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Post by Bernard Kron on Mar 28, 2021 16:31:35 GMT -8
While I build mostly hot rods, customs and straightline racers, I’ve gone since the end of 2019 without build a drag competition subject, instead building a couple of sporty cars, a Ferrari 250 LM and a Lotus Seven, in 2020. So this project is kind of going back to my roots. The inspiration was a chute pack rear body offered on eBay by Joe Curtis at Fremont Racing Specialties. My favorite length chassis front engine digger is on either side of 150 inches for the wheelbase. So, because Joe also offers a variety of different length dragster nose shells I ordered a short length to match. I’ll still need to remove a bit of it for it to fit. My idea is to build a fairly fancy full bodied fuel dragster of the sort seen at the various dragstrips around the L.A. and Orange County area in the mid-sixties – fast, loud with lots of chrome and polish and slick paint and lettering. I started with the late 60’s very long (210 inches) chassis found in the various AMT digger kits such as the Tommy Ivo FED, the Too Much, the Young American and the Garlits Wynnscharger. My usual approach to shortening it is to remove 2 bays just aft of the nose, resulting in about a 150” wheelbase depending on which front axle setup I choose. The Fremont chute pack body, however, is designed to fit the MPC Ramchargers legs-under (driver’s legs pass under the rear axle) chassis instead of the legs-over design of the AMT frame. To get the body to sit right I needed to relocate the rear axle forward of the vertical frame tube instead of behind it (yellow circle vs. red “v” in panel A of the composite photo below). The result is the 145” chassis I’ve got here. The motor is the 392 Hemi from the AMT Bantam Blast kit with an Enderle Injector from the Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit which also offered up its front axle. The injector scoop is from Altered States Models. The whole project will be a sort of “greatest hits” of my favorite dragster parts. The photos below are a mockup held together with white glue. The bodywork is pretty far along although the cowl area stills need some massaging to fit right. The chassis, too, is well along, and the motor half built, so, except for the (I hope) fancy paint job and decals, this project should move pretty quickly. Thanx for lookin’, B.      |
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Post by tatocorvette on Mar 28, 2021 18:03:43 GMT -8
Nice start!
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Post by afx on Mar 29, 2021 2:24:13 GMT -8
Nice looking project Bernard, did you lace the front wheels yourself?
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Post by Bernard Kron on Mar 29, 2021 10:04:06 GMT -8
Thanks guys! ...did you lace the front wheels yourself?  |
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Post by Chris K. Hale on Mar 29, 2021 11:49:36 GMT -8
Really nice front wheels! Great job on the body work too, just goes to show, No matter what kind of a car you build, the technique and detail transfers over universally ! Keep those pics coming.. Chris
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Post by Bernard Kron on Mar 30, 2021 11:46:49 GMT -8
Really nice front wheels! Great job on the body work too, just goes to show, No matter what kind of a car you build, the technique and detail transfers over universally ! Keep those pics coming.. Chris Thanks Chris. I'm afraid the bodywork, like all resin bodies to one degree or another, will be the part upon which this project stands or falls. I have yet to find an aftermarket dragster body that is a drop-dead fit or, frankly, even close. Combined with the fact that there are virtually no mid-length FED's other than the somewhat idiosyncratic Ramchargers/More American Graffitti/Jawbreaker chassis with it's legs-under and center steering details. Indeed I really should have replaced virtually the entire Ivo FED chassis from the firewall forward with round stock, or at least filed the tubes to shape, but I'm counting on the full bodywork to hide this omission. As it is I have already removed the body floor forward of the repositioned rear axle, cut a slot for the skid bar under the driver's seat and notched the nose to clear the Tony Nancy front axle as a result of taking 50" out of the wheelbase. We'll see how the body wars work out. Still a lot of cutting, filing, fitting and fettling to do to make up for its flaws. IMHO Mike Williams has got it right in bagging thew hole thing and just doing it from scratch in brass. But that, I'm afraid is, as they say, above my pay grade, LOL. |
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Post by Bernard Kron on Apr 11, 2021 16:40:02 GMT -8
I got the motor and cockpit area assembled. The cockpit is straight out of the box from the AMT Ivo/Too Much kits with minor adjustments to account for the rear axle having been moved forward. A shortened tie rod will accommodate the radically shortened wheelbase. The motor is the Dodge 392 Hemi from the AMT Bantam Blast kit including the blower and the valve covers. The Enderle barn door injector is from the Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit and the blower pulleys and drive belt are the Ivo/Too Much kit with the idler pulley bracket adapted from the Tony Nancy kit. The short zoomie exhausts are from the AMT Don Garlits Wynn’s Jammer and are temporarily installed for alignment purposes. They will be replaced by a more aggressive set of 3D printed zoomies I have on order from 3D Model Specialties on Shapeways (see inset of an earlier model I did using them). The body work has had the white base coat applied and, after curing, I’ll mask out the scallops and then apply the Testors Purplicious main color coat. This will be the subject of my next update. Thanx for lookin, B.   |
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Post by Joel_W on Apr 12, 2021 5:24:19 GMT -8
Bernard
My knowledge of dragsters of any type would easily fit the top of a pin with plenty of room to spare, as even a teenager my racing interests were for road type racers and those "little" two seater sport cars. Still, I appreciate great modeling when I see it, and your build more then fits that category.
