Super Mod Hauler

[Lefturns75]

This is for Hondo, he asked to see it.  Two AMT 53 Ford pickup kits.  Cabs mated to create a crew cab and lengthened chassis.  I robbed a 312 engine from an AMT 56 Ford kit for the upgrade engine.  The ramp bed is evergreen sheet and some diamond plate.  The Super Mod is an old Lindberg White Lightning built out of the box with some home made graphics.   This model has survived four trips to model shows and two moves.  I am surprised it is still together.  I think I completed this one in 1989.

[Charlie.D]

Very nice looking build you have done there. I enjoy building haulers. I am building a hauler and trailer using a 88 Silverado truck for the hauler base

[Olderndirt]

I really like this combo, but it's going to take some convincing to make me
Believe that's a Buick, with that exhaust port spacing, and valve covers. Just sayin'.

  Olderndirt

[Lefturns75]

LMAO!!  Older, yer the first feller in all this time that has caught on to the exhaust!!!  That old kit engine looked in some ways like a Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, and Generic something all rolled into one.  Nothing was correct.  I found some photos in a 1962 Car Craft mag about a super running a buick nail head so that is what I called this one.  Correct? Heck no, but I doubt the guys that tooled that kit back in the 60's could tell you what it was.  You are correct, its not a buick.  I have no idea what it is.  To tell the truth, I don't think there are many of us old farts around that know the spacing on a nail head buick or even know what one looks like.  sucks to be old but it do have its pluses.  Durn good eye!!!!

[sentsat71]

Neat looking hauler...
car too....

[Olderndirt]

 I think the major parts on this engine are small block Chevy. The heads are right for the headers, so they must be Chevy as well. The valve covers have perimeter bolts so they are likely Chevy. Just so you guys know, exhaust port spacing on early engines are as follows. Chevy small blocks are 1-2-1, big blocks are 1-1-1-1 except W blocks, Buick's are 2-0-2, Fords big and small blocks are 1-1-1-1, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac, Studebaker, and Packard are 1-1-1 with a joined center port.
I still love the build, you just have to put a bow tie on it.
 
  Olderndirt

[Hondo]

That's it........
Still very cool, Lefty !!!
Thanks !!

[Gary Davis]

That team sure looks ready to hit the road..headed for the track. Good job on the build LT75. Infact....I think that the best I've seen one of those Lindberg kits look. You sure made it look like a decent super...that's for sure. I've got those kits annnd every time I open the box up...I shake my head and close it. You did it GOOD...

[Lefturns75]

Gary, those old kits really are terrible.  My original plan was a super on the truck with a trailer in tow with a stocker team car.  I got everything completed but the super and one week before the show I had planned to take this to I bashed out this Lindberg kit from an original release.  I was never happy with it but I needed something on the hauler.  The hauler got its picture in the SA Mag and in the Contest Mag in 88 or 89.  It did not include the super and I am glad.  I found a pic of the whole thing together though they are not that good but it gives you an idea of how the team looks. 
 

[Gary Davis]

Man Leftturn...those really held up well for being over 30yrs old. I like that two car team idea too.

I also had that in mind for a 1/43 Team that I've got 1/3 finished. Need to finish the Truck and the Super. I've got the Modified finished...That reminds me that I need to finish that team....lol

[Bob P.]

The whole combination is a piece of art work, very well done.

Bob

[Lefturns75]

Gee, I don't know Bob.  "Piece of Art Work" would imply that I might be an artist or something.  I am FAR from anything of the sort.  "Cartoonist" maybe and that is a real stretch too.  I don't think there is much skill at all in my modeling but I have had a few times that Dumb Luck was good to me. 

[sentsat71]

The complete team is awesome for the time you built it!!

Don't think the cottage industries were around then like they are today, save for Plastruct.....
Let alone the internet as it is today, as well.....

used some Pastruct back in the mid to late 1970's......

[Lefturns75]

Sentsat Ed, there were a few Cottage Industries Companies but not many.  I used Evergreen sheet and the tread plate I got from a company called Mckean Models.  I think the guys name was Bill and he had some nice tread plate and slam locks you could use on haulers and such.  I am sure that company is long gone.  I think I bought his tread plate in 1987.  The trailer is built completely out of Evergreen sheet, rod and square tube.  The only kit parts are the tires and wheels.  I wanted to use the one ton style wheels on the hauler but there was no such thing then.  The rear uses dual tires but the wheel is an old deep dish wheel I jacked out of the AMT Nova Wagon Funny Car.  With a wheel back it would accept two kit tires and kinda "Looked" like a one ton wheel if you didn't look at it very long.  I was never called on that piece because I figured I had enough other stuff to look at on the model and nobody noticed.  That truck cab was finished with some of that A + B putty that came in those AMT Customizing kits around 88 or 89.  I guess its pretty good stuff since it has never shrunk, cracked or fell out.  Some guys I knew liked the Squadron putty and swore by it---I swore at it.  I never did get that stuff to work for me.  This thing has held up well in the display case but I fear at some point the dust will get it and the tires will eat into the wheels. 

[john843]

Beautiful job. It just looks "right"!
Not to get too far afield but a fun fact I read about the 401 nailhead Buick engine some time back was that they were the original starter engines for the Air Force's SR-71 Blackbirds. Rolled 'em up on a dolly to the planes.

John