W.I.P. - IT'S BAAAAAACK - Street Legal Big Block Vega Modified

[tigeraid]

HAH! You guys thought I forgot about it didn't you!

Since the original WIP thread is long gone, I'll summarize, and post some of the old WIP pictures as well.

This idea all started when I saw this car in HOT ROD Magazine last issue:





It's a '68 Toyota Corona that was cut up and laid on a tube chassis just like a Modified (a 1970s-style Modified in this case.) A Lexus V8 was added, and the overall style is basically a street-legal NASCAR Modified. You can read the full article at http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...cleId=106122#4

It's really quite a cool car. We've seen lots of stockcars made street legal (Monte Carlos, old Galaxies and lots of Belvederes, etc) but never an open wheel style Modified! I'm not a huge fan of Toyota, and a weak-kneed little 250 hp V8 isn't my style, but how about doing this to an American version?

Being a Chevy guy, the Vega was used heavily in short-track Modified racing in the '70s and 80s. Luckily I was able to find a Rat Trap Vega Modified on ebay.

So, my idea is to do a similar deal as that Toyota, but with this Vega. This is one of those modeling projects that starts out as a small idea but ends up snowballing as more and more little things come to mind....

The chassis is essentially box stock, I just added a conventional street 6pt rollbar instead of the convaluted original one.



The front suspension and rad were assembled and detailed, and the battery was added in the correct location and wired.



The interior in a Modified is incredibly sparce, and while I wanted it minimalist, it needed plenty more. The Tamiya WRC Ford Focus kit provided most of the interior, including both carbon-fibre buckets, harnesses, and inner door panels that were cut down to fit (a Modified has no door panels--you can see the Focus door panels in the first pic.) The dash and gauges are from a Winston Cup stockcar, and detailed with art pencils.



And this is the way it sat, since about March... Brake master cylinder detailed and plumbed, long block sitting in place, steering box and linkage installed... The body was shot with Tamiya Black, with the side and back windows done in clear acetate. I also had to scribe the door panel lines myself, as again a Modified body has no doors...



Here's the hood in mock place... the hole is cut for the original circulare air cleaner, but it'll be cut out to match the EFI intake plenum instead...



The rear end is mostly stock... I trimmed the taillights of some other kit's taillights to fit and added a license plate.



Anyway, Best Resins never came through, never got me my parts.... But with help from AFers, found the intake manifold I wanted in a kit, the AMT "Impala SS Street Machine"... so I snagged it from ebay and I'll be slowly getting the project going again, in between customer builds. I'm also gonna add some WIP pics from long ago (for those who don't remember, I originally began this project almost a year ago!) to show you good views of the interior and whatnot.

So, I added the LT1-style intake manifold and cone filter, as well as the fuel rail. I then plumbed the fuel rail with braided line and painted faux AN fittings on it. Also finished wiring the distributor and popped it in, and ran rubber radiator hose. Aaaaand that's basically it for now. I need to align the side pipes properly, install the front pushbars and figure out what headlights I want to use. The intake manifold will be poking up out of a precision hole cut in the hood--if it doesn't reach above the hood, I'll add plenum spacers until it does!







I still haven't added the windshield--I need to cut it out of clear acetate, and figure out some way to fabricate a bit of a cowl to fit windshield wipers. More progress later!

[blubaja]

What was wrong with the old thread?
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=523246

[quadzero]

Originally Posted by blubaja

What was wrong with the old thread?
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=523246

That was my first question too. But good to see this one back. The engine looks better then I remember. You are KEEPING this one right?

[tigeraid]

Originally Posted by blubaja

What was wrong with the old thread?
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=523246

Sorry dude, when I searched for "vega modified" or "vega" I got zero results. I thought maybe the search function didn't go back far enough. If you want to merge it, please do so.

And yes, I'm keeping this one.

[NOMADGAMER]

looks awesome`

[Honoturtle]

I really like what you have going here.
Makes me want to build something similar.

[brady_381need72c10]

neat man!