DustyMojave

Are you still trying to post pics from Photobucket. Last June/July they decided they would go from free photo sharing as they had done for over a decade and been the best at it...To suddenly, without advance notice, to charging $400/year for the same. If you were using the same method of uploading to MCM's website to share that you had used earlier in this same thread, I don't know what happened. Those older photos still show.

Yes Ron. On the Butch Leal web site scrap book, there's a picture of Butch in his Plymouth in 1965 and the roll bar is visible. http://www.butchleal.com/home.html

My brother had a '64 Plymouth Max Wedge with the Wedge engine (mid-year Mopar went to Hemis) in 1967-68. He and his partner bought it from Blair's Speed Shop in Pasadena, CA. Home of the "Little Old Lady From Pasadena" of Plymouth advertising fame and Jan & Dean's hit record. It had a 4-point roll bar. Good thing too, as one time bracket racing at Lions Drag Strip in Long Beach, on the final run of the night, taking the win, a brand new Mopar tie rod end snapped and sent the car into a spin in the lights. From the right lane it did a 270 and backed into the guard rail, then bouncing off, got t-boned by the other racer (427 Camaro) in the right door and they tumbled down the shut-down area. Totalled both cars. They both walked away. Of course, even though he got there 1st, he lost the race due to crossing the center line into the other lane. 11:27 at 127mph. I have a resin body I picked up at a model show to put on a Lindberg 64 Max Wedge or an AMT Lawman, or one of these Moebius '65s to build a model of my brother's car. I plan to build a bunch more Mopars of the era, including the Butch Leal '65.

I like that that photo used for reference shows the SoCal Coupe with the name of an old friend - Kong Jackson - lettered on the side. The coupe probably had Kong ignition at the time.

Nice job on those batteries. Shelby used aircraft batteries that are smaller than the usual car batteries used in most American cars. Plus the caps that you did right have a ball check valve in each cap to keep the acid from spilling if the car gets upside down. I used to use them in my offroad race buggy too.

I've done a little research on the aluminum heads and learned something new. That's generally a good thing.

That's how I remember Lothar's Cobra in person. All German silver. No stripes. Just white meatballs and white exhausts.

Obviously the model was engineered by some German way too young to be around when the roads were full of Bugs. And apparently the body shape was generated by #D Laser modeling. Good idea. But the inside and underside were not looked into by the kit designer. I would have thought that model kit makers had learned by now that builders of model cars are interested in far more of the car than just the outside shell. If that was what we were after, we would all just buy diecast toys from convenience stores and gas stations.

When I was in high school in the early 70s, a friend of mine drove a '69 Dart GTS 340 4-speed. It was a copper color with black stripes at the back. It had the plain hood and black interior.

You might add rims outside of those centers to make the wheels deeper.

Bernard, these wheel covers on Tom Beatty's belly tank are the real fore-runners of Moon discs. thes were lids from wringer-type washing machines. That picture above is a page from Tom's book about how to build your own belly tank. I checked my photos of Toms car taken by my dad at El Mirage in the late 50s, but by then he had Moon discs.

FYI, regarding building a road race Corvette if you want accuracy, the hood is way wrong for anything other than a GS Vette like in the Accurate Miniatures GS Vette kits. They had a tube frame. On a stock-based Corvette prepared for racing would race in the SCCA Production Class. In that class, such a hood would have kicked the car into the Sports Racing class with the McLarens, Lolas and Chaparrals. I was an SCCA Tech Inspector in the late 60s and early 70s. And have since made a living as a race car fabricator and have done many restorations.

I posted this in AFX's thread about this build in the Motorsports Modelling forum. But many of you guys don't read that, so... I suggest that if you build a Chrysler Kit Car, you replace the inaccurate Kit Car small block engine (white) with one from the AMT '71 Duster (gray). The Duster engine is accurate to scale to the Mopar small block in my Dodge Durango. Headers are pretty nice though.

Both yours and the 1:1 scale are beautiful cars. I like the extra bulge of the Cord rear fenders on yours. They look better than the originals. And the angle of the back is VERY similar to the full scale. The more practical stance of yours is more to my preference as well. I'm liking this a LOT!

Pretty nice. I recognized the GT40 from your build. The number 61 in the last photo came immediately to mind. It gets a lot of miles in Vintage racing the last couple of decades.

That same paint scheme and graphics were used in the day on at least a couple of sprint cars (one of which was being vintage raced with WRA http://www.westernracing.com/ in the 80s and 90s) and a midget that I've seen. You did a good job putting it together in a manner that would certainly have been approved by the Gilmore ad department.

Those MPC '69 Camaros are pretty crappy in many ways. Not nearly as bad as the old Monogram. The Revell '69s are GREAT. But it still looks pretty decent in spite of it's issues in that last pic with the gold center 5-spokes.

Makes sense Dennis. Most all of the flatheads I've dealt with had or got aftermarket heads. Others had factory (but probably different model year) cast iron heads. Most of the flathead V8s regardless of year model of the car were late 59a, 24 stud blocks. My old friend had a 21 stud with really rare Riley pushrod heads, and that stands out as different being a 21 stud.

Good job of adapting the later style bodywork to the Hebmuller style.

It came out very nice Bernard. In the 1930s my dad who was a kid at the time, through various connections, wound up getting a plane ride with famous aviator Curtis Turner, who was sponsored by Gilmore Red Lion. During the flight, he was holding a lion cub mascot in his lap. One of his favorite memories. Dad passed away in 2000, so I can't get any more info from him about it now.

Ummm He was referring to the roadster pickup cab or the hard top pickup cab.

Plus for a Hebmuller build, all of the Revell VW Bug kits, the old Revell US 68 Bug sedan and convertible kits and the recent release Revell of Germany '68 sedan and convertible kits are nearly 20 years worth of minor changes different from the early 50s Hebmullers. This build is cool and the builder has recognized that it's inaccurate for a proper Heb. It's cool anyway.

Really... I have lots of respect for you Dennis, So I'll take that from you. News to me though.

So it was an integral cab big window short bed. Kinda close to my '61 F100 integral cab Long Bed Custom Cab small window with a 428 cobra Jet.

Good little article Bernard! My dad was a hot rodder back in the 40s and 50s here in SoCal, and I grew up around lots of old school hot rodders and racers. For instance, Ed Winfield mentioned in your article was a friend of a friend...or more accurately a friend of several friends, even though I never knew him myself. I have a Wico mag on a little '30s runner sitting out in my back yard. It's a '37 Gibson Model D tractor with a Wisconsin Robin engine. The carb is the same as used on a Ford Model A and B 4-banger. Gearbox is '37 Chevy.