Stroker McGurk

[spike morelli]

O.K., this is my very first posting with photos. I shot the pics with a camera I've had for a while, however, some shots aren't sharp enough to really see detail and I appologise for that.

This is a re-issue of the sixties kit of Stroker Mcgurk and his "surfrod". This was cool to build. It's not quite finished yet, as I plan to add spark plug wires to the Hemi. I chose Wimbledon White ( a FoMoCo color) for the surfboard, as it comes closest to the color of a real fiberglass board, and shot it right out of the spray can. Stroker's body is moulded to assemble in two sections, upper and lower, separated at the waist, so that a rubber band suspension piece would let him quiver and shake. That's great....until the rubber band hardens and breaks some time later, and you have to scatter to re-assemble the finished model...no thanks! I positioned Stroker together and filled his body with a quick shot of that expanding aerosol foam in a can that you get from hardware stores to insulate with....problem gone. The "rope" is a piece of crafting twine my wife had, which looks appropriate I think. The injectors, as moulded, had only 3 throats ( in real life, Hilborn made/makes 2 or 4 throat upright injectors ), so, I filed the as moulded injectors off and added 1/4" tubes, 4 each, to the top of the blower to be less "cartoony". Speaking of making the engine more like real life, the kit comes with exhaust headers which, essentially are just 4 short, straight stubs sticking out below the heads. C'mon guys, on a drag engine, the headers are a focal point, and I figured I could do better than that. After trying to bend plastic, copper, and aluminum 1/4" tubing, and kinking every try, I went another direction. A trip to Walmart netted some baby clothes hangers, moulded in 1/4" poly styrene with bends already moulded that I cut, shaped, and glued into place, then I made a "strap" out of styrene to hold the tubes together like real zoomies have. Finally, I re-shaped the airscoop to more closely resemble the shape of those fiberglass scoops popular back then.

Almost done, I'm happy with the overall vibe. Now, I have to find a shadow box to display this in.

Edited September 10, 2017 by spike morelli

[vintagercr]

Mike, that looks great!

[spike morelli]

...Spike, as in Spike Lee, Spike Jones, ...

[Curt]

Real nice work there, Spike.  I'm glad you avoided that shiny look that some figures have, and that's clever thinking on the details like the rope and the headers.

[cobraman]

Nicely done.

[iBorg]

I've got to get one of these. Nicely built and the added details do a lot for it.