'58 Chevrolet Impala B/G

[TarheelRick]

Really taking shape nicely, very nice details on the engine. The electronic gizmo you used for a fuel filter is a diode, I bought a bagful of them from Radio Shack many years ago just for that purpose. You can also get a bit larger size, glue two of them together side-by-side, paint them aluminum and they make a very convincing period electric fuel pump. Keep those updates coming.

[W-409]

Thanks Ricky, I appreciate the kind words! Yes, diode, that's what it was... I can remember when I walked into a store that sells electrical components and went to the counter to buy those diodes. The salesman asked about what resistance etc I wanted and the looks in his face was priceless when I told him that those doesn't matter, it just has to look right. But he then understood it when I told him they'll be used in a scale model as fuel filters. The idea of using them as a vintage fuel pump is actually a good one! I'll need to try that.

 

Now that I'm on my Winter Vacation this week from work, I've had some more bench time as usual. And I'm making decent progress with this thing!

Brake lines were the next task. '58 Impala has a single circuit brake master cylinder, so I had to build a couple of distribution blocks to the frame to get brake fluid on all tires. They were made out of hex-shaped plastic rod. Brake lines theirselves are thin "copper-wire" and brake hoses that go to both wheel cylinders are made out of Scale Productions' spark plug wire material. Fittings between the brake pipes and hoses are also made out of Hex-shaped plastic rod.

In the back everything was done the same way, except that it was just much more simple... Brake pipe is copper wire, brake hose is spark plug wire material and the fitting in between is made from Hex-shaped plastic rod.
In 1961 NHRA required Gassers to have a parking brake. So I had to fabricate parking brake cables as well. They are quite simple actually on an X-Frame Chevy (it's easy to check for reference material as we have a '60 Impala 2D HT in the garage). So the cables were made out of the same spark plug wire material as the brake hoses. The cables have a rubber/plastic covering on the rear, but they don't have that in the part that goes inside the X-part of the frame. This was replicated by simply painting the spark plug wire material silver where necessary and the fittings in between are also hex shaped plastic rod.

The chassis is coming together pretty good. Tie rod was a little too narrow, but I cut the other inner tie rod end apart from the rest and glued it to a new position, making the assembly a bit wider. That fixed the problem...

 

[dust collectors]

Thing is really shaping up nice!

[Nitro330]

Looking great Niko!  Love the stance and great work on the brake lines!

[Straightliner59]

Excellent work, sir! I like that the rules matter, to you, as well!

[W-409]

Thanks for the kind words!

Daniel, Yep, I think that the amount of research that is needed to create an accurate race car for a certain class is minimal compared to the amount of actually building... So when one is already building a model and trying to add some details on it, why not make it accurate at the same time.

 

 

Here's the last update for this week. Tomorrow I'll be leaving to London UK to be at the Rockers Reunion in Aldershot on Saturday night. So the progress will continue next week with the Impala.

Anyway, I got the engine and driveshaft installed to the chassis. The driveshaft was painted gloss black with silver U-joints. Looks like everything fits nicely on place even with the body on. I guess next I'll need to start working on the body and interior...

 

[Scott8950]

Looking good

[larman]

This is really excellent work! Love the engine and chassis details! I always liked the orange box art car, but figured it was a product of the model designers imaginations because I never really saw a '58 Impala gasser. Most '58 Chevy drag cars I have seen are Bel Airs or Biscaynes. Not too long ago, I found this pic on Facebook that might have been the inspiration for the AMT box art, so there was at least one real one out there!

Edited January 26, 2024 by larman

[W-409]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words!

On 1/26/2024 at 3:45 AM, larman said:

This is really excellent work! Love the engine and chassis details! I always liked the orange box art car, but figured it was a product of the model designers imaginations because I never really saw a '58 Impala gasser. Most '58 Chevy drag cars I have seen are Bel Airs or Biscaynes. Not too long ago, I found this pic on Facebook that might have been the inspiration for the AMT box art, so there was at least one real one out there!

You're right, the orange car on the box art looks killer. I'm sure an Impala was a pretty rare sight in the Gas classes, because like you said, most of the '58 Chevrolets were either Bel Airs or Biscaynes. But that picture proves that there was at least one!

