Just a Street Racing Street Freak Gasser Vette

[OldNYJim]

I’ve had this idea in my head for a while, and at the last show I went to someone had donated a bunch of Vette kits to the raffle, and I won a bunch, so here goes nothing…

Starting with this:

I want to build something a little bit street-freaky, a little bit legit street-racer and a little bit gasser…

This kit isn’t super detailed (I actually won a Revell kit of about the same era Vette that is a LOT nicer, but I’m not going for a stock build so that stays in the box), but I also won THIS:

 Now, this kit is notorious for the flipnose body being REALLY tough to get aligned nicely, but it has the stance and racing-y parts I want, so I was pondering whether I can just drop the later body onto this frame.  One way to find out…

Quick white-glue mockup to get the frame on it’s wheels:

Looks like it WOULD work if I just take a few scale inches out of the front of the frame to shorten the wheelbase - it’s basically a perfect fit aside from that.  

Sliced the frame right in front of the motor mounts (so I can leave the entire drivetrain to assemble as intended):

Added some pins for strength and alignment, and reassembled:

Tada!  I think this’ll work:

And with the body:

Now, I’ll need to do a LITTLE fabrication to properly mount the body to the frame, but the interior tub fits like it should, the motor is in the right place…couldn’t have asked for it to work much better so far.  I’m gonna use the MPC kit for about everything that isn’t the body and interior and HOPEFULLY this won’t require days and days of fabrication (famous last words)…

Credit should go to my buddy Tim for this build from probably a decade or more ago that I’m shamelessly ripping off:

Which itself already inspired another build by our sadly departed mutual buddy Paul:

And…that’s about as far as I got so far, besides printing a nice blower:

Plenty more to come - thanks for looking!

[Zippi]

I'm really diggin this project Jim.  That blower sticking out of the hood will let guys know you mean business.  

[Brockc]

This is one awesome looking gasser so far. I have to say I love the American street freaks it’s just a shame they never caught back here in aus 

Edited December 6, 2024 by Brockc

[Ace-Garageguy]

Yeah baby, I like where this is going.

Really like your inspiration builds too, specially the Beantown Bandit.

As Mr. Snake wooda said, model on.  

[slusher]

Two great inspiration Corvettes!

[Tony Coomer]

 Very kool build

[Tim W. SoCal]

My kind of car project! Gonna follow your build for sure!

[Bills72sj]

Way cool build. Following.

[OldNYJim]

Thanks so much fellas!

A little more progress this weekend…

I wanted to figure out the steering so I could figure out the headers - the MPC kit doesn’t really have any kind of steering arrangement besides a trackbar between the front spindles, so I fabbed up a steering rack…

Made a couple of mounting brackets to lower it to meet the spindles and fit under the oil pan:

Just need a link back to the firewall and to print a mini u-joint or two and that’ll be ready for paint.

Once that was handled, I could play with headers.  I wanted to use the ones from the MPC kit but since I shortened the wheelbase on this thing they didn’t clear the front tires as well as I’d like.  Couldn’t find anything I liked in my spares stash, so I ended up printing some that will work…I actually did try scratchbuilding a set but I’m just not as good at making them as the printer is…

Need to figure out routing them out and away from the frame next, but these allow some decent steering lock at least:

As you can see, I added some cooling - just used the AMT kit radiator, modified a touch to mate to the other kit’s frame - need to make hoses next and then that’s another piece ready for paint and detail…

The stock firewall was all lumpy and bumpy and had hoses and wires and wiper vacuums and all kinds of non-racecar stuff so I replicated it on some sheet styrene for a cleaner look…not a super interesting piece, and not really necessary, but the stock part looked ugly to me…. This car WILL run brakes, so I printed a nicely detailed master cylinder, and I MIGHT mount a battery on there somewhere for easy access (although probably the trunk would be a better spot, so maybe not…)

The kit seats are perfectly ok, but when I was printing some other stuff I ran some aluminum bomber style seats:

Not at ALL typical of what people normally run/ran in these cars but I DO love how they look.  I’m not going for a replica of any particular era or car, so I may or may not allow myself this indulgence for the sake of having some nice shiny polished aluminum in the interior to fancy it up a little…

I don’t need a rear license plate, but a parachute would look cool back there, so I found a not very well cast resin piece in my stash that was a perfect fit:

By the way, that rear panel had some pretty bad sink marks to contend with, it was a real treat filling that concave rear panel…

And final job for this weekend was fabbing some simple wheelie bars.  Not sure if this thing COULD pickup the front wheels, but it has plenty of motor and rear tire and not a lot of weight out front so I guess it’s feasible…

They’re just mocked up here and need final gluing and straightening but I was excited to see how they looked on there:

Yep, I think I’m ok with them….i was worried they’d be too over the top, but look at those rear tires…that ship already sailed…

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[NitroMarty]

Truly a bizarre Street Freak..... I'm loving it!!!

[OldNYJim]

8 hours ago, NitroMarty said:

Truly a bizarre Street Freak..... I'm loving it!!!

Thank you!!

