1963 Super Torque Ford

[MarkJ]

Gas cap and hood and trunk pins. Trying hard not to forget anything. I still need to make an overflow tube for the gas tank.

[MarkJ]

Finally got the build part finished and started decaling. Basically, have to decal the car twice because I had to make white underlay sheets because the car is not white, and the numbers and letter decals have white outlines.  Most Lorenzen cars have light blue outlines. This one doesn't.  Also, the contingencies would not have looked right without white underlays.

[jjsipes]

Can not wait to see the finished model.

[MarkJ]

3 hours ago, jjsipes said:

Can not wait to see the finished model.

Thanks, Jason. It's been a struggle at times. I will be so glad when it is finally done. It seems the Fireball 63 Ford was a lot easier back in the day when I built it. I always wanted to do this build so I could have the sister car to Fireball's car that day. Fireball had the fastest car overall in Qualifying, but he missed the first day, so he didn't start on the pole. Lorenzen did. Fireball won the race and Fred came in second. During the race Junior had the fastest car which I also built. It fell out around the 400-mile mark with engine failure, overheating as the Chevy 427's liked to do back then. Below is the Junior Livery for the 63 Southern 500.

 

[MarkJ]

It's finished except for the final coat of Future or whatever they are calling it nowadays. Below is an in progress shot of the decaling process showing the laser white underlays and the inkjet top color decals. 

[MarkJ]

Just finished the future so I'm officially calling this one done. Now I just need to take the final photos and move on to the next project. Somewhere along the way I forgot to make entries into the model logbook, so I don't have a number of hours spent on this one. Things got a little hectic there when we were finishing up the selling of my mother in laws house 5 hours away. I will have a start and stop date for it though. Seems like it took forever.

[presnell]

Mark I love Junior's number 3 it looks very good!

[bobss396]

I have never kept time I spent on something, maybe in a matter of months or YEARS... The Vega modified I finished in April, likely 150 hours into that one. I'm doing a Pinto now, likely 100 hours so far and more to go.

My brother did a stellar roll-back wrecker that made the model mags, won everywhere he took it. That was a solid year of work, he documented it and had a "book" on display with the finished product.

[MarkJ]

10 hours ago, presnell said:

Mark I love Junior's number 3 it looks very good!

Thanks, Jim. It was one of my holy grails when I did it a few years ago. Kinda like Fireball's Ford and now Fred's Ford.

[MarkJ]

1 hour ago, bobss396 said:

I have never kept time I spent on something, maybe in a matter of months or YEARS... The Vega modified I finished in April, likely 150 hours into that one. I'm doing a Pinto now, likely 100 hours so far and more to go.

My brother did a stellar roll-back wrecker that made the model mags, won everywhere he took it. That was a solid year of work, he documented it and had a "book" on display with the finished product.

Bob, I had been doing a good job with the logs till this project, but it is basically the same as the Fireball Ford. I did the exact same things for both of the builds. 

[bobss396]

22 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Bob, I had been doing a good job with the logs till this project, but it is basically the same as the Fireball Ford. I did the exact same things for both of the builds. 

I tend to do things the same way if they actually work. I'm in the middle of 2 modified projects. Its just a little more work to get parts for a 3rd one going since I have everything out already. I have a completed cage from scratch and a jig to build more of them on.

I should document things as I go... but that may show that I'm a little organized.

[MarkJ]

41 minutes ago, bobss396 said:

I tend to do things the same way if they actually work. I'm in the middle of 2 modified projects. Its just a little more work to get parts for a 3rd one going since I have everything out already. I have a completed cage from scratch and a jig to build more of them on.

I should document things as I go... but that may show that I'm a little organized.

Thats one thing I am not is organized. Look at any picture in my wips and see the messy work area I have going on. It's surprising I get anything done.

[MarkJ]

Finally done. Check out the Nascar finished section for more pictures.

[bobss396]

23 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Thats one thing I am not is organized. Look at any picture in my wips and see the messy work area I have going on. It's surprising I get anything done.

