April Foolish Model Car Contest

My fabrication skills for doing anything other than box stock are severely lacking but I think I can hammer something unusual out of the stash of stuff on hand here. Having essentially two months to get it done will definitely be a plus.

Here's a couple of teaser pics. I have most of it sorted now, I'll do a bigger post later.

I'm not sure which direction I am going yet but a Hyundai Pony seems like an interesting starting point. 

In reply to llysgennad :

Far left, middle car (yellow) is an AMX. I want that! 

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

Daaaamn, even the Spanish Inquisition didn't expect that.

One of my local hobby shops has always had a pile of those Hyundai Pony kits. Cheap too, just like the real car, and seems to sell as well

OK, here we go.

Hacked up Willys (?)  and Challenger

1969 Camaros. Left is 1/25th with no interior, right is 1/24th with full interior but no chassis.

Studebaker Altered Drag car, body only. Slice in roof, and small chunk missing by back window.

AMX Funny car, no drivetrain or interior or axles or A-pillars or much of anything. (Claimed by Javelin immediately as expected.) Has glass and bumpers. Hood was glued in place and then broken at the hinges, leaving corners attached.

Ford Fairlane, opening doors and hood, no drivetrain or glass. Interior is glued in unpainted, hood is ventilated. I kinda like this one, may keep unless somebody really wants it.

Miscellaneous interiors, chassis, body parts

More to come

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm not sure which direction I am going yet but a Hyundai Pony seems like an interesting starting point. 

I am soo excited to see where this goes.

I had an extravagant plan to section and narrow Plymouth duster body, move the 340 to the middle and drop it on an F1 chassis, but for some reason F1 kits are like $750. Get over yourselves guys, your racing isn't even interesting. So with that plan on the back burner I ordered a few different kits for a different build. The base arrived today.

In reply to AClockworkGarage :

Most F1 kits are 1/20th scale and have 500 parts. The 1/25 ones are much more reasonable (but HARD to find). Look at Indy kits, they are DIRT cheap.

I am in to see what everyone comes up with!

Starting something.

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

A pro-street Bimmer? I'm on board.

I'm leaning towards something NASCAR-based since I have a bunch of '90s kits that theoretically can't be built into what they're supposed to be since the decal sheets are all antique and probably won't play nice. Then I have to look at what else is in the stash that might have a body that'll fit over a NASCAR chassis without a ton of massaging to either body or chassis.

Just brainstorming here, I was looking for '57 Chevy kits, but I'm sure you can find someone who put a '57 body on a NASCAR chassis somewhere. So it's probably not an original idea, and one that would involve a bunch of work since I bet those '57s are pretty narrow and would take a ridiculous amount of work to fit around a modern stock car roll cage.

I was looking at the stash of kits here and didn't see anything jumping out at me that might make a good body swap candidate. But there is something that has already been built that might work....

The wheels in my brain started turning. Has anyone built a NASCAR SUV? Trucks are a dime a dozen, but long roofs? Like an Expedition?

Doing a quick eyeing of things, the wheelbase of the cop Expedition lines up pretty nicely with the Monte Carlo. That's enough of a good first impression to make me take this more than a little seriously.

I'm not going to mess with the #34, that's a keeper. I have no huge attachment to the cop Expedition (which was built for GRM's snap-together challenge sometime last year), so that can be sacrificed. I can whip together another NASCAR chassis fairly easily and see if it needs to be modded at all to support the Expedition body (and vice-versa).

As for the body itself, I'd like to NASCARize it by filling all the seams, maybe even molding in the bumpers and grille and perhaps finding some vintage Ford Craftsman Truck decal sheet headlight/taillight decals? Deep air dam, rear spoiler, and mount it as low as possible to make it look like a real race car. Whether my fab skillz can actually accomplish this is the big question. But I'm inspired (or over-tired at 1:00 a.m.) and, unless this turns into a real disaster, it's where I'm leaning. The only wrinkle is that none of my NASCAR kits on hand are Fords, so this would be a NASCAR Ford body hiding a Chevy engine. On the other hand, the Expedition is a curbside model, maybe I just won't cut the hood open so nobody can see.

This could be fun. Wish me luck.

In reply to Claff :

An Expedition Supertruck sounds great.  
 

I didn't have what I wanted in my pile so I ordered a Vega prostock kit and hope that the Pony is similar in size.  

I built all of one model this winter... I'm not sure I'm in for this one or not, but I'll definitely be watching. 

I love weird stuff. I need to get back to building. This is perfect timing.

I could try to finish up my Cobra "kit car" on VW pan, but the interior fabrication required is holding me back.

I'm looking at my other kits now.

I'm 99% in.  Maybe I'll even finish one this time.  :)

I've been meaning to do something with my Studebaker Starliner with the dual blower, chopped top, and blue translucent hood.

"The Challenge"....

Do we have to write a budget? 

In reply to SV reX :

I'm game. Already sourced a budget friendly engine swap for a car nobody wanted in the first place. 
Anyone know a way to source 1:25 challenge decals?

barefootcyborg5000 said:

In reply to SV reX :

I'm game. Already sourced a budget friendly engine swap for a car nobody wanted in the first place. 
Anyone know a way to source 1:25 challenge decals?

I made the ones for the Cheaparrel build. I am happy to make more (for free and with continued okay from GRM overlords).

Ah-ha. I found the perfect starting point. The Answer.

I already took the engine out of this kit and used it for something else (which was a pain because the driveshaft and surrounding substructure were molded to the engine/transmission, so I hack those apart)

I'm thinking about a DOHC Mustang V8. I have at least two kits with this engine but one isn't in its box so I'd have to find it. Open to other engine swap suggestions.

In reply to slowbird :

455 olds

SV reX said:

"The Challenge"....

Do we have to write a budget? 

Yes, but nobody will read it.