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Post by 41chevy on Sept 9, 2022 14:15:34 GMT -5
In May of 1965 the Little Red Wagon made it's first run on the 1/4 mile, Things didn't go as expected.
The truck started out as an B/FX. It was only after it would not keep the front wheels down did it become a wheelstander. Dick Branister drove this truck first. Most of this truck was stock, nothing like what it took to keep the wheelstander going straight. THe original truck was built with carbs but it would go up and then stall from too much or not enough gas fall back down and restart and go again. It had carbs when Chrysler first showed it to Bill Maverick but when he went to try it it was changed to Hilborns. If I get a chance I will take a pic of them I still have them with #1 truck Lots of changes over the run of 5 trucks . It did start with left steering but after a few crashes it went to center drive for safety.
This is built a is was when Bill Maverick took over.
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Post by skip on Sept 9, 2022 16:07:22 GMT -5
Paul, that's really kinda cool! Is it the original IMC or (same)Lindberg kit, not that it makes a whole lot of difference either way.
I remember building a bunch of this kit as a kid, they had just enough details to make a decent model. The IMC kits were about the same quality wise as the Lindberg, which I think I built two of the Lindbergs. The styrene in the original IMC kit was better. molded in color and could be polished out for a crazy good shine. For the time, the LWR kit had one of the best Tach's in 1/24th or 1/25th scale, had the shape of the old Sun, Dixco tach before the manufactures got cheap and went to plastic cups.
The only one that I built and put in a contest was shortened, it won best youth model. It was shortened enough that the transmission met the differential without use of a driveshaft or even a universal joint of any kind! Probably in the 2" range, it was by far the easiest major body, frame, and running gear modification that I have done on any kit, before or since. The way that the frame, bed floor, and bed are laid out makes the whole thing elementary, totally zero thought involved modification. The most difficult part was getting the inner and outer bed sides straight and square to the rest of the truck, bed floor just cut off the total amount of shortening from the front then notched out again for the engine... The coolest part, well I thought it was back then (Probably Jr. High, my contest phase) was that the "Little Red Wagon" decals applied in about their original spacing down the sides. The icing on the cake had to have been the Bell wire (telephone wire) ignition wiring, red to go with the truck! LoL!! It is funny when one model can revive such vivid memories of when you were a kid, this one does for sure. Thanks, a whole lot for sharing it, kind of makes me want to scrounge up another one and build another "little" LWR! LoL!!
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Post by chepp on Sept 9, 2022 16:28:43 GMT -5
Thanks for the early history. Its problems probably resulted in Dodge getting more publicity than a B/FX ever could.
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Post by 41chevy on Sept 10, 2022 12:18:15 GMT -5
Paul, that's really kinda cool! Is it the original IMC or (same)Lindberg kit, not that it makes a whole lot of difference either way. I remember building a bunch of this kit as a kid, they had just enough details to make a decent model. The IMC kits were about the same quality wise as the Lindberg, which I think I built two of the Lindbergs. The styrene in the original IMC kit was better. molded in color and could be polished out for a crazy good shine. For the time, the LWR kit had one of the best Tach's in 1/24th or 1/25th scale, had the shape of the old Sun, Dixco tach before the manufactures got cheap and went to plastic cups. The only one that I built and put in a contest was shortened, it won best youth model. It was shortened enough that the transmission met the differential without use of a driveshaft or even a universal joint of any kind! Probably in the 2" range, it was by far the easiest major body, frame, and running gear modification that I have done on any kit, before or since. The way that the frame, bed floor, and bed are laid out makes the whole thing elementary, totally zero thought involved modification. The most difficult part was getting the inner and outer bed sides straight and square to the rest of the truck, bed floor just cut off the total amount of shortening from the front then notched out again for the engine... The coolest part, well I thought it was back then (Probably Jr. High, my contest phase) was that the "Little Red Wagon" decals applied in about their original spacing down the sides. The icing on the cake had to have been the Bell wire (telephone wire) ignition wiring, red to go with the truck! LoL!! It is funny when one model can revive such vivid memories of when you were a kid, this one does for sure. Thanks, a whole lot for sharing it, kind of makes me want to scrounge up another one and build another "little" LWR! LoL!!
This was an ITC Touch Tone Terror. I bought it probably 45 years ago just to get the telephone booth. I built a ton of others but for some reason never did the Touch Tone til now. Paul
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Post by Dave from Pleasanton on Sept 10, 2022 20:44:59 GMT -5
Great job Paul. I didn't ever see the Little Red Wagon at my local drag strip (Redding California), but I did see Chuck Poole's Chuckwagon when it had the faux wood grain paint. A friend of mine saw a bubble in the paint and pushed on it which caused it to collapse and not for the better. The glory days of drag racing.
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