Ace-Garageguy

Same company, though Bell is gone and Gregg is the publisher and editor now.

I was almost as anal-retentively pedantic as a kid as I'm reputed to be now. Maybe it's PTSD, resulting from the brutalization my innocent psyche suffered when I opened a Palmer kit, that makes me so intolerant when I encounter poorly-designed, engineered, or proportioned anything today.

Still there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67 Somewhat similar ideas in high-density housing have been proposed...and built...using recycled shipping containers:

Exquisite work, and a fine illustration that even an "old" and relatively simple kit can become a knockout model if 1) the basic proportions are spot-on, and 2) the builder goes the extra mile to get everything just right. The re-work you did on the windshield frame is a huge improvement (I'm quite familiar with this kit), and the tire substitution gets the look right for what an early car might have been shod with in the pre-radial era. Everything about this model is superb. Most impressive.

2K clear simply means it's a two-component system, the components being the clear itself, and a hardener / activator. There's often a reducer too, a "thinner", that helps to achieve spraying consistency. 2K clear is usually an acrylic urethane or polyurethane, and the hardener is isocyanate-based...so it's BAD to get in your lungs. RESPIRATOR MANDATORY, even if you have a booth that vents to the outdoors. GLOVES AND EYE AND SKIN PROTECTION HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. It typically sprays considerably thicker than clears developed specifically for models, and though I've used it extensively on real cars, I've never felt the need to go to so much trouble for a model.

Yes, that was the party line at the time. Also at the time, the inability of the Challenger I to make its return run (to clinch the official Land Speed Record) after clocking 406.6 MPH one way was blamed on a gearbox failure. Now, it looks like it may have actually been an engine failure, but Thompson didn't want to put the blame on a partner he received considerable cooperation from. The gearboxes in the car were essentially junkyard-sourced LaSalle units. The engines, supplied by Pontiac, may have been test units that had already had a hard life before being delivered to Thompson. I had hoped to have met and talked extensively with his son Danny by now, but so far, I haven't been able to due to other commitments. Whatever the real reason, Mickey Thompson's achievement ranks as one of the most significant events in the history of hot-rodding.

Cool. Nice work. First car I ever race-prepped, for a sedan class in SCCA.

If I remember correctly, the 421 uses larger main journals than the 389. The 421 also had 4-bolt main caps. This would necessitate a different block casting, though they are very similar visually (on the outside). EDIT: Yup. Checked it. Definitely different. The 421 is beefier in other areas as well.

Very nice job on that.

Certainly worth waiting for, though. Love the concept.

Well...

Not exactly, but closer, anyway...

Pretty cool.