DIRT CAR GROUP BUILD, Cause we like em dirty

the urge to build got the better of me.... i trimmed a bunch off my cast (its been 3 weeks, and with as much milk as i drink the calcium has to have sped up the healing a bit lol) so im going to try and get crackin again.

 Regards, Logan.

Wildchild well take it easy with that hand buddy, gotta let it heal right this time. I am in my mid 50s and am now paying for things I didnt let heal as I should have.

oh dont worry, im babying it bigtime. got some more bad news on my sprint: turns out the top wing is also more akin to 80's standards: About 6+ scale inches too narrow. shouldnt be too big a problem though...nothing a few styrene shims cant fix. think i might make some new sail panels too, give them better detail than the kit parts.

The sails are a bit larger on the newer WoO sprint cars too, but I dont remember by how much. Might want to check out www.scalesprints.com  those guys will know for sure.

yeah comparing them to the diecast sails i noticed that vertically they were pretty close, but the sails are probably about 6+ inches longer on the modern cars. i think im just going to sand off all the rivets on the kit wing and scribe in some new ones like on aircraft....either that or shave them off with a chisel and use thjem to detail the new sails. either way, this kit is turning out to need alot more mork than i hoped. i think i may have to make a new hood piece as well...the shape of the kit part is just too bubbly for my taste, but then again im pretty picky about my sprints and late models lol.

speaking of late models, dirtmodeler.com has published a complete instruction manual on how to make 1/24(or maybe its 1/25) dirt late models from scratch using brass rod and tube, although im sure styrene rod and tube would work too. (i think i posted a link to a guy that did AMAZING work) the only parts you wouldnt really be able to make yourself are the body panels, MD3 nose, seat, wheels/tires, and rear end. but they sell most of these parts.

Just for fun......or future planning.... i ran a tally of how much the specialty parts would cost to build a 1/24 late model......160.50 without shipping. plus one would have to get solder, soldering gun or torch, brass rod and tube to make the chassis, make a rear end, make tires, paint, epoxy, about a million different files, a good mitre bench to cut at precise angles, drill bits, the list goes on. i could easily see this project taking up $500-$600 and about a year+ to complete.....but the end result would be worth it!

I have seen the late model Dirt Modeler has done in plastic and they looked great. Check out the DM forum too there was a guy who scratch built his body panels on a plastic chassis and did a great job of it. They are basically flat sided so shouldnt be too difficult to make your self.

Also for a modern sprint car chassis check Justin Glass heres his site his modern chassis is quite reasonably priced and he does a Maxim and J&J chassis and maybe a few more I am not sure. Heres his site.

http://southwestscalechassis.weebly.com/

I checked out Glass's site, and man you werent kidding! for 20 bucks you cant go wrong for a pre-built chassis! i think i may just do that instead of trying the ancient gamgler to modern standards lol. plus, in the downtime it takes to for him to build it and ship it here i could try and get some of my other nagging pjojects out of the way lol.

Sorry I haven't been around much, its been family life h$ll around here the past month or so.

TheWildChild Glass does do some beautiful work and he is now offering wraps and decal sheets too. I believe he is thinking of doing a vintage chassis also sometime in the future. Now that would be cool !

Anyway I finally got the base coat on the hood and tail tank for my build and finished up the decals I am going to use on it. Now to find the time to get some more masking and paint laid on them. Pictures will follow soon as I don't want to give all my plans away just yet

Yeah life has been pretty hectic around here lately too, between finding a new job and getting in shape for semi-pro football and ungodly hot weather(my bench is in a non-air conditioned garage) i havent been at the bench as much as id like.... BTW, im adding a vehicle i picked up..... i saw the re-box of AMT's 1950 Chevy pickup service truck and noticed it came with safety lights and a pushbar.... awfully close to what they have at local dirt tracks(although usually not a classic truck lol) so if its alright with you, i think i will build it to go along with the sprint. im planning on trying to get the derby car done in a week or two, but no promises.

I have decided to go with a more modern "resto-mod" approach for the 1950 Chevy push truck.... now im playing the "lets stuff a 426 Hemi into an engine compartment designed for a straight six" game.... so far its all tied up at "finding exhaust that will fit" stage lol. the derby car is back on the bench now... the sprint is boxed up for now.

Well i made a new trunk for the derby car.... one of the Mtn Dew cans in the trash offered up the aluminum. i punched out the holes for the tail lights, and added some styrene strip to simulate the trim on the car....

as well as the "framework" made out of styrene.... with it bent up to fit the car, some of this should show, giving it a little more realism. with a coat or primer, this should look pretty convincing. the plastic piece was just too difficult to work with once i smashed in the quarter panels further., and the scale over-thickness was too obvious.

it is, however, going to need ALOT of bending to fit lol.

making it seem as if this car had seen a few shows before, i smashed the rear quatrer above the tire far into the wheel well... surely resulting in a flat tire before, but now its out of the way. i also took a cutting wheel to the dents, since heating and bending the plastic produced rounded "dents" i made them crisp folds like on a 1:1 car.

the "spider web" window cage is coming along... albeit not quite as good as i'd like, but still alright. i think one more "strand" in the forward section should cut it. a plate over the top that is "welded" down or some threaded rod with "bolts" should fasten it to the car.

the popcan idea worked equally well for the hood. i finally finished the 45degree turnouts for the stacks... will look lots better with paint.

