DIRT CAR GROUP BUILD, Cause we like em dirty

Yeah I meant McCreary tires n the front. The CRA ran Firestone drag slicks on the rear up to the mid 80s I believe  was when they switched to Hoosier rears. I will check out slixx decals thanks, gotta find some Firestone logos too. What sprint car are you planning to build ?

Anyway heres a picture of the hand grooved slicks I have been talking about

And the JFK car I want to build. I can tell ya JFK made some of the best machine shop tooling around and still does.

ahhhh i gotcha. yeah hoosier is the mainstay up here in the northwoods too, goodyear is much more expensive from what i hear and really does not improve much. hmmmm... not sure ive ever heard of McCarney tires...heard of McCreary though. i wasnt around in the 70's or 80's (although i'd probably fit in better with most of the older generations from that time than i do with my own lol) so i missed alot of the old sprints. although i do still get to see some of the vintage late models and what yould be modern day street stock and super stock cars run locally.

also, you mentioned hand grooving on those slicks, its a good thing you did! i forgot that i need to do that on my tires for my sprint. i havent really sarted much on my kit (trying to get the derby car done first) but i will be getting into it full swing pretty soon hopefully.

if you want Hoosier tire logos, go to slixx. they have a sheet thats just tire logos (hoosier and good year) for, i think, around eight bucks.....you should be able to to 9 or 10 tires (two logos on one side wall) for each brand with that sheet.........either that or get Revells "limited edition" '69 nova kit....comes with 4 Hoosier logos......and an AWESOME kit lol.

Regards, Logan

Wildchild sorry took so long getting back, life and illness has gotten in the way it seems. Yes the car will have a jacobs ladder, back in the day we called the ladder watts linkage. This car will be from the mid to late 80s so these tires should be right for that period. Only trouble is these tires are Good Years and they used Hoosier here on the west coast. Will have to leave them blank or find some decals for them. This car I am building as a learning project and calling it the Robco house car so I do have room to play a bit. I have done some work on the shocks and have them roughed out waiting to finish up the torsion arms so I can fit them all together. The jacobs ladder will go on last and is ready. 

My next sprint car will be the #3 JFK car driven by Jimmy Oskie that ran at Ascot in mid to late 70s and will have hand grooved good year drag slicks on the rear, I believe on the front they used McCarney ( spelling ? ) but will have to check. The plan is to scratch build the chassis, the JFK car had a Maxwell chassis and the Gambler kit chassis just plain wont work

looks WORLDS better than what the kit offers lol. will this have the jacobs ladder suspension as well?  and if you are building a more modern car (it escapes me as to what you said you were building) the tires will have to be replaced with more modern looking "square lug" tires.... i have a set of modern (2002 style) hoosier tires off a diecast that i am going to use. if i can find somebody who casts their own stuff in resin i was going to try and arrange for some copies to be made for future builds.

Great lookin work so far!

Another update and a bump is in order it seems Got the rear end with all the goodies but the torsion arms and shocks on. Looks much much better than the kit offering me thinks

Wildchild heres a link to an outfit that makes tires simular to the DM ones.

http://www.bigdonkeyresin.com/index.html

i was thinkin about getting the dirt late model chassis directions and body panel kits from dirtmodeler and giving that project a stab, but i have yet to find a place that makes 1/24-1/25 DLM tires since dirtmodeler doesent have them anymore. i think im going to get their Kirkey (i think) racing seat for my sprint car. i should be back to slingin styrene in a week or two, so hopefully it wont be too long before i get some pics up.

Regards, Logan.

Wow page 3 ?? Need to post something geeze.

So I will post a few WIP pictures, got the axle painted and in for a test fit. To make that easier I cut off the torque tube and glued the axle to the quick change housing so I could slide the inboard brake and all in as a unit, then made a new torque tube from 1/8 aluminum tube and slid that in and attached it all together. The photoetch brake and bird cage kits came from Dirtmodeler, really nice stuff too.