 

Well, the progress continues. I started working on the body, and the first thing to do was to glue the doors shut. Someone might wonder why I did that, but honestly the opening doors usually don't fit as well as they should and the detail in the door jamb is not up to the level it should be if the doors did open. Sure, that all can be fixed, but I don't want to go through all that work with this project, I much rather have it finished sooner than later... Plus that the doors have incorrect type hinges anyway so they would need to be scratchbuilt as well.

Anyway, after a bit of sanding and smoothing out mold lines and mold flash, I was able to glue the doors on place. This required a bit of work for the door panels so that they could be installed from the inside. See the original one on left, modified one on the right.

Now the door panel goes on place even with the door closed.

Then it was time to do a mock up to see how it looks.

I was also going to test fit the hood, but soon I realized that the Cal Custom scoops are not going to clear the hood. So, after some measurements I had to cut a hole to the hood...

Starting point for the hood scoop was found in my parts box. I believe it's from an old Monogram kit. It required a bit of shortening to make it fit the Impala, but after that I think it'll work so I glued it on place.

Now I think I can start cleaning up the mold lines etc from the body to get it ready for paint.

[FoMoCo66]

That looks like a pretty bitchin drag 58 chevy gasser. I love the look of the early gassers with the Radius wheel wells almost the way up to the top of the trunk to fit those pie crust slicks. Their a lot better than the 70s street freek gassers the ones that look like they can go mudding.

[TransAmMike]

That is really coming along nicely Niko, really like the 348!!

[W-409]

Thanks Ace and Mike!

Ace, I agree completely about the stance. You're correct that many of the "Gassers" seen posted in the internet are actually more like Street Freaks and I'm never been a huge fan of those things.

[Stanward VonDiederichs]

On 11/5/2023 at 12:58 PM, W-409 said:

Found this AMT reissue while visiting Pegasus Hobbies in California a few weeks ago and had to start building it right away. The box art is so cool that I knew I had to build this one as a Gasser, even though '58 Chevrolet wasn't the most common starting point for a Gasser back in the day, but hey, someone could have built a car like this for the Gasser class anyway.

As I was going through the old NHRA Rulebooks for the Gas Coupes & Sedans class rules, I decided to go with 1961 rulebook. That's mainly because in 1960 you were not allowed to cut the rear fenders in order to fit slicks on the back, but for 1961 season that rule changed and one was able to make more room for the slicks by cutting the rear wheel openings bigger. And that is one of the things I really liked on the box art, so I wanted to go the same thing on my model. It's not going to be box art replica however, because for example, the rules require that cars need to have a grill on front while the box art hasn't and overall mine will have some slight differences in appearance when it's done.

I'll be using the 348 engine that came with the kit, the plan is to install an Offenhauser 3x2 intake manifold on it together with some other speed equipment. That engine will put this in B/G class.

The first thing to do was to mock up the stance as I wanted to see if I need to do some modifications to get the stance that I'm looking for. The rear axle was glued together from two separate halves, and the top half of the axle was warped pretty bad. I glued the metal axle to the bottom half of the rear axle to make that stronger and then clamped the top half of the axle on place with some small C-clamps and glued it on place. I also needed to drill a bit bigger hole for the rear inner wheels to make the metal axle fit properly.

Then I enlarged the wheel openings, but that was easy because on the inside of the body, there was already a template where to cut if one wanted to build the racing version. Then I did a mock up to see how it looks. Rear tires are not the ones that came with the kit as I wanted old Pie Crust slicks on this one. Those were found in AMT's reissued '49 Ford kit.

 

Not too bad, but a few adjustments had to be made. The track width on rear was a bit too narrow, plus that the rear could sit just a little higher to prevent tires rubbing the fenders. And front end was a bit lower than on the box stop, so I thought I wanted to raise it just a little.

Well, the track width was widened pretty easily as I found a pair of Racemaster Drag Slicks out of AMT Parts Pack. I liked the look of those Firestones I had earlier, but they're narrow and have two grooves on them so they are basically more suitable for a Junior Stock car. With the Racemasters that are a bit wider, the rear tires fit just about right.

For the front, I added pieces of sheet styrene between the upper A-arms and front spindles and also where the lower A-arms mount on the frame. Of course the springs got a set of spacers as well. With the new mock up, I think it's better.
 

I like what you are doing. Nice story Pegasus hobby I like the airplanes that's coming out of the front of it. I know Joe in the model I remember when they were in Glendora but a little but they have it one of the times.