Force

Interesting, I will for sure follow this build.

Very nice!!

I know how it's done but it's not easy to describe to one that had never seen how the beadlock rims are constructed, so the video Steve posted is "worth more than a thousand words" and as you have seen it now I knew you would understand, it's not complicated at all.

This video tell the story good. I have seen this done at the tracks but it's a bit hard to put what I have seen into words so this video explains the process.

The wheels in the later of the Revell Funny Car kits are supposed to be Centerline Convo Pro but they are not very good replicas as Revell took a shortcut and modified the previous wheels from the earlier tooling wich was Weld Pro Star wheels to more look like the Centerlines, so the center section is still Weld Pro Star but the outer rim is the ribbed style Centerline Convo Pro and it's a strange looking combination of the two...you can find a lot better more correct looking Centerline Convo Pro wheels in the Revell 55 Ford and 57 Chevy Pro Sportsman kits. The first issues of the "modern era" Funny Car kits with Ford Mustang, Tempo and Pontiac Trans Am bodies from the mid 80's had Weld Racing Draglite wheels, the next issues with the Oldsmobile Cutlass bodies the kits got Weld Racing Pro Star wheels, and in the next issues with the Dodge Avenger bodies Revell modified the Pro Star wheels to the strange looking Centerline Convo Pro wheels wich were in the kits until the last Pontiac Firebird issues. The Weld Draglite and Pro Star wheels came in the mid to late 80's and the Centerline Convo Pro wheels the early 90's.I don't know exact date but somewhere thereabout. A bead lock rim has two separate outer rings bolted to the rim and many use these bead lock rims nowadays as they work well to keep the tire on the rim and stopping the rim rotating inside the tire due to the low air pressures used in Drag Racing, you clamp the bead of the slick tire between the rim and the outer ring and it locks the tire firmly into place. Earlier many drilled holes in the outside circumference of the rim and screwed the bead to the rim locking it into place, but the bead lock wheels with the bolted separate rings are a lot better, it's also easier to change the tires with this system.

Nice progress Sean.

Don't even consider buying the ERTL Rubber Duck truck, I bought one back in the day and was gravely disappointed as it's a DM 600 wich is totally wrong, the movie truck is a RS 700L and the only usable parts from the ERTL kit is some of the the decals, the Rubber Duck hood ornament, possibly the grille, the bull bar and air foil for the roof, the rest is unusable so it's definately not worth the money, the AMT R 600 is a much better starting point if you want to go the styrene way. But I can only agree with the others on the AITM kit, I bought one a while ago and it's very nice...it's a bit pricey but you get everything you need with the kit and it's not cheap to round up all the bits and pieces needed for the project in styrene either, and It's not that hard to separate the hood from the cab and put in an engine in the AITM kit if you want to. You could of course email Dave and ask if you can get the pieces you need to convert the AMT R600 kit, he is not impossible to deal with and may possibly sell the parts individually. One thing about the hood, the AMT R 600 hood isn't only too short, it's also the wrong style as the fenders looks different from the movie truck, the grille is also wrong. Other things needed are different fuel tanks and air tanks under the battery boxes (2 for each side), the bull bar, the Rubber Duck ornament for the hood and the air foil for the roof...and of course the Able Body 60 Inch sleeper with exhaust cutout on the passenger side. If you go by the sound the engine for the Rubber Duck movie truck was a Detroit Diesel, but that was just layed on on the sound track together with the sound of the air horns (horns as long as the ones on the movie truck does not sound like they do in the movie, they have a much deeper tone) at least one of the trucks used in the movie had a Mack ENDT 676 "Tip Turbine" engine due to the dual intake hose air cleaner seen on the movie truck in several scenes, that engine can be found in the AMT Mack Cruiseliner and the air cleaner has to be modified to resemble a Tip Turbine air cleaner with two intake hoses above eachother.

You are right there Dave, they are completely different kits.

Great work on this model man.

Wheels and tires can be changed and I don't think the frame for the Revell AG K100 is that bad so what kit you want to start from is up to you, Of course you can start from the AMT K100 Aerodyne kit...but they are starting to fetch quite a lot of money too nowadays, not as much as the Revell kits but not that far from it, just now I see a couple on the auction site with asking prices from $63 to $280, the more expensive ones are BJ & The Bear kits and Tyrone Malone Transporter kits. The Revell kit has the normal 180" wheel base and the frame has to be lengthened to do a tri-drive, if you can't find the tri-drive kits, the AMT kit has a longer wheel base as the kit was the base for the Tyrone Malone transporters wich has a transporter body behind the cab, so they don't have to be stretched. The Revell AG K100 has a Cummins NTC 475 Dual Turbo and a manual transmission so it's not the same as the Revell AG W900/T900 wich have a Cat 3408 and a different frame, the AMT has a Detroit Diesel 8V-92T and an Allison automatic transmission.

The rear axle was probably too wide for the body and the Eldorado/Toronado wheels has lots of back spacing and would move the tires inward.

Nice work, I like the old F1 cars.

Very nice!!

Yup, he did a good job on it.

Please Revell, reissue them.

Revell...Monogram...it's pretty much the same thing, Revell and Monogram merged into one company in 1986 but the two brands were kept separate until the mid 90's when the kits were labeled Revell/Monogram, after that Monogram pretty much dissappeared and all kits were labeled Revell, but lately they have reinstated the Monogram lable and a Revell developed kit can be labeled Mongram and a Monogram developed kit can be labeled Revell regardless of origin...I don't like it as it gets confusing if you don't know your kit history well. But all Monogram developed kits are 1:24th scale and Revell has allways been 1:25th scale so the Monogram labeled kits in 1:25th scale were done after the merge 1986 and no new tooling kits from the Revell/Monogram Company after that are 1:24th scale. There are a couple of exceptions, the NASCAR kits, the 80's and 90's Pro Stock and Funny Car kits from Monogram and Revell were 1:24th scale but the tooling for them were originally developed before the merge.

Nice one. You know the ZL-1 engines were unpainted do you...the ZL-1 blocks, heads and intake manifolds are aluminum and were left bare.

The AMT Kenworth K100 Aerodyne and Tyrone Malone race trucks has Allison auto trannys, and I have seen them from a couple of resin casters.

Over here in Sweden and Europe the length regulations has killed off the conventionals and all truck manufacturers are only doing cabovers as the demand for conventionals wasn't enough to continue production. Scania stopped making the T series 2005 and Volvo stopped making the NH 2006, Volvo still do conventionals for the North American market.

Okay it had passed me, I've read somewhere that that tooling was missing, but of course they could have found it again.

Nice work Dave. I also saw the movie back in when it came up here in 1978 at 14, it's one of my favourite movies and I saw it every time they re-ran it at the movies, and have seen it at least once a year since the video and DVD came and I have lost count on how many times I have seen it. I also have plans to build the Kenworth truck, Hobbs trailer and Pontiac Trans Am in the future.

I thought the new tool 57 Chevy dissappeared when they moved production from Mexico to China. The last new tool 57 Chevy was the Coca Cola version and the one with the pink and white 2 door post car on the box art, both from 1998.

Nice work so far James.

Okay, I read about the engines at the link and they do work...except for the turbos wich are dummys without rotors.

Yes it does...it looks very good...I just thought I would give out the information if anyone want a 1:25 scale NTC 400