The shortened chassis looks as though it was molded to that length including the front suspension. The 392 ci blown engine really looks the part detail wise. The ignition wires looms and boots really adds so much to the visual aspect for me.
What really grabbed my attention is that the driver's legs went under the rear axle. Over would have been scary enough, but under !! Another of the million reasons why a mid engine dragster just seamed that much safer, if safe is a concept that drivers of dragsters could use.
joel
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Post by Bernard Kron on Apr 12, 2021 9:54:25 GMT -8
Bernard My knowledge of dragsters of any type would easily fit the top of a pin with plenty of room to spare, as even a teenager my racing interests were for road type racers and those "little" two seater sport cars. Still, I appreciate great modeling when I see it, and your build more then fits that category. The shortened chassis looks as though it was molded to that length including the front suspension. The 392 ci blown engine really looks the part detail wise. The ignition wires looms and boots really adds so much to the visual aspect for me. What really grabbed my attention is that the driver's legs went under the rear axle. Over would have been scary enough, but under !! Another of the million reasons why a mid engine dragster just seamed that much safer, if safe is a concept that drivers of dragsters could use. joel Thank you Joel. Actually this is a "legs over" chassis design, but leg's under designs also existed. Either way they were insanely dangerous since they left the driver exposed to exploding driveline components including superchargers at face level and motor internals, clutches and rear ends down where the driver's feet, legs and "family jewels" reside. The great Don Garlits nearly lost a foot when the cockpit area of his FED was severed in the now-notorious accident, a photo of which is below. Garlits, in addition to being a hugely talented driver, was and is a man of many gifts, among which are intelligence and persistence. Although rear engine dragsters had always been known to be potentially safer for placing the driver forward of all this mayhem, they were viciously ill-handling beasts that would "snap" on you coming off the line. But Big Daddy had had enough and, during his convalescence, with the aid of his equally talented friends and partners Connie Swingle and T.C. Lemons solved the long mysterious problems of the rear engine dragster. I've always found it interesting that the simplicity and purity of all race cars during the 60's conspired to make them among the most beautiful and yet lethal of devices, whether it was a straight-line racer like these FEDs or minimalist monocoque missile like a Lotus 25. The image of Romain Grosjean miraculously leaping from the flames in Bahrain last Fall reminds us of just how far we've come, even if it's at considerable sacrifice in aesthetic purity. Fortunately car modeling allows us to enjoy what these masterpieces had to offer. Don Garlits, Lions Drag Strip, March 8, 1970.
The legs-under design permits a more dramatic relationship of drag slicks to cockpit. This is a model I did a few years ago using the 160" MPC Ramchargers FED kit as a starter to exploit that look: |
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Post by arcticwolf on Apr 12, 2021 13:24:12 GMT -8
It's a bit like music - you my not care for the genre but you can still appreciate the talent. When it comes to motorized equipment, although I'm a road racer by heart, I like anything with an engine and 2 wheels, or 4. Dragsters included and yours look great, although I know little about them technically. I'll admit that back in the day, if I'd had the chance to try out one of those drag bikes I'd have jumped at it!
Nice work Bernard.
Paul
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Post by Joel_W on Apr 12, 2021 14:30:15 GMT -8
Bernard,
Thanks for the info/history of those guided missiles as well as that Picture. This is one aspect of our site that really is so special to guys like me.
joel
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Post by tatocorvette on Apr 12, 2021 16:47:05 GMT -8
Bernard beat me to post that famous picture taken by Jim Kelly of Garlit's exploding car in 1970. He was born again that second.
Here is a home movie of the accident.
By the way Bernard, the dragster is looking really good!
Thanks,
Ismael
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Post by Joel_W on Apr 13, 2021 2:39:43 GMT -8
Ismael,
The video is even more scary then the picture. How he lived through that was simply amazing.
joel
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Post by Bernard Kron on Apr 15, 2021 6:57:59 GMT -8
I got the basic paint scheme laid down. The base color is white done by applying three coats of Duplicolor Clear over Duplicolor white primer. Then the panel edge stripes were created by masking the white areas I wanted to show. Finally Testors Purple-Licious metallic purple was applied. The other item completed was the roll over hoop and brace which were made by bending some aluminum tubing to shape. The tubes will be polished with Simichrome. Right now there’s a fair amount of cleanup to be done on the paint scheme to straighten up the edges and deal with any minor paint overspray. Next up will be designing a the graphic text for the team/entrant and car names and having them printed. They will be white. I also apply various trade decals as appropriate. Then the whole thing will be clear coated and then it’ll be time for final assembly, adding the suspension and steering details, windscreen, front wing, proper zoomies, etc. Thanx for lookin’. B.  |
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Post by Chris K. Hale on Apr 15, 2021 7:35:10 GMT -8
If you guys haven't read "Big Daddy" by Don Garlits You should. It has some real insight into the man, his life and his building/racing the Swap Rat dragsters. He outlines the trials and tribulations along the way. A Excellent read whether You are into Drag racing or not. Chris
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