mrmike Posted March 10, 2011 Author Posted March 10, 2011 Eelco, the 426 Max Wedge was an outgrowth of the 413 Wedge engine. As for the 426 Hemi, I don't know if it used the same engine block or was an all new design. Erik, I watched the video and I loved how the Dodge spanked the Mustang everytime until the tranny let go! I got the engine wired and exhaust manifolds mounted. I still need to add the coil and air cleaner housings. The chassis is done, but I fear i may have to tear the front suspension apart and reverse the spindles to set the nose height properly. I have found a few errors in the instructions so far and this might be another one. I had painted the interior componants with Model Master Insignia Red and found the color to be way too bright for my liking. I repainted them with Aqueous Russet which darkened the color more to my liking. I am having paint issues with the hood scoop and I have sanded the scoop twice already and still can't get the paint to lay down properly. I am going to sand the scoop and hood again, clean it really well, and repaint it again for the third time. Somebody wish me luck! More to come...
oldscool Posted March 10, 2011 Posted March 10, 2011 Coming along nicely. This one's gonna be great. grumpy gus
whale392 Posted March 10, 2011 Posted March 10, 2011 To answer your 'Hemi from the 426 Wedge' question: Yes, the 426 Hemi was a direct evolution from the wedge. Tom Hoover and a few of his other engineering buddies decided to see what they could do with the wedge (as it was getting a beating in both NASCAR and NHRA. The idea behind it was to take the existing RB architecture (read, 413-426...and the 1959 industrial 383) and adapt the Hemi head configuration to it (borrowing desing principles from the Whale engines (14 different CIDs for these first-gen Hemis) for higher RPM breathing (NASCAR influenced). The engine took just 9 months from idea to a running, competing engine. They ended up having to move the second row of head bolts, and adding the third, top row to get it to hold the heads. Crossbolted mains on #2,#3, and #4 were added (taken from the Max Wedge design), and the Crossram intake was re-designed to fit the wider heads. Petty (and the other Plymouth/Dodge backed teams) got the Hemi the night before the running of the 1964 Daytona500 (qualifying with the wedge). Petty went on to win, setting a speed record and outrunning the nearest non-Mopar by 14mph. Also, Hoover gave the Hemi to the NHRA fuelers (of course, his own team 'The Ramchargers' and Don Garlits), plus stuffing them into the already existing A/FX and Super Stock cars they were running. Domination insued in both arenas. NASCAR outlawed the Hemi shortly after, and for 1965, Petty went Drag Racing with the Hemi. Anyway, enough of the Hemi history. Your wedge car looks great, and I must say I like the unorthedox Red interior with the Silver exterior treatment.
Nick Winter Posted March 10, 2011 Posted March 10, 2011 Looking great Mike, Man the Dodge in that video ran a 13.10 the first run Now that's a Dodge. Nick
Patrick2005 Posted March 10, 2011 Posted March 10, 2011 I am building the Color Me Gone 330 and its a sweet car. Had some trouble with the decals but other than that its cool. Like yours so far!
diymirage Posted March 10, 2011 Posted March 10, 2011 thanks for all the info guys sadly, the only exposure i ever had to Mr petty was his role as the King
dwc43 Posted March 10, 2011 Posted March 10, 2011 A slight correction Brad. Petty & the other Mopar teams already had one Hemi each before the 500, & did indeed qualify with them in the car. Petty & Paul Goldsmith qualified their Plymouths at over 174 MPH, which was 20 MPH higher than Petty qualified for the 500 in 1963, at 154 MPH with the wedge. The wedge wouldn't have ran 174 at Daytona back then. The Fords were just in the high 160 MPH range in 1964 at Daytona, some 5-8 MPH off the top Mopar speeds. The problems were the first run of Hemi blocks cast were very porous due to a flaw in the casting & Mopar was working around the clock with the engine foundry doing the block castings to get enough good ones out just in case, Richard was quoted as saying that he even did some brazing of the block or one of the heads in his car during Speedweeks, because of the porosity issue. They were indeed taking Hemi engines from the foundry down to Daytona as rapidly as possible & all the way up to the night before the 500. I've read that all the Mopar teams, (including Petty), swapped fresh Hemis in their cars the night before & morning of the 500, & I've read that Petty ran his original Hemi in the 500, so I can't say which is 100% true, but they already had Hemis in all the factory Mopars when Speedweeks started in 1964. You are correct. Did you also know that Mopar was so worried about losing these engines in a plane crash that they shipped all of them from Detroit to FLA by truck?
dwc43 Posted March 10, 2011 Posted March 10, 2011 thanks for all the info guys sadly, the only exposure i ever had to Mr petty was his role as the King You are missing out on a great man with an unmatched career. True champion of the sport and made NASCAR what it is today. I was lucky enough to walk through his shop when they were running the Magnum.When I send that hood out to you, I can let you borrow a couple dvd's if you'll treat them like gold. lol
diymirage Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 You are missing out on a great man with an unmatched career. True champion of the sport and made NASCAR what it is today. I was lucky enough to walk through his shop when they were running the Magnum.When I send that hood out to you, I can let you borrow a couple dvd's if you'll treat them like gold. lol not sure if i would copy gold to my laptop but thats mighty nice of you thanks
whale392 Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 Mark, I guess there is some mis-information and/or speculation on when and who got the Hemis. In reading 'The History of the Hemi' with forward by Tom Hoover, the book states that Petty qualified with a wedge, and got his Hemi in and running 4 hours before the start of the 500. No matter, the signifigance of the Hemi and the impact it had on motorsports stands as a testimony to its design. In the same book, Tom Hoover was relating how quickly they did the engine developemnet, and of running 24hrs a day to make it happen. He was telling a story of when they had the initial test mules on the dyno, located in the basement of the engineering building. In those days, the building was not 'behind a fence', and he remembers chasing this curious kid away from a window located above one of the Hemis on the dyno. No sooner did Tom get back downstairs when the Hemi being run came apart, slinging a rod/piston out the very window he had just chased the kid from! Thanks for the added info Mark, even if what we have put out doesn't really relate to the build at hand, it does lend to the signifigance of the 426 Wedge in the developement of the Hemi.
