Dennis Lacy

Completely out of whack.

Thanks! In part I was thinking of you and those awesome Falcons you did a few years back as I worked this thing. ? Don’t ever grow up! My body may be 43 but I have the maturity of a 16 year old. Just ask my wife. ? Thanks, man! I couldn’t be happier with the stance. I still have the car mocked up on my work bench and groove on it every time I walk by. ? Thanks, Craig! I wish I could share on TRaK but it’s not period authentic.

Please do!

As if this project wasn’t cool enough. Absolutely bitchin!!! ?

Looks 100% bad ass with the fenders cut out!!! Stance and wheel/tire combo is perfect!

Speaking of your Sedan, I really like the way you are detailing the interior. Those upholstery inserts are rad! In general the whole car is coming along nicely. Stance is on-point!

Thanks, Paul! There’s a whole lot to like about this kit as it comes and there’s only 2 things that I don’t like. The stance and the rear wheel design. But, both of those things are subjective. Adapting the Willys axle was easy and it wouldn’t be hard at all to tweak the mounting stubs to put the kit front wheels on it.

Great idea with the subframe connectors and nice execution! Hmm, there’s still time to do that to mine… ?

Thanks for the comments! Thanks to the 3-day weekend I was able to get a very rare second day at the bench so I kept going on the ‘65. I needed to warm up before attacking the passenger quarter panel so I started out easy by building a driveshaft out of 3/32” tube and U-joints cut from a Revell ‘32 Ford driveshaft. I also tuned up the fit of the exhaust to the headers as there was a gap at the passenger side if you look at the previous post. Then I needed to fix the fit of the ladder bars to the axle as the slots were too big. I glued some pieces of tube into the slots then filed the slots to the correct size. As can be seen I also finished grafting the other axle end on cut from the Willys axle. The rear suspension was finished by adapting the ‘65 kit shocks to the ladder bars. With the rear axle and suspension finished out and both wheels and slicks mounted it was time to cut out the passenger side quarter panel. I made a paper pattern of the driver side, taped it on and traced the shape. Worked perfectly! With that it was time for a full mock up now up on all four. I couldn’t be happier with how this model is going now. Decided to hang the grill so it looks a little more like a car. Not a whole lot more to sort out and I can start the paint process. I also mocked the firewall into place to make the under hood look more proper.

Back last winter when Moebius released they’re highly anticipate ‘65 Chevy II Gasser and ‘64 Nova SS kits I grabbed one of each right away and immediately got to work on the ‘65. Not to brag but, I was the first person to start a WIP thread on this forum. ? Which means nothing because I didn’t see the project through and many of these have been built and finished since! ? Not one to build anything box-stock (let’s face it, there’s plenty of those examples of this kit and probably many more to come) I came up with the idea to make the car into a late 70’s & early 80’s street freak type of thing with Cragar Super Trick wheels (AMT Double Dragster), AMT Parts Pack wrinkle-wall slicks and a Chevy Big Block equipped with gold Moroso valve covers and air filters. The BBC comes from Revell’s 1967 Chevelle / Malibu Pro-Street and is a surprisingly easy fit with just a touch of trimming on the engine mount. Even the headers snake through like they are made for it. I modified the headers by cutting off the severely reduced collectors and adding a pair of resin collector cones from Drag City Casting. I then was able to mate up the very nicely done performance exhaust system found as one of the bonus “extras” in the sister ‘64 kit. My pal @Rocking Rodney Rat donated a Pro Stock hood scoop from his box of drag car carcasses. I also filled in the voids in the tops of the frame rails. That’s as far as I got. The project came to a halt because last spring MCM reached out to me and asked if I would build a hot rod model for a (then) upcoming issue so I had to stop everything and focus on that. To be honest, I wasn’t in love with the project. Mostly because it just didn’t have the aggressive presence I was looking for. The wheels and tires weren’t doing it for me like I initially thought, I didn’t like the way the slicks tucked up in the quarter panels and I don’t like the kit provided nose-bleed stance at all. Fast forward to this week (a year + later) and I found myself thinking about this project and how to fix what I don’t like about it. The most notable decision was to say screw it to boxing the car into an “era”, I’m just gonna use whatever parts that I like! After that, the revisions just flowed like a faucet. First order of business was to pick a new set of wheels and tires which all come from Revell’s 1941 Willys Gassers. It’s hard to go wrong with Halibrand’s and those FAT M&H slicks are super tuff. Next up was fixing the wonky too-high front stance (what people think Gassers look like that don’t actually know what Gassers look like. ?) From the same Willys kit I stole the wheels & tires from I found that the tube front axle has a 1/8” drop (3” in scale) at the ends over the ‘65 kit straight axle. It’s also thicker and more robust looking plus the wheels will mount right to it. I had to shave off the original mount ing pins and install new pins slightly outboard of where they were to align with the 65’s springs. The U-bolt detail was restored to the axle by wrapping pieces of .020” square rod around it. I also decided to use the better looking Willys shocks and gusseted shock mounts cut from the Willys frame replacing the dinky pins sticking out of the ‘65 frame. The exhaust was modified because a car like this wouldn’t actually have full tail pipes. The tails were cut off at the mufflers with the turn-down tips cut off and attached directly to the mufflers for classic “dumps”. The rest of the BBC was set up. Breathers were added to the valve covers just below the “O’s” just like full scale Moroso BBC covers. The finned timing cover, belt drive and alternator from the SBC in Revell’s ‘29 Roadster were added to the front of the engine and because of its extra size the ‘65 kit electric fan was moved to the front of the radiator as a pusher fan. Other wise, the engine is as it comes. On to the rear axle & suspension. The slicks from the Willys are quite thick and as such interfered with the front, bottom edges of the wheel wells. To remedy this I filled the four spring mounting holes with rod, smoothed off the surfaces then drilled new holes 1/32” rearward. Just enough that the slicks won’t bind on the wheel wells. Then I decided I wanted something more robust looking than the little ‘65 kit ladder bars so I fit the HUGE ladder bars from the Willys Gassers. Way tuffer! The rear wheels were adapted by grafting on the ends of the Willys axle to the ‘65 kit axle. In doing so I made the track-width a little wide so the slicks would have some poke outside of the quarter panels. So here’s where the chassis ended up this evening. I still need to graft the passenger side axle end on. I didn’t get to the other side because much time was spent cutting a radius out of the drivers quarter (going too far and having to add material back and blend it in ?) to make room for the FAT slicks. The other side should go much quicker since now I know what to do and can take an accurate pattern off of the drivers side. And now for the Big Moment, up on its wheels & tires with all of the revisions. I couldn’t be happier with the new ever-so-slight forward rake stance and rolling stock with the deep Halibrand’s and FAT slicks poking out. I also love the way the huge ladder bars fill in some of the empty space under the car. The old Pro-Stock hood scoop will stay and yes, those square velocity stacks snuggle right up into it. More to come soon! ?

