Bernard Kron

I thought I'd show this motor for a Studebaker Bonneville streamliner I started a few years back but haven't finished. The basic 392 is from the AMT '53 Studebaker kit but there's no reason you couldn't used the one in the Double Dragster. The blower casing, nose drive, manifolds and tubing are all from the MPC Carl Casper Undertaker kit (the rest of the Undertaker motor is pretty awful, unfortunately...).

Cool! What part is kit based, what's aftermarket, and what's scratch?

One of AMT's true all-time greats. The basic Raymond Loewy body design is so original and well balanced that customizing it successfully is very difficult, and yet the customizing parts in this kit, the grill modifications and the custom rear bumper, are so well integrated that it actually might be considered to improve on the stock version. I also think it was very wise of them to make the competition version completely over the top radical with the severe chop top. That way they avoided conflicting with the basic design. I've strated two of these, a chopped Bonneville streamliner and a midly customized version using the custom facia and rear end. The streamliner is still in progress but I did finish the mild custom. This is a first rate kit and a pleasure to build. The new Round 2 tires are a plus! Mild custom Studillac: Bonneville streamliner W.I.P. with Potvin blown Hemi:

I was just perusing the Round2 web site and noticed that the MPC Don Garlits Wynns Charger kit description included a pdf of the instruction sheet ( http://www.round2models.com/files/instructions/mpc810.pdf ). Close inspection of the details for the kit indicate this as an excellent candidate for a 60's style FED. In particular it has the basis for a nice shorty body by trimming the side panels beneath the motor from the nose. It has a separate body panel over the cockpit and an exposed roll cage area. Just shorten the wheelbase as described above and you've got your classic mid-60's 155" ,digger. The motor has separate blower pulleys and a vinyl Gilmer belt. It also features an accessory oil pressure gauge which mounts to the rear blower cover and one-piece zoomie exhausts instead of those skinny, fiddly two-piece affairs that come in most of the Ivo-chassis variants. And lastly, the kit includes a well detailed front wing and separate axle weights as well. This may be the "weapon of choice" for a mid-60's FED project. Here's a composite picture of a couple of panels from the instruction sheet with some of these details circled:

A beautiful model!

This w.i.p. is proving to be the ideal summary of ways to deal with the detail mods the channeled version requires. Looks like it will be a nice machine when your done. I'll definitely follow along as it progresses.

X3 Wonderful to see this come off your bench. Throughout its gestation it never, even for a moment, failed to entice, educate and delight, and the final product delivers in spades! Bravo! ...and I like both sets of wheels...

That's a Dragmaster Dart chassis. It was the Dragmaster answer to the longer, simplified and lighter Kent Fuller style chassis, such as the one he built for Tony Nancy's 22 Jr. Competition T-Bucket in the Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit, The Attempt I chassis is a Dragmaster IV chassis, the one used by Dean Moon for the Mooneyes dragster and by Pete Robinson to win the '62 NHRA Nationals. The Dragmaster Dart features the tapered frame rails of the Kent Fuller style but still retains the distinctive Dragmaster roll hoop (in this case the double hoop style). The Dragmaster IV, with it's parallel frame rails, can be considered to be the last and greatest of the Old School frame designs before the the minimalist 60's FED designs took over. It was enormously successful both competitively and commercially. The Dragmaster Dart enjoyed some success as well but was swept up in the blizzard of "modern" chassis produced during the 60's FED boom. Dode Martin and Jim Nelson and their Dragmaster Dart: Nelson and Martin with the prior Dragmaster IV chassis:

This is a small update. I got the stance dialed in. The dropped front axle from the kit had some leaves removed from the spring and the front cross member shaved a bit. I also lowered the rear suspension to the maximum by hogging out the rear cross member and sinking the rear spring down as far as it would go after trimming the rear suspension stops. This will consistitute a slight departure from the box art which shows the front end slightly higher than I have it. However, out of the box the rear suspension is stock height and, with the kit dropped axle the car has a classic late 50'-early 60's California nose-down rake. This stance is lower overall and just about pan flat, more in keeping with a car with skirts. The body I've been using is getting a bit worse for wear. I've used it as a mockup on a couple of builds already and it's picked up some nicks and scratches. I have a complete kit with the bags unopened and I think I'll work from that one from now on, using the chassis I have set up. I also got some paint, Tamiya TS-16 Yellow and Tamiya TS-65 Pearl Clear. I'll do a test shot to make sure the effect is what I'm going after. Once the decals are printed and applied the whole deal will get transparent clear gloss coats. Thanx for lookin', B.

