Introduce yourself.....

[Tom Birky]

Welcome Frank! Another Iowa guy! Bob D knows how to build a mean looking stockcar, glad you got the invite.

Tom

[BobD]

Glad to have a fellow-Iowan onboard Frank!  Hope you get to building a few race cars & posting them here! 
                                                                                  Bob D 

[Maineboy]

Hello, Maineboy here. Nathan Pitts from Garland, ME. Near life long Mainer except for several yrs in NH. Turned 74 last month. Had major surgery with right shoulder replacement last Dec and left knee replacement on Mar 22 this year. Am doing well and back to work in a cabinet shop belonging to a friend about 4 hrs a day. Feels good to get out of the house.

Was introduced to dirt track racing about 1958 when my parents took me to Unity Raceway in Unity, ME, about 40 miles from where I live now. Jalopy racing on the old horse track where we sat in the grandstand that was probably a few decades old then, and still stands today. I have quite a few photos of that track in the 50's if anyone desires to see them.  Classes were 6 cyl and V8's. Corners were flat and sand had been banked up as a fence. Loved the smash ups in the beginning  but after a few trips was hooked on the competition. My avatar shows a 1956 Chev 150 2dr post sedan, powered  by a 265 sbc that my best friend and I built in the spring of 1966. We were both 17 at the time. We raced at Graham Lake Speedbowl in Ellsworth, ME. I gave it up a few yrs later when pressures of marriage, children and work became more important. But have many priceless memories of it.

Began model building as a 4th grader. Airplanes first, remember a model of a Lockheed Constellation I displayed in my 4th grade classroom. By 7th grade graduated to cars. Had a 58 T bird displayed there that I remember. I remember the old AMT 3 in 1 kits and built tons of them. $1.49 each in the early 60's!  40 Ford coupe and sedan were some of my favorites. Entered a few model contests then. 2nd was my best finish. Read model mags and saw others doing plug wires, brake and fuel lines. All we had to work with was mom's thread and that did not work good. Dabbled in it over the years in several ways with RC planes and model rr's. Got back into it about a yr and a half ago with "big rig" trucks. Now back to cars. Got a 55 chev 2 dr and wanted to build it as a modified. Google searched images and turned up a link to this blog. Spent a few weeks lurking and saw the  best model work I have ever seen. Can't match that totally but will do what I can. Have many memories and several hundred photos of race cars on Maine tracks, dating  back to 1948 or so when it started. I consider it an honor to be here and hope I can contribute a bit to it.

Nathan

[Tom Birky]

Welcome to the board Nathan, and thank you very much for the introduction!  Looking forward to seeing some of your work. Sounds like the race bug bit you early!
Tom

[TarheelRick]

I'll second what Tom said. I'm 72 and began watching short track races at Bowman Gray Stadium, in Winston-Salem, NC around '62-63. Maybe you can post some of the pictures you have, never know when someone will see something they really want to build.  Welcome aboard.

[Maineboy]

I am going  back to my earliest memories and this is what I saw. This is what started the fascination with race cars, on these little dirt tracks that still excites me today. This is turn one and two at Unity Raceway in Unity, ME circa about 1958. Actually this may have been a bit earlier as I seem to remember that board fence being higher than this. There were complaints from those folks in those houses over the dust. The clouds of it are indeed a sight to behold. To say this was crude is an understatement! But to say it was both "fun" and "exciting" was not an understatement at all!

unity10 by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr

We have to remember that up into the 70's at least,  just about every driver, owner and builder in America started on dirt short tracks that looked an awful lot like this one. We can't build a model of any car without knowing it's history. A photograph is fine but knowing about just how that car was used is also crucial to knowing how to build that model. I am a race car fan but also a fan of race car history and the two go together real good.

Nathan

[john2]

Thanks, Nathan, for joining and this great intro.  I wish all the new people would do this.   

I, myself. am 81, and not building so much any more, but I still try to keep these guys in line.

Welcome.   

[Maineboy]

John2 thanks for the kind words. Like you this work is getting harder for me to do but I still enjoy what I can do. Built a big rig truck as my first project in some time. Took me about a year. Have to paint in the garage as my wife has an illness that is aggravated by strong odors. So don't do much spray painting in the winter. Finished the big rig and am working on a 57 Ford 300 2dr post sedan. I am building it as a street drag racer as that is what we had during my high school days. No track near us so ran them on the streets. The 57 was owned by a friend and I always loved that car. Working from a memory over 50 yrs gone is not easy but hope to capture the look. Seems like a great bunch of people here who really appreciate the work everyone does. Glad to be a small part of it.

[David Bogard]

You said you had a '55 Chevy that you wanted to build as a Modified. "Modified" meant many different things in different parts of the country so do you have any pictures of what you were wanting to build? Depending on what that is, there might be others on here that can really help.

