I've always wanted to try and build this, now I've pulled the trigger and bought most of what I need after making my own decals a few years back for a test run at one of their camaro's.
For those not in the "know," the Joie Chitwood thrill show was an automobile thrill show that would travel the east and west coasts of the US during the summer and fall. They would reproduce stunts seen in film and movies. You can search YouTube for a bunch of videos. I did come across a video of the full show from 1987 in PA. And the image above is what I am looking to recreate.
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| My version of the Chitwood Camaro |
I went and bought a semi, another Revell camaro and a lowboy trailer from Hobbylinc.
I will order decals from STS Customs, as they are really good and good priced. The trailer is going to be the hardest thing to make since a lot of it will have to be modified and scratch built.
I bought some styrene sheets from Hobby Lobby to make the tube. Luckily, I have a candle that I can wrap the sheets around and it's the perfect diameter to fit the car in and still have enough room to make it look realistic.
Due to this, I started on the trailer first. Without a proper trailer and tube, the entire thing is not going to happen. Though the trailer looks and feels like it came out of the 70's and hasn't been retooled since the Romans were in power, I was able to get the frame together.
With just this, the trailer is perfect size. Now comes issue number one, the wheels. This is built as a six wheeled beaver tail. Problem is, I don't need the beaver tail. Most of the pictures I have acquired of the real deal, have it as a dual wheeled trailer.
I was thinking of making it a quad, to make it more realistic, however, to stick with the originality, I need to make it a dual. That said, I need to create an axle set up for the wheels, that is able to not only utilize the stabilizers and air brakes, but also sit just under the rear of the trailer.
The plastic makeup of the trailer is thick. Cutting nubs off with the tools has actually pulled a bit of plastic off the cross members. However, their under the trailer so thankfully you won't see it.
The plastic is warped. So there is going to be a lot of putty and sanding to make things look right.
With what little I've gotten done on the trailer, I am going to start on the semi frame, so I can link the two together to make sure whatever cutting and puttying I need to do, the trailer will sit straight and not be at an angle.
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| Warped, so putty will need to be used |
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| Poor molding |
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| Another example of poor molding |
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| Starting the axle assembly to know what I have to work with |
I do have until April 2027 to finish this. I've never done this much modifications or scratch building outside of adding hoses and wires to a car. So I will take my time on it to make sure I measure twice and cut once.
Even though it was the same show every year at the county fair, the shows employees were always friendly. I met most of them over the years, got a lot of autographs and blame them for my stunts as an early child on my BMX bikes!
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| Joie Chitwood Jr. |
Here are more photos of the various Space Jump set ups provided by Ken Northcraft and Terry Gapa.
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AC Delco Themed Space Rocket
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| Original Chitwood Space Rocket |
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| Coca Cola themed Space Rocket |
Stay Tuned!
