Herk's 1964 Tombstone Life Spl. WIP

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Frustration has set in on my 1959 Racing Associates build so for a break from that I started Herk's 1964 Tombstone Life Spl. I am using the AMT Watson as the base with Classic Racing Resins'1964 tires. I wanted to use the American Racing Miniatures/Etzel Offy but I was afraid it would sit to high and the hood would not clear--so I used the kit's Offy.

The chassis was built pretty much stock. Removed some of the suspension mounting points--and will remove some more as I go along.







Other than the suspension mounts the only other modifications I made were to the Offy. According to Pete Hurtubise, the magneto was mounted in the driver's cockpit to reduce vibration. I assume that means the plug wiring must have run from the cockpit so I reversed the direction of the wiring and left the magneto off the engine. Pete Hurtubise described the magneto drive as quite complicated and I have no idea what it looked like--so I left it off for now. If anyone has any knowledge of the magneto drive. it would be appreciated. I also used my own velocity stacks.



According to Pete Hurtubise. the chassis was not all that different from the Watson, but the suspension was. Apparently, they developed some coil overs but didn't have time to develop them so they went with coil springs. I made my own using some Dan Gurney Eagle springs as a base. And yes, those are real springs.



For the body, I am waiting to see what Lance's 64 Foyt tail piece looks like. Otherwise I will putty up the AMT.

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Most of the rear suspension is in. I'll do the rods that go in front of the axle after the body is on. I'm pretty happy with how the coil springs worked out.






On to the front axle.

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And the front coils.



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Body needs some work. Going from torsion bars to coil springs requires filling some of the holes in the body. Also, the Tombstone ran without a side engine panel. The open area around the rear axle on the Tombstone was considerably smaller than on the Willard Battery car. The slope of the tail ridge was also different on the Tombstone. It wasn't as round as the Willard and had a little pointy edge toward the bottom. Perhaps a subdued version of the Demler 99 Cadillac fin?

Before:



After:



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Working on the body again. Here is what I am trying for:






Body is in primer. I cut panel lines--the AMT body didn't have any. I added two air scoops in front of the cockpit, one to the lower side panel. I put a little bump on the hood and added large air scoops to the nose and hood. The nose and nose scoop are thanks to Calvin. He sent me a prototype of his 1964 Willard Battery nose. I cut back the scoop on that nose and with a fair amount of drilling, filing, sanding, and vacuum forming arrived with what you see. Many thanks also to Bob Clidinst for his wonderful drawing of this car. Showed where all the scoops and bumps needed to go and the shape of the tail and nose. (Gotta love the zebra striped duct tape holding this together.)













Next to the fluorescent red.



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[mjjracer]

Love this one! Looks like you (with an assist from Calvin) really nailed the nose scoop.

MJ

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Fixed the problem with the drag link and got the body painted and some decals on. Am waiting for the TOMBSTONE LIFE decals from GWS. I am not at all happy with the fit of the AMT body parts. Did a lot of filing but the hood fit is impossible. I am considering starting over with Lance’s 63 Watson as a base when it comes back from remolding.





Cheers, kip

[Art Laski]

Very nice!

[Deleted]

Hi Kip,

Beautiful work as always. You have added so much detail that I don't think the nose/hood fit will be real noticeable. I had the same fit problems with the Konstant Hot car and I used one of Lance Sellers 1964 Foyt upgrades. I ended up shaving down the forward bottom edges of the hood and that helped the fit some. Also there is a front cross member that hangs down below the frame rails. I cut it off and mounted it between the frame rails which allowed me to rotate the back end of the nose up to align better with the hood. This however then caused a gap between the hood and nose and so I had to glue a strip of plastic across the back edge of the top of the nose to close up that gap. I then glued the top of the nose to the hood and after that dried, I was able to force the bottom edge of the nose down to meet the bottom of the body and secured it with super glue. Lance's resin nose may have more flex in it than the AMT nose however? Maybe this will be of help to you. Like I said, I had the same fit problems using the Foyt upgrade.

Still, that is really outstanding work on a difficult kit, I'll look forward to seeing the finished car.

Jerry Sudduth
Frankfort, KY

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Jerry,

Thanks for the help. I'm going to try what you suggested before I give up and start again. I pulled the hood and I think adding that strip to the hood will help solve the problem. I ordered the Foyt upgrade eons ago but havn't gotten it yet. I am also waiting for the remold of Lance's 63 Watson. That will be my last option

cheers, kip

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HELP


I need some ideas here. A person much more knowledgeable than myself pointed out to me that the 1964 Tombstone Life Spl. didn't have a tail cone over the fuel tank. The body ends at the back end of the cockpit and all the roll bar bracing is outside the tail making the tail quite a bit narrower than the AMT body. A look at the Clidinst drawing and oh s**t. He was exactly right. I had earlier noticed that the roll bar and bracing was outside the "body" but I didn't notice it was basically a bare fuel tank and obviously narrower than the rest of the body.   Its just a tad under 1/8" difference in width in 1/25 scale. Does not seem like much, but if you are looking for it in photos or on the drawings, it is very noticeable as a separate piece.

I tried sectioning a spare AMT tail--no soap. I measured all my Jorgenson and Sellers roadster tails (thinking maybe I could splice a smaller tail onto the AMT) but all were the same width or wider. Any thoughts or ideas would be most welcome. (Going ahead with the AMT tail is not an option--I would know it isn't right and it would drive me crazy.)

And all this occurred just as my GWS Tombstone Life decals are being printed up. S**t.

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I found that the inside of the AMT tail is very close to the correct width. I am making a mold of the inside of the tail and the rear of the belly pan. I am concerned what the head fairing on top of the tail is going to look like. If it turns out ok. I will try to cast it in resin and mate the two resin pieces.

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In our last episode, our hero found out that Herk’s 1964 Tombstone Life roadster did not have a cowling over the fuel tank, making the rear end narrower and not as high as the AMT Watson rear end. I made several tries at molding a smaller fuel tank but I wasn’t real happy with any of them. Sooooo, I’m pretty much starting over again; this time I am using the Sellers 1963 Watson as a base. I should be able to reuse some of the suspension. I hate to modify the 63. As usual, Lance’s products are a work of art. Luckily, I have another that is earmarked for the Konstant Hot 14.
Here we go again. This is the 63 Watson.







Modifications include removing the headrest, removing the upholstery on the outside of the body, removing the right side hood scoop, adding a nose scoop, filling part of the nose suspension opening, and reshaping the tail fin.



I opened up the side panel.



And I took about 1/10th of an inch off the entire fuel tank—a little less in the middle of the bottom according to the Clidinst drawing.



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The Flo Red is on the modified 1963 Sellers resin body. The rear suspension is nearly done. “Engine” and visible frame are also in. This means that I am almost back to where I was when I was using the AMT Watson as a basis. Almost.











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[jj66]

Almost you have it. Flo red looks fantastic!