Nichels Pearson GTO

[yellowsportwagon]

I tried to build this car just as Nichels Engineering built the real car. Used a frame from a Polar lights 64 GTO because it was separate from the floor pan.Cut off the frame at the firewall and attached a Holman Moody frt frame section. Put Chevy truck rear control arms on the back . Modified a Polar Light Talledega roll cage to fit.Then I filled the fender and hood scoops. Opened up all wheel openings and flared the frts. Moved the grille forward made the spoilers and narrowed the rear bumper.Painted Plum Crazy and White with Billy Goochie decals. PPP tires with AMT NASCAR tires. Stock GTO kit engine with AMT NASCAR 351 Cleveland heads reshaped to look like Pontiac RAV heads.Lots of other scratch built bits and pieces.Almost forgot that I moved the back wheel wells back1/8 inch to stretch the wheelbase as was common on GM cars in NASCAR at the time.

Tim

Edited December 29, 2016 by yellowsportwagon

[afx]

Sounds like you did a bunch of work on this Tim.  Do you have any progress photos?

[yellowsportwagon]

I did until I killed my old phone and lost them.

[satterwhite78]

Wow.....literally loss for words ( which is rare.)  The extra work and time is evident and the final result is....Wow!

[bbowser]

Very cool!  I'm loving these old school builds.

[DoctorLarry]

Did the chassis builders leave the back part of the stock frame intact and simply skin new floor pans and trunk pans in or did they put in a whole new rear clip as well?

[yellowsportwagon]

13 minutes ago, DoctorLarry said:

Did the chassis builders leave the back part of the stock frame intact and simply skin new floor pans and trunk pans in or did they put in a whole new rear clip as well?

On the earlier cars such as this they left the rear pretty intact. The later 70s they got more fabbed.

[DoctorLarry]

How did they handle the fuel cells?

 

[yellowsportwagon]

1 hour ago, DoctorLarry said:

How did they handle the fuel cells?

 

Pretty much cut the trunk floor out and built a box for it to go in.

[DoctorLarry]

Where did they put the battery(ies)? I think now they use a fenderwell-same then?

[yellowsportwagon]

2 hours ago, DoctorLarry said:

Where did they put the battery(ies)? I think now they use a fenderwell-same then?

To be honest I’m not sure on this car. A lot were in the trunk. Nichels Chrysler cars were in the cowl behind the drivers front tire.

[DoctorLarry]

A picture I saw of a newer car had them in the same place. An ESPN writer answered the same question by saying the teams put them there for easy access and to keep them from rupturing in case they hit the wall. I just wondered if that was a recent practice or a carry over.

[MarkJ]

Great transformation of a stock kit into a nascar racer. I would like to do a 66 Fairlane. Have you ever done one of those? I would like to see how the frame was done on them. 

[yellowsportwagon]

34 minutes ago, MarkJ said:

Great transformation of a stock kit into a nascar racer. I would like to do a 66 Fairlane. Have you ever done one of those? I would like to see how the frame was done on them. 

I did a 66 Fairlane using a Polar Lights Talledega chassis. They were the beginning of the half chassis Holman-Moody Fords. The Polar chassis fits pretty good you need to shorten the frt horns and the wheelbase a tiny bit. I just moved the leaf springs forward a bit. I’ll post it up tonight.

Edited December 11, 2018 by yellowsportwagon
Miss

[MarkJ]

8 hours ago, yellowsportwagon said:

I did a 66 Fairlane using a Polar Lights Talledega chassis. They were the beginning of the half chassis Holman-Moody Fords. The Polar chassis fits pretty good you need to shorten the frt horns and the wheelbase a tiny bit. I just moved the leaf springs forward a bit. I’ll post it up tonight.

Thanks, Tim. I think I have a Richard Petty Talladega kit that is a polar lights kit that I could use. Also what is the difference between a 66 and 67 Fairlane if any?

[<profile removed>]

Man, that is a beautiful build! 

[yellowsportwagon]

26 minutes ago, MarkJ said:

Thanks, Tim. I think I have a Richard Petty Talladega kit that is a polar lights kit that I could use. Also what is the difference between a 66 and 67 Fairlane if any?

Grille I got a flat hood from SMH if I remember right.

[DoctorLarry]

How wide spread was the use of braided steel lines versus rubber during this period?

[yellowsportwagon]

I would say rubber was more common.

[Tom Louis]

another good one!

[Jim N]

Great job!  The details are really outstanding.

[gks1964]

Too bad you loss the WIP this would be awesome!!

[Vietnam Vet67]

Looks like he had some leftover paint from Glotzbach's Daytona Charger! I kinda remember the story some rich dude wanted to see a GTO win a NASCAR race so he gave Ray a bunch of money to do it but it never happened.