Gumball

Even though my current car right now is my first car its still pretty mean machine. not as cool as some of the other vehicles on this list my 2007 5.3L Trailblazer is still fun to drive (the picture is not of my truck, my truck sadly has a blown engine im currently rebuilding, also mine has better looking wheels) And yes mine does (did) burnouts just like the picture!

One day, while looking for reference pictures of Gasser engines i stumbled across a 3D image model thing (prob from some kind of game)of a late 70's Fiat 147. The cool part about the image was that the back end of the Fiat was cut out so that the transverse mounted 4cyl dragster engine can stick out the back. being someone who likes weird and cool hot rods, seeing this picture made me want to build it or at least something like it. Im curious if theirs any kits with a car body along those lines. I already found a few 1/24-26th scale 1st gen VW Golfs, a few Fiats, Renaults etc, although they were priced in the $150-$650 range (which is kinda insane considering what im looking to do). Im guessing that would have something to do with the rarity of the kits, which makes me wonder if theirs any "less rare" (cheaper) kits made by some more common manufacturers. All I would really need is the body to do what i want to do, Ill put the reference picture below.

Oh now that's cool! It makes a little more sense now.

Just made some disc brakes as well as the rack for the pit man arm steering setup. Also rear end is getting fixed I'm slowly straightening it out. I actually ran out of both superglue and paint stripper, I ordered in both. Luckily the hardware stores opened up to the public this morning meaning I was able to go in and buy some glue. Paints tripper will have to wait. Just chipping away at it every day.

Some new solder exhaust, and some more progress with the front end. I ended up breaking off the rear end. it was kinda out of wack, the wheel wells didn't quite line up so I heated it back up to straighten it out. I got another neat "more then one tone" paint job, give it a cool 60s-70s look.

This is cool! I like seeing the Jo Han Mavericks and Comets getting built, makes me exited to start on mine!

Man, this quarenteen is driving me crazy. Nothing but rain! Leaves me with nothing else to do but add more detail to the kit. I'm almost at the point now where there's almost nothing left to add to the engine! At least I'm not nailing it together... As of yet...

Made some tubs out of a rattle can primer cap. Still needs some work.

Just some more progress on the build from yesterday, really nothing much has changed today other then the position of the engine and 4 link rear end. I did this due to the body placement. The rear of the waggon sat two low where the bumper was touching the ground. As well the supercharger was intruding on the firewall. All fixed now.

Thanks! I seem to have those kind of outside of the box ideas when it comes to some of these kits, and I really do enjoy creating these crazy kit bashing ideas.

I'm glad you like it so far. But hopefully I won't disappoint you all when I show you how crappy the chassis is. It's like the old glue in some spots ended up eating away parts of the floor. So it's kinda super ugly. But I have already cut this one up and I don't want to cut up another good floor off another good 55 to use on a not so perfect body etc. I guess I forgot to mention that this is actually one of the first models my dad built way back when he wasn't far off my age. In fact all the tri five Chevy are his (including the rat rod 57 Nomad I put a Hemi in a while back) so I'd rather not cut up more of his kits. Good thing it's underneath the car and not the body itself. So far it's actually taken a lot of work to get the chassis looking the way it does now.

Thanks! I'm glad you like the car.

Updated update

Custom velocity stacks, as well as just a general engine update

Oh man that sucks. Good thing you pointed it out to me now, I would have forgotten the body mold lines as well.

shoot totally missed that, thanks for pointing it out. and yes on a closer look it looks like some weird molding lines

4 link complete

Rear diff update

Update.

I agree, the front is all ready cut for the flip front and I don't think there will be any room for the horns anyways. On the flip side the car is coming real close to becoming barely street legal. I'll try and not go overboard and neglect the "legal" part of a street dragster. But at the end of the day welding a 4 link rear setup in a vehicle is still legal at least in my neck of the woods, but I really wouldn't know about anywhere else.

yeah its kinda weird, although the original box art for the kit shows the turbo almost the exact same way the turbo is super cool and all, but i'm probably going to end up not using it due to my plans for some supercharged velocity stacks. Actually forget that, perhaps i can figure out a way to accommodate both the turbo and the supercharger together while allowing velocity carbs above that. i'm just trying to figure out how that would all work the way i'm thinking it, perhaps for now ill save the turbo for another future project.

Don't worry my freind I have gotten it apart! It also came with some custom fur carpeting inside it. I have also gotten my hands on some F1 slicks I can use on the kit. I'm stuck with the paint, I was thinking about doing it beige, with a primer grey flip front. I think it would go well with the all ready red engine. Although someone mentioned to me that it would look great completely primer grey with some kind of vibrant stripe.

I don't think I have ever seen a model car nailed together... This just gives me more of an excuse to cut it up and build a proper dragster.

This is just a redo of an already existing kit. It's not exactly much or a restoral vs an overhaul. The 55 is all ready assembled, with all ready previous modifications like some nice wheels and what a massive hole in the hood. The idea is to overhaul it into more of a proper dragster, perhaps with a tubular flip front end, a nice big supercharger, some tubs, and most importantly some slicks to go with the tubs. Im currently snooping around for some good slicks and dragster parts, I'm considering looking online for some parts but as per usual I'll probably end up resorting to snooping around my house because I'm way to cheap.

yeah but then you don't get the fun of a poorly tied down batteries coming loose and hitting you in the face, after Cheatus Mc Cleetus decides to ram you off the track.