DustyMojave

You're welcome! It seems that you and I are on the same page. Just to be clear to all the rest. I'm not trying to say how this model HAS TO BE built, just making asked for suggestions based on a lifetime of experience around full scale race cars combined with 61 years of experience with model cars.

I'm thinking you're intending the tubes to be representing aluminum TIG welded together. I had been thinking more in terms of steel tubing. Either way works.

I have to agree with Alan. Good thinking! OTOH, In the US, those potatoes you referred to would be fully processed potatoes and anything else processed by the human processor. I'm gonna go back to take another look at the intake before I comment on it. But I think it's coming along nicely. For a finish when the fabricating is all done, the manifold should probably be painted gloss black.

In order to make it look like it's a home fabricated intake manifold, it should probably look like it's fabricated from steel tube with the tubes welded to head flanges. Over the decades, I've encountered home brewed intakes on things as disparate as an Edmunds midget with an Alfa Romeo engine with home-made fuel injection, to a C/Modified class SCCA road racer with a Devin body on a tube frame with an Olds V8 with dual quads, to an unlimited class offroad race buggy with a Ferrari V12 engine, to a sand rail with a Pinto, with ENORMOUS intake ports in the head, again with home made FI. ALL OF THOSE were made of steel tube welded to cut plate flanges. Not that a manifold CAN'T BE made of cast aluminum, it's just far more likely that someone making a home-grown system would make a one-off out of welded steel tube. Headers, like everything else, look GREAT!

The farther you go, the more you amaze me with this project. Awesome work. A couple of suggestions... You have included a return fuel line. That's good for Hilborn mechanical fuel injection. For Webers, it's inappropriate. They have float bowls with needle valves. Electric fuel pump suits a modern car, but a traditional car would most likely have a mechanical pump. Partly because when the car gets crashed, they would want the fuel pump to stop with the engine to prevent fuel pumping out feeding a fire. That can be achieved with modern electronics. But not likely in the 60s/early 70s. Another issue is the small battery going dead in the course of Practice, Qualifying, Trophy Dash, several heats, C-Main, B-Main, and A-Main. And most tracks would not have any provision for a battery charger in the most commonly infield pits. These days, many racers would have a portable generator with them in their enclosed trailer.

About your comment about snow in Arizona in May... I live in the Mojave Desert of SoCal. Not far from Edwards AFB where the space shuttles used to land. And so you know what my neighborhood looks like, think of the diner/gas station/motel where NCIS Director Jenny Shepherd was killed. That's in my neighborhood. So is the church in Kill Bill. And the steep roofed diner/motel/gas station seen MANY times in movies, commercials, TV shows, music videos, etc. Most desert scenes in such media are from my neighborhood, in fact. We're close enough that most folks in my area work down in the San Fernando Valley where Universal Studios, Disney, NBC, Warner Brothers, etc. are located. But here, in this desert that most folks think is such a hot place, so close to LA that people think of as so warm, we've had 5" of snow fall on May 5th. There have been years when the mountains between here and LA are snow capped all year around. We've also had 2" of snow fall on September 22nd. As for snow in Arizona, on the 4th of July in 1971, when I was on my way home from Colorado where I had to drive through snow fall in the Rockies, I was pulled over to the side of the road by the Arizona Highway Patrol with all other traffic near Flagstaff due to several inches of snow on Highway 40. Had to sleep in the car for about 12 hours until the road department plowed the road in the early AM of the 5th. Got snowed on 2 separate times in one day on July 4th. So yup, it happens. Those above would make really cool dioramas, You could combine the 2 Guns rock buildings or adobe buildings with a vintage gas station for a scene. I really like the idea. No space for a diorama in my home though. Too many car models...?

