AMT '37 Chevy Dirt Modified - Updated 03-07

[Bernard Kron]

I recently joined a specialist forum whose focus is primarily in the area of circle track racing of one form or another, especially dirt track racing. Dirt track racing is not something I know a lot about, but having watched on television and seen some very impressive short track cars of various sorts both in 1:1 and in scale I thought I would try my hand at it. The members of the forum I joined, Scale Racing Lobby, are mostly based in the southeast with some members in the northeast so the style of racing they know about is primarily from those areas. They have been very welcoming and have been able to point me to lots of sources for history and information on these highly regional types of racing series.

For my first project in this genre I thought it would be best to limit myself to a fairly standard kit and build it largely out-of-the-box. While attending the recent NNL West show I picked up an AMT '37 Chevy Modified kit:

I'm sticking closely to the sequence of build in the instructions as I figure they'll help me avoid an construction issues. So far this seems like a good plan. Steeling an idea from one of the forum member's models, I radiused the opened-up door windows without removing material from the door by the A pillars. The instruction suggest removing the door window panel entirely as an option but I thought this would weaken the body structure too much. This method looks much tidier. My approach was to determine where the stock corner radiuses begin along the bottom edge and use those points for the ends of my horizontal cut. I first cut vertically at those points with my trusty photo-etch saw, then scored my way through the reveal edge. After removing that piece, having marked out what I thought would be an attractive looking radius, I used a round sanding stick to shape the new corners. Here's some pics:

The last few days have mainly been about painting and detailing. I'm trying to give it a utilitarian look which is the vibe I'm getting from the pictures of the original cars that the kit seeks to model. The chassis and all the interior surfaces except for the chassis tin work are painted Duplicolor Cream, a kind of medium light beige color. The cockpit tin is finished n Testors Metalizer Aluminum Plate. The basic body color is Duplicolor Chrome Yellow. I'm thinking I'll add some red trim paint along the edges of the roof and rear deck and red numbers and lettering to match which I'll do with home made decals. The motor is standard Chevy Engine Orange.

All the chrome bits have been stripped and refinished in various shades of Testors Metalizer. The exception is the wheels. I'm using the kit wheels but they have been refinished in Testors Acryl Jet Exhaust, which is a pretty close match to the Dow 7 anti-corrosive finish used on Halibrand mags. The tires are from Big Donkey with a small "pony tire" for the inside front and a staggered oversize outside front. I've included a picture of the rear quick change because I thought it was an especially nice piece in the kit and it responded to paint detailing rather well.

Thanx for lookin',
B.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Bernard Kron

[Ace-Garageguy]

Very interesting WIP of a type of race-car we rarely see on this forum. Looking good.

I got a few of those frames built-up in a box of gluebomb bits, wondered what they came from. Thanks to you, now I know.

Thanks for the tire info too. That skinnier Goodyear looks to be exactly what I need for something.

[Badluck 13]

I love it!!!! I built one of these 25yrs ago and just found it packed away not to long ago and I do remember these are such fun kits to work with and there are never 2 alike in the 1:1's,I too "hogged" out one of the window openings on mine,no hijack here but if interested here is a link to mine
http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=92550

I just recently purchased a few of the "later" versions of these runners i.e. Vega,Pinto,and looking for some of the older ones so I can tell you I will be watching this one come to life and grab a few ideas from yours......chassis looks great and nice paint on the diff,and liking the tire combo set up.....I'm a watchin'

[Foxer]

This kind of racing was almost all we had in the '50 and '60 back in the northeast and I loved going to see these go in circles. I have one in the works, but not done. The coolest part of these is they are all homemade and different ..backyard racers and many gas stations had a rig and all were unique. You can't do anything wrong building one.

Yours is looking good, Bernard .. of course. Will be interesting following this one.

[slusher]

Never seen one of these built. So cool. Does the frame come as one piece???

[DrKerry]

Very Kool Bernard, love the ol' dirt cars and short track racers!!!! Got a late model modified sitting on my table now I'm looking at working on soon.... Can't wait to see more of what you're doing!!!!

I went and checked out that site, lots of kool stuff over there along with a few guys I know from another racing forum that I am part of..... Kool stuff!!!!

Edited February 26, 2015 by DrKerry

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks everyone!

I’m quite far along on this project. It’s largely an out-of-the-bpxbuild since I not very expert in this type of racing and I’ve never built a dirt track modified before. When I bought the kit it was used and quite a few of the parts were loose in the box, although it had never been started. I checked the parts carefullt against the instructions and everything seemed to be present. Unfortunately there was a small hole in the bottom of the box that I didn’t notice and a few of the small parts have gotten lost, notably part of the header assemblies and the hobs to the wheels. So I’ve had to do a bit more improvising than I thought I would…

The chassis is completed now with the exception of the rear nerf bar. The engine has been built. I was able to substitute a resin aftermarket header set for the lost kit exhausts with some cutting and fitting. They’re finished in Testors Metalizer Gunmetal. Most of the chassis details are finished in various shades of Metalizer as well. I’m going for a relatively utilitarian look to emphasize the abundant detail this kit offers. Everything fits very well and the instructions provide an excellent sequence of assembly. The only mysterious omission is a lack of steering gear and lever arm at the end of the tie rod. I’m sure I’ll build another one of these and in that case I’ll add in the missing detail. I also added a proper racing harness to the interior.

The other change I made is to substitute some very nicely detailed dirt track tires from Big Donkey Resin which look very nice with the refinished kit wheels on the fully assembled chassis.

The body color is Duplicolor Chrome Yellow with Duplicolor Flash Red trim on the roof and rear deck. I also cut back the rear deck.

Next up is making some homemade decals. This has become almost a trademark on my racing car builds. My habit is to wait until the car is fully painted and the stance properly dialed in before doing the design work on the graphics. In this case it meant that the car is almost complete. Below you’ll see a sequence of mockup shots where I use Photoshop to create virtual graphics before actually printing and applying the decals. Only the final build up I’ll probably add additional trade decals and some grpahics on the engine cover as well.

There’s probably another week of bench time before this car is done. I’m really enjoying exploring this area of automotive competition and I’m pleased to have been afforded such a nicely engineered kit to get started on building dirt track modifieds.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

With all the nice chassis detail and a kit that’s designed to allow for a simple lift-off body shell I couldn’t resist a little Photoshop Phun while mocking up my graphics.

I started with a rear view of the chassis with the body off and body on, using a tripod and being careful not to move the car when lifting the body off.

Then, using Photoshop I “cut” out an image of the body and overlayed it on the bare chassis image. Because the camera alignment and lighting are identical for both images this allowed me to create a “ghost” image of the body over the chassis. I also took the opportunity to mock up the graphics at the same time.

And finally, here’s the same image with the transparency of the body and decals removed:

[slusher]

Man that looks great.....

[DrKerry]

Oh yeah, gonna make a dirt car kind of guy outta yourself if you keep this up..... Looks awesome Bernard!!!!!!

[Dave Van]

Nice work and photos!!