Shortening A Revell 1970's Funny Car Chassis

[stevielewis]

Hey guys,

A question for those of you who have worked with the Revell 1970's Funny Car chassis, if you had to shorten the chassis wheel base, where would you make the cuts? I'm trying to fit a Good Stuff 1971 Plymouth Satellite F/C body onto a Revell 1970's F/C chassis but the chassis is too long as the wheels are not centered in the wheel wells. Should I use the Revell chassis or go with a different F/C chassis? I know that there have been builds using the Good Stuff Satellite body and Revell F/C chassis but none have shown what they did to get the body to fit the chassis. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[41chevy]

I'll pull out a few chassis' and see what fits and which is correct. Whose car are you doing? Back in 1973 our real funny ran a Don Hardy chassis which is in the AMT/Model King 69 Camaro kit.

[stevielewis]

One of the Plymouth Satellite F/C I'm working on is Twig Zeiglar's original Pizza Haven, and the other may be Shirley Muldowney's Plymouth Satellite.

[41chevy]

Okay, I would shorten the chassis where the front suspension cross member is. You will more than likely have to add a brace back in. Both of Twigs chassis were built by Jack Slawik who owned Northwest Race Cars Chassis. The closest chassis to Jacks is in the early Revell Plymouth Satellite and Vega from the early 90's. Hard to find

[stevielewis]

Thanks Paul. I wasn't aware that Revell made a Plymouth Satellite F/C, or do you mean I need to find a Vega F/C from the early 90's to fit the Good Stuff Plymouth Satellite body?

[41chevy]

The Satellite was MPC not Revell Sorry! You can use any Revell chassis new issue or old issue the only difference is the Vega's have early Halibrand wheels and the early coolant and water tanks

[stevielewis]

Thanks Paul. I figured you might have ment the MPC Satellite. I'm using one of the Charger re-issues that has the molded full chassis with the separate roll cage. I'll have to move the front axle back at the cross member, and possibly shorten the chassis right where the oil filter and the radius rods attach back to where the rear drag link attaches.

[stevielewis]

Here are a couple of pictures showing the chassis after I shortened the chassis at the front crossmember. I am using the Crager SuperTrick wheels that came with the Revell kit I'm using. I'm also using the front tires from that kit but using the rear slicks from a 1990's F/C as suggested. I also lowered the roll-bar and lowered the ride height in back as suggested in the Funny Car Chassis Tips article. With the body sitting on the frame and probably the front wheels it does have the desired ride height. I still think the front tires/wheels are too far forward looking. I may have to shorten the chassis yet to correct this.

Thanks again for the suggestions Paul and Wayne.

[41chevy]

To me with the body set on the chassis it looks like the entire body could move forward an 1/8 inch to center up both front and rear tires in the wheel openings. That would be as simple as adjusting the rear chassis bulk head.
An other alternative if you only want to adjust the front axle back is to take 1/8 inch out of the front torsion bar to axle arms and either shorten the radius robs or cut and move the radius rod rear mounts back and than re radiusing the rear wheel opening in front of the tire a bit.

[stevielewis]

Those are both good suggestions Paul. I think I'll do something like your second suggestion above to get the front tires centered. An alternative is to cut a small section out of the rear window to allow the roll cage bars to fit through the section to move the body forward, similar to what they did on the actual F/C.

[stevielewis]

Here is a pic with the body on the shortened chassis. I removed 1/8inch behind the third upright back from the front of the chassis crossmember to where the rear stearing draglink connects along the frame. I will post a chassis picture that shows that. I also moved the axle connectors(?) back on the front crossmember approximately 1/8inch as well. The radis rods had to be shortened as well to fit. I've been using my cell phone to take these pics so there is some distortion due to the camera lens.



Steve

[41chevy]

Perfect!!

[stevielewis]

Here are the pictures of the chassis and where I did the cuts to shorten the chassis:







The tires are all centered in all the wheel wells, so I consider this part of the build completed. Now it's on to finish building the entire car. Will start a new thread on that. Thank you for helping with your suggestions and tips.

[41chevy]

The chassis looks great, painted it will like it's a kit part. Paul