South Side Street Racers

[CFMgarage]

Clean builds! Well done!

[High octane]

Since no one seems to have any objections, I'm going to try and post my first work in progress here, and if you allow me a little back story, hopefully you will understand why I wanted to Post this here. I was around when street racing was still popular. Back in 1975, I was 17 years old and hung out at the White Castle on South Kingshighway, in St. Louis Mo. There were nights when there was a line waiting to cruise the parking lot. The big nights were Saturday and Sunday, Saturday would consist of new plugs, check the timing and running the valves, checking the tire pressure in the slicks you just mounted for the nights activities, finished by a car wash and polish if your car was'nt primered.There was 7 of us that took the racing serious, though we normally did'nt race for money, bragging rights were king, Money led to fights and or possibly damaged cars and we all worked too hard to have our stuff tore up needlessly. My plan is to recreate most, or all of my friends cars, starting with the simpler ones. My car is the 65 Chevelle with flames, also is a pic of my motor. These are the only photos of my car taken in 1975 with a 110 instamatic LOL... My Chevelle will have to wait for now as the paint will be hard to duplicate. The other cars I dont have any photos of so I will be working from memory. Two of the cars were Camaros so I decided to build these together as they are so similar.

 

First up is Pats 68 Camaro.... this car was Butternut yellow with a black interior, Pat built a 302 small block Chevy backed by a turbo 350 trans and 12 bolt rear axle. I started with AMT 68 Camaro kit The SBC came from the AMT Corvrtte LT1 kit as it was more detailed than the original kits motor. I also used this kits Rally Wheels, the Automatic trans came from the Vega Twister kit which I scratch built a more accurate transmission pan for using sheet plastic and hex rod. I have the body and interior and chassis painted but not detailed.

 

Second is Eddies 67 Camaro, Eddie painted his car Ermine White, It was a Big Block, though the actual cubic inches were never really known, It was a single Holley carb, 4 speed Muncie and 12 bolt rear axle. Eddie ran slicks on open ralley wheels that I took from the same AMT Corvette LT1 kit listed above. The AMTs rear axle lacked detail so I added rear cover detail and 12 hex bolts. I then scratct built the lakewood traction bars by glueing .100 Evergreen Channel cut to length,squared up and then used the kits rear shocks with the shock removed for the U bolts to connect to the rear end. I started the Big Block using the Revell 396 from the 65 Chevelle kit. I have the body painted as well as the base coat on the chassie and interior, I hope to post an update soon. OPINIONS COMMENTS SUGGESTIONS ALL WELCOME.

 

 

 

 

 

I used to street race back in the mid 60's to early 70's and also on the drag strips as well. It was a GREAT time back then.

[dragcarz]

Yes it was, some of the best times of my life!

[Alan]

As like the first in the series Roger, I LIKE it !!! So he did not run any slapper bars on the car ? PS. I love butter nut yellow, one of my favs on GM's.

Alan

[dragcarz]

Thanks Alan. No Slapper bars, not really needed with the automatic trans. Years later Pat came did reveal some of the details. 302 cubic inches. Vega torque converter, And I don't remember the gear ratio, it was 4:11 or 4:56. Something like that. I also came clean with him, that I was not playing with him, that I was racing him hard.

[dragcarz]

Almost two years since my last update..... I finally finished another South Side Street  Racers car, Crash’s Super Bee.  This car was somewhat strange, it was purchased used. A 1970, 440 cubic inch engine, Torqueflite transmission, painted Vitamin C withe Burnt Orange bench seat interior, and a column shift car. Factory power drum brakes, and AM/ FM stereo. Here’s where it gets a little strange. The car when purchased had a Edelbrock intake and a Holley carb. Under the hood was the air grabber, it was thought the air grabber was used only on 6 pack cars. When Crash rebuilt the motor, it had the wider beam 6 Pack connecting rods. To this day I’m not sure if it was or wasn’t a 6 pack car. If it was a real one, what a rare car it would be. 

I could not find or make headers to fit this model, even failed solder. I finally gave up and used the stock manifolds as that was my only hold up, and I needed to get it finished. Here’s some pics, as always comments welcome.

[crazyjim]

Very nice.

[jaxenro]

That 65 Chevelle really takes me back. Mine started as a 6 banger with a three speed column shift and front bench seat. Put a 396 in it, Muncie 4 speed, 12 bolt posi with 4:88 gears. Had some Y pipes right past the headers run off two choke cables under the dash. Push the choke cables all the way in and it closed off the exhaust and diverted it out the Y and came out just behind the front wheels. We had to use the front springs from an El Camino to hold the front end off the ground as that 396 weighed the stock six front end down too far

Edited April 9, 2019 by jaxenro