Nascar race car, 1960's Amt style

[Gary66]

I got away from the leftovers long enough to finish this one, although it does need a coat of future. It's a 99 percent out of the box Amt Torino kit (stock/drag/Nascar kit, not the modified stocker) with Billy Gooche reproduction decals of the old Amt box art.

Thanks to Dave Van for providing some much needed advice on lowering the front end.

[oldcars]

How did you drop the front end with those two big holes? Car looks real neat with that stance.

[Gary66]

I cut out the molded in inner fenders, and my only non box stock pieces are the round stock I ran from the firewall to the radiator bulkhead. I also drilled holes as high as I could above the stock locating ones for the wheel stubs/mounting pins, and used a piece of round stock for an axle.

I'm going to edit the 100 percent box stock phrase out of my earlier post, I guess this is box stock plus:

[MonoPed]

Cool build Gary!

[62rebel]

i seem to be utterly unable to do one with nothing but parts from the box; even if i make an effort to use only those parts i end up putting more accurate tires or ? else from the parts stash into it... i dug up an AMT 53 vette kit and it went from a half completed box-stock to early '60's sports racer just by takingthe lid off the box.

there was a book (real hardcover book!) in my school library in the '70's that was probably printed in the early-mid '60's that dealt with all the types of model cars at that time; slot cars in 1/32 and 1/24 scale, gas cars, and "static" models. converting box models to grand national spec was a big thing then and a long chapter was devoted to this. customizing was fading in popularity and only a few pages dealt with it. i remember checking it out many times but unfortunately i do not recall the name of the book or i'd try to find it through archives. the school disposed of it several years ago and the dewey number was deleted. anybody else remember this book, or who compiled it?

[oldcars]

Thanks for the info Gary66. I know when I watch the old races that the nose is down and the tail is up on the late 60s cars. That kit you have has always bothered me on the stockcar version because it sat too level. Some times it is the simple answers that are hard to find. Again thanks. Rich

[Gary66]

I also had to take a few liberties with the rear wheels, I shaved off the axle stubs from the rim backs so that the inner tire sidewall is flush up against the chassis, that was just enough to those rear wheels under the wheel opening lip, and I used thin plastic rod for a rear axle instead of the kit supplied metal one.

On this one , the Nascar headers in the kit would not fit under the car when I dropped the nose that far, I used the stock ones, and I left off the Nascar oil cooler on the oil pan, it would have been real close if it would have cleared the ground.

It also may help to trim the glass some to get a better interior tub fit, I didn't do that on this one but the kit glass is really large compared to the window openings on the body.

The big plus of this kit is the interior/roll cage....you can use that under just about anything and build a decent race car.

[Guest zebm1]

To quote E Jr, "Back in tha Day," all of those old stockers stripped tha front wheel well sheet metal out. And as I remember it they mounted tha engine oil cooler remotely on and in front of tha radiator support. And oh yeah...when Firestone came out with those NASCAR racing tires, NASCAR allowed tha race teams to chop out tha rear wheel well sheet metal and replace them with mini-tubs, and bow out tha fenders some too. Saw one of those Holmon-Moody Torinos at Golden Gate Speedway, in Tampa, FL, and that was tha way it was built. Tha shock mounts in tha rear were wierd, being uni-body car bodies, guys would cut round holes in tha floor boards, weld a shock mount to a home-made crossmember and mount heavy-duty shocks to them (even tho tha car looks high in tha rear-it was actually lower than a stock Torino).

Those race teams used to sell their old racers to local racers all tha time, still do I think.

[62rebel]

my neighbors back home in amherst va had some old roundy-round cars down in the woods that us kids messed around in (oh those bad old 1970's before lawyers ruined everything!) and i remember how crude most of them were, with 1/2" re-rod welded into the wheels and home-made roll cages; school bus drivers' seats; and pieces of chain welded around the door pillars to keep the doors shut. big holes cut in floorboard to see the tires, all the trim knocked off and numbers painted on with house paint. man; we were all Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough in those days. i think there were three of them, 2 '55 or '56 fords and one 1957 ford. the '57 was the best built of the three; it had better fabrication workmanship than the other two, but it still wasn't a "factory" job like a Woods brothers or Holman-Moody car.