# Dirt Modifieds.......



## TeamMadMarsupial

I look forward to sharing pics of my collection of H.O. scale Dirt Modifieds with all of you.
Been building these, off and on for the last 35 years. Somehow lost most of my collection many years back, thought I got custody of them, but that's another story.
My first couple of years, I built the cars and had Tom Heister do my painting. After some practice, I tried painting them myself and have been doing so ever since.
My cars are never perfect as I do not consider myself an artist by any means, but I do my best and hope you all find some enjoyment viewing them.
Almost all my cars are scratch built from flat sheet plastic and all are hand painted. Some pics will be of cars I race, but honestly, for every car I build to race, I build ten as shelf queens.

So, I'll post the first of what I hope will be many builds and hope you all enjoy the fruits of my little obsession.

This car is the Sportsman Modified of Jessica Power. She campaigned this car during the 2012 season. The car just caught my attention one night as I was paging through phots trying to decide what car to do next.
The body is built for use on either a Magna-Traction or AFX Non-Mag chassis and although made for the shelf, is race ready.


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## LostDog44

Very clean work. I'd buy it in a second.


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## gonegonzo

As always , Super Job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gonzo


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## Harold Sage

Awesome Work.:thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

We'll go back a few years for my next offering. About 20 years back! This is the 1993 Big Block Modified of New York states Jack Johnson.

Jack was a staple at DIRT tracks across New York and throughout the northeast. His potent 12a was always a threat to win when it hit the track.

Jumpin Jack, carried Dewitt Concrete for many years on his Gene's Machine orange modifieds. 

Sadly, Jack stepped out of the drivers seat a few years back due to health reasons. His son Ronnie carries on the families winning tradition today.


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## 60chevyjim

them some cool cars great work !!!


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Lets take another step back to 1978 with the legendary Kenny Brightbill and his dominating Big Block Pinto.
Kenny won everywhere he went with his Brightbill's Donkey Farm #19 Pinto.

This is my primary Magna-Traction racer and it has won more than 25 features with our little club. The body as mentioned is mounted on a Magna-Traction chassis equipped with a DC Motors Phantom II, Nacho Poly Magnets, Law rear tires, a JW Delrin Indy front, and a Super II rear crown gear.


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## bobhch

*Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!!! fun, fun, fun!!!!!!!*

Hey TeamMadMarsupial,

You are making some fine slot cars!! Love them ALOT!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thank you for posting the COOL pictures up of your creations.

Look forward to seeing many more of your cars in the future here on HT.

Bob...FUN STUFF HERE...zilla


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## Ralphthe3rd

BEAUTIFUL Work man ! :thumbsup:
BTW- no offense, but I love the style of the older cars better(like the Brightbill Pinto and older stuff), when they actually resembled the roof lines of real cars.... Hey, I'm an old fart, and that's my era 
So PLEASE, post more pix of your cars dating back pre 1980's - Thanks !


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## TeamMadMarsupial

OK, Ralph, here is one from 1971. I know you have seen this one before, but I'll assume there are members here who have not?

This is another Brightbill ride. This time we have the Bob Wertz owned #57 coach that Kenny rode the high side of the track at Reading on many occasions.
Kenny had several different paint schemes on his coach bodied modifieds and if memory serves me correct, I beleive I have painted up 3 or 4 of them.

This was one of my first attempts at scratch building a coach from sheet stock. I cut 7 pcs to run the roof from the top of the windshield opening to the back bumper area and then sanded to shape. The body sides are also several layers to allow for the outside layers to have the windows cut to show some depth.

Working on something a little different at the moment, hope to have it finished in next couple of nights. Its a car with a pretty neat back story. In the mean time here is The Shillington Slingshot's 1971 big block Chevy powered modified!


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## Ralphthe3rd

YES INDEED ! This is one of my Faves from You- Totally Awesome :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

As promised, here's that something a little different.

This is the 1973 Big Block Modified of Bob Weiss. This Mustang bodied car with "down tubes" caught my eye and it has an interesting story.

According to Bob's family, this car had a very young crew chief, too young in fact to legally get in the pits. This crew chief by the name of Ray would later become a very famous crew chief anf then car owner on a much higher level.

This car, in fact was Ray Evernham's first modified ride when in 75 or 76 as a back up car to Bob's primary, Ray bucked in at Syracuse. Unfortunately, Ray broke the crank down the backstretch in practice.

Anyway, I thought the car and it's story were pretty cool!


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## Ralphthe3rd

SWEET Build with the Tube Work ! :thumbsup: and loved the back story


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## slotcarman12078

What a neat story, and a cool looking ride!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## bobhch

slotcarman12078 said:


> What a neat story, and a cool looking ride!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


What you said slotcarman...this thing has COOL written all over it!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Bz


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Back to the future, well back to 1985 anyway.

Here is Robbie Green's 1985 #69 Small Block Modified. Robbie's cars caught my eye many years ago, as green cars were somewhat unusual. He had quite a bit of success over the years at both Orange County Fair Speedway and the tight confines of the Accord Speedway, also in upstate New York.

Robbie's son is now running Modifieds and I hope to build one of his cars this year.

Robbie's "It ain't easy being green" Small Block is built to fit AFX Non-Mag and Magna-Traction chassis cars.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Very Nice work there :thumbsup: 
And although GREEN is said to be unlucky ona Race Car, this one just proves 'em wrong


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## slotcarman12078

Green = unlucky?? Wonder why that is!! :lol: These are cool!!! :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I had posted a bunch of my cars over on another website that has been archived, so I hope you all don't mind if I hijack one over to here once in awhile? I believe I had posted 80 or so before it shut down.

This is Mike Ricci's #17 Outlaw Modified sail panel car from Accord Speedway. I believe the year was either 2006 or 2007. As usual the graphics caught my eye and although it had a few twists for my hand painting skills, I thought I'd give it a try and I guess it turned out OK.

Mike's ride was sponsored by the Pine Grove Dude Ranch and Resort, which just so happens to be where my Senior Class took their trip to way back in 1980. If memory serves me correct though, I believe a couple of my buddies and I passed up on the trip to put a 400 small block in a 67 Chevy II.

Mike also carried J.Mullens Construction, State Farm Insurance, Hull Agway, Powers Automotive and C & J Storage as sponsors. This car was a PMC chassis and Mike had some success in this car at Accord.

The body is built for Magna Traction and AFX chassis and has the interior cut out to lighten for racing.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Nice paint work on that one :thumbsup:
And hijack pix all you want, and you're lucky to do that, as some sites have a block on that action.....
BTW- have you noticed the amount of views on THIS Forum for your thread, as opposed to the number on that "Other" site....
FYI- although I just started up posting in "My Thread" over *there* again, I think I'm gonna STOP, as I never got one stinkin comment from the site owner....


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is a fairly recent build out of my Race Box. I built a Shelf Queen of this car last year, but I thought it would make a pretty cool AFX racer too...with a couple of tweaks of course!

This was the ride Richie Tobias took to Syracuse in 1990. I had pictures of this car in my to do project box for many years before finally drawing up the patterns and getting it started.

This body is sitting on a AFX Non-Mag chassis. This particular car is set up with Super II front and side weights, Super II brush cups, a Super II rear crown gear, a Galinko Quadra-Lam arm, Nacho Dark Blue Neo magnets, a JW brass AFX indy front, Wizzard .466 Laws on the rear, short step shoes with braids, and T-Jet springs in place of motor brushes.

It will run with most any stock Magna-Traction and inline non-magnet chassis. I am still, after four years trying to get comfortable with the Quadra-Lam arm. We have a 30' front straight and a couple more longer than 20' and the Quadra-Lam has too much of a flywheel effect at the end of the staights. It therefore has not gone any further than practice laps on race night. I hope to R&D it enough this summer to use it opening night this fall?


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## Ralphthe3rd

Thanks for supplying a thorough description of this chassis build, sounds like a Screamer :thumbsup:
Too bad it has been hard to get used to...


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## Ralphthe3rd

PS- do you think the extra weight of the Super II chassis weights and the Brass front wheels, have anything to contribute to the Extra Flywheel effect at the end of long straights ? "A Body in motion, tends to stay in motion"


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## TeamMadMarsupial

This is actually one of my lightest AFX racers in my box. I normally add weight in front of the front magnat and 1/8" Diameter lead solder on top of the Super II side weights. My hot arms have so much speed that the weight is needed to keep the car planted on the track and it provides "tractive effort", similar to steam locomotives. Without the added weight these AFX chassis I have been building cannot "hook up"!

We spent two years fine tuning the AFX chassis and I have only lost one AFX feature in two and a half years. I believe thats 20 wins and one spectacular crash wen one of my side weight came loose, caught a track connection and actually bent the rear axle.

My other AFX chassis run either DC Phantom II, DC wildcat or one of our home made Possum Hollow winds, all around 2.8 to 3.2 ohms. They all spin down faster at the end of the straights.


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## alpink

might want to try Poly mags with that set up. a little less magnet might be just what that AG quad wants.
I prefer tjetsgrig arms and his quads are second to none.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Hey alpink, I actually have 9 AFX cars currently in my race box and 4 of them are set up with Nacho Poly Magnets. I also have a couple still running what we call North/South Magnets. Don't know exactly what they are? These were purchased from Kipp in Lebanon, PA many years ago.

The Poly Mags give me more straight away speed and I actually race this combo in our AFX class. I strickly run the Neos in our open class against G-Plus, and the crop of Patriots, Storms, Super G's and Tycos the other guys have removed the traction magnets from.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here are two more AFX Non-Mags out of my race box. 

These two run with the Nacho Poly Magnets and DC Motors Phantom II arms. They both have front and side Super II weights kits, along with added lead solder on top of the side weights. Both cars also run Super II rear crown gears, JW brass indy fronts and .466 Wizzard Laws on the rear.

These cars were run by Brian Weaver at the Hagerstown Speedway during their Octoberfest weekends in 2004 and 2005 in the Big Block Modified portion of the show.

The car on the right, from 2004, won the feature that weekend and I built it soon after to run in the second half of our 2004/2005 season. Brian and the crew stretched the gray areas of the rule book on the sheet metal work on this car and had to massage the body work just a tad before being allowed to race it.
The Decker Logging Team brought the car on the left to Octoberfest the following year. I do not believe the tin snips were needed in 2005?!? I believe I had my H.O. version of that car ready by the following weekend.

I have been running these two cars as my primary AFX cars ever since and both have won numerous heats and features. I would guess between the two cars, they have taken 20 or 25 features.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Very Cool ! :thumbsup: And thanks for the back story on these cars


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is a T-Jet out of the Race Box. This is a chassis I have been messing around with for about a year, and a body I put together in two nights.

I had never used a chassis pan before starting to experiment with this chassis. I however tried one when going through a phase of trying added weight where ever I could think of placing it. After about a year of off and on tinkering, I finally got it where it was balanced front to back and equipped with a arm I was happy with also.

The body is Bob Malzahn's Gremlin from, I believe 1979. This was towards the end of Bob's driving days. I had often looked at pics of this car and some of Bob's earlier rides and building one was on that ever lengthening list of builds to make. We race on Saturday nights in season and had a triple T-Jet feature night scheduled. The Thursday night before, I decided that I needed to build this body and finally get this chassis in competition. As luck would have it, this car did go to victory lane in the last feature of the night.

The chassis is a bit unusual and a little more than a bit heavy. I started with a normal brass chassis pan, but added the heavy brass stock to each side of the chassis. This car also has a fairly heavy RTHO brass indy front. The thing weighs a ton. This car also runs with .418 Wizzard Laws on the rear, Dr Oogan springs, a stock Magna-Traction rear crown mated up to a 14 tooth lower. Nacho Poly magnets, lightened top gears and a home wind arm at about 2.7 ohms. The arm is quite quick and the weight keeps the car down on our old lock and joiner track and keeps those Laws hooked to the track.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Very Nice :thumbsup: :thumbsup:








And it looks like it weighs a TON too


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is a car that had me intimidated for quite some time. I wanted very badly to make this car, but was not sure I was capable of the detail needed to make the build. It was probably on my bench with the base paint complete for at least six months, maybe more before I just decided it was either going on the shelf or in the trash? Its not perfect, but I'm at least satisfied with the way it came out.

Painting the "Pizza Logger" was the challenge of course. I have joked that the Logger on the left and the logger on the right side of the car may not be twins, but I think it at least looks like they could be cousins????
The little John Deere tractor also required a new stronger pair of reading glasses and a single bristle brush.

The car is the 2005 Big Block Modified #3 of New York state driver Chad Brachman. Chad carried the Pizza Logs sponsorship for several years and it was those graphics that caught my eye and presented a personal challenge to paint. 
The car is strickly a shelf queen, being built a little bit bigger than those I build for racing. It did however, get it's pre-requisite couple of laps on the home track upon completion as most every car does.

Hope you all enjoy this one.


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## slotcarman12078

That's really cool!! Painting that much detail has to be intimidating!! And it looks great in macro, so on the shelf or the track it's got to look perfect!!!!! I hate it when I procrastinate over a project just because I dread the final result. I'm slowly learning to forge on ahead regardless of the outcome. Nothing's worse than a 1/12 year old project that sits and collects dust! :lol:


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## Ralphthe3rd

This car has one of my Favorite paint jobs from you- Kudos for posting it again on this Forum. :thumbsup:








FYI- I couldn't hand paint that well on a 1:1 Car


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## 65 COMET

I think that is some awesome freehand painting! Great job well done!


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanks for the comments guys. Nice to share these with you all and hope you don't get bored of my constant posts.

Here is another car out of my Race Box. This is another one of my Magna-Traction racers. She is a back-up at the moment, but I'm hoping to spend a little bit more time on her and make a primary car out of it?

This Gremlin bodied car was run by Howie Cronce during the 1979 season. It is one of the potent R-10 modifieds out of the famous Frank Rio stable. The R-10 cars were always sharp looking cars and ran as good as they looked.

This chassis is powered by an old Kipp arm turning between Nacho Poly magnets. For the moment it has a stock front end, and .468 Wizzard Laws on the rear. It also has a Super II rear crown gear.


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## Ralphthe3rd

I Love this Gremlin, both the 1:1 and Your HO Racer versions :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is one I just finished up last week. This is the Tobias chassied #714 of former Small Block Modified driver Billy Schinkel. Billy housed this car within a stones throw of Big Diamond Raceway, but could be seen wheeling his #714 mods at Penn National, Grandview, Susquehanna and many other dirt tracks throughout the area. He picked up his fair share of wins over the years before stepping out of the cockpit. 
This body is built to fit the Magna-Traction and AFX Non-Mag chassis.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Another VERY Sweet Ride :thumbsup: You did a very nice job on this build 
I remember seeing this 1:1 car


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## XracerHO

Super built collection of Dirt Modifieds (like the Gremlin) keep on posting! :thumbsup: ..RL


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## bobhch

XracerHO said:


> Super built collection of Dirt Modifieds (like the Gremlin) keep on posting! :thumbsup: ..RL


Yes Please keep on posting! :thumbsup:

These hand painted and hand built Dirt cars are a lot of fun to see pictures of.
Would be even cooler to see them in person some day.

Bob...dig these custom hand built car pics...zilla


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I'll hi-jack another couple of pictures from the other forum, if you all don't mind.

This is actually a tri- fecta of # 555 Falcons driven by Richie Smith. I tried a couple of different patterns to get something that resembles a falcon using flat sheet plastic. They don't have quite the curves I'd like, but for now, they will have to do.

I built three of these in order to have a shelf queen, a T-Jet racer and one to use on a Magna-Traction chassis to also race.

The bodies are Richie Smith #555 Falcons from 1978/79. I built these during a Falcon kick when I must have built up 8 or 10 different Falcons.

The car on the right is the shelf Queen, ready to race on a Mag chassis if needed, but built for static display.
All three are built using .020 body sides, roof and trunk deck and .030 hood and interior.
The center car is a Magna Traction racer out of my racebox. This chassis has a DC Motors Phantom II arm, Nacho Poly magnets, a JW's delrin independent front end, .468 Laws on the rear, a Super II crown gear, and a set back guide pin to tighten up the handling a bit.
The car to the left is a T-Jet built for our T-Jet Mod class. It has a home wind (Possum Hollow) arm at about 3.5 ohms, Nacho Poly Magnets, A Super II crown gear, Dr. Ooogan springs, BSRT shoes with braids, an RT HO independent front end, .410 Laws on the rear, and lightened gears.

