'41 Plymouth Special Deluxe G/Gas -Finished-

[Mr409]

After finishing the Thunderbolt, I wanted to start another Drag Race project. Inspired by JC's incredible '61 Falcon Gasser I wanted to continue this old project I've had boxed away for years. As these old Gassers were often done with pretty small budgets, many teams didn't spend much money on paint and exterior. So my plan is to keep this build in grey primer finish and install a 221 Cid Ford Flathead from a '40 Ford under the hood. That way this Plymouth will end up in G/G class according to the 1963 NHRA Rulebook.

I have glued the front clip to the body and I've done a bit of bodywork on that area. Rear fenders have taller wheel openings as well to make a bit of room for the slicks. Otherwise this is pretty much unstarted. In these early Mock Up-pics, the rear suspension is straight from the kit, but rear tires (that will be changed to a regular whitewall slicks later) are from AMT Racemaster Parts Pack. Front springs are taken from my parts box and front axle is from Revell's '56 Ford Pickup if I remember correctly. Front tires are from Jo-Han's SC Rambler, but I'm not quaranteed that they will stay either. All four wheels are resin cast by a friend of mine.

As you can see on the mock up, the front end is a bit too high and it will have to come down a little. I think I can do that by adjusting the springs a little, so it shouldn't be an issue. Also the wheels are not aligned properly on this mock up, I need to fix that somehow, too.





And here is a picture of the Flathead engine. I will be scratchbuilding a set of headers for it and intake manifold for the Hilborn Fuel Injection will need to be fabricated as well.

[afx]

Looks like a great project Niko. The steel wheels are particular nice.

[spex84]

Looks like fun, just a down n' dirty low budget gasser. Those wheels do look nice! Do you know what kit they're copied from? I have some AMT 62 chevy wheels that look very similar.

[Mr409]

Thanks Guys!

The wheels are indeed very nice, just like all of his resin items are. But unfortunately I can't remember where they originally came from. AMT '62 Chevy or '62 Pontiac would be my guess, but I'm not sure.

[Johnny]

Äntligen! As the poster in the background says :-) Can't wait to see what you will do with this great kit. Are you sure about the flathead? There is speed parts for the inline 6, if you want to go the H/gas route (or even lower classification).

[Mr409]

"Äntligen" (Finally in English) fits to this build being back on the bench as well! The last time I worked on it was in 2013. Fellow Swedish Stock Eliminator racer tried to encourage us to come and race Stock/Super Stock for the Mantorp Drag Revival, so I happened to have that flyer near me. Had to cover all of the junk on my workbench in order to shoot these pics...

Anyway, I think I'll stick with the original plan about using the Ford Flathead mill for this one. That Plymouth's Flathead Six would be an interesting engine setup for sure, but I think I have a future plan for it. I have somekind of '50s Alfa Romeo resin body and I think that engine would look good in there, with a supercharger of course...

[Mr409]

Haven't had much bench time lately, but here's a minor update at least. First I lowered the front end a little by lowering the front spring shackles by half. I think the result is much better, still I might need to lower it a bit more, but it's very close.




Another problem was that the front inner wheels didn't fit perfectly to the tires, because of which the front tires were too far from each other. Instead of narrowing the front axle, I wanted to modify the inner wheels instead so that they'd fit better on place. Because by narrowing the front axle the glue joint would become weak and it could break because of the weight of this model, I didn't want to do that. So I cut the inner wheels with my razor saw to make them a bit more narrow:



Here both of them are narrowed and they fit pretty nicely on place.

[Johnny]

Looking good Niko! Always easier to take a portion of the inner wheels if possible! (Rather than messing with the axle.) The stance is shaping up as well, a tad lower and you are spot on :-)

[Mr409]

Thanks Johnny! I agree, it's much better idea to modify the inner wheels instead of cutting the front axle.

I've been super busy with our 1:1 scale Stock Eliminator Malibu and now after Saturday's West Coast Cup Event where I scored third place in ET Bracket, I felt like I wanted to do some progress with this. I prepped the engine block, heads and timing chain cover for primer. The block required some putty, but after that I just had to get rid of a couple of small mold lines here and there. After a coat of primer those parts look like they're ready to paint. Tomorrow.

[53suburban]

I like the idea of a flathead V8 in this car. In high school I had a friend who was running a built up '53 Merc flathead in his '47 Plymouth coupe. Not a common swap by any means but a good one, that car kicked butt. Keep us posted on the progress of the build.

[Bernard Kron]

I did a '41 Plymouth gasser a couple of years back and this body looks great jacked up like this.The work you've done thus far is terrific. You're so good at the details on these builds, which makes sense since you are a died-in-the-wool drag racer and doubtless know exactly what must be done. This should be one sweet straightliner when you're done!

[spex84]

I agree that the body looks good jacked up--they look good slammed to the ground too. Anything in between is a little awkward, like the body needs to be sectioned 4 inches, but once you reach the front fender-to-hood transition there's nowhere to take the material out of!

[Mr409]

Thanks Guys for the kind words!

Joseph: I had wanted to build a Flathead powered Drag Racer for a while so I thought this would be a great starting point for that. Imagine a couple of young fellas who would build a Gasser from a Plymouth like this back in the early '60s. A Flattie would probably have been a pretty cheap engine compared to some more modern V8 engines that had hit the market a few years earlier. Plus that there was a good amount of speed parts available for these old Flatheads too.

Bernard: Yes, your Plymouth was one of the things that inspired me to continue this one. I started this originally in 2009 or something like that, but it got stalled pretty fast. At that time I was planning to use a supercharged Chrysler Wedge engine though, but later I ditched that plan as I think an Injected Flathead would be a bit cooler.
It's correct that it helps building these things when I have experience in Drag Racing (building the Race car or driving it). But I have to say that sometimes I struggle with these Vintage Drag Cars, as I'm so young that I've never seen them in action. But I've been trying to collect reference material and do research... But I know I could build a modern day NHRA Stock Eliminator or Super Stock car as a model. And by the 'modern day' I mean a car that would be competitive in today's events, not modern body style. And to be honest, at some point I will build a replica of our 1:1 Stock Eliminator '74 Malibu Classic once I figure out what would be the best starting point for it...

Chris: I agree, this is not the easiest body styles to Customize so that it looks good. I've seen a few good looking Sleds made out of this body, but I've also seen some that I didn't like. It's not an easy body style. That's why I ended up building a Gasser instead of a Custom.


I haven't had much time to work on this one, but the engine parts seen in the last post were painted and clear coated. I used the same Tamiya Spray paints as I used on the body of my '55 Chevy Gasser that I finished two years ago. Clear is also Tamiya Spray. I think the finish turned out pretty good. Not too shiny, but not too dull either.




Now when looking at the pics I have to say that the blue is a bit lighter shade in person than what it seems to be in the photos...

[Mr409]

With the Autorama entry done, I thought I'd work on something else and this is what caught my eyes. So I took it back on the bench. I did a bit of work with the engine. First I glued the heads on place and painted the head bolts with silver. I think the heads will need some black washing before they're good, though.

Next it was time to fabricate an intake manifold for the Hilborn Fuel Injection setup. That was made from two pieces of sheet styrene. I wanted to have a finned intake so I chose a sheet styrene that has those grooves on it already. But the problem was that it was too thin. So I glued it on top of a thicker piece of styrene and cut them both to correct shape, now having a finned intake that is thick enough. Then I just drilled holes for the injector tubes and mocked up everything. Now I can paint the intake and start working on the details.

[FordRodnKustom]

Looking sharp Niko. I agree the whole engine could use a wash to give it some depth.