Codi

Well done Tim. The info shared is very insightful too. Thanks for sharing & I look forward to your progress. cheers, tim

Brad, thanks for the note and nice to see you here again. Hope all has been well for you and you'll post some drag car build here soon. cheers Pete J. - "a year ago"..............thanks for reminding me. ? Time IS flying and thank you too for the note. Marcos - Appreciated sir. Daniel - I agree on the blasting a portion of it as I think it would have looked fine either way. But, of course once I blast it, there is/was no turning back so it's now shiny forever. Thank you for the post and checking it out. Ian - Thanks too! Francis - I always liked that saying but I did get a little carried away with the number of pics I took & shared. I don't post as often as I used to so when I do................well, you know. cheers Dave (comp1839) I so miss seeing your builds here at the forum. I know your car is your passion at this time but I can always hope you'll bring a project back or start a new one to share with us all. I DO have some interesting ideas on how I'm approaching the chassis now. Drawing it up now and making a list of 1st and 2nd choices that I'd like to see for the various parts to fab. I have decided to do a Hardy style chassis after doing a ton of research. This week I've got a few "experiments" to try out first to confirm construction techniques. Cheers, Tim Dennis - Appreciate the sentiment and for popping by to check the car out. More good things to come I promise. Cheers Everyone!!!

Dan, nice looking car......I'm a sucker for yellow and I wanted to ask what color yellow you used on your car? cheers,tim

Great car and thread Marco. I particularly appreciate the thorough step by step you've taken on the body prep and paint steps. Great tips you've shared. cheers, tim

THAT is exquisite Alan. Super job. cheers, tim

Finally DONE. Pic heavy. 10 rear cover bolts, 4 carrier bolts and 16 axle flange bolts.....cheers, tim

Thanks Francis & Claude for the input. I'm not going to take a lot of time wrestling with it, just wanted a quick "sanity check" before proceeding. Francis, yeah, I thought about the "messing it up part" plenty. I don't want to do that, and Claude, I appreciate the generous compliments but your observations are spot on too of the "real world" and what people do/don't do. So, I'm going to polish up the back cover to a shiny finish with Mothers Wheel Polish and leave the pumpkin alone. Insert the bolts and put it together and call her done. I'll post some final pics of it very soon. Thanks for posting gentlemen! Tim

THANKS again to each of you for following. I've been going back and forth on certain parts of the build, wheels/tires for one. Getting ready to do the chassis. I've stared at the rear end for almost a week now and I can't decide how I want to finish it. I should media blast it to replicate the original magnesium casting of the unit and paint it a realistic color..........but, from these pics, I like what I see as it is. No one, well, maybe Sox & Martin, would bother to finish off the rear in a polished finish. I'm not going to use Caswell's Blacken-It as it would be the wrong shade I believe. The pics have double sided tape holding the back cover on and the 14 bolts won't be installed until I decide how I want to finish it off. Considered just blasting the pumpkin portion and polishing the rear cover. Opinions are welcome on how you think I should finish it off. cheers, tim

Ah, onto the "fun" stuff. Everything looks super Ian......I've no doubt you're relishing this part! cheers, tim

Nice to see you back again Michael. I learned of your products from Clay and have purchased many in the past, great quality sir. Cheers, Tim

Tidy and perfect as always Francis! cheers, tim

This car does look really nice. Congrats to you sir on a job well done so far. cheers, tim

Just wanted to acknowledge and thank the entire team hosting the DSC contests for doing last years first virtual contest. I got my copy of MCM 208 magazine yesterday and the coverage was fantastic all the way through along with the rest of the magazine. Not sure if I'll entire some past builds this year or not but no matter what I look forward to seeing the entries and results to THIS years show. Thanks again Danno! Cheers, Tim

I'm going to have to give you a call sometime Francis, I have a lot of questions in particular about how you're doing such a sweet job machining in plastic as well. Really opens up possibilities. Nicely done! ? Tim

So, I rolled out of bed and thought I'd just whip up an engine today in CAD........yeah, that's it..........SERIOUSLY Jason, that is pretty darn sweet not only that you can do such work but do it so quickly. You're very talented. Love the position of the turbos too. The entire car looks great and has a realistic look about it that is hard to get in 1/25th. congrats. tim

