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1955 Chevy 2-motor street machine

5952 Views 28 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  Black3sr
I have not built a new car from scratch for a while. When a friend sent me a scan from "Scale Auto Racing News" and asked if I could build it....

It was just too cool a project to pass on and since it doesn't need to be perfectly detailed (sorry Chris), or a wonderful handler (D3), I of course said YES! (Considering my limited resources...)

A close-up of the rear shows that it seems to contain some sort of a homemade differential made up of two ring gears with a set of pinions held in place by a homemade "X" bracket.


Here are the bits I collected together a few weeks ago.

The body is a Monogram "Badman", re-popped and labeled something street-roddy. (Original kit was molded in yellow) I had it in storage and tossed the rest of the kit. (O the shock of it all!)


The motors are two lightly used Champion 26D's.

Testing the motors on the bench determined them to be neutrally timed so running one backwards won't be a problem.

I have since rejected the wheels shown above... and instead picked a set of very cool front and rear Cox Cheetah wheels shod with Firestone rubber. Because everyone with eyes can see clearly that a set of 5 spoke American mags look simply wonderful on a "tri-five" Chevrolet street machine. Am I right?


The fronts are freewheeling and the rears threaded. Don't know the manufacturer of the "Diff" but it's not the Tradeship I still have hidden somewhere in storage. :blush:

From the top we can see how wide the original chassis builder mounted the motors. Not sure why this was unless it was to give the "Diff" room!?!?!
What that necessitated was bodywork to radius the rear wheel openings. In any case the original bracket appears to be hand made, as was the rest of the chassis. Since I have free reign to "build it better if need be", I believe I can connect the two "Cobra" brackets together with the motors nestled side by side and still give room for the cool Cox wheels and all those gears.

Now to find a set of body mounting brackets (pintubes... REALLY?), so stay tuned!
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Ron, a "trailing guide" is different from a regular due to the placement of the pivot post. This one is forward of the center were the standard of the industry are usually back of center.


What this does is keep the pivot ahead of the axle for better handling and keeps the nose of the guide out of sight.

I still would not want to race in this configuration, but it will toodle around the track just fine and scream down the straights like nobodys business.
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thanks jairus for the 'schooling'

i suspected as much but was not sure

Ron
Jairus, I love your works, allawys I can learn some thing new from you, thanks!
There is slot racing in Israel? Wow... that really is Eden. *sigh*

Only update on the '55 project is the body's now painted a green/cream two tone. Soon as the paint cures the chrome foil goes on along with some details and then a whole can of Tamiya clear.
Wow, a full month of days has passed since I last posted on this subject. Which is one reason I dislike working on hard body slots due to the huge amount of time and effort required to get it KORRECT! First off, the paint is finally done so time for final assembly is... here at last!


The interior and engine plate are also painted as are a few other detail bits.


And a few final shots.

(Yeah, no license plate. Couldn't find a decent decal that I liked.)







The paint is all lacquer including the clearcoat, which incidentally is Tamiya pearl clear.
Looks very pretty in the sunlight!
Ciao
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Great colour combo Jairus. It looks the business!

Graham.
Awesome. Thanks so much much for sharing the details of the build.
What he said
I have seen the photos before but I think you have done a great job on this car
Thanks again
Steve
Nice work J. Here is a site for making USA and Canadian licence plates.

Licence maker

Just want to point out on the 1:1 cars the C pillar was not done in chrome but roof colour. Just the drip rail was chromed. I used to get a ride to scholl in a new '55 Chevy Bel Air.
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