GrandpaMcGurk

Here's a few quickie shots of my narrowed, beefed up rear compared to the kit leaf sprung rear. Need to do some clean up but it's beginning to feel right.

You're cracking me up Jim........putting my name in the same sentence with "fast" is an oxymoron like Jumbo Shrimp! Granted, our club shirts say "FAST" (Florida Auto & Scale Truck) on the front but I build at my own chosen speed...........just barley off idle! It takes me most of a day just to plan out what I'm going to do tomorrow.

Here they are folks.......skinny front 5 spoker and a fat daddy rear steelie with rubber to match. Yeah buddy....this build is starting to make sense.

Found a skinny front tire and old school 5 spoker for the front in the parts box, installed a valve stem and now it's off to the paint booth to get rid of that toy car shine.

If you guys don't put dip sticks on your engines, you can skip this step too......."cheap valve stems". A bit of tubing and a cut off common pin for the "bling" valve cap.

Some Krylon and drafting pen detailing.......

using the rear wheel halves and a couple of narrow steelies from the parts box, some sanding, trial and error stacking, trimming for the back space I wanted...oh my...lookee here, could this perhaps be a reversed deep dish steel wheel in the making?

Thanks for the kudos guys....I appreaciate them. Let's put some rubber on the road.....here's the Street Charger kit wheels, tires and so on.........obviously, these aren't blowing my skirt up. The rear rubber is okay but the fat Nascar fronts with those big Good Year letters just hurt my face too much for a Pro-Street hot rod. Any way....here's a pic of the kit stuff.

Yep....It's going to have working front and rear suspension......

Haven't done the linkage yet and it needs some clean-up but here a couple shots of the "Sharpie" Lenco.

Okay, 'nuff teasing.........the Sharpie will become a Lenco trans. I could just order one from TDR but I'm kit bashing, scratch building this car. I will however order a couple of juice bottles. If you don't know what a Lenco trans is......each section is a different gear, you could have one with just 2 sections (2 speeds foward) or 6 sections depending on your application. There is also a separate section (at the rear) for reverse. They can be shifted manually with individual levers (as in the photo) or hydraulically, air, 'puter, whatever. I'll be fabbing up a facsmile 3-speed w/reverse using manual linkage (just 'cause all those levers look absolutely rad. on a street machine). The only drawback to it is it's length, being I'm not using a rear seat I can simply move the seats back a little to put the shift levers within easy reach. Gives the term "banging thru the gears" a whole new meaning...heeeee!

Look at the little bit indicated by the blue arrow, a touch of brass paint on one end, some black on the other with a touch of white (insulator) in the center and you've got a "FREE" metal detail freak spark plug for a 1/12 - 1/8th model engine. I usually buy the pens in bulk packs (do a lot of sketching) for a few bucks. Yeah, I live in a world all my own.

Here's a hint......... Step 1.........disassemble. Throw these 2 pieces (ink cartridge and wick) in the trash, if you're fussy about your personal appearance keep in mind they have permananet ink and will turn your didgits black...... :? .

Squint at the pic and guess what this pile of household trash, washers, scrap tubing and half round is going to morph into. [/url

Jason, ordinarily I would cut off the rear section of the pan and scratch build and new "rear half" frame..add some frame connectors and call it a day but then I'd have to go back and fit all new "sheet metal" to replace what was cut off. However...on this model I'm going to take a somewhat different approach, I'll be adding the lower half of the frame to the bottom side of the pan and then flip it over and add the upper half to the top side. With any kind of luck it, from the side it should appear the the frame sections are one piece with the sheet metal attached to it. A little filler, some sanding, a few more braces and I can shoot a coat of primer on this thing....flip it over and get the front engine cage started.

Here's a few shots of the tubs I fabbed up compared to what came in the box, gotta do a little filling and sanding but you'll get the idea.... Whoopeeeee......this last mock up pic puts a smile on my mug....all the rubber will fit inside the the body. Bye, Bye leaf springs!

Havin' some fun now huh? Here's a pic of the kit chassis with the big mutha rubbers in place.....not cool! I'd need curb feelers with this set up!

Let the butchering begin........

Actually Josh, if you look at all the 1/16th MPC Dodge kits as a sum of thier parts rather than what the various box art scenes depict, you're getting a fair amount of bang for your buck. Sure the later kits have a lot of flash and ill fitting parts not to mention the tired worn out, altered dies they using.....after all, who wants a NASCAR chassis with drum brakes under a 70's custom street machine? Point is........with a little kit bashing and a touch of scratch building.....there are some really cool builds hiding in those boxes, it just depends on how you arrange the parts.....right?

According to this guy...... This is a suitable platform for a Hemi powered street monster (unmolested kit part)......... Well, that ain't gonna happen. This car would twist up like a pretzel running that much H.P. without a full roll cage to hold the rear sub frame to the front. This is a street car and it would be nice to be able to open the door to get in without having to crawl thru the drivers window right? All that aside, I'm going to be running some really wide meats on the rear and I certainly don't want half the tire hanging out of the wheel well with the rear jacked up so high it needs it's own zip code. The pics show the rear tire I'll be using sitting in the unmolested pan.....as you can see, I'm going to have to tub the pan, fab a rear half (frame) and narrow the rear.

The molded plastic lines that came with the kit were too toy like......so I removed them and made my own, along with some fittings and a blower intake for a couple of double pumpers ( yes...the kit carbs looky funky.....I'll tweak them when I get a little futher along). Still have to add fuel lines, oil pan & some more plumbing but it's getting there.

The 426 Hemi that comes with these MPC kits is pretty well detailed to start with (even has a few internal parts), however, I just can't seem to be able to build anything OOB or leave well enough alone....call it a character fault if you like. Anyway, on with the dog & pony show. I scratch built a clutch can (hydraulic clutch) to replace the stock bell housing, modified the kit distributor to fatten up the sparker, fabricated a blower belt tensioner (the kit doesn't have one...shame on them), and fabricated a girdle for the bottom end. Added the lower injection lines (gonna have to replace these kit pices as they are pretty clunky looking). The kit supplied plug wire may be fine for most folks but they are so heavy (thick) they hurt my face). After all...we all know that plug wires aren't the same thickness as battery cables right? Did some detailing, tweaking and more weathering...this ain't no trailer queen, I want it to look like it's been run a few times. Keep in mind these are large photos and the engine is only 1/16th. Making the wire looms, plug boots, etc. was really straining my tired old digits & orbs.

A bit of assembly, weathering & paint...