I want to take a moment and acknowledge those that have posted comments along the way on this build. Ray, Daniel, Chris, Dave, Francis and Marcos just recently.......I thank you all and the many others who have visited and not commented one way or the other. I used to spend at least twice as much time at the bench as I do now. As mentioned, "life" jumps in and takes up time from my hobby. Dave asked the question (tongue in cheek I'm sure) about the logo on the cross rib. I thought about it believe me. But the rib is so small even if I could 3D print one you'd still not be able to read it. Many racers bought Ramcharger units but because they weren't Mopar cars, they simply ground off the Ramcharger name and ran them regardless. Being that mine is going in the Maverick, well............ It was around the mid/late 70's that the Ford 9" rear started to become adopted by many racers but for the time period I'm building this car, the Dana 60 was a more common choice in drag racing. So far this week, I've completed about half the assembly & I can't wait to get this piece completed. Happy Easter to those that celebrate the Holiday!! Tim

THANK YOU GUYS!! Seriously this was a slog, not enough bench time and tedious stuff to machine. Hopefully you'll like what you see even though it's not quite completely finished. Sooooo, many days/weeks later and I finally have something to post pics of. I just have to assemble it and "finesse" things like the ribs etc. to final fitment. After getting all of this machined I had to see a mock-up so these pics represent where I'm at. Give me this week and I should have pics of it completely assembled / completed. Not sure yet if I'm going to paint the pumpkin' portion or antique black it with Caswell's aluminum "Blacken-It"........It will be media blasted regardless before doing so. The back cover / plate will polished however! The axle itself is titanium. I'll share some comments with the pics below for info/clarification. Cheers to ALL! tim These 1:1 reference pics show the rear in the Mopar Missile "Wire" Car. They had titanium axles and driveshaft components along with their magnesium rear end. Pretty much what I'm trying to replicate. This is a pic of a "Henry's Axle Company rear end, they made the famous Ramcharger rear ends.....a lot of ribbing throughout. I was VERY fortunate to find a dozen great reference pics of it on an ebay sale and I printed them out.........now if you search for them, ebay says they can't find them.......I guess they delete their files after a given period of time. these pics show it mock-ed up. Again, ribs and some other details during final assembly have to be finessed but it should be pretty close to the real deal. If its as cool as I hope, I'm going to open up the trunk and possibly the doors on the body to show it off along with more of the chassis. you'll note the little "wings/ribs" with a hole drilled in the center standing on end, you can see 2 of them in place in some of the pics even though they're not glued in permanently yet. The bolts are for the 4 carrier bolts internally as an fyi. cheers

Hey Chris, now THAT is something. You've obviously been quite busy with the build and I am most struck by the last pic. When I see the cockpit / seats and the size of that motor, it gives you a real appreciation for what these cars were all about. Well done sir, she's a beaut! tim

Charlie, this thread quite frankly deserves more views & posts. The parts and fabrication you're doing are top drawer. Hopefully more members/guests will stop by and enjoy your creation as much as I have/am. I particularly appreciate the time you've taken to post pics & methods to make certain parts. Love learning new things and there is plenty to learn from here. cheers, tim

I'm confused Ian, do I want to see the funny car finished or do I cheer you on to stop what you're doing and move onto the dragster instead......I only say that as I'm not capable of doing 2 at the same time. Both look GREAT all the same. Congrats to you! tim

- All the time was well worth it Paul. The engine is spectacular. cheers, tim

Wonderful work Francis. Your ability to machine / fabricate bits and pieces for this truck in plastic are every bit as impressive as what you do in metal. Your capturing ALL the details too, truly a unique AND top notch build by any standard. cheers, tim

Well, now that winter break is over, I've got a single pic of the drawings I've worked on to do the rest of the Dana 60 rear end. I bought an actual rear cover gasket to base my original numbers upon and did TONS of research on-line. Came up with reasonable numbers & drawings to work from to mimic the "Henry's Axle" company casting. Reminder, they were the firm that did the Ramcharger's rear ends back in the day and was used by many racers. Cast in magnesium was one of the claims to fame. 7 renderings (not counting those thrown away) and materials prepped. Today I'll get started and see where it ends up now. In the pic you can see the gasket and the drawings themselves. Thanks to each of you that continue to follow and post words of encouragement. cheers, tim

Beautiful car you posted Matthijs, I put an index card on to of the roof line and visualized it with a 2" chop.......hmmmmm. Still a gorgeous car as it is, thanks for posting the pics. cheers, tim

Man that is coming along nicely Chris. How many bags of parts are left? The details are fantastic. cheers, tim