This model is made from the 57 Ford "gasser" kit. When I bought the kit I had every intention of building this car. The gasser suspension is just too radical for a street car. This 1:1 car was around in 65-66. It rode nose low, no front bumper, just a short piece of pipe, painted white on the front as this one will be. Cops hassled us for no front bumper. That's where the pipe idea surfaced. Had to rework the suspension and fiddled with that for a while. Angle is bad in this photo but the nose is lower than the rear, but whole thing rides a bit higher than a stock 57 rode. Needed to be higher in the rear for bigger tires. Had to narrow the rear axle a bit to get these ones on it. Tight fit.
I have worked in building construction for over 40 yrs. I am working about 4 hrs/day now, lots of the time by myself in a custom woodworking shop I have arranged to use for my own work. I am recovering from knee replacement in March. Recovery is usually a year. They say I am doing much better than average. Still only has so many steps in it in a day. I do farming some and am busy right now mowing and baling hay. And will help a dairy farmer friend later. I wanted to put this kit aside so I can work on my 56 Chevy that a friend and I built and raced back in 1966. Got the kit and working on getting the chrome off and wheel wells cut out etc. Will get a pic on as soon as I make some progress so you can see what I am aiming at. I am extremely interested in modeling the type of cars I actually saw in the late 60's to mid 70's. Many do not have color photos so may have to go from memory a lot. Race cars were very different in different parts of the country so there is a wealth of info and photos to work from. I am fascinated by the quality of work I see on this blog. You guys have gone to places I would never have thought possible. Many of the full sized cars I knew were built the same way, by backyard engineers who did it mostly for the love of what they were doing. I was a NASCAR fan back in the days of Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Petty and the rest. The "individualism" is gone out of it totally today. One car looks like another. My heart is still with the kinds of cars that show up here on STM.
Nathan