RC Bashers

After a looooong wait, I'll finally post up the build of my salt flats '55 Corvette model.

Most car guys are familiar with salt flats land speed racing. Can you say Bonneville? I started the project with the re-release of the AMT '55 Vette.

1st mock up:


After a liitle body assembly, I began the repetitive process of sand, putty, sand, putty, sand, putty....

I smoothed out the dashboard & did a bunch of small things to make the body as slippery as possible. I got a little primer on the body. Then hit the ol' sand, putty, sand, putty thing again:



Another mock up. Sittin' way too high at this point:

I finally got the body where I wanted it & sprayed some metallic red on there. Whats more appropriate than a "little red Corvette", huh? I got the chassis done & lowered the suspension down to a more satisfactory height. The engine is a ready & installed as well.



The model didn't have a master cylinder, so I made one up using some scrap styrene material I had laying around. Thats a toothpick there, if you're curious about size relationships:

Another snag I hit was exhaust routing. The engine has parts box rams horn exh manifolds, & the kit exhaust was no where near workable anymore. So I grabbed some styrene & bent me up some new pipes.



And after some paint & drill work:

The lettering & numbers are decals I made on my printer, & the sponsor decals are from the parts box.

The Corvette runs as a B/SR- which stands for Sports Racing powered by a 283 with a blower. Thats the vintage Bonneville classification from the early-mid '60s.

The engine has fuel lines & plug wires I made from small gauge wire:

The car also has brake lines I fabbed up- something I'd never done before. You can kinda see them coming out of the master cylinder in the pic above. A little more obvious in the underside pic:



And I gave a little nod to the guys trying to save the Bonneville Salt Flats for future generations by putting the Save The Salt web address on the grille cover:

I'll give a run-down on some of the parts I used to come up with this build:

The tires are from the Revell '57 Chevy Black Widow kit.
The wheel covers & Latham blower are from the re-released AMT chopped T coupe
Windscreen & roll bar are from the Revellogram Shelby Cobra kit
Rams horn manifolds, Chevrolet script valve covers, and gauges are from the parts box

nice work on the static build man. you really do stick to the details on these.

is someone contemplating not saving the salt flats?

that is nice bub.

http://www.savethesalt.org

Directly from thier site:

"A number of prominent organizations have formed the “Save the Salt Coalition” to protect the Bonneville Salt Flats (BSF) from continued deterioration due to salt brine removal from potash mining. The Coalition is now working with government officials, mine operators and others to develop a permanent program to replenish the salt."

Thanks for the props on the build. It got a 3rd place finish in the contest it was built for.

ok, well i hope they can save it. seems like a lot of the countries natural resources are starting to be used up, for the "greater good" ugh. wish they could realize what they are doing.