Both racers have won heats and features this past season.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Cool ! :thumbsup: 
BTW- I like how the two Racers have lightened bodies compared to the shelf queen.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is one from The Great White North. I get the itch every once in awhile to do a Canadian drivers car. This is the end result of scratching one of those itch's.

This is the car of Quebec's David Herbert (pronounced "a-bear" for us yanks). David is a very successful driver competing at Autodrome Granby, Autodrome Drummond, Cornwall Speedway, along with a few other tracks on both sides of the border. David is always a threat to win and has done so often.

This #1h was campainged by David during the 2012 season and as often is the case, the graphics caught my eye and quickly made its way on to my to build list. The body is made to fit Magna-Traction and AFX style chassis.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Great Job on the build....and very cool/funky paint scheme :thumbsup:


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## slotcarman12078

Nice job on the graphics! :thumbsup::thumbsup: Now I'm in the mood for Tim Horton's donuts!! :lol:


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## alpink

Ralphthe3rd said:


> Cool ! :thumbsup:
> BTW- I like how the two Racers have lightened bodies compared to the shelf queen.


how can you tell?
I have been over and over that write up, description and pictures and I am missing something?


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## Ralphthe3rd

Al, the side windows are not cut out on the Shelf Queen, and the racers have holes drilled on the hood bulges.....


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## alpink

aha, see, I knew I missed something. good eye. thank you


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Sorry I did not point out the lightening of the racers bodies. Don't know how much difference it makes as I'm usually looking to add as much weight as possible to my T-Jet and AFX cars. Just like to keep it as low as possible.

The Magna-Tractions on the other hand are lightened as much as possible while maintaining their strength. I used to actually make all the cars with a "floating roof", using tiny cut strips as A pillars. 

Ralph, you mentioned liking that on an older Doug Hoffman car I posted awhile back on the other forum.

The whole floating roof deal was just too weak for those high speed roll overs and endos. Remember we run a 30' front straight, along with a couple other straights over 20' in length. Add to that the fact that its an old lock and joiner track and our power supply is zapping out about 26 volts. Now throw in an arm or two at around 2.5 to 3.0 ohms and lets just say de-slotting can be quite catastrophic!

Long story short....solid sides, no fragile A pillars.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Finished four cars the other night. Here is one of them. 

This is the #21A Small Block Modified Terry Meitzler drove during the 1993 season. It was a Tobias chassied car. I recently found a new site with a bunch of color shots from Penn National Speedway and this is one of the eight I started builds on. Four finished so far.

This car is race ready for AFX or Mag, but will probably never find a spot in the race box. So I guess I'll label it as a "static display", since someone noted they don't build "Shelf Queens"!!!!! Well I'll respond to that with, I don't use DECALS!!!!! I have trouble carrying all the cars in my race box now, don't know how I'd carry several hundred more?


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## Ralphthe3rd

Cool ! :thumbsup: I always like White Race Cars, and they're also easier to spot on the track in HO scale


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## TeamMadMarsupial

This one just came out of the paint shop tonight. I had a lot of help from the guys on the Three Wide Racing Forum to identify the driver and provide some added reference pictures.

This is Larry Solomon's 1993 Small Block Modified Tobias chassied #85am. This car carried the WEEU 85Am Radio and Reading Times/Reading Eagle sponsorship for several years and with several drivers including Larry, Craig VonDohren and Duane Howard.

This body is mounted on a Magna-Traction chassis and I have already started work on a racer version of this car to use in our Magna-Traction class. Got two arms on the way from the "Hive" and one of them is going to end up in under the 85am car.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Ohhhh Verrrry Niiiiiice :thumbsup: ....Sweet paint Job, and Orange is my Favorite Color


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is another one built during a Falcon binge I went on awhile back. This is another out of the Race Box.
This is the 1975 #R-10 driven by Glen Fitzcharles. These vintage R-10's are just sharp looking cars.
Built for our Magna-Traction class, the car is equipped with a set of the Nacho "Pinks" Neo magnets with a 1.8 Ohm arm spinning in between. It also has a Super II crown gear mounted on a solid Brass axle to eliminate the axle drag from the rear magnet. At this time she has a stock JL X-Traction front with stretched T-Jet silicon tires and .468 Laws on the rear. I usually run the short step shoes with braids, but occasionally use the flat shoes also.
Its not my fastest Mag, but with the "Pinks" in it, she sticks better than any of the others in the box! Have run it with the Poly Magnets also which hurts the handling a bit, but achieves ludicrous speed with the 1.8 arm.


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## slotcarman12078

Ludicrous speed?? Like on Space Balls? :thumbsup::thumbsup: Either set up sounds insanely fast!!


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## Hilltop Raceway

These are some cool looking cars, wish I could do art work/lettering like that...RM


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## 60chevyjim

what are you using to do the lettering ?


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanks for the nice comments guys. All cars are hand lettered. I use Testors and Model Masters paints.

As for the brushes, my current weapons of choice for the tight stuff are a couple of IMEX 10/0 #9724's and an American Painter 10/0 #4350 Liner. I also use a small fleet of Loew-Cornell 18/0 #7650 Spotters.

I believe the last time my GF wanted to tease me about it, she counted around 125 brushes on the bench. Might be some un-diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder going on there???? I can't seem to pass a Michael's Crafts or AC Moore without stopping and buying a brush or two, but never three due to a still lingering anti Earnhart thing.


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## alpink

anti Earnhardt is unAmerican
LOL
kidding here


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I'll post my first Coupe on this thread this morning. I love the old Coupes, but don't do too many of them. I use the JL Coupes or vacuum formed bodies, but I just don't get the same kind of satisfaction not scratch building the bodies of these.

This one as you see uses a JL body. It is Del George's 1972 #9 Modified. Our last race every year is Triple T-Jet features. We cannot qualify the same car for more than one feature. Although I already had about 15 T-Jet Modifieds in the box, I "needed" to build another. There's that OCD kickin in again!

I have never liked how the Coupes handled versus my other bodies, but decided to give it a try and the chance to try to beat the other guys with a pink car sounded like fun too!

This Coupe is mounted on an Aurora chassis, has a DC Motors Phantom II arm at about 3.1 ohms with neutral timing, Nacho Poly magnets, lightened gear set, a Super II rear crown, an RT HO indy front, .418 Laws on the rear, braided pickups with Dr. Oogans springs, and a Titanium cluster shaft. The oversized rub-rails encase lead solder and it also carries added weight behind the front axle and over the rear axle to help keep it grounded on our long and sometimes bumpy L&J straights.

It did win it's first night out and although I don't use it often, I believe it has won a couple more times since.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Hey Man, I happen to Love OLD Coupes, and THAT's a Sweet one, so if you ever get tired of that Body, I know a Good home for it 
And btw, your R-10 is Wicked !
PS- I dunno if I ever told you this, but I just love the fact that your club races all these wicked cars, on the Old L & J Track :thumbsup:


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## Ralphthe3rd

*R-10 and Vintage memories*

Different (Gremlin)R-10 here, but..... But I was leafing thru pix on a Flemington Speedway site, and came across these pix today, and thought of your build 

















1975 photo- Three completely different types of race cars....the more up-right R-10....the radical #19....and the traditional coupe!!!!

PS- that was the Time/era I was at the track the most, and have the fondest memories  I actually Stopped going to Car races after about 1979, and focused on Motorcycle Flatrack racing, which I did myself from '74-'84. Only in the past decade have I started attending Sprint Car and Vintage Dirttrack races again..... I miss the old stuff from the 60's and 70's tho 



TeamMadMarsupial said:


> Here is another one built during a Falcon binge I went on awhile back. This is another out of the Race Box.
> This is the 1975 #R-10 driven by Glen Fitzcharles. These vintage R-10's are just sharp looking cars.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I like that R-10 Gremlin, it has been on my list to build. Has the shorter, "old school" hood. They make cool slot cars as the open front just screams vintage!

The R-10 in the background of the Del George coupes is one I retired after a couple runs. Was never happy with the way it turned out and I ran that particular car using a 1.8 ohm arm and Neo magnets. It turned out to be the Devils child. Wicked fast, but ran like a magnet inline car, two speeds......dead stopped and warp 10!!! It also took a new crown gear after each night! I will re-visit that chassis at some point and tame it down a wee bit. Need to add a tungsten or brass rear axle, some shunt wires and work the rear tires to find the height to balance the drag vs the speed. Its got to be a drag set up, modified for left and right turns??????


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is my original attempt at the R-10 Falcon. As mentioned it has been retired. Well at least the body has been. The chassis is just waiting for a little more R&D.
Just did not like the way this one turned out! Getting the Falcon shape with the flat sheet just ain't easy.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Jumpin ahead a few decades from the R-10 Falcon for this next car.

This is the Big Block Modified #4 of Andy Bachetti as raced during the 2006 season at Lebanon Valley Speedway. Although not a big fan of Andy's frequent "over aggressive" driving style, there is no denying his success. Andy is a weekly threat at both the big 5/8 mile Lebanon Valley and the little 1/4 mile, Accord Speedway bullring.

Andy in fact won again this past Saturday night.

I was originally drawn to this car because of it's bright yellow color. I was looking to build a couple bodies to use in our Magna-Traction class and usually look for something bright and easy to see on the long track we race on. These shots were taken just after the first car was finished and long before it hit the track.


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## slotcarman12078

I love how much character you get in each car. Judging from the 1:1 pix, you nail these 100%!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Not modifieds, but modified.

Here are a couple of my older cars once used in our T-Jet class. These were both painted using the same scheme as on the Bachetti Modified I posted yesterday.

These bodies started as the JL Fairlanes before I took the dremel to them. Both the front and back ends were shortened, the bodies were lowered requiring the hoods and trunk deck lids to be opened up. The rocker panels were cut, and the nerf bars added.

Both cars are set up with Mean Green Arms, Super II magnets, Magna-Traction crown gears, Indy fronts and Law rears.

I ran these two cars for about five years or so before relegating them to back-ups as my Modified fleet was built up. They both won a their share of heats and features over the years. I now keep them race ready and loan them out to any of our club members who may need to borrow a car for the night.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Very Cool ! :thumbsup: ....but they don't look like Fairlanes anymore


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## slotcarman12078

How low can you go??? Those must handle crazy good being so low and weighted on the bottom.. Cool color choices too..:thumbsup::thumbsup: I might have to borrow that concept!! :lol:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I have not posted a Sail Panel car for awhile, so seems like a good time?

This is a Brett Hearn #20 from 2007. I liked the way this car was built using the plexi-glass for the sail panels. It was the only one I've seen constructed like this.

Brett has more than 800 modified wins and a ton of championships at tracks all over the East Coast, Canada, and beyond! He is one of the smoothest drivers I have ever had the pleasure of watching on the track. Other than my CVD collection, I have probably built more of Brett's car than any other driver.

I raced this particular body one night on a G-Plus chassis, before building another copy of this car built specifically for the G-Plus chassis. I'll dig that one out and take a couple of pics when I get a chance. It's got a couple of different twists to fit the G.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Going back a few decades to October of 1980 and the car that some say changed everything. This car is hated by some, admired by others, but holds a mystique for almost all modified fans.

Gary Balough brought this car to Syracuse and shall we say, explored almost every grey area of the rule book. It has become known as the "Batmobile", although in reality, it was supposed to be a Lincoln.

I remember listening to a since retired driver telling campfire stores years later while camping at the Moody Mile, the New York State Fairgrounds. As we all sat around a burning Hoosier, Dale Linderman related how Balough did not race that car...."He just drove it around and made fools of everyone else!"

This radical Lincoln bodied car never hit the track again in this guise, although it did make a couple appearances with another rather unique, Torino body style.

I made several attempts at this car over the years, but finally decided to make one to race a couple years ago for our AFX class. In accordance with the cars history, I only raced it one October night and promptly retired it after appropriately putting it in Victory Lane that night.

It ran on an AFX chassis, with a home wind at 3.2 ohms, with Nacho neo magnets, a JW's brass indy front, Super II weight kit, .468 LAWS on the back, a Super II crown gear, brass rear axle and braided short step shoes.

Here is Gary Balough's 1980, #112 Lincoln.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Thanks for posting the back story on Gary Balough's 1980, #112 Lincoln.
Btw- you are right, I was one of the haters.....and when cars started changing in the 80's to the new style, I stopped going to the races for the next two decades, aside from special Vintage races and occasionally Sprint Car races.
Sorry, but I love Curved sheet metal, that was also part of an actual Street model car.
But I do love the effort and talent you put into these little models... that's why I keep checking back in, to see what you've posted. I also love the fact you actually RACE these lil Buggers :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

We go back another 6 years before the #112 turned the Modified World upside down, to 1974.

Stan "The Man" Ploski debuted this Mustang bodied #81 Norcia Big Block Modified early in 1974. Unfortunately it met an early demise when he flipped between turns two and three early in the season at the Flemington Fairgrounds Speedway, 5/8 mile squared oval.
This Mustang was replaced with the now familar Norcia Gremlins, sporting the famous #81's black and gold colors.
Many fans considered this particular car to be on the ugly side. I, on the other hand, upon finding photos, knew it had to be added to my little fleet of cars. I found the car to be rather unique and just plain cool!
At the time I built three of the Norcia 81's, this Mustang, a Pinto and a Gremlin. This was built for AFX or Magna-Traction use. Its a display car, but I'm leaning towards building one for racing T-Jets this fall.


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## Ralphthe3rd

*Mustang Modified*

Well *I *Like it :thumbsup: And I personally, have a couple of Mustang II(Ideal bodies) Modifieds in my fleet as well


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## slotcarman12078

Those Mustang 2s could be potent little sleepers.. A couple of buddies of mine had them with built 302s under the hood. What that had in HP they'd lose in traction though. Not enough weight in the tail to make them launch.. They'd do spectacular smoke shows though!! :lol:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Can't say why, but the first time I attended a dirt track race, I singled out one driver as the guy I was pulling for. I have been a fan ever since that night, sometimes screaming at the top of my lungs, other times silently willing him to the front of the field, buying dozens of his T-shirts and after a quick count, building well over 50 slots cars based on his modifieds.

This past weekend he scored his 300th and 301st wins. Both nights he had to come through the field to win, and both nights he made passes on the last lap to take the checkers. Saturday night he took the white flag in 4th, took the car to the outside cushion and rim rode the top, taking 3rd in turns 1 and 2 and passing the 1st and 2nd place cars in the 4th turn for the win!

That driver is Craig VonDohren, known by his fans as CVD. Here is the car Craig drove in 1980, at the beginning of his career. Craig has won at many tracks and with many different cars over the years. His mother and father can still be found in the stands every week and up until her passing last year, his grandmother was also a fixture at the track every Friday and Saturday night. He is one of the few Modified drivers that earns his living on the track.

Here is CVD's 1980 Small Block Modified #1c Gremlin.


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## slotcarman12078

Wow, that's some back story, and a cool looking car to go with it! I miss hitting the track on the weekends. Just can't afford going now. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to again.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Oh MAN- that's a Beautiful Build :thumbsup: I just LOVE that Gremlin. 
And thank you for the back story on Craig too.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here's another Gremlin out of my Race Box. This is Billy Eggers 1979 Big Block Modified Gremlin.
Admittedly, I built as the result of a desperate online search for a yellow Gremlin Modified. Seemed like I was stuck in a rut of building red cars and just wanted to do something different?
This was built towards the end of our season last year and although it was ready, it only saw track time during pre-race practice. Maybe this coming season I'll actually race it?
It is on a Mag chassis with a home wind at about 3 ohms. It is also equipped with BSRT poly magnets, a Super II crown gear and .468 LAWS on the rear. It runs pretty well, but I'll look at making a few more mods over the summer.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Nice job, and the Yellow and Black color scheme really POP out at ya :thumbsup:
PS- I'm thinking this may be my Favorite Build of yours I've seen so far, it Really LOOKS like a Gremlin fer sure


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Back to the present day again, well almost. This car is from last year at Grandview Speedway here in Southeastern PA. This is the Small Block Modified of Terry Meitzler. The car is owned by former driver Dennis "Chico" Bailey out of the Kutztown, PA area. Dennis drove his #81 Ford poewred cars on the tough Pennsy Tri-Track circuit for many years.

Terry is a strong runner at Grandview and has picked off a few features over the years. The body is built for use on AFX and Magna-Traction chassis cars.