When you first showed this it, lo those many years ago, it became an instant classic, red wheels and all. It's burned into my brain that way. Absolutely the chromies are by far the more historically appropriate, but... can't shake those red steelies, no matter how hard I try. But I gotta say that's as nice a plating job as I've seen; they stand up to the closeups, no problem! And this version too is a classic - and a period correct one at that!

I did one a few years back. Here's a great site for Dragmaster lore. It hasn't been active in a while but it's full og good info to build a digger from this kit: http://1962dragmaster.blogspot.com/ . I pinched the Dragmaster logo on the site to make my own for my build. If you do a proper V8 powered quarter miler, as opposed to an LSR car like the Attempt 1, you'll need to use a somewhat wider front axle. IIRC I used a Tony Nancy Double Dragster setup. Natutally mine had to be Pontiac powered, although to build a replica the ultimate subject would be Pete Robinson's '62 Nationals winning ultra-light Chevy Small Block powered machine. It went through tech inspection at just over 800 lbs.! Pete Robinson's giant killer: My meager Attempt (ha ha):

Cars for The Stars was always George's weak spot. It may very well be part of what led to Sam's estrangement. Certainly it added a pressure-cooker environment to George's world once he started building cars for TV shows and movies. Many of these cars were jobbed out or completed to more than questionable standards in a matter of weeks. This sort of thing is common in the entertainment world where production people would rather throw money at the creative issue to be able to say "yes" to someone else further along the food chain than to concern themselves with creative quality. For example George claimed the Futura-based Batman car was built in 3 weeks, and despite it's clear Futura roots it still involved a good deal of paint and bodywork. In any case it was a period where George descended inexorably into the moral abyss, buying up cars for his eventual Kustom City operation and claiming them as his. Perhaps one of the most notorious, and in some ways insensitive, was his claims to Dean Jeffries' Black Beauty which he acquired shortly after its success in the TV series Green Hornet. Even at the time it was known as Jeffries' car, so Barris' attitude was almost delusional. Jeffries and Beauties: Much the same could be said about another Barris acquisition built by Jeffries which has been mentioned above, what Barris termed "my Monkeemobile"... Despite George Barris' efforts in later life to promote and document the golden age he had helped create, the damage to George's reputation was permanent and irretrievable as can be seen by all the comments in these pages. George in the Moral Abyss:

