A Short Track Mustang for the County Fair

[OldNYJim]

I actually started a project just like this last year, but then a slot-car guy offered me a STUPID price to buy the airbrushed body I had done…so here goes again.

I got inspired by the super-short-track grass-roots racing at my local County Fair last year and already built a Crown Vic for their mostly-stock low-contact dirt oval class that they run once a year.  The track is a tiny tiny oval, hard packed sun-baked dirt and the class is mostly-stock cars with a few minor tweaks for safety and race-ability.  Of course, there were some definite ringers out there taking it more serious than others, and this is going to be that kind of build I think…

First up, trip to Hobby Lobby to choose a Mustang:

Went with this…probably still too nice of a car in 1:1 what I’m going to do with it, but about what I had in mind:

Per my local event’s rules, the running gear is going to be mostly stock (ish), so the biggest change to the frame will be removal of the gas tank out back, to be replaced with a fuel cell in the cabin somewhere:

Those tires are printed replicas of the smallest cheapest Hoosier dirt oval tire - one of the standard picks for most entry-level classes currently.  They’re a little smaller than the stock tires, so I’ll need to tweak the suspension SLIGHTLY to stop this thing completely sitting in the dirt (literally) but this particular kit seems to always sit high in the front anyway so I’ll tweak accordingly as I go…

Some assembly on the body so I can test fit to the frame and see how it’ll look:

Incidentally, I’m trying this Ammo tinted styrene cement…I like the idea that it makes it super easy to see where you’re applying it, and the brush is awesome - super skinny and long like a pinstriping brush.  One of my things that I’m trying to improve is getting my glue application really neat and clinical, and this stuff REALLY shows if I’m not doing well at that…

Mock-up with the body and stock suspension:

As expected, nose sits too high, rear too low (especially with these smaller but wider tires).

A little tweaking later:

Better…still a little high in the front but I can tweak a scale inch out of there by playing with the front spindles a little.

Then, because I had a few minutes of benchtime left, scratchbuilt a couple of simple (and intentionally fairly subtle) bumper…the class at my local Fair is ALMOST non-contact, but some gentle nudging is allowed so a simple round-tube front and rear bumper that don’t ruin the look I have in mind would probably be sensible:

And that’s my first afternoon’s progress…thanks for looking!

[FoMoCo66]

That's gonna look cool!

[Sledsel]

Cool!!!

[Chuckyg1]

This'll  be good. I followed you Crown Vic build, so I know I'll enjoy this one too. Carry on.

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!

A little more work on this the last few days…

Got the engine mocked-up.  Per the rules of the class I’m building it for, engine will be stock aside from whatever our racer can get past the tech guy:

Rules call for a roll cage, so I did what I’d do in real life and found one that isn’t quite right for the car, but good enough for the car it’s going in 😂

One of the bigger elements to this project will be redoing the stock interior with something more stripped-out looking, but in the meantime printed a Recaro race seat and got that installed too

The paint on this one is going to be a little involved, so I’m getting the body prepped and ready nice and early…removed the wipers (no windshield, don’t need them), door handles (doors are welded inside for strength so they don’t open) and any other ‘street car’ stuff and got it into primer, then laid down a little Bondo tonight just to help me fix a few little seams that shouldn’t be there:

Now, I’m going to be beating up on this body a LITTLE, but it’s going to be far from trashed…probably a little TOO straight to be raced, but a long way from perfect too…the paint will be time consuming on this project so I’m getting that part started as soon as I can

And a quick mock-up with roll-cage in place to make sure it still fits together…

Excited to get to do some weathering and light ‘battle damage’ on this one…more soon - thanks for looking!

[OldNYJim]

Saturday bench-day!  Some more progress…

With the body in primer, time to add some little scuffs and flaws to the surface before paint.  I’m not intending for this thing to be hanging-by-a-thread ruined; but it’ll have some flaws:

This stuff won’t be super noticeable under the finished paintjob, but just a few imperfections to stop it looking TOO perfect:

Then I did future-me a solid and painted the inside of the body black now rather than after I’ve done 15 layers of paint that I’m scared to mask over:

When I get further into the exterior paint, I’ll be buffing and chipping back through the layers to expose the finish underneath, so the next step is laying down some bare steel:

Not a great natural-metal finish on it’s own, but 99.8% of this will be covered in paint anyway when we’re done…

While that dries overnight, I modeled and printed some Mustang inner door metal to emulate the look of a stripped-down race car interior without the door cards in place:

And tomorrow, I get to play with rust, chipping medium and the first color of the ACTUAL paint job!

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

[TarheelRick]

You are doing some sweet work on this one.  Looking forward to the "damage" you have planned.

[bob29579]

Very nice.  This should look great when you finish.

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!