I like building both the newer and older cars, but for different reasons. The older cars have more personality, different body styles, more character, old school drivers! On the other hand the newer cars are more of a challenge to paint with their computer graphics. 
Miss the older cars at the track, liked seeing the home made cars with real hand painted graphics and some airbrushing on the lettering. The new cars are just covered with decals, just ain't the same, decals and store bought cars take the skill and ingenuity out of the sport. Anyone with a computer can do the graphics and anyone with a big checkbook can buy an off the shelf car. Sorry to go off on a rant, it is what it is!


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## Ralphthe3rd

*Modern Modifieds vs. Vintage*



TeamMadMarsupial said:


> I like building both the newer and older cars, but for different reasons. The older cars have more personality, different body styles, more character, old school drivers! On the other hand the newer cars are more of a challenge to paint with their computer graphics.
> *Miss the older cars at the track, liked seeing the home made cars with real hand painted graphics and some airbrushing on the lettering. The new cars are just covered with decals, just ain't the same, decals and store bought cars take the skill and ingenuity out of the sport. Anyone with a computer can do the graphics and anyone with a big checkbook can buy an off the shelf car. Sorry to go off on a rant, it is what it is!*


FWIW- I agree 100% with your Rant on the Newer cars..... they're just deep pocketbook cars, with no originality(aside from the Vinyl Graphics) and not much hand building or connections with a Real Car body....


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## Seventy7

Awesome cars!! The 1st model I ever built was a dirt track car, had no idea what it was just thought it was cool!!

These cars are AWESOME!!! And I'm loving your back stories with them, thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

OK, sometimes ya just gotta lighten up. This next Modified was the result of just such an occasion.
First off, let me say that I built this long before AW came out with their bus.

As a kid, I built a plastic kit of the S'cool Bus, thought it was the coolest thing and it reminded me of the black fendered old International bus that picked me up for my first day of school.....soooooooooooo many years ago.

I found the Hot Wheels version of the bus and had taken it to the legendary Kip in Lebanon, PA. He was going to do a vacuum form mold. Alas, it never came to pass before his passing left a big void in the local slot car world.

So, one night I decided that I'd throw together a pattern and start cutting and glueing just for S---- & Giggles. This was the end result. Don't know exactly what it is. Maybe a Dodge Caravan modified, maybe not? 

I ran it a couple weeks in our Magna-Traction class and I believe its best finish was a second before I had satisfied the whim.

Now if I can find it, I'll take a couple pictures of the Santa's Sleigh I built and ran one year just before Christmas in our AFX Non-Mag class.


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## Ralphthe3rd

LOL.... Now THAT's CRAZY Man :thumbsup:
BTW- when I was a Kid, I Also had that 1/24 scale Monogram S'Cool bus as well. For some reason I didn't like the finished model too well, and shortly after completion, I broke it up for Parts. One cool thing I just remembered about that model, was the rear slicks, ie- they were flat on the bottom, and had a Wrinkle Wall molded into the tire as if the tire was really hooking-up off the line.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

OK, I know I'm a day late, but had to work yesterday and then had the whole family picnic and off for mini golf and ice cream....all equaled a full day!

So a day late here is a red white and blue car!

This is the famous Cozze Coach #44 as driven by Al Tasnady. This was built by sandwiching several layers on the body sides to allow some sanding to shape and also a cut out on the outside layer for the side windows. As mentioned on prior coach post, the roof and back of the car are multiple pcs, cut, glued and then sanded to achieve a bit of shape.

Body is built for Magna traction or AFX chassis and I have raced it a couple times. Would need a few major changes however to be competitive. Its just too top heavy as currently built. Would love if I could get our guys to run a modified coach race, but with 30 active racers, I just don't have the time to build them all bodies!

Well gotta go, off to I-88 speedway tonight. Have not been there for about 5 years or so, hoping to get a bunch of pictures for some new additions to the build list!


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## slotcarman12078

Cool coach!! The only way I can see lightening it would be to leave the windows open.. Love the 3D numbers!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## Ralphthe3rd

That Old #44 Coach has always been my Favorite build of yours :thumbsup: , and I just LOVE it- because I remember the Original Car Raced by Tas at Flemington NJ(near where I grew up) in the mid 1960's.


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## Ralphthe3rd

I Just had to post these 1:1 pix to go with the Cozze Coach...


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanx for the 1:1 pics Ralph. Believe I saw Ricky Rutt run the car last year at the Circle M Ranch Speedway Reunion? Gotta put in for a vacation day for this event next year!

Now gonna move up a few years to 1984 and another of my favorite drivers Modifieds. He had a pretty good weekend again with a close second Friday night at Big Diamond and followed it up with a win Saturday night at Grandview Speedway, coming from the 21st starting spot!

This is the 1984 Glenn Hyneman, Olsen Eagle, #126, Keystone Racing Small Block Modified driven by Craig VonDohren. Craig had replaced his brother Barry the prior year behind the wheel of the Keystone Pretzels ride and began a few years of great success driving this car at several different area tracks.

This body is built for Magna-Traction and AFX chassis. I have probably made about 20 or so copies of this car over the years and have raced many to their ultimate destruction. This however is my newest build of Craig's 1984 ride.


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## bobhch

Hole-E-sMOkes...

WOW!! What a bunch of great slot cars built after real 1/1 race cars!!

I also enjoyed reading the back story on Craigs Dirt Track History. 
The car you made of his is very COOL also!!

S'Cool Bus...yep I, along with Ralph built that model as a kid in 1/24th scale.
Picked up a S'Cool Bus RE-POP several years ago but, let a younger guy at work have it as he is into building 1/24th stuff and it will keep him out of trouble. hahahhahahaa 

Real neat that you thought to build a ho S'Cool Bus out of styrene...Yeah!!

All your builds are great and love to see all the pictures you have posted and read your post along with them. Thanks for taking the time that you do to help make this place fun, fun, fun!!

Bob...Dirt Track Racing "GO SEE A RACE SOON"...zilla


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## TeamMadMarsupial

OK, just finished this one a few minutes ago and took the builders photos to post.

This moves us up almost a decade from the VonDohren #126 I last posted, to 1993.

This #42 Small Block Modified was driven by Donny Erb, mostly at the Grandview Speedway. Donny, Danny, and Mike Erb have all been fixtures at Grandview over the past several decades. Their #44 and #42 modifieds, usually painted bright yellow were strong weekly competitors.

I believe however that the reference photo I had for this build was taken at the Susquehanna Speedway. This is the 5th of a group of 6 I started after coming across a site with a ton of Penn National and Susquehanna photos.

This body is built to fit Magna-Traction and AFX chassis.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is one of my favorites out of my race box. This is John Kozak's Blue Hen Racing #30, Brightbill/Kreitz chassied, Big Block Modified, Pinto. This car is very recognizable to many long time Modified fans as the same Pinto bodied car that Kenny Brightbill wheeled to so many victories at Reading and many other tracks.
John bought this frame off of Kenny's junk pile and raced it very successfully, actually putting it in Victory Lane several times himself. It later was sold to Chris Reed and run by him at Grandview and I believe Big Diamond Raceway.

I just find this particular body style to look like a Modified should. I have both John's version and Kenny's version of this car in the Race Box, if I can find pics of Chris Reed's version, maybe I'll add that one too? 

This body is mounted on a Magna-Traction chassis. It is equipped with Nacho Poly magnets, a 2.8 Ohm double wind arm, .468 LAWS on the rear and a SuperII crown gear.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Very Nice :thumbsup: 
And I'll be lookin forward to seeing the Brightbill Version too  And you're right, THATS the way Modifieds Should LOOK !


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## slotcarman12078

Wow, I didn't realize they were putting big blocks in them things!! That Pinto body looks 100% spot on!! Nice fab work!!


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## TeamMadMarsupial

OK, here is another one fresh out of the paint shop. I built one of these a few decades ago when this car actually raced. Then started another a couple years ago. The first is here somewhere, the second is in one of my "I'm not liking where this is going" boxes! So Wednesday night, I decided the third time might be the charm?

This is the #58 Troyer Mudd Buss, Merv Treichler took to Victory Lane at Syracuse in 1982 during Super DIRT Week. He also won this event in 1981, think that car may be next on the build schedule?

Merv is from Sanborn, NY and was very successful in both Dirt Modifieds and on the Asphalt. He won the ROC race on the asphalt at Trenton a couple of years before his two-fer at Syracuse. He was also the 1974 track champion at the Ransomville Raceway in his #58 Coupe. Merv also ran a couple dozen Busch Grand National races from 1984 through 1987, scoring 1 top ten finish.

Merv scored the first really BIG win in Maynard Troyer's Mudd Buss dirt modifieds. The first one being built in 1981, and yes two D's and two S's is correct.

Know as Marvelous Merv, he is a member of the DIRT Hall of Fame.

This particular car was run back when there was still a bit of leeway in the body rules. Inspection day at Syracuse was my favorite day, just anticipating what new creations would roll off the trailers. It is most noted, as you can see for its rather unique hood. I'm pretty sure the Hutter Big Block was getting plenty of air! As I remember the trees would bend towards the car as he drove by, but that memory might have become a bit exagerated over the years?

The body is mounted on a stock AW X-Traction chassis. I did note upon completion that I could not mount the pick-ups. Will need to make a little mod there!


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## Super G Man

*Big Block Modifieds*

Do any of the drivers of the big block modifieds ever "moonlight" in a sprint car with the PA Posse? If my memory is correct Billy Pauch used to and was successful in both. My favorite driver is the Buckeye Bullit, Dave Blaney. I recall seeing Dave on TV in a modified on the Syracuse Mile back in the day before Nascar.

Very nice cars! Keep on building!


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## bobhch

:thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## Ralphthe3rd

#58 is a Very Cool and Somewhat Unique Build, and your latest version looks Awesome :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

There have been several who have moved into sprints from the mods, but none really moonlight in them anymore. Stewart Friesen, jumped into a Limited Sprint last week at I believe Fonda and won. Frank Cozze ran 410's a couple of years before moving back to mods this year in the Norm Hansell #357. Pauch's kid has been dabling in sprints, while also running modifieds occasionally, buts its not common to see the cross over.

Perhaps the most successful to move over has been Fred Rahmer, who ran modifieds before moving to the sprint cars. I must admit, I never thought he'd be as successful as he has been. He was hands down the dirtiest driver I ever saw run a modified!

As for Dave Blaney, here is one for you. Don't remember what year this was, but its a cool car. I have done a couple of his dads cars also and still have a couple on the "to be built" list!


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## Super G Man

The Blaney car is cool! His sons Nascar career is on the rise and his is on the decline so we should see him back in the open wheel cars more often in the future. He won a sprint feature at Hagerstown a week or so ago. That is hard to do against that competition if you have been away and don't do it all the time.


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## partspig

TeamMadMarsupial said:


> OK, here is another one fresh out of the paint shop. I built one of these a few decades ago when this car actually raced. Then started another a couple years ago. The first is here somewhere, the second is in one of my "I'm not liking where this is going" boxes! So Wednesday night, I decided the third time might be the charm?
> 
> This is the #58 Troyer Mudd Buss, Merv Treichler took to Victory Lane at Syracuse in 1982 during Super DIRT Week. He also won this event in 1981, think that car may be next on the build schedule?
> 
> Merv is from Sanborn, NY and was very successful in both Dirt Modifieds and on the Asphalt. He won the ROC race on the asphalt at Trenton a couple of years before his two-fer at Syracuse. He was also the 1974 track champion at the Ransomville Raceway in his #58 Coupe. Merv also ran a couple dozen Busch Grand National races from 1984 through 1987, scoring 1 top ten finish.
> 
> Merv scored the first really BIG win in Maynard Troyer's Mudd Buss dirt modifieds. The first one being built in 1981, and yes two D's and two S's is correct.
> 
> Know as Marvelous Merv, he is a member of the DIRT Hall of Fame.
> 
> This particular car was run back when there was still a bit of leeway in the body rules. Inspection day at Syracuse was my favorite day, just anticipating what new creations would roll off the trailers. It is most noted, as you can see for its rather unique hood. I'm pretty sure the Hutter Big Block was getting plenty of air! As I remember the trees would bend towards the car as he drove by, but that memory might have become a bit exagerated over the years?


I grew up just a few miles from Ransomville Speedway. I got to see Merv on a regular basis every friday night! Along with other notables that used to race there like, Ed Ortiz, Chuck Boos, Ivan Little, Davey Moore, Gary Iulg, Pete Bicknell, Charlie Rudolph, and Don McGinnis, to mention just a few. Sorry to say, but the Freisens are not popular here, for reasons I'll not get into here. Have a good day! pig


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## slotcarman12078

Hahaahahahahaha!! Who do you think you're kidding pp?? Like any of us really ever "grew up"!!! :lol:


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## partspig

Yep, I sure did "grow up", I got bigger and fatter!!  By the way still go to the track on friday nights. Great cheeseburgers and fries and Pizza Rolls too!! :thumbsup: pig


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## Hilltop Raceway

More good looking stuff TMM!!! Can I ask how you mount those bodies, double sided tape??? RM


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## TeamMadMarsupial

No, I tried the Double sided tape, but was never happy with it. I use Glue Dots brand Mini Dots and Continuous Line to mount the bodies now. They mount directly to the gear plate clamp.

I used to super glue the body to the clamp, put is was a "pita" to not have everything stuck together and there was no give, so high speed wrecks usually resulted in body separation. 

The Glue Dots are instant, and provide a little flex during wrecks. When used for racing however, the oils break them down over time. The cars I race often need to have the Glue Dots replaced two or three times per season.

I have a tutorial on a Word Doc. detailing a build from start to finish. Just forwarded it to another forum visitor. I will gladly forward it to anyone who is interested.

I have also contemplated doing a build of a newer bodystyle as a tutorial, but did not know if it would be be of interest to anyone. I see a lot of cool stuff on the forum and I think a lot of you guys go way beyond my builds.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Time for another Sail Panel Modified. I did this one quite a few years back after my one and only visit to the now closed Lake Mok-A-Tek Speedway in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. 

I had seen pictures of this car prior to my visit and really wanted to add it to my fleet. Got a chance to get pictures of both sides the roof and the rear panel that night and this was the end result of our trek.

This is the #42 Outlaw Modified of Ed Strada. I only ever got to see Ed run a handful of times before he hung up his helmet. That night at Mok-A-Tek was pretty much a throwback night with the "Old School" racing feel. It was evident also that the driver of this car left nothing on the table.

Ed's father ran a cool looking Ford Sedan and I'm hoping to one day knock out one of those too.


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## Hilltop Raceway

Wish I could scribble that good!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup: RM


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## TeamMadMarsupial

How about another Falcon? My photo sources date this particular car to 1979. This is Butch Tittle's #Z, or would that be "letter" Z? Not sure on the politically correct way of phrasing that?

Butch has been running Modifieds since the Coupe days and is still hitting the track occasionally today. I can't believe it took me until this year to build this car! I am a big fan of the Falcon body style. Guess it goes back to that little white one with the red vinyl interior my dad owned when I was a kid.

This body is built to fit the Magna-Traction/AFX chassis. It just may see time on a race chassis this coming fall. Have to see when the time comes if it makes the cut for new bodies in the ole race box?


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## Ralphthe3rd

Now a Falcon is just Plain cool :thumbsup: me Likey this one


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## WesJY

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Wes


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## Hittman101

I have been looking at your thread since you started it.. You have some very nice dirt track cars.. But I have a question are they made out of plastic or paper???


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanx, Hittman101. The cars are all made out of sheet plastic. I used to be a Pattern Maker in the Textiles field and we used 48"x40" sheets of plastic for some of our patterns. I saved all the cut-offs and scraps to make my H.O. modified bodies. Later when we switched to CAD digital pattern making we utilized a 8' x8' plotter to print patterns. 

Well it did'nt take me long to digitize my slot car patterns, buff the plastic sheets and start printing complete Modified kits by the dozens. I still have quite a bit of that old plastic around, but mostly now I use the Evergreen and Plastruct sheet plastic.

For cars I will race, I use .020 for the body sides and rear panel, .030 for the interior and hood, and .015 for the roof. If I don't intend for the car to be one of my competition cars, I also use the .020 for the roof.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I got a few of my Brett Hearn cars here. These are a couple versions of the #72 Modifieds he drove in 1993 and 1994, sponsored by Auto Palace.

The DIRT bodied car, after a few laps became a display car. The two Sail Panel cars are AFX Non-Mag racers out of the Race Box that I have raced in both out AFX class and our Open class.

One is equipped as follows...a DC Motors Phantom II double wind at 2.9 ohms, Nacho Dk. Blue Neo Magnets, a brass rear axle, short step braided shoes, a Super II rear crown gear, JW brass indy front, .470 LAWS on the back, T-Jet springs in place of brushes, a AJ's AFX front weight, heavy brass custom cut side weights with a little extra lead stock added to the sides of the chassis between the wheels.

