# DTR Modified Rework.



## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

I recently ordered a couple of the AMT Modifieds, one Vega and one Pinto, to see what they were all about. I don't remember these kits if they are a re-release, perhaps that's a good thing, otherwise I would have never ordered them.

I started on the Vega first, I had intended to do it as a wildly detailed car but when I opened the box I felt like closing it back up. For someone like me who is used to better quality NASCAR offerings from AMT and RM, this one just shocked me. It had a decent quick change rear end, great wheels and tires, and a passable engine and exhausts, but the rest of the kit is junk. The roll cage is about the worst I've ever seen, there is no dash to speak of and the seat is a joke. The interior tin is a scale 1" thick, more armour plating than sheet metal. I really hate ripping a car apart as much as I need to for this thing but please, unless you're ready to do a serious rebuild save your money.










I did the car in Dale Earnhardt Sr. scheme, this was decided on before the project was started, it's not an indication of my opinion of the late Mr. Earnhardt. Had I known how bad it would be I might have done it as a Michael Waltrip NAPA car. And yes, that's an indication of my opinion of Mr. Waltrip. It looks fine (my wife says) but as a modeler I can't help but look at it and see it for what it is. This one will NOT make it into a display car, it will more than likely wind up on one of my nephews bedroom shelves. 

I still have the Pinto, and I know what to expect now. And I'm ready for it. I went to the hobby shop today and bought some styrene rod the same thickness of the roll cage and some 0.010 sheet. My intention is to replace as much of the cage and interior tin as I can and to bring the second car in the project up to a new standard. I have a much better connection to the Pinto Modified, as a teen I raced a Pinto mini stocker at my local track before moving up into the V8 class. This would be a dirt (?) rendition of that effort, I even found the Heritage Lime Green color.


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## Ian Anderson (Jan 24, 2011)

I know one thing Pete, I could use those wheels in some places for sure, Hay did Dale ever dive one of these ????...


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Ian I couldn't find anything saying he had, I think the closest he came to dirt racing was his doughnuts in the infield after winning Daytona. Had he lived I'm sure he would have raced at Eldora's Prelude to a Dream that Stewart started in 2005. There have been a lot of vehicles like this 'credited' to Sr. but I didn't even try to document this one. I posted this one on my Facebook page and it's already sold. Amazing for a car I thought so lowly of.


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## smoke14 (Aug 16, 2009)

The Vega looks pretty dang nice to me Pete, not surprised it sold quickly, just about anything Dale Sr. sells to all his rabid fans (myself included), tho as you can see by my username Tony is my boy now :thumbsup:

Have you thought about doing his old Wrangler paint scheme?


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Smoke, I have an older M/C with a resin nose and the Patto's decal sheet for Jr's win in Nationwide to do that car. There are a couple of resin companies that make modern dirt bodies for this chassis, those are being considered for a later project too if I can rework this Pinto into something better.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

OK, so far this morning I have moved the firewall forward about 1/3 of an inch, that's about 7 1/2" scale. I did finally decide to use the floorboard and rear kick-up tin from the kit but I'm using an ASA style interior tin by blocking off the passenger side of the car. This will save me from having to build that side of the roll cage. 



















In moving the firewall forward it now is aligned with the sheet metal of the body at the front. I now have room for a small dash panel to be placed and it gives me room to breath on making the cage a bit more roomier. I've been filling in all of the injector marks and other sink holes, the pass through bars on the front have been replaced since they were shorter. The entire chassis will be shot in a light gloss gray like the NASCAR cars are. 

These kits have no steering rods or boxes so I'll have to dig one out. I'm also building up a Butler style racing seat that will go into the car since I don't have a proper NASCAR seat for it.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

New chassis work in primer, still needs some work along the dash and the door bars sanded a little better. That's the original roll cage in the background, I will probably keep it for a street racing application. Also, the Butler style racing seat I've been working on.


