CorvairJim

Tough decision. I like most of them, and find it surprising that a couple of them (The Porsche especially) don't have any votes so far. It would be helpful if all of the photos were the same size.

First off, The Ferrari looks FANTASTIC! I don't see why a diecast model that's been modified to the extent yours was shouldn't be able to go head-to-head with any plastic model from a box that's been modified. Fine workmanship is fine workmanship and it shouldn't matter whether the builder had to dismantle it before building it or not. Hey, I like rebuilding "Glue Bombs" - Should these models be disqualified just because I had to take them apart before I built them? The Golf reminds me a lot of the late 70's Renault R5 Turbo (a purpose-built Rally car for the street for F.I.A. homologation purposes), which had one WICkED turbocharged inline-4 mounted where the back seat would have been in an ordinary R5 (LeCar here in the U.S.) Yet another fine build. Please keep 'em coming!

Jack Elam played Doctor Nicolas van Helsing in "The Cannonball Run", so if you want a doctor in your Caddy Ambulance, you'd have to "dig him up" (politically incorrect pun intended) for the role so he could "Probe your case"! Anyhow, my initial idea for this CBP crashed and burned when I found out that it takes place way back in the year I was born... I have a couple of ideas that I might go with... I'll have to think about what I'll be in with, but I'll be in on this one for sure!

Ach, "Der Truffel-Jager von Zuffenhausen", the famous Porsche 917-20 "Pink Pig" as campaigned by Reinhold Joest and Willy Kauhsen in the 1971 edition of the "24 Heuers du Mans" (LeMans 24 Hour race). The actual car is now in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. As for this photo, I'm not 100% certain, but I think it's the real deal. The weathering of the lettering on the tire sidewalls just looks too spot-on to have been done by a modeler who most likely would either have done the entire car as shiny as this one is including brand new appearing tires, or weathered to a post-race appearance. These tires look like they've been sitting in a museum a while to me. The photos I've seen of the actual car show the same incerdibly narrow, incredibly even panel lines, and that fine mesh grille would have to be some extra sheer cloth to look this good in scale.

Hey, it's different! That's one of the great things about this hobby, right? So what if it's not what you or I would build? It's what August is into, and I think it came out great! Besides, there are so many models out there with Chevy engines in Brand X bodies, it's refreshing to see a different take on it... BRAVO! (And this is coming from a lifelong, dedicated Chevy Man! )

Here's one that started out as the AMT '78 Trans Am, but I converted it to the 1977 Firebird Esprit from the old "Rockford Files" TV show: The license number is correct for the TV car. The shaker scoop had to go away, of course, as well as all the other accoutrements of a Trans Am: The decklid spoiler and fender spats weren't attached, but the fender scoops were molded in. It also had T-tops. In all, it wasn't too rough, and I'm happy with the way it came out. After having seen this model on another website, someone contacted me asking to buy it for her father, who had a 1:1 Esprit back in high school. I'm too attached to the "Rockford" car to sell it (It was my favorite show back in the day), but I'm just starting in on converting the Revell '78 Trans Am into one for her.

Your photo link is dead, Sam. Could you look into that for me? I NEED to see that thing!

Nicely done! I'm going to have to try one of these - I like Elkys and have a '66 Corvair version in the works at the moment myself. (Maybe I'll base mine on one of the Lindberg '61 Impalas I have lying around, just to be different from yours... )

Great save, Alan!

Wow, that's some polish job, using a saw and all... I'm looking forward to further installments of this one. The clown that made the comment obviously didn't have a clue!

I din't realize Alclad was available in spray cans! That's great news for those of us without airbrushes. And it's available where???

I know this one too, and I think I got everything right for a change too!

I might have to build one for each of these then. The Camaro that I was thinking of (my own take on the car from the movie) for the Gumball CBP, and the mid-engine V-8 Corvair for the Cannonball CBP.

Thank you, DD. I stand corrected... It's been a long time since I read up on the subject.

