I have started to try to get back to building and since I had a '57 Chevy kit with no interior pan or parts, and a '56 Chevy kit with no frame or suspension, I figured I could knock out a couple of old boxes in one build. The '56 Chevy Bel Air Coupe interior does not fit the "57 2-door post car at all; not even close. So a lot of adding plastic and whacking plastic has gone on but it is starting to round into shape. I have an old Peoria Speedway car in mind but we'll see how it progresses. A long way to go but I am delighted to be working on something again!
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I'm sooooo happy to see you back at it! Been missing some of the best builds anyone could see!!!
Welcome back to the insane asylum!
Rett
Welcome back! That Chevy build is looking good already. I will be following this one.
Looking good so far and I really like your roll cage. Always nice to hear a modeler being in the mood to build!
Great to see you back building, David.
Maybe it will help stir up some interest here............ ::)
Glad you are back David and as Hondo said "perhaps you can stir up some interest". Welcome back!
Al
There will be more bars on the cage but I tend to leave room to install the other interior items. There is also more work that needs to be done to the body, especially around the fabricated firewall area. I am trying to build this more or less as they did in that time period so the cage is not terribly complex nor will some of the other things be.
On the larger front, some of the things I have been reading on here have helped get me to push some of life out of the way (that's been a huge issue the last few months) and to get back to the bench. This build is just a "limbering up" deal. Next, I'll tackle a Tobias frame build and maybe that'll be of some help to a few of you.
David who???
;D To echo the sentiments of the rest, its good all around to see you back at it.
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Agreed.
David, glad you're back. Is that body from the flip nose flip nose drag model, or is it from the black widow. Just curious, I'm looking for a '57 210 model, to build a model of a high school buddies car, from back in the day.
Olderndirt
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Great to have you back David! Myabe your return will inspire some of us to push the "restart" button & get building again!
Thanks David, I have not seen that kit. Do you know how old it is, and it current availability?
Olderndirt
OND- I got mine at my LHS and they are around (might have seen some at Hobby Lobby or at Ollies); certainly available on-line. I picked it up simply because it was cheaper than the Black Widow kit but yet would still provide me with the post style body I desired. It could likely be converted into a plausible 210 without too much difficulty. It appears to have been a 2011 re-issue.
Brand: Revell
Title: '57 Chevy Bel Air Two-Door Sedan 2 'n 1 California Wheels
Number: 85-4251
Scale: 1:25
Type: Full kit
Released: 2011 | Rebox (Changed decals)
Thanks so much. Oddly enough I picked up a Black Widow off of Model Roundup that somebody had pirated the FI out of the kit. I just haven't gotten around to removing the rear fender trim, and fabricating the 210 trim. If I can find one of these kits I won't have to.
Olderndirt
This car had exhaust that ran straight up from the motor and up through the hood. Both #222 plastic rod and .062 solder fit nicely inside K&S #8101 aluminum tubing. After drilling out the exhaust I tried both the styrene rod and the solder and i liked the consistency and pliability of the solder better for this application.
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Slipping the tube over the bent solder will work "okay" once painted, dirt "washed" and blended in but I wanted to try to bend my aluminum so that it looked like it was coming straight from the motor. Too sharp of a bend for my K&S tubing so I tabled it and I will get some of the new "soft bend" tubing and try that.
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In the meantime I went ahead and got the balance of basic engine parts painted and glued in. I have many other little points on this project in which to tinker so the slight delay until I get a chance to fiddle with the new soft bend stuff is okay!
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Quick update. I bought some of the new "easy bend" aluminum, brass and copper from K&S and tried some test bends on the copper (since it was the softest). That stuff will come in handy and it does indeed bend very easily. However, in tubular form it cannot be bent as sharply as I needed it for this application. In this scale you can't get enough stretch from the outer side of the bend to keep it from collapsing at such a tiny radius.
Still, I like the stuff and will be using it for various things down the road but just note; as malleable as it is, it is not a miracle piece of metal.
Thanks for the up-date and INFO on the tubing David. It does sound like it would be useful in the shop...
Quote from: David Bogard on February 05, 2021, 12:49:54 PM
Quick update. I bought some of the new "easy bend" aluminum, brass and copper from K&S and tried some test bends on the copper (since it was the softest). That stuff will come in handy and it does indeed bend very easily. However, in tubular form it cannot be bent as sharply as I needed it for this application. In this scale you can't get enough stretch from the outer side of the bend to keep it from collapsing at such a tiny radius.
Still, I like the stuff and will be using it for various things down the road but just note; as malleable as it is, it is not a miracle piece of metal.
Any suggestions on what it would work with? ....cages, nerf bars, etc... Been wanting to try some of those easy bend metals from K&S , but unsure on what I would use it on.