Made some good progress on ruining this thing today 😬😂

First up, a little light rusting over the bare steel in some of the spots that have already sustained some damage:

As with the steel finish itself, 99% of this will be hidden once this is done, but it’s good practise if nothing else…

Next up, I shot a coat of chipping medium (a clearcoat that allows paint damage while sealing in the layer below it) followed by a base color of white:

Once that dried for a couple of hours, cut some stars on my Silhouette cutter, laid down a bunch of them plus some stripes with Tamiya vinyl tape (which is good for this task because it will bend and curve nicely)

Next up, shoot the whole thing star spangled red with some burgundy lowlights on the bottom of the quarters, plus a little red + white on the roof and upper surfaces to give the effect of dull sun-bleached paint just a little:

Then, remasked and shot with dark blue plus some lighter blue on the upper portions for the same reasons:

Remove masks, and here’s where we’re at:

And now’s my chance to use some of those chopping medium’s properties and start to burn through the upper layers to expose some steel and rust and distress the plant a little:

The chipping medium works best with acrylic paints…you use some water and a toothpick, brush, q-tip, whatever and just reactivate the paint over top and then just remove any of the layers that came AFTER you applied it:

In this case I wanted plenty of exposed steel and rust on the sides to signify some serious ‘combat damage’ but then also some scuffs as shown above the front wheel arch where the lower paint layer is showing a little but we’re not QUITE back to bare metal.  The leading edge of the hood got the same treatment…probably plenty of gravel and dirt and debris would catch the leading edge with less damage as we move backwards:

I’ve got plenty more to do on this body still, and actually ran out of time this evening before I was at all ready to call time on the fun I was having…but more adventures with paint tomorrow!  Thanks for looking!

[FoMoCo66]

Wow, looks amazing. I want to do a similar rust technique on my toyota scx24 rc crawler.

[Chuckyg1]

This is really neat. I'm enjoying the how you do the paint and the prep before hand for the damage and rust. I'm book marking this, (if you don't mind.), for future reference. really liking this so far.

[Musclecarbuilder]

This build is so cool! The paint  scheme reminds me of the '67 mustang in Wreckfest:

[Spottedlaurel]

Great to see another short oval build from you! I look forward to seeing how it progresses.

I've been to see the 1:1s race at a local 1/4-mile track a couple of times this year, alongside the full-contact bangers they had Historic Stock Cars (a limited contact class) and Classic Hot Rods (non-contact). Great to see older cars out on the track, and certainly giving me ideas for future builds.

[ksnow]

That body and paint work is off the charts. Very, very impressive. 

Reminds me of Independence Chevelle from Vice Grip Garage.

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!

On 5/12/2025 at 6:50 PM, Chuckyg1 said:

I'm book marking this, (if you don't mind.), for future reference. really liking this so far.

Thank you!  Glad you found it useful!!!

On 5/13/2025 at 10:27 AM, Musclecarbuilder said:

This build is so cool! The paint  scheme reminds me of the '67 mustang in Wreckfest:

YESS!!!  I was hoping someone would spot the connection!  That’s the only game I like playing on my wife’s Xbox…there’s actually a bunch of cars on there that I’d like on my shelf!  Mine’s not a replica, but definitely VERY heavily influenced anyway….

On 5/13/2025 at 4:40 PM, Spottedlaurel said:

Great to see another short oval build from you! I look forward to seeing how it progresses.

I've been to see the 1:1s race at a local 1/4-mile track a couple of times this year, alongside the full-contact bangers they had Historic Stock Cars (a limited contact class) and Classic Hot Rods (non-contact). Great to see older cars out on the track, and certainly giving me ideas for future builds.

Thank you!  I’ve been watching UK oval and banger videos on YouTube a lot lately - I like the historic (and modern) saloon stockcars, the 3-wheelers and the old ‘hot rod’ hahchbacks…there are a few replicas I’d like to build at some point.  Plus there’s a printable Formula 1 V8 stockcar (the sprint-car looking kind) that I’d like to purchase and add to my collection.  So much cool stuff to learn about ‘across the pond’!

15 hours ago, ksnow said:

Reminds me of Independence Chevelle from Vice Grip Garage.

I never saw that car - will check it out…thank you!!!

 

Tiny bit of progress worth sharing (besides it being primer week, whereby we turn white parts temporarily gray) - laid down, and subsequently ruined some race numbers and a stenciled slogan on the body, and worked through some more rust and weathering:

Nothing super complex or exciting, but it’s fun working that delicate balance of “well, this would be pretty messed up by now, but this part shouldn’t be, but now this part looks too clean, but now I went too far and I need to dial it back…” and so on.  I suspect I’ll keep tweaking the weathering and rust until this build is on the shelf, but I’m happy with where it’s heading anyway.

Next job, painting (and then ruining) the frame…thanks for looking, more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[BK9300]

Great paint effects, Jim - excellent ‘how to’ portion of your WIP - good techniques to learn.

