..... ----------------------------- I filled in the bumper slots and the big license plate area....I'm going to leave the tail light holes in place....a drag chute added in will snug it all together. ------------------------------ I filled in the quarter panel louvers, radiusized the rear wheel openings and added in a trim piece along the bottom made of Evergreen strip and half-round and gave it a shot of primer. Some more work needed, but not too bad. I spent quite a bit of time scribing out the very faint door gaps.....(a sneak peek of the headers shown here, more on them later).... As always, thanks for following along... -RRR

Yeah, that's worth a makeover, nice chop... -RRR

I made some quick work on the interior. Since I added the rear tubs, the back half of the tub needed to be hacked off and replaced with a smooth package tray... There are mounting tabs on the body and I made careful measurements and drilled out the new tray to make sure I have an accurate location for the tub... -------------------------- A spartan race interior with a single seat and the rollbar from the AWB kit.... More later.... -RRR

The next step is cutting down the traction bars... ------------------------ like so..... Next I turn to the body, it needs quite a bit of work... More later.... -RRR

LOL...yeah, I knew this kit had been issued under another name (maybe several times?), so you know what I'm starting with.... -RRR

I think it is a bit of perspective, the frame will be back a tad further than shown and then a bit of careful wheel well massaging on both the front and rear, will make it all fit.... Here's a straight on shot, taken with the body upside down on the bench and the the pic flipped 180 degrees.... there is a little wiggle room front to back between the frame and the body. The Corvette floor pan literally just rests on the interior tub. This Corvette kit is really mediocre at best.... -RRR

Ok, moving on to grafting on the front and rear ends of the AWB chassis to the Corvette floor pan... fit and futz, file, sand, test fit some more, futz some more....gloo the ends together and add a little triangle support. It's not exactly square, but I'm not going to correct it now...in hindsight, I should have braced the back part of the AWB frame/spring mount piece to keep it square...too late now... ------------------------------------- cut off the back part of the Corvette floor pan.... ----------------------- mark where the cuts to be made on the front mounts of the rear springs..... -------------------------- like so...notice that the rear of the AWB floor pan has been shaped to fit the Corvette body...... ---------------------- drop the chassis into the body with a blob of Blu-tack to hold the front end to the body....perfect!!! ------------------ A test fit of the front and rear axles shows it all lines up pretty well!!! More to follow, thanks for looking.... -RRR

That would be a fun build! -RRR

the blown big block Chevy from one of the AMT AWB kits....I'm going to extend the headers to clear the frame, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.....

Looking good, Tim....I'm not sure if my sub has expired or not... -RRR

Here's my latest project. I bought this MPC Corvette kit on a whim. Frankly, it's pretty humble, about the only good part about it is the kidney bean style "Halibrand" wheels recently added to the kit. Once I started looking at it, I figured it would make an interesting gasser project using parts from the AMT altered wheelbase kits series since I had a few bits and pieces laying around. here's the kit I'm starting with.... ------------------------ Here's the "yard sale" of parts.... ---------------------------------- The plan is to cut of both ends of the Corvette frame and graft on the front and rear ends of the AWB frame. The AWB frame is a part I've had for decades. I stripped off the brushed on black paint. The fit is almost perfect. The back part of the Vette interior tub will be cut off in favor of a smooth package tray. More on that later..... ---------------------------------- I cut off the front of the Vette frame.... ---------------------------------- I then trimmed off both ends of the AWB frame... -------------------------- The next step will be to cut off both ends of the AWB frame and graft it onto the Corvette floor pan. More to follow.... -RRR

KK and I (mostly me) made the tank out of the top halves of the old Monogram Long John drag car (turned around backwards) and a vacuformed nose cone for a rocket (Estes?). Lots of pix here: https://public.fotki.com/jferren/kr-kustomsrods-bell/ Tons of fun! -RRR

I use Blu-tack https://diy.bostik.com/en-PH/products/stationery-craft/blu-tack all the time to hold parts together during mock-up. It's a reusable putty that doesn't leave any residue. Indispensable. not being glue, you don't have to wait for it to dry unlike white glue (which I do use sometimes). -RRR