Gumball

looking good

Some starting progress, got it all apart and im beginning on the engine. According to my old man the engine was originally stock black, equipped with triple Webber carbs (with either round or triangular air filters) and most likely some crazy internals considering his most impressive speeding ticket was in this car at "well over the 120mph mark" ill be adding the Canadian rust to the engine soon.

link to under glass

Thanks! i wish the body panels lined up better for the photos, i think when it was originally nailed together the body wasn't sitting in properly leaving it warped in the weirdest ways.

Nice colour! I always find that the old Mopars look great with the Redline tires and some 4-5 slot old school steel rims.

My dad is cool... and yeah I know you think your dad is cool but my dad is cooler. But in all seriousness my dad yous to own some pretty cool cars, each one with some crazy story behind it, His favorite car being his cursed 70-72 Datsun 240z. My original idea was to build this for him for fathers day, but things got in the way. Regardless Im going to do it anyways. So I have a somewhat built, yard sale Tamiya 240z im planning on rebuilding into the 240 he had before it got sent to the wreckers, however more capable of driving on the street. As far as I can remember the story goes that the first owner purchased the vehicle brand new from the dealer. The car was enjoyed for a number of years before at some point the original owner got t-boned at an intersection. The car was then sold to the second owner whom proceeded to fix it up, repairing the car and adding some triple Weber carbs, and Brembo brakes. The car was once again enjoyed for a few years before getting t-boned at an intersection. The car was then sold to my dad. My dad proceeded to add a stiffer rear end, an aftermarket stereo, and the beefy rear tires. My dad got in about 5 accidents in about 2 years, each time getting t-boned in an intersection. He got into so many accidents he gave up repainting the front fenders, with the final accident sending the radiator into the fan cutting a perfectly circular hole in the rad. At that point he gave up and scraped the car. The 1970-72 Datsun 240z has been a favorite of his since the day it came out, so for fun I thought id rebuild the car he remembers having.

This was originally one of my dads old kits he built when he was a kid. The original build of this kit was prob done sometime back in the 70s, and for whatever reason it was originally nailed together. Complete with solder exhaust headers and lazily somewhat brushed paint job, with most of the stuff built out of styreene and other things I found lying around, except for the supercharger which came from an old MPC street charger kit and the wheels. Before you ask the rims and tires are off some random unknown Tamiya F1 car kit, and i was unwilling to get rid of the front tires even though they are way too wide. Also every now and again the front clip and door randomly decide to line up properly and other times they dont, really whats happening here is that the kit has gained sentience and is fighting me every chance it gets. Original build link here

I think its done, its now going to be under glass.

Started on the foot pedals, seat, brake reservoir, and just all the little details

more progress, finishing up the slap shiftier/lightning rod shifter and getting started on the scratch built bomber seat and pedals

some more progress. i was having a huge radiator problem for a while with the radiator not fitting, that was until i stumbled across hotrodmatty's post on his 57 ford gasser build with a clever radiator solution. other than that theirs just a little more work done here and there.

Just some more progress

Although i couldn't agree with you more, the tires i decided to use are off of some old Tamiya F1 car. They happen to be the closest things i got to drag radials that would fit onto a 1/16th scale. I would use the back tires and save the fronts for another project except for the fact that i dont have any extras of these wheels unless i start picking apart my already 100% still all together F1 kits. On the flip side i do like the look of the big GOODYEAR lettering on the tires, and the rims look pretty sharp as well. So i do understand your issue, and i do agree that it doesn't look right, but really its all i got and it doesn't look half bad.

Back again finally with some real good progress this time. I think this may be the first time i have ever brushed a paint design onto a car, with it suprizingly turning out far better then I hoped! The car is now sitting on 4 wheels, the dashboard is now complete along with a nifty little CB cop radio to go along with it, the floor and inner door panels have now been stripped, as well as all the body panels are now painted, except that the clear coat ran on the hood so ill be having to repaint it. Sadly my phone recently broke and i dont have any picture of the body cleared and chromed yet. im also currently racking my brains about the flip front and how im going to go about it, i cant do a hinge with a single pivot point as the front end wouldn't move because it sits on the frame rail, i would need to make a hinge that not only tilts forward but lifts upwards as well, the only problem is mounting at that point as there would be no where to mount it. If anyone has built any of these old AMT 55 Chevy kits as a flip front, i would be interested in how exactly you made and installed the hinge.

Well some more progress is coming along. I ended up taking some time out to clean my bench to make some more room for the 55 now that the mercedes is practically done. Hopefully I didn't loose anything off the engine as I just dropped it a few moments ago, currently reglueing it back together...

Well if theres two things I am is cheap and reasorcefull, heck you should see my last daily driver before it kicked the bucket, nothing but zip ties and duck tape I tell ya!

Actually what I ended up doing was using the original rear springs in the front by heating them up and bending them alot, giving them alot more of an arch for more of what I come to think as a gasser look, and I kept the wheels in place by using the stock front axle holder shaft, steering knuckle thing and the stock rear shocks. So essentially yeah it was in the kit but I just modified it

For sure helpful! That's where the tires came from as well as many other parts! Still waiting on the wood lights though, I do apreiceate all the Headlights but the wood lights to me would really be the cherry on top for this kit.

Now thats cool looking!

Yeah im currently building mine, it is an awesome kit and i would for sure build one again if i got my hands on one. I think by accident i got way to many parts, so I have a lot of spares if you need any. However it seems that depending on which JoHan kit your looking most of the parts between them are slightly different, i ended up slightly modifying some of the parts in order for them to fit nicely.

I think she's just about done! Although still a bit more to go. I'm still happen to be missing the spare tire as well as the door handles, the ladder of which I made some out of solder. Strangely enough I think that they must have changed this kit a few times as I have discovered that the original grill that came with this car sits a little bit lower, other thinks like the wheel hubs not fitting into the wheels, the exhaust hoses not fitting under the hood, and even the rear bumpers not fitting up perfectly. Luckily iv been able to slightly modify the parts iv gotten so far to fit properly, and it still looks good AAs far as I'm concerned. This may be put off for a few weeks though as I'm currently waiting for the shipment of my final touches, other then that paint is done, clear coat is done (enough. Clear that I can see my darn finger prints) body is assembled, and almost about all the chrome is installed! I really do appreciate every one who's helped me out with parts so far I really couldn't be more thankful

Just some more progress still needs some touch ups

Some more progress. I really wanted to use the supercharger and carb I got in the mail but sadly my makeshift one is glued in tight and it aint budging, kinda a shame but if I ever build another one of these I would have a supercharger.

Progress has been a little slow, as I find myself mostly focused on the mercedes build of mine. So far iv managed to repaint the rear end, re glue the rear struts together, and iv managed to strip most of the paint off of the body pannels. I apologise for any waiting.

Just some more progress