John Horak's 70 Chevelle semi-replica

[Greg Birky]

Hey guys, once again i trudge forward in hopes of resurrecting my model building ambitions...I started the 68 Chevelle a while back and will return to it at some point...for now I'm going to build a "replica from memory" since i am aware of no existing photos.  Mine were all lost through life's journey so I hope some details will be remembered as I go here.  The car was raced in the Hawkeye Downs Speedway sportsman (B Modified) class in the mid 70"s after Uncle Sam said I had loaded enough weapons on the F4 aircraft in SEA.  The car was built on a 57 Chevy chassis and had 3/4 ton Chevy truck front suspension and rear axle suspended on 64 Ford station wagon rear springs.  The real car was painted white with blue SS stripes on the hood and trunk lid, sponsor was Nesbitt's Bottling company and the number was 27.  I plan to use artistic license here with sponsor and number design and will honor John's dads Chevy/Olds dealership.  Although not an official sponsor of the effort, Johns dad gave us a ton of parts help and access to a frame machine and parts since this was a low budget effort.  So without further ado, here's where were at today through pictures...

[Greg Birky]

a few more pics

[TarheelRick]

I have one of these bodies I picked up as a pilfered kit at Michael's.  They took the complete chrome tree, tires, and most of the engine parts.  I have picked up the front and rear bumpers.  May use some of the ideas you have on this one.

[Greg Birky]

Hi Rick, funny deal, I picked this kit up at a contest swap meet a couple of years ago for $5.00 in a baggie...mostly non essential parts missing!!!  Cheap is good these days!!!  No paint is good too...I decided I have to do more of these easier low detail builds or I'll never get anywhere close to finishing anything.  It sucks to have to scale back how I want to build but life rolls on albeit difficult since my wife passed...If you have any questions feel free to ask!

[Bob P.]

Looking good so far. This looks an interesting build, keep us posted on your progress.

Bob

[TarheelRick]

Not meaning to hi-jack this thread, but what type chassis was under that Nova?  I have a spare '66 body that will going that direction and could use some information.

[Greg Birky]

Looking real good Greg. Do not focus on what you cannot do but rather on the excellent work you can. This is going to be a terrific build! Here's an old Horak car from Davenport!

OMG, David, thank you for the pic!!!  All I have are a couple of Polaroids of it after being rebuilt after the rollover!!!  I didn"t know this pic existed.  I was involved in the build of this Nova and it's sister car #28 of John Wolf during the winter/spring of 70/71 but Uncle Sam came calling with a draft # of 68 in the spring of 71 so I went bomb loading for a few years and missed out on all the racing in Iowa for the next four years and was only stationed near one track the entire four years.  When I came home the car had been rebuilt completely and John and I raced it three times while building the 70 Chevelle.  We took the Nova to the '75 Winternationals at Knoxville and raced it a couple of times at Marshalltown, Iowa.  Didn't do that well but had fun none the less.  I'm so grateful for this photo, David!!!  I cant tell you how much it means to me to have it!!!  I will build a replica of it now!!!

[Greg Birky]

Not meaning to hi-jack this thread, but what type chassis was under that Nova?  I have a spare '66 body that will going that direction and could use some information.

Rick, this car had a much shortened and narrowed tri five chassis under it.  We took four chassis' and blew them completely apart and sandblasted them and then took two chassis and split the rails into two pieces to overlay the two complete chassis' to effectively double the thickness for strength.  I believe the wheel base was cut down to 108" and those frames were stiff as could be.  There was a sister car, #28, a Nova convertible built at the same time and it was identical in every way except for the lack of a roof.  Good times and a story to tell sometime if anyone wants to hear it.  Ask anything you want to know as I remember the car quite well.  I would love to know it's whereabouts today!!!

[Greg Birky]

For anyone interested here is the link to the album in my Fotki account!  https://public.fotki.com/bondoboy/john-horaks-70-chev/


Thanks for the kind words David!!!  The Nova is now in queue for my next serious build!  I"m back and beginning to re-hone my seriously rusty skills but having fun again after many false starts due to life happening...Iron sharpens iron and i"m among some good men (iron) to get back up to speed...Here's a little Friday nite update, y'all...shes up and standing on her own!!!  Roll cage and dash are next...I'm pretty thrilled with the progress so far with this primitive kit!!!

[Greg Birky]

Guys, I need some help if anyone can help me get my pictures reduced to a size where the whole photo is in view.  My Fotki setting is 600x600!  Ideas?

[Greg Birky]

I got a good start on the roll cage fabrication this afternoon. Need to add a few more bars and start work on dash, pedals and seat but all in all it's all about making steady progress for me on this one to see it finished...I'm using .060 Evergreen rod for the cage and I cut the doorbars out of an AMT roll cage...I can almost smell the welding in the air, lol!!!  I also lowered the car to a more level stance like the real car was.  That's about it for this time around, fella's!!!

[RandB11]

I really like the way you are building this. It's looking better and better. Excellent job on that roll cage. Can't wait to see more! 

Rick

[Greg Birky]

Thanks for the kind words,Rick!  It's been so long since I've actually been able to enjoy scratch building and just generally having fun building that I've decided that I need to keep things fairly simple and not sweat the small stuff l!  Getting my skill sets fine tuned after not building for so long is going to depend on steady building and seeing each project through to the finish in a reasonable time frame.  Hopefully I can finish this one in a couple of weeks and move on to the next one!!!  I believe that finishing models frequently rather than getting bogged down in super-detailing will be key in having fun and holding my interest in building!!!, so far, so good!!!  Sorry for writing a book but it feels good to talk about this project and getting my building fired up again!!!  It's been nearly six years of life interruptions in building.  Thanks for humoring me, Rick and everyone else!!!🏁

[TarheelRick]

Good looking cage.  Looking forward to updates.

[Bob P.]

Greg,

You have a PM.

Bob