W-409

This is an old project of mine that was first started in 2010. It was going to be a Gasser with supercharged Chrysler 426 Wedge. For some reason the project got stalled for a while. In 2013 I continued it, but the Wedge didn't sound like a good idea anymore. So, I changed it to an Injected Ford Flathead with stock heads, to classify for NHRA's G/G class. I started building the engine from some glue bomb I found in my parts box, but I couldn't find all of the correct parts for it, so the project got stalled again. The third time I started this project was last year when I took the engine from Revell's '40 Ford. And this time it looks like I might be able to actually finish it! This will be built according to 1963 NHRA Rulebook for Gas Coupes & Sedans, and I'm planning to build it as a "Low Buck Racer" without a fancy paint job or anything like that. So it will have a grey primer finish and a Flathead under the hood. I think the Flathead will fit pretty well to the budget racer theme as well. I have glued the front clip to the body and I've done a bit of bodywork on that area. Rear fenders have taller wheel openings as well to make a bit of room for the slicks. In these early Mock Up-pics, the rear suspension is straight from the kit, but rear tires (that will be changed to a regular whitewall slicks later) are from AMT Racemaster Parts Pack. Front springs are taken from my parts box and front axle is from Revell's '56 Ford Pickup if I remember correctly. Front tires are from Jo-Han's SC Rambler, but I'm not quaranteed that they will stay. All four wheels are resin cast by a friend of mine. I will have to lower the front end slightly, but I think the stance is pretty close. And here is a picture of the Flathead engine. I will be scratchbuilding a set of headers for it and intake manifold for the Hilborn Fuel Injection will need to be fabricated as well. Front inner wheels didn't fit perfectly to the tires, because of which the front tires were too far from each other. Instead of narrowing the front axle, I wanted to modify the inner wheels instead so that they'd fit better on place. Because by narrowing the front axle the glue joint would become weak and it could break because of the weight of this model, I didn't want to do that. So I cut the inner wheels with my razor saw to make them a bit more narrow: Here both of them are narrowed and they fit pretty nicely on place. Next I prepped the engine block, heads and timing chain cover for primer. The block required some putty, but after that I just had to get rid of a couple of small mold lines here and there. Primer... Here the engine parts are painted and clear coated. I used Tamiya TS Spray paints for this as they seem to work pretty well, and I had just the right color on my shelf. I think the finish turned out pretty good. Not too shiny, but not too dull either. Stay tuned for more...

Together with my dad we had a '79 Buick Skyhawk street car, which shares the same chassis as Vega. But when we bought the Malibu, we had to sell the Buick away to have some money in order to rebuild the Malibu. Vega would be a cool car, though!

Thanks guys! Gotta head to the ladies' area at a local shop tomorrow, trying to find one that contains no Acetone.

I have a body that some previous owner painted with a thick coat of nail polish. Usually I've removed paint with Mr Muscle, but looks like it's not working for nail polish removal. I've heard about using nail polish remover to remove paint from resin, but would it work on plastic body too? I'm afraid that it will soften or otherwise damage the plastic. Has anyone tried it succesfully? Or if not, what could I use to get rid of the nail polish paint job in order to start rebuilding that thing some day? I definitely don't want to start sanding the paint away....

I also saw the T-Bird in the background and was really excited about it, until I saw that it's 1/32... Anyway, the '59 Imperial is a must have kit for me. The Mongoose Dragster is interesting as well so I'll probably have to get one of those, too.

Very nice model of a great looking car! This is one of those bodies that I'd like to have as a modern kit. Your version looks very good. Smooth paint job and clean BMF work too, very nicely done Nash overall!

Thanks Darryl, Donald and Cliff...I appreciate the kind words! Now back to the bench to be able to finish something this year, as well .

That is a very clean Highboy! Especially that flawless black paint job catches my eyes, but the whole model is very nicely done as always. The wheel and tire combo works great, and I like how the red interior looks with the black exterior too. Excellent work.

Thanks Rob, I was thinking about the same issue myself. Not good but at least the body should be pretty stiff. I'll need to fabricate a proper roof rack for one of two spare tires and some other stuff that might be necessary. Four door body would help on that for sure. I finished the cage today. Not sure what kind of roll cages rally cars usually have, but this is a bit of "simplified" version of 8.5 second roll cage that is seen on Drag Race cars. I think it'll do on this one. I'm not completely happy on how the cage turned out, but luckily it's hidden for the most part inside of the car. The body shapes were a bit trickier on this one compared to the Fox Mustang where I built my latest cage before this one. Next, I'll need to prep the interior parts ready for paint. Meanwhile, I can start working on the engine. Pat's '64 Dodge is looking very good, too. I think the snorkel is a great idea and it's very well executed, too.

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone! Peter, I sure wish the BMF was perfect on the El Camino. It's not bad but there are some small spots that I'm not completely happy with. I was thinking what should I do with the area between the side moldings. If that area was painted white, it would have been more forgiving as far as BMF goes, but I prefer how it looks in body color on a Custom like that. Thanks again everyone!

Another very beautiful Cougar from your bench! I'm not a huge fan of Convertibles, but I have to say that this looks pretty good with the top down even though it's not something you could have bought from the dealer. Very nice and clean work overall.