ChrisPflug Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 I got the engine wired and exhaust manifolds mounted. I still need to add the coil and air cleaner housings. Unfortunately you've got the spark plugs spaced incorrectly (which really seems to stand out with the Max Wedge manifolds)- LA engines are spaced similar to that but big blocks have the spark plugs evenly spaced along the head
mrmike Posted March 11, 2011 Author Posted March 11, 2011 Thanks to all who have posted the information about the Wedge to Hemi transformation. Chris, the plug spacing is not an issue for me since the plugs will most likely be hidden from view once the chassis is installed into the body. I have not been able to find any decent pictures of a 426 Max Wedge so I went with my best guess on the plug location. At this point, should I tear out the engine and redo it just because the plugs locations are wrong? I don't think so. But, I do thank you for the information and I will keep it in mind if I ever do another Max Wedge project. I got the engine installed into the chassis. I added and hooked up the exhaust to the engine. I guess my fears of a low front end were unfounded as the chassis appears to be level with the wheels and tires are on. More to come.....
whale392 Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 Mike, the 426 shares the same plug location as any other Mopar big-block (save the Hemi). As to fixing the location of the wires....you have a heck of a time seeing them on the REAL Mopars. I'm sure it won't be noticed by any but the die-hard Mopar guys anyway. Build on!
mrmike Posted March 12, 2011 Author Posted March 12, 2011 Thanks Brad! Some people like to point out errors, but offer nothing in the way of fixing the error. I agree that my error would be hard to detect especially once the body has been installed. I finished the interior this morning. I found what appears to be an underdash gauge set, so I detailed it and installed it. I found a picture of a red 330 interior with horizontal stripes on the seatbacks. I applied those stripes using silver paint. Although it might be hard to tell, I foiled the body. It doesn't show up to well with the silver paint. More to come.....
whale392 Posted March 12, 2011 Posted March 12, 2011 Looking good Mike. Are you going to paint the steelies silver like the car or red to tie the interior to the exterior?
mrmike Posted March 12, 2011 Author Posted March 12, 2011 Brad, the steelies have been painted silver to match the body of the car. They have been detailed and inserted into the tires.
charlie8575 Posted March 12, 2011 Posted March 12, 2011 Nice work, Mike. The silver/red is a nice combination. On the subject of silver and foil not showing up well....I've often thought of purchasing a '58 Buick or Olds and painting that silver just to watch people go into argentum onero (that's "silver overload" for you non-Latin speakers.) Charlie Larkin
diymirage Posted March 12, 2011 Posted March 12, 2011 Nice work, Mike. The silver/red is a nice combination. On the subject of silver and foil not showing up well....I've often thought of purchasing a '58 Buick or Olds and painting that silver just to watch people go into argentum onero (that's "silver overload" for you non-Latin speakers.) Charlie Larkin just paint the whole thing with alclad
whale392 Posted March 12, 2011 Posted March 12, 2011 Looks good Mike. May I make a suggestion? On the dust caps in the centers of the front wheels; either paint them a dull steel or a bronzish-steel color to replicate the units.
ChrisPflug Posted March 12, 2011 Posted March 12, 2011 (This will probably be taken as some sort of criticism- just adding a couple comments about the 1:1 cars as a former owner- but the wheels would be more accurate with the dog dish hubcaps- the centers are incorrect for the stock steel wheels and the rear axle on a pre-'65 car would have tapered rather than flanged shafts- the end of the shaft and a large nut would be visible in the center of the rear wheels in real life None of this means much as far a s building a decent model- just adding soma trivia about these cars Sorry about the criticism and "lack of suggestions for fixing errors"- figured you might build another model with a big block Mopar in the future and may want it to be more accurate since you took the time to do plug wires on this one- didn't really think you'd change the ones you'd already glued and didn't think the "fix" was complicated enough to require a description Same amount of work to glue the plug wires to the factory plug location as the to the wrong spot on your next build-
mrmike Posted March 13, 2011 Author Posted March 13, 2011 Thanks guys! Chris, it's OK! It has always bothered me when someone will come along and tell me something is not correct, offer no thoughts or suggestions on a correction and sometimes sprouting manufacturing codes that have absolutely no meaning to me what-so-ever. I can only do what I can do with whatever information is available to me at any given time. The wheels I have shown are the kit wheels along with the rear axle. Can I correct it? Probably not since I am so far along with this build. My goal is to build a good looking model that is built cleanly. I am not striving for 100% accuracy, just a cleanly built model. As I said before, thank you for the information you have offered!
Erik Smith Posted March 13, 2011 Posted March 13, 2011 Still looking great. I like the look of the silver trim on silver paint - close, but different enough for a subtle contrast. The anticipation of seeing that red interior mounted on the silver body is killing me though.
mrmike Posted March 15, 2011 Author Posted March 15, 2011 I have finished my '64 Dodge 330 and it is posted in Under Glass. My thanks to all who took the time to view and to comment on my WIP.
Platerpants Posted August 11, 2012 Posted August 11, 2012 im a kid and a ford person but i know max wedge and hemi a totally different thanks to my chrysler dad
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