 

A little more progress this week…mostly sanding and priming and going round THAT endless loop, but a couple of notable tasks completed too…

Spent some time getting the frame straight - not least because I have to to feel good about myself, but also because it’ll be pretty visible when the build is done…all kinds of fun little sink marks and crevices and imperfections to fill before getting this into primer:

The MPC kit engine had a rough-cast texture to the surface of the trans, and I ruined that when I was sanding everything flat and true, so I stippled some Vallejo putty on there to reinstate it…

This is a trick from the armor modelers, but it works well for all kinds of rough texture you might want to add…

I actually went a little TOO extreme, but I think it won’t be as pronounced when there’s paint and clear on there so I think it’ll work…

With that done, shot a bunch of parts ready for various metalizer finishes…I like black for a base regardless of which paint I’m using, but I’ll switch between gloss and satin depending on the end result I’m hoping for…

I was hoping to paint the body this weekend but didn’t get far enough along to get there…I decided to delete the marker lights, and tidy up the rear roll pan where the exhausts would’ve exited on the stock car…plus, finished cleaning up all the awkward sink marks that needed some work still:

And after a bunch more tweaks and fettling, shot my first coat of primer to see how awful it is…actually, not too bad!

Still have some tweaking to do, but it’s not terrible…excited to get to lay paint on this one!

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[OldNYJim]

Ok, it’s painting day!  Here goes a bunch of steps (with a bunch more to do tomorrow…)

First up, white base over the primer…

Followed by fluorescent orange (which is why I needed the white base)

 After a coat of intercoat, laid down some masks:

I’m going for a pearl metallic blue body, and while the Createx paint I like is pretty opaque, I don’t want to risk it turning green with the bright orange underneath, so I shot a light coat of black sealer:

Then, my favorite Createx pearl blue metallic:

What I COULD do at this point is peel the masks and have a decent two-color paintjob, but I really want to contrast the simple one-color flames with a more detailed and interesting main color.  So, next step, shot some lighter highlights around the flames - I’m trying to give the slight effect of the super-bright flames lightening up the color of the paint around them, or at least making it a little more interesting…

This is the part of the process where I start to worry I’m messing it up, but I have an idea of the look I’m going for and have to just keep going until or I’ll never be happy with the finished result…but even with the light blue highlights I’m like “Urgh, am I making it worse?”

Same with the next step - I wanted to add some little flicks of white paint around and behind the flames to look a little like sparks, so I used some white craft paint and a toothbrush to add some more detail:

Next step, I wanted a slightly grainier flake to add some more depth and detail to the blue, so I shot this Testor’s flaked clear over top.  This product is technically supposed to be shot over black to give a color-changing effect, but I’m misusing it slightly to add some more sparkles and interest:

This stuff really doesn’t come into it’s own until you shoot some clear over top, but I’ve been pleased with the effect before…

Then, finally, time to (carefully) peel the masks…tada!

Still plenty more to do, but it’s starting to look how I imagined….more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Zippi]

Those flames came out nice Jim.  They are taking on a 3-dimensional look.  

[Scott8950]

Gotta love a street freak corvette.  The paint turned out awesome.  Great job

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!

More paint today - this morning’s project was the door lettering.  First up, I cut some masks and shot some black…this will be the drop-shadows below the letters, so it’s offset down and back from center:

Loons like this:

Next up, after a spritz of intercoat, laid down identical masks, but offset compared to the black layer, then shot some Vallejo white:

The masks had started pulling up from the curves of the body by the time I took this pic, but I didn’t end up with too much underspray, luckily…plus the intercoat allows you to clean up and crisp up the edges if you need to once you’re done.

Next up, some ghetto masking with some low-tack tape and Post Its…I didn’t want to intercoat the white layer so I needed a masking solution that wasn’t going to hurt the white.  Once masked, shot a little teal green (this’ll make sense shortly, I promise…)

Then, after some time for all the layers to tack up, time to see how it turned out…

Some little touch-ups to do, but it turned out ok I think!  Once I’ve made the final tweaks and fixed any little flaws I can get this thing into clear.

Whilst paint was drying, I worked on the interior a little…printed a butterfly drag wheel that would be totally impractical in real life but fun for bragging rights maybe, plus scratchbuilt some ‘aluminum’ door panels, a simple roll cage and a couple of other details.

 I’m not going FULL drag interior on this, it’ll still run two seats but it’ll have a few racing goodies to add some interest… 

And finally, for today, I’ve been pondering having a little base to display this thing on - nothing super fancy, but I laid down some Vallejo asphalt paste on a wooden base so I can play with that a little, see if I can think of a cool something to put this thing on at a show… 

And that’s it for this weekend…thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[OldNYJim]

Happy NY everyone!  Hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year…I got COVID from all the knuckleheads at work who came into the office with COVID, but after a week in bed, some more progress…

First up, spent a couple of days messing with that base.  Made some sidewalk, a fire hydrant, made it look grimy…just a fun little thing to sit this project on when it’s done:

Back to the car, I’m in that never ending prime/paint stage right now, but a couple of parts worth noting…

I was intending to go with a black interior on this build, but it’s so wild that that seemed a cop-out.  Turns out you could buy a 70 Vette with a BLUE interior though, and that’s way more interesting, so I shot the tub and dash today, and then flocked with a non-OEM blue carpet:

Got a bunch more pieces to paint for the interior, plus a couple of bare spots of carpet to touch up, but I think it’ll be cool when it’s done…

Started some assembly on the frame, so I could feel like I was making some progress on SOMETHING…the rear end is pinned and could be glued in place right where I intended for it to go - but the front end in the MPC donor kit is kinda loosy-goosy.  It fits together fine, but I knew from the start getting the alignment perfect would be tough, so I used some Gold Foil Glue, which is like an Elmer’s type glue that stays tacky.  

