Salvino's JR - '71 Petty Plymouth

[Johnny Canuck]

10 hours ago, Dave Van said:

These 'ALL NEW' CAD designed kits should not have the same issues that kits made from masters carved by hand from wood blocks!!  I'm not down on Salvinos alone.....Any all new CAD designed kits should be BETTER ....not perfect. Moebius is all CAD desin and if you have built a Hudson they are very 'Tamiya' like.....more so than the Salvinos kits so far. I hope the continue to bring new and BETTER kits to market. 

 

Edited January 28, 2023 by Johnny Canuck

[Pierre Rivard]

Bob, your work is magnificent and a great joy to follow. You are taking on the challenge to bring realism to the kit, something we always face with the 1/25 series (70's cars) Salvinos kits. The Satellite body on this kit looks really nice but the chassis/engine is junk i.e fix everything like you are taking on or transplant a Revell chassis with scratch built front structure. Expensive kit for just a body...

[dwc43]

On 1/28/2023 at 12:46 AM, Force said:

The front of the chassis on this kit is not correct for a Mopar Cup car from this era, by that time they used a fabricated front section with a special K-member to clear the dry sump oil pan and get the engine as low as possible, only the modified steering linkage goes under the oil pan.

They also used a different engine mount than the OEM style.

Actually, that is a stock 1950's Mopar motor mount. Stock piece, just not for a Gen II Hemi. And if you look really close, Petty used 60's truck interior mirrors on his race cars. Some have the bracket drilled with holes to save and once or two.

[Force]

3 hours ago, dwc43 said:

Actually, that is a stock 1950's Mopar motor mount. Stock piece, just not for a Gen II Hemi. And if you look really close, Petty used 60's truck interior mirrors on his race cars. Some have the bracket drilled with holes to save and once or two.

Well if you mean the front engine mount used on early Dodge Red Ram Hemis and some poly head engines it's the same idea but not the same part.the old 50's engine mount is mounted under the water pump housing and is smaller.
The engine mount on the 426 NASCAR Hemis the teams used from the mid 60's forward are mounted sandwiched between the water pump and engine block and is much beefier.

Here is a couple of pictures of the old 50's engine mount.

And here is the NASCAR engine mount.

 

[dwc43]

3 minutes ago, Force said:

Well if you mean the front engine mount used on early Dodge Red Ram Hemis and some poly head engines it's the same idea but not the same part.the old 50's engine mount is mounted under the water pump housing and is smaller.
The engine mount on the 426 NASCAR Hemis the teams used from the mid 60's forward are mounted sandwiched between the water pump and engine block and is much beefier.

Here is a couple of pictures of the old 50's engine mount.

And here is the NASCAR engine mount.

 

You are right. Been a while since I had one. Those old engines weighed a ton. No wonder it had such a heavy duty mount.

[afx]

Great looking project Bob.

[1972coronet]

I've been gradually working on my copy of this kit. While I've not assembled any of its components yet (I've just been sanding the parting lines and deepening the panel lines on the decklid, and to a lesser extent, the doors panels lines), I have noticed sink marques on the rear bumpers (both the 1971 and the 1972). 

Kind of off-putting. 

Easy fix... but I'm not planning on painting the body on my copy, so I've got to fill those marques with trimmed and shaved sprue.

GREAT work you're doing here! Thanks for the heads up regarding the breathers' interfering with the bonnet.

BTW, are you planning to add the trademark Petty 'peace symbol' headrest ?

[TooOld]

7 hours ago, afx said:

Great looking project Bob.

Thanks JC !

[TooOld]

14 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:

I've been gradually working on my copy of this kit. While I've not assembled any of its components yet (I've just been sanding the parting lines and deepening the panel lines on the decklid, and to a lesser extent, the doors panels lines), I have noticed sink marques on the rear bumpers (both the 1971 and the 1972). 

Kind of off-putting. 

Easy fix... but I'm not planning on painting the body on my copy, so I've got to fill those marques with trimmed and shaved sprue.

GREAT work you're doing here! Thanks for the heads up regarding the breathers' interfering with the bonnet.

BTW, are you planning to add the trademark Petty 'peace symbol' headrest ?

Thanks John !  Yeah those sink marks on the rear bumper are pretty bad , they should have caught those .  I was going to add the headrest but decided not to , from all the pics I've looked at it's in the restored cars and museum cars but wasn't actually in the '71 race car . . . I'm sure if I'm wrong somebody here will let me know .

[1972coronet]

Here's a couple of (crummy cell phone) photos of the repairs I'd made to the 1971 rear bumper's sink marques (see image).

I snipped some flash from one of the Petty Blue coloured runners, put a dab of cheapo CA glue in the sink marques, then placed the flash cuts over the marques. I let them dry for a few minutes, then sanded with an emery board, and finished with a sanding pad (6000 grit) which is the white reflection seen in these photos.

