1957 Ford fairlane 500.....my intro to Nascar

[MarkJ]

Amt kit. 105 hours to complete. This car represents my introduction to Nascar. One Saturday morning when I was 6 years old, I looked out the front window of my parents house, in Hampton Virginia, and saw a beautiful red and black car that I had never seen before. It was parked in front of my friend , Rusty McCaddens house. After my mom forced me to eat my breakfast, I ran down to see what was going on. Some of my other friends had already gathered to see this beautiful car. Turned out it was Rusty's older brother's 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 with continental kit and fender skirts. He had stopped by to show the car to his parents and Rusty. Rusty informed me that he was on his way to the Southern 500 in South Carolina. I said , whats that? I had never heard of it before. He informed me that it was a stock car race run at Darlington South Carolina, that was raced on an asphalt track for 500 miles on Labor Day. I asked him if he was going to race this car. He laughed and said no they were special cars with numbers painted on them that race drivers like Lee and Richard Petty drove. I had no idea who they were. I never got to see his brother but when I went home I asked my dad if he knew about the race and he said he did but he didn't seem like he was that interested in it . But he told me more information about Nascar and said maybe some day we would go to a Nascar race. Needless to say my interest was peeked. I never forgot about this car and finally decided to build a model of it. Its a 62 year old memory so its only basically what the real car looked like. But I think its pretty close.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, David. I wasn't sure anybody would find this way down here. Just got the urge to do a factory stock model for a change. Had some paint issues and actually had to strip the whole body and start over. I used rustoleum for plastic and found if you spray one color over the other it will craze the paint you put on top. If you check out the wip at the link below you will see my trials and tribulations. Luckily I found some left over Tamiya to save the build.

http://cs.scaleautomag.com/sca/modeling_subjects/f/35/t/131746.aspx

[Tom Birky]

Wow! Nicely done. Takes alot of work to trim one of those out. And great story too!

Thx for posting it. Tom

[RandB11]

Great story, Stunning build!! Absolutely gorgeous! When I was growing up one of my Dad's best friends had a red and white one. Beautiful cars! 

Rick

[Dirtman]

Beautifuller than most!!! Loooove it!


Rett

[Fordguy01]

Beautiful 57 Ford Mark great workmanship throughout.

Fordguy01 or as I like to be called:  Al

[sentsat71]

WOW ! !
VERY stunning build!

[Olderndirt]

  A high school friends parents had a red, and white one just like your model. I thought it was pretty cool, and hoped to buy it when they decided to get a new car. But, a couple of car collectors already had their eyes on it. It had a thunderbird 312 in it with the two four barrel package, and the aluminum thunderbird valve covers on it. I think all that equipment came from the factory on it.

  Olderndirt

[Bob P.]

That's a beautiful build and very well done. It brings back a lot of good memories.
I was twelve years old when the new fifty seven Fords and Chevy's came out. I had a couple older friends who took me rides in both of them, great memories. 

Bob

[Gary Davis]

Outstanding build Mark! You did this car justice that's for sure. The fender skirts and Continental kit sure make that car look good. 

[Greg Birky]

WOW, I think this car ups perhaps the most beautiful 57 Ford model that I've seen, Mark!!!  Very nicely done and the real car must have been stunning!!!🤗👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🏁🏁🏁

[Marty W]

Wow, nice job on the Ford, Mark!

[pdaly28]

Beautiful!Growing up in the 50'sand 60's I saw a few of these around.super build!

[TarheelRick]

I must agree with all the accolades above.  I am in awe of the beauty of this build.  You have created a masterpiece from a kit that is not really one of the best to work with.  What is the next "Mona Lisa" on your bench?

[MarkJ]

I must agree with all the accolades above.  I am in awe of the beauty of this build.  You have created a masterpiece from a kit that is not really one of the best to work with.  What is the next "Mona Lisa" on your bench?

Thanks everybody for the kind words. Rick, I don't know about a "Mona Lisa" because it will be a race car. I purchased a Laser printer, so I can finally make white decals. I still need to purchase the White ghost printer toner cartridge, and some decal paper. I'm hoping I can figure out how to do it right. With white decals I wont have to trim the ink jet decals printed on white paper after applying them to the model, which is a tedious job to say the least. Should make for a much better build experience and if they come out well enough I could actually maybe sell a couple of them.