The second has a Galinko Quadra-Lam spinning between a set of Nacho Poly magnets, a Super II rear crown, JW aluminum indy front, .468 LAWS on the rear, the T-jet springs, again in place of motor brushes, and the same weight set up on the front and sides.

Both AFX cars are pretty good runners, the Poly mag equipped car winning a few times in our AFX class and the Neo car winning a couple times in our open class against Patriots, Mega-G's, Storms, Tycos, G-Plus chassis to name a few.





The DIRT car was run by Brett as his weekly ride and on the DIRT Tour races. The sail panel car was a light weight car built specifically for use at East Windsor Speedway. The story is the first night Brett showed up with this car, he flipped it and never came back, so its a one off, one night only car.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Kenny Tremont year after year has some of the best looking Modifieds on the track. For this reason I can count on doing a couple of his cars each season.


Kenny races out of West Sand Lake, NY and is know as the "West Sand Lake Slingshot". He races weekly at Lebanon Valley and Albany Saratoga Speedway. Kenny is a multi time champion and owns several hundred wins. Each October he also makes the haul to Syracuse and unloads a couple great looking cars for Super Dirt Week.

I have built dozens of Kenny's cars over the years, both for racing and for static display. He has been running for several decades now and started his career when the Pinto and Gremlin bodies were the staple of the Modified fields. He still runs very competively and is a threat to win every time he unloads.

This is the Big Block Modified he ran on the Moody mile in 2007. The body is set up for use on AFX and Magna-Traction cars.


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## alpink

hey, I really like that one with the front wing


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## bobhch

This is a whole lot of COOL right here!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Man you put some work into these lil' guys.

Bob...neat brusha, brusha, brusha work...zilla


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## opadave

Gotta agree. Awesome builds and even better paint jobs...how's your eyesight =>
I especially got a kick out of the schoolbus.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanks for the compliments guys. As far as the question about the eyes....all I can say is I'm not using the same readers I used a couple years ago. Of course, I'm blaming that on 25 plus years of doing CAD work. Absolutlely nothing to do with H.O. scale slot cars!?!?!?

Anyway, here is one from a few years, maybe decades ago for those who lean towards the body styles of yesteryear.

Here is Lou Blaney's Big Block Modified from 1979. This car is the ride Lou brought to Super DIRT Week that year. The body is made for use on Magna-Traction and AFX chassis cars. I ran this particular car once or twice before retiring it and shelving it.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Awesome Lou Blaney Car :thumbsup: and that's Great paintwork on the #10 car !


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Lets move forward 10 years but keep the driver! Here is Lou's 1989 #10, Big Block Modified. Again, this was the car he brought to Syracuse.

Lou was from Hartford Ohio, grew up on the family farm, and working for their family lumber business. His first race was in 1958, driving a Cady powered 34 Chevy Coupe, man, wish I could get pics of that!

Lou switched to sprints the following year and over his career, tallied over 200 sprint wins. He made the full time switch to Modifieds in 1978 upon delivery of a Tobias chassis, represented in my last picture posting. It was at that point that his son Dave took over the family sprint car ride. His son Dale, of course has also followed in Lou's footsteps.

Lou racked up an additional 343 Modified victories, also picking up some in Super Mods for over 600 overall wins.

Lou and his wife also ran Sharon Speedway. The track will present the Lou Blaney Memorial coming up on Tuesday Aug, 20th. Both the Sprints and the Modifieds will be on the racing card that night. I believe Tony Stewart and a few other Nascar drivers will be on hand, joining the Blaney family to honor Lou.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Another one from the Race Box. The lighting at our clubs track is not the brightest, and lets just say that a "few" years of painting these modifieds has not done anything to improve my eyesight!
What I'm getting at is I often look for bright....very bright paint schemes to use for my cars I actually race. When I first saw one of J.R. Heffner's #74 modifieds, I thought, well if I can't see that one I'd better hang up the Parmas.
I used J.R.'s early 2000's scheme for quite a few years, and still do occasionally. This, however is his car from 2011. It is a bit more subdued, but nonetheless, it is still quite visible at the far end of our 30' front straight.

I run this car in our AFX Non-Mag class. This particular car has a home wind double wind arm at about 3 ohms spinning inside a set of Nacho Poly magnets, a set of Super II front and side weights, a JW's brass independent front with o-rings, .468 LAWS on the rear, Super II rear crown gear, short step pick-up shoes with braids, T-Jet springs in place of brushes and front and rear brass axle sleeves.


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## slotcarman12078

I wish I could paint that clean!! I love the 3D numbers!!! Unreal! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

OK, here is something a little different I've been contemplating for some time now. I bought the donor body for this about a year ago, I believe it may be a MEV? I had built up a flat sheet scratch built version of this car to race with a Magna-Traction chassis and was just not thrilled with the final result, so when I saw the Valiant on ebay, I pulled the trigger and bid on it.

So, it started as a MEV Valiant which to me meant it would sit nice on a T-Jet chassis. After a few minutes with the xacto saw blade and few more with a couple Dremel sanding drums, the roof was off, the front clip in the trash and the fenders were hogged out.

Had to cut strips of sheet for the "A" and "C" pillars to get the roof height up to where it needed to be and set it way back on the trunk lid, but wanted to utilize the original roof. When the chassis is complete, it will get a few laps on the track, but this roof is just way to fragile to even think about racing it in competition.

So, what we have here is the #69, Valiant bodied Big Block Modified driven by the "Fritztown Flyer", Don Kreitz Sr. as it appeared in the mid 70's. Don Sr. was a fixture at the famed Reading Fairgrounds racing with some of the biggest names in Modified history up until his retirement in 1977. Kreitz also built many modified frames, competing with the famed Tobias family out of nearby Lebanon, PA. Donnie Kreitz Jr, who started helping on is dads cars as a pre-teen, took over the Kreitz #69's in the Sportsman division at Reading in 1978, and first sat behind a Big Block the following year in the season ending Daniel Boone 200, winning his heat race and running competitively in the main, before dropping out with mechanical woes.

Don Kreitz Jr, went on the run the Modifieds for a few years before switching over to URC Sprints and eventually a stellar career in the 410 Sprints, just winning a few weeks back.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Wow- that Valiant is Sweet ! :thumbsup:
BTW- in case anyone is interested, Resin Dude now makes an Old '62 Valiant Modified body...


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## FOSTBITTEN

At 2:38 you can see the S-3, that car was owned by Lee Stultz his garage was right up the street from my grandmother's house. At 2:50 you can see it again be pushed backwards one of those guys could have been my Uncle! He helped on their crew. He told me once their truck broke down & he hauled the car with his '57 Chevy! Mr. Stultz ran a Late Model in the 70's and early 80's. There is a pic of me sitting in the Late Model somewhere, I think I was like 5 y/o. http:// https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUGj_C1uYw0&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## Hilltop Raceway

Look'n good TMM, Like'n the pipe work...:thumbsup::thumbsup: RM


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## XracerHO

Great collection of Dirt Modifieds! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: ..RL


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Its funny, but I get to meet a lot of drivers, owners and crew members in the store. I make a point of introducing myself as a Dirt Track fan whenever I see a customer wearing a racing related shirt. Well tonight a woman was in the department wearing a Troyer Racecars T-shirt.
As it turned out, the woman happened to be local modified racer Ryan Watt's wife. One of Ryan's crew was also with and we spent a few minutes talking racing.
Ryan has been racing the local tracks for a few years now, having been a regular at Big Diamond, Grandview and now calling Bridgeport Speedway his home track. I believe he currently is leading the point battle at Bridgeport. Ryan also recently invaded Penn Can Speedway a couple weeks ago and brought home the win.
So.....here is Ryan's 2006 Teo Pro chassis, #14w Big Block Modified. Ryan had backing from Chad Sinon's BPG Racing that year to run at Grandview, while BPG's primary driver, Duane Howard ran Bridgeport.
The body is made for Magna-Traction and AFX chassis cars. This one got its couple of required laps before becoming a display piece.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

We are about 6 weeks or so away from the start of our clubs 2013/2014 season, so its time to clean the workshop and get track ready for some tuning. Its pretty much shut down over the summer months. Its also time to start cleaning and prepping the cars for the first night of racing.

This particular car has been my primary car in our AFX Non-Mag class for a couple seasons. It is the 2011 Troyer Chassis, Mohawk Racing, Wave Energy Drink sponsored #98h, Big Block Modified of Baldwinsville NY's Jimmy Phelps.

Jimmy runs his family #99 at the Brewerton and Fulton Speedways and the Mohawk Racing 98h on the DIRT circuit.

This is one of my favorite paint schemes I have done over the years. Must be the blue?

The body sits on a standard AFX Non-Mag chassis, and is set up like most of my AFX cars, as follows. Nacho Polymer magnets, a DC Phantom II arm, full Super II front and side weight kit with a tad extra on both side weights. It also has the Super II rear crown gear, a JW brass independent front end, .468 LAWS on the rear, short step shoes with braids and T-Jet springs in place of motor brushes.

If my records are correct this car has 19 heat and 18 feature wins to date.


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## FOSTBITTEN

That car looks great. I have been meaning to ask somebody what is that in the front of the car? Looks like a bumper. But then there is a rod running through it. Is that sway bars? 

Do you all run all ovals for your season? A good friend of mine & I are talking about doing some kind race series. He owns our local hobby shop. The Hobby Hutt. He has a 6 lane flat oval MaxTrax in his store. And then I have my stuff that we can do whatever we want with it as far as course goes. I was wondering how you all do yours.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

The thing on the front is the front portion of an old Super II weight kit. The bar across the front is where the lexan body would mount. The bar is actually a tube and pins were inserted through the body into each side. The entire body flipped forward for maintenance, similar to the hood on those 1:1 plastic cars Generic Motors makes.

As for our clubs track, we race on a fairly large 32' x 4' six lane roadcourse. My track is a 18' x 4' copy of the same layout so I can practice on scale version of our clubs track. I also have a small 8' x 3' oval to play around on.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

So we will go backwards in time again, but this time only one year! Here is another one of my AFX racers. This one is another Jimmy Phelps, Mohawk Racing, Troyer chassis, #98h, Big Block Modified.

These are the colors Jimmy ran in 2010 on the Super DIRT Series tour.

As mentioned, this body sits on an AFX Non-Mag chassis. This one is a little tamer and is mostly used if I draw one of our "gutter lanes" for my qualifying heat. It is running a Mean Green arm, Nacho Poly magnets, the full Super II weight kit, again with a little lead added in a couple places, a JW brass independent front end, .468 LAWS on the rear, the Super II crown gear, short step shoes with braids, and the T-Jet springs in place of brushes.

This car is a little bit more comfortable and forgiving to drive, so it handles the tight 6" radius turns better. It also goes out as a loaner once in awhile if someone needs a car one night.


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## bobhch

Totally INSAIN cOOlnESS!! I love coming here and reading your informative racing post and checking out your incredibly Far Out art work on your hand built custom slot cars!!

Bob...Let's go Racing...zilla


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## slotcarman12078

I still can't get over all the hand painting!! Awesome!!!:thumbsup:


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## Hilltop Raceway

slotcarman12078 said:


> I still can't get over all the hand painting!! Awesome!!!:thumbsup:


Gotta agree, that's some good looking free hand work!!! RM


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Taking the time machine back again, but again only another year to 2009. Once again I have another #98h out of the Mohawk Racing Teams garage. Once again its the Troyer House car Jimmy Phelps ran on the Super DIRT Series tour.
Also, once again it is another AFX racer out of the Race Box. This little continuing work in progress is quite the handful. This ones got a DC Motors Black Widow triple wind at 1.5 ohms, twisting between a set of the Dark Green Nacho Neo magnets. Its got the pre-requisite full Super II front and side weight kit, Super II crown gear, braided pick-up shoes, a JW brass heavy weight independent front end, .472 LAWS on the rear and T-Jet springs in place of the motor brushes.

This thing is not a whole lot of fun to run, but its sure fast. It drives like a Storm or Patriot full magnet car. Basically two throttle settings....dead stop, and "did anybody see where that landed?" It would be great on a road course with mostly sweeping turns, but its a handful to keep up any momentum in any tight corners.

It has won a race or tw against the non magnet Storms, Patriots, Super G's and such the other run in our "Open" class.


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## bobhch

TeamMadMarsupial,

Have you ever shown these incredible builds to the drivers of the cars you have built? 

I'm sure they would be blown away by your art work.

Bob...now if paint was free and there was more free time...zilla


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Hey "Zilla",

I have shown a couple to some of the drivers, but never really gave it much thought. They are just a tad small to have any of them signed.

I did actually build a couple 21k modifieds of local driver Kyle Weiss. He was going to attend one of our clubs races and run some match races with our under 16 divisions racers. We had hand outs, a few t-shirt give-aways and such. He came over to my place to run some practice laps and get a feel for the Magna-Tractions I had built up for his use.

Unfortunately the ROC banquet was postponed due to snow and rescheduled on our race night. Have to look into trying it again? I'll dig out and post some pics of that car asap.

In the mean time, I'll post up a few shots of another of my favorite drivers cars. This is one of Craig VonDohren's cars from 2009. He was part of a multi-car, multi-driver team feilded by car owner Chad Sinon's BPG Racing out of Blue Bell, PA. Duane Howard and Ryan Watt also drove Modifieds for BPG in 09.
This was Craig's ride for Saturday nights at Grandview Speedway. This was a pretty tough one to paint. The graphics on some of the cars are so "busy" that I need to spend time just figuring out what I can and cannot attempt.
I tried to get as much detail as possible, but this one took awhile!


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## slotcarman12078

No mistaking that car on either track!! Sometimes "busy" works!! Seeings that I can't drive a stock T Jet to save my life, I wonder how out of control I would be with something built like yours. :lol:


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## bobhch

hahahahaha...a tad to small to have them signed. :lol:

I bet a few people here on HT have tried there hand at this brush work after seeing your cars? 

You have got a lot of patience to do as much detail painting as you do. (say that fast 5 times)
Not to mention building the body first...but, Heh that's the fun of it right. 

Bob...do do do...zilla


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## slotcarman12078

I drink too much coffee to even try it!! :freak:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Got all my camping gear packed, gonna pack my clothes after I finish this post! 
Heading north to Lebanon Valley Speedway for tomorrow night's Mr DIRT show. Looks like the weather is gonna be great and I've never seen a bad race at The Valley. Looks like the plans will be to head over to Brewerton Speedway for Friday night and most likely down to Five Mile Point Speedway on Saturday night for Twin 20 lap features for the Mighty Modifieds.

Three nights of Big Block Modified action, with a side trip to do some scouting in the Adirondaks Friday. Got a week of canoe camping planned in upstate NY next month.

So with all this in mind, I'll post a car of one of the drivers I'll be pulling for tomorrow night.

Brett Hearn, with more than 800 modified wins has got to be the all time best Modified driver to ever strap into one of these beasts. He is also probably the most professional driver I've ever had the pleasure to meet and watch on the track. One of the most amazing things about Brett's win total is how many have come in long distance races against the cream of the crop of modified drivers.

This car however won't be in any of his career highlights. This car was debuted at the little 1/4 mile bullring know as Accord Speedway. Accord is a track where contact....and lots of it is the norm, not the exception! I took pictures of this car as soon as they unloaded it and was already mentally drawing the pattern to begin my build. Unfortunately Brett was involved in a little bit of the contact Accord is know for...and then a little bit more....and a little bit more and then it just got worse from there. 

By the end of the night, I should have gotten a picture of the tow truck that pulled the wreckage back to the pits to make a true to life replica of the #20.

Well, to end this long version of a short story, here is Brett Hearn's #20, Outlaw Modified as it appeared inside the trailer as Brett and his crew hauled it to Accord Speedway late in the 2007 season. As a foot note, it was never rebuilt in this scheme.


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## slotcarman12078

Cool story and car!! Enjoy you racing weekend!!!


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Back home from our three race swing through upstate NY. Thursday night saw us at the Lebanon Valley Speedway east of Albany for the 100 lap Mr. DIRT Big Block Modified race along with a Budget Sportsman Modified 20 lapper. A trip half way across the state brought us to the Brewerton Speedway just north of Syracuse for the Empire State Sprint Car Series, along with Sportsman Modifieds, IMCA Modifieds and a couple support divisions. This was followed with a short trip south past Binghamton to the Five Mile Point Spedway for their Modified Twin Twenties show, along with Sportsman Modifieds, IMCA Modifieds, Street Stocks and 4-cylinders.