Worked like a charm! Completely undetectable !

[dwc43]

17 hours ago, TooOld said:

Thanks John !  Yeah those sink marks on the rear bumper are pretty bad , they should have caught those .  I was going to add the headrest but decided not to , from all the pics I've looked at it's in the restored cars and museum cars but wasn't actually in the '71 race car . . . I'm sure if I'm wrong somebody here will let me know .

The head rest is in the '71. Here's a pic of it on the White House lawn. 

[TooOld]

Thanks DW !  I have that pic somewhere but forgot I had it , I think that smaller pic you posted is a restored car not the race car .

I also found this shot from the '71 Daytona 500 . . . guess I'm adding the headrest !

[dwc43]

1 hour ago, TooOld said:

Thanks DW !  I have that pic somewhere but forgot I had it , I think that smaller pic you posted is a restored car not the race car .

I also found this shot from the '71 Daytona 500 . . . guess I'm adding the headrest !

More than welcome. Enjoying the build and detail you are putting into it.

[Bainford]

Things continue to look great, Bob. You are sweating the details, and it's paying off. Very nice work.

[TooOld]

On 2/7/2023 at 11:45 AM, Bainford said:

Things continue to look great, Bob. You are sweating the details, and it's paying off. Very nice work.

Thanks Trevor !

[TooOld]

After a couple weeks off I started back on this build yesterday . First order of business was to add that headrest !

There's a few other details I want to add to the interior starting with an electronics panel with the early type ignition boxes .  This is tiny and hard to get the details right but it won't be very visible later so not a big deal . 

That's all I managed yesterday , should have another update later this week . 

[TooOld]

The differential cooler in the kit seemed undersized to me and lacking detail so I made a new one , also made a screen for the underside of the chassis . 

Next I tried making a window net using some stainless wire and Crepe Chartpak Tape . After laying the tape and trimming the ends I sprayed it with a light mist of DullCote . 

Being my first attempt at this I'm pretty happy with the results . 

Thanks for looking ! 

[Pierre Rivard]

Wow, that diff cooler and window net are so nice. Superb craftsmanship.

[catpack68]

I’m liking all the details you’re putting into this one. Looking forward to seeing more?

[TooOld]

On 2/15/2023 at 7:55 AM, Pierre Rivard said:

Wow, that diff cooler and window net are so nice. Superb craftsmanship.

Thanks for following along Pierre !  I did them both pretty quick and just got lucky , usually it takes several attempts .

20 hours ago, catpack68 said:

I’m liking all the details you’re putting into this one. Looking forward to seeing more?

Thanks Scott !  Another update coming soon . 

[MarkJ]

Bob, you keep adding so much fine detail to this build. I'm really enjoying watching your journey to completion. It's going to be such a fine build when completed.

[TooOld]

On 2/17/2023 at 7:56 AM, MarkJ said:

Bob, you keep adding so much fine detail to this build. I'm really enjoying watching your journey to completion. It's going to be such a fine build when completed.

Thanks much Mark !  I'm hoping I don't get burned out before it's done .

[TooOld]

No bench time all week until Friday night so I got right to work on the seat . Pretty straight forward applying the houndstooth decal and then assembling the seat .  I've got a P.E. set for the harnesses that I'll do in a couple of days . 

Next up was the dashboard . First thing I did was pull the Salvinos decal sheet to check the gauges , what a surprise to find Moroso gauges including a giant 5" tachometer . 

Not sure if they had  those in '71 but Petty used Stewart Warner gauges . I bought the Model Car Garage PE set for the '71-'72 Charger and it has the correct instrument panels and bezels , there's a couple other items on this set that I might use later . 

I spent the rest of the evening hunting for gauges on line and printing my own decals . I also prepped and painted the dash so I could work on the gauges in the morning . 

Saturday morning I got to work but those tiny photo etch parts give me fits and I actually got up and walked away several times . Twelve hours after I started it was finally done . 

I probably only worked on it 2 or 3 hours total and it was worth the effort , here's the finished dash . 

[James2]

On 2/2/2023 at 9:08 AM, dwc43 said:

The head rest is in the '71. Here's a pic of it on the White House lawn. 

 

Nixon,  "Richard, toss me the keys" 

[TooOld]

I decided to started off simple this morning with the pedals . I used a file to thin the arms , sprayed them flat black and then added the photo etch pedal pads . 

Then it was time for more photo etch parts for the safety harness , I used these latches along with 1/8 in crepe tape . I brushed X-22 on the back side of the tape to cover the adhesive . 

Not quite as difficult as I thought , it took about an hour but I finally had the harness made . 

The harness was then added to the seat using CA glue . The shoulder belts will be attached to the roll cage later . 

That's all for now , thanks for looking !

Edited February 20, 2023 by TooOld