Terry Jessee

According to the Model T Ford Club of America: In late 1926, perhaps for the “1927” models, the available colors were expanded. The closed cars were all available in a choice of Royal Maroon, Highland Green or Fawn Gray. The open cars could be had in Phoenix Brown or Gunmetal Blue. Black was no longer listed as a body color. The Roadster Pickups, when ordered from the factory with the pickup bed installed, came in “Ford Commercial Green.” According to a factory letter dated March 21, 1927, if a commercial user ordered the pickups on a special order, Ford would paint them all black “to match the color of the existing fleet of Ford cars.” All cars, regardless of body style or color, came with black fenders, splash aprons and running boards. (Running gear was, of course, also black.) At their introduction, all closed cars came with electrical equipment (starter and generator), windshield wiper (hand operated), rearview mirror, dash light, and demountable rims with 30 by 3-1/2” cord tires as standard equipment. It should be noted that cord tires were new; the previous tires of that size were fabric construction. The cord construction was considerably stronger. While the spare rim was supplied, the tire for that rim was optional equipment. Balloon tires with black-painted wooden wheels were an additional option at $25. Natural-finish wood wheels were available from the factory for installation by the dealers. Mine will look like this. Would appear from MFTCA's description that this is pretty accurate. Thanks for all the other information. And by the way, the only hot rod parts in the kit this time are those for the engine--no custom wheels or tires.

Working on Greg Wann's '90 Ford Crown Victoria. Parts are very nicely cast with few problems. I have a couple of small bubbles in the lower quarter, but those are easily filled and have not created any problems on the outer surface. Think I might have to pop the front fascia loose on the left side and raise it a little, but may just be the camera angle. We'll see. Noted a little interference between the chassis and interior floor that tends to push the chassis (and wheels) slightly rearward. But a little careful removal of material on the chassis seemed to help. I also cut away part of the rear wheel wells to allow the chassis to snug up to the interior. The interior is cast so thin that there's no material available to remove there. But this seems to have fixed the problem. I cleaned up the inside surface of the A-pillars a bit and cut the windshield to fit. It snaps in because there's a ridge on the inside of the A-pillars and the header which holds it well. May need some adjustments as I complete the interior but the windshield fit is sharp and crisp at this point. Looks good. Very clean vacuformed windshield. As with any resin kits I've worked with, there is some fitting and "massaging" (as Tim Boyd calls it) as you build one of these. But this is a nice kit. I'd like a couple more. Mine is going to be a California Highway Patrol cruiser. Love black and whites. Heard that the Chevy Nova sedan is up and running. Got myself an MPC Nova coupe waiting. Terry

94 Chevy Dooley

Got my copy of Tim Boyd's new book in the mail today, and it is amazing. 176 pages of photos and all kinds of information about muscle car kits from all the manufacturers. Something like 400 photos! I've just had a chance to breeze through it tonight, but what I've seen is terrific. One of the coolest books on model cars EVER. This had to be a ton of work, and it shows. This is terrific history. They're available from Car Tech Books, and Amazon. You owe it to yourself. In the meantime, I'm going to have a ball reading. Never know--maybe I'll build a muscle car or two.... This is a very impressive book. Terry

Who is casting these, and when will they be ready? I read through but missed it. Thanks, Terry

Thanks. I have a bunch of photographs of this particular car. The kit is from Modelhaus and, unfortunately, is no longer available since they have discontinued production (except for a long waiting list of late orders).

Seems like I started this an eon ago, but I keep edging closer. Spent the last few days making a steering wheel, and I have lots of little parts to finish. Seems like those take the longest. Terry

Amazing work, and fun to watch this come together.

I've been building police car models for about 35 years off and on. Here's just a few.

These are patrol units from my home department, Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office. The models are Motormax diecasts. I had the decals printed by Microscale based on photos I took of the cars. The white Crown Victoria is from 2009, the black and white one from 2011, and the SUV Interceptor from 2015. They use the SUV primarily but still have a few of the Crown Vics on the streets. The decal sheet is set up to do older paint schemes, too.

What a total hoot! I love it. What wonderful imagination.

Checking to see if I can load photos... Terry

Hey, if you guys want to see the greatest collection of model hot rods since Tim Boyd discovered the Internet, try here. http://public.fotki.com/TerryJessee/the-hot-rod-model-k/ Lots of cool stuff. Terry

Wow. That's just beautiful.