[Maineboy]

David, thanks for the response. Like you, I know that modified can mean different things in different places. Maine was always behind the rest of the country. In 1966, in Maine, "modified" meant about anything from cut down and narrowed pick up cabs to full fendered 40 Fords. The only rules seem to involve wheels and tires and engine limits under 302 cubic inch, which the 301 Chevy fit nicely into. Saw tons of them. I envision a 55 with big tires, outside the fenders, low slung with high cutouts for the tires and big motor, like a 454 or some such. Would like to see what others have done in that area.

But the 55 is on the shelf for now. Just got the 56 Chevy Del Ray two door with post kit and am going to try to replicate the car seen in my avatar as we built the 1:1 version back in 1966. Found one can of Krylon at Michaels last week that is very close to the right color. Was only can on the shelf and didn't buy it when I first saw it but went back and got it later.

I have seen quite a bit of your work here in the past few weeks. Your work is awesome and there is a lot more  really nice work by others on this site too. That's why I joined, seems like a nice bunch of people also which is a great asset. Like lots of things in life building models is a learning experience and we learn much from each other. Got questions for you re particular cars, which I have trying to figure out, that I shall bring up in the future.

[David Bogard]

Any chance you could post a photo or two the '56 Chevy in the avatar? That is one of the minor issues on this site, the fact that nobody can actually "see" the avatar photos since they are so small. Thanks!

[Maineboy]

I didn't want to feel like I was hogging the thread.

In 1966 we were competing in the "bomber" class at Graham Lake Speedbowl in Ellsworth, ME, a 1/3 mile muddy dirt track. I don't think the bombers were too far removed from the jalopys that started all of this. This was my friends street car in high school. Was a 56 Chevy 150 with the old 235, with a split manifold and Hurst mystery shifter on the three speed.  We went to Bar Harbor in this car  one evening, always checking the girls out you see, and we got up the next morning and gutted it. Went from steet to race track in a day, more or less. Had to get a motor and got a 55 Chevy 265 2 barrel out of a local wrecking yard for $40. Had a 4 bbl manifold and carter carb so that was no issue. Had street tires and wheels on it. My welding skills I was leery of at the moment so my friends mother's cousin welded the piping. We cut  lot of it with acetylene torch. Nothing fancy there for sure. This is taken the second Sunday morning we raced it. the rt rear was crinkled before we could even get the paint on it. But we painted it anyway. I think it was "crinkle metallic blue"...at least on that fender. My friend is sitting behind the wheel in his old straw cowboy hat he always wore. Seems like it was an awful long time ago.

56chevy1 by Nathan Pitts, on Flickr

In hindsight the piping jobs in most of these cars was really outrageous by modern standards. Safety was not the priority that having fun was back then. They ran modifieds on this track on the same days in other heats. Guys wearing tee shirts and sneakers would get in them wearing an old high school football helmet from 1953...and thought nothing of it. A 301 would make even a wheelbarrow go fast in those days. We never rolled this one but the car was destroyed later in the 66 season and we had a different car for the next 2 yrs.

Nathan

[David Bogard]

I take it you are building this currently so just start a thread in the "Cars With Fenders" Section or the "Fab Shop" Section and have at it! Looks like a fairly straight-forward and quick build!

[Maineboy]

I will do that soon, but have to finish my 57 Ford 300 sedan project first. I can't stand working on 2 at once, it's confusing and I have lost small parts before. Will post pics of the 57 on the non race car thread when I get a chance to photograph it.

[Volzfan59]

Hello everyone, I thought that I had introduced myself before but it seems that I haven't. My real name is Steve, I live in southern Arkansas, nine miles from the Louisiana border. I'm from the Knoxville, TN area, lived there most of my life but due to my dad's career, I've lived all over the eastern United States. If you see me mention Escanaba, MI (U.P.), Grant, AL, Guntersville, AL, Nashville, TN and here in Crossett, AR... I've lived there.

Anyway, I'm 62 years old, a United States Army (M.P.) Veteran and a 30+ year Law Enforcement retiree. I started building models when I was eight years old and continued into my 30's. I also raced stock cars as a hobby. I raced on dirt in east TN, and then on asphalt in middle TN, southern KY and north AL. I've also fished off and on since childhood so after I quit racing, I started fishing bass tournaments. I still love bass fishing, but no longer fish tournaments.

Every time we would go to Hobby Lobby, I would always look at the model cars and trucks. When my mother in law was looking for something else to get me for Christmas 2021, my wife said "get him a model car, he's always looking at them." And just like that, I'm back!

In addition to looking at models at Hobby Lobby, I've been a lurker here and at Fred's old site.

I'll stop now, but if anyone has any questions, fire away.