Back to building

[Greg Birky]

I may not be 100% ready to get back to building after all the events of the past four years but I’m back at the bench finally with encouragement from my awesome brother, Tom and friend Bob D.  It hasn’t hurt hanging out with them at the Benton County Speedway a couple of times recently!!!  Great little bullring with incredible car counts in seven classes and still finished by 9:30 pm!!!  What I’ve started in a Revell ff68 Chevelle dirt late model from yesteryear as a tribute to Bill McDonough, an excellent late model chauffeur in the 60’s to mid 70’s who also built a 68 Chevelle to run the 1973/74 Daytona Permatex 300!!!  He was also the Birky boyz favorite driver for years and years!!!  Anyway here are some pics and I’ll show y’all what’s finally going on with me!!!  You say, do tell!!!, the ole bench racer finally has experienced brain activity!!!!!

This is going to basically be a car that won’t be picked up on a contest table but will have a quick change and fuel cell in the rear without getting in so deep that it won’t get finished.  The pictures will show a Big Donkey quick change rather than a Ron Coon quick change.  I’m saving them for more detailed builds since they are so much nicer in accuracy and quality of the parts!!!  What I did was cut the axle tubes off of the quick change and remove the center section of the stock Chevelle and axle tubes and pin the qc center section to the Chevelle axle tubes.  Be very careful not to break the fragile sway bar that molded with the lower trailing arms of the Chevelle!!!  I’ll post some pics of the decals and of the real Daytona car in another post!!!  Thanks for looking in and all comments positive or not are welcome as well as any questions you may have!!!  I’ll try to readjust my photo sizes up just a tad next time!

[Hondo]

Glad you are getting back up to speed, Greg.
Must be a rash of Chevelle fever going 'round.
I need to crack open one of those old glue bombs I have..........

[Greg Birky]

Hi Jim, yeah it’s good to cut some styrene again and do something different than a Camaro although I have plenty of them on my bucket list since the late sixties through the early 80’s dirt track late models are my favorite years, I’ll be working on lots of different cars, maybe even a late model hemi Cuda!!!  Thanks for the comment!!!  By the way, anyone who hasn’t gotten a Revell  68 Chevelle kit, it’s perhaps one of if not their best kit ever!!!  As a builder I cannot find anything that’s worth a complaint...there may be a couple of minor nits but I haven’t seen them!!!  It’s a beautiful kit, guys!!!

[Greg Birky]

Here are photos of the real car at Daytona!  My model will pay tribute to this car which is a 68 Chevelle so this new kit is a perfect car to use for this build.  All photos of the real car are courteous of my brother, Mr. Awesome!!!  Thanks for looking!!!

[Greg Birky]

More photos including the pit crew with the Frito Bandito himself with the King and Roger Dolan of dirt late model fame and Bill’s son Tim who was a good dirt late model driver in his own right.  I would have to do some research on the other crew members but this picture is how classic Bill enjoyed what he did in racing!!!!

[sentsat71]

Nice start......

[Greg Birky]

Nice start......

Thanks Ed

[Greg Birky]

Looks like (from right to left) Richard Petty, Bill McDonough, and the band The Association! Ha! Tom and I already worked on how best to bend that nose down so I'll be interested to watch how you do it Greg!

Hi David!  I’m building a dirt late model in Bill’s colors and sponsor to pay tribute to him and his place on the Hawkeye Downs Wall of Fame so I won’t be bending the front down on this one...I do plan to build a replica of the Daytona car at some point so I will have to tackle that bend at some point.  This car will be from the early 70’s era when Chevelle’s were the kings of America’s dirt tracks.  Hopefully I can do it justice without getting mired down in the details.  I’m ready to get one finished and on the shelf!

[BobD]

Greg -  After seeing some of your past work, I'm sure this piece will be a "show-stopper" - even if its not "going to a show".  I look forward to any-and-all of your future projects!  I remember the Chevelle very well....we actually attended this race at Daytona.  As a side note:  It would be nice to see a Birky build something other than a Chevy....LOL!

[Greg Birky]

Hey Bob, I’m thinking of building Roger Dolan’s Hemi Cuda at some point...I think it would be a fun build since I’m a Roger D. fan from way back and he did run several MOPARS in his earlier days!  His pink RoadRunner might be kinda cool to build also!!!  I like all the brands but I mostly build Chevy’s because they’re the kits that follow me home the most often, hahaha!!!  I knew Bill and Tim personally so this car and Tim’s Chevelle are kind of at the top of my list right now.  I’d also like to build Tim’s t-top Camaro also.  As far as being a show stopper, probably not but it just might make its way to Cedarville next March and I hope you’re able to go again.  It was fun even if my cell phone caused us to have to go eat pizza afterwards, lol!!!