'41 Plymouth Special Deluxe G/Gas -Finished-

[Dennis]

Wheel and tire set look really good!

[Mr409]

Thanks guys! I'm having fun with this Plymouth and I'm glad to hear it could be a source of inspiration.

Today I got the chassis on four wheels. First I glued the rear tires on place. But when doing the final mock up before gluing, I realized that the tires were a bit too far inside the rear fenders, so I had to widen the track width a little. With a couple of round discs I cut from sheet styrene, the tires lined up much better with the rear fenders so I glued them on place.

Next I mocked up the front axle to see what is the correct position for that. Then the axle and front tires were glued on place, too. A Bit of adjusting was required to get all four tires touching the ground at the same time, but with some minor work I was able to do that.




And here are a couple of mock up pictures with the body on place.





Driver's side rear tire ended up a little crooked, so that will need to be fixed next...

[Dennis]

The stance looks perfect.

[Mr409]

Thanks Dennis! I'm happy about the stance as well, so next I can move on building the rest of the chassis.

But meanwhile glue was drying on the Astorian Chevy, I decided to scratchbuild a set of Fenderwell headers for the Plymouth. As these Flatheads have only three header pipes per side, I was pretty sure I would not be able to find headers in my parts box. So I made the header flanges from sheet styrene and glued them to the engine. Headers are made from .080" Plastruct plastic rod. Next I'll fabricate collectors for them and then paint...

[Dennis]

Headers look bad ass, nice work!

[Dave from Pleasanton]

Amazing headers along with the rest of the work.

[cturner]

What did you use for the top end? Who supplies that manifold?

[cturner]

I just went back through the thread...got my answers! !

[Mr409]

Thanks for the kind words!

And yep, the intake manifold is indeed scratchbuilt. As far as I know, no-one offers a Hilborn style intake for Flathead in 1/24 or 1/25. But luckily, it's easy to build from sheet plastic.

[Mr409]

After another long break I took this thing back on the bench the other day. Haven't had time to build much lately, most of my free time has been spent in the garage working with 1:1 scale cars...

Well, here we go again. I hope to have this thing finished in 2023... First thing to do was to build a small scoop for the hood to get some more air to the injectors. So I mocked up the body and engine on place, took a couple of measurements and cut a hole to the hood. The scoop was built from sheet styrene. Needs a bit of cleanup but then it should be good to go.

[Mr409]

While parts were drying on the B/G '58 Impala, I decided to dig this one out and work on it, too. This project has stalled so many times over the years that I've lost count on it, but let's see if this time I could actually finish it. Early 2024 finish might be possible, but let's see...


The next step was to modify the kit inner fenders to fit on place with my scratchbuilt Fenderwell headers. I'd be happy to run without any inner fenders at all, but while they are required in NHRA Rulebook, I'll need to install them... So I cut some material off so that they clear the headers. I also sanded all molded-in wires etc away from them. Some detailing will be added when this thing is going together so it's best not to have any molded-in wires on the inner fenders anyway.



On the other side I had to use a bit of putty to cover a couple of ejector pin marks...



Then I figured the best way to mount these things is probably to glue them on the body. That way the inner fender to body fitment will be flawless in the final assembly, because, after all, that's what everyone sees on the finished model. So I mocked up the body, engine and chassis all together and after a few times of trial and error I was able to glue the inner fenders where I wanted them to be.





I also mocked up the radiator which will also be from Revell's '40 Ford like the engine, and it looks like it'll fit under the hood just fine. That way I get a radiator that has the right inlets/outlets for the radiator hoses, because a Flathead Ford has two upper and two lower radiator hoses on it.

[Mr409]

With a local model car show coming up in a few weeks, I really need to finish something. I don't think I'm able to pull the '58 Impala Gasser off, but I think I have a shot at finishing this one in time. So let's finally finish it then.

First I fabricated brake lines to the front. The rear brake line will be added later, as well as the brake line from the master cylinder to the brake line fitting/distribution block on the frame rail. All fittings are made out of hex-shaped plastic rod, brake hardlines are some thin metal wire, brake hoses are Scale Productions' spark plug wire material.




Then a little engine work. I built collectors to the headers. They were made out of plastic rod, cut to length and then I of course drilled the ends open. A little putty was used to smooth out the seam between the collector and the header tubes, and after that the headers were painted flat white. I also painted some other things like the engine mounts and transmission. Once I get a few little details done on the engine and chassis, I'm able to glue the engine on place.

[Mr409]

Next up was front shocks. The ones from the kit didn't work with the new front axle setup, so I found these from my parts box. The upper shock mounts were made out of a beer can aluminum just simply cut and bent to shape, painted gloss black and finished with bolt ends made out of hex-shaped plastic rod.




Engine got a couple of more parts and now in these pictures it's ready to be installed. I added the crankshaft belt pulley and made the belt from paper that I "painted" black with a Sharpie. I chose not to use a generator at all, because it's optional in Gas-classes at the NHRA Rulebook. And this car would probably not get many street miles anyway. Starter and the stock oil filter assembly were installed as well.





Then I glued the engine on place. It sits kind of high and "nose up". But, with the body on place I think it looks pretty natural in there, and I think, after all, that is more important in a finished model.

[sharp]

This is looking awesome! Very nice work with the details on that injected flathead and chassis.

[Richard]

That's looking real nice. All the little details are really adding up to a cool looking build and I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished unit. I'm curious what size hex rod you use for the fittings and bold heads?