Once the wheels are on, I can get everything aligned perfectly and glued with some CA to lock it in the proper place:

And finally today, for the interesting stuff anyway, printed some valve stems to detail up the kit wheels a little:

Not that they’re super visible anyway, but it’s a little detail that only took a minute to do…

Oh, and I painted a bunch of parts in chrome and some various metal finishes…excited to start actually assembling some stuff soon!

More soon, soon as I’ve done more!  Thanks for looking!

[JimmyRiggins]

That paint work turned out spectacularly! All of the little effects you added really made the designs pop! The stance on this is too cool too!  70s corvettes aren’t among my favourite corvettes… but most of them don’t look like this one! Really good looking build!

[OldNYJim]

On 1/2/2025 at 6:50 PM, JimmyRiggins said:

That paint work turned out spectacularly! All of the little effects you added really made the designs pop! The stance on this is too cool too!  70s corvettes aren’t among my favourite corvettes… but most of them don’t look like this one! Really good looking build!

Thank you!  I’m not a huge Vette guy myself - but I’d drive this one!

 

A little more progress this week…

Sculpted a parachute pack from Tamiya epoxy, and printed some ‘Remove before flight’ tags ready for when I detail it up later…

Painted the rubber radiator hoses and added some ‘printed’ parts numbers:

I need to matte coat these still and do some shading on the rubber, but I was pleased to get these little decals applied…

Detailed painted the blower, got it (and some other bits) attached to the block, and ran plug lines…

I considered adding plug boots, but I don’t think you’d see them once the headers are on anyway so I saved myself the misery 🤪

Did some work on the interior - painted the roll cage and added ‘padding’, wrapped the door panels in BMF, added photo pedals, printed a fire extinguisher and added a printed label, and added seatbelts.  I need to make some gauge decals for the dash, so I can’t quite finish this yet…

And, just to motivate myself not to screw this up in the final stages, a quick mock-up to see how the car will look on that base I made previously:

Still plenty to do; next stage will be polishing out the clear after I laid down the final coat today, and I’ve got a few little parts to make and paint still…thanks for looking!  More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Edited January 6 by CabDriver

[milo1303s]

Love it !!!    Needs a set of Crager SS those wheels are to 80's

Other then that 1975 called they wan't there street freak vette back !!!!

 

[Andrew McD]

Only just ran across this thread today.  Very cool and imaginative build.  Love reading all the details on how you accomplished much of what you've done; very useful stuff.  The bit of street for a base is excellent!

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!

A little more progress this week…

Worked through my usual polishing process…started with wet-sanding until any orange peel was gone, then worked through my various polishes until I was happy…

Got it pretty smooth:

I always think I’m about there when I can read the writing on a bill in the reflection:

As you can see, only downside of this process is getting all the polish trapped in the door lines and gaps, but a sharpened tooth pick and some water usually makes short work of that…

Once the body was polished out, I brush painted my favorite super-dark super-flat black acrylic, then started getting the glass installed.  Lately I like this canopy glue, which Hobby Lobby stocks:

I just dab spots of it around the glass with a make-up applicator, keeping a little tension on the glass with some low-tack masking tape and after an hour or so it’s pretty much set.  Dries almost clear too, and isn’t super visible, but I’ll brush paint some more black over the top just to make sure there’s no angle where you can see the glue:

Glass on this AMT kit was pretty nice too - no scratches, not SUPER thick, actually fitted…this ALMOST wasn’t a chore…

While the glue was setting up, did some work on the frame - scratchbuilt a driveshaft so I could get the motor in, and then wrapped the floor in BMF and buffed it to give a brushed aluminum look:

Also got the steering rack installed - a little more detailing to do on there, plus the linkage back to the cabin, but that was easier to figure out with the motor and rack locked in place…

And finally, painted my wheelie bars (black enamel followed by Molotow chrome) and spun up some little wheels out of some clear orange acrylic rod:

These need a black wash to add some depth to the little springs before I install them, plus a couple of little Titchy Trains bolts, but I’m excited to see them on the finished car.

And that’s another weeks kinda-progress - thanks for looking…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Edited January 13 by CabDriver

[OldNYJim]

Well, I kinda forgot to do an update on this one…some real-life stuff was going on as I worked thru the final assembly, and I kinda forgot to finish this thread off with some finished pics…finished build below - thanks to all who followed along!