Street Cheetah Build

[Brendan]

This is a build I'm doing for a customer of his street legal Cheetah. The kit base is of the Historic Racing Miniatures Cheetah. There are many modifications that I have to do. I'm slowly making progress. I'm going to be using MCW's Roman Red #5901 for the body. I'll be undating soon.

Here's a picture of the actual car that I'm trying to replicate.

This is a picture of the kit.

This is what I've done so far.

Edited December 11, 2007 by Brendan

[Joe R.]

Wow! I always wanted this car! I'll be watching this one.

[wolfer]

VERY KOOL KEEP US POSTED rob

[Brendan]

Here is more work that I've done on the Cheetah.

Here is a picture of the interior, painted and flocked.

Here are pictures of the motor, painted Chevy Engine Orange and different shades of Alclad. Pictures are kind of grainy due to my camera acting up.

Here are pictures of the tail lights. The car usually only had two, but the street version ran with four taillights. I filled in the two factory holes and drilled four new ones.

You can see all the holes I had to fill in. The green car is the race version with the hood opened up and with the two four barreled carbs. The car I'm doing now will have a Rochester side draft FI.

More updates will be coming. The kit is going together quicker than I thought.

Edited November 16, 2007 by Brendan

[bigphoto]

Very nice!! the body looks thin enough to be plastic!!!

[Brendan]

Got some more work done on the Cheetah. Here's some pictures

This is a picture of the roughed-in bump for the magneto.

Picture of the chassis and frame rail

headers and exhaust pipes

Dashboard and rear axle

Rims

All the parts that are metallic are painted in different shades of Alclad paint. I have to get the body painted before I start building up the car. This kit has everything interconnected to the main body. Hopefully I'll have some paint on within the next week or so. Everything has been going pretty smoothly so far. Hope to get more up soon.

Edited November 25, 2007 by Brendan

[Reliable Resin]

Love those Cheetah's

I had done a few for Clients ....back in the day

Even a Red Street Cat

http://www.reliableresin.com/gallery.html

Yours is looking very good & coming along well

Build On !

Don

[JHDrew]

Boy Brendan, you're flying right along on this one. So far so good. Looks like you are close to putting the red on the body.

Could you give some feedback on how well Harold's kit goes together? It's on my shelf to build some time in the near future.

Thanks

[Brendan]

Got a little more work done. I'm being held up by not being able to paint. It's been too cold and too damp here in Oregon to get any good painting done.

Here are the pictures of the finished rear end and the rear attached to the chassis.

Some pictures of the front suspension attached to the frame rails. This is being held in place by white glue until I get the stance right.

Hopefully more will be coming soon if and when it warms up around here. That's one of the problems of living in Oregon on the coast.

[Brendan]

Don,

Love the Cheetah Roadster. That's a car I've been thinking about doing.

Jim,

The kit is a fairly easy-assembling kit, once you get used to his instruction style. The instructions are all written (no diagrams at all). This is the second kit I've done of the Cheetah so I'm now aware of all the areas that I had confusion with from the first one. It was mainly in the way he worded the instructions that confused me. I ended up looking on the internet for pictures of the car and found quite a few of people's private cars. There's a couple of sites that have a lot of misinformation and a lot of good information, so be careful when researching. For example, they say some cars have been destroyed, but I've seen the cars and talked to the owners. (It's some of the more popular sites.) I've done his Daytona Coupe as well and the instructions are similar in style. No real fit issues with the kit; just make sure everything is square before putting it together. You might need to readjust the hinges on the front to make the hood lay down tightly to the body. The hardest thing that I had to do was what would be the A-Pillar roll bar in place. That's just because it's in a tight area and it is an awkward shaped piece.

When you start building and have any questions, just drop me a line. I'll try to explain if I can.

[Brendan]

A little more work done. Finished puttying in the bump for the magneto and primered. Polyester putty makes it real easy to get the shapes you want. Love this stuff. Just need to do light sanding and get the paint on. It will be pretty much done. Below are some pictures of the hood.

[Brendan]

Got some more work done before the weekend and before the storm hit. Lot of wind and a lot of rain. Got to love Oregon!

Here's the Cheetah with the white base coat. And followed by five coats of red.

Here's pictures after four coats of clear. The body has not yet been rubbed out. The actual car doesn't really have a smooth paint job, so I was not going to rub the paint out all the way to match the texture of the car. Now that the body is done, the build should go rather quickly.

[Modellpularn]

Ohh, I love it! The Cheetah is one of my favorite cars. Have a COX slot car that I have collected parts for. It's really just a matter of putting it together..... Now with the red paint on, it really comes to life! I'll be following this with great interest.

[Brendan]

Got some more work done last night.

The pictures of the body with the dashboard in place. The body was rubbed out but not thoroughly. The actual car has quite a bit of orange peel to it. It somewhat matches.

Pictures of the interior into the body. A very tight fitting. Must be put into the right position or other parts will be misfitting on the rest of the build.

Picture of the body ready to be put on the chassis. Hope to have this done and most of the front frame rails in place by tonight.

[Brendan]

Got this done last night...and this morning.

Body, frame rails and foot boxes attached to the chassis. This is an important step so I had to make sure everything was square.

Magneto attached to the engine and mounted. Exhaust, headers, and side pipes were put in place along with the steering rack and front frame rails.

Not much more left to do. Place the radiator, get the tires on, and some small touch ups and it will be done.

[Raul_Perez]

GREAT WORK!!! I can't wait to see the finished model!!

[Brendan]

Thought I'd have the car done by now. Ran into a little setback. Had some glue on one of my fingers and didn't notice it until after I put a nice fingerprint on the right hand panel above the right suspension. That's why that side is off in the photos. I'm in the process of repainting that piece.

Radiator in place with the support brace. Also got the front headlights that are on this particular car and only for this car. On the real car they're actually running lights for an airplane. As the factory headlights don't put enough light out to drive at night.

A couple of shots of the engine. You can also see the A-Pillar roll bar. These are a pain to get into place. Just a really odd shape and having to hold it in position while the glue dried. Scratch built dual oil filters and fuel filter. I'm not going to plumb the kit besides the ignition wires. The person I'm building for did not want this done. I might plumb some though. I haven't decided yet.

Hopefully I'll have my mistake fixed in a day or so. Then it should be finished.

[lonewolf]

Brendan,

Sweet build you have going on there. What is this polyester putty you speak of and where can you get it?

[Brendan]

Brendan,

Sweet build you have going on there. What is this polyester putty you speak of and where can you get it?

Tony,

I bought the polyester putty (two-part) 10 years ago when I lived in California. It is no longer being made. It was a generic brand, but I don't know the name of it. What I like about the putty is that it could be thinned with alcohol or lacquer.

The other putty I like is Evercoat (sp). It's a two-part putty that has to be mixed up. It dries in under 12 hours and sands smooth. It can be found in most good automotive stores.

[Brendan]

Got the rest of the kit done tonight. All that is left is to put on the hood. I decided not to do the plumbing.

Pictures of the windows being put in. The tape is there to hold them in place till the glue dries as they are a really tight fit. I was afraid they might move.

The panel I had fixed is now in place with the overflow can.

The four tail light bezels (sp) are in place. I think it looks pretty good with the four tail lights instead of the regular two.

Side mirrors, gas cap and window wiper attached. The hood waiting to be attached. Some parts are still a little bit wet from touching up some paint.

Next time you see this car it will be in the "Underglass" section. Thanks to everyone who followed along with the build. And thanks to the people who made comments and had questions. This was a fun build and would highly recommend this kit to anyone who is thinking about building it.

[Gregg1LE]

Absolutely great work. Awesome job so far.