mvadrag

I have a built up Vette Gasser I picked up at a swap meet or Ebay, can't remember. It is in needs restoration, but I did not have the heart to break it apart. First picture is sort of box art view. Second is the Vette Gasser body lined up with a Revell Corvette convertible body (without the windshield frame).

Thanks for the interest, Snake. Yes, the interior will work with some adjustments. You have to cut off a nub at the front (left arrow) so the interior tub will fit up into the 65 body. Also the sides need to be sanded down (right arrow) to narrow the tub a little bit. This really washed out picture, due to the flash, shows the interior tub from a pre-paint 66 Nova street machine fits. May still need more adjustments when I try to fit the glass in place. So far, things seem to be going well. Need to start working on the front and rear suspensions. A couple more chassis shots. Here you see how the chassis fits with the rear bumper. On a real car, there is more room between the bumper and the rear spring shackle, but it fits. Front bumper also fits, but it is tight with the front edge of the frame. May need some clearance sanding there too. I trimmed the radiator bulkhead to fit between the fenders, but it interferes with the back of the bumper/grill piece (no picture of that yet).

Here is the trimmed rear chassis pan. I had to trim the top of the firewall to get the body down on the chassis. Stock kit part, left. Trimmed part glued to chassis (no upper nub). Also trimmed all the nubs under the 65 Chevy II valance panel to get everything to fit.

Nice job of weathering that chassis! That will add some great detail.

Years ago, a friend of mine bought a bunch of kits from a going out of business slot car track. All the kit bodies were gone (slot cars) but all the chassis and unused parts were piled in various boxes. I managed to get a few of the AMT 1966 Resto Rods Nova boxes. Naturally, I will use this chassis for this conversion. There are a few changes I needed to make to get the 65 Chevy II to fit this chassis, more than I would have guessed because the real cars share the basic chassis. First I wanted more room for the rear tires, so I made some mini tubs. There is a kit you can buy for the real cars to add mini tubs. The inner wheel wells are cut away. You will notice I also moved the leaf spring hangers inboard to make some room. I also trimmed the sides of the rear chassis plate to fit inside the 65 body. Later on I had to trim off that little bit of the plate after the fuel tank support. I glued strips to the cutout inner wheelwells and them reattached the to the chassis. They are only taped on for this picture.

Thanks for the comment. It seems all the AMT altered wheelbase funny cars that I have seen did not move the front wheels forward as was the practice with the real cars.

Here are the fenders cut and glued in place. Need some body work to blend the seams and fill in the door line from the donor fenders. I am not the best at putty and sanding, but we will give it the old college try.

This is a project I have wanted to attempt for a while. I want to make a stock wheelbase Chevy II from the AMT Rat Packer funny car. I had bought an original little box Rat Packer that was painted and mostly built at a swap meet and I had one of the later kit Street Freaks reissue, so why not cut them up. I wanted to build the old kit as stock, but after I removed the old paint I saw that the body was warped by over use of glue when the glass was installed. That body became the donor. See the warp in the roof line? I used an AMT 1966 Chevy II (body and chassis) to try to figure out where the fender needed to be. I cut out extra material for the fenders so I could move it around before final cuts. I cut out the altered fenders just after the door line. Fender taped in place. Couple of different angles to check looks.

Outstanding! I can see why you commented on the headers. That big engine really makes fitting headers around the front suspension very tricky (on real cars and maybe harder on your model).

First, let me say that I am very impressed by your scratch building model skills. You build very clean, finely detailed models. You also run a very mean machining operation for these models. Outstanding! As far as drive line loops, I added one to my 1966 Chevy II (12.8 @ 108 mph) in 1987 so I could drag race it at my local track and the rules were then 6" from the front u-joint. And yes, I did see cars "pole vault" from failed u-joints when the track allowed "nostalgia" cars to run that were slower than 13.99 seconds in the quarter. I have the rule books from back then, but here is the current version:

The 34 Ford is one of my favorites. This picture in a Hot Rod magazine inspired me to build a similar truck for one of my modeling friends. (not so great photography)

The book was called Hot Rod Chassis Construction. You are right it is a great reference for old chassis builds.

I agree this dragster came out just right. Did you modify the body for the full width front wing, or is it available somewhere in resin?

Model Cars Magazine of April 2005 (#104) ran the story. I was not as careful as you describe building the trunk and the curve is not right. Good idea to glue in the floor for support. My version on the way to creating a rat...

Instead of salt, I like to use rubber cement stippled on strategically with a scouring pad. After painting the body, remove the rubber cement by dabbing with masking tape to reveal the "rust". (A Ken Hamilton trick from one of his books.)

I like your mods on what MPC called a '32 Ford body. I may have to steal them and build one for myself. Imitation... I also like Rocking Rodney's street rod. Great style.

"I produced my own body by free-form carving a wooden mould for a stretched, chopped Topolino and then vacforming copies in 1mm white styrene." That is very impressive carving. Mine would look more like a block of wood. I really like your version of a competition coupe. Those little Fiat bodies are great material.

This is a great topic. I will like to see how you handle trying to create a realistic dragster out of this show rod. The drivers area looks pretty laid back on your chassis, but it might be necessary to fit the roll cage under the roof. The driveshaft for a dragster is really a splined steel bar connected with a coupler. An anti-rotation bracket is usually attached to the front of the third member. Most chassis builders would use a aluminum tube bolted to the main caps of the engine through to the third member to keep everything lined up.

This is really nice. Good clean build style. I have an old set of Hilborn injectors that look just like yours here. Straight tubes... no bells.

Thank you for the how-to on the weathering. I never thought to do the whole thing with sponges and water based paints. Yours came out great!

Also, the MPC Super Hemi funny car (Dodge GTX?) has a Logghe stage II chassis and also has about the same wheelbase. Again, hard to find nowadays. I did a quick mock up, the "tin" would again have to be narrowed. One more comparison. Here are the Polar Lights, Johan, and MPC chassis with the location where the cross member for the rear suspension attaches lined up with the left edge of the scale. Johan frames also had a version that had longer tubes at the rear with tabs below for the body hinge.

Interesting discussion on Logghe chassis. May be hard to find, but the Johan funny car chassis for the 64 Dodge has about the same wheelbase. You would have to narrow the interior "tin" to fit, but looks doable.

While looking for a 32 Sedan build up, I found this photo of the major assemblies.

One of my all time favorite kits from AMT! I try to buy them when I see them. I like the clear top, should be able to see the cool custom interior. I used the engine, chassis (including tires, but wheels are from the Willys) and grille shell for this little truck. I used the dropped front axle from the Revell 32 Ford kits to get it lower.

Great to see that you are still working on this effort. Quite inspiring for scratch building details. Here is my homage to your talent: