Monday March 08, 2010

BUILDING A EAST COAST MODIFIED

BY: RANDY HANDWERK

Building one of these modifieds has always been near and dear to my heart. Growing up within a stones throw of Nazareth Speedways as a young man my brother and I spent a lot of time there as kids. Like so many other things these cars left an everlasting impression on us.

So what we are going to do here is walk you through the steps I take to build one of these fine machines. 

This is the basis for the project. We’ll be using an AMT Tobias dirt modified kit, H&R’s brass slider chassis, and the 66 Cuda’ body from Big Donkey Resin.

I’ve picked the 40 Ford kit for one important reason. The frames in this kit, the 37 Chevy and the 36 Plymouth, have a longer frame behind the rear wheels as shown in the picture below. The shorter frame comes in the Gremlin, Mustang, and 35 Chevy sedan kits. I want the frame to go as far back in the body as I can get it. It gives a better look in the roll bar area in the back window. 

The first thing I do after cleaning up any flash or imperfections on the frame is to take off the rear frame extension. I like to round off the plastic also so it is undetectable that there was anything molded on at this point.

My next step is to remove the cups and part of the rear 4 bar suspension mounts as shown in the picture below.

This will allow the Tobias frame to slide down inside the H&R chassis.

Moving on we start getting into the collecting of pieces for the Tobias chassis. I get the 2 rear cross members, the 2 “X” members, the rear upper roll cage hoop, the engine cross member, the cross member by the upper part of the radiator, and the nose cross member and the “V” cross member that goes in front of the radiator. I know there is other cross member parts but they get in the way so I don’t use them. Remember to remove the tags from the “V” cross member.

In the next picture you will see that I have the frame built. I use liquid glue for my styrene projects either Tenax or Ambroid Liquid glue. The Ambroid is the better buy. Take notice of which cross members I have installed. Now at the yellow marks proceed to cut at these areas with a sprue cutter or whatever it is that you use to cut plastic with. I have a sprue cutter. The “X” member in the bottom I cut right next to the rectangular ends on the “X” so it leaves the rectangle in the frame. I just feel it gives that area a little more strength. Also, you have to cut enough of the upright “X” off to clear the H&R motor.

My next step is to put the kit frame inside the H&R chassis. This can be a little frustrating. You have to work with it a little, once you figure out where the pressure points are it becomes easier. Those points usually are in the area where the frame uprights are where the frame “Zs” up in front of the rear axle. Caution must be used when pushing the kit frame down. Make sure in the front half of the frame you push down where there are vertical bars designed into the kits frame. Some additional grinding may be needed to get by the motor mount bar at the top of the H&R motor. You also need to cut off the kit frame behind the rear axle indicated by the red mark. Be sure the upright or “Z” area is up against the brass upright area also indicated by the red mark.

Once you have it fitting inside the H&R you need to “ADJUST” things. I lengthened the H&R by one hole and I put the screws right next to each other so I am able to get the kit chassis all the way down in the brass chassis. You have to clear the kit’s engine mount past the chassis bolts. I also have to grind out the bottom of the “V” member so my lead wires are not holding the kit chassis up off the brass. Also, in this next picture you can see how I have cut the rear “X” member to clear the motor.

Up next is the interior bucket. You need to cut out the entire bottom flush with the sidewalls of the inside of the bucket. On the back you need only to clear the motor. As you can see in the rear corners an additional small notch to again clear the motor support.

Once you have this completed, you need to test fit it so you have enough clearance for the bucket to fit all the way down on the top of the frame’s side crash bars.

Now, if everything has gone right to this point and I have explained things easy enough for everyone to understand your frame and chassis should look like this. What we call the 2x4 frame rail, which is the bottom rail of the kit frame should sit so that the top of the 2x4 is flush with the top of the brass frame.

The next thing I do is to finish the remainder of the roll cage.

Alright moving right along now we have a shot of the stock H&R slider and the one I have modified for this build. First thing you notice is I cut off the wings with my Dremel tool with a fiber cutoff disc. I leave a heavy 1/16” but not quite a 1/8” of it so I can solder on my sidebars to this. In this picture you can also see how I have the small frame bolts and the chassis length.

My next step was to build a firewall for the front of my body. For this I use .030” thick styrene. You have to lay the sheet of styrene flat and trace around the inside of the body being careful that you have a straight edge either across the top or the bottom. Take the kits firewall and trace the slots where the kit frame slides up into the firewall. I cut the transmission opening in it but this is not necessary, as you will see later. Once this fits the way you like it you can use super glue to put it in but make sure you have the body sitting where you need it to look right and centered on the rear fender openings. When you have it where you like it and it’s glued in I reinforce it with 5-minute epoxy at the joints.

Now then once this is completed you need to make an interior shelf. For this particular body if you look from the top it is somewhat similar to the 35 Chevy sedan kit. So I used one as a template because the sedan one steps up and I needed a flat one. So I traced one out on some .030” styrene and with just a little whittling I was able to make it fit. I use my Dremel and cut off wheel extensively on my projects.

Now we go on to drilling our chassis mounting points. Depending on what you use may be different than what I do here. I use ¼” long screws I get from my local trophy shop. I use numbered drill bits here. I use a #53 bit, which is smaller, and a #46 the larger. I drill the small hole first so my screw has something to bite into in the plastic and then I remove the kit frame and use a bigger bit so the screw just clears and slides through the hole. I do this in 4 different spots on the chassis.

Now I may have rushed this part a little bit. I normally wait to paint the body until all the constructing is finished but I got anxious to see what it was going to look like. You will notice too, that I have the interior shelf in place and glued also. You want to use epoxy here again.

It’s a little hard to see but I have the sidebars bent up and soldered in place here. The hood is just setting on the frame rails.

I use 3/64” brass rod and 3/32” square brass tube for my bar work.

This next step is vital to your cars survival. Lubrication of your model is important, especially the motor. This access hole allows you to easily reach the front of the motor. I always drill a hole in the bottom of the H&R chassis and it’s almost always right at the top of the (&) insignia. You can determine the size you want on this.

After you build the “Big Block” power plant from the kit you have to cut the transmission off to mount it in the kit frame. When doing this make sure you take off only what you need to so it drops in the frame and over the locator pin in the bottom of the oil pan. This is why earlier I said you don’t need to cut out the firewall for the transmission. You can use the uncut firewall for a better mounting surface. 

My next project is building the driver if you so desire to put one in your car. This is the driver figure I cast in resin and use in all of my builds. I cast the 3 different heads also so I can models different eras of drivers.

When using this figure I can reposition his arms by grinding away at the shoulder and upper arm areas. You also have to open up the palm area of each hand to accept the steering wheel. It becomes necessary to grind off the legs so he fits in the drivers compartment. The one picture I didn’t take was that of the seat from the kit that when you use this driver I cut out the bottom of the seat along the inside of the seat’s sides. Remember that when you glue any resin product that you need epoxy or super glue. The following picture is the start of “HARRY” as a modified driver.

Next, we have Harry pretty much completed with a face shield that can be repositioned that I made from an “OREO” cookie tray and 2 straight pins that I cut off for pivot points. I also gave Harry an index finger so he could tell us he’s number 1. Thanks Harry you’re my hero!!!!

So there you have it pretty much in a nutshell.

Assemble parts - decorate the body, and BANG you are finished.

If you have any more questions you can contact me through the Home Racing World Message Forum

- Randy