Build Ideas

[David Bogard]

Some interesting work.

https://www.drivingline.com/articles/scale-artistry-the-coolest-model-cars-from-nnl-west-2018-gallery/

https://www.drivingline.com/articles/scale-hobby-massive-talent-8-awesome-model-car-builds-from-nnl-west/

[Tom Birky]

Model shows are full of great ideas! As a friend of mine used to say, "If that doesn't get you fired up, your wood is wet!".   If you need more, google Fotki model car shows.

Thx for the cool links David

Tb

[Maineboy]

There is all the proof one needs to figure out that there is a lot of art involved in building high quality models. Those builders have a great eye for the lines of a car, have skills almost beyond compare and the patience of Job. When you look at these photos you don't think you will ever see "better" but then you always do. Good builders inspire others to strive to be better.

Thanks for the photos and the inspiration. Tons of great ideas there.

MB

[David Bogard]

That little modified coupe (photo #6 in the first link) is a very nice tribute build to the great Marshall Sargent. Whoever did it built a beautiful race car. He and Al Pombo are legends from the South Bay and raced at San Jose, CA and surrounding tracks. Sargent ran a '55 Chevy modified for a year or two that I one day would like to take a stab at.

[David Bogard]

Also photo #23 with the Freightliner Hauler and the number 0 modified is really, really well done. That hauler is spectacular looking!

[Maineboy]

That #7 modified definitely looks like your kind of race car, one that looks nothing much like any other race car. That body has definitely been "fiddled" with. Most of the car behind the rear window got lost somewhere along the way.  It looks like it is on the original frame as the front control arms look like tri-5 front end parts. The motor is set back a considerable amount and perhaps lower in the frame. Looks to me like the body is channeled down over the frame as the driver seems seated higher than in the stock car. And in the process the body got tilted downward, as that 56 you are working on is. I admire the backyard engineering that went into these cars. To take something that was manufactured as a street car and turn it into a successful race car took a lot of ability. For a long time most of the men who built these cars had no formal education in engineering. They learned from experience and the most successful were the best learners.

That Freightliner hauler is a pretty classy act beside the car that it is hauling. I have a special place in my heart for those cabovers. A family friend has one sitting in his dooryard that is complete and could be restored. My youngest son is a mechanic and computer control systems technician on excavation and paving machinery, who was a trucker at heart from birth. He would like to restore it some day. He goes over and looks at it now and then.

Just out of curiosity do you know what color that #7 car was? I have, among other things, a 55 Belair 2dr post kit sitting here. Was pondering making a late model out of it someday but got too many projects at hand right now.

MB

[David Bogard]

That Marshall Sargent '55 Chevy was purple, kind of a metallic purple.

[john2]

   Thanks David and Tom.

I'll be looking at lots of the shows on Fotki.

[David Bogard]

Here's the actual Marshall Sargent coupe that was built as aq model and as you can see, whoever did it really captured the "look".

[Olderndirt]

 A young Grant Lindeblad ran a car very similar to Sargent's #7 car at Lakeport, and Ukiah, speedways in the early days. He may very well have copied many Sargent's cars features. Lindeblad's car was emblazoned with the legendary  Fishgrinder on the side, paying tribute to his Norwegian heritage. Which would be more than a little politically incorrect today, but was just something to laugh about in the sixties. Grants car ran a smallblock Chevy, with six dueces instead of a flathead Ford.

  Olderndirt

[Maineboy]

....."Grants car ran a smallblock Chevy, with six dueces"......

Awful glad I never had to try and tune that setup.  In high school I had a friend who had a 62 Chevy Biscayne, 2 dr w post. He put a tri power on his 283 motor and spent some time getting that to work well before he went back to the 4 bbl. That tri power had a unique sound.

MB

[David Bogard]

OND - Lindeblad raced at Ukiah. Ever hear of Bill Deschamps or Deak Lyndall?

[Olderndirt]

 Bill just passed away a few weeks ago. He was a real piece of work. Raced way passed the age most people stop driving. Bill got involve with vintage races, after he got rid of his sprint car. One night he was asked to drive a vintage modified once owned and driven by the Allison's Alabama crew ( I think it was Bobby's car). It was powered by a big nailhead Buick. Everything went fine until one of the other old racers passed him down low in turn three. Bill got on that old Buford and attempted to pass the guy in turn one. The big Buick torqued him out of the turn, and the old '37 Chevy couple didn't handle like his sprinter, and he stuck it in the wall. Not what you usually see in a vintage car race, but that was Billy, a racer to the very end.
Deake's career was way too short. He was a good driver, and always a gentleman, a rare combination in the motor sports world.
Did you ever see Jay Hatfield, and Bob Campbell race at Lakeport?
Olderndirt

[Olderndirt]

 By the way, Grant Lindeblad ran six dueces until he quit racing modifieds, long after injection was what everybody was running. He could tune six dueces like nobody else. He also figured out how to stop them from crapping out on the tight corners, like those at Lakeport. Grants still kicking, but not racing any more. I went to high school with Grant.

  Olderndirt

[David Bogard]

Nope, never got to Lakeport. I lived in Fremont for a few years and prior to that had extended stays with realtives in Hayward.