[Musclecarbuilder]

10 hours ago, OldNYJim said:

On 5/13/2025 at 10:27 AM, Musclecarbuilder said:

This build is so cool! The paint  scheme reminds me of the '67 mustang in Wreckfest:

Expand  

YESS!!!  I was hoping someone would spot the connection!  That’s the only game I like playing on my wife’s Xbox…there’s actually a bunch of cars on there that I’d like on my shelf!  Mine’s not a replica, but definitely VERY heavily influenced anyway….

Dude that's one of my favorite games to play! I want to build the '67 Chevelle in that game.

[OldNYJim]

20 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Great paint effects, Jim - excellent ‘how to’ portion of your WIP - good techniques to learn.

Thank you!

13 hours ago, Musclecarbuilder said:

Dude that's one of my favorite games to play! I want to build the '67 Chevelle in that game.

Do it!  We can race ‘em! 😂

 

A little work on the frame tonight…I picked up the new weathering powders that Hobby Lobby sells and hadn’t really used them yet, but gave them a spin on some of the smaller pieces:

They’re ok, not much to choose between these and the Tamiya ones, and it’s nice to have some similar products in different colors to mess with…

Then, to the chassis itself.  Started with satin black, then airbrushed some brown tones:

Next up, some Vallejo steel, stippled on with a ruined old paint brush that I cut down to where there’s only about a sixteenth of bristles on the end:

Next up, a wash with some super-thinned-down black India ink, then a sepia colored ink, and one those had dried some touch-ups with the HL weathering powders:

It’ll be pretty hard to see the underside when it’s sitting on the shelf anyway, but it’s fun ruining stuff…did a little more rusting and shading just for my own enjoyment and then called it good:

I need to get the interior and engine into primer and paint next…thanks for looking!  More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[OldNYJim]

Tiny bit of progress this evening, given Friday is grocery-shopping night…

Printed out a Rotopax-style plastic gas can - the kind of solution you could buy at a Tractor Supply for $20 before derby night:

This’ll bolt to the passenger side floor…looks small, but I scaled it to match a 2 gallon can so it would be enough for a few dozen laps round the 1/16th mile oval…

And speaking of printing, one of the things you can do in this dumb demo derby game that I’m obsessed with lately is accessorize your car with ridiculous roof accessories - just like some of the real ones do also.  I don’t think this fibreglass shark will be a permanent fixture to MY build:

But I did want to see if I could recreate it in CAD and print one…here’s my take:

Most complex thing I ever messed with - a shark is a LOT tougher than a wheel or a valve cover or something rectangular or square…guess we’ll see tomorrow if  it’ll print ok!  If not, forget I mentioned it 😂

More soon, happy Friday y’all!

[Musclecarbuilder]

Dude this is cool! 

[OldNYJim]

13 hours ago, Musclecarbuilder said:

Dude this is cool! 

Thank you!  
 

Well, it’s shark week(end) and I got a few sharks printed successfully…I was worried about the thin fins but they came out ok…fresh off the printer:

(That’s an unrelated bumper car project on the left side of the plate, disregard that…)

Even the smallest version I printed came out just fine…super pleased with the results:

Printed a small, large and larger…this definitely won’t be a permanent part of the build, but an add-on that I can, well, add-on when the mood takes me…

While the printer was running, shot the roll cage and inner door panels:

And dug thru my stash to find some upgraded front brake disks:

The rears I’m not super worried about, but the fronts will be more visible so some nicely detailed vented disks will add a little visual interest there.

Thanks for looking, more soon!

[FoMoCo66]

I love all the 3d printing stuff your doing on this. I know you design some of the files but where do you get the others?

[OldNYJim]

On 5/18/2025 at 6:30 PM, FoMoCo66 said:

I love all the 3d printing stuff your doing on this. I know you design some of the files but where do you get the others?

Great question!  If I CAN support someone who’s making the file for something I need already, I’ll buy from them, usually on Cults3D

If what I need isn’t immediately available , I’ll make my own whatever-it-is, but I think it’s good to support the people who are trying to make a living at supporting our hobby if I can…the tires, gas tank, seat and carbs on this one are all files I paid for, the brake disks were a free file and I designed the shark.

A little progress…worked through and base-painted about every part:

Almost every part here is going to get at least one more step of SOMETHING - weathering, pastels, more airbrushing, another layer of something, but I’m glad to have a big pile of parts gathering…it’s starting to look like a thing!  More soon!

[OldNYJim]

Wrapped this one up today…had a day off and I had an awesome session of in-the-zone benchtime.  So good, in fact, that I took very few photos…assembled the interior and engine:

Plus the frame:

And then all that was left to do was get it on it’s wheels and take a few pics:

This was a fun palette-cleanser not-super-complex build that I was excited to see in 3D without spending 6 months building it…I’m not happy with the second stage of paint I did on ‘sharky’ so he’ll be a project for another day (especially if I can find some tiny eye decals, which I believe ARE out there for sale already) but I had a blast building this one!  Thanks for following along and all the nice comments!

[Spottedlaurel]

Looks just right Jim, nice one!