Thursday nights show was a bit of a yawner as far as the win went as Andy Bachetti, one of the track hotshoes drew the pole and led from wire to wire. The rest of the field however, put on a great show which I'll get to in a later post.

Andy "The Wild Child" Bachetti, know for his somewhat aggressive driving style took home the $17,500 winners check with a somewhat easy run from the pole. He survived a couple restarts and was never really challenged.

Here is one of Andy's cars from a awhile back. This is the car he ran at Syracuse in 2003. Although not a big fan of his driving style, I do really like some of the paint schemes he has used over the years. I have used them on a few of my racers as they are usually pretty easy to see all the way around our huge track.

This body was built for use with Magna Traction or AFX Non-Mag chassis.


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## WesJY

Looks GREAT! You must have steady hands to do all handwritings paintings. for me my hands would cringe big time. :thumbsup:

Wes


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## FOSTBITTEN

WesJY said:


> Looks GREAT! You must have steady hands to do all handwritings paintings. for me my hands would cringe big time. :thumbsup:
> 
> Wes


Yes he does do an awesome job. I tried doing some lettering on my DLM's. And I think I should try Chinese letters. Because it sure does not look like English.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

JR Heffner finished 2nd this past Saturday night at Lebanon Valley's 100 lap Mr. DIRT race behind the wheel of the A. Colaruso #74 Big BLock Modified.

JR is a three time Mr. DIRT winner, and has won the Lebanon Valley Big Block Modified Championship twice.

I have run JR's colors many times over the years. The bright yellow, orange and black cars are very easy to see on our clubs rather poorly lit track.

This is a group of cars I built and painted for our 2008/2009 race season.

The group includes a couple Wizzard Patriot Scorpions, a Wizzard Storm, a couple Magna-Tractions, a G-Plus and one for the display shelf.

This was back when our Open Class was still for the most part an Open class. Our only rule at the time in this class was, NO NEO TRACTION MAGNETS!!

I hated those inline cars and had someone else do all the tuning on them. I would purchase used race arms from a couple guys who used to race these magnet cars. No idea what the arms really were other than stupid fast and absolutely no fun to drive. I believe my record "off" was 27', achieved with one of the Scorpions. So glad those things are collecting dust in a case somewhere??


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## slotcarman12078

It's hard to win a race when you're off the track more than you're on it. :lol: I like all the subtle variations. Did the 1:1 car change the same over the years?


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Hey SCM12078, thanks for the comments! The comments from the forum members keep me going when I sometimes think about cutting back on my build time.

As for the subtle variations, yes and no. Although there were slight variations to the paint scheme over the years they were fairly minor, i.e. the loss of a sponsor, the addition of a new one, or sometimes just a repositioning of the same sponsors, usually associated with their $$$$$ contributions from one year to the next. That group of cars did however include three "bought" bodies made for the magnet cars. So the bodies on the Patriots and the Storm where not of my design and not built to the same specs as my own.

As noted there was also a G-Plus and a display car in the grouping. I build my bodies to different specs for the different chassis types they will be mounted on. I'll try to get pictures of a couple cars I built for different classes together and post them down the road.

Also over the years, I have tweaked my body designs, sometimes to add strength, sometimes to lighten them up, sometimes just as a whim when I dream up an idea that I think will improve them. The display and race versions will also be quite different, as I have to make some consessions to what works better on the track versus the 1:1 car and the HO scale car.

Lastly, there are those times when completing a car, I look it over and say to myself, why didn't you add a bit more detail, why did you take the easy way out? Occasionally I guilt myself into starting from scratch on the same car and adding a bit more detail.

So again, the simple answer, ain't so simple....yes, and no?!?!?!?


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## FOSTBITTEN

BIG bubble on the front end? No problem


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Don't see a problem either, not the first time I saw one looking like that.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

OK fellow forum members, I'll complete my link to last Saturday nights Mr DIRT race with the third place driver to complete the podium finishers.

Brett "The Jet" Hearn brought the Madsen Racing #20 home in third spot, which in itself would not be bad, but how he did it is the real story!

Brett started in second spot and was running there when around lap twenty he got a right rear flat. A quick pit stop got him back out and when the green came back out, he put on a passing clinic. Unfortunately another flat, this time a right front put him back in the pits for more attention from his capable crew.

Coming back out, he again joined the back of the pack, with the race now a good bit past the half way crossed flags. Although the starting field was 26 or 28 cars, Hearn must have passed at least 50 before taking the checkered flag in third, 2.5 seconds behind the winner.

Hearns drive through the field twice was worth the price of admission alone. He once again proved that he is perhaps the best Modified driver to ever belt into one of these cars. His perserverance is one of the reasons he has over 800 wins in Modifieds, a large percentage of which have come in extra distance events against the best modified drivers in the business.

Here is Brett's 2012 Big Block Modified. The body is built for Magna-Traction chassis. Although it is race ready, its black color scheme and my inability to follow it on our long tracks means it will remain a display car.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Lets go "Old School"! Back to 1972 with the winningest driver from the famed Reading Fairgrounds and one of his early rides.

Of course its gotta be Kenny Brightbill and the Bob Wertz owned #57 Coach. One of my earliest posts in this thread was this car in its white/blue/yellow colors. This version was painted in what would become Kenny's trademark white/red/blue colors. This same car would later hit the track in these colors, but sported Kenny's #19. I'll post a picture of that build down the road.

As I have mentioned in the past, I like an old Coupe Modified, but the Coach bodied cars are still, by far, my favorites!!

My Coach builds are scratch built using several sheets sandwiched together, which allows the corner sanding to achieve some of the needed shape. These guys are really heavy, but I think I could step on one of them without damaging it?

The body is built for Magna-Traction and or AFX chassis. As with most of the older bodies, the side taps used for mounting stock bodies need to be removed.


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## bobhch

I love stories like your Brett Hearn one. Two flat tires in one race and came back to get third. 

Now that is driving....Yeah!!

Reminds me of the Richard Petty race when he ran out of gas on the last lap and coasted across the line to win!! 

Bob...43...zilla


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## Ralphthe3rd

Oh JEFF ! I Just LOVE This Brightbill/Wertz Coach :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Well. its that time of year again. Got the call yesterday, our first race night is September 21. First nights gonna be tough, I get home the night before from a week of kayak camping in the Adirondaks.

What this all means is that its time to put the paint brushes down and start cleaning and tuning the contents of "The Ole Race Box". Also want to build up two new cars using a couple new arms I got from Yellow Jacket Performance. Have a 2.5 and a 3.0 ohm to build cars around. Thinking maybe the 2.5 in a Mag and the 3.0 in a T-Jet. My current Mag was unbeaten last year, but I don't have a backup that has near the primary cars performance. On the T-Jet side, after a season and a half of slotting the car to beat, the second half of last season saw the wheels sorta fall off with only a couple of wins and one night I did not even qualify?
Here is the pile of T-Jets needing some TLC.


Here are most of the AFX and Mags


And here are the cars for our Open and DINO classes


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Big Diamond Speedway is nestled in the hills of Pennsylvania's Schuylkill (pronounced School-kill) County, the heart of the states Anthacite coal region and its rich mining heritage.

Their big season ending race, The Coal Cracker, is scheduled for tomorrow night. It is a 72 lap race for Small Block Modifieds, paying $10,000 to the winning driver.

The weekend at the track kicked off last night and included a race for all drivers who have not won a feature this year at Big Diamond.

Ricky "The Law" Yetter came home the winner last night in his #5 modified. A lawyer out of the Easton, PA area, Ricky was recently elected to a Judgeship and took a short break from racing. We are glad he is back, towing his famillar green #5 to the area tracks. Ricky has also been runing his car on the asphalt at Mahoning Speedway on Saturday nights this year in their Dirt Modified class, with some success.

Here is Ricky's #5, Yetter Law Offices, Small Block Modified from 2010.


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## FOSTBITTEN

Cool car I love the green! Now will he be known as Ricky "The Judge" Yetter?


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## bobhch

Good Luck on September 21st Race Day!!



FOSTBITTEN said:


> Cool car I love the green! Now will he be known as Ricky "The Judge" Yetter?


 :lol: hahahaaha

Bob...Let's go Racing!!...zilla


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I unfortunately need to make this post as an update to a car I recently posted.

You may recognize this as a car I recently posted as one from my Race Box on a little unusual "super heavy" T-Jet chassis.

It is with sadness that I note the passing of former Modified driver Bob Malzahn. Bob died last week at the age of 81. He was originally from Florida and as with a few others of his era, moved north to race in the modified ranks throughout the northeast.

Bob was the Wall Stadium Champion in 1958. He then switched to dirt racing and was the Nazareth Champion in 1960 and again in 1970. He also scored numerous wins at the Orange County Fair Speedway. His biggest win came driving the Harold Cope #1 at the Langhorne Open in 1961.

He is most remembered early in his career behind the wheel of the #sSs coupes and later his famous "Fireball 99 Modifieds.

As noted in previous posting, this was his Gremlin from 1979. The body has now been mounted on a blank AW chassis to become a static display.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Jeff, that's a nice Tribute to Bob :thumbsup:
And I really like your model of his Gremlin


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## slotcarman12078

So sorry to hear of his passing. RIP Bob.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Well our season starts next Saturday night and I have been spending some time cleaning and tuning the ole fleet of Modifieds. Only got a couple days left as I leave Monday morning for a week of Kayak camping in the Adirondak Mts. of upstate Ny. Return the night before our first race, so times getting tight. I've run a couple thousand practice laps with my runner cars to get some trigger time and a few laps with the cars I'll race this year.

My last post detailed my retiring of the Bob Malzahn "Fireball 99" from my racing stable. Had to think about what direction I wanted to go for a replacement body on that "Heavy Weight" T-Jet chassis. Also needed to do up a body for a new Mag using the Yellow Jacket 2.5 arm. 

Been running a Kenny Brightbill Pinto for several years in Mag and at first thought I'd do up another of the same car. Decided however to build up a lesser known Pinto driven by Kenny. Then decided to do up the same car for the Malzahn replacement.

Not exactly sure what year KB drove this car, looks like probably earlyto mid 70's. After his famous Coach bodies, but before the Weld Built Gremlins. so maybe 73/74.

Here is a good example of how differently I build the same car for the Mag chassis versus the T-Jet. Have to agree with Kevin, the Magna Tractions are my favorite chassis to build my Modifieds. Just hate how tall and "Sherman Tank" like the T-Jets look with a Mod body on it. 

The actual car was run with two different hood set ups, the short hood early in the year and the longer sloped front hood later in the year.

The T-Jet is that Frankenstein with the chassis pan and the huge brass side weights. It has a set of Nacho Polymer magnets and now is sporting a 3.0 ohm arm. Has a Mag crown gear, brass RTHO independent front, LAW .412's on the rear, Dr Oogan springs, BSRT shoes with braids and runs sans brushes.

The Mag is still a work in progress, shes got the YJP 2.5 arm, Nacho Polymer magnets, a shaved Super II crown and will soon get a JW delrin independent front and some .466 LAWs on the back. Flat shoes so far, but messing with some short steps with braids, just ain't happy with them yet!


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## Ralphthe3rd

Cool Car, and thanks for the specs and comparo to your AFX Version :thumbsup:


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## bobhch

Love the Gold and Black detail on the white bodies!!

Hope you get the set up down & have a blast racing these with other slot car nutz.

BOB...was 19 - 30 years ago...zilla


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Its almost October, that means Super Dirt Week at Syracuse is just around the corner!
Although it's not what it used to be, this race is still a pretty big deal for a lot of Modified Teams throughout the region.

So I thought I'd post a few of the cars brought to the Moody Mile at the New York State Fairgrounds over the years.

I'll start with West Sand Lake, New York's Kenny Tremont and the #115 Dutchess/Madsen Overhead Doors, Ground Round Restaurant, Big Block Modified from back in 1989.

This body is mounted on a Magna-Traction chassis. I ran a few laps with it back when I finished the build, but its a little bit on the heavy side to try to race it. So after the required test laps it found a place on the shelf as a display piece.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I got a little side tracked here. Was following the contest thread and you all got me thinking about a Shadow based build I had contemplated for some time. So Friday night I pulled a Shadow body out and started looking at making it into a Dirt Late Model.

My first thought was to simply add some side panels to get the Late Model shape and then add a roof. That plan ended after about 30 seconds of actually looking at the Shadow closely. First off that whole rear engine hump had to be cut out, thought I'd scap in flat plug to fill it. Then it turns out the little driver dude was sitting on the wrong side of the car, that won't work on this side of the pond! The whole engine hanging off the back had to leave too.

So I cut out the engine and sanded the sides and top flat. Was still looking at a simple Late Model build until I dug some pictures of older Super Late Models up on the web.

That was when I found this picture and knew my build was gonna go a whole nuther direction! It is a dirt Super Late Model driven by Charlie Swartz back in 1983. More on the car and driver when I finish it and post it here.


So a few hours later and this is where I'm at. The original Shadow body is still under there somewhere. Hopefully I'll get to spend a few more hrs on her the next couple of nights and we will see where this little experiment goes???
Its not a Modified, but I having fun with the something different aspect of it.


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## chappy2

Excellent job TMM! Looking forward to more updates.


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## FOSTBITTEN

I love it. Looks great! Looks fast sitting still!


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## XracerHO

Great idea & fabrication converting a Shadow to a dirt Super Late Model! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: ..RL


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## mrstumpy

*REirt Modifieds*

I'm new here on Hobby Talk and am working my way through all the various forums because I have done all kinds of modeling in my 63 years. But I have a question/suggestion for you when it comes to making Modified and Late Model bodies:

Considering that modern dirt race cars are all flat surfaces and sharp edges compared to the old "built from real cars" era, and weight for racing can be a problem, has anyone considered card stock for making bodies?

I know that card is a throwback to the fifties for modeling, but from 2000 to 2005 I was in a 1/32 scale racing club that used either poster board to make Stock Car bodies. It was far cheaper than plastic sheet and a bit lighter. 

We made them out of two or three pieces bent to shape and glued together with common white glue. Small pieces of strip wood were glued in for body mounting screws. Even with the weight and speed of 1/32 scale, the poster board bodies lasted a season or two of crash bang racing with amazingly little problem!

Being an old guy. I managed to make up slab sided versions of a '57 Chevy and Plymouth, coupe Super Modifieds and modern Dirt Late models. 

I've been back in HO for three years now and have thought about doing card stock bodies to save weight by using 3x5" file cards for the material (much lighter and much easier to work with than poster board.) The problem is that I don't see as well as I used to, so doing good work in HO is a problem now.

I may still try this, but I'm "passing the torch" to you younger guys to try this since you can probably do a better job.

Stumpy in Ahia


----------



## Ralphthe3rd

*Yes Stumpy*

Many folks have made, and/or are selling Paper/cardstock Modified(and some Late model) bodies. If you search the archives, we had a member> Gabe Lozano, making and selling them...here's one of his...








my #58 Custom made/ printed by Gabe


----------



## FOSTBITTEN

Yes Sir Mr Stumpy I have tried it with no real luck. And certainly nothing I would share. I have a few things I am working on, out of a different material. I will hopefully be able able to post something soon.


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

Hi Mr Stumpy,
As you have seen by Ralph's reply the paper thing is out there. In fact there is a local group racing in reading that uses the paper bodies. They run Tyco's however, as most everyone who I race with knows, I am not a fan of the inline arms. Also did not own a Tyco until about three years ago when a couple chassis were given to me.

As for me, just ain't my thing. I tried the paper bodies thing a few years back but, did not like them. Guess I'm just too Pennsylvania Dutch for that much change. I will not build or use anything that has decals on it anymore. If I don't paint it, I don't use it, just my little self imposed rule.

Also, as far as the weight thing, except for my Magna-Traction cars, I add as much positioned weight as possible. Our club has no weight rules and the added weight on the T-Jets and AFX chassis has really made my cars perform much better on our lock and joiner track. I run some pretty low ohm arms and we have a 30' straightaway. along with a few others in the 20' range. Without the added weight it was not uncommon for my cars to take flight half way down the track. The added weight keeps them earthbound and puts the horsepower to the track. No more spinning rear tires half way down the straights.

I use mostly .030 sheet stock on the T-Jets and two different thicknesses on the Mags, .020 for the sides, hood and interior, topping off the roof and the rear deck panel with .015.


