Old Sprinter

Thanks guys. Jeff looks like you live in the heart of stock car country. My best friend just moved there ( Greenville) and he says they're all over the place. I decided to try my skill at some of the body ,especially the top portion. These things don't exactly have a body by Fisher, but their style is growing on me. The biggest thing I'm finding is these cars are safe as a race car can be. There's all that bumper/body stuff going on way ahead of even the radiator. The rear is well protected from the fuel cell and driver and a ton of protection on the sides..

The phone if anything. I can easily work 8 to 10 hours and not even know what time it is until my wife comes home.

Dave it's a thread in the General section.

Thanks; here's some I have done earlier for a midget I was building. This was using styrene strips and cutting the cross grooves with a dremel tool. I laminate styrene sheets on the sides to give it the bulge. These turned out OK but this new way will be much better. I will be building some tires using this method sometime this week.

I moved it to the scratch build section but here's that test piece done with water PVC pipe and cardboard.

Because I scratch build evrything, tires have been my biggest headache, especially dirt tires for my race cars. I use PVC water pipe and lay strips of styrene around it. The I cut the cross grooves with a Dremel tool but usually they get too deep. Today I tried something that I'm sure I can make look like the real thing. I laid out a pattern on cardboard strips and glued them to the pipe. Then I cut out the cross grooves with an X knife. This little test piece took only about 15 minutes to complete.I'm sure that I can now make most any pattern of dirt tires. The PVC comes in sizes that are the right size for the 1/8 scale cars I do. I know there are a bunch of ways and maybe better but I'm using this method on my Dirt Late Model and I thought I'd share.

I'm doing the driver's compartment now. I've got the seat. pedals, shifter. master cylinders, radiator hoses and the steering up to the firewall. It will be hard to take a picture of some of this. once more of the body work goes on.

Thanks Tommy, I wil be anxious to see your progess. Where will you post this build so I can watch, NASCAR stuff ?

I scratch build most everything and don't have a big assortment of tools. Cordless drill, X knife,Dremel tool, compass, architectual scale, sissors, soldering gun and some pencils is the extent of what I have and use. The fun part is figuring out how you're going to make something look real. The illusion. I don't even own a airbrush, I just rattle can all my stuff or hand paint it. I don't enter contest so for me, it's just about having fun creating something from nothing. Plus there's no instructions to have to follow or rules about what you can or can't do. The more you scratch build the more you find usefull little stuff around the house or garage. Like I build my tires and wheels out of PVC water pipe, some of the time. The sky is the limit as to what you can build from scratch.and it is cheaper than a kit. Example is the late model I'm building, posted in the Big Boyz section, I will at the end have about $80 invested in the whole car. Impossible to buy a kit in 1/8 scale for less than that and it's different, not a T-bucket. So I say if you never tried; jump in with both feet, make some mistakes and learn how to build from scratch. It's rewarding

This is one very cool race car, man. Thanks for sharing it and keep up the outstanding work.

Thanks Tommy and Romell. The color is a Tamiya TS-19 metallic blue. The transmission lines up with the crank shaft and there is only a quarter of an inch ( scale 2") difference between the output universal joint and the center section pinion of the rearend. The rear needs to raise up slightly but I think you're suppose to have the driveshaft on a 3 to 6 degree angle downward. Could be wrong, but that's the way open wheel cars used to be. It does look a little goofy in the picture because of the angle of the photo. Ken

Thanks Dave and Joe. It means a lot to me. I installed the Brinn transmission, scatter shield, radiator and ignition system. Next up is to finish the rear and make the driver's seat and cockpit.

That's what it was, thanks, I thought I was going wacko. I am not the best computer guy around.

Has it changed in the last day or so. It can't be just my screen or computer, can it?

While I was reading a post all of the sudden the format was changed, It freaked me out. Do you all like this better?

Since I scratch build all my junk, I usually attach the body with screws so it could be removed, but I have yet to pull one off. Take pictures of the chassis before you button it up and always make the motor easy to get at. Ken

Okay, I built a small block to replace the big motor. It is the right thing to do and I will build a big block modified, someday to put that giant in. Installed the motor plates and ready to move on to the transmission and radiator. Ken

Billy: you may already know this but if not, there are full size 1/24 scale blueprints on Dirtmodelers web site that you can print up and they're free. That's what I used only I made it 3 times bigger to 1/8 scale. It will get you through building the frame atleast. They are pretty easy to follow, Good luck and I hope you have fun, man.

Thank you both." After Further Review" ( as they say in the NFL) I'm building a small block Chevy for this Late Model so I should have some new photos by mid week. Ken

That's wild, man. I'm not a drag racing guy but I really like what you've done.

Joe; I know the ones that run here on a regular basis are all small blocks, however I went to an Open Comp show about maybe 5 years ago and they were mostly big blocks. It was a traveling tour show. It was the first time I have really watched a whole night of these kind of cars racing. Also it was a banked 3/8 mile track and man they put on a show. This was in Nevada, by Reno. Anyway you have busted my bubble. LOL. I am going to keep it the way it is and most folks won't even know the difference and I will not tell them. I have always thought that a stump pulling diesel motor would be the ticket on a heavy track. You're right though, everywhere you go it's dry/slick certainly by main event time. When clay has the moister well embeded and is sticky, not muddy you can drive a car as fast or maybe a hair faster than if you were racing on asphalt, or so it seems. It takes much greater skill to race on dry/slick as you know. But I'd rather qualify on the tacky surface. Thanks, as always, for your help.I look forward to your post. Ken

Wow Christian, that's profound. I guess most all the buffalo are dead so we don't have to hunt for our food for survival. We do need to defend ourselves, though, especially if we dress like the doctor. Personally, I perfer to wear Levis and a T-shirt while building or doing most everything. It's my James Dean outfit. Gotta look cool, no matter what your doing. LOL

Wow, nice job. It looks real!

Okay back to model building, if I had the money it would be real. So I have got the motor far enough along to set it in the chassis. Big block Chevy with a million or so cubic inches.LOL

I agree 100 % That's about as good as it gets, right there!