Building the Streamliner from the AMT Double Dragster kit

[OldNYJim]

I’ve been really excited to start work on the first of an (eventual) series of AMT Double Dragster builds; I’ve been researching for a few months now, on and off, and this one finally made it’s way to the top of the queue…

I’m going to try and keep this one pretty close to the spirit of the kit - no super crazy modifications, but I’d also like to spend some time on each and every part and see how far I can push myself (and this old kit…).  Progress probably won’t be super fast or exciting but I’ve been messing with it a few days now so I figured I’d start a thread now…

Traditional “first step in the manual” to get this one rolling…I’m going to use the 392 Hemi for this one…I figure if I’d gone to all the work of making some crazy enclosed fibreglass body, I’d probably want to use something more interesting than a Small Block Chevy, which is the other option this kit offers…

More on that as I get to it…

Last couple of nights were spent on cleaning up the frame.  I was excited to start gluing some stuff, but I figure it’s a lot easier to do all this cleanup now and do future-me a favor.  Plenty of little mold lines to handle but no flash and a minimum of ejector pin marks to deal with:

I did some pretty in-depth research on trying to figure out what this frame is…I did find some good suggestions online and a lot of SIMILAR frames, but I didn’t find an exact match.  The second (smaller, lower) bars with the triangulation seems to be the thing that makes this frame unusual compared to a lot of the examples I found…anyone ever seen a perfect match for this frame anywhere?  I’d love to see pics if you have!

Anyhoo, a couple of evenings of clean-up later and time for some careful assembly…

I used the thick Tamiya cement to tack everything together just enough to start getting it straight, then spent some time tweaking and getting it all aligned and perfect as best I can before using the thinner Bondene to fuse it for good.  I needed a tiny bit of pressure between the rails to get everything to sit perfectly square, hence that little green piece of a toothpick sitting in there…

And…that’s it so far!  If anyone has any building tips or heads-ups on this kit I’d love to hear them!  I’m also planning a LITTLE tweaking of the body - I think it could be a lot prettier with some subtle slicing and dicing…nothing major, but some little tweaks just to make it my own.

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[stavanzer]

Looks Good So Far. You are correct, the time spent tweaking the parts now, will pay off in the future.

[Tony Coomer]

Great start to a great kit. I’ve had this kit for a while and this makes me want to build the twin engine version, keep up the great work, looking forward to the progress…

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!

A little more progress - just working thru each little piece, one at a time…

Those of you who have built this kit already probably noticed that my frame is missing the crossmember that doubles as a steering rack from the upper mid curve of the frame.  That was the first part where I wanted to improve on what the kit provides and add some detail…here’s the kit piece in place:

Soldered a couple of pieces of telescoping brass tube for a more in-scale steering link (coupled with the kit wheel here):

Then designed and printed an approximation of an old Ross dragster steering box…

And we’ve got a pretty decent improvement over the kit piece:

Just needs a mount to attach it to the frame, which I didn’t make yet…

Whilst I had the printer running making the steering box, I printed an MCS 392 Hemi - the kit block in particular is pretty bland, but I’d like to use the pan and heads that come in the box I think.  Scaled the block to match the kit part and printed a couple for some mixing and matching later…

And whilst THAT was printing I started taking a look at the front axle.  The kit part is pretty nice…

Except it’s designed for a wire axle, and I won’t be using a wire axle…

Making a start on a scratchbuilt version:

Making the brackets for the suspension links:

Made a little jig to get the holes in the right spot every time…

Then, while the glue was drying on the tabs I made a start on a brass leaf spring, just as a challenge to myself to make one…

Still some more work to do on these parts and this work didn’t add much compared to filling in the opening in the back of the kit axle but I’ll make some metal bolts to clamp the spring to the axle and clean up the edges and do a little more and hopefully it’ll be a worthwhile improvement…

That’s all for today - thanks for looking…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Edited July 28, 2024 by CabDriver

[stavanzer]

Wow!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Everything's looking great, nice mix of kit, scratch, and printed parts.  

Just FYI...that printed block represents an aftermarket piece, something like a Donovan 417 aluminum block, and didn't appear until the early 1970s IIRC.

The factory cast-iron block, which was run in a whole lotta earlier drag cars, lacked all that external ribbing and was pretty basic visually.

   

(That crinkle-cut thing on the RH block is an aftermarket main-bearing girdle)

Edited July 28, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy

[Scott8950]

Nice job on that front axle.

[OldNYJim]

21 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Everything's looking great, nice mix of kit, scratch, and printed parts.  

Just FYI...that printed block represents an aftermarket piece, something like a Donovan 417 aluminum block, and didn't appear until the early 1970s IIRC.

The factory cast-iron block, which was run in a whole lotta earlier drag cars, lacked all that external ribbing and was pretty basic visually.

   

(That crinkle-cut thing on the RH block is an aftermarket main-bearing girdle)

That’s really helpful, thanks Bill!  I just finished going down a rabbit-hole of researching old early-60s dragster frames, and learning about early Hemis was next on my list…you gave me a good jump on some of that learning there!  I was also considering the AMT Blueprinter parts-pack 392 as an option - there’s some nice parts in there, but the block is actually even more ‘spartan’ than the kit piece…

Seeing as I’m replying anyway, a little more progress today, although not as much as it should’ve been considering how much time I spent…

Got the steering box mounted (or, made a bracket for it anyway) and then replaced the clonky kit linkage with a more in-scale one…

Still need to make a bell crank for the axle end, but I did lay out some hubs in CAD because I didn't want to spend all day scratchbuilding them…plus some rear drums, and cleaned up the front suspension linkages:

A couple of people have warned me that even built box-stock it’s tough to get the body to fit one of these successfully, and I can believe that…but I’m intending to make the entire body removable somehow on this one, which will either make it a lot easier or (more likely) even harder.  Guess we’ll see!  

