David Thibodeau

Built for my boss at work. I used a 1963 Vette from an AMT kit. Only cosmetic difference between a 63' and 64' is the vents on the hood. The 63 had them and the 64' did not. I used a model car garage 63-65 Photo etch kit that had the vents on the fret for the hood. I simply turned them over to expose the smooth side and blended these in to appear solid for the 64' bodystyle. A 1966 Monogram convertible kit was used to rob the wheels and tires from. Plus a few other parts. Overall I am pleased although the AMT kit is nothing short of a promo kit with an engine! Paint on the model is actual leftover Daytona blue from the restoration of the 1:1 car. On to the pics: Here is the real car I built off of: Here are pics of the 1:24 scale model:

That was my Model Factory Hiro 1973 312PB Dave..... Believe me... I am still in a fog over that day.... I was totally caught off guard winning the East..... what a day..... Great pics BOB!!! Thanks! DaveT

Nope, That is my boss..... this is my ugly mug Thanks guys... like I said a day I will never forget.... DaveT

What a freakin cool day! Alot of you guys have seen the pics but here is a link to them for others.. If you look at the presentation pics in one of them you can see where Don wiped his eye..... He choked up!!! That was an indication to me.... that I had done a good job. He personally shook my hand and gave me a big thumbs up. A day I will never forget........ DaveT http://public.fotki.com/Daveyracer/drag_mo...x/museum-visit/

Thanks Guys.... DaveT

Great decals by Thad doubled up. Its a curbsider with exterior details... Paint is HOK Cobalt Blue basecoat, white, and dupont clear.... Thanks!

Body is a Mike Dowd resin piece, 2006-07 Chevy kit chassis, Powerslide decals, White basecoat and dupont clear. Another curbsider with all the exterior goodies.... Thanks!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback. DaveT

Complete and a challenging multi media kit to build. Body is resin, all the rest of the car is white metal needing a ton of clean up. The driver was Carlos Reutimann and he is in the car courtesy of an El Oso resin driver figure I added. The decals along with other areas proved quite challenging during the buid. Thanks for looking.......... DaveT

Thanks Marc.... you know I still have a nice 67 Chevelle that I am going to use those rallies I bought from you on..... Thanks Everyone.... DaveT

Thanks guys..... I was hoping Marc Nellis would give a reply too... that guy is my inspiration for pro tour builds.... Thanks again all! DaveT

Quick build..... used a 1971 AMT Charger R/T kit, pegasus wheels, PPG metallic blue basecoat, painted stripes and 2 part clear and alot of imagination! Its a slammer with a V-10 borrowed from an AMT Viper GTS kit along with the seats and steering wheel. The engine shroud was made from sheet plastic, Scalemotorsport CF and 2 part clear. It was alot of fun to finish after sitting 2 years.....

Thanks guys.... like I said... a "slammer" and the stance is dialed in..... a shroud around the engine and this one is in the books...... its all about the pro tour "Look"

I started this one a LONG time ago... I think 2 years to be exact? Well I got a wild hair over the weekend. I have decided to make this one a slammer. This means it will have an axle out back and pegs up front strategically placed so I can the stance exactly the way I want. In other words it wont be accurate at all on the bottom! Here is the interior. Again I built it fairly quickly using the stock interior but trading out the split bench seat for Viper GTS seats from the parts bin. I whipped together some seatbelts using blue craft ribbon and PE hardware from Pro Tech. The dash was painted flat black and detailed with silver and clear blue added to the gauges. A viper steering wheel was added along with black flocking and a Nascar Fire extinguisher and gear shifter. Again nothing special, over the top. Just vintage meets Pro Tour. Here is the powerplant again. Its borrowed or should I say pillaged from a AMT Viper GTS kit. Since a suspension will be non existent and I had to remove the wheel well kit arches to make room for the Pegasus rolling stock I am going to shroud the entire engine in aluminum bead rolls and all! Here are some mockups of course! I am going for this stance but not as low in the front. But you get the idea.... The exhaust will be made from solid solder and will exit out two piped out the center rear of the car... al la Viper GTS! Stay tuned fellas! This is a quickie but a beauty! The paint will be the star of the show on this one. The stripes are all paint to if you guys forgot.

A few more.....

A tribute to the innovator of drag racing himself. I present to you his 1986 Englishtown "Blowover car" This was built for him and will be presented to him in the last week of March or April at the museum prior to a personal tour by him for my co workers at my job. I really hope he likes it. A HUGE THANKS to Shiryl Adams at detailmaster. Her parts look right at home on this Fueler! I do have a set of Salt flat spun metal discs on the way next week I will throw on... On with the final pics!

