FASTBACK340

Wow, Ron, your post could have been written by me. Aside from the model building perspective, my Wife too is an avid reader. She can finish a book within a week just during her commute & reading for maybe a half hour before bed. She has, at the moment, about 350 books on her Nook e-Reader. And we both give the other a knowing "go easy" glance when she walks into a Barnes & Nobel or I into a hobby shop.

Years ago when I first bought my Barracuda project I installed a stock 360 w/ Hooker headers. Aside from it taking a ball peen hammer to get some steering linkage "clearance", the first bump in the road damaged 3 tubes on my brand new pipes…... ​That's why I bought the TTI headers, Cost more than twice what the Hookers cost, but they tuck up nice & tight. Once you get them IN….

That really is starting to pop nicely! And thanks for confirming me adding brake & fuel lines to my build, your inspiring me! Continue to build on !!!!!

Move to Queens, N.Y. You wouldn't believe what goes on around here…. Obviously, we build because it takes us somewhere else. While I occasionally build a full-size one from time to time, the small ones are much easier on the wallet, and back…. when swapping a 12 cylinder Allison into a Mini Cooper.

By all means, PLEASE!!! I like the reverse hockey stick in carbon fiber running back from the front, they compliment the wheels nicely. I also like the grille opening treatment. More shots of that please. And what's thumping under the hood? I love seeing guys side-step the obvious "clone" game and build what THEY want. Mine was an original 340-S car that I removed the A/C and added a 4 spd, value be darned! More of your car. Go to my gallery and you can see my Mistress……

Geee… as a child growing up with a fascination of cars it was easier to build models than to convince my parents to let me drag home real cars. That came much later in life…..

Yes, that round protrusion between the front shifter pad & the side cover is indeed the speedometer cable connection. I made one using a piece of tubing and a 00-90 nut. The round nub next to it is the reverse fork shaft.

Yeah, my manager just texted me and asked if I could "make it in when I could" to help clean the lot & cars. He's a funny guy……

This is a self-explanatory picture. Nothing more than a piece of detail wire and some scrap photo-etch and a piece of plastic. This is the type of detail you try and build and stop when it looks OK. While not 100% correct, it will look good when done. I just painted the Z bar for the clutch linkage. The reverse linkage is purely for the picture. That one has to be cut & fit after the power train is installed. The rod goes under the trans crossmember. And I have to move the 1-2 linkage up a bit to clear the speedo cable. Forgot to explain the picture I posted in the last installment. The Z bar is the pivot that turns forward motion of stepping on the clutch rotate and push back against the clutch fork, This bar mounts between the bell housing and the drivers frame rail. I fabricated this from a piece of wire-core Plastistruct with a pair of Evergreen tabs made from some .010 sheet. Took a bit to figure out the geometry and width, but it all goes together when the power train goes in too, like the reverse linkage. A little knowledge is dangerous. I know what it should look like, and now I'm making emergency brake cables and adding fuel/hydraulic plumbing…..

Great Job Ray. I love the old radical ideas from the early days of drag racing. Those Fiats are dead-on.

Yeah, I'm making some hot chocolate right now and will be going upstairs in a few. Man it's getting deep out there….

I learned TWO things. #1: A neat way to foil headlight buckets. #2: And I learned what Pedantic means! Thanks for making me look it up. Seriously, I enjoy learning new words/meanings/expressions.

I got about 8" so far and they're threatening another 6" or so by morning. Late-night building, no work tomorrow…….

Well, one of my favorite winter scenario's is playing out RIGHT NOW. It's snowing like mad right now in the northeast. Tomorrow in Queens, NY it could add up to almost 14". That mean's a guilt-free evening of staying up late, watching snow, and listening to some smooth old-school Jazz and build into the wee-hours……. Should have some good updates tomorrow!

Ya `kno…. I bite my tongue with severe criticism of other people's builds. I've seen some builds I find incredibly well-executed and professionally built that amuse me no end for reasons I'll keep to myself, but this guy is a Bozo. I've added him to my e-Bay Feed. Whenever I feel bad about a build grinding me up, I'll visit his auctions. Bound to make me feel better.

Not to split hairs, but ..... The early cars had the 8 3/4 w/ the 489 cast center section (large diameter pinion shaft), I believe the gears were 4.88's, which is a Mopar ratio. Most had the narrowed B body Dana. But go further answer the question, the Hurst-Campell Hemi cars are about as close to "factory" Hemi A bodies as your going to find. And those D-Dart are neat. I worked with a guy years ago that had one.

Yeah, I regret posting that and, naturally, a bit defensive not wanting to be reminded repeatedly about it, Sorry, again..... my bad. FWIW: I'm about a third of the way into building a '70 right now and it really is a nice kit. And while some things are wrong, as I mentioned, I was floored they got the B-E body specific A-833 right including both shifter pad mounts. I think that makes up for the missing cylinder terminal. And I will build the S&M car too.... regardless if they get the Pro Stock details right or wrong.

