1964 Ford Galaxie #55 Hallmark Homes Nascar

The finished slotcar on the track

The original car driven by Tiny Lund. You can clearly see that the rear lights are still intact and not covered so I decided to make that too even if that feels somewhat odd.

The original body with the chrome molded in at the sides.

All the molded in chrome trim has to be sanded down to get the correct Nascar look on the body.

Also the hole that comes on the fenders upperside from the missing chrome had to be filled.

The front grille didn't fit correctly and had a gap so I had to adjust that by gluing in more styrene.

The bumpers on this kit is screwed on. Thanks, really nice, perfect for slotracing!

The lights where drilled out and I punched styrene covers with a paper hole puncher to make it Nascar correct.

The finished grille. The covers are painted aluminium. The lower lights in the bumper should also be covered but that was to much work so I painted them instead which at least made it look better.

Test fitting on the chassi to find the correct look. The body is painted by Peter Bjurman who is a professional car painter and uses real car paint. The decaling and detail painting is made by me.

Here you can see that the wheels are ready. See the separate storyn on that at this site. "How to make inserts" is the title. Also the chrome is painted and the rubber around the front window.

Glueing the body brackets to the chassi. Our racing rules says that you must have at least 5 mm between the bodys underside and the track, that is not prototypically correct (to low), but gives a quite okey look and still useful handling (we want the body to sit as low as possible for handling but that makes these cars look like total lowriders so 5 mm is the trade off we choose).

Through the window you can see the aluminium bracket that holds the body.

The chrome paint doesn't stick very good as you can see around the roof line when handled by fingers lifting it around. Next time I will paint that before the body is clear coated so I don't have to touch it up from time to time.

Glueing windows. The glue we use is called "LiquiSole" and is very rubber like which make a flexible connection which is good in crashes since the windows don't pop out or crack so easily.

The downside is that it takes 24 hours to cure so you only glue one item per day and it is rather messy to work with so you have to work slow and use a small screwdriver to attach the glue.

The rear window holding strips are a piece of tape.

The interior is made from a Lexan piece that is a simplified interior made for slotracing builders by Q-model. I took the original dash from the kit and mounted in for better look.

The roll cage is made from styrene tubing bend with soldering wire inside that is removed afterwards, we don't want that weight up there...

The driver comes from Q-model. The belt comes from a piece black tape with some silver paint for the looking like the release buckle.

The ready interior waiting to mate the body. The racing rules says that a simplified interior is ok so this is the compromise I choose (although a complete model correct interior would have been nice, but to heavy for good handling). I think this compromise looks quite okey but is still light, just under 10 grams for the whole painted complete interior (yes, of course the driver is hollowed out :-).

Here the interior is mounted in the body.

If you look closely you can see that the wipers are removed.

The body mounted on the chassi and the interior is also in place - we are ready for the track!

Racing! The #27 is an AMT 1966 Galaxie model kit with out of print JNJ decals. It stands on a Schöler chassi and the #55 is an AMT 1964 kit with Yesterday decals, it stands on a Plafit Chassi.