Tuesday April 15, 2008

I've tried a few of the Boss Bodies cars for the Street Stock series we run up here in New England and I've been very pleased with the results. The bodies are strong and easy to work with...not all flimsy like some of the companies out there make. Since I'm a big fan of the Northeast Modified scene (and have been since the 70's when my Dad would bring us to all the local short tracks to see them run) I was excited to see the Pinto and Gremlin bodies released.

I picked up one of the Pintos and chopped it up to build as a 70's Mod...so here's what I did.

I purchased an Artin Fatboy chassis and an extra rear axle from Frank at SCW. (I wanted the fat tires all around) I cut the nose off the pinto saving a large portion of the hood to cut down to size later. I also grabbed a pair of headers out of the 1/24th parts bin. (I went back to that bin and raided it for more later)


Next, I stripped the chassis bare and cut some flat styrene to make a crude box in the chassis so I would have a place to mount the hood and the headers.


In this next picture you can see the sides of the crude box are in with a slight downward angle so the hood will slope.
Also raided the parts bin for a radiator and air cleaner (I ended up not using the rear spoiler...more on that later).


Here's the box completed and the chassis parts back in place. I painted the inside of the box flat black before putting the top on so it will blend in better when the car is done.


After test fitting the headers to the side of the box it was clear that they would need to come out away from the box a bit to clear the body once it was installed. So I built some 'cylinder heads' out of styrene stock.


Now I finished trimming up the Pinto body itself.. removed all the windows and shaped the hood. I also trimmed up the Champion interior and headed to the paint booth.


Once the paint was dried I detailed the interior a bit and laid the parts out. Hey, it's starting to look like a Modified!!!
Note the trimmed interior now has a rear spoiler incorporated in to it. It comes up through the back window nicely.


I did some more detailing. I added a clear wind screen made from leftover body material, found some chrome valve covers and sanded them at a 45 degree angle to cover my 'cylinder heads' with, got the air cleaner and hood in place and fabricated up a front push bar made from a piece of a 1/24th roll cage.

So... the end result?? Not too bad for a few hours of work and $25 in parts. Yes, the 'motor' is ridiculously wide and unrealistic but it looks pretty good from a distance. I just couldn't leave the sides open. A modified HAS to have headers to complete the look!!!

Here are shots of the finished car... Now I've got to pick up a Gremlin and make a running mate for this Pinto~!



 









Thanks for the look ~

Kevin

Smith Scale Speedway For Boss Bodies

SlotCarWorld.Com For Artin Fatboy Chassis