OK, so that would take it up to 90-110 h.p. with everything hooked up, right? The 4-carb Corvair unit makes 140 h.p. - STOCK - and the mildly modified one that I had in my daily-driver '66 Monza (.040 overbore, 1 point compression bump, mild cam, bigger carbs, low restriction intake and exhaust) was putting over 220 horses to the wheels. The ever-popular Corsa Turbo engine was factory rated at 180 h.p. (and besides, it looks a bunch cooler than a VW engine with it's chromed induction tubing and air filter can!). Don Yenko was building 260-horse Corvair engines all the way back in 1966 for use in the Stage IV Stinger. That car was so fast that the SCCA outlawed it! 110 h.p. might make a Manx a "Go-Kart", but a 260-horse Corvair engine would make it an earthbound missile! (Better reinforce that exhaust stinger to allow it to double as a wheelie bar!) No offense intended, of course. We all have our own personal preferences. It's just that I've never seen a VW engine in a Corvair. I'm just sayin'...

AMEN AND HALLELUJAH!!! I was planning on saying that same exact thing, but you beat me to it. What's the point of a 45-55 h.p. dune buggy anyway? Sure it's a lightweight, but as "Tim The Toolman" from Home Improvement (played by fellow Corvair owner Tim Allen) used to say, "MORE POWER"!!!

That bronze coupe is a thing of beauty! What chassis/interior are you planning on using under it? To paraphrase "Field Of Dreams": If you cast it, they will come. You can put me down for one too, and if you decide to do it in any other body styles other than the coupe, put me down for a wagon and an El Camino too. I once owned a '73 Laguna wagon that I loved to use to terrorize the local Fords with. It was our family car but it was running a tweaked 4-barrel 400 V-8, true dual exhaust, a Turbo 400 with a shift kit and high stall converter, and a posi rear.

With some of these builds where it's been a few years since I did them I sometimes forget just what I did with them. Yeah, ol' Junior backed it into a light pole in the high school lot his first day there with it, and it sort of sprung the right side of the trunk lid a little bit (I cut it with a razor saw, heated it a little and 'tweaked' it just a tad... ). It was so bad that the lock cylinder jammed and the key broke off in it, so he punched it out and now opens the trunk with a screwdriver. I also remembered that I removed some of the side trim (right front door and qyarter panel) and drilled out the clip holes. That completely illegible "Ford Motorsports" front plate is just a license plate decal I came up with someplace or other. I just applied it to a piece of a used disposable aluminum pie pan, trimmed it to size, and bent it up the way I thought it should look. The 'baling wire' that holds it on is just the wire from the inside of a sandwich bag twist tie, from the days before Ziploc. The multi-color blob in the lower left of the rear window is a hand-painted Grateful Dead "Steal Your Face" skull and lightning bolt sticker. Oh yeah, the center of the right front wheel cover is missing... These free-form "Wrecks" are a lot of fun! I don't have any real weathering skills (Dr. Cranky I'm not!); I just try to make it look as realistic as possible, maybe just a bit worse than you or any (or any sane person, for that matter) would actually driveon the road!

Here's a fun Glue Bomb rebuild I did about a decade ago Another version of this model was recently posted which brought this one to mind. I got the model for about a buck at a local flea market, and it was a big-time disaster. It was brush painted silver... inside and out. The hood was glued shut, probably to keep the loose engine from falling out. The three remaining wheels were glued to the chassis. It was the prototypical "P.O.S. Ford". I decided to build it like some high school kid with a minimum wage job but Mustang aspirations would have done it, while he was in the middle of actually doing the job. Here's the story: When "Junior" got the car, it had taken a front end hit so he had to replace the front clip with junkyard parts. While he was at the yard, he picked up replacement doors for the right side too. The engine in the Galaxie was on it's last legs with a terrible bearing knock and no compression to speak of in two cylinders, so he replaced it with a small block from a wrecked Mustang. The front bench seat didn't fit with his idea of "Sporty" so he grabbed the buckets from the same car. It also gave up it's front hubcaps and a few other bits and pieces. The exhaust system was pretty much entirely rotted away, so he did away with the mufflers and just installed dumps that exited in front of the back wheels. He thought that was really cool until the first time he got pulled over for making too much noise! (Two quick notes: 1) I apologize for the lousy quality of the pictures - they were taken with a very old digital camera. 2) I also apologize for the "Motortopia.com" subheading on the shots. The originals are in my old computer and would be a real problem to retrieve since that machine isn't even hooked up anymore.) ( The two doors on the right side had lots of rustout on the bottom edges, but he was lucky to find that there were multiple '70 Fords in the yard for him to pick and choose the best panels from. The beige front clip came from one car, the red front door (with it's black interior trim panel) came from another, and the back door came from a used-up taxi. (Markings courtesy of the Monogram 1994 Caprice Taxi kit) Too bad he couldn't just unbolt a replacement quarter panel while he was there too! Maybe he should have picked up a radio antenna while he was at it. The aftermarket stereo obviously works, judging by those big ol' speakers on the package shelf... It looks somewhat better from this side - It's only two-toned! Still, the paint is showing it's age, it's got it's share of bumps and scrapes, and the gas filler door is M.I.A. Hi might not have gotten his custom rims for the front yet, but he's got 'em on the back... for what they're worth! Under the hood, all is not well. He's had to do so much tuning on the carb that he doesn't even bother to put the air cleaner back on it anymore. That sits in the back seat. Notice that "Junior" is a Ford man to the bone. He has to have that Ford Motorsports plate proudly displayed on the bumper, even if it is kind of bent up and held on with baling wire! And he really ought to do something about that busted headlight...

