1964 NHRA b stock Pontiac GTO

Well done. 

Great job. Looks the part of a go fast racer.

Thats cool.  Looks like a stock car turned into a drag car.  I wonder what his 1/4 mile times were like.

Well Now;

      That is what I call a Go Fast! I like all of it!

keavdog

Thats cool.  Looks like a stock car turned into a drag car.  I wonder what his 1/4 mile times were like.

 

John , I'm thinking it ran in the 13's because Im pretty sure that Dons Catalina ran in the 12's. But dont quote me on that . Just a faded memory of something that happened 57 years ago.

Looks beautiful 

Beautiful clean build Mark! Love the light metallic blue and the front white walls.   I've been obsessed lately myself building super stocks from this period ('61 - '65), partly due to my age (67) but also due to the treasure trove of kits available these days from this period (AMT/ Lindberg Mopars and Chevys, Revell Thunderbolts, Moebius Plymouths). I'm midway thru a Lindberg '64 Dodge Ramchargers build and hope to post some pics soon. Salvaging old kit decals or sourcing replacements has been my biggest challenge.

Did you use Fred Cady decals or print your own? They look really crisp/ clean.

John

nearsightedjohn

Beautiful clean build Mark! Love the light metallic blue and the front white walls.   I've been obsessed lately myself building super stocks from this period ('61 - '65), partly due to my age (67) but also due to the treasure trove of kits available these days from this period (AMT/ Lindberg Mopars and Chevys, Revell Thunderbolts, Moebius Plymouths). I'm midway thru a Lindberg '64 Dodge Ramchargers build and hope to post some pics soon. Salvaging old kit decals or sourcing replacements has been my biggest challenge.

Did you use Fred Cady decals or print your own? They look really crisp/ clean.

John

 

Thanks John. I had to print my own on a laser printer. I got it last year from Office depot and got the Ghost White toner from Micro Mark and also the decal paper from them. They are like Cady in that you have to print a white underlay sheet first and then the color sheet so you can print white decals. The only trouble is you have to decal every model you do twice. but no problem because im 69 and retired so whats the rush? 

Here is whats left of the decal sheets. i always make extras because I always mess up a few while applying them. Like I said I'm 69.

Thanks Mark for the details on your decal process and the photos. What software do you use for making The art and printing these? Do you make the artwork "by eye" using existing fonts to approximate old photos of the original car? The separate printed white decals under the second black/ colored ones makes sense.

Your build has inspired me! After seeing your build above,  I ordered a set of Slixx decals for Arnie Beswick's '64 GTO S/FX "Mystery Tornado" supercharged match racer and am hoping to order a Revell / Monogram '64 GTO kit on eBay or wherever. A fitting companion to park next to my AMT '62 Passionate Pancho!

nearsightedjohn

Thanks Mark for the details on your decal process and the photos. What software do you use for making The art and printing these? Do you make the artwork "by eye" using existing fonts to approximate old photos of the original car? The separate printed white decals under the second black/ colored ones makes sense.

Your build has inspired me! After seeing your build above,  I ordered a set of Slixx decals for Arnie Beswick's '64 GTO S/FX "Mystery Tornado" supercharged match racer and am hoping to order a Revell / Monogram '64 GTO kit on eBay or wherever. A fitting companion to park next to my AMT '62 Passionate Pancho!

 

John, I use an old Adobe Photodeluxe 2.0 program to create the decals. it was bundled with a scanner I bought when I purchased my very first computer back in the late 90's. 

Its very much like photo shop from what I have heard but it makes great images up to 800 ppi.  I just keep my decals at 600 ppi to make them work a little faster when Im creating them, and the printer only prints at 750 ppi any way, and  there's not much difference in the images from 600 to 750. I hope it never quits working because i'm too old to learn some other vector graphics program. It has a lot of fonts to choose from as well and if you cant find the one thats on a car your doing you can find one thats close and change it with line, circle and oval operations that are part of the program. Its really a great user friendly program. You cant use it on a windows 10 computer so i kept my old compaq computer that has windows xp on it. I create the decal sheets on the old computer and put them on a flash drive and then print them on the laser printer using the flash drive. there is a small touch screen on the printer that you use to set up your propertys and then print the decal sheets. Ive heard some guys who use windows 10 program with this printer had an update for the printer which made it unusable for making decals. I dont have that problem because my old computer does not  get updates for windows xp and its not even hooked up to the internet. hope I havent totally confused you.

Here is the only photo I could find of the car for reference. Thankfully a lot of the graphics on this car were just like the ones on Don's Catalina that I did have better reference pictures for. 