----------



## mrstumpy

*REirt Modifieds*

The reason I inquired was because no one in the two groups I race with seems to have considered card stock for bodies! Good to hear that it is alive a well elsewhere. The bodies we did in 1/32 scale we painted and decaled ourselves.

A couple of us are starting a new HO class of dirt Modified around here called "Outlaw Modifieds." "Outlaw" in the old time sense of the phrase that this class is not part of any sanctioned club, and races on different dates. They accumulate no club points and we use a "crash and burn" scoring format. It's a strictly for fun deal. 

These cars use stock Auto World T-jet chassis with the traction magnet removed from the Ultra G cars. We do allow the wide AW rear wheels and tires to be run on the front to soak up bumps on sectional track, and allow silicone tires on the rear. We also allow a little weight on the front of the chassis as these cars want to "wheelie" on the smoother custom machined tracks where they get better grip.

Our Modifieds use the pre-fabricated era style bodies; cut down Coupes and Coaches, Mustangs, Gremlins, and the like. If you buy the right AW car you can use the body that comes with it. However, most of the guys are using either bodies they cut down on their own or Resin Dude bodies.

After just two race nights at the end of last year, the class is getting popular because it's low cost and slam bang fun. Besides, it's a nice change from all the road courses we run on to be on an oval or even a tight figure eight!

Stumpy in Ahia


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## Ralphthe3rd

*Dirt Trackin in HO*

Hey Stumpy, I'm liken that you're a fellow HO Dirttracker(we gotta stick together here on HT), and I like that "Outlaw Modified" class you are running. I wish I lived closer, cuz it sounds like Fun ! :thumbsup:



mrstumpy said:


> The reason I inquired was because no one in the two groups I race with seems to have considered card stock for bodies! Good to hear that it is alive a well elsewhere. The bodies we did in 1/32 scale we painted and decaled ourselves.
> 
> A couple of us are starting a new HO class of dirt Modified around here called "Outlaw Modifieds." "Outlaw" in the old time sense of the phrase that this class is not part of any sanctioned club, and races on different dates. They accumulate no club points and we use a "crash and burn" scoring format. It's a strictly for fun deal.
> 
> These cars use stock Auto World T-jet chassis with the traction magnet removed from the Ultra G cars. We do allow the wide AW rear wheels and tires to be run on the front to soak up bumps on sectional track, and allow silicone tires on the rear. We also allow a little weight on the front of the chassis as these cars want to "wheelie" on the smoother custom machined tracks where they get better grip.
> 
> Our Modifieds use the pre-fabricated era style bodies; cut down Coupes and Coaches, Mustangs, Gremlins, and the like. If you buy the right AW car you can use the body that comes with it. However, most of the guys are using either bodies they cut down on their own or Resin Dude bodies.
> 
> After just two race nights at the end of last year, the class is getting popular because it's low cost and slam bang fun. Besides, it's a nice change from all the road courses we run on to be on an oval or even a tight figure eight!
> 
> Stumpy in Ahia


----------



## Hilltop Raceway

TeamMadMarsupial said:


>


Looks like we may have a Shadow winner, congrats on the build!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup: RM


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is the next set of pics showing the progress on the Shadow to Wedge Super Late Model switch-a-roo. Been sick most of the week so progress was a little slow.

Still have a few painting details to work out and one glaring (to me anyway) change needing to be made on the painting. Have posted a couple questions on a Late Model model building site to seek some answers on a few details.

As mentioned this body was built over top of a "lightly sanded" Shadow body. It is constructed of .020 sheet stryene plastic and a little clear sheet, which I believe mics out to about .010? The little bit of "pipe bending" is from a few paper clips, after inspiration from another forum poster.

The body is mounted on a stock, for now, Magna-Traction chassis, and I'm anxious to run some laps with it.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Looks Great in Paint :thumbsup:


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## Rocket45

Holy crap....you have some skills man....


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## slotcarman12078

Unreal!!! I never would have thought of using a Shadow like that! Slick!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## FOSTBITTEN

That looks terrific man. I hope your test run does not include right turns because the right sideforce that thing will make, may just cause your house to be sucked into a vortex! That is one good looking car you are awesome man.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanks for the positive comments guys. This forum's members individually are amazing and as a whole, well just unbelievable. You all are an inspiration to me to try something different which led to this Late Model experiment.
I thank you all!!!!!

Just prepped another Shadow for a second Super Late Model. Going to start working up some patterns now and see where this one goes.

The plan as of now is for this one to be Charlie Swartz's radical wedge car he used to dominate the 2nd Dirt Track World Championship at the famed Pennsboro Speedway in 1982. This one will be a little tougher, so we shall see???

Here the kickoff point.


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## FOSTBITTEN

I know the car you are talking about, this gonna be great!!

Talking about great The Pennsboro Speedway was something oddly crude but oddly special.
The track itself was flat as a board (think horse track). But what was not flat was the grandstand. It was not really a grandstand but more or less a small natural mountain that was terraced for people to sit on. The funny thing was people would bring old couch's to sit on for the race weekend. And about half of the couch's were left after the races were all over on Sunday afternoon. 

Then something strange would happen someone went around & set the couch's on fire!! We got to watch this while we camped in someone's driveway/yard. I wish I would have got a picture of this but I was all out of film. I have searched high and low of pictures I had taken over that weekend but I do not know where they are.


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## Hilltop Raceway

I think we have a winner for the Shadow build!!!...RM


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## DonSchenck

Hmmmm ... that stripped Shadow would make a nice base for a "kind-of" Batmobile...


----------



## Super G Man

*Dirt Modifieds*

I have looked into my crystal ball and have seen that you will have a whole stable of dirt late models in your future.
Awesome job!


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

Got two more Wedge Super Late Models in progress. One based on another "slightly altered" Shadow, and another being built on an inline chassis due to trying to acheive a lower stance. Honestly not sure what the chassis is, could maybe be a 440, but them inlines all look alike to me!

So, in the meantime, did not know where to put that 1st Swartz #1 car. Thought I'd try something I've wanted to do for a long time and came up with this. It's a little rough and far from finished, but it's getting there.

It is based on the actual trailer used to haul this very car back in 1982. I am going to try something a little unusual for the tow rig, not sure it's going to work or not? Time will tell???


----------



## cheliman

WOW! Takes me back to the great 80's and the awesome wedge style super lates! This looks great, and you nailed the paint job, for working with such a small surface!


----------



## cheliman

TeamMadMarsupial said:


> Lets move forward 10 years but keep the driver! Here is Lou's 1989 #10, Big Block Modified. Again, this was the car he brought to Syracuse.
> 
> Lou was from Hartford Ohio, grew up on the family farm, and working for their family lumber business. His first race was in 1958, driving a Cady powered 34 Chevy Coupe, man, wish I could get pics of that!
> 
> Lou switched to sprints the following year and over his career, tallied over 200 sprint wins. He made the full time switch to Modifieds in 1978 upon delivery of a Tobias chassis, represented in my last picture posting. It was at that point that his son Dave took over the family sprint car ride. His son Dale, of course has also followed in Lou's footsteps.
> 
> Lou racked up an additional 343 Modified victories, also picking up some in Super Mods for over 600 overall wins.
> 
> Lou and his wife also ran Sharon Speedway. The track will present the Lou Blaney Memorial coming up on Tuesday Aug, 20th. Both the Sprints and the Modifieds will be on the racing card that night. I believe Tony Stewart and a few other Nascar drivers will be on hand, joining the Blaney family to honor Lou.


I watched Lou, Gus Linder, and Ed Lynch sr slug it out in sprint cars every week at Tri-City Speedway! Lou would jump out of the sprint car and right into the modified and go out and win. Lou was runnig an ex Toby Tobias Pinto bodied modified. Little Eddy Murphy #42 would would follow him around the track but could rarely get around him! Lou was the best in my opinion! Thanks for building a Blaney missle!


----------



## quartermilebuggy

*Body*

Who makes the bodies like the Lou Blaney in the last post?


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## slotcarman12078

The guy who was quoted in that post makes them himself out of styrene.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Long time, no post. Had a couple of builds for a fellow racer to complete and been spending time tuning my T-Jets. Of course prepping for Black Friday at work has prevented some free time also!

Got two Wedge Super Late Models about 1/2 finished along with the matching trailer under construction. 

Of course, as usual, I had to start a couple new Mod bodies for the personal race stable along the way too.

In the mean time, here is one I built a year or two ago. This is the Big Block Modified of Gardner Stone as run at Albany Saratoga Speedway during the 2010 season. I don't believe I ever built a car that had the owner drivers name repeated more than this example.


----------



## Hilltop Raceway

Sure like that color package!!!...RM


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is another one for the "Old School" crowd. While not quite back to the Coach/Coupe era, this one takes us back to 1980. 
This is the #17 Gremlin Bodied, Big Block Modified of Pennsylvania "Hot Shoe" Dave Kelly. I only got to see Dave run in a Mod a few times before he jumped over to the URC Sprint Car traveling series and went on to win many races.
This particular car has a bit of bittersweet history behind it. It is the car, with Dave behind the wheel, that won the last race run at the famed Reading Fairgrounds in 1979.

The body is built for use on the AFX Non-Mag or Magna Traction chassis.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Oh maaaan... Jeff, that's one SuWEET Gremmie ! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Sometimes, as the saying goes, "One thing just leads to another." I was just going over s few T-Jets in the Race Box and decided to throw together a chassis as a spare loaner on race night.

It is one of those "three wheelers" we all hate so much. The idea was to just work front tire heights to get all four on the track. Then everything just went sideways and I lost sight of the intended goal.

I threw an RT HO composite indy front end on her, a couple slightly oversized O-rings, with the right sanded down a bit to make it a four wheeler. Next came a used set of Wizzard Laws, .360's, I think, a pair of old stock Aurora pick-up shoes, cleaned and with a new set of braids added. A One Stop Lightning Rod to keep her slotted and some Dr Ooogan springs under the shoes. I threw in a Yellow Jacket 3.0 arm, a pair of Nacho's Poly magnets, a set of RT HO lightened top gears, a JW's delrin 15t crown gear, a solid brass rear axle and another set of T-Jet shoe springs in place of brushes. Was glad that after all that effort into what was a three wheeler, she ran like a charm, in fact, pretty close to my best couple cars.

At this point I decided to build up a new body and try a couple new ideas I have been thinking about. I have been wanting to build this particular car for awhile and finally decided to throw it together on this sorta experiment.

With one idea inspired by KCL's builds, and another one or two I have been contemplating this is what resulted. I have always disliked how high the hoods are on my T-Jet Modified builds. Based on KCL's hoods I decided to float the hood forward from the interior using the engine cowl. By trimming the top of the gear plate forward of the top motor gear, it allowed me to drop the hood about .060". I really like the lower hood. I also mounted the corn pickers on the interior higher than usual. They are actually above what would be the door tops if the windows were open. This also resulted in a drop of about .060 or so on the roof height getting the overall stance closer to the sleeker looking AFX and Mag chassied builds.

The end result is Bob Schoenberger's 1980, #43 Big Block Modified. And I was pleasently surprised when it reached Victory Lane in or T-Jet Modified feature this past Saturday night.

I have however already started a second build of this same car with a couple more new ideas which should lower the overall car another .080 from this one....if it works??


----------



## kcl

That's cool! I like that body with the set back and all.
If it is possible I would like to acquire one of those
bodies in that style. Let me know.
Glad what ever you saw helped make your
build a little better.

Kevin


----------



## Ralphthe3rd

Wow Jeff, that's some slick re-engineering on the #43 :thumbsup: I like your body innovations and the motor mods. Oh yeah, and the paint scheme is pretty cool too, nice tribute build :thumbsup:


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## Hilltop Raceway

Some good stuff here TMM... Got to agree with ya, HobbyTalk is a great place for seeing/getting other ideas on custom builds. You got these Modifieds down pat!!! RM


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## tonesua

*what's that red retainer clip on the front end>*

I've never seen that red colored part on your front end. Does it act as a post and does the axle pass through it WHo makes it? Does it have a weight to it?


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## TeamMadMarsupial

The Red part you are referring to is simply a narrow T-Jet wheel used to secure the guide pin. I used to glue the pins in place, but had a couple come off while racing, usually with very ill timing!

I cut the wheel flat towards the rear to allow sufficient clearance for the front axle and ream out the hub so the screw takes hold. Since I am usually trying to add front weight to avoid deslotting, the little bit of extra weight is actually a desired addition, sorta two birds with one stone kinda thing?

As for it being red......well I love to mess with the other guys heads, so I painted the first one I made dayglow orange. I figure that they will spend enough time trying to figure out what it is and why I did it and in the end maybe miss something else. More than a year after first doing this, I still get questioned about it. A little bit of stuttering and avoidance of eye contact on my part just adds more doubt on their part. 

I also occasionally use a piece of cloth to cover my cars, that really freaks em out too, especially if I have a newly painted body that night.


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## Ralphthe3rd

LOL @ Jeff, that's a funny story about that front screw post/red wheel thingie


----------



## sidecar53

Just a quick question. We're looking at running a Lifelike 'crash and burn' series and I'm wondering if there is a pattern or patterns available for this style of car? I'm not too good at the 'that looks about right' method of building. Thanks in advance.


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

Hey Sidecar. Were you looking to do one spec body, or maybe a couple different bodies to keep it interesting?

I only make patterns for the body sides. The roof, interior corn pickers, and the rear panel are cut from appropriate width strips. Ditto in most cases for the hoods.

For the older narrow style bodies, 7/8" or 1" strips are used, for the newer DIRT bodies, 1 1/8" is the width.

Awhile back, I did a step by step tutorial for a build over on the old HO WORLD forum. It is still there if you can access it.

As for the Life Like chassis, it requires a 1" body width to clear the chassis sides. 

Here is a Modified I built on a Life Like chassis as a run in car. It is the 1981 #15 of Canadian driver Marcel "The Hammer" LaFrance. I tried to achieve a lower stance on this one. As you can see, I had to cut out the interior for clearance of the can motor, the crown gear and the rear tires.


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## sidecar53

TMM, I'd like to do at least a couple styles, so individual racers had a choice. How would I go about getting some patterns? We're just getting our race program up and running again after a 5 year hiatus and we're getting a bit bored with lexan bodied super g+'s. Too 'on the edge' for the crash and burn style racing we'd like to start doing. Thanks for any help you can give us.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I should be able to help you out.

Shoot me off an email to....

[email protected]


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Well it took awhile, but I see this little thread I started to share my Modified builds has finally reached 10,000 views. While that doesn't hold a candle to some of your threads, I'm just happy to know someone other than myself gets to see them.

Here is something a wee bit different than my usual builds. Its the only one of its type I have built to date, although I'd like to build a few more somewhere down the road.

I used to look forward to the end of the local racing season and the Run What Ya Brung shows a few tracks would host. I always thought it was neat to see how each team would try to outdo each other with radical modifications to their Modifieds.

Here is one such car. This started out as the Gable #1, Big Block Modified driven during the regular season by Brett Hearn at Lebanon Valley Speedway. In this RWYB guise, it was driven by another Valley standout, Andy Bachetti. Wish I had more info on the car, but just happened to stumble on a couple pictures one day and the build was on!


----------



## Ralphthe3rd

Man Jeff, that sure is a Freaky looking car ! Could you possibly post a photo of the REAL Car that you modeled it from ? Thanks


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is the only picture I had to base the build on.


----------



## bobhch

TeamMadMarsupial said:


> Here is the next set of pics showing the progress on the Shadow to Wedge Super Late Model switch-a-roo. Been sick most of the week so progress was a little slow.
> 
> Still have a few painting details to work out and one glaring (to me anyway) change needing to be made on the painting. Have posted a couple questions on a Late Model model building site to seek some answers on a few details.
> 
> As mentioned this body was built over top of a "lightly sanded" Shadow body. It is constructed of .020 sheet stryene plastic and a little clear sheet, which I believe mics out to about .010? The little bit of "pipe bending" is from a few paper clips, after inspiration from another forum poster.
> 
> The body is mounted on a stock, for now, Magna-Traction chassis, and I'm anxious to run some laps with it.


Getting caught up on your thread and found this...Way Cool!!

I love looking at all your builds. That Gremlin you just posted up is a fun little car too!

Bob...our dirt track dirt is frozen right now...zilla


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## Hittman101

Nicely done!! Keep them coming..


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## FOSTBITTEN

I gotta getmback to casting some more Late Model bodies soon....


