Don Nicholson '61 Impala OS/S.

[W-409]

Thanks Fellows!

Shaun: Yep, the scoop needs a bit thinning before I can call it good. It would've been much easier when it wasn't glued together, but I remembered it only when I had glued the scoop together. Well, with a small file I believe I can make it.

Steve: This kit is definitely worth building, even if it needs a couple of modifications. When you start yours, please post pictures of the progress, as there can never be enough X-Frame Chevrolets.

I put a little Bondo on it and on the front seat, too. Once I get the seat smoothed out, I'll paint the interior. I must go to get the new drill bit too to continue the work on the engine. Anyway I think I'll do a fast build in between and this one will be put as a back burner for a while. I will try to make progress, but it's not the Number One build right now. I just think I need a little break from these replica builds and I wanna build one really simple and easy one in between...Stay tuned for a WIP thread of it.

[futurattraction]

That's looking really good Niko! I used to do a little bit of racing, too, though that was a long time ago. I miss it! How are you doing in the points race?

Edited June 3, 2014 by futurattraction

[W-409]

Thanks Scott! It means a lot!

What car did you race with? It's sure a lot of fun and not only it's fun to drive, but I also like the actual building process and updating the car to make it faster. As a Stock Eliminator racer who has to run Bracket most times, to me the hardest part is taking a good RT and then slowing down on the finishing line to prevent from breaking out.

At this point I'm on the third place in Finnish Championship points (After the first race). The next race is in three weeks at Alastaro and I hope I will do good there. And a week after that race it's time for the Nitro Nationals also at Alastaro. There are European Championship categories, too like Pro Mod, Top Methanol Funny Cars, Pro Stocks and Top Fuels etc. There the track is usually the best so I hope the car will do good ET's there.

In the West Coast Street Cup points I actually don't know where I am at. The results haven't been posted yet, but anyway I won't be driving all WCSC events as the next one is 1/8th mile race and at the same day there is another Drag Race event for real street cars where I'll be watching as a friend is driving his '80 Chevy Monza.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkDs3ZMfEqU

[Brutalform]

Awesome build!! This has really got me in the mood to do another 61. One question. Are your carbs backwards?? Looks like the primaries are in the rear, and the secondary vacuums are on the wrong side. Possibly the instructions have it that way.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Brutalform

[W-409]

Thanks Tom! It's always great to be able to inspire other people.

As for the carburetors, thanks for pointing that out! I don't know how I even missed it that I glued them backwards...I must have been really tired or something. Luckily that's an easy fix.

Here's a picture of the front seat as I put some Bondo on it yesterday. I will sand it today, and if it looks smooth enough I'll probably throw some paint on it. I could also flock the interior floor...

[am73grand]

Cool Project!! I am looking forward to seeing more!!!!!

[Dragfreak]

Very nice Niko, Good luck in your racing season, your chevelle's doing a little G body shuffle on the launch, Looks like fun! I really need to get a cage and sub-frame connectors in my vega so I can start racing it.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Dragfreak

[slusher]

Nice progress Niko. Looking really good...

[W-409]

Thanks Fellas, I appreciate it!

Jason: Yep, quite a lot actually. We will do some chassis work before the next race to get rid of those twisting wheelstands as when the car launches like that is wastes speed. We're planning to add a sway bar to the rear end and new springs would be nice too. Then it's very interesting to see how it runs.

Your Vega looks great, too. H-Bodies are always nice! In the West Coast Street Cup race there was one very nice Chevy Vega Wagon. It wasn't quite done yet, for example headlights were missing as they didn't have enough time to install everything before the race, but it ran very nicely. I can't remember their ET's, but it was pretty fast:

Here are all pics from the WCSC race: http://tapahtumakuvia.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat+2014/West+Coast+Street+Cup+Pori+24.5.2014/

I've been doing the putty work with the front seat. It's getting there and I believe the coat of putty I just put on in the morning is the last one before paint. I'll post pictures when I get it painted.

[10thumbs]

Hi Niko, good progress you're showing.

How's the weather in your area?

For the guys that aren't aware, the Scandinavian racers are hardcore. Sweden, Norway maybe not so much, but Finland has some excellent engineering and bad-a## cars. They can even in some areas, and do, race them in the street with sanctioned events!

Big motors in small cars is not only in the USA!

Greetings,

Michael

[W-409]

Thanks, Michael!

Right now the weather is really nice, it has been about 90 Fahrenheit degrees during the last couple of days. In general, Finnish summers are really warm, but quite short. It rains just too often...

And you're right. There are really cool cars in Scandinavia. I guess Sweden is the leading country, but there's really cool stuff in Finland, too. For example I was on local Cruising Night yesterday. It was the Helsinki Cruising (Or as we Finns call it "Stadin Cruising"). There were hundreds of American Cars from 1910s to 2010s. Hot Rods, Muscles, '50s Classics etc. And many of them were really nicely finished so that they could compete seriously in U.S. car events, too.

There are many rare and beautifully engineered Drag Cars, too... For example here in Finland there is a real Mercury Cougar Eliminator as a Stock Eliminator race car, real SS AMX running in Super Stock, one guy has Jim Waldo's former World Record setting Ford Fairlane (It came Finland in the '80s or early '90s, can't remember for sure). And many others, too.

