TD's California Street Vette

Built by: Carl Roberts in Austin, Texas

I first got interested in the California Street Vette about four years ago when someone brought a built-up one to a model club meeting. I thought the build was terrible, but a good-looking subject.

A few months later I found a bagged California Street Vette in San Antonio at the Model Fiesta contest, missing a few parts, for $5. At the Houston Automotive Modelers Society (Hams) show sometime later, I picked up a complete, sealed, California Street Vette for $10. Shortly after that, someone had a picture of Tom with the car (the one featured on the kit box), and I then decided to build a replica of the car based on that pic.

The car is painted Boyd's Orange Pearl and the louvers are done in Testors Graphite Metallic. I did the exhaust headers in gloss black. The tail light section wasn't very good from Monogram, so I put a piece of clear red under some scale railroad screen and cut the kit lights out so I could use the trim.

The kit engine wasn't all that good either, so I used a dual quad intake from another kit, added A/C, wiring, heater hoses, fuel lines, heavy duty coil, and whatever else I had in my parts box to make the engine look as real as possible. I then opened and hinged the rear louver panel to allow access to the storage area, cut away some of the body, and redesigned the back of the interior for more space.

I used flocking material for carpet and inverted the orange/black theme of the exterior. The shifter is from a Lamborghini Countach, Oh, the gas cap is from a '67 GTX. Last thing I did was to use a stock Corvette rear axle so the back tires wouldn't stick out from the fenders. It was popular back then, but illegal in many places now, and a bit cleaner looking I think.

Last, I'm from Austin Texas, interests are cars (duh!), rollerblading, camping, computers, and my wife and I have our first baby, a nine month old boy, who is the joy of our lives.

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