That Cooper of Dale's is an awesome piece of scratch building. I met Dale many years ago. Then later learned that he had made that Cooper from hanging out at Harry Morrow's book shop Autobooks and getting to know him closely and getting 1st hand access to the Cooper in Harry's garage. Still in business, although Harry was an elderly man when I bought my 1st model kit from him in 1960, but still racing his Cooper often. I used to see #5 on the track at Willow Springs and Riverside and Pomona quite often as I was growing up involved in SCCA sports car racing. Autobooks is a place now popular with folks like Jay Leno. Some time after I met Dale, I learned that he was longtime best friends with my wife's cousin Henry Gonzalez. When I started dating my wife in 1981, Henry was working at Brick Price Movie Miniatures, a place I visited then to talk to Brick about using my skills at metal spraying and mold making to build some C130 airplane miniatures to be crashed and come apart realistically for a movie project. That movie never happened. But I got a personal tour of some of Brick's beautiful scratch built models in various scales, although he told me that when he built for something he wanted to build, he preferred 1/14 scale, which is a scale I've heard of some other master builders using.

Good job! The final detail to that would be a plate gusset connecting the front tab to the back tab and down to the axle tube. But not covering the spring end much, just extended to about the center line of the spring eye. You did pretty well on the spindles, even got the kingpin inclination. Not that it matters here, but just for those who MIGHT be interested, the spindles typically used on such race cars in the day were from Ford F100 pickups, the ones with a solid axle, like 1953 to 1964. The axle, hubs, springs, brakes, etc were all race car parts. But the spindles themselves were wrecking yard parts from a mass production vehicle. I had thoughts of putting a set of sprint car hubs and disc brakes on my 61 F100 (which has a 428 Cobra Jet Engine). I had the Halibrand parts for all around at one point, disc brakes, hubs, calipers, 3-bar spinners, etc., but sold them to a guy restoring a 70s sprint car. Ah well, the brakes probably would have been grabby and hard and a PITA on the street or towing my offroad race car on a trailer. Woulda been cool though! That's my F100 with a customer's sprint car on the trailer. The big wing is in the bed of the truck. The sign was actually there, it showed a 90° turn and "10 mph" as there is a street corner by the gray house in the background. A friend altered the picture for me. Some years later, the County Road Department came around the town and removed all of those warning signs. The nose wing off the sprint car is now a decoration in my garage. The owner of the car sold the big wing for scrap later.?

I'm lovin' this work on the spring,spindles and such. Just so you know, the full scale vintage circle track cars like sprints and midgets and super modifieds that have a transverse leaf spring on the front axle, only have a shackle on 1 side. With 2 shackles, the axle can and will move sideways in relation to the frame. Makes for a squirrelly handling car. It should have a simple perch on one side. Lots of dirt racers would have no right front brake so that when the driver touches the brakes, the car automatically pulls to the left setting the slide around the turn. Winged cars typically use 2 front brakes as they don't want the car to slide sideways so much as a non winged car. And again, pavement cars are more likely to have both front brakes than a dirt car, not so sideways as a dirt Sprint or Super. But most of this is great work. Those "Safety wheels" are friggin' HEAVY bastards. Used to be way popular, A friend of mine has some from his old days in the 70s and I've had to move them around the shop and when he moved his shop. Much heavier than a plain steel spoke wheel with 1/4" thick center.

I am perfectly aware of why some put flat spots on the belly. I was pointing out that one of the most iconic belly tank cars did NOT use a flat spot.

Interesting stuff to me. This is me in the Kelly & Hall belly tank a few years ago at El Mirage Dry Lake, a few miles from my house. The 1st race car I ever sat in was Tom Beatty's in the 1950s when I was about 2 years old. This photo was taken by my dad. Tom and Fat Eddy at El Mirage. 1st car to break 200mph at El Mirage. Was done using a wrecking yard Olds Rocket engine. He had previously used a Ford flat head that he was the 1st to break 180mph there. And you were correct to model your belly tank body using a P38 drop tank. That's what Tom's car used for a body. Tom lived 1/4 mile across the rail road tracks from Lockheed Burbank, where P38s were built. Note that the belly of his car does not have a flat spot.

