SPA Modeler

With the USS Arizona sidelined, I decided to jump on this oldie kit, Bill Shrewberry's Wild Wheel-Standing Exhibition Drag Car, the L.A. Dart.

The kit box cover...

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The engine...






Since this is missing a distributor, one will be installed.




The interior...




The main body ready for paint. I spent 3 days taping this one correctly. The instruction guide tells me to measure every 1/2 inch for the stripes. WRONG! I had to do it all over and start again.

Yes, from the first stripe up front but not the rest of the car going towards the back. They are close to 29/64th of an inch each.

Sunday! SunDAY! SUNDAY!!!!

I imagine that this car raced at Pomona or Gardena back in the day...

Very cool project Tom.

I started buying hotrod magazines in 1966. I saw the L.A. Dart many times throughout the '60s on those pages; this does bring some memories. You're off to a good start, Tom.

Thank you Carlos & Gary. I've seen video builds on YouTube - particularly one by hipiguy or something of that name. He painted the engine block hemi orange and kept the valve covers chrome.

Guess what? It's all wrong. I studied the model box cover closely and discovered the valve covers were not chrome but blue. Luckily, I had a bottle of Chrysler Engine Blue as a close match for a Mopar product. Most likely the engine block was also painted blue.

I also noticed the kit didn't come with a starter or oil filter for this kit. That will be added from my parts bin stash.

With Syrcon coming up in a few weeks, I'm hoping to find AM distributor with wires for this kit.¹

That's a wild one! At first glance I thought you put to scoop on backwards. Look forward to paint!

Now that the Pucara and the Rufe are finished, it’s time I resume where I left off on the LA Dart. Now only to figure out what and where I left off.

Sat down at the bench last night, pulled out this kit. Saw the car body had Frog yellow tape all over it. Yup... masked off the red stripes to fix the minor run from the red paint that seeped under the tape. The chassis cover is also taped with yellow tape in preparation to lay down the red stripes.


Nope, not tonight... it's 9 p.m. and I'll be damn I'm gonna fix it.
I ended up pulling all the tape off the car body because I've noticed in some spots, they're lifting and will cause more seeping if I sprayed white.

Worst case scenario, I'm gonna step away from the bench for a couple days before my mojo kills my ambition to continue on.

After I had put the Dart away, I pulled up the Tamiya F4F Wildcat kit and started to test fitting the fuselage, and assembled a piece of the instrument panel. Nope... promised myself I'd resume a couple car kits first. Ended putting the Wildcat kit away for a later date.

I'm starting to lose my damn mojo....