Trying to improve the 83-86 Thunderbirds

[Ben269]

I think everyone who enjoys building NASCAR kits has noticed that the 83-86 Thunderbird has a few noticeable flaws, especially in the front.  The openings on the fenders are too large, and the nose seems to be too short.  the bumper and grill appear to be the wrong shape altogether.  There was a very detailed breakdown on the Randy Ayers site several years ago, with a pretty good attempt at fixing it.  Not sure that model ever got finished, but it was headed in the right direction.  

I tried to fix it a different way, but I am not too pleased with the results.  I thought since the biggest problems were the shape of the front fenders, and the nose being too short, I would try to graft in different fenders.  I had a Buick Regal NASCAR body without a hood, so I cut those fenders off and grafted them on to the thunderbird.  I then cut the front bumper and headlights and grill apart to get it more narrow.  The grill on the unmodified white body shows how they laid it down too flat, and didn't point out the beak enough.  I attempted to stand it up a bit more, but push out the middle so it has a more pronounced curve.  

The result is too narrow in the front compared to the back, and the grill looks too tall compared to photos of the race cars.  Its been sitting in the box of NASCAR parts, and was in the back of a picture on my Ricky Rudd 1987 build, when Shark noticed it and asked about it.   I figured that was a good time to open up a thread and see if anyone has had better luck trying to fix this body?

Edited March 3 by Ben269

[Ben269]

Side note, the blue body looks real crooked from the top, but its not, just looks that way in the photo.  I need to take better photos, and try to center the model better.   I think there are a few good write-ups about taking photos I should go and re-read.

[Ben269]

These are some good examples from that era.  It looks like there was some variance between teams, or between speedway cars and short track cars.  It would be great to get that Monogram body more accurate.   All comments or ideas are welcome, I'm sure some of you have tried this, or at least had ideas?

[dwc43]

You can see it in your pics. Short Track cars and some Road Course cars always have more clearance between the tires and fenders to prevent tire rubs during contact. That gap is really closed up on Super Speedway cars. The 15 has some really wide-open gaps compared to the 9 and 21. The rear ride height is set pretty low on the 21 as well. They did that a lot to get the spoiler out of the airstream on Super Speedway cars too. Hope that helps out some. 

[Shark]

Bill Elliott's car during that time ran a narrower track width than everyone else. So his car looked different than the rest. At the time the rules only had a maximum width in effect. The narrow car was harder to drive, but more aerodynamic because the fenders weren't bulged out. One prominent driver at that time said ole Bill tried to pass his operation off as just some country boys gone racing, but there were some engineer types with foreign accents hanging around.

[dragcarz]

What about the front end from the Monogram Pro Stock kits, Bob Glidden, Frank Iaconio…..

[Shark]

10 hours ago, dragcarz said:

What about the front end from the Monogram Pro Stock kits, Bob Glidden, Frank Iaconio…..

I heard people were doing that, but haven't personally seen one. I wish someone would resin cast one with this modification, I would buy a couple.

[Dave Van]

The Monogram 83-85 Bird is 100% correct as is!!!!! Problem is it is a model of a protorype TB built by Banjo Matthews for the movie 'Stroker Ace'.

This is the deal......told to me by Bob Johnson himself. Ford wanted a kit of the 83 Bird available for it's debut in the Daytona 500 AND to be the Star Car in the film. So some drawings and a few stampings were sent to Banjo along with Bob to make drawings for the kit. 

As we all the the real race car was different than the kit. A decent model can be made from it.....not 1005 correct. 

For me I add a tri-angle of sheet stock to the rear of the wheel opening. Remove the rubber rub strip on the door. Headlight doors need fixed but I never do. 

My version.....Hope you continue on yours! 

 

Edited March 4 by Dave Van