Now that you've built both roll cages...The full scale roll cages were built with 2" OD tube. That is closest to 2mm or .080 plastic rod in scale. I've built roll cages for full scale Trans Am racers, though not for the AAR team Cudas. Me working on a Penske-Roy Woods Racing 71 Javelin A view of the roll cage I was in the process of welding in a 1969 Mustang Transam Boss 302. Note that the 1/4 panel hole shows that this body shell was a replacement after the car had been rolled in competition. Same Mustang at Laguna Seca in Vintage Trans Am after our complete rebuild. Same Mustang and Javelin in the Paddock at Palm Springs in '92. Me in between the front fenders So trust me, I know what size the bars should be. You're doing excellent work on this entire model assembly. I'm wondering where you got the Dodge tractor (resin cab on an AMT Kenworth or Freightliner chassis?) and what the source of the trailer was. It doesn't look like the AMT. BTW, the transport rig you see in the paddock views above is the original Canepa Designs rig that the AMT was based on.

While I'm not a diecast guy, I have a 1/24 Bburrago version of this car, in the red with yellow roof livery as seen in the Lombard Rally black & white picture above. Mine was a sample from Bburrago for them to be sold under the Hot Wheels name. I was in Product Safety Engineering in the US headquarters of Mattel. No it's not stolen. Any product going out the door had to be signed for by a Vice President or higher and the security guards checked everyone. The Bburrago/HotWheels were never sold in the US that I know of. At the time they were to be sold in the European market. Due to limited display space, that car is boxed away in back storage with the 1/24 F1 cars from the same deal.

Most likely, the Blimp was the one that was still running at the finish. ? Very familiar location to me. I grew up going to Riverside Raceway from the late 1950s to the late 80s. As much as 25 weekends/year. My parents met at a sports car race in the early 50s and were involved through the mid 70s when we switched to off road racing. I continued to work on road race cars long after that. By the early 70s, I supplanted working as a Tech Inspector (for the sports car races that were support events for the NASCAR main event) by working as a flagman at the various corners of the track during the NASCAR race. We rotated every so often as the race went on so as to not get bored and unmindful of what's happening on the track So I worked all of the corners on the track. That picture there shows the Buick exiting Turn 8 and starting down the back straight. Very unusual place to take pictures from. Not a good view of the track as it's lower than the track surface. But the outside of the track was for spectators with an embankment that was against the side of the track, so a photog had no place to take pics from in that area. Further north on the little knoll inside the loop of Turn 8 was much more popular to photographers.

That is the raw unpainted fiberglass you're seeing. Doesn't need to be painted since it will NEVER rust. How to represent it on a model is not so easy. It's a yellowish/beige odd color. Maybe start with a beige and dry brush light yellow over it.

I have no thoughts of moving the rear axle back. I would shorten the tail of the bodywork.

I'm a little confused what you're saying Harry. These are the Firebirds raced by TG racing in 1969. 1st at Wolverine, then at Riverside: I see none of what you refer to here: " a google search will show pictures of the rearward facing pair of scoops". But the Jon Ward built 68 Camaro/Firebird raced at Daytona in early 69 did have rearward facing "scoops" that were fairings over the lights for the side numbers. Yes, you have the terminology correct as to "Trans Am" and "Trans-Am". I am WELL aware that there was NO "Pontiac Trans Am" model in the 1968 model year. The 1st Firebird Trans Am I ever saw was at Riverside Raceway and was driven by Jerry Titus. It was NOT a race car, but I believed at the time that it was a pre-production prototype for marketing purposes. I knew Jerry in those days, having grown up involved in Cal Club sports car racing, and knowing a number of other staff members of Sports Car Graphic magazine, such as Jean Calvin, Denise McCluggage and ... oh what's his name with the mustache... Jerry lived not far away in the San Fernando Valley then. Jerry's son Rick was a co-crew member with me on Ron Dykes' Tiger that was garaged in my home for the '68 season. Rick Titus, Spike Krick, me and the crew chief, my dad, Jack Parcells were the crew for that. Jerry was a driving teacher in Shelby's driving school, and also taught in the Cal Club/SCCA driving school sessions where I worked as an official as well. He was a guy I encountered many times a year in those days. Maybe you can post a picture with the scoops you are referring to circled?