Thanks, Rob. I stand corrected. I'll have to change the model designation on MY model now!

Another fine build, Earl! I think I have one of these lying around someplace up in my workroom and I might have to dig it up now. Personally, the shiny black makes the model come alive for me. Like you said, it doesn't look like every other 'Cuda on the table now.

BTW - Nick, I almost forgot! If I can find the time between all the other builds I'm committed to (I have a commission to do a '77 Firebird Esprit by the end of February, and I haven't even gotten the photos of the actual car from the customer yet!), I've got to jump in on this one! It'll be either a mid-engine V-8 powered Corvair or my own take on the yellow big block Camaro from the movie.

Actually, "The Cannonball Baker Sea To Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash", an actual coast to coast race over public highways, was started in the early 1970's, the brainchild of magazine writer and sometimes race driver and commentator Brock Yates and sponsored by Car and Driver magazine. "THE GUMBALL RALLY" was a spoof on the actual event. The first "Cannonball" was won by Yates and Dan Gurney in a race-prepped Hemi Challenger. In a later running of the event, Hollywood stunt coordinator Hal Needham took part in a much-modified, Hemi-packing Dodge van-based ambulance, It was this participation that got Needham fired up to produce "THE CANNONBALL RUN" with his buddy Burt Reynolds. In fact, that ambulance was the same vehicle used by Reynolds and Dom DeLuise in "CANNONBALL". The Yates/Gurney Challenger made a cameo appearance in the movie as well. The two hotties in the Lamborghini Countach were also based on an actual team that took part in the inaugural event. A trio of women with racing ties including "The Pink Lady" Donna Mae Mims and Judy Stropus (I forget the name of the third lady just offhand) took part in a borrowed Cadillac limousine and sponsored by the Right Bra company. Donna Mae, in her own immutable style, chose to do the run braless! Their race came to a rather abrupt end in the wilds of darkest Texas (they had decided to take a southern route to avoid the winter weather up north on a more direct route) when the third team member fell asleep at the wheel and rolled the Caddy over in a roadside ditch! While I remember both films fondly, to me the original, "THE GUMBALL RALLY", is still the better of the two.

What a great looking build. Definitely different from the way these models are generally done. I rebuilt one of these that I found at a swap meet for a buck about 10 years ago. That thing was a royal mess when I got it - brush painted silver inside and out, the hood glued shut over an engine that wasn't even glued in itself (!), 3 wheels glued solidly to the chassis with the 4th missing entirely... I'll post it sometime soon to show my take on this wreck. (BTW - Isn't it a Custom 500, not a Galaxie 500? I haven't seen the box since I built up an original release of this kit in the 70's, so I don't recall for sure. It just seems to me - a Chevy guy, not a Ford guy - that it doesn't have all the trim that a Galaxie 500 would have. Besides, wouldn't your typical Police department have trouble justifying the added expense for the higher-line car? Just asking... )

Now Harry has yet ANOTHER trick to use in the futuer: Photoshopping a driver's silhouette into a dark interior!