[American Motors Pacer]

At one of our local shows, a gent entered a 1978 1/25 scale Pacer, and it was an eye-grabber!

I couldn't locate him, and by the time I found someone who could point him out, he and the Pacer were gone...

I don't know if it was resin, but it was sharp. I have an idea for a Pacer, so am searching out a kit, if there was such an animal.

Anyone know? Thanks!

[Lindberg Gremlin]

I was glad to see that Lindberg will be reissuing the ex-Testors, ex-Coddington street rod kits, i.e., the Smoothster, the Coupester and the Vantastic. These are VERY nice kits that build up great, and have lots of parts that are useful for other rod projects. I was a little suprised that the Boyd's Hauler pickup wasn't also on the list ... maybe later for that one?

YES! The Vantastic! Great body for doing some stuff that would require resin bodies otherwise!

The Vantastic provided me with a quick rear section to replicate a '36 Ford Phaeton...Tudor, yet!

I tend to avoid the B-yd, like the sticker says, but used the "Boydster" as a rusted-out hulk in a mini-diorama, drew lots of comments!

Lindberg has been a remarkable source for 'different' stuff...usually at bargain prices, too.

I haven't seen this Gremlin yet. I'll do a search on the Bay. Thanks! Great post!

[What and when was your very first model?]

I'm wondering if anyone else has moss growing on them...Man, I've been doing this a long time!

First modified model: Highway Pioneers (Revell 1/32) Center-Door Model T Sedan. I had built this sedan box-stock, 1953. I was 11, and my grandma bought me the kit. The finished car sat on a shelf in the dining room...about 4 months...

A 1954 issue of Hot Rod Magazine featured Jack Chrisman's '29 Model A Sedan, flathead powered...

I went 'ape', as we said in those days. The local Hobby Shop had the new 69-cent Hot Rod kits, Revell's '32 Roadster, 1/32 scale...I grabbed one, biked-it home, and started in with the hot needle over the gas stove burner...Chopped the 'T' top, so it looked like the chopped '29. Next thing was the 'T' hood, right off at the firewall. The front and rear axles were swapped for the Big-and-littles from the hot rod kit, and everything hand painted. The '32 Flathead V8 went in the engine compartment, and there was much filing of the rough edges the hot needle left. Mom had a metal fingernail file I used for the windshield and 'B' and 'C' pillars, nice chop job!

My buddies saw it and there were 4 of us furiously building model cars (all the Revell line, 1/32 scale!)

There were engines in all the cars in the line, '56 Chrysler New Yorker Hemi; Cad ElDorado; '56 Mercury Monterey; Oh, the engines! And the cars!

That was my first, that 'T' conversion into an 'A'! I still remember way later, when AMT came out with a believable 1/25 scale '32 Roadster...then the '39 Ford sedan, then the '40 Coupe. They were sooo big! Our skills improved overnight, or so it seemed.

Think back. What was your First?

[What do you drive?]

I've got some pics, but am wrestling with how to post 'em!

'55 Ford F100 pickup, had it since '70, got it for $60. Dropped, Romeo Palamedes wheels, S/W, Bell 3-spoke, Stage ll Vortek Chev + mods, 350 T-H, 9" butt, 13.60 on street tires & mufflers. This was my shop truck from '76-'87, has towed our roadster to Bonneville 6 times, push truck at drags & Bonneville, hauled hemis, big blocks, small blocks, many flathead engines, and towed boats.

Black primer, black tarp, use it every day!

'66 VW white bug, 1641, dual port, chrome Porsche wheels, 30 MPG

'27 Hiboy T Roadster atop '32 rails, no fenders, 354 Chrys Hemi, '37 LaSalle trans, '41 Ford rear

'27 Hiboy T Touring ("tub") '32 rails, also fenderless, 276 DeSoto Hemi, '37 LaSalle box, '40 Ford rear

'26 T Coupe cut into roadster, on modified '41 Ford frame; car was 1955 America's Most Beautiful Roadster, doing complete resto on it. (slow project)

'54 Ford Coupe Gasser, tube front axle, semi-elliptic springs, 406 F.E. engine, close-ratio Ford toploader 3-speed with Jeep shift tower, long cane stick. 9" rear, altered wheelbase, doing lotsa bodywork right now.

'63-1/2 Ford Galaxie Fastback, 2nd owner, white car: Engine 406, 5-speed World Class trans, will be street-driven, (kinda modern for my tastes, but had a couple of Super Stockers in the '60s, so it's a keeper.)

