Bonneville Streamliner - V.1.0 (Curbside)

Hot Rod Streamliner from Bonneville’s Early Years
More pictures below.

This is the simplest model I’ve ever built. I made it for this year’s NNL West Bonneville Racer theme. It’s based on a Testors Bonnie Buggy 1/32nd scale streamliner car. These little plastic models were originally produced in 1961 by Hawk as rubber-band powered toy cars. They are ultra-simple model car kits with no underpan or internal parts other than four wheels, two axles and a basic streamliner body. Hawk, and later Testors, made four variations, the Bonnie Buggy, the Dyna Moe, the Alky Saltzer and the Turbo Go (seriously…). The only difference between them other than the color they were molded in is the long rectangular plastic strip which runs down the middle of the topside and the related bubble top. These determine whether the car is dual engine, single engine, front engine, rear engine and where the driver is located. I bought mine on eBay for less than the price of a resin body.

My original intention was to build a full-detail model with a complete chassis, motor, suspension, drivetrain, etc. But I only got started on in December and quickly realized that, although the 1/32nd scale body can be easily adapted to make a 1/25th scale streamliner of the sort entered by California hot rodders starting in 1950 at Bonneville, there was no way I would get it done in time for the NNL West on January 31st. So I decided to build a curbside version and then continue on with a full detail build after showing it at the NNL. My plan was to do all the bodywork, paint, decals and driver figure for the NNL, leave the various body panels accessible for the full detail version, and assemble the curbside using temporary adhesive.

Really this is more of a slammer than a curbside since it consists of the completed bodywork, windscreen, driver figure and tires. It doesn’t have any internal structure or even wheels. The tires are taped to the body sides. Using styrene strip, the body sides were filled and extended slightly to create a properly proportioned 1/25th scale body. A full bellypan was fabricated from styrene sheet and a properly streamlined blunt nose was added to correct the original body which had a sharply tapered nose, similar to the tail, which would have generated huge amount of lift at speed. The tires are the standard AMT blackwalls that we all have by the dozens. The headrest was sculpted from styrene strip and the driver figure is from the recent Monogram Slingster kit. Paint is DupliColor Oxford White over white primer. The decals are homemade.

That’s it! After the NNL I’ll build a tubular chassis and a hopped-up Ford Flathead for it. It is actually a pretty complicated build because of all the internal tin work, coolant and fuel tanks, etc. that have to be scratch built for it. But after the show I can take my time with it.

Thanks for lookin’,
B.





All the pieces for the model with exception of the driver’s arms. The blue surfaces are from the original kit, everything else is styrene stock.:



And a little Photoshop Phun:

Very cool.

Nice one Bernard

I like it

This is a great build, well done!

Now that's something different!! Well done Bern, that's a very cool idea.

Thanks everyone. Curbsides have always scared me off because there's nothing to fall back on if you don't get it right - no detail building to obscure the fact that it hasn't quite got "the look". I have only the greatest respect for modelers who get consistently excellent results building slammers and curbsides. For this reason this was an especially satisfying project when it finished up looking like the "pictures in my head".

Here's proof that she actually made it to the NNL West: