W-409

This is easy... I watch very little TV because there usually comes nothing that catches my interest. The best shows I've seen here in Finland are probably... 1. Monster Garage 2. Fast & Loud That's it, and even the Fast & Loud isn't so good that I would watch it every time when it comes from the TV, only when I happen to be close and have nothing else to do. But when the Monster Garage came from the TV a couple of years ago, I watched all of the episodes every time. That was a good show. Roadkill in YouTube is really good, but it doesn't kind of fit in this thread.

Really nice work as always from you. Also I'm glad to see a Monza being built, these H-Bodies are great cars. Nice build, the paint job looks flawless and good looking detailing all over. I like the shine on those wheels: Not too shiny but not too dull. Great work.

Wow that turned out spectacular. It was really nice to follow the WIP thread to see this one come together. Very nice work with the paint and details. It looks like a real deal in the pictures.

I'm surprised to see a Junior Dragster scale model the first time ever. I think it's surprising that more people haven't tried to make one as Junior Drag Racing is really popular (At least here in Finland). Well, honestly I have been thinking of making a Jr Dragster sometime, but never got around building one actually. This is a very cool build. Great job scratchbuilding the components and good work getting everything together. Nice work overall.

Your builds are always spectacular and this is no exception. Flawless paint job and great color choice that is a bit different from what you see the most. You sure know how to turn those Promo-style interior tubs into good looking parts.

I bought this two months ago. I'm going to rebuild it soon when I get a couple of my current projects finished. I'm planning to build it as a Mild Custom. I also have a '58 Edsel for a donor kit and one '57 Ford Police Car in progress.

That's a good looking project Steve. Great work as usual, especially I like the body colors and engine detailing. Good job wth the decals, too, they fit surprisngly well on a Rambler too. My only "complaint" is that Gassers had to have full interior upholstery instead of just aluminum door panels etc. I'm thinking this could fit better in Altered category then.

Thanks Fred, it means a lot! You're right that these cars look quite cartoonish. Still I like them even if I'm not a Mopar guy. Here's a minor update again. I was working with the rear tires today. They were too far inside the fenders on my previous mock up, but now they look just right to me. Some Bondo was also used on the hood to make it smoother.

Thanks Gene! That one hole is for the hood ornament. I need to drill it out, though. I think these cars look very good with the hood ornament on place...

I agree with Walter, great to see a correct roll cage. Looks like it will be another winner build overall, but only thing I would change is the size of those front tires. They look way too small to me now. Otherwise you're doing super clean job.

Thanks Paul, I appreciate it! I did some test fitting today as the body and chassis were touch dry. First I test fitted only the body, interior and chassis together and they all fit very nicely. I was afraid of the hood as I did the scoop before I thought this should end up being Blown and as I thought it didn't fit under the scoop. Because the Blower should never be hidden under the hood, I removed the scoop and made the hole a bit larger to make the hood fit. Wheels and tires are from Plastic Performance Products. My test fit shows that they fit fine otherwise, but the rear tires need to be brought a bit closer to the body, now they're too far inside the fenders I think. Sorry for the low quality pics. Now when it's late Autumn / almost Winter it gets very dark in here after 4 PM which makes it hard to take any pics.

I did some minor work with the Fiat. The Kit had a Hilborn intake manifold that was good otherwise, but it had two huge ejector pin marks on it. I thought they should be removed even if I was a bit afraid of doing it. Overall it was very easy to do though and the end result looks good to me. I also removed the chrome plating from the clutch cover and intake.

Now I got the alternator brackets scratchbuilt to the Hemi. I scratchbuilt them from beer can aluminum and then I made the belt from Pro Tech Blower Belt & Pulley Set (Picture #1). From the same set I used the Blower belt pulleys and the belt of course. The bracket for the idler pulley was made out of sheet styrene and then the belt was glued on. Tomorrow's project will be painting and installing the carburetors. Hopefully I can start working with the chassis too.

Thanks Guys! Glenn: Yep it's true, every time I get new parts it's like an early Christmas. Gene: That's true, most people don't understand it. Luckily some people do, though. No problem with the thoughts, it's always nice when I can help someone. Jay: It's a pleasure to do business with Ted. He has some good stuff in stock, ordering is really painless and shipping is fast too. Here's a minor update to keep you guys interested. The hood was sanded smooth and then it was time to shoot some Filler Spray on it (That's what it said in the can). Now it looks like it will be ready for Primer after a light sanding. Tomorrow I need to spray some filler on the top side too.