Slowly but its getting there

That is way cool Howard !!!!!!!!! From what I can see of it looks like it belongs in Howard's Garage.

Built this one some years ago when Jac was still driving the Pennzoil car.  Had the All Star sprints in February at a local track ( East Bay Raceway, Gibsonton FL) during speed weeks . Actually during the same week as the Daytona 500 . 

 Anyway, I was about to start building this kit and since they're pretty fragile to be carrying around during a night at the races, decided to assemble and bring just the wing for an autograph. Pretty cool . One of my faves in "Howard's Garage" 

Howard

Hummmm Wildchild might have to do a game of lets make a deal if you do that set of decals man.

OK I am slow building I wasn't kidding when I took that title ya know. OK I got sidetracked geeze, anyway I decided I do not like the rear axle in these revell kits. So I made me one out of aluminum and brass tubing and its the correct length too, the Revell axle is a bunch too narrow. I will say I do like the kit quick change housing though Here are a couple of pictures of my axle, they are even have the splines on them.

And in the housing

"starting on the inside of row 3, piloting the Elden Racing number 22 Pennzoil machine, all the way from Wooster Ohio, THE WILD CHILD Jac Haudenschild" this is how i got the nickname "wild child" from my grandpa....Haud has been my favorite driver since i first saw the outlaws race when i was 5 or 6 (in this car i might add....or at least this scheme, was a newer chassis for sure though) he wound up over the fence that night and i've loved him since lol. i think sooner or later that i will get another car and try to print off some decals in this scheme:

i dont own this photo (as the name in the bottom indicates) but this is easily my favorite Jac Haudenschild car. a pretty mean scheme in my opinion.

Nice vibrant yellow on the chassis there!

Wildchild yeah the chassis is all wrong, in fact the chassis is wrong in all the releases of the kit. It is a 1984 or 85 gambler chassis. I have been drawing chassis templets for sprints in 1/24 scale and am just about finished with the 1990 Gambler which was the first one Gambler did with the down tube as a standard. Next up will be a Maxum chassis, should have that one done in a few weeks or so.

Ok guys here is a small start on my build the 1/24 Monogram Pennzoil Sprint Car. First up is the box art.

Here is the chassis all cleaned up and painted.

Bright aint it

picked my Kinser sprint up today and tore it open, anxious to see what was inside. looks pretty good overall, gonna need some modernization though. the only real nit-picks i have are:

1: if you look at the engine pic i posted, the chassis from the front of the cockpit forward will need som re-doing to turn it into a modern maxim.

2: im going to replace the tires (the right rear tire in m kit has a big indent in it) and engine on the kit from the die-cast i have if they scale up okay.

3: the seat is from (i assume) is the original kinser release, and is FAR from modern standards lol. the front wing is the 80s-90s-ish style too so i will add some bigger sail boards to the sides (like the pictures on the box)

4: no real complaints as fas as the quality of the decals, the only beef i have with them (as vetteman42 mentioned) is that there are no tire brand decals.........to Slixx! up! up! and away! lol

going to be a fun buils i think. will post pics once i get rolling.

Got some painting done on my sprint car build today, but I had to brush paint it. I couldnt thin the color I wanted to use on the chassis.  Needs a second coat and hopefully that will go on tomorrow and pictures tomorrow evening.

No kidding there, especially since ther are multiple wing, hood, rim, tire, and seats used on todays cars. everything is a bigger deal on a sprint because you can see ALL of it.

Yeah I would say the Nerf bars had to be powder coated because bare chromoly will rust in a heartbeat,( Used to work with chromoly a lot in the past) thats why I am thinking a light grey coat on them or maybe a dull silver. I am with you on the tail tank bumper I would swear some were chrome plated. A simple sprint car can be confusing cant it LOL

yeah i think Steves headers were black powder coated. i plan on making a "custom" sprint with the black rims like on kasey kahne's sprints. the nerfs like in the pictures are the ones i remember seeing the most...they look almost like just bare chromoly. the only ones that i ever remember seeing in a super bright finish that could actually pass for chrome are the ones around the fuel tank.