I force myself to do a big clean up every few days. I work on an 8.5" x 11" mat, I tape post-it lined paper over it so I can scribble on it. Now I'm working on 1 thing at a time, or trying to. I tend to accumulate odd parts I keep by my lamp base. I have to put those away or they pile up.

[MarkJ]

27 minutes ago, bobss396 said:

I force myself to do a big clean up every few days. I work on an 8.5" x 11" mat, I tape post-it lined paper over it so I can scribble on it. Now I'm working on 1 thing at a time, or trying to. I tend to accumulate odd parts I keep by my lamp base. I have to put those away or they pile up.

Bob, I work on my kitchen table and after every build it gets completely cleaned off and ready for the next build. I always do the decals for the next build first because without the decals it's pointless to do the build. So, the table stays cleaned for any length of time it might take to research, obtain images and make the decals, and then put them on sheets. I do a laser white background sheet and a color inkjet sheet. Sometimes it can take up to a week to create the decals, and make the sheets, so the table will stay cleaned for that length of time. Obviously, we don't eat off the kitchen or actually breakfast nook table so it's all good. We are T.V. tray eaters.

Edited September 8, 2023 by MarkJ

[bobss396]

16 minutes ago, MarkJ said:

Bob, I work on my kitchen table and after every build it gets completely cleaned off and ready for the next build. I always do the decals for the next build first because without the decals it's pointless to do the build. So, the table stays cleaned for any length of time it might take to research, obtain images and make the decals, and then put them on sheets. I do a laser white background sheet and a color inkjet sheet. Sometimes it can take up to a week to create the decals, and make the sheets, so the table will stay cleaned for that length of time. Obviously, we don't eat off the kitchen or actually breakfast nook table so it's all good. We are T.V. tray eaters.

I'm using my 3' x 5' dining room table... maybe I can eat off it. I have to clear it off if I cook for 3 or 4 people. Mainly we eat outside on the deck. Right now it is fairly well organized. I keep parts in old pill jars, I mark them... although I did "lose" one for the Pinto I'm working on. Projects get their own plastic "shoe" box and I use jewelry storage boxes for sub-assemblies, etc.

On the kitchen counter, I have at least 25 cans of paint out. I have most boxed so I can move them out of the way.

[Johnny Canuck]

Seriously perky hood pins. Didja shoot those pics in cold weather?

 

 

 

[MarkJ]

5 hours ago, Johnny Canuck said:

Seriously perky hood pins. Didja shoot those pics in cold weather?

 

 

 

John, it was cool in the house where I shot the pics but outside it was 105, but the model did not know it.  It's been an unusually hot summer this year, but hopefully this week looks like we will get some mid ninety's highs for a change. Thanks for your interest in the build.

[slusher]

Looks fantastic, Mark!

[MarkJ]

9 minutes ago, slusher said:

Looks fantastic, Mark!

Thanks, Carl for your support during the build. I really appreciated it.

[bytownshaker]

Looks fantastic !!!

[MarkJ]

1 hour ago, bytownshaker said:

Looks fantastic !!!

Thanks for checking back in at the end, Edgar. I really appreciate the kind word and interest in the build.

[Johnny Canuck]

22 hours ago, MarkJ said:

John, it was cool in the house where I shot the pics but outside it was 105, but the model did not know it.  It's been an unusually hot summer this year, but hopefully this week looks like we will get some mid ninety's highs for a change. Thanks for your interest in the build.

My cheeky reference to 'perky' details aside, this is a fine build and a truly instructive one as well. I'm a big Fast Freddy fan and have both of his '63 and '64 cars on my production line. Thanks for sharing the details of your build.

[MarkJ]

2 hours ago, Johnny Canuck said:

My cheeky reference to 'perky' details aside, this is a fine build and a truly instructive one as well. I'm a big Fast Freddy fan and have both of his '63 and '64 cars on my production line. Thanks for sharing the details of your build.

Thanks, John. I will be looking forward to seeing your builds of Fast Freddie. 

[bobss396]

Freddy was one of my favorite drivers back then. He took a break, tried to come back and definitely lost his groove. Other greats of the day were Paul Goldsmith (fast in the Pontiacs), of course the prophetic Fireball Roberts,Junior Johnson and many others.