That's a good looking Pontiac. Great looking paint job and neat color choice. Something a bit rarely seen, but it works well. I like the stance and the engine detailing, too. Also the paint colors on the engine look very good as the parts look like they're real metal instead of just plastic. Very nice work.

This is an interesting project even though you're not using the 409. The stance looks pretty good to me and as far as the color choices go, I'd go with black exterior and red interior. That color combo is hard to beat on these X-Frame Chevys.

Thanks Guys! It really sucks when it happens and especially when working with a model that needs to be done before the race starts. But looks like I fixed it so it wasn't Mopar's fault. So I gave the body a light sanding so that it looked a bit better and shot some more paint on it from a new spray can. It's not perfect as there is some orange peel still visible, but it looks so much better now that I'm thinking a clear coat and polish will make it look good. Now I will let it dry properly though before shooting any clear on it. Of course I need to install the Bumble Bee stripe on place too. I also worked with the engine. My order from Ted's Modeling Marketplace arrived a couple of days ago and it contained Pro Tech's Blower belt & pulley set that will be used on this build. As this is a Road Racer though, I had to install an alternator to the engine. The pulleys were cut from kit's original part and the belt will be done tomorrow, just like the alternator mount so there will be no floating alternators! I also added an electric water pump motor and installed a its wire on place. Once the engine is glued in, I can continue wiring that water pump by running the wire to the firewall. My plan for tomorrow is to install the blower belt and the pulleys on place as well. We will see if I can make it or not...

There are three on Terry Sumner's Fotki page. Looks like all of them doesn't have all pages scanned though, but I've used them on a couple of my current projects. Great source. I think it would be a good idea to scan these older Rulebooks for us model builders. http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/nhra-rulebooks/

Great job Mike! That Wheelstander turned out great, smooth paint job with clean assembly makes it look like a winner. Good work turning a not-so-good kit into a neat model.

Thanks for the reply, Chris! That makes perfectly sense and now when you said it I think I remember reading it earlier as well. This project inspires me to build something super detailed, but I know if I started that kind of project it would never get done. I'm looking forward for more updates...

Well the Charger Daytona was smooth and ready for paint. So today I screwed up the paint job. There was something wrong with the spray can as there came a couple of big lumps of paint to the surface and there's a major orange peel too. It might be recoverable when I'm gonna sand it tomorrow and replaint it with a new can of paint. Stupid Mopars .

Looking great, those 3D Printed parts are fantastic! It is looking very good otherwise as well, I'm always hoping there is an update in your Army Vega thread when I open this forum. That fuel pump looks good, it would be very interesting in 1/25 scale to have on a couple of projects. I have a question though as I might have missed this before... I think the 3D Printed parts look very good, but I'm just curios why did you draw the 3D models and have them printed when you have the same parts in styrene/resin? Especially the Blower you worked on and put lots of effort in it, looks very good... Why did you print those, as they are quite expensive I believe. I think they are looking really good but as I'm modeling on a budget I'm just wondering this.

Mine wasn't quite ready for paint yet, but another coat of Bondo and some more sanding fixed that problem. Now the body is in Primer again and so far it looks smooth. Can't say it for sure though when it's not completely dry. I also sanded the Bondos from the rear spoiler and hood and shot some Filler Spray on them. Chassis was also primed. Getting closer to paint!

This is a very cool and creative build...As always from you. I haven't posted much as I've been speechless all the time because of your building skills and cool ideas. Thanks for sharing it with us, the mock up looks excellent and I like the new body lines too.

Well it looks like it's finally time to start hacking with the Fiat Topolino. The inspiration came from a Primer CBP on TRaK which means of course that the Fiat will be left in Grey Primer. My plan is to use the kit tires, but I will paint white walls to the rear slicks. Rear wheels will be used from the AMT kit but I'm not sure what to do with the fronts. The ones in Double Dragster kit look really good, but I'm not sure if I want to use them here. I will have to look what I can come up with. The engine will be an Early Hemi with Hilborn Fuel Injection, also from the kit. I'm building this at the same time as I'm building the '55 Chevy so the progress won't be super fast. I try to work on both of these builds as much as I can though. The reason why I hadn't started the Fiat earlier was that my kit was missing the Rear Engine Mount (Part F6 on the first picture). Rather than trying to locate one of those parts somewhere, I thought I should modify something similar from one I had in my parts boxes. I had to cut some material off from the engine to get it fit, but after cutting the piece that originally goes inside the clutch cover / rear engine mount, the new part fits perfectly. I must strip the chrome plating off though.