I already know that after two rounds of tweaking the frame to get it perfectly straight as best I can even the kit parts don’t all line up right so there are plenty of adventures ahead still I’m sure…

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Ace-Garageguy]

34 minutes ago, CabDriver said:

... I just finished going down a rabbit-hole of researching old early-60s dragster frames, and learning about early Hemis was next on my list…you gave me a good jump on some of that learning there!  I was also considering the AMT Blueprinter parts-pack 392 as an option - there’s some nice parts in there, but the block is actually even more ‘spartan’ than the kit piece…

Yeah, though I like those old AMT engine kits, the block detail leaves a lot to be desired, but adding the freeze-plug bosses and the adjacent ribs shouldn't be hard.

If you want to start with one of the best blown early FirePower hemi engines out there, the one included in the recently repopped Revell Miss Deal Studebaker "funny car" (Skorpion Gasser in Atlantis boxing) is hard to beat. It's the same as the rare Revell parts-pack version that goes for stupid money now.

      

Edited July 29, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy
TYPO

[TNT]

Nice work. 

[Bainford]

Nice stuff, Jim. Cool project, sticking around to see where this goes. 

[Straightliner59]

I really like what you're doing, here! Nice work on the steering box. I would agree with Bill--that Revell early hemi is easily the best one. It's in the Hemi Hydro, as well. This is one that's been hanging around my shop for a couple of decades, now.

[BK9300]

Nice work, Jim.  Your custom brass work really makes the details pop.  I think I'd burn the place down trying to do it!

[OldNYJim]

Thanks for all the replies everyone - and for the heads up on the Miss Deal engine…I’ve got that kit in the stash, I need to dig it out and take a closer look…

A little more progress this past week - I had intended to do some modifications to the body on this thing since the start, so I’ve been piecing that together for a few days…my idea was to take as much of the fat out of it as possible, basically…the long overhang on the front end, and some of the length out of the rear.

The front was easiest, so tackled that first… sliced the ‘hood’ into some pieces so I can shorten and drop it low over the frame with a notch for the front spring mount:

Something like this:

Just enough room for the engine, just clears the suspension linkages, and no giant overhang past the front axle.

That gave me this:

Next step was removing some of the length of that big overhanging tail - no easy feat given all the shapes and curves which didn’t leave many options for nice easy cutting and shutting…what I settled on was slicing right at the back of where the door would be (if there was a door), notching the tail, widening it to match the front half of the body and sliding it forwards.  Sounds fairly simple, but I messed with it most of the weekend to get it about where I wanted it…

Here you can see the cuts and slices more easily:

And I added some material to the top of the rear of the body to blend the sharp edge at the back up into the roof to stop that area looking too wide and bulky where I’ve widened it:

I started messing with fitting the glass canopy too, and I know WHY it’s important on a streamliner but I really don’t like how it looks…

It’s too wide, too long and not organic enough of a shape compared to the rest of the car, even with the stock body.  Luckily, in my research I found plenty of historic precedent for similar 1:1 cars not running any kind of glass or canopy, so I have some wiggle-room if I decide not to use it…

Just a small update, but this part took me most of the week to get to - thanks for looking!  Next step will be cleaning up the hackery I did on the body and getting it ready for primer…More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Edited August 5, 2024 by CabDriver

[Tony Coomer]

That is some serious motor work. The tin looks great…

[TarheelRick]

Really enjoying what you are doing with this build. This kit was my holy grail for many years, but they were well beyond my modeling budget. Imagine my joy when they were rereleased. I bought two of them immediately, one tin box and the other regular cardboard. I have opened the tin box one since it was the first one I bought, it is still virgin and the other is still sealed - so much for holy grail. Keep those updates coming.

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!  @TarheelRick - I picked up the metal-tin too…got a bunch of build ideas for these!  
 
A little more progress the past few days…most bodywork stuff, but started getting some parts into primer, slowly…

Fixing all the hackery on the ‘tins’…this Mr Hobby styrene putty is my new favorite for fixing little flaws:

Just made some ‘weld lines’ along the seams to strengthen them and smooth them out:

Leave to set-up overnight then sand and we’re pretty close:

Got the frame cleaned up, into primer and then into black:

And I’ve been researching the little in-out box that this kit provides you…if anyone recognizes it as being based on a 1:1 part I’d love to know exactly what that part is…

Just a little update, but it took me all week ?. More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Tony Coomer]

The slingster is taking shape, great panel work…

Edited August 13, 2024 by Tony Coomer

[OldNYJim]

On 8/13/2024 at 12:03 PM, Tony Coomer said:

The slingster is taking shape, great panel work…

Thanks Tony!

 

I came to do my traditional Sunday night update, and realized that I didn’t achieve anything that interesting all week - doh!  Lots of sanding, priming, parts prepping, painting - but not too much achieved…

 Painted a bunch of metal parts - lots of steel tones mostly, on this particular batch.  I’ll have SOME chrome in the mix on this one, but a lot of raw metal tones too…

Added some tips to the headers and a little detail:

Saw some variation of this view most of the week:

BUT got everything straight and smooth enough for final little tweaks and one more coat of primer this evening…

Ready for the base color:

This one will have some subtle period-correct graphics but nothing too crazy - next job will be a coat of intercoat and then some masking and painting fun ?

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Love the upgrades. Very nice work.