BIG JOHN MAZMANIAN WILLYS
What drag racing stable of cars would be complete without a "Big John" Mazamanian '41 Willys gasser? Here's some pics and info on how I built mine.
(click on any picture for a larger version)
I started by building the chassis, a WRP C-12 Pro Inline "Narrow" one with a bolt'in motor mount.. The components that I chose were: WRP Halibrand Wheels, a Slick7 guide with Parma braids, TQ lead wire, WRP wheelie wheels, Sonic gears and ProTrack #748-20 motor with 48 degrees advanced timing. After assembling the chassis on my jig, I thoroughly cleaned it and nickel plated it. The rear wheelie braces were bent slightly down so they would clear the rear of the body without having to cut slots for them.
Here's some pics of it when it was first mounted:
And here's some closeups of the mounting system - 2 pins in front (under the grill) and it clips onto the back. You can also see in the first photo that I used some sheet styrene to make a motor platform so that all I had to install was the blower, injectors and scoop.
The body is from a Revell Big John Mazmanian kit, which is out of production, but can still be found if you look hard enough. I first sand all of the flashing off, glue on the hood and fill any imperfections. Then I prime it with Tamiya's fine primer and paint it silver with an airbrush with lacquer. Once dry, it gets the candy red finish with House of Color automotive translucent lacquer. I then seal it with one thin coat of PPG polyurethane. Next, the decals are applied with Micro-Sol and Micro-Set setting solutions. Once they cure, the grill, headlights and tailights are epoxied in place. Then the entire car gets 3 coats of PPG polyurethane to give the car a "wet" look.
Here's a couple of pics of it before I mounted the blower with scoop, the windows and interior. The one on the left is my favorite picture of the car. The kit gives you red headlight lenses but every picture of the real car that I saw had clear lenses, so I borrowed some from another Willys kit.
The kit also gives you a red windshield and a red rear window. I used the red rear windows but I wanted to see the driver better so I went with a clear one up front. The interior was detailed and a 5 point roll cage was added to it for a little more realsm.
I really couldn't be more pleased by the way that this car turned out. I will be offering completely painted and detailed Mazmanian Willy bodies, just like this one, for a very limited time ( I only intend to make a few more of them), and will be posting them on the "FOR SALE" page of this website. I may also put a one up on ebay just to see if there is a demand for it. Or you can just drop me an email.
Two old rivals
Thanks for checking out my "Big John" page and I hope that some of this information is helpful to those who are building one of their own.
-johnk
