Mooneyzs

Hey Mike thanks again. I will try and give you a call later tonight after i get off work sorry i missed your call yesterday, worked 12 hours trying to.get stuff done. i should be leaving at my normal time today since we are having meetings with a customer. Sorry for the individual quotes but since i am responding from the mobile version on my phone I am not able to scroll up to look what was written previously by others.

Joe....thank you for the compliments. I am 36 and I know what you mean wth the age stuff. seems since i have gotten an Opti-visor, I have been using it alot more with my builds. I love that thing lol. I have always been a very detail oriented person. some times too detailed and want everything to be right. I can also be my own worst critic. I have learned alot over the years that i have been building and my biggest piece of advice is to have patience, take your time and not to rush things. regarding your question I believe the front wheels were spindle mounted. I have some pics of the car at home i can upload and show you when I get off work tonight. if i remember right the front wheels look as if they have a bunch of bolt heads around the tire and some around the center. You have brought to my attention that I may need to add more detail to the front wheels and add all of the bolt heads on the wheels. thanks again man.

Thanks Brad. you are right that this JJ body will be much easier than having to rework the kits body like that. I was going to cut away the back window screen and add a lip for the new back window to sit into. The front ends are completely different years so all that needs to be done is for me to remove the existing front end cleanly and the other one will fit right up. Then i will scratch build new tire vents. I think scratch building them will look much better because from the pics i have it looks like there is a lip all the way around the vent. Where as the built in ones on the kit dont look like that. And then on the rear body panel the JJ has the tail lights molded into it and the Army Vega they were smooth and painted on.

Thanks Derrick... I was wondering.if you had cut them ot and glued on to it that way. that is simple and easy. Nice work.

Niko & Joe.... Thanks guys. Well the reason that I have decided to use the Jungle Jim body is that the "Snorkle" (not sure if its he right term) on the hood area is way too big and my plan was to cut that down and move it forward. There will be work with the JJ body in this same area to build up a snorkle for it but I think it will be much easier. This Vega body was originally created from a different car than the Army Vega. I can't remember off the top of my head but I think it was either a Don Schumacher or Gene Snow Funny car that the body was based off of. Could someone chime in that knows for sure? Thanks. Besides the snorkle area I was also planning on removing the Army Body's back window and making the wind screeen out of aluminum or brass and well the JJ had a window there, popped it out and I am pretty much set so make my piece and drop it in Versus having to cut and shape a lip on there. The only thing I may need to do is add plastic to the lip since the metal i will be using will be thinner than the kits window and it will need to be raised up to be flush to the body. I just figured that the JJ would be the easier of the two bodies to start with. As mentioned I will be removing the front and rear of the body, then replacing with the correct Army Vega pieces for those. Niko.... I paid a pretty penny for this kit too last year. I just saw one that went for about 84 bucks on ebay just a few days ago. The Sad thing is that I ended up having to buy a 2nd kit because the first one I got, the decals were not in the best shape. Art... Thank you for the compliments and for following along while this build is coming together.

Virgil... I was going to say another other than what has already been mentioned here is Machined aluminum Specialties as well. But from the sounds of it You may of ordered it already. Regardless of where you are getting it, I am curious and looking forward to what you have instore with it.

Joe... you are doing some outstanding work on that chassis of yours. Those pedals look great. This is sure coming along very nice. Keep up the great work and I look forward to your next update.

Mike.... That Chassis is looking great. Saw your email on this and just didn't have time to get back to you on it. I really like what you did with the black smoke on the fuel cell hold down bracket. Looks great. Keep up the great work.

Here is the body after I had scrubbed the rest of the paint off with a tooth brush and then rinsed in warm water with Dawn detergent: The Other Side: Here is the beginning of the chassis rework, adding tube. Took me a little bit to get them at the right angles that I was looking for. Was looking at Prudhommes cuda frame from two pics I have of it as well as a picture that Mike sent me on a different chassis. I can't wait to have more of this done:

Hello All, I know its been a few days since you have seen any progress or posts from me on this build. Work has been a little hectic as I mentioned but Tonight I sat down for the first time at the bench in little over a week. I sould be able to make more progress this week. I wanted to take a moment and thank one of members here.... Mike Garland.... aka Magic Photos. He has been a great help to me on a few things with this build and is an outstanding and wonderful guy. I have talked with him a good amount of time over the phone and has been wonderful answering questions and giving me suggestions. He was even nice enough to send me an extra vega body that he had (The jungle jim version) and a couple other small items as well, after i was telling him my plans on what I was going to do with my body he thought it would be easier to start with the jungle jim one. Again Thank You Mike! I really appreciate all of your help so far and I am not done picking your brain yet... . As far as tonight, I was able to get started to put more of the chassis back together and fab a few tubes. I can't wait to have it all back together and done. The end of the week that is my goal. Anyway here are some pics to share with you guys. Thanks for looking. Here is the Jungle Jim body that Mike was kind enough to send with me. The plan is to let it soak in the purple pond and then I will remove the front and rear body piece and use the pieces from my kit on this body. I will have to go back and scratch build the vents (not sure what to call them over the front wheel well area: Here the body was put into the purple pond: Here it is about 4 or 5 days after letting it soak, which most of it brushed right off with no hard scrubbing:

Derrick... that Tranny is looking awesome Bro!!. I love the detail work you have put into it. so whats the secret on geting the decal to stick to the belt material looks very nice. keep up the great work on this.

Hey Brad... I totally thought of you when I read this thread since i.have seen some of our art work skills.

Bart... that block is looking great. So is the transmission and bell housing that Jim machined for you. that is the TDR lenco right? i cant wait.to see your next update. so you going to.me.making pistons for this block??

Dave... I am looking forward to watching this build come to life, you are already knocing it out of the park with the transmission. I will be following this build til the end. keep up the great work and look forward to your updates.

Those wheels are beautiful!! Jim does some Kick Ass!! Work. going to look great on your build.

Hey everyone... Wanted to say thanks for all of the nice comments. sorry I havent had any updates this week to share. I have been slammed at work and no other time to work on this I am itching to get back to my workbench on this and get the chassis mod completed. Hopefully I will ne able to have something to share soon.

Derrick.... that tranny is looking great man. its great to see more progress on this build.kepp up he great work your build is inspiring me to do a pro mod. nice work buddy.

Virgil.... I think it would be awesome to see you do a weathered job on dragster lets say that has been sitting on in or outside a barn for years. Love your weathered builds.

John.... you are out doing yourself on all of these details man. it is sure looking great so far. Very nice bud.

Brett... here are a few more pics I got off google for you

Wayne you are doing an outstanding job on this.. it looks great.

Dave.... that is one sweet car!

My build could for this year isnt much compared to everyone else here. I have completed a 1/25th scale Super Comp Dragster early this year (which I need to post pick in under glass section still) I was able to finially paint (earlier this year) my 1/16 scale Front Engine Dragster that I had stared 14 years ago. I still have more to do to complete it but its almost there (hoping to have it done by february) then the only other kit I have been working on is my 1/16 scale Army funny car which was started back in March of this year (progress of this is over in the drag racing section) and hoping to have completed by April 2012 for the desert scale classic, was trying to shoot for Feb 2012 for the NNL west in Santa Clara but do to rework of the chassis and my work schedule probably wont have it done til April, but will still plan on bringing what I have done on it to NNL.

"40 days and 40 nights" don't remember the exact model that was build but it was a car and believe it was from Tamiya

Brett.... I found a few more pics of this car when i did a google search after posting the pics last night. i will have to post them when I get home from work for you.