Yesterday while cruising around in Helsinki, Finland with my Chevy S10, it looks like I wasn't the only American Car driver in there as this '65 Chrysler Convertible showed up. Always great to see proper cars in the winter, too.

Thanks! It's the 350 SBC from 1974 that is just bored .070 over. The Stock Eliminator rules limit very much what can be done to the engine, and because of that we're running with stock 882 heads on it (only valve job done, but stock runners, combustion chambers etc), stock cast iron intake and a Quadrajet. Cam lift has to be stock as well. There are bunch of other limitations, too, but that already gives an idea what can or can't be done. The minimum weight for that combo is 3757 lbs.

Thanx Rob, that's what I thought myself, too. Just wanted to make sure I understood correctly. I'm not sure what ignition system I'm going to go with yet. It's going to be either stock or then a very basic MSD electronic ignition as they are pretty reliable too. Whatever I go with, I'll need to take some spare parts in the trunk or backseat. Not sure yet if I'm going to have an opening trunk or not. Probably not though, as there is pretty much work to do anyway. Here are some pics of start on my '51 Bel Air. All of the parts came out from the paint stripping pretty fast. All parts look pretty good, except for the body crash damage... But that's going to be part of the car's character anyway. I decided to start building by making the roll cage. I found a pretty good main hoop from my parts box. It was exactly the correct height and it had to be narrowed only a little to fit in this body. However I had to do little modifications to the door panels to make some room for the main hoop. Then I filled the hole with sheet styrene, and now the main hoop fits well on its place. It fits pretty well to the body shapes as well. Today I did some more tubings to the roll bar. I had some .080 plastic rod which is slightly thinner than the main hoop, but I decided not to loose my night sleep because of that. It's not done but it's a good start. I didn't see a rule that says you gotta have a backseat, so I left mine out. I'm going to make a full roll cage for this as it makes the body so much stronger.

Personally, I don't like neither one of those on the first post, the first one is just too Rat Rod like even though it has a nice glossy paint job. The second one has disgusting big wheels with rubber band tires.... Not good. But, in general, I prefer Model A over Model B all the way. A Five Window Coupe Model A with '32 grill is pretty much as perfect Hot Rod as it gets... In my opinion at least.

My other hobbies are pretty much car related as well. My main hobby is of course Drag Racing in Stock Eliminator class with our '74 Chevy Malibu. We've been doing this together with my dad since 2013 (I'm driving and we both work as mechanics, too). We have been able to get the car running pretty well now and last year I ran our first 11 second ET with that land barge. Then of course building / restoring 1:1 scale American Cars, currently building a '62 Chevy II as a Gasser for myself. And also I guess listening to old Rock 'n' Roll and Rockabilly music would count as well. Have lots of records at home and I enjoy going to gigs as well.

OK well since my Contest entry on TRaK forum is finished, I'm starting to work on my '51 Bel Air for this CBP. Now I've been looking at the rules more closely, and I have a couple of things that I want to clarify. -The rules clearly say that the engine must be same technology as what was available when the car was used (but it doesn't have to be stock). I get that. But, I read the "Car Preparation Guide" document. There was writing about electric ignition over mechanical ignition. So am I right that we can use any modern (Like MSD for example), ignition system on our cars anyway? -This is basically the same, but also fuel system can be modernized by late model aftermarket fuel filters? And how about a fuel pump? Can we use an electric pump or do we have to go with the stock one? Otherwise I think there is nothing special about the rules. Building a roll cage for my '51 is starting Now.

Here are the models that I was able to finish last year. It was actually a very good year for me as I was able to finish two models instead of finishing only one several years a row now. I started out strong as I finished this '64 Thunderbolt pretty early in 2018... As usual, the summer was spent Drag Racing with our '74 Malibu in Stock Eliminator and building my 1:1 Chevy II Gasser project. But then I recently finished this El Camino for TRaK Autorama contest (Finished on December 31st ). Thanks for looking and hopefully this year would be also succesful as far as finishing something goes...

I did a Glue Bomb restoration on Jo-Han '71 Barracuda a few years ago... I have another one waiting for a similar treatment. This one is a Pro Stock car, but the other one should represent a Super Stocker when I get to it.

Nicely done Charger. In fact this Charger 500 is probably my favorite version on these, the front end just looks so much better than any other versions with the hideaway headlights. Seeing this nicely done scale version is always great. The color works very well on that body and I like that wheel and tire combo the best as well. Excellent build.

Thanks Carl! I appreciate the kind words!

We can never see too many '60 Impalas, especially when they are done this well. Black is not the easiest color to get right, but looks like you nailed this one. Overall a very nicely done X-Frame Chevy. Now this just made me want to start one of my kits of this same car...

Wow, the black paint job looks flawless! Always nice to see a Mercury Cougar being built, and restoring glue bombs is fun so I really like this one. Everything looks just right. Those redline tires are a nice touch.

Very nicely done model of an unique subject! This is absolutely one of the best versions that I've ever seen built from this kit. Very nice paint job and clean BMF work on the chrome trim too. I like it, nice work.

I agree 100% with this. Modern front wheels are not very well available for these cars. Some spindle mounts are there, but not much of the "regular" ones. And especially for Stockers with maximum slicks of 9" wide, it's hard to find modern racing wheels. There are some out there that are very wide, so they don't work here. Also the air cleaner base and those valve covers would be good, at least I'd buy them if they were available. Depending on the price of course.