2015 car 1971 Javelin / AMX
Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 6:19 am
The car I decided to build was the 1971 Penske Racing - Mark Donohue Javelin / AMX. This is the same car that won the 1971 SCCA Trans Am championship, with 7 wins of 10 events. At the time little AMC beat the big three with their new Javelin / AMX.
Last summer when we were in Kenosha, for the homecoming, we saw some guys unloading their replica of the #6 Donohue car. Noah just happened to be wearing his T-shirt of the #6 Javelin. The owner asked him if he wanted to take his shoes off and sit in the car. The owner even let him start the car.
It all starts with the plan, last year I built a Javelin, and three other cars, for the 2015 Cub Scout recruitment campaign (photo, below the plan is from this campaign). So I thought I was ahead of the game:
The assembly started, start out with a block, add the top, cut out the weight reduction pocket. Cut out, and shape, the wheel wells, glue the sides on and trim the block.
Then the sides are trimmed to 2 3/4", on the table saw. And the DFW is recessed into the block:
The horizontal and vertical cuts were made:
And the carving began:
And sanding, priming and painting. This would be why I am not a painter, I painted the whole car white, masked and painted the red and masked and painted the blue. The red did not turn out well with a crisp line down the center of the roof, but the blue turned out good (and some of the bad is covered by the windshield). Guess I just need to spend more time on painting.
The wheels were painted. The axles were polished, the wheel bores were polished and waxed, and it was lubed and run down the test board. It was set to steer 3” in 4’, it was ready to race.
The Javelin / AMX did not race as well as the original, in the Real Street class it came in 9th of 15 entrants.
Last summer when we were in Kenosha, for the homecoming, we saw some guys unloading their replica of the #6 Donohue car. Noah just happened to be wearing his T-shirt of the #6 Javelin. The owner asked him if he wanted to take his shoes off and sit in the car. The owner even let him start the car.
It all starts with the plan, last year I built a Javelin, and three other cars, for the 2015 Cub Scout recruitment campaign (photo, below the plan is from this campaign). So I thought I was ahead of the game:
The assembly started, start out with a block, add the top, cut out the weight reduction pocket. Cut out, and shape, the wheel wells, glue the sides on and trim the block.
Then the sides are trimmed to 2 3/4", on the table saw. And the DFW is recessed into the block:
The horizontal and vertical cuts were made:
And the carving began:
And sanding, priming and painting. This would be why I am not a painter, I painted the whole car white, masked and painted the red and masked and painted the blue. The red did not turn out well with a crisp line down the center of the roof, but the blue turned out good (and some of the bad is covered by the windshield). Guess I just need to spend more time on painting.
The wheels were painted. The axles were polished, the wheel bores were polished and waxed, and it was lubed and run down the test board. It was set to steer 3” in 4’, it was ready to race.
The Javelin / AMX did not race as well as the original, in the Real Street class it came in 9th of 15 entrants.