George Barris co-wrote several important softcover books about his work which a critical to understanding his impact on the hot rod and customizing world. As I stated earlier, he was authentic and committed throughout his long life to a culture helped create. He was there as a teenager in the late pre-war years, training with one of the acknowledged masters in the art, was himself, along with his brother Sam, a key designer and tastemaker in the immediate postwar [period through the mid-50's, and then facilitated the emergence of a whole new heneration of masters who defined the art ,in the late 50's and 60's. He knew that and he clearly stated it in his books. But he was tempted and succumbed and frequently overstated the role he played in the creation of cars which were based on earlier work by others which were then modified and elaborated by his shop. This was an important aspect in what he and Sam did at Barris Kustoms as the shop gained fame. As time went on and George grew in fame and influence he would often purchase important cars and promote then. It was an easy step, then, to simply state them as "my car", which he often did. The most important books by Barris are the 4 volume Barris Kustom Techniques of the 50's. First published in 1996, in them he clearly documents the arrival of the young talents to his shop, the informal "system" of apprenticeship and mentoring that he put in place, as he shows off the handiwork of what would become his team of co-conspirators. He also features a huge number of other cars from other shops from the period and discusses them in some detail. As time went on most of these early greats left, some to become legends in their own right, and others to form the bedrock of the subculture. Almost all of them were bemused by the exploitation that George often practiced, keeping them at the shop to all hours and paying them a pittance for their work, or sometimes taking it in trade against use of the facilities and materials for their own cars. In later years they often spoke about it. But very few of them were bitter or critical about it. They understood quite clearly, as did George, the value of the exchange. Here are 4 cars ascribed to Barris employees built in whole or in part at the Barris Kustoms shop. Bill De Carr - For many years the key metal man at Barris, trained by George and Sam and carrying the torch (quite literally) after Sam left. Bill De Carr's '41 Mercury Bill Carr'sThe Aztec '55 Chevy - Confusingly, built by and with Bill De Carr, George and Sam, for Bill Carr who had no relation to Bill De Carr. Bill Carr worked at Barris' shop as well. Authorship for the car is generally acknowledged to have been from all of them working together in collaboration. Herschel "Junior" Conway' '50 Ford - legendary in customizing circles for his paint jobs, he started at his career at Barris. Dean Jeffries - Known as "The Kid" around the shop, the teenage Jeffries worked for/in/around the Barris shop, first as the house pinstriper and then as the resident creative paint genius. This is the first version of the Carol Lewis ' Chevy, the prototypic mild custom, largely stock but with Jeffries' wild paint. Lewis was Jeffries' high school girl friend. Jeffries claimed to have never actually worked "for" Barris but he was ubiquitous in the shop throughout the late 50's, saved Lewis' car from the '57 fire, was often photographed working in the shop, etc. In an age before worker benefits the subject can be murky. Certainly even at that point Barris' tendency to exploit was known by many and some avoided being direct employees for fear they would get sucked into the already huge amount of work being done. For more on this refer to Larry Watson, the other paint genius who followed Jeffries about a year later. Watson worked free-lance in high school and opened his shop next door to Barris upon graduation.

Your build comments a little further on in the thread show the care and detail you brought to the build. The color choice is very nice, and things like the rivets on the wing plates and their contrasting color make all the difference. Beautiful work! Yes this is the same chassis as found in the American Grafitti kit which has two bodies in it, the Milner FED and this Competition Coupe. The Jawbreaker kit was originally the Competition Coupe half of the Milner Kit. Unfortunately the Milner kit has not been re-issued and old copies frequently trade well into 3 figures. Fortunately we have this kit now, and also old copies of the MPC Ramchargers FED kit which is not the FED half of the Milner kit - the bodywork is different without the high back 'chute pack of the Milner car. The chassis hits the aesthetic sweet spot of the mid-60's with its approx. 155 scale inch wheelbase and its dramatic stance is due to the fact that it is fairly unique in scale in being a "legs under" design with the driver's legs positioned under the rear axle. Is it cool to post drag cars in Under Glass now? They do tend to get lost in Drag Racing Models where W.I.P.'s and completions are in the same thread. Many members only look Under Glass for completions unless they have a highly specific interest (Drags, NASCAR, Big Rigs, Slots, etc.).

This build is an absolute panic, in all the positive senses of the term! I love it. But how can you not love a good story - and such a resolutely imaginative build. Go, go, go, Ricardo!!!! get 'er done. Then sell 'er for a bajillion bucks...

Thank you! Several of you have inquired about getting copies of the scallop decals I'm working on. You should know that, if you want excellent copies of the original, Greg Holland (vsrn) at Greg's Decal Graphics has the complete original decal sheet including the racing numbers, the "Rapid Rickshaw" logo, and the pinstriping. Greg is very well known for the high quality of his work. Here's a link to Greg's site: http://vsrnonline.com/gregsdecalgraphics/index.htm . The white logos, shoe polish numbers, and pinstriping are highlighted in black in the sample image, but like the white areas around the scallops, which unfortunately don't show up on the image Greg sent me, they are printed in white in the decal set he makes. Greg uses the system Fred Cady uses where the white areas are printed as a separate decal layer. Greg is very well known for the high quality of his work. Here's a picture Greg sent me of the sheet:

The Ala Kart was completed in late 1957, quite some time after Sam left the Lynwood shop for NorCal in 1956. It owes far more to George stylistically than to Sam, and like so much from that period, even more to the talented collective that formed the Barris shop. George always walked a very thin line between mentoring and exploitation and, as will be repeated all too often from hereon out, was all-too-quick to claim credit which wasn't his to claim. Too often Barris merely elaborated and embellished the work of others, and, as the years progressed, often with inferior results. But his eye for spotting talent was undeniable and, in so many ways, as promoter, entrepreneur, photographer and publicist he was the critical link that brought on the Golden Age of customizing. The passion he felt for hot rodding and customizing in all its forms, including car modeling, where he was, once again, a critical and pivotal figure, was undeniable and completely authentic. It remained so throughout his long life. And throughout his life he always acknowledged the enormous role that Sam played in their early success and, indeed seemed never to have quite come to terms with Sam's estrangement and subsequent death due to cancer in 1967 at the age of 43.