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## scottnkat (May 11, 2006)

wow - coming along quite nicely.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this ends up


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## solographix (Apr 28, 2009)

For the dirt style car the kit was based on, the included chassis is more accurate. If however the kit was based on an asphalt modified (which it wasn't) your new offset seating, nascar type cage would be closer to reality. An actual dirt car of this era also, would have about enough of a dash to house 2 small gauges and some toggle switches, and that's about it. 










I think for what it is actually representing, and not what you wanted it to represent, that some of the details you are criticizing are indeed representative of the car.

For a ton of photo reference check out: http://3widespicturevault.com/3wides70's_1a_.htm


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Solo the problem with many of the kits of the 1980's (I assume this was a 1980's product) is that the skimped on details like steering boxes and fine things like decent interior details. I don't have a problem with the era this car is meant to represent as much as I have a problem in how it represented it. I've seen models I've built from the mid 1970's that are still excellent kits, the BRE Datsun 510 comes to mind. 

What I did do today since I was off was head down to my local dirt track in Hanford and get a copy of the NDRA rules for back in 1984, which was the oldest they had on hand they could copy for me, and which I'll now be using to finish this car. The Pinto body was one that raced there in the mid 1980's as I used to attend races there. The engine will be modified to represent a 289 to 302 cubic inch with stock exhaust manifolds and (GASP!!) mufflered exhausts. There are some other minor changes I'm going to have to make but the seat will be about the only thing out of that period in this build now. I was shown pictures of a Chevette bodied modified that had a small block Chevy, stock exhaust headers and mufflers and STILL ran nearly as fast as the open piped cars from a few years before. 1983 was the first year Hanford required some of the cars to run mufflers due to the encroaching of residential housing, housing that now surrounds the track completely. As a result all racing action is muffled and the World of Outlaw Tour, long a Hanford show, moved some 20 miles east to the Tulare Thunderbowl. I have a nice set of stock headers that came off an early 1960's Ford V8 and I'll have to build the 3" exhaust, which was the limit then, from scratch.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

For some reason even though this modified has 'dirt' tires, which are really the treaded Goodyear Blue Streaks that used to come on stockers, it does look more like this pavement modified;










Makes me think I should have gotten a NASCAR kit to get parts from, like wheels and tires, the seat....other stuff.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

...this one gets set aside for a little bit, got a customer car to build. I'll get back to it in a week or so!!!


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## Ian Anderson (Jan 24, 2011)

Hay Pete, found this site few days ago, been surfing it, Used stuff and sealed kits,.YOU EVER SEE THIS SITE BEFORE.

http://www.sportslinkup.com/shop/2585--2-bin.html


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## 62R/CRACING (May 14, 2010)

Pete McKay said:


> Ian I couldn't find anything saying he had, I think the closest he came to dirt racing was his doughnuts in the infield after winning Daytona. Had he lived I'm sure he would have raced at Eldora's Prelude to a Dream that Stewart started in 2005. There have been a lot of vehicles like this 'credited' to Sr. but I didn't even try to document this one. I posted this one on my Facebook page and it's already sold. Amazing for a car I thought so lowly of.


Mr McKay i like how your pinto is coming along.It's given me some ideas on how to do mine.Has for Dale sr racing on dirt i have a die cast camaro he drove between 85 and 86.The car is in wranger colours and it was raced in the Showdown of Champions series.He won the title in both years winning 5 of 6 races each year.Can't wait to see the finished pinto you are working on. Tim:thumbsup:


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## 62R/CRACING (May 14, 2010)

Here's a pic of the car.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

62R, that's a good looking car, if you decide to actually do a plastic model of it there are a number of sources you can gets parts for it. I'd start with hitting E-Bay for a kit like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/REVELL-WALTRIP-ASA-CAMARO-SUPER-FLO-17-FACTORY-SEAL-/280643699438

And then get the Patto's Decal Sheet to finish it up. The whole thing can be done for less than $50.


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