Chevy El Camino Funny Car

[VTECFOUR]

Just picked up this glue bomb, a Monogram Chevy El Camino funny car kit. My thinking was this would be a good candidate for the upcoming winter Holeshot drag racing proxy.





Got some appropriate urethane slicks from Paul Gage and will put together a simple ladder chassis.

I've always liked the Tom Daniels designs and this one is entirely new to me. Nice having these surprises.

Think I'll leave the body alone in its plastic finish with already applied decals and just clean and paint detail it. I'll try to incorporate as much of the kit's parts too.

Dan

[FC47]

Dan, that’ll be pretty sharp, get er ready!!

[nhdungeonracer]

That's going to be a cool rig!
You gotta build it and send it to NH in November!! :lol:

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Interesting car. Was there a 1:1 of that rascal? I hope you do build it. Lots of pictures!

[slothead]

Any chance you can build the chassis with running gear to fit under the plastic chassis? I'm guessing the body lifts up to reveal the chassis and it would be kool if it looked like model but ran like a beast.

[TuscoTodd]

That should make a sweet conversion!
:banana-dance:

[VTECFOUR]

Started out with finding rims that could accept tires close to the model kit wheel/tire diameters, front and rear.

Ended up with NSR 15 x 8 wheels (3/32" axle) for the front and BRM 1/24 Porsche 917 rears (3mm axle) at the back.



The plastic kit rims required a bit of cutting and filing to reduce them to wheel inserts.



Fortunate to be able to just cross town and visit Paul's urethane tire factory and go through his enormous assortment. Chose these that have the look I'm looking for.



Put together a simple ladder chassis with .055" piano wire main rails, .064" brass guide tongue and crossmembers and a JK F1 motor pod (3/4" wide).



Should be rolling soon.

Dan

[nhdungeonracer]

great start!! :music-rockout:

[FC47]

Zoooom!!

[Z-carfan]

Oh yeah, that’s very cool!

[VTECFOUR]

Chassis's rolling and it's a long one with a wheelbase of 136mm. Probably a good thing as it's just going straight down a drag strip.

Soldered in 3mm x 6mm Sloting Plus axle bushings to accept the Sloting Plus 3mm axle that's driven by a BRM 36t crown gear.







Mocked the body on.







Final fit will sit higher but just enough to clear the tires.

Cosmetically, will try to incorporate as much of the kit's chassis detail.



At least the engine and driver compartment.

Dan

[VTECFOUR]

Chassis's running. Don't have the Piranha 25K ball bearing spec motor for the Winter Nationals Holeshot proxy so for testing sake, installed a motor of unknown origin but of high rpm with a 8t pinion and 28t crown.





BRM crown gear's boss was too long so had to steal a Plafit/Sigma one off my McLaren Elva build to fit the JK F1 motor pod. Not a lot of sources of these gears for 3mm axles.



Runs smooth with no hop but I need more acceleration from a 30t or larger crown.

Trimmed the kit's interior/chassis and after some severe cutting and grinding this'll fit.





Body mounting posts are set so the fit is tight but worth the modeling detail to me.









Will finish off with paint detail on the interior/motor and body.

Dan

[VTECFOUR]

Wanted some modeling chassis detail so the kit's trimmed chassis was paint detailed and a Fujimi driver figure was added.





Modeling detail is worthwhile to me. Don't think it'll affect the straightline performance.



Left someone's else's window and grill paint detail from 40 years ago or so and just added my own.







Need to get the spec motor and crown gears with more than 28 teeth for testing and we're ready for the November Holeshot proxy.

Dan

[Slot GT]

Love this. Very nice!

[Broman62]

Awesome build as always V4...always a pleasure to see your works of art :auto-layrubber: :auto-layrubber: :auto-layrubber: :auto-layrubber: