Street Stock Race Car Build

So not technically a model or a prop, but something I built non the less. Back in the early 2000's I got involved with the local race track in my home town. I saw some nicely built race cars at a car show in a neighboring city and wanted mine to be of the same quality. I located a doomed car at a local garage and towed the '77 Firebird home. Over the next few months I set about dismantling the car, removing all the unwanted parts like seats, carpet, dash board, glass etc. Then began to dismantle the car itself to make removal of extra steel easier. I soon discovered that the front frame of the car was bent, so I bought an '81 Firebird for extra parts. I used the frame and floor pan of the '81 and the body of the '77 to build the car.

The body was removed from the floor pan and stripped of extra weight.

Then it was set aside until it was needed.

The floor pan of the '81 was cleaned and prepped for the build.

The floor and front clip were clamped to a custom built leveling frame. Then additional steel was added to the underside of the car. This was to give something for the roll cage to attach to.

The roll cage was purchased as a kit, but it only included the section around the driver. Lots of additional steel had to be installed around the engine, the trunk and cross bracing.

Once the roll cage was finished, the body parts started to go on.

More body parts and paint on the inside.

Then paint on the outside.

This was my inspiration for the paint scheme. The late great Dale Earnhardt's 1980 Championship car. 

Making the inside safe...

...and functional.

And the finished car in the pit area waiting for the races to begin.

And some promo shots. 

Unfortunately the evening ended like this, just cosmetic damage and a destroyed radiator. 











All in I did enjoy the two and half years it took me to build and drive the car. I only raced for part of one season putting in about 6 races. I found the driving part quite stressful as the car was not the fastest or most agile. It was also a costly project and took a lot of my time but at least I can say I built and drove a race car, not many people can say that. I had many friends help me along the way, Perry, Chris, Reno, Joe, Chuck, Rob plus many more who helped with sponsoring me with cash or discounted parts or garage services that I could not do at home. 

Thanks for viewing.