I can see lots of exhaust related uses from zoomies to certain under-vehicle exhaust works to collectors, turnout tubes and various things like that. Some injector tube applications (the stuff seems to flare easier), turbo-charger intakes, and just anywhere there is an obvious tube (open end seen or required) that would require stable and multiple bends. It's not a "must have" for the builder but a stick laying around will come in handy on certain applications.
David, really good to see you back at it. Inspires me to finish up a couple of models laying around temporarily dormant!
Coming along. I've got the bumpers built, the hood shortened and opened up for the exhaust, the shocks made and temporarily set in place, and the motor wired up. Many details to go but it is shaping up to look like my reference photos.
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It's sure looking good David!! They sure made Heavy-duty rear bumpers back then didn't they. Keeps the other guy from messing things up back there.
It was likely a regional thing Gary. In Central Illinois the tracks are all 1/4 mile or even 1/5 mile; high banked clay ovals. That meant there was a lot of "persuasion" that went on back in the day. When so many cars showed up on Friday, Saturday and Sunday Nights, half of which were pretty evenly matched and were capable of winning, sometimes the difference was indeed how much nuanced nudging, blocking, shoving and scraping you did. Guys like Rett will tell you that these old cars were not delicate and they were made for tight quarters and trading paint with other cars!
By the way, one of the beauties of Peoria Speedway was that everything was inverted in all the heats, consi's and semi's/ standing start and three abreast. They even started the feature with the fast nine cars (hot heat cars) inverted until sometime in the mid-70's. Then they went to two abreast rolling starts (still inverted) and started drawing peas for the feature. The fast time driver would draw 1 of 10 peas and whatever number that was, that was how many they inverted. I liked it a lot as it made the fast guys work to get up front and also allowed for many different winners.
Your right David. In my area, we qualified, lined up fast car started last for ALL races. So, if you were fast timer and won the feature you really had to do some serious kind of driving. Best I ever did was fast time, won the heat, and second (2 or 3 times) in the feature. We did this 3 and 4 nights a week in southeastern Wisconsin. And I loved every minute of it!
Rett
The "up through the hood" exhaust are challenging me so I stopped working on them last night. I have generally found it better to walk away and come back fresh when some particular part of a build gets overly frustrating. Otherwise I tend to end up doing something I will regret!
And Rett, you are so right! Today we just line them up with the faster guys up front and then they run off and hide. The back half just slugs it out as best they can but unless you can start on "the pole" or in those first couple of rows your chances are slim. Invert them all! Make them race! Make 'em earn it!
Separates the men from the boys, that's for sure. Cost is pretty much was caused a lot of that! Coming from the last row usually used up some equipment. So, I can understand the way it is these days. Understand it, yes, like it, not so much!!!! lol
Rett
Tracks around North Central IA area run under IMCA with 4 classes of cars Modifieds, Sport mods, Stock Cars and Hobby stocks and Sport Compacts. One track even runs Cruisers. NO qualifying...just draw for starting positions....Hot laps consist of Green, White, Checkers.....
Pesky exhaust pipes are installed and motor is installed and plumbed. Shocks are now installed and completing the interior and tire/wheel combination is well underway. I have to pick my shots as the temps are crazy cold right now so my little garage bench area is too cold. I'll bring little items into the house and work on them from time to time.
Out plowing snow for hours (and will be much of this week) but I'll try to get a few photos up so you can see where this old Jim Strube Chevy is during its construction phase.
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It is getting there. Can't wait for the finished product!
Rett
Yes SIR...it is getting there.....
It's great David, as usual, and I love the Tri 5s. And I don't mean to mess up the works or anything.
But, on the 1:1, why in the world would anyone do those vertical stacks with all that open fender area ? Maybe the fenders were put back on later ? :-\
Looking good, David.
Don't drop it in the snow when you go out to paint it .......... ;D
Just a possible answer for John's question. We used to see this exhaust solution every so often years ago. The reason was we live on the biggest freshwater lake in California, where they have ski races, and used to have boat races, as well. It was pretty easy to find boat headers for little or nothing. Simply cut them off just before they make the turn into the collectors and bingo you have zoomies sticking out of your hood.
Olderndirt
I'm not really quite sure why some of those guys did that back in that era. OND's explanation is as good as any but a handful had them for a while. I must admit that I liked them as a kid watching those races. Did I mention that they were LOUD!!! But the best part was that month at the end of the regular season that they called "Open Competition" when guys could run Ether (among other things). Later in the evening when it was dark and seeing orangish-blue flames pop up out of the hood and hear the cackle at the end of the straightaways when they let off the throttle and rode the brakes was racing fireworks at it's best!
