This will be a road track version. i had bought this years ago at the nnl east. it was just the primed body and an old monogram nascar chassis that was modified with rear leaf springs and front k frame and torsion bars added as you can see. the trunk was already cut open so i plan to detail it with a fuel cell. i quickly realized the chassis was not going to work, i didn’t like how the front suspension was lining up to the wheel wells. a friend also pointed out by this point most teams had done away with the k frames so i decided to use the chassis of the 68 road runner. i cut out the k frame except for the part that had the motor mounts.
I then started the interior and got this far before i noticed in my research the rear firewall was not correct and i had the side panels ready to be glued in when i also noticed the rollcage was not inside the panels but the panels were actually cut out to allow the bowed side bars to espaned out to the outer door skin.
Notice no driver net on the window. at the time they were recomended not required. petty had a serious crash at Darlington that year where he was hanging out the window while the car rolled, you can probably find it on youtube. After that nascar made nets mandatory.
I have done more work will post an update when i take some more photos.
The harder one was the STP red and Richard Petty blue scheme. When STP became his main sponsor they wanted 43 all in STP red, but it was a notoriously difficult color to apply. Petty bargained with them to allow half the car to remain in his trademark blue.
The blue itself is another interesting story. Petty wanted his neighbor to paint his car, but the neighbor didn’t have enough of any one color to cover the whole car, so he mixed blue and white together Apparently they were quite pleased with the result.
Joe,
This is one great build for sure. From your description of an old kit using a old Monogram Nascar chassis from their Nascar kits of the time.
I’m already somewhat confused at to the chassis modifications. The brown chassis is from the 68 Road Runner, with the motor mounts grafted from the Superbird chassis. Why is the K White while the rest of the chassis Blue?
joel
what i heard was it was extra paint left over in their shop that they mixed up and got the petty blue. there is more than blue and white in it. i think they eventually had it professionally matched. what ever the story it is has become one of the most mysterious colors ever created.
This thread actually motivated me to build a Superbird as well. I was shopping at Walmart last night and i found a limited edition 1969 Charger Daytona kit in the metal tin and picked it up.
let me know how that kit is. i just bought one also. although similar in looks it is actually a different car from the superbird engineered completely differently from it. i actually like the daytona better looks wise.
Got a lot more work done since, just got to post some photos. I chopped up the interior and made the changes, scratch made some upper A frames. trying to find out how the rear shocks are mounted, under the chassis or through the chassis and mounted in the drivers compartment using a brace- see picture below, you see a silver cage like mount in the rear shelf. Anyone know if petty was using this in his superbirds? not sure what year they stopped using this method and since these were 2 new chassis made for these cars it may have beeen eliminated.
this is not my build-
I wouldn’t say guru joel. i am still learning about this era.
now for an update on the work. as i said i tore out the rear firewall pictured above and scratch built a new one that i think is closer to how the actual car was.the cage was scratch built except for the side bars, they came from an ertle nascar.