Thanks for the reference pics Wildchild No the decal sheet doesnt have the tire logos on it. The wheels are dull plated too, the kit doesnt have any bright chrome parts in it. Too bad they didnt plate the exhaust, but then I think Kinsers were painted. 

I am thinking the nurf bars and such were powdercoated a light gray or maybe silver. Just cant see them polishing a throw away item like those. I never paid them much attention when I went to the races. If I remember I will take a close look when I go this season.

does the dacal sheet come with either the Hoosier or Goodyear logos for the tires? and im having an idea here: i might just use the engine and driveline from that die cast sprint and graft it into the revellogram car when i get it. the "dull" chrome is actually a big plus, as most sprints dont have a "Chrome" look (except the wheels) on mosr parts like nerf bars. it looks more like polished steel or aluminum in reality. for anybody else is building this kit here are some pictures that may help in detailing. these pics are from a few years ago that i took at Cedar Lake Speedway when the world of outlaws paid their annual visit.

Cockpit of Kraig Kinser's car.

 one to help those that want to build a diorama base for a dirt car. yes, this is a DIRT track lol. looks very much like blacktop and just as hard too at the end of the night. the spots on the len that look like water are dirt and dust.

 had a TON of fun at these events. got autographs, free tires (they give them away after the races) some tear offs and stuff (not to mention the buzz from burning methanol lol) and got to spend some time with my grandpa.

Just got back from the LHS with the new sprint car, same ole chassis. The hood sprue is new though, along with of course the decal set. The tires are blank in this kit, no manufacturer name is on them, but they did go back to the dulled chrome parts finish I like that. Oh and the wheels have been updated, but not the oil tank nor the seat.

I am not complaining just letting you all know.

vetteman42

Good idea Wildchild I was trying to think of a way to make the plastic look like that but I think now that you mention it the foil would work much better.

Dont know if you all know about it but Revell has released a new sprint car kit, I thinks its a reissue with new decals. But later today I will know for sure as mine has come in at the LHS. Its the Kinser Bass Pro car.

got mine on order already :) its the kinser car from the 90's (originally with his signature bright green quaker state car) and from what i hear there is little (if any) re-tooling. it will take some scratchbuilding and modifying to bring it up to modern sprint car spec...but thats the fun of modeling!

Good idea Wildchild I was trying to think of a way to make the plastic look like that but I think now that you mention it the foil would work much better.

Dont know if you all know about it but Revell has released a new sprint car kit, I thinks its a reissue with new decals. But later today I will know for sure as mine has come in at the LHS. Its the Kinser Bass Pro car.

vetteman42

Thanks for the " How ya Done it " Wildchild will help out a bunch when I do the camero

Glad to help. may i make a suggestion though? if you are doing fenders or body panels that are on a short track car that have that "smashed, bent back, then hammered back into shape" look, use thick foil or soda can aluminum to replicate the body panels if at all possible...the dents look a milion times more realistic. just bent and tweak it a bunch of times (foil that is) or ball it up and unfod it gently and LIGHTY smooth it out so it still has some texture to it...it actually looks like dented metal because it is lol. much closer to scale thickness anyway.

just figured this might be helpful...its qute a bit of work but the end results are much more rewarding.

