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SHORT TRACK MODELS by MR NASCAR Merv Treichler's Modified sedan

decals by BULLRING GRAPHIX!

This is another idea that was inspired by John Bisci, who originally asked me to design the decals for one of Merv's coupes. John, an Upstate western New Yorker who now works in the Southwestern USA, wrote a book called "Lancaster Heroes" to commemorate the heyday of short track racing at Lancaster Speedway in upstate New York in the 60's and early '70's. Ramjammed FULL of pictures of incredible racecars from the period. There is one shot of a nasty-looking Corvair Modified in there that Merv raced, but in doing the project for John, I was able to access more shots of Merv's cars over the years. This sedan-bodied Modified really caught my eye, and looked like a relaively simple project to do. What could be easier, right? Grab one of the '35 Chevy Modifird rereleased, slap it together, throw on a few decals, and it'd be done....HA!!

Not a lot of info on Merv available out there. From what I can gather, Lancaster was his "home track". From what I could find, he is considered "arguably the greatest combined asphalt/dirt racer ever". Although I could not determine when he actually began racing, included on Merv's resume are wins at the Race of Champions, Daytona, and 2 wins at Super DIRT Week in Syracuse. Merv also picked up numerous championships at Lancaster from 1971-1974 in his famous 58's.. Merv is a member of the FOAR Score and the DIRT Hall of Fame. Merv, from Sanborn, NY, picked up the Ransomville Championship in 1974. He also raced sporadically in the BUSCH (ok...NATIONWIDE...) Series sporadically in the '80's and was still active in DIRT racing past 2000. Quite a career. Like many drivers of the time, he did not actively "chase The Dream" of a NASCAR full time ride.

As I indicated, this was to be a stress-free, out-of-the-box build, using the rereleased '35 Chevy kit. ("Mousey" to be exact...) However, on comparing it to actual references a few problems were seen that once again turned this into a "PROJECT"...

Most glaring, the kit used a TOBIAS chassis, which I felt was a lot more exotic than would have been used earlier in the decade for Merv's car. To get around this, I used an extra chassis I'd picked up from Lui Sarracini at our last Group 25 meeting left over from one of the 36 Chevy coupes. Based, as many cars of the time were, on the '57 Chevy frame, I felt it would be more accurate.. Thanks, Lui! Having made this switch, I then realized that Merv's car had a rather unique-appearing rollcage, with bars running off at odd angles, compared to what was available in either of the kits I was using. That got me back into a custom rollcage, something that had given me fits on the HemiCharger a couple models back...

Also, upon looking over the body, Merv had hogged out the windows much more than on the kit, the doorline and B-pillar was differently located, and the windshield had more of a slant to it... sigh...

To rectify these concerns, I filled in the doorlines, and scribed new ones about a half centimeter further back, then relocated the B-pillars to line up. I took a section about 4 millimeters long out of the roof, and bent the windshield posts back untill the roof could be glued back together again, then puttied and sanded the whole thing until it was smooth. At least it now looked more like the Merv sedan body. (I have come to the conclusion that whatever sedan body Merv used, it WASN'T a '35 Chevy...)

The next thing that became apparent was that the engine would need to be set back, to match references, which meant new engine mounts on the chassis. Once I had the engine located, I temorarily located the rad then drew up a design for the unique enginecover on paper, transering it to sheet plastic once it looked right. Although I used the alternate frame, I opted for the rear diff and wheels from the "Mousey" kit as they were decent-looking wide 5's. One thing I did have to do was reverse the spring ends so that they pinned to the bottom of the perches on the frame rather than the top, to get a proper ride height. Front suspension and axle was stock from the 36 coupe kit, but I had a problem with the wheels... Merv's car ran wide 5's all round, even the smaller inside right front wheel. Neither kit had these for the front, and I wasn't too keen on cannibalizing another '35 kit for some - they ain't cheap!

By sheer coincidence, as I was going thru my parts stash for a usable fan shroud (finally was able to modify one from an '80's NASCAR t-bird to fit) I came across a little bag of parts, that included a TOBIAS frame, engine parts and believe it or not, a second set of wide 5's. These have been in the parts stash for like 30 YEARS, from back when I was slot racing. I had used the chassis as a template for a slot car frame, and used the body on the slot car. The leftover wheels and other bits ended up in a baggie. They were not identical to those in the current issue, which has stregthening ribs added to the rims, but worked fine for the front end. Tires were from the 36 Chevy kit, except the right front, being much narrower, which also came from the parts stash... NEVER THROW ANYTHING AWAY!

Next nightmare was the interior - I didn't want to use the one from the '35 which had the driver centered, references seemd to show Merv in a more conventional left hand location, at least in this particular car. I used the interior platform from the '36, and made up filler panels for behind the driver. With the complicated rollcage, getting them positioned was tricky to say the least. Once all the bodywork was done, and the rollcage and interior panels finished, I primed everything with red oxide primer (aerosol), then applied three coats of maroon aerosol touch-up lacquer - closest I found to references was a Ford Dark Red at my fave store for hobby paint - Canadian Tire.

The engine was assembled, painted and detailed with plug wires and a rad hose. I had drilled out the exhaust holes on the block, and bent headers out of 2mm Evergreen Plastic rod, then used large diameter Evergreen tubing for the dumps. Although not exact, they are closer to the actual car than anything in the kits, plus I needed to work them around the unique framerail downtubes and nerf bars that tie the firewall to the front of the frame.

Decals had been prepared prior to starting this model. They are very simple, but I was intrigued by the "ROLLING WHEELS SPEED-WAY" on the roof. According to John, Merv put that “Rolling Wheels Speedway” on his car when Lancaster’s promoter pulled some shenanigans and signed Will Cagle, a dirt driver who never raced at Lancaster, to compete on Lancaster’s All Star League team. So Merv signed up for Rolling Wheels to say, “screw you.”

Once it all went together, I had a neat little model of a lesser-known North East racecar, that I was happy with. The more I get into these kind of builds, the more satisfying it is to work thru the challenges each one presents. Thanks to John once again for the inspiration! (Next model will be a simpler build, I've promised myself...)

A COUPLE SHOTS OF Merv's 58's:

These decals are now available from BULLRING GRAPHIX - Click Here!"

If you don't want to cut up, or cannot find, the plastic kits needed, many of the parts mentioned can be obtained from Fred's Resin Workshop.
Click here to access Fred's site! Then click on "Bodies" to check for the Chevelle body.

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