Here's the car on opening night the first year. Jim ran this thing a little over two years before he wadded up too bad to be repaired. I mentioned above that Jim Strube was a Cowboy behind the wheel and he won a lot and he bent up a lot of cars at the same time!
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As they did back in the day, the car morphed many times over it's lifespan. Here it has got different (later) wheel and rims, different suspension, and of course, a bunch of dented up metal.
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He always kept those little chrome tail fin accents though!
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I am building a representative car that happened somewhere along it's life. Those old things changed so much (sometimes week-to-week) that you can't really build a "replica look" so it has to just be some general recreation that has the look and feel of what the car was.
Look at that BLACK dirt !! That's why they can grow all that good corn. I look at Knoxville, Iowa, on tv and it looks like asphalt.
Our Mississippi soil is not that good -- light brown to red clay. We have some great dirt track'n though.
That 16 is a great LM.
Still in mock-up. Got the color on it and now I can do some detail work while waiting for decals. (and start another build!)
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That's looking real good David. It's going to look even better with the decals on it.
You're right Gary; it's the graphics that make it all work on any of these race cars! I will now be able to weather it some, finish little minor odds and ends and get it ready for final graphics and dull coat.
My-oh My David you sure have a way of taking parts from various kits, mixing them together and coming out with a show winner every time. That is a beautiful looking chevy late model. Great Great job. I like everything about it.
Al
Fantastic replica as usual David. Those decals will make it Pop.
Bob
Looks like another beauty David! Ditto to all the above! I've seen many pics of Peoria-based racers, but not this one. How many Strubes were there? Seems like they raced for generations.
BobD, please click on the link and as you can see, we had the Strube Gang at Peoria for what seemed like forever and at one point we had Seven of them in the car count. They raced hard and fast and they would take one another out for the win if they had to!
https://www.peoriaoldtimers.net/the-strube-brothers
Now that is very cool. That whole family raced didn't they? Did the women run with the guys or did they do the Powder Puff thing? Great history and pics. Very cool looking cars for sure.
Gary- They always sprinkled in a handful of Powder Puff Races during the year and it was always Darlene Strube. . . and then everybody else. Had the culture and rules been different back then I am not so sure she couldn't have held her own with the men! There was another Strube lady, Elberta "Bootie" Strube who worked at the track in various capacities for many years. She was really cool and opened her home to many racers that traveled from out of town; quite a gal. A "racing" family if there ever was one!
Good looking start David. You are one of the best at making something really KOOL from the JUNKYARD ! looking good!
Wow! I knew of Jim & Fred for sure, but not the whole clan! I bought Scott Schults' booklet quite a few years ago - not sure where it is, but I don't remember all the Strubes being listed.
Bob- Jim and Fred were probably the most accomplished of the bunch as they traveled some to race. Most of the other ones hung around closer to home but they all had their moments. I wouldn't doubt that entire Family could total 500 checkers so yes indeed, they left their mark.
By the way, one thing I always liked about them was the fact that they didn't block for one another or pile-on during a pit fight or anything like that. In fact, I saw Jim take Floyd out one night for a feature win and then two weeks later, Floyd stuffed Jim into a wall! Good times!
Well, I killed the decals on this one so I have asked Greg to do them all over again. These are layered with several white backgrounds that must go down before your color graphics go on and I KNOW that you put one down, let it dry, and then put another down, and so on. I got impatient (the bane of all model builders!) and figured I could just put all the layers on in one setting. Nope! Not me!! keeping them lined up when they are all wet and sticking to each other is a fool's errand. It was totally my fault and has nothing whatsoever to do with Greg's decals.
So. . . lesson reminded and I will await new ones and do them the right way! Sorry for the delay.
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Special thanks to Greg Holland for the decal work.
That looks real good David. You sure nailed the look of the 1/1.
Thanks Gary. Since those old cars changed nearly week-to-week I kind of picked some sort of middle ground on it. They got beat up, re-bodied and whacked on all the time so you really can't go "wrong" building a representation of one of them. Thanks again!
Too cool for words!
Rett
Welcome back! Another sweet one David! Love the details on it and the dirt look is way cool. Keep em coming....
Thanks again. This was a fun build and brought back a lot of memories.
Outstanding model David BTW how did you crack the windshield, was it some sort of zen magic or a decal?
Al
Thanks Al. I have "cracked" a few windshields in my time and I usually take my Exacto knife, turn it around backwards, and then make my cracks with "ziggly" lines on the back side of the glass. This old Chevelle is a good example:
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Very sharp replica build, David!
Love it, David. You just don't know how to build bad models, do you?!
Another great build David! Very reminiscent of the cars here and all across the midwest. Love those headers!
I like it!