I'm doing some models of these and previously owned ones, will be posting some pics ASAP.

[tow truck]

Wow a ex dragracer here on this board. Wow What kind of cars did you race, as in funny car gassser rails? Again thanks for the help and m408 sorry for the misunderstanding i thought u ment that you built a model like that. Well the fleetlines interior is together, steel wheels for the rear painted body partialy wet sanded. If i cant find anything to do for today on that car i will start the truck . Thanks again

[anybody want a scale FOR SALE sign?]

I was looking at cars on auto trader's site and they had a image of a for sale sign that would look good on a model kit for a diorama. i saved the image and hosted it.

just print it out, add your 'phone number' with a sharp tip pen and cut out and apply to your model

PS, i was tired when i posted this if it is in the wrong section feel free to move it .

Great idea, and Thanks, Dave! I set 'copy', and ran it 28 times to 'write mail'. Printed it out, and used my paper cutter, just like they do at the mint when cutting out $100 bills!

Funny how much attention your model car gets on the Bay with a for sale sign in the windshield... Bidders even ask if the sign goes with the car when 'won'!

[Twin engines- transmissions?]

Thanks Jairus. So I will build something more like the picture then. The shot above is a WIP shot of the 1:1 show car Twin Mill. A full size version of the old Hot Wheels car.

Actually tandem twins are generally coupled together by triple-row sprockets, one on nose shaft of rear engine (double-or-triple woodruff-keyed and shaft hardened!) and one behind flywheel of front engine, on a flange. The sprockets are coupled together tandem-style, with a 6-row roller chain, master-linked at where they meet. (sprocket-length, no idler) Tom McMullen coupled his together like this, in his English Ford "Chevy-Two" that he drove on the street. (!)

Tommy Ivo, in his Twin Buick rail, went the same route as Eddie "the Thrill" Hill. Both diggers were twins, but the flywheels were replaced with large spur gears, turning a suspended third gear in the center. (the 'up' motion of the right hand engine meshed with the center gear, which meshed on the other side with the down side of the left engine) The in-and-out box was operated by a twin-disc dog clutch, and turned a Halibrand quick change rear with the ring gear 'flopped' to the right-hand "passenger" side.

[Back on track]

Back at it again, have taken some digital pics...will share them when able to master this unacclomplishable feat! (still trying)

I got "logged out" somehow, had a long way around to get back on. Anybody know what happened to the format of Scale Auto? Whoosh, it was gone...

This is the main one, but I sometimes strayed over there to see what was 'goin' on'...

[Whats A Sacred Car That Makes People Cringe When Its Modified]

Hey, do whatever the heck you want to a MODEL CAR.

However, some real older cars are now approaching the status of endangered species.

The original impetus behind hot-rodding was to take stuff nobody cared about and turn it into rolling folk art; now it's become more a rich-man's ego trip and there's very little originality to be seen.

RIGHT ON, Jerry! The very last time I went to a "Goodguys" event these $$ dorks were everywhere.

A 1/25 scale 'one car diorama' that really shook 'em up was my '62 Corvette, the front end raised on jack stands, the Corvette engine laying off to the side, (on its side) and a fresh, detailed '48 Merc flathead getting installed!

Red block, polished finned heads, 4-carb manifold, scale Harmon-Collins magneto on the front...

Some of these spectators actually got mad at the Ford-in-a-Chevy trick, even if it Was a Flathead!

[Need Help Withe Future Floor Polish]

Dries pretty quick. Just figure that if you used it on a floor, when could you walk on it?

I never walk on my models.

['08 Diorama Cars]

Wow, Novadose...This '56 Ford is so much (yet so understated) I have to say I am inspired.

I am doing a dio of my youth, with some of my many cars, mostly hot rods. (T's, A's, '32, '33, '34, I could go on!)

High school rides were: severely raked '46 Tudor sedan, dropped w/radiused fenderwells '36 five-window, '40 Coupe w/Buick 364, and my white '56 Ford ragtop. (no slouch, @ 14.20, 92 MPH, 'C' Stock, Fremont, CA)

I pulled a '56 kit and began, thanks to this thread. The '56 is simple, and the '36 is next. Thanks for knowin' what I needed to do!

[My First Diorama...speed Shop]

Thanks, Luke57...Yeah, she's s bit tall for 1/24 (about 1/22), but works fine...the door makes a difference for sure! As for the sign, I'll be working on that a bit later...just trying to decide on the name..."Mr. Rusty's___________ Shop" Opening Soon!