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## Ralphthe3rd

Jeff, thanks for the 1:1 Car photo :thumbsup:


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## XracerHO

Both "#1" builds, Gable & Draime cars - wild modifieds! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: ..RL


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here is one just out of the paint shop. I built this one to possibly use in our T-Jet Modified class. Tried a couple little different twists on this one.

It is the #35 Harraka built Big Block Modified driven by Steve Makocy in 1979.

On this one I lowered the overall height of the car by mounting the cornpickers higher than usual. I first attempted to have the body sides attach only from the gear plate clamp back. Due to the weight of the solid brass nerf bars, this attempt at a floating body did not work. It required the addition of a support rod passing under the hood and attaching to the front of both sides of the body.

I'm not a complete fan of the appearance of the lower roof line, but by lowering the overall center of gravity, I'm anticipating an improvement in the handling. This would then be a case of "Function over Form"! I already have another build of this car under way to be a Shelf Queen on a Mag chassis.

The body is currently mounted on a T-Jet chassis I use to test new bodies before deciding if it will replace one of my existing race bodies, or if I'll build up another chassis. This one has a Mean Green arm, an old pair of Kipp's north/south ceramic magnets, Super II brush cups, a Magna Traction crown gear, an RT HO indy front end, Wizzard Laws on the rear, BSRT 502 shoes with braids and Dr Oogans springs under the shoes.

It runs good enough to use as a test platform and I have raced it a couple nights.


----------



## Ralphthe3rd

Cool Paint job :thumbsup: And I love the era of the 1:1 car. And Hopefully, your new mods work out to give you a better handling T-Jet Racer.


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

Close to finished on the first of the three Mudd Buss Modifieds. Just a few touch ups needed to clean this one up and she's done.

This is the Mike Petruska #66 Big Block Modified, B&S Exxon, Troyer Mud Buss from either 1981 or 1982. The Troyer chassis at the time was sweeping the Modified ranks throughout New York. The Petruska #66 can still be seen at many tracks. It has had a revolving cast of well know drivers piloting it at the bigger evets the past couple of years.

Right now the body is sitting on a blank I use for building before I determine just exactly where it will end up?

Just about finished with the other two Troyers; Chris Berton's 31, and Eddie Haenelt's #11e. Gotta work till 9 tonight, maybe I'll finish those up when I get home.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Buttoned up the other two Troyers tonight. Here are a couple shots of the trio.

The #31 is the 1982 Berton's Ceramic Tile, Crow's, Big Block Troyer Mud Buss driven by Chris Berton. The #11e is Eddie Haenelt's 1982 Nevele Country Club, Empire Big Block Mud Buss. The #66, once again is Mike Petruska's 1982 Troyer Big Block.

All three are on my builders blank chassis. They are destined to be display cars, but will each get a few laps on the track before being shelved.


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

Kinda stuck in the 80's lately! Here is another from back when my hair was half way down my back and I still drove a 67 Chevelle.

This is the Dennis "Chico" Bailey driven, Ford powered, #81 Small Block Modified, circa 1981. Dennis was a strong regular competitor at all the Pennsylvania Small Block tracks. 

Running from their home base in the Kutztown area, Dennis, his brother Randy who drove the #80 and the rest of the Bailey Bunch were a fixture at each track every week.

The potent Bailey #81 can still be seen at Grandview Speedway each week, now driven by Terry Meitzler, who picked off a win this past season.

This body was built for use on either the Mag or AFX Non-Mag chassis



In the process of finishing up six more 81/82 Troyers. Hope to get them wrapped up in the next few days, time permitting?


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## Ralphthe3rd

Very Nice Builds Jeff :thumbsup: Thanks for sharing them with us....and keep immortalizing those old Modifieds with your builds, it brings back memories seeing them in miniature


----------



## WesJY

:thumbsup::thumbsup:


Wes


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## vickers83

WOW! Those Troyers bring back memories from Lancaster, NY Speedway! Nice Builds! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanks for the comments. Here is the next one of the fleet of Troyers I'm currently obsessed with.

This is Merv Treichler's 1981, Jackson & Johnson Express, Red's Speed Shop, Hutter big block powered Troyer Mudd Bus chassied Modified.

This represents the body style as run throughout 1981 at Merv's home tracks and on the CRC Super DIRT Series. 1981 saw Merv put his Troyer in Victory Lane at the Syracuse New York State Fiargrounds during Super DIRT Week. The Syracuse car had slightly different body work, gotta get that one built too! Merv came back to Syracuse the following year and for the second year in a row, took the checkers with his #58 Troyer. I posted my recent build of the 1982 Syracuse winning car a little while back. The last photo shows both cars on my little photo shoot set.

As usual, this body is built to fit Magna Traction and AFX Non Mag chassis.

Thanks for continuing to view my builds and again for the favorable comments.
Jeff


----------



## win43

WOWZERS!!!! I've been missing a lot of really kewl stuff in here. 

Nice builds.


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

Got a chance to finish up two new cars tonight. The first is another one of the group of early eighties Troyer Mudd Bus Modifieds I've been working on.

This is the 1982 Conley Farms, big block powered, Troyer Mudd Bus driven by Alan "A.J. Slideways" Johnson out of Phelps New York.

Over the course of almost 30 years, Alan has to date won 409 Big Block Modified races and 114 Small Block Modified features. 51 of the big block races were in Super DIRTcar races.

A.J. has won 30 BBM championships and 6 SBM track championships.

Included in his win list are 3 wins at the Syracuse Fairgrounds during Super Dirt Week.

Alan won 32 features driving this particular car during the 1982 season.

Once again this is another body built for Magna Traction and Non-Mag AFX chassis.


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

And......here is another Troyer Mudd Bus.

This one is the 1982 Big Block Modified of Lou "The Monk" Lazzaro. This is the first Lazzaro car I have built, but during my research for this build, I found pictures for at least 3 or 4 more of his cars that I have added to my "To Build List."

Lou had over 250 wins, most on dirt, but a few on asphalt back in the early days of his career, when the same car could be raced on both dirt and asphalt.

He won 10 track championships while competing in races during six different decades.

The Fonda Speedway was his favorite stomping grounds and stomping he did, winning 113 times. When inducted into Fonda's Hall of Fame, as a still active driver, he was awarded a gauranteed starting spot for life! He won features in 30 different seasons, a record just recently broken by Dave Lape.

A special "Lazzaro Rule" also was created to allow him induction into the DIRTcar Hall of Fame while still an active driver.

Here is "The Monks" Mudd Bus from 1982 built for Magna-Traction and Non-Mag AFX chassis.


----------



## Ralphthe3rd

Very Nice Job Jeff, as usual :thumbsup: I love those Gremlins


----------



## TeamMadMarsupial

Managed to slip a slighty newer Modified through the Paint Shop in between all those Troyer cars.

This is the Higbie Bros. Racing, #97, Big Block Modified driven by Wind Gap, Pennsylvania's Frank Cozze. Frank drove this car during the 1991 season.

The body is built for use on Magna-Traction or AFX Non-Mag chassis.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Hmmm...nice bright colors, I bet it's easy to follow on the track !?


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Decided the other night to do something a little different for our AFX Non-Mag class tomorrow night.

Threw this one together for S&G's. Been messing around with these super cool looking 80's wedge style Super Late Models and thought I'd build one for the race box.

I've got a Non-Mag chassis built for this body using a 2.8 Ohm arm along with a set of Nacho Poly Magnets. Also threw in a Shaved down Super II rear crown, a JW's brass indy front and a pair of Wizzard .466 Laws. Got short step shoes with tiger tails and running T-Jet springs in place of brushes. The chassis also sports a full AFX Super II front and side weight kit.

Now, if I can warm up the shop enough to do some testing. I'll add some SuspenDots where needed to add and "neutral out" the front to rear balance. If all goes well, she should see some R & D time tomorrow afternoon and some racing action tomorrow night????


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## Ralphthe3rd

Man Jeff, those Wedge Super Late Models were some crazy poop 
But what I like the most about this build, is all the work you've done(& are doing) to the A/FX non MT chassis :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

New build, new winner. Sometimes things just work out on the first try.

Built and painted this body this week and put together the chassis on Thursday night.

Original goal was a slightly "de-tuned" car for the gutter lanes on our clubs track. Been having a bit of trouble with my more "modified" chassis builds when running our lane 6 or 1. We have more than a few of the tight 6" radius turns and they are a bear to negotiate with some of my T-Jets that have wandered a bit away from their stock performance.

Been wanting to do a racer build of this particular Tobias car for some time and decided to finally act on this desire. This is the first T-Jet based body that I have used the angled upper body work with the narrowed roof.

This particular car, a Tobias House Car, was a Syracuse car from the mid 80's driven at the mile by Scott Tobias.

On the chassis side she's sporting a set of the Nacho Poly magnets and I used a 5.2/5.2/5.4 ohm arm out of the in house motor shop. Used a JW's 4.0 gram independent front end and a set of sili-sponge tires I re-treaded in house at about .420 diameter. Its got a Lightning Rod guide pin, Wizzard shoes with braids, Dr. Oogan pick-up springs and a Magna Traction rear crown gear, mated up to a 14t pinion. This is the first car on which I used a product I found at work. Just learned this week about something called Tung-Fu, (Tungsten Putty) used in fly fishing. I used this in place of the lead I usually use. The Tungsten claims a 30% greater weight than lead, but the cool part is the fact that it is in a putty form!

The goal last night was to just get a little practice time with it and see what adjustments needed to be made. To my delight, it was pretty good right out of the box, switching back and forth from 60 to 45 ohm on the controller for the tight parts of the track. It was good enough, in fact, to win both the qualifying heat and the T-Jet feature, a pleasant surprise as I have had cars I tweaked for months before using for a race.

Sorry the last pic is a little bit fuzzy.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Cool Build Jeff :thumbsup:
And btw- I love when you give the tech specs of the chassis, as I love learning tuning Tips- especially for the T-Jet chassis. And I gotta get me some of dat "Tung-Fu" stuff and try it out


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## slotcarman12078

Too cool!!  :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Wanted to drop these pictures and the back story on the builds into my "Garage Page."
I guess you would have to say this build proceeded backwards. The car came first, then the trailer and finally the truck brought up the rear so to speak.
I had a picture of this car on this trailer, so with the car scale being pre-determined, the trailer needed to be built to fit the car and not look out of scale like so many trailers for what we car H.O. scale. That was all easy-peasy. 
The tow rig was where the scale issue arose. My first thought was to do a tow rig based on a 4-Gear Scool Bus. The Bus like so many H.O. trucks is of course made to fit the chassis, tossing aside any chance that they will look to scale side by side with a car. The next idea, one which is still on the I'll get to it list, was to build up a Winnebago. Slab side construction on the older ones will make that possible, just time consuming. Time was the deciding factor to go to plan "C", the step van tow rig. 
The step van, with its slab sides and angular construction makes for an easy scratch build. Even better yet, I could make it big enough to look more appropriately scaled. It also allows me to utilize a 4-Gear chassis to make it a working "Slot-Truck."
The car was described in an earlier post, so lets start with the trailer. Wanted to do an open trailer for a long time. When I saw pictures of this car on this super cool 7 row tire rack trailer, I knew it was the one the oracle spoke of. The trailer was built using polystyrene flat sheet and 1.5mm round stock, also polystyrene. The wheels and tires are from JL pull back chassis. The 7 row tire rack holds 28 wheels and tires.
Now for the truck. It was built over the course of three long nights, using flat sheet and lots of it! An original AFX 4-Gear Magna Traction chassis was used minus the front axle, wheels and tires. A new carrier for the front axle was built about 1/2" forward of the original position.
Everything was then hand painted to match up to the Charlie Swartz team and it's sponsors, circa 1982/83.
The whole rig runs pretty well down the straights and through the wider radius turns. The weight of the truck helps it get decent traction. This long rig, however is not real fond of the gutter lanes, but in the center lanes, it will get around the track.


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## slotcarman12078

This whole rig is so cool!! Trucks on tracks are fun when the curves cooperate!! :lol: :thumbsup::thumbsup: 

Speaking of driving trucks on a track, I've done it a couple of times, at least partly. For a while, the OTR trucking company I was driving for had the Yokohama race car tire account, which took me to Sebring, Laguna Seca, Limerock, and into the infield at Daytona.. I may have only been on a track (or drove under it) for a little bit, but it was fun!!


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Recently finished this group of Gremlins for a club in Michigan. They are wanting to use them for a Magna-Traction chassis IROC class.

I usually don't replicate anything other than actual cars, but in this case a simple #1 through #6 was appropriate and the buyer requested these six base colors. The graphics were left to my imagination and this was the result.


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## slotcarman12078

Wow!!! Cool group!!! I assume they're painted in lane colors! Neat idea!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## Hilltop Raceway

Good looking pack!!! Will be cool watching those go around the track...RM


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## bobhch

Great stuff!! You do some neat cars man!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:
Bz


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## JVerb

Jeff I dig your style, but what is truly impressive is your knowledge of short track racing.:thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanks for the comments guys. Was beginning to think there was no interest in seeing my builds anymore.

Here is one I threw together last Thursday and Friday nights in an attempt to field a G-Plus chassied car in our Open Class this past Saturday night. Did some testing on the home track and practiced at the club's track pre-race. Car was not bad, but just not comfortable enough yet. Long story short, come race time, I lined up one of my AFX Non-Mag cars and with a little luck on my side pulled both a heat and a feature win.

This is Kenny Tremont's #115, Big Block Modified as it appeared October 1990 for Super Dirt Week at the NYS Fairgrounds, Syracuse NY. At the time Kenny carried the Madsen Dutchess Overhead Doors sponsorship.


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## slotcarman12078

I'd love to see video of you guys racing, if that's possible. I can't imagine myself driving an unmodified AFX (non mag) car let alone one with a HP arm and mags! Granted, the track may make all the difference, but me 'n any AFX type chassis is too fast!! :lol:


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## 65 COMET

Real nice hand crafted work!


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## Hilltop Raceway

Great touch with the wheels too!!! RM


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## bobhch

Team MM,

You did a great job on Kenny's 115 car with the G-Plus under it!!

The Green, Yellow and Red just jump out on that white body...Very Neat!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Bob...always enjoy looking at your builds...zilla


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Just finished this one. Really liked the graphics, but hesitated to try hand painting it till now. Trying to replicate as much detail as possible in HO scale did require some adjustment to location and scale of graphics, but I gave it my best shot.
This is the #7x, 2013 HigFab chassis Modified of Waterloo, NY's Steve "The Hurricane" Paine. Steve owns more than 300 wins in the BBM and SBM classes at 26 different tracks, including 90 races at the Black Rock Speedway and another 89 at the Canandaigua Speedway. He also has won 30 track championships and both the Mr. DIRTcar Big Block and 358 titles. 

This body is mounted on a Race Ready AFX Non-Mag chassis for our club's AFX class. I'm hoping to get a little practice time and race it this coming Saturday night.


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## 60chevyjim

the paint work on this is amazing , it looks great !!


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## Ralphthe3rd

That paint job is Awesome :thumbsup:
BTW Jeff, who do you get your LAWS rear tires/wheels from ? I only have one set that came with a car, and don't know where to get others from. TIA


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## slotcarman12078

Holy cow!! I don't know how you can hand paint graphics like that. Some of that fine print looks tiny in macro! Awesome!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## Bubba 123

slotcarman12078 said:


> Holy cow!! I don't know how you can hand paint graphics like that. Some of that fine print looks tiny in macro! Awesome!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


I LOVE those paper Bods, especially on the cheap Mattel chassis :-O
got about 3 myself...
anyone going to Be printing /assembling them again ????
Bubba 123 :wave:


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## slotcarman12078

I remember the guy that printed those paper bodies. He came and went once sales slowed down. The cars in this thread are styrene and hand painted.


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## chappy2

Sweet Build TMM, I really dig the look of the back end and graphics.

Chappy


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## Hilltop Raceway

WOW, That's a lot of graphic work...RM


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanks for the comments guys. I've got to throw out a "moral assist" to RIII's FB group's members. I was posting progress pics as I waded through the painting of this car. Their interest and comments kept me focused a couple times when I contemplated stepping back from the build. Thanks RIII !!

RIII, answered your question on your FB group site.

SLOTCARMAN 12078, thanks for noting these are NOT printed paper bodies. Seen a couple Mods with lights on the roof over the years, mmmmm got any ideas? 

Bubba, never looked twice at the paper bodies. 
Rule #1 on my Race Box...If I didn't build it, or dremel it and most importantly paint it, I don't race it!
Rule #2...rule #1 supercedes all other rules!

