alan barton

Steve, the left front tyre really is an accessory on many classes of dirt track racing. Most ( not all) dirt tracks run anti clockwise so the left front tyre spends much of its time in the air as they try to get as much weight transfer as possible to the right rear. Three really is no point carrying a large heavy wheel when it contributes so little to the actual steering performance. Nice modified Karl, I really like the combination of parts you ave used here - and yes, they are all clean and straight once - I have used the same excuse to justify some of my clean racecars LOL! Cheers Alan

Hey Tom, did you catch the sponsorship?

Thanks everyone for the kind comments, glad you liked it. And Mike, i like your idea about the hometown garage. When I get something sorted I will pop up another photo. Cheers Alan

here is my finished Aussie speedway sedan built from an old gunmetal black street machine that I fell out of love with. It would have been racing on 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile dirt track speedways in Australia in the mid seventies, well before tube framed late models came along and changed Aussie sedan racing forever. The body is a Jaymar fibreglass S series Valiant, most likely moulded from a promo or original Revell kit. These bodies are very challenging and take a lot of work to look half way decent. The hood has not been opened due to the high likelihood that it would shatter like a Pringle! Chassis is a shortend version of the unit from an MPC Chrysler kit car with a Dodge Deora slant six under the hood. Twin pipes are made of solder. Cheers Alan

Just had another look at the last photo. Like the way you got some slope into the hood - I have done that myself before but it ids not easy! Also like the Big Donkey seat - the more I look at this car the more I like it!

Love the Grant King. They are a tough kit to get looking good and you have excelled here. I especially like the wheel and tyre treatment. I have built four of these so far with another three to do - still chasing that perfect look! Cheers Alan

I've got at least four of those chassis lying around - looks like I know what to do with at least one now! I love how clean and crisp it is and yet there is still a touch of weathering to make it look real. Nice job!

Getting close to finished now. Getting the driver in place, from a Japanese kit of some sort judging by the grey plastic and it hasnt taken as much surgery as I usually get involved with! Nice for a change. I also got the fender fixed and starting weathering to hide the flaws. Cheers Alan

Draggon, they worked this time! Love the B&W pic of the five window - that is straight out of Car Craft or Rod and Custom! Stunning proportions. As promised, I can finally post my completed Double Kit 32 Custom Tudor. This model would not exist except for the overwhelming generosity of Steve, AKA Muncie. It was quite a challenge and I still have to work out a clean method to fit my tinted blue roof insert but it is finished for now so here it is for your enjoyment. I will put more photos of this model up in a separate thread Under Glass. Cheers Alan

Another very cool contemporary build! Wouldn't have thought of that colour but I like it. Your roadster really strikes a nerve for me because, over thirty years ago ( how does this happen?) I started a very similar model. I started with the old Revell SWC Wllys and like you, removed the coupe roof, built a wrap around , waterfall interior shape with two buckets and sat it down low. I do like what you did with the 36 style cowl - might have to pinch that idea. My version was more a kitbash than a parts potpourri because I elected to use the floor, running gear and interior from, of all things, a Monogram Chevy Citation, putting the transverse V6 in the trunk. I never resolved some windshield design issues so it has sat languishing all this time. Now I see your result and I am scratching my head wondering why I never pushed on and finished it? It needs to be finished - then they will be like brothers of a different mother! Cheers Alan

I needed to switch the firewall to suit my standard right hand drive configuration for hot rods in my collection but I couldn't bring myself to cut up the highly engrave originals.( if anyine needs an original double kit firewall to complete a restoration project, let me know and I will send it to you). I traced the original firewall shape onto a piece of flat styrene and cut it out. To add some detail, I carefully removed the master cylinder and plumbing detail form an old AMT Model A custom firewall, painted it with Molotow chrome ens and added it to the firewall. Very happy with the result!

Hi guys, it's been a while but this is finally finished and will be in Under Glass shortly. I still want to show a few details of the restoration here first. I first restored the original axle but then Steve sent me a much nicer one so I used it instead. To try and get it down a bit I carefully trimmed the lever shock mounts and the inside of the cross member - I think i picked up close to 2mm, better than nothing. I had to replace everything else form my parts box. THe torsion bars are shortened versions of the 32 Vicky torsion bars and the radius rods are shortened versions of the Revell 29 hiboy radius rods.