Here is the model I did of Don's car back in 2018.

I think the word that comes to mind is bitchin'.  Can I say that on here?  Very cool.

Very nice work. 

Jim 

Stay Safe.

Mark, not confusing at all! Makes sense - Photoshop is super powerful software, I figured you weren't doing these decals on Word or PowerPoint. I totally identify with you keeping your old PC/ Windows to print decals. I replaced my 12 yr old Mac last year but kept the old machine for photo editing. It may also come in handy if I ever get brave and print my own decals like you.

I would love to see more of your early super stock builds. You must have a cool "miniature museum". Much thanks, John

I was never much of a GTO fan but I really like this build ! It's historic, from my era and you did a great job on it. A great nostalgia build.

nearsightedjohn

---

Mark, not confusing at all! Makes sense - Photoshop is super powerful software, I figured you weren't doing these decals on Word or PowerPoint. I totally identify with you keeping your old PC/ Windows to print decals. I replaced my 12 yr old Mac last year but kept the old machine for photo editing. It may also come in handy if I ever get brave and print my own decals like you.

I would love to see more of your early super stock builds. You must have a cool "miniature museum". Much thanks, John

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks John, but your looking at all of my drag racing builds in this thread. I mainly a vintage Nascar guy but I might build the 63 tempset wagon that was part of this team.

MarkJK

Just finished this one. It was driven by teenager Roy Gay back in 1964. He Raced it against his more well known  brother , also a teenager, named Don Gay . He drove a 62 A stock Catalina 2 door sedan. He actually won the 1963 NHRA national championship driving it. I built Don's car back in 2018.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They put the tags in the wrong order . It should be Turn it on, wynde it up, blow it out , GTO.  From a song by Ronnie and the Daytonas back in the sixtys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'63 Tempest Wagon: Do it! I believe there is a resin body out there. I'd love to build one for Beswick's "Grocery Getter"!

MCW has a resin kit, stock and drag

https://mcwfinishes.com/shop/ols/products/1963-pontiac-tempest-421-sd-drag-wagon

nearsightedjohn

'63 Tempest Wagon: Do it! I believe there is a resin body out there. I'd love to build one for Beswick's "Grocery Getter"!

 

Here are my concerns, John. First off 61 bucks is kinda steep and what are you going to use as a chassis donor for your beswick wagon? It looks like it comes with engine and interior but what do you attach the engine and wheel/tire assemblys to? I think i have enough paint left over from Don's car but I will have to get out my airbrush and I'm not real fond of using it. Maybe I can find a duplicolor rattle can that is close.

keavdog

MCW has a resin kit, stock and drag

https://mcwfinishes.com/shop/ols/products/1963-pontiac-tempest-421-sd-drag-wagon

 

 

Thanks, John. I appreciate you finding and posting the link.

Yeh, I did a search for AMT '63 Tempest sedans (I assembled and built glue bombs) and they're crazy expensive (~$200 - $400). 

AMT has re-popped their old "Craftsman" kit for the '63 Nova wagon - a possible candidate for the chassis/ interior. 

I totally understand your point about dumping too much $$$ chasing a kit bash goal. I'm about $100 into aquiring kits, parts, decals, paint to do a non-AWB '65 Mustang AF/X cammer (Brannan's Goldfinger) and will likely end up with an imperfect mix of 1/25 and 1/25 parts. Chasing scale modeling fantasies can be $$$.

nearsightedjohn

Yeh, I did a search for AMT '63 Tempest sedans (I assembled and built glue bombs) and they're crazy expensive (~$200 - $400). 

AMT has re-popped their old "Craftsman" kit for the '63 Nova wagon - a possible candidate for the chassis/ interior. 

I totally understand your point about dumping too much $$$ chasing a kit bash goal. I'm about $100 into aquiring kits, parts, decals, paint to do a non-AWB '65 Mustang AF/X cammer (Brannan's Goldfinger) and will likely end up with an imperfect mix of 1/25 and 1/25 parts. Chasing scale modeling fantasies can be $$$.

 

I agree. If I knew I could get a good final result, I wouldn't find paying the money but to dump a bunch of cash and not being able to complete would be a bummer.

Wait, Wait!

     Bitchin Poncho! Let me go get the trailer! 

Tanker-Builder

Wait, Wait!

     Bitchin Poncho! Let me go get the trailer! 

 

Thanks Tanker but this one is totally locked up in the garage and aint nobody taking this bad lady.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the comments. Next up a 64 corvette. 

MarkJK

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the comments. Next up a 64 corvette. 

 

Absolutely beautiful!