"On my work table right now, I already have 6 Cobras, 2 Cougar IIs, a GT350R, a Toyota Celica Turbo Group 5 and a Toyota Celica Coupe racer. So I'm not in a real hurry to start another project right now. But the T-Bird would fit right in with the Cobra group. I have a Tiger kit to build too. Another Shelby project, and I was on the crew of a famous one of those in full scale back in the 60s. Then I have a 68 GT500 that will get chassis, front inner fenders, etc. from a 67 kit. Then another 67GT350 to build like a full scale 67 GT350 that I was on the crew of many years ago. So I have plenty of such projects lined up over here. And that's not counting the dry lakes cars, sprint cars, midgets, hot rods or off road racers. " I think they're cool. I had intended to post up about a couple of them on another site...Had started a thread on another build, a 69 Barracuda phantom A/Sedan...But... I'd rather NOT air someone else's dirty laundry on this site. Race cars are fun and exciting, but skidmarks are not pleasant to see, especially someone else's.

Over a decade ago, Jairus Watson wrote this thread in SlotBlog forums about building a static model of a rail frame post war midget using the Monogram Kurtis-Offy. But In his thread, he refers to another article in a Rod & Custom Models magazine from June of '64 about building a V8 offset sprint car by Joe Henning. http://slotblog.net/topic/11995-1947-midget/ This is a 1952 Kurtis "Big Car" aka "Champ Car" (so named because they were used in competition for the AAA (later USAC) National Championship Series. This is another 1952 Kurtis Big Car: This is a Kurtis Champ car This is a Kurtis-Offy midget, as in the one modeled by Monogram. Note the proportional differences. A midget typically has a wheelbase of about 6'. 70-72". A sprint car wheelbase is about 85-95". A Big Car, or as they are known in the more modern USAC series "Silver Crown" car has a wheelbase of 99"+. Note that Joe Henning used a wheelbase of 85", which is a real short sprint car, typical of those built to be used on short tracks of 3/8 mile or less. Most sprint car racing takes place on 1/2 mile dirt or paved oval tracks. So 95" is more typical for a sprint car. I'm curious what the wheelbase scales out to with the converted Monogram midget kit here. I believe it was stretched, but how much and how are not discussed in this thread. I DO want to make sure that in no way am I ever saying anything is "wrong" with this model. There's a million ways to skin a cat or build a sprint car. This is one of them. I'm just providing more relevant information on the subject.

Very nice job on the fuel filler neck and cap! OTOH, most such cars when used for short track racing, as this car appears to represent (in spite of your title on the thread that refers to it as a "big car", which is a long wheel base car used for long tracks such as 1 mile dirt ovals and paved ovals of 1 mile or more per lap) have the fuel filler under the snap down leather at the very top of the headrest fairing. To fuel up a Sprint car or a midget, one unsnaps the leather skirt at the top to find a round hole with the cap inside the bodywork.

I'm not aware of any "vents" below the A Pillars. I DO see sheet aluminum fairings over the pair of license plate lamps used to light the number for night racing so the pit crew and the Timers and Scorers can keep track of who is in what place in the race.

I've never run across these 1/43 AMT kits at all. I do have a Monogram Cobra 289. I also have a couple of Testors with die cast bodies, a 40 Willys and a Corvette GS. Those might be a source of wheeels and other parts for you. I haven't looked them up on evilbay lately to know availability or typical price though.

