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If you can find some Dremel drill bits they have some larger sizes that should work. I picked mine up at Home Depot. Start with the finest bit you have now and be sure it is centered when you start drilling. Progressively move to larger size drill bits. At some point you will want to stop drilling, because the pipes are flared the end will still be to thick but the inside that you are drilling will be getting to close to drilling thru the sides. At that point use a #11 blade. With the point in the center of the hole you can slowly rotate the blade and scrape out the desired shape. The blade has an angle that works very well at enlarging the hole in the exhaust pipe. Of course you could always just cut the split pipes off and build the exhaust the way you want it to the rear.

Very nice. MoPars always looked best on Keystone wheels.

Beautiful paint. Did the interior, bucket seats and console, come in the kit ?

Outstanding detail thru out . I'm curious about the R-3 engine you mentioned. In the early '60s as a starving student at Santa Monica City College, I worked nights and weekends at a Union 76 station on Pico Blvd. Not far from the Paxton Products R&D. They would run many street going prototypes thru the station to get gas. I was able to talk to some of the drivers and they would often show me what was under the hood. They would use a standard Studebakers with the prototype engine and 4-speeds. One I really remember had a twin supercharger setup with two 4 barrels. I could be mistaken but I think the driver called it an R-3 prototype. Being a Studebaker fan I thought you may know more about that engine option.

Well built, great attention to all of the little details really show.

Very accurate build. Looks just like the picture.

What a great tire storage rack. Out standing weathering, I like the parking light bulb hanging out of the fender, sorry, wing.

Andrew, Keep an eye on the Work Bench and Under Glass sections. I have been building for many years and it seems that I learn something new every day from fellow members.

Outstanding interior, thank you for the painting info. Is the exhaust from the kit or did you make your own split tail pipes ?

The stance is dead on and the fuel lines, t-fittings, fuel filters, are the best I think I've ever seen. I like the idea of the bracket for the spark plug wires on the front of the cylinder head. Got to watch this for any other great ideas.

They all look like you got off to a great start and then saw another model that you got interested in. I also used to have 2 or 3 projects going and none ever got finished. Now I just force myself to finish what I'm working on before starting another.

Great looking work space, almost to nice to use.

Thank you for the info. I got to see most of the episodes of Cuban Chrome on TV. I have to agree , the Cubans deserve respect for what they have been able to do with so little to work with.

I don't know if they would work, but Round 2 has tire sets and one of them is the Goodyear "Blue Streak" Slicks. They are Dragway Special size 9.00-15. They have the blue stripe and Goodyear raised white lettering. The tread is smooth, but then many of these tires in road racing where also. You can get 8 in a package for less than the cost of a model with a discount coupon. If your hobby shop does not have them check with Hobby Lobby.

A good place to look is somewhere that sells jewelry supplies. I have gotten several different gauges of wire at JoAnns and Hobby Lobby. They have a lot of small tools that I use all the time on builds.

That is really nice.

The desk looks super nice. Do you have a Bed, Bath & Beyond store near you ? The reason is I found many inexpensive items that might help. They have a fairly heavy cutting mat with rubber skids on the outside so it does not slide around and a little gutter like edge to catch any rolling pieces. The original idea was to use it like a cutting board in the kitchen. Another item is actually a spice rack that has three levels on it and can extend to about 20 in. Each shelf is two Tamiya bottles deep and the next shelf behind it is level with the bottle caps on the lower shelf. This gives you about 18 bottles on each shelf times three shelves hold a lot of paint. They have many items that you can get cheap and I'll bet your wife has one of their 20% off coupons.

I think you are going to want to keep the front suspension mounted to the frame where it is now. It sits on top of the kick up and gives you your ride height. If you move the suspension to another location on the frame you will end up raising the front ride height. The slight extension of the frame in front of the firewall may eliminate your firewall clearance problem, but the front inner fenders will have to be altered to clear the engine. The mounting of the radiator should be easy by comparison once you have everything else done. This is the type of conversion I have been thinking about for some time. I have several NASCAR kits. I started to do a truck when NASCAR first started racing them. I used an SS 454 pickup and an old NASCAR chassis. Got about half done and then they released the NASCAR truck models and I just put it back in the box.

I really like your build. To bad about the fender paint. An idea if you can't get it to match, it was a style at one time of contrasting colored fenders. It may look good in either a darker shade of silver to a dark gray metallic or even black. Just a thought.

Mike, If you narrow the frame rails you will have some frame sized scraps left over. You would not need much to use as a slight lengthening of the NASCAR frame to make the tires center in the stock wheel opening. As carpenters say "measure twice and cut once". Just add a little to the frame between the front kick up and the firewall area. The wheel housings for the rear tires may have to be trimmed some to get the chassis to fit up into the body. If the tires seem to big you could always find some narrower tires for the front and rear both. If you narrow the differential I would suggest no more than an 1/8th on each side between the rear control arm mounting and the rear brakes. That way your not having to redesign your rear suspension mounting points. If you keep the rear skirts you can gain a little clearance by sanding the inside to thin them just a little.

Is there an auto supply store near by that might carry engine paint. Dupli-Color is a brand sold in the U.S. They offer OEM type touch-up spray paint as well as engine , exhaust, chassis, and wheel paints. I realize that brand may not be sold there but a company like that may have like products.

Thank you for the info.

Very nicely done.

I like that a lot. Surfs up.

The engine looks great. The spark plugs you might want to makeup a wire loom or something on that order. In real life the plug wires would get burned up quickly on the exhaust manifolds. The factory ran the plug wires thru a metal loom on the back side of the heads and routed the plug wires along the bottom edge of the head under the exhaust manifolds. The problem then is you wouldn't be able to see all your hard work on the plug wires then. Just depends on how stock you want it to be.