Forum member John Goschke (froghawk), a fine modeler who knows a thing or two about '40 Fords and scallop paint jobs, let me know that he thought the rear deck decal was actually supposed to be positioned inverted from the way that I have it positioned, on the lower splash pan pointing upward. A search of web images drew a blank and the instruction sheet doesn't show decal placement other than the box art and the little illustration shown above. So I checked the image sizing against the 1:1 scan and it was spot on. Next was to flip the test "decal" and place it in the lower position. The dimensions conform precisely to the width of the bottom pan and the contour of the trunk lid edges as they join up to the fenders. So, on the evidence it appears to be as John said. Below is a comparison of the two. Having set my "mind's eye" to the upper position it looked a little odd to me, but it's visually logical in that the scallops all work together to draw the eye toward the lower edges of the bodywork.

Thanks again, Jason. Your scans were the key to getting the decals done right. I think I’ve finalized the artwork. In order to test for fit and any detail changes I printed a set on plain paper with green substituted for the white borders and attached them to the bodywork. I was surprised on how good the fit turned out to be, especially for the skirt and rear fender scallops which are not on the original decal sheet but are on the box art drawing. I had thought I might print some actual decals but it appears it will not be necessary. So, now to create proper vector-based master art and then off to the decal printers. Here are a couple of (very rough) mockups showing the overall look. The scallop bits are held in place with cellophane tape. Thanx for lookin’, B.

Hiding in plain sight! How could I not notice that you deleted the track nose. I agree, it's a good move if you're going for a drag strip machine. Although I must say it would have made a lovely street roadster with the original nose treatment.

Thanks. I didn't mean to hi-jack this thread but it is the perfect opportunity to summarize the available "weapons of choice" and provide a bit of introduction to digger lore. Mid-60's diggers are among the most beautiful race cars ever created. For me trying to capture that vibe can be addictive! I think dollar-wise, short of the American Graffiti car, the expenditure will tend to be the same. What you save on the kit you'll probably spend on aftermarket stuff and/or materials. The problem I have with the Garlits car is that it always looks like the Garlits car - because of that roll cage. I buy those kits for everything but the chassis. Now that I know how to shorten it, the Ivo long wheelbase setup has really grown on me despite the half-round tubing. It's got that SoCal tough-as-nails money racer look to it, especially with an Altered States "shorty" body on it. A good source for the chassis can be the odd-ball Digger-Cuda which sometimes can be bid low on eBay. I love the Revell Tony Nancy double kit for its detail parts and the killer chassis, but the chassis, in order to be stretched and updated to mid-60's will require work, The Ramchargers car is, of course, it's own thing with its legs-under stance. But the shortened Ivo car with a minimal "shorty" body is probably the best overall candidate for achieving That Look. Here are a couple of pics showing how to shorten the Ivo long wheelbase frame: There's a whole other world of late 50's and early 60's machinery out there, too - hinted at with the AMT Double Dragster kit and achievable using kits like the Mickey Thompson Attempt I, the new Revell Slingster, and the two Revell Parts Pack frames, but aesthetically that's a separate subject.