Aw, heck, Tony. I had that very problem at my shop...I just had 'em kick off those high heels, and related to 'em barefooted. Don't rebuild the shop, bring the girls down low...

['27 T Street Rod, On Scratchbuilt Model A Frame]

I learned that "biscuitbuilder" is Mr. Anderson last nite as I looked through a number of other threads.

I'd like to make it up there to the NNL West sometime, just as I suppose you would like to make it down here for an SCTA meet at El Mirage Dry Lake...

Hey, Racer! I learned that same thing, but was puzzled: YAMCA club allowed that Art had passed away when he ceased production. We were saddened, for loss of a nice gent; but also for the loss of such a talent! I bought a '27 Roadster body with matching Deuce frame; racecar nose w/hood was nicely done. I have the real article: no less than five 1:1 '27 T's, all hot rods. The fidelity-to-scale on the Roadster body is excellent. The '32 frame is arguably the best seen so far. I have an accurate 1:1 frame jig, guys, and I measure 'em.

Thank the Creator of the Universe we have you back, Art! Welcome!

[Nnl West Would Like To Display A Boyd Tribute...]

If you have plans to attend NNL West this Saturday, please consider bringing any Boyd Kits or Boyd inspired builds you may have. The hot rod community, and the model car community also, have lost an icon and we should honor his memory in the only way we have, by displaying his influence on us!

Thanks,

Steve H.

and the entire NNL West staff.

Uh...that'd be the STREET ROD community, Steve.

[Boyd Coddington Has Passed Away]

I'm pretty sure that they finished it on the show, they did the payoff at the salt flats. you can check his website for it, not sure if its there or not. http://boydcoddington.com/store/gallery.aspx

They sure did. (the payoff at the salt flats) The ultimate insult to SCTA. "Save the Salt" was just a grimace in Big Boyd's rearview mirror. Any of you see that? Boyd drove the Motorhome 2 feet deep into the salt, then buried two tow trucks in the already threatened salt. Never looked back.

You guys should have met him. Captain Nice he was not.

[What Is A 'kemp' ?]

I grew up in the S.F bay Area in the '50s and '60s,and was immersed in the hot rodding goings on at an early age, having three older brothers.When I moved to Idaho in '91, I was amazed at the number of hot rods running around here! And yes, we have blues,very big here.

Wow, Dennis! I was from Santa Clara, Lincoln St. On any day after school, Lincoln St. would be littered with hot rods, parked 2 blocks up-and-down, in front of the Carmellite Monastery, across from Grandma's house...from '56-'63, God we did that for a long time!

The police hated us, the chicks dug us, the nerds feared us...the Bikers tolerated us, (there were lots of Triumphs & Harleys that got traded straight across for Hop Ups and vice-versa...

When the hot rods lost popularity, it was all about the drags! Gassers (street-driven & trailered) would line Lincoln St., pretty much the same guys that were there in the beginning...

I remember the day Sneaky came over in his Roadster-Pickup, and I ran in the house to show him the new AMT '40 Sedan! (no more 1/32 scale, we could now build in the "Big Scale" 1/25!)

Not all the guys built, but they flipped to see that nice fat '40 sedan body! And the accessories...Brand new then. Some of 'em started building models, and more of 'em wanted to do models of their own cars! Good times, then...

(I KNEW you had to be a California boy, Dennis...)

[What Is A 'kemp' ?]

Well I have just found a reference, August 1956 Car Craft. Thats the earliest I have found so far, described as teen slang(The younger set not me anymore) and describes Augie Ozolins 52 Ford Mild Custom.

Well thats me satisfied, teach me to read my mags properly!

I originally asked this question as I have just finished one of the Albert Drake books about his time as a youngster in the 50s, one of the headings is 'We Never Called Them Kemps'

Thanks all for putting me on the right track, John

Actually, Karl Kohler was the one calling them 'kemps'. (Karl was the writer that did all the funny stories in Car Craft and Rod & Custom, yes, when they were 'Little Pages'.) Just a couple of guys around San Jose, CA (my hometown) used the term: Paul Stanton used it, around '57 (he was born in '42) and Bobby Basilie, but Basilie was real 'uptown' with the slang...His '49 Ford was Z'd in rear, and 'A-Framed' in front, lower than a snake...it was "the Short". Some kids were walking around it one day, so Bobby yells: "Hey! Don't scarf the short, Root!"

We just laughed at Basilie with all his 'fad coolness'...but we all had hot rods. (Roadsters, '32 and '34 Coupes, some chopped/channelled Coupes & Sedans. We didn't call 'em rods..."Where's tour 'heap', Cory?" Or "your Iron". But we never called a full-fender an 'Iron'.

