Reader's Gallery 76 |
Doug Azary:
Scratchbuilt Space Frame Chassis under the 1968 Petty Plymouth
Doug Azary built this vintage-style brass space frame chassis
to drive his copy of a famous '68 Petty Plymouth.
Doug explains his choice of body and paint:
I did some research on Richard Petty's '68 Plymouth. In the 1968 Daytona 500,
Richard Petty entered a '68 Road Runner, painted in the normal Petty blue,
BUT it featured a black vinyl top! This was a first!
I remember watching the race on TV. Back then, ABC would have two 20 minute segments
of the race sandwiched in between other stuff on Saturday's Wide World of Sports.
Of course, it had been filmed the Sunday before and then edited down.
And of course, they would only cover about a tenth of the full schedule.
NASCAR on TV 35 years ago was almost nonexistent.
Anyway, during the race, the vinyl top on Petty's car started peeling away.
They showed Richard coming into the pits, climbing out of his car and beating
and banging on the material to get it to lay back down! Some people
thought he was trying to conceal something in the roof with the vinyl top,
but nothing was ever proved. The crew finally got the roof all duct-taped back down
and he rejoined the race, only to later crash into the outside wall!
The 1968 Petty Plymouth Roadrunner with the black vinyl top was such a unique car, and
one that a lot of old timers will remember.
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Here and below, Doug describes his chassis:
The chassis is a typical mid-1960's inline frame
using 1/16" brass rods and the original motor mounts that came with the stock Classic 360 motor.
The motor ran very well. While the body was still clear and the first set of tires/wheels was on it,
I ran it for a few laps on the local Blue King and was very happy with the performance.
I've always liked Classic's motors.
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When I built these frames years ago, I didn't have money for oillites
for the rear axle. Heck, for 35 cents, a piece of 5/32" o.d. tubing would give you enough
axle housing material for several cars... and that's why both threaded axles run in tubes on this car.
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I just kinda built this car as I went along... with no plans or chassis jig.
(Pretty much the same way I did years ago.) I don't have jig wheels this big
for my chassis building block, and the wheelbase is longer than what the block
is set up for. I just made sure everything lined up as I went.
My goal was to make a car using as much vintage or duplicate of vintage stuff
as I could. Except for the superior quality of the Slixx decals, the Lexan material
for the body and the shiny brass and solder joints, this car could easily pass
for something that was from the 60's.
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Bodies were held on with screws in the early days, so I soldered some 1/4" x .032" brass strips
to the sides of the chassis, made a few bends, drilled some holes and viola... body mounts!
The body is a Lexan repro from Lancer. Decals are applied to the inside of the body and
they are waterslides from Slixx. It is the vintage set to do this and similar cars and
they are excellent. Yes, Virginia, there is a way to get waterslide decals to adhere to Lexan and not pop off.
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As the project went along, a few things changed. You'll notice the light green rears and the
small diameter fronts. When I put the body on the chassis, the tires looked all wrong. The King's car
never had light green rear tires and small diameter, narrow fronts! So I opted for more
traditional-looking tires, and painted the wheels dark blue, as they were supposed to be.
When I went to the larger diameter fronts and replaced the modern Parma guide flag with
a vintage Russkit unit, I had to alter the 4 main frame rails in the front and add
a drop arm up-stop brass rod to the bottom 2 rails just behind the front axle.
All in all, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. The guy who bought it from me
on eBay sure sounded happy in the note he wrote me when he got the car. I just do this hobby for fun.
I'm over 50 but still in my childhood. My wife says she has 2 children... our son... and me!
Meanwhile, I'm still holding on to the light green rear tires. One of these days,
I'll find just the right car to install them on.
by Doug Azary, Feb. 2004
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