Chappy, building this car as a racer, requires a couple changes from what I would build for the shelf. I only do these set in back panels on the racers to keep some weight forward closer to the COG. Would love to put a Mod body on one of your chassis one day, I admire your craftsmanship! Simply amazing!

Now, on to knocking a few more cars off the old "To Build Wish List".

Jeff
TMM


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## Ralphthe3rd

Jeff, you're an awesome builder and racer, and it's an honor having you as a member of my FB > "HO Scale Dirttrack Racing" Group. The members there are in awe of your building and painting skills, and dedication to Dirttrack Modifieds. You inspire us not only with your builds, but with your knowledge of East Coast Modifieds. :thumbsup: Keep up the Great Work, and thanks for sharing


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## FOSTBITTEN

I am not worthy, I am not worthy repeat over & over. Those are 2 great looking cars!


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## JVerb

You are da man. I would race slot cars and/or drink beer with you anywhere anytime.

Peace, Verb


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Finished this one up a few minutes ago. Well almost finished, one more thing to do yet, tomorrow.

I came across this car while looking for pictures of these wedge style Super Late Models. One look was all it took to get me working on it.

This is the 1985 / 1986 Super Late Model of Ritchfield, Wisconsin's Bill Prietzel. Bill started racing in 1973 at Hales Corner Speedway, in a Hobby Stock class, winning the first race he ever entered and on the day his wife was due with their second child! In 1980 he stepped up to the Late Models, running them until 1993 when he stepped up to the newly formed Mid American Stock Car Series. He won that championship in 2000, 2003 and 2005. He has competed in the Nationwide Series and several other asphalt series to date.

This particular was built for the season ending open competition races at the end of the 1985 season. He set a new track record in 85, but wadded the car up in the feature. He brought the car back in 1986, set a new track record that stood for 12 years and went on to win the feature that night also in this car.

This build is mounted on a Tyco 440 chassis. I've decided that the Tyco will be my choice for Late Model builds, because of its slightly longer wheel base. Just think it fits the Late Model specs a bit better. I'll have to start buying a few chassis as I don't think this will be my last one!?!?!


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## chappy2

TMM, Cool Build and History! I like the front end and glass work.

Rob


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## Ralphthe3rd

Jeff, I gotta hand it to ya, another Sweet Build :thumbsup: AND, another very interesting car to model....albeit really Funky Lookin'


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Have not posted for awhile. Been working on a project that has frustrated me a bit and had to step away from it for a few days. Decided to do something a little different, for me anyways.
Had not done any of these for, maybe 20 years or so, but have held on to a handful of the Vacuum Formed bodies figuring I'd get back to them someday.

Although I'm not a big fan of Winged Sprint Cars, I try to attend a couple Sprint shows each year. Being this close to the central PA Sprint Car tracks has it's advantages.

So I decided to do two cars and was looking through some older reference pictures trying to decide what cars to build. I came across some shots I tok at Williams Grove years back and decided to do Randy Wolfe's, Keen Transport #5w. Did not take long to decide to do the 5w of his son Lucas.

These bodies were molded to fit the AFX and Magna Traction chassis, just had to do up some wings and do some pipe bending to mount the wings. Fun little side project that may lead to a handfull more down the road?


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## Super G Man

*Dirt Modifieds*

IMO nothing represents speed power and grace more than a good looking sprinter except maybe a F-16 or P-51 fighter plane. Excellent job on these two cars! The sprint car shape is very hard to capture given the chassis width you have to work with. I have seen Lucas Wolfe race with the WOO and as with any driver who cut his teeth with the PA Posse he is always a threat to win.


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## bobhch

Your Franklin Flyer is one cool slot car build up!!

Digging these Sprint cars also!!

Can't wait until the Sprint car guys come to town...

Bob...dirt lover...zilla


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## FOSTBITTEN

I love the Sprint's too. Two of my favorite liveries is Sammy Swindell's Channelock car. And Lance Dewease in the 461. I cannot remember the owner of his car though. It always had a brick wall graphic on the wing of the car. It was nick-named "Brick $h1th0u$€".

Of course most of you know I love the "Franklin Flyer"! Also I love the Sprintcars TMM. They look so much more stable than the LL sprintcars I have. They are so top heavy even w/the wings off.


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## XracerHO

Sprint cars & Franklin Flyer look Great! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: ..RL


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## WesJY

Looks Great! :thumbsup:

Wes


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## slotcarman12078

Whoa!! Those look great!! Sorry I didn't post sooner, but I had to deal with 6 days of the creeping crud that the TM was kind enough to share with me. I really wasn't in a posting mood!


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Due to some issues with Carpel Tunnel and Tendinitis in my right arm and hand, my building is going very slow right now. Fingers go numb when holding a brush. Too many years using CAD at work and a chainsaw at home!

Anyway, enough of that, noticed my last few posts had gotten away from my beloved Modifieds? I dug this pair out of storage. I'm not a fan of building "Fantasy Cars", but do so on occasion. These two were built for my twin nephews a few years back when they still raced with our club. They were built for use in our AFX class, using the weighted SuperII type chassis my brother and I were building at the time. The bodies were based on the Big Block Modified Brian Weaver won the Hagerstown Octoberfest race with a while back. I like using the DIRT bodies on the AFX cars to cover the side weights.

As you can see, they have since been mounted on a pair of JL X-Traction chassis.


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## Ralphthe3rd

I Love 'em Jeff :thumbsup:
But I'm sorry to hear about your hand and arm


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## slotcarman12078

That's a cool looking pair!! :thumbsup::thumbsup: Bummer they're not active anymore. 


I know what you're going through.. Had the same issues with both hands, thanks to a couple million miles of big truck, and 2-3 hour guitar playing jam sessions. To complicate things, surgery didn't come for about 10 years, so the damage is still slowly healing 2 years after. If you can find a way to get the surgery, go for it. It's a little weird, as they generally don't knock you out for it. You might even be able to watch the monitor as they do it (if your stomach can handle it). 

On a funnier note, if you have a warped sense of humor ( thought inspired by the Possum Hollow Racing) search Possum Whistle Joe Cartoon on youtube.... :lol:


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## win43

Cool pair of rides. Sorry to hear about your health issues.


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## FOSTBITTEN

I was there for that race at H-Town! Those cars are really cool. I love them. 

And man I was wondering why my fingers are going numb. Crap...

TMM I sent you a pm about LM's.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I've been working on this pair for a couple of months and I'm glad to finally have buttoned them up tonight.

Forum member and Master Machinist Chappy approached me about doing a scratch built car. His amazing scratch built brass chassis with one of my scratch built Modified bodies. As you can imagine, I agreed immediately!

I decided to go old school and build a pair of Kenny Brightbill driven, Bob Wertz owned #57 Coach bodied Modifieds from early in Kenny's career.

Wanted to go the extra mile and add the bumpers and rubrails for these builds, so they were a bit more time consuming than usual. Also had to have all tubing attached to the body so it lifts off as a one piece unit. Nothing connects to the chassis. The body is press fit and I will be starting a second set of bodies for these chassis.

As usual for my builds, the bodies are built from flat sheet plastic. In this case several layers are sandwiched together and then sanded to shape.

I'll be sending the better of the two off to Chappy in the next couple of days and I'll let Chappy detail the beautiful chassis he provided for this joint project. 

Thanks to Chappy for letting me be involved with this project.


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## chappy2

Jeff they came out better than I could have imagined! The nerf bars really finish them off nicely. The coach design and K. Brightbill is such great subject matter for a model. Thank you for all your hard work on this project.

Rob


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## FOSTBITTEN

Those are so cool the body and the chassis, are just so right for each other. The rear views of the pair is probably my favorite views. Very cool idea for you two to combine each others talent. 

I wonder if a "offset" chassis is possible?


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## LDThomas

Very nice.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Those Brightbill #57 Coaches turned out AWESOME ! :thumbsup:
What a great collaboration between two Great Model Builders- Rob and Jeff ! Kudos my friends :thumbsup:


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## XracerHO

Agree: Great Collaboration! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: ..RL


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## TeamMadMarsupial

I started a little project about two or three weeks ago and have been making slow progress. Got a couple pictures, one from the projects start and one with my progress to date. 

I was building a new car to add to my Race Box, but when finished, I just was not pleased with the end result. The first picture is the #78m Maynard Forrette, Grant King built Gremlin Modified which started this whole thing off. 

I have always thought that the Grant King Gremlins were just the best looking Modifieds of their era. Over the years I had built, maybe six or seven of the King Modifieds, tweaking the pattern as I went. After finishing the 78m, I decided I'd make a final pattern and build all thirteen of the original Grant King cars to complete the collection.

I have to date completed the build of all thirteen, but still need to finish the lettering. I'm hoping to finish them all in the next week if time allows? We shall see. Although it's not unusual for me to have twenty or twenty-five cars under construction on the bench, I've never built a group this big as a focused project.


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## slotcarman12078

Talk about a massive undertaking!! That's a whole lot of tiny hand lettering!!  Hope your eyes don't get bugeyed! :freak: :lol:


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## bobhch

This is just Mad I tell you...Way Far Out Group build up....Dig it!!


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## Ralphthe3rd

Hope you hand gets better Jeff, but judging by the pics on OUR Facebook Dirttrack Group, you're really steaming along on those builds :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

As RIII mentioned, I've made some progress on my group of thirteen 1979/1980 Grant King Gremlin Modifieds. 
Here is a group shot of the five I have completed to date. Two Maynard Forrette 78m, the Frankie Schneider #2, Chuck Ely's, Tremont Racing #115, and the Len Zito #7.

Hoping to finish two more this morning and or tonight after work, if all goes well. Been tough, as Ralph mentioned, having trouble with the whole wrist, hand, arm thing again. Had 20+ acres of woodland select timbered and have cut and split about 4 cords of firewood over the past few weeks. The chainsaw is hell on the arm!

Anyway here is the pis. All cars are built for Magna Traction style chassis.


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## Ralphthe3rd

Those Gremlins you've done so far Jeff, are SuWEET :thumbsup:


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## Bucktcherry

*My Modifieds*

I just make mine from .020 Styrene plasic.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Nice Mods Bucktcherry. I sometimes do a whole car in the .020, but usually at least use the .030 for the hood and interior. I have found it makes a more rigid finished body. Thanks for posting your pictures, hope to see more.


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## sidecar53

About 10 years ago, I went to a yard sale and a guy had 3 panels of shower stall plastic 3 x6 ft by .040 thick for $5. I've built all my track buildings from it and now I'm building dirtmods from the same sheets. Can't seem to use it up...lol


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## TeamMadMarsupial

That's cool sidecar. I used to be a Pattern Maker for a couple textile manufacturers and we used a couple different thicknesses for patterns. Well, since I did the ordering it always seemed that .020 and .030 was what we needed. I would get 40" x 48" sheets, 50 at a time. All the cut off waste went home with me.

We eventually went digital. We used a 8'x8' plotter and I digitized my slot car patterns into the system. I would buff sand a sheet of plastic, tape it to the plotter table and print my slot car patterns in what amounted to a "complete body kit". Looked funny having that huge plotter print my little slot car patterns.


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## sidecar53

TeamMadMarsupial said:


> That's cool sidecar. I used to be a Pattern Maker for a couple textile manufacturers and we used a couple different thicknesses for patterns. Well, since I did the ordering it always seemed that .020 and .030 was what we needed. I would get 40" x 48" sheets, 50 at a time. All the cut off waste went home with me.
> 
> We eventually went digital. We used a 8'x8' plotter and I digitized my slot car patterns into the system. I would buff sand a sheet of plastic, tape it to the plotter table and print my slot car patterns in what amounted to a "complete body kit". Looked funny having that huge plotter print my little slot car patterns.


That would be awesome!!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Well it took a little longer than I had hoped, but I've been working on building a new track and work and yard work seem to get in the way too. Anyway, after just short of 4 weeks, I have finally completed my project to build the thirteen original Dirt Modifieds built by Indycar builder Grant King back inthe late 70's. Here is the group picture. I will be posting pictures of the individual cars in the coming days.


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## Ralphthe3rd

So Jeff, which one are you sending to me !? 

Seriously Buddy, Awesome Job on the Group Build :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


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## Hilltop Raceway

Good looking stuff!!! The yellow ones just pop/say "look at me"!!! RM


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## slotcarman12078

That's some serious productivity for 4 weeks!!! All of them look fantastic!!


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## Super G Man

*Dirt Modifieds*

Kinda like a 4 abreast salute to the crowd before the A feature. Awesome!


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## Greg W

Looks like you gonna need a bigger race box or another show case, great job on the builds!!!


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## sidecar53

Jeff was kind enough to send me some templates some months ago and after numerous attempts with varying levels of failure, I've finally knocked off a few that are 'good enough' to post. Nowhere near the quality of Jeff's builds, partially because I can build but I can't brush paint. The Gremlins and Pintos are from Jeff's templates, but I designed and built the Falcons on my own. Please let me know what you think...


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## slotcarman12078

I think they look awesome!!! Don't be so hard on yourself!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I can't open the last thumbnail, though. Not sure why.  You might want to try re-loading it.


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## sidecar53

Sorry, Scm. I was changing out a couple pics. Thanks for the thumbs up, though.


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## Hilltop Raceway

Fantastic S53!!! Some good looking paint schemes!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup: RM


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Looking great sidecar! Love em!! Really like that Falcon body too. Keep em coming. Been busy, just finishing up a small 4x8 oval that I painted to look like a dirt track. Will post pictures soon. Really glad to see you knocking out those Mods!


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## sidecar53

Jeff, I've been following your track build on Facebook. Looks real good!! But please don't neglect your duty to inspire others to scratchbuild...lol :thumbsup:


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## sidecar53

Sorry- double post


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## win43

Those are some pretty rides


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## Ralphthe3rd

Jeff, Post some Pix of your new Oval Dirt Track, ok 
Show the people what else you've been building, as your structures/etc are very cool too :thumbsup:


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## TeamMadMarsupial

OK, by request, here are some pictures of my current work in progress. Have wanted to build an oval track for some time. My roadcourse is fine, just missed having a comfortable home for all my Modifieds and such!
Initially I toyed with the idea of tearing up my 18x4 four lane tomy roadcourse to do a big oval with a roadcourse in the infield. In the end I could not bring myself to tear out the existing track. 
I was able to rearrange the workshop and come up with a way to add a small 4x8 platform for my new project.
Now the first and foremost part of this was that it was too look like a dirt track! It also had a very small budget, utilizing mostly stuff I already had on hand. 
The track is a "D" shaped oval, using Tomy track and painted in a tan color to give it that dirt look. I also painted up the platform to recreate some of the things I have seen at the more than 100 racetracks I have attended races at over the years. 
Another key aspect was that it must be able to become a table top in very little time. That requires that any structures must remain fairly low, or be removable without tools. Am working on a scorers tower based on the one Penn National had in the infield and outside platform walls with a little backdrop scenery. Still some work to do.
Here is my progress to date.


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Here are a couple pics I took last night with some cars out of the Race Box. I plan on taking new shots of the entire collection when I have finished and picked that one sweet spot for the best photo ops!


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## sidecar53

Awesome work, Jeff. Are you this good at EVERYTHING you do?? :thumbsup:


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## slotcarman12078

Wow!! It's sharp! The infield buildings are excellent!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## Ralphthe3rd

Jeff, thanks for humoring me, and sharing your New Track :thumbsup:


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## Hilltop Raceway

Some good stuff here TMM...Thanks for sharing...RM


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## 60chevyjim

WOW that looks great !!


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## LDThomas

Sweet!


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## Hittman101

Love the track!! May I ask what you used for the outer wall around the turns?


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## TeamMadMarsupial

Thanks for all the comments guys. Been trying to keep the track building a fun project. Want it to look good without becomming obsessed with it. 

Hittman, the outside walls are something I stumbled across at Lowes. Was wandering through the place looking for ideas and found this in the trim and molding section. It's sort of a cross between foam and plastic. Fairly easy to get the curvature needed to use for the outside wall and a pretty good height. Easy to cut with a saw blade in the exacto knife also.

I'm also still working out how to finish off the ends of the track and platform edges to my liking.

As much as I don't like to do it. I may need to number the track sections to use for racing. Want to be as descreet as possible, to not take anything away from the track.


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## Ian Garnett

*track numbers*

Looking at your outstanding picture's, I like. Since it looks to my old eyes that you have fence around the track, is their a chance of mounting the numbers on flags that mount to the fence? Or many the infield? Then being they are flags they could be removable or perminant.


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