I think some of you might find it interesting to look at my YouTube channel for Finnish Drag Race videos or Cruising Burnouts... Lots of cool stuff there. https://www.youtube.com/user/chevypickups/videos

And my Picture Gallery: http://tapahtumakuvia.kuvat.fi/kuvat/

[Dragfreak]

That looks to be a 71/2, with a built small block, I bet it was a mid to low 10 second car. I just got my hands on a deal of my lifetime, a good friend from my local track who is almost like my grandpa is selling his 71 panel with a fiberglass 76/7 front clip to me as a roller for $5,000. With the 427 that he had in it it was a low 9 second car. It's probably worth $10,000 as a roller so I'm totally stealing this thing, when I cough up the last bit of money to buy it I'll stuff the motor and tranny from my current vega in the new one and put a stock small block in the old one. With the motor and tranny from my vega in the new one it should be a mid 10 second car as well as be consistent. I'll bracket race it on Friday nights in the high school class for the next 3 years.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Dragfreak

[turbo nova]

looking great but I believe the carbs are on backwards if your going for 100 accuracy

[W-409]

Well that's a great deal, Jason! Congrats! I think the car looks very good, and with a good chassis and engine it should be really consistent as well. Do I remember correct if I say that you drove a Junior Dragster before? If so, I bet you'll have no trouble getting used to driving that car and especially driving consistent times and RT's. Reactions are very hard for me, sometimes I get a pretty good light, but I might also take a big red light or then I'm way too late.

James: Yep they are. I'll have to fix that...

I got the seat smoothed out and painted it. I wasn't completely sure if the real seat was upholstered with these colors, but at least this is the original style. It's not perfect, but I think I can live with it.

[Dragfreak]

You are correct, I raced a junior dragster for 6 years, so I've seen plenty of track time. In the 1/8th it ran 8.30's, so with a taller rear sprocket, it would run low 13's in the quarter. I've had 1 perfect (.000) light and I have 5 wally's so I think I'll adjust to it pretty well!

Edited June 21, 2014 by Dragfreak

[W-409]

I bet the experience with a Junior Dragster will help you a lot when racing with the Vega. Of course the car is totally different, but when you get the hang of it I'm sure you'll be able to take good RT every time really soon. And that's the thing where I have problems.

[W-409]

Well I took a break of couple of months from this build. Now I thought it would be a good time to get slowly back on this one. My main focus will be on the '50 Oldsmobile Mild Custom, '69 Charger Daytona for Cannonball Run CBP and the "Summer Project" '55 Chevy. But while those three are drying, I thought I'd work with this a little.

Not much progress, but I wanted to let you know that this project isn't forgotten. I painted the backseat. I painted the red first and then the white. As with the front seat, this is painted on free hand without masking tape. Next step will be flocking the floor. Hopefully I can make it on the next couple of days...

[W-409]

The next step was painting the door panels. My reference pics showed that on the door panels the white areas are actually light grey. So I painted them with Humbrol #56. Later on after I had painted the red, I noticed that the grey areas are a bit too dark, but since they look decent like that I thought I'm going to leave them like that. It's not too wrong anyway. Then some BMF and detail painting with silver and black wash to the door lines and they are done.

[espo]

Niko, Sorry I'm late in seeing your build. Very well done. If I may offer some information on the: Hood scoop, Engine, Carbs, and Air cleaners. You have the Hood Scoop pretty well figured out. These Scoops were in style on street cars as well. You could buy them at most auto parts store and were mounted to the hood. The thought was to get cold fresh air to the area of the carb. Some of the street guys didn't even cut a hole in the hood. On the factory 1:1 409's the valve covers were a semi gloss silver color for what that is worth. The factory carbs were Carter AFB series. The float bowels where on the sides unlike the Holly carbs that are in front and rear of the throttle body. But as you know this is all subject to change by the class that you are interred in. Great build, and I will follow to see how it turns out.

[W-409]

Thank You David for the great information!

It has been a while since I've worked on this Impala, but I was able to do some minor work with the interior. I flocked the carpet using flat black from spray can to "glue" the flocking to the floor. Then I mocked up the seats for the picture. Next step will be painting a dashboard, but I will need a set of Revell '62 Impala cauge decals for this one, the ones in this Lindberg kit are not very good.

[Speedfreak]

Looks sharp Niko.

[W-409]

Thanks Gene (Even if the thanks comes a bit late)!

As some of you might noticed from my other posts and from the fact that I haven't been checking in much lately nor have I posted much, I've been very busy with my 1:1 '60 Impala. Now it's driveable so I'm slowly starting to have time for these scale models as well.

I thought about what should I continue next. I had a '78 Ford Pickup, the Top Street Mustang and '55 Chevy on my bench. Mustang is still waiting for some accessories, so I need to wait for a while before I can continue that. So I decided to do some work on this, as it's one of the most interesting projects that I've had for a while. That Ford Pickup and the '55 Chevy are being worked on as well, so I can see an update in that '55 thread in near future...

I thought I should start with the chassis. I had stripped the old paint off earlier and after that the chassis seemed to be in good shape. Almost all of the paint came off nicely and paint hadn't reacted with the plastic at all so I gave it a light sanding and then today I shot a coat of Primer on it. My plan is to paint some flat black on that chassis tomorrow.

[dawgvet]

Great build! Keep up the good work.

Jed

[W-409]

Thanks Jed! This is a lot of fun to work with, these X-Frame Chevys are my favorites and I like building replicas of old Drag Racers.

Not much done on this, but something anyway. Chassis is now painted and once I get axles and everything mocked up to see what I'll have to do to get the stance I'm looking for, I'm ready for assembling the chassis. On the chassis Flat black is Maston spray paint and gloss black is Humbrol Enamel.

[GoatGuy]

This build looks great so far Niko. The detail painting of the interior is top notch. Looking forward to more.