"parkrndl is enjoying his midlife crisis" (parkrndl)
02/16/2016 at 13:40 • Filed to: None
14
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"parkrndl is enjoying his midlife crisis" (parkrndl)
02/16/2016 at 13:40 • Filed to: None | 14
| 7 |
I’m a teacher in PA, which means we’ve had lots of snow days lately. So I’ve had some time to get down in the hobby dungeon and work on a project that’s been banging around in my head for years.
This is what a bunch of my buddies in high school used to drive, in colors as close as I could get out of Dupli-Color spray bombs:
Still remember the real ones pretty clearly. I’ve had to fudge some of the years and options for this project because the selection of HO scale slot car bodies is pretty limited.
The ‘cuda was a ‘73 with a 340, and it had the twin blister hood, not the shaker one like in the pic. I remember it had a “slap shifter” kind of deal that only went up one gear at a time when you whacked it. I think it was in the nicest shape of all our cars.
The Cyclone GT was a ‘70 with a 351 Cleveland. I remember the least about that one because the guy didn’t have it very long; he tended to turn cars over cars every couple of months back then.
The Mustang was actually a ‘73 Mach 1 with a 302 2V. It should have the Mach 1 hood and a trunk spoiler. He had Cragar SSs on it; I don’t remember if they came with the car or he added them after the fact. We got stranded in it one night in a suburban neighborhood when it threw an alternator belt. Concerned residents thought we were casing houses to burglarize and we got a ride home in a cop car. Scared the shit out of me.
The Cutlass was actually a ‘71, not the ‘70 in the pics. Apologies for the crappy job I did converting it to a 4-door for this project. 350 with Rochester 2-barrel. It was originally dull silver with a blue interior, and if memory serves, we painted it Krylon primer gray. He put a set of Oldsmobile Rally Wheels on it, painted black. Pretty sure that was the car we drove without rear shocks from someone’s house to a shop with a torch, because we couldn’t break loose the rusty bolts at the tops of the shocks to install Gabriel Hijackers (remember them?).
I think the Skylark was a ‘70. 350 2v again. Obligatory Gabriel Hijackers and cheap headers. Apparently, putting headers on a Buick was way harder than putting them on a Chevy, because I seem to recall that project took him and a couple of the guys all night and multiple cases of beer. He put GS emblems on it because that was what we all did back then.
And the Nova was mine. ‘73, not ‘70, and mine didn’t have the cowl induction hood. Came with a 250 straight 6/Powerglide, and I swapped in a 307/TH350 when the girl around the corner from me wrecked her ‘73 and sold it to me for 50 bucks. Dad had the car before me, and he did the Earl Scheib paint and vinyl top. Hacked in bucket seats out of a Cougar and a console and shifter from a junkyard ‘71 or ‘72 Camaro. That whole car was a colossal hack job, but man do I miss it.
I’ve been collecting the bodies for this for a while. They all run on standard vintage Aurora Thunderjet chassis.
Steve in Manhattan
> parkrndl is enjoying his midlife crisis
02/16/2016 at 13:50 |
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Nice!
lone_liberal
> parkrndl is enjoying his midlife crisis
02/16/2016 at 13:57 |
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Beautiful. My high school parking lot would have had similar cars because they were cheap back in the late 70s/early 80s. It definitely did include a ‘72 Chevelle, a ‘71 Mustang, a ‘67 Toronado and a ‘72 Torino with the last one being mine and the others belonging to friends. And you’re absolutely right about the Hijackers. I think the Buick had exhaust ports that kind of pointed down which made header install tougher. Ah, here’s a picture of a Buick 350.
RallyWrench
> parkrndl is enjoying his midlife crisis
02/16/2016 at 14:05 |
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Nice work, and great story! I shared this to Live and Let Diecast, hope you don’t mind.
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parkrndl is enjoying his midlife crisis
> lone_liberal
02/16/2016 at 14:07 |
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No joke about cars and prices at the time. I graduated in ‘87, and we could buy 2-door V8 2v cars from the late 60s and early 70s from little old ladies for 500 bucks any day of the week. Not SSs or GTOs, but base models were everywhere...
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parkrndl is enjoying his midlife crisis
> RallyWrench
02/16/2016 at 14:09 |
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No problem, thanks. I probably should have done it myself. I haven’t been over there in a while.
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lone_liberal
> parkrndl is enjoying his midlife crisis
02/16/2016 at 14:14 |
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And if you really wanted a big block you could go to a yard and grab one out of a station wagon. A surprising number of people had 2V big blocks in station wagons for towing purposes.
Jobjoris
> parkrndl is enjoying his midlife crisis
02/16/2016 at 15:22 |
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Great story! I have no idea which one the Nova or the Cutlass is but as you didn’t know the Bagheera you’ll probably forgive me ;-)
You should definitely come over more often over on LaLD...