Final Build of the year was Pure Heaven - literally!

[jlucky]

Well, it was in the final days of 2023 that I finally completed my last build of the year. It took me long enough! I had purchased the Slixx Decals for this car a couple years back from a local hobby shop, then scrounged around for the front axle and 427 Chevy engine from other kits and with the reissue of the Bantam Blast AA/Fuel Altered, reckoned it was time to get everything together.

First off the front end was completely reworked to more closely match the real car. That meant chopping off the kits’ coil springs and adding side shock absorbers to a straight front axle with leaf spring suspension. This necessitated reworking the torsion bars and steering link as well. Trust me it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. The 427 engine went together quite nicely only I discovered that none of the fan belts in the parts box fit. So it was time to make my own fan belt using parts-box pulleys I mounted on the 427. The belt is actually made of black Gorilla tape with thin black backing inside and then crazy glued in place. Looks pretty good for a first time effort…even if I do say so myself. To top off the front end, the Moon fuel tank needed a special mounting plate to sit just outside the front grill. Front wheels are Competition Resins 12 Spokes with rubber tires and the rear are the 11.75 AMT Goodyear slicks as per the real car. See the photos. Interior is basic and the body was reworked slightly to enlarge the rear wheel openings.

As for those decals that prompted the build, well given their age I gave them a healthy coat of Micro Scale Decal film…and don’t you know they were still too brittle and cracked with every application. I managed to get the side panels to work, but had to remove the top white parts and create completely new versions from plain white decal paper. Then I applied the smaller details and it sort of worked. Given that virtually all these drag cars rarely looked the same month to month, it didn’t turn out half bad.

The Pure Heaven II Bantam now sits proudly in the collection next to its chief on track rival the Pure Hell Bantam.

[Yeah Nah]

Nice! A killer model by any standard.

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[Hmann68]

Looks great! Gotta get one after seeing yours. ?

[Zippi]

Yup, that's one Bad looking Drag car.  Nicely done.

[PappyD340]

Looks great!

[6bblbird]

Top notch! It presents well! 

[Dave Armstrong]

Very nicely done!

I have a friend who also had problems with the decals, finally gave up. I have everything I need to build it, just have to gird myself up to wrestle those decals!

[Mopar2]

Looks awesome...Nice cool clean build...

[dragcarz]

Wow! That is so cool! I used to crew for a fuel altered owned by a friend of mine back in the early 70s. The car had a T body and was named InsaniTy. I was lucky enough to attend the 1974 Fuel Altered Nationals held in Tucson Arizona and saw many of those cars run, it was such an awesome experience. Just a beautiful build, thanks for posting it and bringing back some memories for me! 

[slusher]

Awesome build!

[ewetwo]

Looks wonderful.