MarkJ

Thanks, Jason. Glad its finally finished. Now I get to polish the body. No matter how well you spray duplicolor paint it always comes out dull.

The roof looks more like flat black to me but you could try the semi gloss black and see how it looks. Then you could always shoot the flat black over the semi gloss. Just orange peel the heck out of it.

Finally finished the engine.

Ok, I got confused. The son of the older brother was in the funny car crash. It happened in 1989. I finally watched the video and it really wasn't much of a crash but the resulting fire was horrendous and he was truly lucky to have survived.

Ok, George. Yes, the older brother was in a horrific crash in his funny car which was totally engulfed in flame but some how he managed to make it out ok. I didnt follow them much after the sixtys but in my research for the build I found out about the crash. I ended up buying a house about 5 miles north of the drag strip and on saturday nights you could hear the fuel dragsters, funny cars , and Art Arfons green monster jet car. I think the drag strip closed in the eightys or ninetys and a new one was built in Baytown to take its place. The front entrance to a Walmart is where the old drag strips starting line was. Its the one I shop at now. The area has completely changed since that neat summer of 1964.

Got the engine primed and started on the headers. Did a lot of painting yesterday because the weather was outstanding for down here in the humidity capitol of the world. Painted the Body , Frame and interior tub and all the things that go inside of it.

Sounds great Marcos. Looking forward to seeing it.

Thanks John and George. George the reason i'm building this here drag racer is because it is the sister car to a build I did in 2018. I dont know if you remember it or not. These cars were fond memorys of my youth back in 1964. My friends father would take us on Saturday or Sunday afternoon to the local drag strip to watch these two brothers, whose father owned a Pontiac dealership in the area,. fight it out for stock eliminator trophy at the end of the festivities. They always ended up being the last two competitors, even though they were in different classes. I'm not sure, but I think the GTO won just as many trophy's as the big brothers Catalina won. Of course he got a head start because he was b stock and big brothers car was a stock. The big brother did manage to win the national championship back in 1963 with the big Catalina. That was a fun summer for sure for me and I've always wanted to build these models to remember it. Should not be too much longer till this one is done.

Thanks, Francis. It was kinda fun in a way.

Just a few more little nubs here and there and it will be finished. And I need to make a set of headers from solder. The parts you see in white had to be scratch built.

just do a really strong version of an orange peel paint job, just on the roof. get a fast drying paint and shoot it far away. Flat black of course. practice on something else first just to get it right.

Thanks, Bill. I guess i could have glued the hood shut but then what do you connect the exhaust to. I guess I could have just run the exhaust to an empty hole. And never looked under the model.

Getting close to the end of scratch building. just a couple of other things to do.

So clean, so nice, so beautiful. Excellent job on this one. And the historical value adds so much more. I remember watching this race I had to tape cause I was out of town. Some how i kept fronm finding out who had won it.

Thanks, Robert. Ive been waiting a few years to do this build and then go to do it and get this roadblock. Hopefully I can fake it good enough. I noticed from ref pictures that it has starter mounts for both sides of the bell housing. So I guess I need to show that on the right side even though there will be no starter there. The oil filter will be there though.

Thanks for the offer , Jason. But i'm almost finished and I really want to see what I can come up with when its completed. I guess this is what you run into when buying old kits at a model car show. The kit was only ten bucks, so that was a plus.

Thanks, Daniel . Its not going to be perfect but after i hang all the other engine parts that did come with the kit and get it painted it will be very hard to notice especially installed in the model.

Great job!!!

got some more of the puzzle put together.

The engine in this kit was only half there. i bought this kit a few years ago at a model contest in stafford texas. The plastic box covering was removed so I did a quick check and everything seemed to be there but the other day i did a closer inventory and the right engine half is missing and also the water pump. I will be scratch building those parts. Wont be perfect but after all the other parts are on the engine and installed in the chassis/ body it will be hard to notice the difference. Trying to get those parts would not be worth the effort ,even if it were possible.

Yes, Mike. But its a secret. Always save that for the big reveal at the end, but it definitely did not have the frames that I removed. The plastic was so thin that it only took a couple of passes with the exacto to remove them. I gave up the dremel tool a long time ago when i had to many slip ups that caused more work time repairing the damage I did, then actually just removing the plastic with a knife and sanding stick.

This model can be built as a sedan or hardtop. The car I'm doing was a hardtop so I had to remove the window frames.

I printed the decals today so i'm starting on the body first so i can get it painted. Shouldn' t be that much to do . Its basically pure stock so I wont have to remove any moldings or emblems but I might have to do some b.m.f.