1965 Dodge A990 A/SA circa 2024

[R. Thorne]

Cut the fuel tank off, replaced with sheet of styrene, painted with ts46 Tamiya light sand.  Sprayed door panels, too.  Also, sprayed some ts14 on the front of chassis and pedals.

[R. Thorne]

[R. Thorne]

Put some Flysea chrome on, then sanded down some amt Goodyear slicks.  Painted with rubber black, then semi gloss and decals.  Let her dry with Microsol, then I’ll put some dull coat on tomorrow.

[R. Thorne]

While that is drying, I put a couple of coats of that precious Modelmaster buffing stainless steel.  We’ll see how that looks tomorrow.  Oh, yeah, I cut off the collector flange and put some shrink tube on with super glue.

[R. Thorne]

Cut off a couple of those awesome fireballmodelworks carbs.  Tried my jewelry saw first, but ended up with my great jlc saw like I did the last time I had to cut carbs off.  The trick (that Chief Joseph suggests on his web site) is to cut halfway through, then, flip to the other side, to finish.

[R. Thorne]

Sprayed some ts87 on ‘em.  Sorry for the crummy pictures.

[R. Thorne]

Messing with the carbs today.  Trying to emulate these on Todd Hoven’s.  Put some flat aluminum on the base plate and some brown on a spacer plate I just got from MCV products.  Although spacer plates are illegal in Stock Eliminator, I am hoping this will resemble the 1/2” thick gasket most guys use.  Jury is still out.

[W-409]

Being a Stock Eliminator racer myself, it's nice to see a modern day Stock Eliminator car built as a scale model. Especially when the builder knows what is allowed and what isn't.

Looking really good so far, keep up the good work!

[R. Thorne]

4 hours ago, W-409 said:

Being a Stock Eliminator racer myself, it's nice to see a modern day Stock Eliminator car built as a scale model. Especially when the builder knows what is allowed and what isn't.

Looking really good so far, keep up the good work!

Thanks, Niko.  My 53 Olds Stocker I started with in the 60’s.  Still think Stockers are way cool.  Anyway, sometimes, 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards.  Didn’t like the looks of the headers, so tried some different paint.  Didn’t like the carb spacer appearance, so made a “gasket” from a business card and coated it with a marker.

[R. Thorne]

From amt Goodyear 9” scale tires to Hoosiers (1 tire with smaller Hoosier decal as I screwed up one of the large ones).  Lesson learned:  don’t use too hot water to dip decals in.  Morganautomotivedetails 727 trans was the same length as the kit supplied stick shift trans.  Sprayed housing with ts30 Tamiya and used Flysea chrome paint on pan.  

[R. Thorne]

A little engine work.  Forgot what the black wire supplied with MAD ignition wires is for.  Anyone tell me?

[Brutalform]

Coming along nicely. Great job on the tires, trans, and engine. 

[R. Thorne]

2 hours ago, Brutalform said:

Coming along nicely. Great job on the tires, trans, and engine. 

Thanks, Tom.  Good or bad reviews, comments, etc., are always appreciated.  Put some Tamiya black wash on one of the carbs.  Don’t know if I like the effect or not.  May just leave one alone and install ‘em, then make a decision.  Also, glued on the trans, leaving “chrome” pan off til later to keep from smudging it up.

[Brutalform]

That rear window in this kit is definitely not right. No amount of sanding can fix it in my opinion. It messed up my foiling and still doesn’t sit flush. I might remove it, and just use some clear sheet from the inside. This window is a replacement from Pegasus. I don’t recall having issues with any of the 65 Plymouth cars. How’s does your window fit?

[Brutalform]

Nice to see you are using those Fireball race Hemi carbs. 

[R. Thorne]

5 hours ago, Brutalform said:

Nice to see you are using those Fireball race Hemi carbs. 

How can you not use them if you care about engine appearance and don’t use an air cleaner?  As for the back window fit, I am not there yet, but i definitely am going to look at it this weekend.  Thank you.

[R. Thorne]

Put some aftermarket shifters together.  Some of the Plug wires are gonna have to be shortened (later).

[R. Thorne]

Painted some small parts and painted the headers for about the fourth time.  Should have been ts30 first

[R. Thorne]

In preparation for the electric water pump, cut off one of the pulleys and scratch built one side of the fan belt.

[R. Thorne]

Cut off the oem water pump.  Touched it up with orange sharpie, then glued on aftermarket electric water pump.  Couldn’t resist adding some Flysea chrome to the freeze plugs (even though the headers will probably totally obscure them).  

[R. Thorne]

Got the headers installed, finally.  The left side fought me a bit.  Just like 1:1 cars, I guess.  Opened up the inner wheel hubs about .010” with 4 ascending size bits.  This helps the wheels fit on the “spindle” much easier with less chance of breakage.  I decided to use the wheels that came in the kit.  Getting lazy, I guess.

[Keef]

On 10/17/2024 at 11:46 PM, R. Thorne said:

A little engine work.  Forgot what the black wire supplied with MAD ignition wires is for.  Anyone tell me?

Black wire is used for plug boots on distributor and plug

[R. Thorne]

Thanks, Keith.  I had forgotten that, I guess, you have to strip the insulation from the wire core, to make boots.

[R. Thorne]

Glued and clamped sub frame on.  Put alternator/pulley on.  Realized steering box was not going to fit because of different headers.  Shocker, right?  lol.  Changing one thing upsets something else on the build.  Decided to cheat and cut the steering box off and installed shaft.  Don’t tell anybody, lol.  

[R. Thorne]

Installed rear axle, shocks, and backing plates.  Yes, I know, the car should have a Dana rear to hold up in contemporary racing, but, believe it or not, some guys like Jared Jordan, run an 8 3/4 rear end.  Anyway, to expedite matters and move this build along, an 8 3/4 it is.  Trans length was perfect and rear snapped right in.  Sprayed some ts30 on some shifters.  Driveshaft loop still needs to be added.