Ace-Garageguy

I tried the caustic Easy Off on a body that had only been painted a few hours with Testors One Coat Lacquer. Easy Off didn't touch it. I ended up using "acrylic top coat stripper", and had to really scramble to get it off the car before it trashed the plastic. Brake fluid did nothing to it either, by the way.

Beautiful model of one of my favorite race cars of all time.

Love it. I know nothing about Australian race cars, but this is beautiful.

The engine will represent a 324 Oldsmobile, with 3 two-barrel carbs and a top-shift LaSalle gearbox hung on an Offenhauser aluminum adaptor. The engine is made up of vintage Revell and AMT parts, as when I started this build, there was no GOOD stock representation of the early Olds OHV V8. When the Olds 303 came out in '49, it had 135 hp, as compared to the Ford flathead's 100, and was the beginning of the end of the flathead Ford's dominance. Engine in the chassis with a fabbed solid front mount. I'll probably rework the mount to the rubber-isolated style. The period-style headers are being modified from the Pontiac pieces in the old AMT '36 Ford kits.

Yes, it's a Gee Bee R-1, with the large 1000hp Pratt & Whitney Hornet engine and larger fuselage diameter. (The Gee Bee Z, as seen in the movie Rocketeer, had the smaller diameter PW Wasp Jr. engine of about 550hp, and a smaller diameter fuselage). It's a very old Pyro kit, re-released later by Lindberg. Many sources list both kits INCORRECTLY as 1/32. The wingspan scales out to 1/26. The only thing about the kit that's 1/32 is the tiny pilot figure. The kit is also inaccurate in many areas, most notably the wing ribs showing very prominently. The real Gee Bee had plywood-skinned wings that were as slick as the technology of the time (in 1932, it flew 296mph) could get them. All that said though, with some work it can make a stunning model. Though there were no Gee Bees left by the period this car represents, about 1957 (though a flying reproduction was built from original Granville brothers' plans by Delmar Benjamin in the late 1990s, which put an end to the reputation the airplane had as a pilot killer), I just like the way they look together. Here's a link to a video of the replica doing aerobatics in 1999.

Farm out, man. Like man, that paint is really convincing, man.

Very nice build, and I really appreciate you thinking of putting it with the Merc for scale. That track nose, the little V8-60 and the wheels / tires would be great for a period dry lakes car.

Pretty trick truck. I like it. Is that a distributor AND coil packs, or do I muisunderstand what I'm seeing?

The Duvall comes from the AMT '32 Ford Phantom Vickie kits, 30089 and 30246.

These are such good looking cars, i always kind of wonder why Chebbolay spent gazillion$ developing the "nostalgia look" semi-clone. They could have just pulled out the old tooling and sold a bunch of these, all over again. On a C6 chassis. Yeah, I'd buy that.

Here's another teaser with some additional progress.

Yup. First thing was to substitute a model-A front crossmember from an original edition of the Ala Kart chassis. This was one way it was done in the day, to get an extra 1" or so of drop. The kickup in the center of the crossmember allows the spring / axle to mount a little higher relative to the rails. The frame rails are notched to clear the spring. The bottom of the rad shell is kicked a little forward too, to prevent the overbite look some '32s get. Front axle is the dropped unit from a number of Revell model-A kits. Had to fab a rear floor and new crossmember for the rear of this old AMT chassis. Then the parts stash yielded up a '40 Ford rear from the Revell kit. Careful fitting and numerous measurements place the axle at the right height to get the desired stance. I cleaned the parting lines and junk off the sides of the rails. And this shot gives a better indication of how the wedge-channel works. Body is stock height at the rad, channeled in the rear.

Great concept. Who did the illustration, or did I overlook that in earlier posts?

I've put this one back in the rotation, 'cause there's slow drying stuff on the other two current projects, and this one could see completion relatively quickly. This is going to be a '57 or so period hot-rod build, a car that would be seriously fast on the street, lakes or early dragstrips. It's been stalled for a while, but I've been on it again lately, and will bring the pix up to date as time permits. Came in like this...... Much excessive glue holding everything together, firmly..... some Dremel surgery........ ...and an early mockup of where we're going.... The wedge channel job gives the car a little different profile than the standard hiboy or lowboy, and a little less drag for lakes runs.......

Here's one I started a few years ago....still waiting to decide which way to go......

Hard to beat Fuchs alloys on anything from Wolfsburg or Stuttgart. They look great on 356s, busses, 911s, anything. Nice color too. Wish I still had the '58 an idiot girlfriend sold for $50 when I was out of town years ago. She thunk she done good cuz it didn't run............

Thanks again to everyone who's posted comments. I'm really glad you guys like it. C-man405, the tires are no-name roadracing slicks from the Revell C5-R Corvette. Albie D, yes, the taillights are Corvette C5. Actually, the rear panel is C5 (NOT R) turned upside down and mated to the stock rear pan.

Thanks guys. Right now I'm looking at windshield options, modern or more wrap-around, and a starting point for a front lower pan. Once I get those nailed down she should start moving pretty quickly. I've got some vintage Revell parts-pack rocketship taillights that may work too.

Thanks guys. I'm still tinkering with the theme and may go back to the slicks in the rear for a more '60s showcar look, and I'm probably going to set the headlights deeper into the fenders. My designs sometimes take a while to figure out what they really want to be. Jason, the scoops are a pair that happened to come in with a bunch of parts I bought, sight unseen. Just a lucky find. The round bottoms will be replaced with 2-hole Hilborn-style injectors. Anybody out there have a 5th wheel setup, or a recommendation for a kit with a good one?

Amazing how the right color, some pinstriping and detailing can really make a car pop, model or 1:1. I really love love love this body style, and think it's one of the best looking cars ever built, frankly. Nice rework. I see your red is over a silver base. Is it a candy red, or a metallic?

Incredible, impressive, inspiring model.

The car looks absolutely great, Bernard. And your rotogravure effect makes it look like a couple of "little pages" pix from history. Very nice job all the way around on a very ambitious and complex project.

Thanks to everyone for the comments. Glad you're enjoying it. After the repairs were done on both sides, I added a 1/8 inch layer of cotton flock / epoxy mix to the insides of the quarters. Enough structural strength in the fibers to allow me to reshape the lower rear of the panels without worrying about going through the repair. The original car had some protruding molded things to fair in the bumper, and I decided they had to go. Also made a splash mold of the Saleen Mustang hard tonneau, and made a duplicate, shown on right. Not perfect, but all I was after is the shape of the head-fairings anyway. Starting to work in a narrowed Pontiac-ish rear panel........ ...and with the hard tonneau, trying to bring out a little of the Jetsons feel without going over the top.......

Thanks guys. And....I never liked the front end I had, kinda reminded me of a character from Ice Age. Reworked it with higher headlights, new lower pan, different wheel / tire combo. A little more tweeking and I think I'll have what I was after.....

No pix, but I once hauled a small-block Chevy to the machine shop in the trunk of a client's Jag XJ-12.