On my work table right now, I already have 6 Cobras, 2 Cougar IIs, a GT350R, a Toyota Celica Turbo Group 5 and a Toyota Celica Coupe racer. So I'm not in a real hurry to start another project right now. But the T-Bird would fit right in with the Cobra group. I have a Tiger kit to build too. Another Shelby project, and I was on the crew of a famous one of those in full scale back in the 60s. Then I have a 68 GT500 that will get chassis, front inner fenders, etc. from a 67 kit. Then another 67GT350 to build like a full scale 67 GT350 that I was on the crew of many years ago. So I have plenty of such projects lined up over here. And that's not counting the dry lakes cars, sprint cars, midgets, hot rods or off road racers. I had hand written out those notes above back in the late 1960s. I found the paper a few years ago and transcribed it to the computer. I even had lined out that one suspension idea and copied that in the Word document. I even saw the thing back in the 60s with a paint scheme of either blue with white stripes as shown in that drawing you show, or white with blue stripes. I think my concept would wind up looking a great deal like a Sunbeam Tiger. And maybe that was inspiration for the Sunbeam body (originally the Sunbeam Alpine) design came from. The Tiger I crewed for was fast. Beat Corvettes and even Cobras in it's day. But it didn't handle as well as a Cobra due to the engine being mounted much further forward between the front wheels, so it pushed in corners, unlike the better balanced Cobra. Compare this Tiger I crewed on with a T-Bird:

You see my avatar. That's my Hi Jumper race buggy I built back in the 70s and raced to a championship. At its1st race, near Barstow, California, in the 115° heat, there was a wedding ceremony at the start line just before the 1st racer got the green flag.Scott Gilliland married Louise Van Trease. And immediately after kissing, the bride and groom both put on their race helmets and got into Louise's Bill Stroppe built Edsel to start the race. VERY MUCH like this one and perhaps the one in the magazine article. There were actually a few Edsels built for offroad racing by various people. I even saw the picked over bones of one down along a race course in Baja once. Not much left but the main body shell, frame and roll cage slowly rusting away in the desert. And that was many decades ago. Very good job on this. From a long time offroad racer.

I've imagined something like this since the mid 1960s. I have long bemoaned the direction Ford took the T-Bird. I have a file in my computer with a list of similar projects. SCCA used to call their most radical racers "Modifieds". The concept came from the 1950s when the most radical racers might be found on the street in between races. And many of them were built with parts from daily driver cars. So they were in many ways "Modified". Like an MG with a Chevy V8. Or a 52 Plymouth frame with a Dodge Hemi engine and a fiberglass sports car body (I worked on one of those a while back). Or Max Balchowski's O'l Yallers built with a variety of junk yard parts. By the mid 60s, race cars in the Modified class were full on purpose built race cars with only the basic engine from a daily driver car. Lolas, McLarens, Coopers, Chaparrals, etc. So the class for the most radical cars became "Sports Racer". And "Modified" went away. At the same time, there was then no real class for cars like GS Vettes. Because a GS Vette was no competition for a Cooper Cobra, even if it DID have nearly 100ci bigger engine (377ci GS Vette vs 289ci Cooper Cobra). Here's my T-Bird Concept: Thunderbird Phantom Sports Car What if Ford decided to divert the T-Bird towards more of a smaller true sports car, instead of growing into a personal luxury car? Potential Modifications: Wheelbase under 100” Same width V8 Engine moved back Standard 312 V8 engine with early T-bird hood scoop 427 Version with more bulged front and rear fenders and teardrop hood scoop Perimeter frame based on early T-Bird Maybe Unit body? Shorter tail, more like Cobra, still with trunk Wing at rear mounted to rear fender fins or to trunk lid, but extending to fins Front fender side engine compartment outlet vents Rear axle moved forward to right behind the seats IRS with 9” center Rear hub on unequal length radius arms with trailing lower link from frame under seat and leading upper link to end of frame rail. Rear Semi-Trailing Arm with hub on end of arm With 2 pivots. Near driveshaft and outboard. Double A-Arm suspension front with Coilover shock mounted to lower arm. Armstrong Coilover shock units Front clip looks like 55-57 T-Bird. Grille opening, less grille - preferably 55-56 - minus the massive bumper of the 57 Rear Clip similar to early T-Bird, but shorter Bumperettes instead of big chrome bumpers -- OR -- bumper-free Roll bar Removable hardtop in 3 versions: short top like regular 55-57 top Fastback hatchback top Double headrest rear deck I have a T-Bird kit and some Cobra parts set aside, but it's never been built. So the artist, you and me have all had much the same idea.