WildChild wow it looks great man, that crumpled can for a hood really looks real ! Takes a real artist to make a car look beat up like that. I gotta ask though are you going to paint the under side of the trunk lid ? Cause if you don't it would look like it was skinned using an old sign. Seems a cool idea to me.

Ok so I got some more work done on the sprint car, got the headers and foot guards on and the brake lines, in and out cable is on along with the front end. Decided to scratch a racing harness using blue tape ala Simpson belts and made the hardware from the foil off of a frozen mac & cheese pan.

In this one you can see part of the harness, I still have to add the shoulder belts.

And a shot of the bottom of the car.

Yeah I'm going to paint the underside, but most likely a different color than what I paint the outside.... Give it that "rattle canned" look. I appreciate the compliments my friend, but your build is looking far better than mine!

well, some more progress on the Impala:

The hood before final bending and fitting

and after. i also smashed in the front fenders, collapsing the core support a bit to give it the real "beaten and battered" look of a derby car that has seen quite a few runs.

before final bending of the hood, right side.

and after, right side.

head on, final bend. i scratched up the raised areas with the teeth from a pair of pliers... getting in more than just the raised ares... because, after all, those concave areas were flush with the raised ones at one point, and nothing hitting a derby car is flat.

also got final bends done on the trunk. that primer coat makes a world of difference.

dead on aft.

and this is the car that makes all the dents possible... after all, you cant have one derby car without another. i was too ashamed to display a 1957 Chevy on the shelf as a demolition derby car (not to mention my Grandfather probably would have killed me lol) so it got transformed into my weathering testbed/dent maker.

Regards, Logan

TheWildChild

 I appreciate the compliments my friend, but your build is looking far better than mine!

Ok so last night I couldn't take it any longer so I figured it was about time to add the wheels, hood, and tail tank to see what the Robco car will look like ( they are just sitting there not glued ). I still have a bunch of work left to do to finish it, but well a modeler just has to know. If you know what I mean.

Ok so I need to add a brake line and glue the wheels on the sprint car and its finished. Pictures this weekend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome! I've been working 65-74 hours the last few weeks, so I haven't done much. But I have decided to make metal front fenders for the derby car. Pics soon hopefully!

Glad to hear you are working Wildchild so many arent these days.

Ok the 23 car is finished,,,,, finally !! I now know why very few build these cars, it has been the most challanging kit I have built to date, well there has been quite a bit of scratch building going on along with aftermarket stuff, and detailing, however it is worth it in the end, I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Now if I could just get a better camera and learn to take better pictures ..........

Hope you like her. I have already started the 34 Ford Modified hope to have some pics soon, its a repop of an old AMT kit should be interesting as I plan to get a bit crazy with this one too.

That is an awesome looking sprint! As far as pictures go, I like to use a light colored background for finished pics... Just feels better to me lol. That modified will be cool to see! I may not be a super big fan if old sprints, but the old modifieds always look mean!

I just remembered too: it's kind if funny about the brakes on the old sprints: they used to be set up like yours, nowadays they only use 1 rotor on the rear... Scary thought really lol

Thanks Wildchild I did try a lighter background but it seemed to make the gloss and chrome bounce back at the camera way too much. I think I am going to try some out back in natural light and see if that helps.

I have never seen a car with just one brake on it, the newer ones I have seen here run 2 inboard brakes on the rear and at some places can either run a left front or not. These are non wing sprints but the wing cars may have a differant setup I dont know. Course wayyyyyyyy back in the 70s they ran huge iron disk brakes on all four corners must have been 12" dia and an inch thick. In fact I think it was back in the early to mid 70s that Don Maxwell came up with the inboard rear brake on the left side.

The sport changes so darn much every year. The World of Outlaws have had just one rear brake on the left rear the last 4 years at cedar lake speedway.

And I can't wait to get some pics up of the new front clip on the derby car... The bent metal fenders look worlds more realistic! I plan on having the current project impala on a fruehauf flatbed behind a revellogram Peterbilt I have... With some heavy weathering of course :)

WoO don't come to Ventura so I havent seen one up close in years. I can say I haven't seen a nonwing car with only one brake, sounds kinda scary to me. I guess it would work on a wing car though as they lay over on the left rear in a corner.

I think driving a sprint would be scary in general, wing or not lol. Either way, they are amazing machines. My laptop is out of commission at the moment, so pics will have to wait a little bit unfortunately.

 Lets see if posting pics from my phone works. Alot of progress since in last showed this car! 

Nope, didnt work:(

Bummer am looking forward to your pics Wildchild when you can post them. I am going to start the modified in the next week or so, am finishing up a Stuka this week and will build the mod as fill in as I build a 1/48 B-29 I have been trying to build for 18 months now.

Would that be the revell B-29?

here are some pics of the derby car after primer and initial paint (pre-weathering)

using metal for the front clip was definitly a good idea

i still have toadd weld seams along the "patch" edges, but here you can see how the metal looks more like an actual folded fender than the plastic parts did. this was also the first time i experimented with brass (other than PE parts). the brass stacks werent hard to build, but when zoomed out, they were way too thick to be scale realistic.

a good start i think lol more soon.... hopefully.