Thanks for the " How ya Done it " Wildchild will help out a bunch when I do the camero

vetteman42

Wildchild I am really liking your Impala looking great so far. What I would like to know is how you bent up the body like that. The stacks are indeed a nice touch.

first, i heated and bent the frame (using the method below, and bending it up 1/8'' at a time, checking often to make sure it stays fairly straight...i say "fairly" because honestly, after the first run there is no such thing as truly straight on a derby car lol) the body bends are created with a cigarette lighter (kicked the habit during football season and finally found a use for the lighter lol. for future bending i will use a candle though, the metal on the top of the lighter gets very very hot) varying the height i held the body about 4-8'' above the flame (depending on the plastic thickness and if it was near an edge, like fenders and windows) plastic edges have a bad habit of curling when they get too close to the flame, so i held it high above the fire to make sure it just softened. i then used the '57 chevy that i use for the weathering test bed (in the pics above) to dent in the plastic before it cools. to actually bend to body up, i did pretty much the same thing as when i bent the frame, except i heated only the top of the fenders (front and rear) and bent them up, it actually folds the top of the fenders over themselves but this is accurate to the 1:1 cars...if you heat the bottom of the fenders and bend them up, you will stretch the plastic on the bottom which will make the car longer, which obviously would not happen on a real car. after the top is heated, bend it up (in small incraments at first) and let it cool and the shape should stay...its hard to explain without pics, let me know if this makes sense.

Daddy1 those pics will definetly help! especially with the cockpit detail when my sprint finally comes in (i guess they will be released the end of this month)

Wildchild I am really liking your Impala looking great so far. What I would like to know is how you bent up the body like that. The stacks are indeed a nice touch.

Daddy1 thanks for the reference pictures they are really good and useful to us builders, pictures like these can be hard to come by. Looks to be a 87 to early 90s gambler chassis without the down tubes.

I am hoping to be back at the bench soon as I am finally winning the battle.

Looks pretty cool there , Wild Child! I may borrow from your header idea and go a step further to creat 360degree headers for my Chevelle . I keep envisioning the exhaust exiting out the right hand door panel, complete with exhaust stains. Building vintage warbirds, I love exhaust stains as weathering.

Have some reference pics here of a non-winged sprint car on display at a recent cruise night. Hope they can be helpful. 

Trying to make progress on another GB before really diving into the Chevelle , but I have jury duty looks like all week . Early morning commute into Tampa , Evening rush hour commute home . Doesn't leave much bench time at the end of each day. 

I'd stay up late but don't want to nod off during testimony in the court room. Doubt if the judge and parties involved would be thrilled with that. Hard enough to stay awake anyway LOL.

Enjoy the pics.

Howard

a few more updates on the impala...

i found the stock rims from an old Dodge charger kit (front) and used them to replace the chrome mags (after all, not many people have the cash to wreck a $3000 set of rims lol)

i decided on what i think is a 454 (i dont label any engines before they join the engine graveyard) because it fits very well into the engine compartment...no oilpan surgery needed to get it to fit with the front suspension.

i created the "exhaust system" (we just call them "stacks") by bending .080'' styrene rod and super gluing them together...super glue was used primarily to save time. i can post pics of how i did it if anybody wants to know.

i trimmed the top to be close to the height of the stacks on the other side, all i have to do now is make some 45 degree tirn outs for the top. i painted the engine in Polly Scale "Zinc Chrome Primer", it dries flat red and every brand of paint but tamiya seems to stick to it pretty good. a wash of PS Grimy Black and a second wash of black pigment powder dissolved in water gives it that beater-sitting-in-the-garage-for-years-covered-in-oil look. i didnt feel like spending $7 on a pre-wired distributor at the local hobby shop so i made my own with a pin vise and some 1/24 "battery cable"...i forget the brand, but a $3 package has wired four 8-cylinder engines. i call this the "Frankenstein Engine"...it has valve covers from a Chrysler 440, belts from a 426 hemi(minus the alternator and fan), intake manifold from god-knows-what, oil filter from the same location, scratch-built exhaust, and will have a carb and air filter from a '34 Ford hot rod.

with the stacks sticking out od the hood and the wheels found rusting behind the shop, its really starting to look like a demo car.

I'm liking what I see here.I'd love to bash up a kit some day.