OMG…. what a weekend! My friends band Friday was a nice surprise as they've gotten very good. Sat: Stolen Babies opened: The girl singer reminded me of Danielle from American Pickers. And she was dress just as funky, playing an electric ACCORDIAN through effects along with a drummer, a sequencer, and a guy alternating from guitar & bass. Very out-there…. Pop Evil came on second. While well polished, they were OK. High-light was when rapper DMX hopped on stage and sang on one song. Stone Sour: Yes, they aren't Slipknot, but Corey Taylor….. what a singer/showman. I've seen the 3 times in the last year. Sun: We missed the very first band @ 6:00, but the next 4 acts were good. All Hail The Yetti sounded like Black Label Society and looked like Zak Wild wannabes. Devour the Day was incredible. Great songs and energy. Butcher Babies: Google them…. aside from being drop-dead beautiful, they ROCKED. HARD!!!!!!!!!!! In This Moment had a hard time following Butcher Babies…. very drawn out with set changes and too much theatrics, but put on great show. If you don't even like heavy music, the 2 front women from Butcher Babies are worth the ogle on Google…..

As I apologized earlier for the poor choice of words I still stand by my curiosity as to how things like this happen. Just wondering aloud…...

Wow…. as it sits it reminds me of my friends `62 Max Wedge! Build-on!!!!

I had that going in my head too, but I wanted a 21st. century, old school, muscle car. But updated…..

OK Rob, here you go! This is how I make a dip stick. Take a length of Radio Shack wire wrap and pull off a short section of insulation. Now slip on a small photo etched ring or nut over the wire end to simulate the stopper. It's so small no one will see the hex head if you use a PE nut (and if they do notice, ask they to go away….) Now we make the finger-loop with the smallest, pointiest tweezers you can find. Now we test-fit it into the correct location for the dipstick in the block for proper length Then is we forget, like your author did, you paint it block color (Hemi orange) and mount it. Or do the first three steps BEFORE you paint the engine…..like Chrysler did back on the assembly line. OK, enough for now. I'm headed out for the evening, but let me leave you with the next task: adding shift linkage, and fabricating a clutch Z bar for the clutch linkage. Can you imagine…. Revell didn't include a Z bar!?!?!

Thank you Tim. As you posted, it's hard to judge tonality on message boards. My observation was more of confusion than actually demanding or expecting an answer. Oh, and BTW….

First of all, I'm not trying insinuate people not in the know are running the show. I just can't understand the previously mention carb & dist. mistakes getting through. But on the other hand, to be 100% fair, they did do some things that are real small details gotten RIGHT. See the tail shaft on the transmission? It's a long tailshaft w/ the dual mounting points (the inverted triangular bolt-holes bosses) cast in for the different shifter locations between B & E bodies. THAT'S awesome detailing ! Again, I want to publicly apologize to Tim for stepping on toes with my original (poorly worded) post on this subject. Yes, there's things wrong… but more things right. Mostly the fact that this kit even happened. Tim, sorry to come across ungrateful or arrogant. We've always had a good relationship I'd hate to spoil. Sorry.

While rummaging around looking for one thing, I found another……. This was (supposed to be….) my 2K `tona, to have been ready for the 2000 show season. As you can see, I did a "bit" of work and walked away from it. In retrospect, it's a cool idea but a so-so execution. The rear-end proportions are too long, and the cabin is too narrow. I might just make a bizarro Bonneville car out of it. There's some neat pieces I might scavenge if I scuttle this project all together. I started with a Revell Pro-Modeler Daytona kit and wedge-sectioned it down the middle into a 2 seat, open wheel, rear engined, 12 cylinder overhead cam Hemi roadster. I'll admit this was never intended to be a "Quick Build". I used two engines from the Pro Street Coronet kit sectioned into a 12 cylinder. I never decided on an in-line 3 X 4Bbl. or a more aggressive 4 X 4 Bbl. cross-ram. This would look good in, say….a `62 Lancer. Back when I had more free time, I used to try and build working features. This is an in-scale operating rack & pinion. The tie-rod rack is a piece of solid aluminum rod with teeth cut into it from the Dremel bit placed next to it. When assembled, it worked exactly like the real thing. I was going to epoxy wire to be used as the tie-rods into the ends so it would flex with the operating in-board shocks I had planned, like so many other things…. I don't even want to add up all the photo-etch, billet, and RB Motion bags I had stashed with it. And nuts & bolts and a bundle of brass. How can I have this stuff and not remember half of it?!? Let me see how I feel about it in a day or three about finishing it……