Paul and Bobby, in their infinite wisdom, never referred to 'Irons' as 'Kemps'. Kemps were lowered '46's on up ('Customs') The new '55 Chevys were NEVER called 'rods', 'kemps', or 'shoeboxes'.

My Mom called '49-'51 Fords "Crackerboxes", but the acceptance of the square Chevy was right around the corner.

[the Big Bentley]

I have built several of them over the past few decades. It's actually quite straightforward.

The only tip I'm really stressing to you is put bare metal foil between the tyres and rims - othersise the tyres 'eat' the plastic after a few years. You also have to 'stuff' the tyres with cotton wool, otherwise they collapse underthe weight of the model.

And replace the plastic 'wire mesh' for the grille and headlamps with real wire guaze. Other than that, a nice and surprisingly easy build.

Never heard about metal foil between the 'hungry' tires and the plastic rims before: Great Tip!

But, what is "Wire Gauze"? (is this a 'screen' from somewhere other than a hardware store or builders' supply?)

Another great tip with the "steel wool", as we know it on this side of the pond.

[One Rusty And Wild 55 Nomad]

I just saw something I hope isn't liable to be going on this project.

A FRONT BUMPER!!!

[What Is A 'kemp' ?]

a kemp is just old slang for a custom, just as a "gow job" is slang for a hot rod.

Man...that's right. How the 'ell'd you know that...in Idaho? They got Blues harps in Idaho?

Ramonesblues, pretty hip dude...hep, too. Not a lot of both...

[32 Ford Cutdown New Pix]

This is what they called a Cutdown, back in the day...

Narrowed frame, 1/4'rd body, scratch built roll bar and suspension parts and alot of parts box mix and match. It will be white and green.

"This is what they called a Cutdown, back in the day..."

ACTUALLY, 'Cutdowns' were the description of Model T's that were stripped and underslung, long before the Model A's and '32s were manufactured. 'Hot Rod' was the next buzzword, and we Californians suffered for it. Police were bent to write tickets for no fenders, and eben confiscate 'cutdowns' and 'hot rods', to put a stop to street racing.

Nice to see that some Racing concerns picked up the term.

[32 Ford Cutdown New Pix]

This is what they called a Cutdown, back in the day...

Narrowed frame, 1/4'rd body, scratch built roll bar and suspension parts and alot of parts box mix and match. It will be white and green.

"This is what they called a Cutdown, back in the day..."

ACTUALLY, 'Cutdowns' were the description of Model T's that were stripped and underslung, long before the Model A's and '32s were manufactured. 'Hot Rod' was the next buzzword, and we Californians suffered for it. Police were bent to write tickets for no fenders, and eben confiscate 'cutdowns' and 'hot rods', to put a stop to street racing.

Nice to see that some Racing concerns picked up the term.

[What Car Do You Wish To Be A Model That Isn't?]

Stoga, haven't seen you here in a while!

The last few runs of the Chevy/GMC G-Series vans (A-Team) have had a few problems too that could stand some fixing and I would love to see the Dodge/Plymouth F/S as well as the Chrysler Mini's done in scale again. I did pick up that Imperial last weekend though, nice kit!

How about a nice model of the original steel Corvette, instead of those crummy fiberglass clones?

[1-ton Truck Wheels]

Modelhaus makes a set, definitely would fit the '50s but not sure of the '30s. They're real nice and come with 6 rubber tires.

Bob

Thanks, Bob. Never occurred to me. I'll give Don a call...

Uncle Mike

[Opel Blitz Cab?]

Yes, Bedford continued to make the Blitz til 1987.

GM aquired Opel, however, in 1940 after the Nazi party had taken over passenger car production GM wrote Opel off as a complete loss. So there was no ties to GM when the Blitz was being made.

Further back Opel was building cars.

All the German companies pretty much avoid that part of their history.

BMW

Mercedes Benz

Damiler Benz

Krupp

Porsche

Bosch

Ford AG

Carl Ziess

Kodak AG

Maybach

Messerschmitt

and on and on and on but all had their part in WWII.

<<GM aquired Opel, however, in 1940 after the Nazi party had taken over passenger car production GM wrote Opel off as a complete loss. So there was no ties to GM when the Blitz was being made.>>

Opel was Buick's import in the early-60's and continued to be for years. (I did services, electrical, warranty, and clutch replacements on them at Buick Dealerships for eons...)