Part 2 (cont.) MPC American Graffiti/Ramchargers FED The other more evolved FED chassis available for mid 60's work is the MPC Ramchargers FED kit. Also issued as the American Graffitti kit and the AMT. Until very recently these were all sought after collector kits which could be quite expensive to purchase. The American Graffiti kit in particular, as you can imagine, frequently trades in triple figures. The Ramchargers kit, however, is commonly available and can be had for around $30.00 on eBay including shipping. But the really good ,news is that the Jawbreaker has just been re-issued by AMT so the chassis and running gear, at least, are assured of decent ,supply. Unfortunately the really nice clean and simple bodywork of the Ramchargers kit is exclusive to that release. The American Graffiti kit has its own unique Tom Hanna style body which, happily, can be ordered from Altered States Models, along with the simple "shorty" body that you see above on various AMT Tommy Ivo long wheelbase chassis. The chassis and running gear is the best out there IMHO. It's a two piece affair with round tubing, and clocks in at about 160 scale inches so it's on the money for a mid-60's build. The only annoyance is that the afforably priced Ramchargers and new Jawbreaker versions have an odd-ball center steer arrangement, but I have found that easy to convert to the classis side-steer arrangement. The other unusual thing about it is that it's a "legs-under" design, referring to the fact that the driver's legs are positioned under the rear axle, which accounts for the car's dramatic ultra-low stance. It's an excellent candidate for building a replica of the Surfers digger. Again we're stuck with the 426 elephant motor... The kits: I've used this kit to build both full bodied and open frame versions and love its low sleek stance and dead-on proportions.

This is Part 2 of my summary of generally available FED kits that can be used to be build 50's and 60's era dragster about length of wheelbases has come up. I agree that as FEDs evolved into the very late 60's and early 70's the lengthening of the chassis to help stabilize them under initial acceleration really compromised the way they looked. I think it's one reason full ,bodywork became so popular - it helped balance the proportions. 183"-200"+ rails without a nose piece can look very awkward. There are two mid to late 60's chassis that are generally available in kit form. Both have versions of them that have been recently re-issued. AMT/MPC long wheelbase chassis - Tommy Ivo, Digger Cuda, Too Much, Young American, etc. The longer of the 2 is the AMT kit that I believe has its origins in the Tommy Ivo FED dragster. The 1:1 chassis was originally built by Don Long who was known for his (ironically) long wheelbase chassis with a rather upright and close-coupled driver's compartment. The very long wheelbase examples posted above are virtually all based on this chassis. Commonly available recent re-issues using it include the Tommy Ivo kit, the various MPC Round2 re-issues such as the Young American, the Don Garlits Wynns Charger, and earlier re-issues such as the TooMuch double engine dragster from Model King and the Digger Cuda. They all can be readily identified because they use a later 426 Hemi "elephant motor" (or 2 in the case of the Too Much) which can be frustrating if you want to use this chassis to build a 392-based car. Modeler's appreciate the fact that it has a one-piece chassis but the downside is that the frame tubes are half-round with the flat part facing inward so as not be visible (or hidden under bodywork). It is well detailed and easy to build but, as has been already noted above just Too Long for mid-60's rails. Here are some kit examples: I have found that an easy approach to getting a proper mid-60's "vibe" out of this kit is to shorten the wheelbase by removing two bays just in front of the motor bay (in the single engine versions) which brings to wheelbase in front about 185 scale inches to about 153 scale inches. Difference in appearance is dramatic and very pleasing to my eyes. I also take the time to file the frame tubes to a round section which, surprisingly, doesn't take that long to do. Another approach is to scratch build a new front end using round styrene rod, generally from the firewall forward. Here are three models I built using this frame, the first one full length (the appearance of which I find awkward), and two with the shortened wheelbase described above:

Coolness!!! (no B,S,)

Thanx for all the interest, guys. Ron Savoie (fordrodnkustom) was able to provide me with the dimensions of his sheet that he scanned for the DPMCC site. Using that info I was able to determine the approximate dimensions of the original art. My first pass was fairly close - close but no cigar! I had problems with fit and proportion of some of the decals. Thanks to the generosity of a member of MCM Forum member Jason Lookabill (38shortfleet) I was able to get a clean 600 dpi scan of an original decal sheet. The first image I had used made it very hard to determine the white areas so I guessed at them using Photoshop techniques to create the outer white area. In fact the original kit sheet has white pinstripe and lettering decals which were completely invisible. By fiddling with the brightness and contrast on the high quality scan I got I was able to clearly see the white areas. Using those I re-drew the decal art and adjusted my rear fender and skirt decals to more closely match the details of the AMT original art. Here's a fake-o rendering of the original sheet with all 11 decals required to make the yellow custom on the box.