Making a bit of progress this week and hoping to have her done for a model club contest tomorrow night, but no panic if it doesn't make it in time. Our club has a competition 4 times a year and I like to use these as an incentive to get long standing projects off the bench and onto the shelf. We are very lucky in Western Australia to have virtually no community transmission of the Covid 19 so our meetings can go ahead with a little social distancing. The chassis is close to finished. I eased an AMT Dodge Deora slant six in there last night. The engine mounts look awful in this mockup but with a bot of cleaning up and some flat black paint the engine is now sitting believably in the frame, especially when viewed from underneath. Probably won't bother with an upper end detail as the hood won't be opening. With some weathering I think the Dodge Dart chassis will make a good representation of a Valiant underside. I mentioned before how you can learn to hate fibreglass bodies. Well, was test fitting the body on the weekend, all painted and decalled and"Pop" - a whole chunk of the front fender cracked off the car! I will now wait until everything else if finished - glue the chunk back on with superglue and hide the damage with some strategically placed mud. Thank heavens for speedway dirt - can you imagine how frustrating this would be if you were doing showroom stock?

Haven't finished a dirt tracker for quite a while so it was good to get this done. I reckon I painted it about 5 years ago and for some reason don't appear to have taken many construction photos. Oh well. It turned out to be quite a complex model, mainly due to the need to fit 10 pounds of parts into a five pound bag. EVERYTHING needed massaging. What I am most satisfied with is that I think got that home-built look to it. There is a fine line between building a good model of a crude racecar and building a crude model of a crude racecar! I would like to have one nice piece of white signwriting across the back but in spite of having a massive stash of decals, I haven't yet found anything that looks right. The body came from Fred Sudlow at Fred's Resin Works It is a great shame his work is no longer available as he did a great line of resin parts for short track racers. I bought a lot of bodies and parts off him about ten years ago and he also generously gave me a bunch of parts as well. Fred, on the off chance that you are reading this, thanks for some great parts. I would still be buying if you were still in business! So the recipe goes something like this. Body, hood ( modified), rims and rear tyres FRW Frame AMT 25 T zeed at the front and new engine mounts and radius rod mounts added. Engine - AMT 25 T "Lincoln sortof " Driver - Monogram sprintcar driver massively modified Scratchbuilt front, rear and side nerf bars, front axle and steering gear, floor, rollcage, bellypan, exhaust headers, aircleaner ( with real foam!) dashboard, dirt screens and wing.

That's embarrassing! It kept saying I couldn't reply for 24 seconds so i kept trying - sorry about that, Moderators!

The finishing touches really brought it to life! She looks great! Cheers Alan

The finishing touches really brought it to life! She looks great! Cheers Alan

The finishing touches really brought it to life! She looks great! Cheers Alan

The finishing touches really brought it to life! She looks great! Cheers Alan

That works for me! The heavy chop suits the persona of this kit beautifully whereas it might not suit a more sedate ride. Nice to see an SBC for a change - everyone seems to have gone flathead or hemi mad lately! Cheers Alan

I have every book you've written Tim, do I won't be missing this one! Cheers Alan

Ace is onto something here! I wonder if a very clever kit engineer could make a new 27 roadster body fit the existing Revell Model A/32 chassis AND the old Buttera T fender unit. Sell it as the 27/32 combo with a chopped screen but re-introduce the Revell T touring kit at the same time so that stock bodied builders would get a great donor kit. it's a no-brainer and would fill a huge gap! Back to the original question, having been actively involved in Australian street rodding for nearly fifty years, like all things, trends come and go. I would agree that there doesn't appear to be many new Model T based rods getting built right now but that doesn't mean that all the old T based rods aren't still out there. I've always thought that one of the greatest strengths of hot rodding is that everyone can live together. Go to Louisville or Pleasanton and there will be retro rods alongside resto rods alongside billet rods, plus every other genre in between. It's no good turning up at Indy, or Daytona, or Lemans with a twenty or thirty or forty year old race car but you can go to a rod run anywhere in whatever you've got. The Revell Buttera series Ts were great kits and the AMT 25 T series weren't far behind. Just a shame the 27 coupe and roadster were never tooled. When it comes to buckets, the Switchers T that Snake mentioned is a great way to build a contemporary T bucket - it will require much less work that the AMT, Monogram or Revell versions. Cheers Alan

Gerald, if you are looking for a skull for a shifter knob, the Hot Wheels toy known as Rigor Motor has two as headlights up front. The toy is loosely based on Grandpas dragster from the Munsters TV show. Unfortunately the most recent ones no longer ahve the skulls but I bought a bunch when they still did . If I see one cheap at a flea market, I grab it just to get two skulls. Here's what they look like with a bit of paint detailing! Cheers Alan.

Wow, that really looks the part. I do like the pro mods from a time when they still resembled the factory body. Good luck with getting this one across the line! Cheers Alan

Really enjoying your thoughtful, methodical work. That front sub- structure is particularly impressive. The stance looks spot on. Cheers Alan