Well here is the final WIP update....... Motor is fully plumbed, oil filter is installed, Fuel tube is in place, and its ready for the side panels...The throttle linkage is made from fishing leader line The puke tank lines that were molded to the tank were removed anf clear tubing was added. Then they were coated with clear orange tamiya acrylic to give them the oil and fuel stained look. I think these REALLY give it a vintage look! A closeup of the front area and all those oil lines! Finally I replaced the rear wing ends with aluminum sheet.... Rear chutes and lots of PE fasteners and it will be finished up! DaveT

Thanks guys..... oh I plan on getting pics giving it to big daddy.... I hope he appreciates the work in it!!! More progress: I made a new rear firewall from sheet aluminum. Its on the right with some scratchbuilt fuel system timers. BIG improvement over the chrome thick kit piece. Next up it was installed and a detailmaster fire bottle was used for the air tank that runs the timers plumbed with #3 detailmaster fittings and line.... And an engine fit for clearance check:

Thanks guys... the 2 year old is home sick today so I took a vacation day to watch him.... so while he slept all morning I got this done... Interior is busy yet not overly done due to the fact it will all be hidden behind glass windows.... I used detailmaster detail wire for the gauges, model car garage PE steering wheel, Brake lever, and chute lever. I added Model Factory hiro belt material and leftover PE buckles from Model Car garage and stuck then directly over the kit belts. I think it worked out well. Very vintage with gold paint that Don used inside his dragsters... This kit was plagued with injector marks everywhere! But the floor ones wont be seen and were very difficult to get to. Here is the last shot of the car before I add the body panel assembly. It fits very tight so its not going to be removable. Here is the chassis with the body applied for good. While I was at it, I buttoned up the rear brakes. I used Detailmaster drilled rotors and a caliper from the spares box cut in half. Once they were painted and added I plumbed the brakes using craft gold #1 Crimp tubes and #1 Detailmaster braided line. Since the brakes were done I could see no reason why I could not add the Slicks permanantly.... Since the body was installed I decided to clean up and install the glass dome on the cockpit body work. Don pioneered this and it really worked for him... Even if he was a "Rat under Glass" Some final pics to show how the car is shaping up with the engine temporarily installed..... I still have lots to do to tie it altogether but its getting there. Oh.... I also have some spun aluminum discs from Detailmaster coming to replace the rear kit covers you see now....

Thanks guys...... Motor is done for the most part. All detailmaster hardware on this one with Pro Tech PE bolts. The headers required major clean up so much I think I needed a little more on those inner seams..... : Blast belts are extra seat belt material from model factory hiro kit. Again, I went for the older vintage look. This car had. Here is a chassis test fit. Its looking busy. And I am pleased by that. Building a top fuel car with no detail is like asking me to cut my arms off! ;D

I am trying to find some turned ones on the net.. Metalizer is way too messy..... DaveT

Sounds like an awesome idea Bob.. just keep in mind that Swamp Rat XXX at the smithsonian was totally redone Engine wise compared to the one that was in the 1986 Blowover car at Englishtown. Dont know if that matters to you but the engine setups were different. The 86 original car had one Magneto ( at Englishtown) and the open blower scoop with hidden throttle butterflies inside the intake. The smithsonian car has a traditional aluminum blower hat with front mounted throttle butterflies and Dual Magnetos like Swamp rat 31 had in 1987..... DaveT

I think it was for the onboad electronics Harry.. I figured Revell knew what they were doing!!! LOL!! Thanks guys..... Dragline.... I really dont have alot of detailed pics of the car... This album link below is all I have in my arsenal... Keep in mind alot of the pics are of not only Swamp Rat 30, but Swamp Rat 31, and 30 as it is today in the Smithsonian... but I dont have any good clean detail shots of the engine.... I wish I did!! http://public.fotki.com/Daveyracer/drag_mo...ference-photos/

Thanks guys and here is more progress, time constraints looming I really have to stay fairly dedicated to this one.... Engine is well underway, Alclad paints were used for the engine block and supercharger. I have also installed detailmaster pulleys, a homemade belt from electrical tape and business card, and started plumbing the fuel lines using craft wire ( supercharger lines) and detailmaster braided line and fittings. The barrel valve and fuel dist block out back on the supercharger are scratch from square rod. Don ran only one magneto on this car so I used a pro tech distributor, plug wires, and a MAS PE magneto cap all painted red. Here are the wheels and tires labourously sanded clean and slixx decals applied followed by dullcoat. I scuffed the front bicycle tires. Hand painted the good year lettering and popped them on. Finally a few mock ups......

I live about 55 miles from Garlits Museum in Ocala FL. One of my managers at work has arranged for us to visit the museum first week of April to get a tour by "Big Daddy" himself! He asked me if I would be interested in building a car to present him when we arrive to take the tour. I jumped at the chance! I perused evilbay and found a sealed kit of his Swamp Rat 30. The car that blewover and flipped around and went back towards the start line at Englishtown in 1986. I called upon Shiryl from Detailmaster to get me some parts lined up to make it a nicely detailed car. I have a little over a month to get this project done so lets get started! The frame and body were cleaned up and primed with a little boxart in the backround Then they were all covered in PPG Black basecoat followed by 2 part Chromaclear to make them "Garlits black" ready for decals. Even though the front end will be closed up on this build it lends itself to nice detailing that I cant help but add. I added a detailmaster battery hardware kit upgrade, new steering rod made from brass tubing along with .080 solder for the fuel line. Don's interior panels were gold on this car so I carefully painted that area with Tamiya gold. The fuel cell, steering linkage, and bulkhead were painted with Testors buffing aluminum metalizer. The top loader Rear Axle was "misted" with Primer for a texture look and painted with Metalizer. I picked out the "Strange" rear end logo with a black wash. Finally I added decals to the painted cowl cover. I was skeptical about bleedthrough and age of the kit decals, but fortunately they worked out nicely considering this kit wad made back in 1987. That worry is over with! Engine work next up!! DaveT