zenrat

I reckon if you sat in that and floored the throttle it'd do a back flip... Very very good work.

So am i. Mounting the body to the Prowler chassis, preventing the mounting pins from breaking (many times - plastic ones will be replaced with steel tomorrow) and building the interior panelling (body on & off many times a session - hence the pins breaking) have all slowed me right down. That and building "what if" model aircraft. One month to go though - time to get busy. I'll shoot some snaps tomorrow if I get a chance.

Still here, not dead yet. Been chipping away at the Citation and have almost got the interior built. Bodyworks done. Just need to build a hinge for the flip front. Mechanically it's just a case of induction and cooling to be sorted. Paint will need doing as well, but the beauty of a sleeper build is it can be a quick & dirty primer job if it has to. My thoughts on a 'strayan Cannonball is that the Sydney to Perth route is preferable as contestants can choose the longer route via Melbourne & Adelaide on sealed roads or the shorter more direct route straight across the middle which will require ability to cope with unsealed roads (not necessarily 4wd though - the '79 Repco round Australia rally was won by a 2wd 6 cylinder Holden Commodore). Specifying Sydney to Perth means that contestants can choose a pure road car or something rougher & tougher. Also all entries should be RHD. It's not hard and anyone who is put off by the thought of doing it probably isn't committed enough anyway.

The interior parts and the engine are just propped on top of the chassis to give some idea of where everything will sit in relation to everything else. I probably should have said that. I need to check the accessory drive but if it'll clear the front suspension then i'll leave the engine where it is. I then won't use the Prowler interior tub but will scratchbuild a firewall up tight to the back of the engine. This will then allow me to position the seats roughly where the B pillars are. I hope.

The MPC Dodge Dart Sport they reissued in the last year or 2 has cheater slicks.

Another source for a scale Mustang II IFS is the Revell '41 Willys Street Rod. Rear end on that is a 4 link set up. I used the complete rolling chassis and engine.

Always one to buck a trend i've actually got something done. Maybe because the weather has got cold and dank here as winter starts making it prime scratchbuilding season. Here's the stretched body alongside the Prowler chassis with a 440 Magnum donk shoehorned in. The V8 wouldn't fit with the Prowler body because the radiator sits between the engine and the front suspension. However you can see I have a lot of extra space in front of the front wheels so I can put all the cooling gubbins there. Also not that if I don't move the seating position forward a touch the driver is gong to be looking out of the rear side windows and is going to have fun getting in and out.

I've actually been doing some work on the Citation. I've been adding more plastic to fill in where i've extended the body and i've pulled apart the chassis I fixed together with white glue (to get the wheelbase correct) so I can use real glue and paint it. It seems that the driver and navigator may be sitting in the back.

"Steering the Kettenkrad was accomplished by turning the handlebars: Up to a certain point, only the front wheel would steer the vehicle. A motion of the handlebars beyond that point would engage the track brakes to help make turns sharper. It was also possible to run the vehicle without the front wheel installed and this was recommended in extreme off-road conditions where speed would be kept low." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SdKfz_2

Unless it has knife & fork con rods... Sorry Bill. Couldn't resist. Fred

Keep an eye out for the "Muscle Car Hop Up Set" aftermarket wheel/tyre sets made by MRC. While some of the tyres may be a bit square edged each set contains a number of sprues having about a million (I may be exaggerating slightly) different sized adaptor bosses which make adapting wheels to kits they are not supposed to fit much easier. You can always buy them for the adaptors and send me the wheels and tyres if you don't like them

Yep, that bit of the chassis gets in the way. All the kits AMT produced around the time they did the Prowler have great detail and go together well 9although they cane a fiddle) until you find the flaw that drives you insane. With the '41 Woody it's the fit of the interior into the body, with the '66 Olds 442 it's the bumpers and with this it's the rear tyres/chassis. Did you prime and/or undercoat the plastic before you put colour on it?

When building a car with the trim removed and the mounting holes showing it pays to drill the holes through the trim before you shave it off. Kind of obvious but something I only thought of doing the second time I tried it. Way back when I built a decade of Chevys all finished in satin black - '50 to '59.

Thanks Dave. I might use that scheme.

Still here, done nothing. Dave, what colour was your Citation? Got any pics?

Once you've worn out one side you can turn 'em round and use the other one... 5 years ago this thread would have been about Donks. 35 years ago it would have been about jacking up the rear.

Trunk mounted turbo? The Trabbie trunk opens already so you won't even need to do any cutting or hinge making. Lag could be a b itch but there are ways round that.

That's good because removing scoops/bulges is a PitA and counter intuitive when we spend so much of our time in other builds grafting them on. Pat, I reckon if you built that for real and blipped the throttle hard, torque reaction would flip it onto it's roof...

You'll have to lose that lump off the hood as well or it's not going to be very sleepy. Hope it all fits under a flat one.

Have you seen the Prowler chassis? It's tight enough fitting the radiator, a V6, two seats and the gearbox in the space between the wheels without making it smaller. And I have to fit in a V8. No, illogical as it may sound it is probably easier to lengthen the nose. After all, I can't make a Citation look any worse can I? Don't tempt me by answering that. However, another snag with the wheels has slowed my down. While the new rims were now large enough to fit over the suspension the resulting assembly was too wide so I have had to remove the solid backs. the resulting mess is now in bath while the under chrome lacquer strips off.

I briefly had an R&R '49 Ford Woody body. It wasn't very nice. I sold it on.

In a flurry of tiny pieces and PVA glue i've been mocking up a Prowler chassis to stuff under the Citation. And i've hit a snag - my chosen wheels are too small to fit over the suspension uprights. This has meant a dive into the parts boxes labelled 'wheels', 'special wheels' and 'more special wheels' and i've found some largish chrome 5 spoke rims with medium profile tyres. They have solid chrome backs and feel like Revell. I shall be painting the rims black and attaching hub caps with cable ties in an attempt to make them look boring. I have also started work on lengthening the nose to fit the wheelbase.

To cut ferrules without crushing them find a piece of rod the same diameter as the inside of the ferrules and slip the ferrule over the end. Now, with the ferrule & rod on the edge of something to prevent you squashing the flare, roll a sharp knife blade backwards and forwards at the point where you want to cut.

You don't "need" a cage. There is no scrutineering and no rules. You can of course build one in if you plan to roll the car but you'll have to make sure it's not too visible. As for big wheels - try painting the rims black. With hub caps they should then look fairly stock. While sports wheels on a beater don't mean it's fast they would attract the attention of the cops who will be thinking "teenage driver, lets have him".

Glad to help jb. I salvaged mine when they got a new microwave at work.