Street & Strip '37.

Sweet! Thats olds motor is awesome! Iv seen this kit around, whats it like and hows it go together?

This is gonna be cool..

Looking forward to it too.

   

This is my favourite model as it's so tough lookin .

Slowlylearning, it's nicely moulded and for the most part goes together neatly, without too many dramas.

I was originally going to replicate my good friend Harry Stirnemann's 9 second street sleeper, but decided it was too big of a challenge right now. 
YUP, I said nine seconds, as this beige (original colour) beauty only looks like your granny's stock '37 Chevy coupe.  
Underneath the mild mannered exterior it's pure animal and yes that's a stove bolt six under the hood.  
Note that the rear fenders have been removed, to facilitate changing the 15X18X29 Mickey Thompsons, look closely and you'll see it's seriously tubbed.  
The only give away all is not quite stock when it's sitting on the ground, is the super low stance and Halibrands.



Yessiree, them there is Holley 750 double pumpers, coz it take a whole lot of fuel to make the big inliner run high eight second quarters in race trim.   
And yes again, that turbocharger is rather large.



That big alloy box is a refrigerated water intercooler and I'm sure you've noticed the mega-volt MSD ignition system.
There's also some serious bits inside the 292 c.i. iron block, including a cam with almost square lobes and a bunch os special pistons hung off huge allow con rods that look like they belong inside a top fuel hemi.
The car has been recently retired from championship drag racing, but it does boast five consecutive National championships, the coolest part of which, it was the only car in the class with less than 8 cylinders.  
It's incredibly docile on the street, until the mixture is richened and the loud pedal pressed to the floor, it hauls ass in high gear but a standing start from 3,500 rpm using the trans brake, is mind blowing.   
The red needle on the huge Sun tach is set at 9,000rpm but the shift light comes on at 8,900, since the trans is a B&M power glide. there's only one gear change to worry about for every run down the quarter.

Hubba hubba.
I guess that's a twelve pack?

How does the AMT '37 compare to the Monogram '39?

Looking real sweet so far.

Fred, I think the AMT '37 is better, it goes together well and has a much better stance than the Revellogram kit.

Engine detail is also better and it has three choices there, stock sixks, modified six, or blown big block V8.

Likewise the AMT kit has better wheels, although the tyres could be updated to something a little nicer.


The other part of this might be subjective, but the '37 is just a nicer looking coupe than the '39.

Thanks Carps.

This is going to look great , I like it already.

Nice one Carps, love 37's. Are the coupes available, I heard they had modified the molds to do the roadster. Hope they fix it if they did.

One of those favourites from AMT.

Tubman, even if they don't get released again there are always dozens on evil bay usa, and often around 20 bucks, plus Modelhaus do a 38 coversion for it and Ed Fluck does a chopped body, the possibilities are endless.

Just a couple of things...I know they re-released the kit back in 2006...and I think there has been a more recent re-release as they are showing up more frequently.  Here is a link to Ebay...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMT-1937-CHEVY-COUPE-1-25-Model-Car-Mountain-kit-fs-/360675130755

...as to the story of the roadster being made from modified coupe molds...I read somewhere that it was a different tooling.  Wish I could find the article again.

The roadster was done many, many years ago and the coupe has been reissued at least twice since then, so I'm guessing there's either two body tools or the tool was re-modified to make the coupe.

The last reissue of the coupe by Model King was only a few years ago and I'd imagine many hobby stores still have them on the shelf.

For anybody who does have one to build, please use the pic's of Harry's car as reference for foiling etc, not the image of the red car on the AMT box.    

Aside from the grille surround (bars were painted grey), hood mascot, hood, deck and door handles, tailamp bezels, plus the single stainless moulding below the hood-side louvres, there is no chrome trim on these cars.

The 37 Chev coupe and convertible kits have both been around since the late sixties. The kits are identical except for the body shell and "glass". The last version of the 37 convertible that I remember was the pink box art one.

Chris

Have just got the Ed Fluck [Drag City Castings]chopped 37. He no longer has a website but his castings can be view at
http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/member_dealer_directory/drag-city-casting-/

The quality is outstanding, every bit as good as the kit body, perfectly smooth, not a pinhole or a blemish anywhere.

kevjoh wrote:Have just got the Ed Fluck [Drag City Castings]chopped 37. He no longer has a website but his castings can be view at
http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/member_dealer_directory/drag-city-casting-/

The quality is outstanding, every bit as good as the kit body, perfectly smooth, not a pinhole or a blemish anywhere.

Damned pleased about that as I am waiting for a couple from him as well

Almost missed this one,looking interesting so far.

After a week unable to sit, stand or walk, I managed to get the engine and trans mounts done today, started detailing stuff, more pics soon.

Installation of the Olds requires the original trans crossmember to be removed, it's a bolt in part so no big deal there.    The engine mounts like an early Holden great, so an outrigger mount was added to the front crossmember.  



The modification to the centre crossmember set the engine at the correct height, so all I have to do is fabricate the side mounts that attach to the bell-housing.  Floor clearance is OK and the firewall no problem since the Olds is much shorter than the original sicks.



With stock suspension it sits OK, but………



……. I think once it's all assembled a little adjustment on the rear springs may be required to set the tyres neatly in the rear wheel arches.



The fromt should sit a tad lower than this as the fenders are meant to set neatly into the notches between chassis and bumper irons.  The chassis doesn't appear to be bent, so I figure this is just one of those 'final assembly issues' that will require dealing with at the time. The bigger issue here was I though the front wheels may stick way out past the fenders, I was right. So with a little work on the axle ends and wheel backs all is now as it should be and I'm thinking of making up some small brake drums to give the right appearance.

Back problems?
Know how you feel.
Take it easy.

Thanx Fred, not been much fun.

Just wish I knew what or how I did it.