[Ken]

If I could have a race car on the street. This would be it. Nothing nicer looking to me than a Chaparral 2D.

I was fortunate enough to find an old beat up and badly sun-baked Strombecker body at the last Group25 model show/swap meet. First thing to do is to disassemble the parts.

The body is in rough shape. Full of scratches, and lots of faded plastic.

The underside shows how badly discoloured the body is.

Choosing a colour was easy. Out of all my cars so far, Tamiya Candy Lime Green is still the favorite. I’ll let other club members fight over the white cars, and main liveries. I prefer to be different. Now to choose a motor, gear ratio, and wheels/tires.

I hope to eventually build 3 of these Chaparrals. Two more are on order with D’Art Hobbies. Those will be way easier to acquire. Thank you kindly Art.

Topic

[Ken]

Mapping out the chassis took about 20 minutes.

[Ken]

Drilling out the guide, body posts and bearing saddles took about an hour.

[Ken]

Cutting away the unwanted material, cleaning up the guide, and removing the sharp edges took another hour.

[Ken]

The chassis is ready for assembly.

I had to post every photo separately because the system would not accept more than one photo per post at a time.

[Ken]

The front end of the car could not be any lower or the tires would rub. That pre-set the height of the rear in order to be level.

[Ken]

The original interior was a mix of plastic and nylon. Epoxy won’t stick very well to nylon. The driver looked interesting. But lacked colour and was all blue like the rest of the interior (except for his head). A few minutes on the bandsaw and the driver was separated from the nylon interior.

It took six colours to paint just the driver not including his head. Flat white – driver suit. Flat brown – seat back. Light tan – driver hands. Gloss wood – steering wheel. Flat black – space in front of driver. Red – seat belts. I finished off the back of driver’s helmet with a black strap for his goggles.

I think this car qualifies for the Classic Era Challenge and Prototype. It isn’t a slow-class car, that’s for sure. So I installed a flat-6. It leaves lots of room for the original driver and chrome intake stacks.

This is by far the largest piece of brass I’ve ever used as a weight. I didn’t know .064″ inch brass sheet comes 2″inches wide. It wasn’t available at most hobby shops. The finished car weighs 108-grams. A 4-40 screw and epoxy together hold the brass in place.

Underside of the body came out clean. Black “Martha Stewart” card-stock from Michael’s Craft store makes up the interior. Very handy stuff.

I must give Art full credit for the period correct Chaparral wheel inserts. He painted them himself, and I got lucky enough to win them as a door-prize. I’ve been itching to use them ever since. They look sharp! Thanks a million!

I got brave and took flat-black to the inside of the air-scoop. One wrong move with the brush and it’s a mess.

This car makes me smile like the little kid that got his first Strombecker set. My very first set had the Chaparral 2D, Porsche 906, Ford GT40, and Cheetah. The 2D was the nicest looking in my opinion. :good:

Driver’s name is Joakim Bonnier, and the car will be #9, my CEC number. Thanks for looking. Ken

[Ken]

We have numbers and a sponsor. Let’s go racing!

When this car first came out. It came with either a small-block, or big-block chevy V8. I thought it would inspire the next Corvette to be mid engine. That didn’t happen. But Chevrolet did take a cue from this 1966 car for the front end of the 1968 Corvette.

In very small letters. Somewhere on the back of the car it says “Eat my dust Luis!” Oops. Did I say that? 😉

[Luis Meza]

Very nice work for a static model.

I was told as a child not to disturb the sleep of an elderly but this time a have to make an exception.

Ken, Ken wake up your worst nightmare is being build in Hamilton and your car looks static from my rear view mirror.

My vocabulary is not extensive enough so I let my car do the talking on the track.

 

Nicely done Ken and very helpful pictures to get a better idea of how scratch build should be done

[Ken]

Thank you for most of your kind words Luis. 😉

Now that I’m awake. Let’s see some pictures of this elusive nightmare. B-)

[Ken]

Luis. The only thing giving me nightmares so far is your Avatar! B-)

Where’s that car of yours? Pictures my brother! :yes:

Have you noticed my Avatar is the Chaparral 2D like the car in this thread? Your worst nightmare maybe?

[Author]

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