It seems as though I completely missed the SBC mention in your opening post. Even better! ?

Looks awesome so far. Hard to go wrong with metallic purple, white accents, whitewalls and chrome steelies! Are going to use the SBF engine? I know it’s not the Hemi because of the hood side. Would be really cool with Flathead from the Sedan.

I don’t know if you’re the first to put together this combination of Chevy II but it’s the first I’ve seen around here. Great idea and nice work so far. Will definitely be following.

That is the definition of Lay’d Out!

Bitchin! Even as a project car it has The Look and you know it would be bad ass when finished. The covered engine is a killer touch. This was built a long time ago, right? I feel like I remember it being shown in Tim Boyd’s Modelers Corner in Street Rodder magazine as part of a show/contest coverage?

I think you found your calling with the weathered finishes. So far they’ve been very convincing. Very cool to see a pair of those artillery wheels get used. I do believe you’re the first person (other than myself) I’ve seen use them.

Turned out incredibly nice. One of the best Beatnik Bandits I’ve seen! As far as Roth cars go, it’s one of his better looking designs.

I mean, yeah, it did look pretty sweet! ??

Or have 20 donor kits on hand like some of us nut jobs do… ?‍♂️ ?

There’s some really cool stuff going on in this group build! I counted myself in months ago and have been so dang busy since that I haven’t been able to dig in. I also had a helluva time deciding what I wanted to build! Finally, this past weekend I was looking at a stalled project and got inspired to repurpose it for TROG. My entry is going to be this chopped, full fender 1934 5-window powered by an early Chrysler with a healthy set-back, La Salle trans and quick change rear. This project was originally slated to be blown Altered period correct for about 1963. I had a really good start then got distracted, lost interest, etc. It will now be back-dated to about 1955 by removing the 6-71 supercharger in favor of 6 Stromberg 2-barrels on the intake from Revell’s Hydro Hemi (thanks for the intake @Kit Karson) and ditching the pie crust slicks and little Pirelli front runners for tall & skinny bias ply tires on early Ford steelies (Revell 29 Roadster / 30 Coupe). Below is how the project previously looked. This is based on an AMT 1934 5-Window kit with a Drag City Casting chopped body. The entire floor and molded cross members were cut away with the detailed center “X” added from a Revell 1940 Ford, bashed together quick change axle, front cross member flattened with Revell 29 Roadster / 30 Coupe dropped axle and a Revell Miss Deal Hemi engine / trans. I had also modified the body by cutting out the trunk lid, adding in a ledge and modifying the louvered lid from a Revell 32 5-Window to fit. I also grafted some louvers into the tail pan leaving room between for a car club plaque. Also seen is the hood top that was going to be used with the blower which also had some louvers grafted in. That’s where I’m at. I pretty much have a complete plan in my head for how to fill in all the gaps. More to come in the near future. ?

Nice to see an update. This is looking really good!

@Rocking Rodney Rat and I basically didn’t give @Kit Karson a choice that he had to finish this model now that his ‘29 XPU and Roadster combo is finished. So for everyone else watching , you’re welcome! ?

Thanks @tim boyd for the excellent show coverage, especially including most everyone’s table card to put names with the models, many of which I have heard before and a few that I know personally! The quantity and quality of the models shown looks off the charts!! I did want to be there in Salt Lake but it wasn’t meant to be. Hopefully there will be another opportunity to meet in the future. Wes @Kit Karsonand Paul’s @Speedprocombined effort tribute truck looks phenomenal. The level of finish Paul put on it is both humbling and inspiring. When Wes texted @Rocking Rodney Rat and I pictures of it on the table last Thursday my jaw dropped! That reminds me, I need to keep working on the sister tribute Roadster Pickup. ?

It wasn’t painful, just plenty moist! ?

What a bad ass Roadster! Impeccably executed and beautifully finished. I especially like the Weld Pro Star wheels. A timeless wheel that looks good on just about everything but seldom seen any more. The lowered front immensely improves the overall look of the car. I love these new Model A kits but Revell really screwed the stance on them. Absolutely killer hot rod!