customline

Tonight's mock-up. Still lots of work with a Dremel on the inner fender panels. Sheet stock was added to the firewall sides to accommodate the '34 Ford hood sides that will be added to the nose. Sure hope this works ?.

lf you don't mind me saying so, the '34 firewall is really awkward and ugly. If you are swapping anything bigger than a SBC, you may as well truncate that puppy and make a "show" firewall. It looks like you're halfway there anyway. You have Evergreen, right?

I think it will hide fairly well. The running boards wrap around downward and a lot can be hidden under there. I can goof a little more, actually. I think the big problem is gonna be from the firewall forward. The Auburn frame holds all the body components together so without it, I've got to re-engineer the whole damned thing. Pretty ambitious, huh? ?

Actually , it's not a fully envisioned concept. Mostly, it's a way to get rid of a few bad purchases and maybe break even. I've got 4 up in the air waiting on the weather and here I am. Thanks, Bob.

Mmmmm....I dunno, Bil, I got it back together but the errant cut was made in the curved area that I was very purposefully trying to avoid. I'm forging ahead till I hit a wall. That's how I roll. ? ....then it goes in the recycle bin.

And I could make a tag " SANDMAN" . no, this one is getting numbers on the doors, I think. Yup. They say "it's the thought that counts". That may apply here. ? Thank you both !

Commencement I re-aligned the fuselage and rear stablizer....uh...fenders. added some reinforcement, anticipating the body work. The body consists of .....OK, there's like 2 of everything. Kinda like a P-80 or a B-25 kit. All halves. In order to use the chassis from the "Van", it had to be extended 1/4". I went another 1/8" just to be safe. I cooked up some extension thingies and found a good straight section to make the splice. In order to make a 90 degree cut, I used my fool-proof micro-vise. This is where things turned. After I made the cut on the other rail I observed there was a problem. This is called "beyond the point of no return ". Sink or swim, Jim. I cut on the wrong side of my little micro-vise ?. .....more later.

This one may not end up under glass. More likely, it will occupy a box for eternity. The inspirational trigger for this build attempt is an interesting project by a famous hobbyist here on this forum. I should stay off Ebay because I try to score cheap styrene and that's how I came by the main component, the famous Lindberg '35 Auburn Speedster. The Glue Bomb. We have "Ollie's" ( where I bought Dupli Color rattlers for $2 and $3 per can a few years ago ) nearby and I accumulated three of these $8.00 kits, also by Lindberg. The incredible "'38 Ford Custom Van". My chassis (and cool wheels but not the engine) doner. ( ? the other kits did not get built like the box art or the instructions.) The idea is to drop the boat-tail speedster body on a modern IFS/IRS chassis with good brakes and cool wheel/tires (tyres, for the English-speaking among us.) And a blown something or other. I'll find a neat engine (suggestions? ) I'm kicking around the idea of a flip nose rather than an open hood due to the way the kit goes together (unless I can figure out a way to mount the front fenders - I don't do fenders very often.) The Auburn kit looks like it was designed in the same studio as the the aircraft kits. The "fuselage " had to be reconstructed due to poor longitudinal alignment. This was also an issue with the tail section. Most of it came apart easily due to advanced age and an unconventional glue technique. ? Then a different technique was used to hold the right side hood panel in place, which proved to be a very good one. ? Is Gorilla Glue yellow? It was dry, though.... Just be cautioned: this one has an unprecedented probability of being left in a recycling bin. If you are familiar with the Auburn kit, please feel free to commiserate, comment, confer or confess. Laugh here.

Ahhhh...the '55 St. Regis...that lower grille bar shows up on many a leadsled. The New Yorkers were pretty snazzy, ? (haven't heard that word in quite a while, have you?)??

I love a good '34. If you use that '37 frame, how 'bout that funky grille?

Thanks, Bill, but nope- I wouldn't have cut that door if I had spotted the discrepancy of the interior door panel/door jamb/windshield dogleg. The door "card" was not fully nor correctly represented and I cut before I realized this was the case. Lack of experience is the culprit. Never trust the tooling! I am a fan of these Mopars of the '50s having lived with a couple of them as daily drivers when I was young and foolish. I wish Moebius would take advantage of the work that went into that kit and expand the yield as they did for their much-loved Hudson lineup ?. Just think what they could produce! Who wouldn't want to build a few of these visually stunning examples?

It's just gray card stock that I "commandeered " from Wifey. Her glue too ( ? ). I got the dash done yesterday and I'm not really happy with it but if you don't zoom in too much it's ok. I wanna wrap this one up but it's an airbrush job (Alclad II gloss black base lacquer ) and I need the right day. I got ideas backing up in my head and I want to start on them but juggling any more than 4 gets a bit confusing . Thanks for your support, David.

I LOVE IT ! It is so off the wall and weird that it's beautiful ?! I was so inspired by this build that, at one point, I was on the edge of grabbing one of these body's from JF. Long story short I ended up with the '53 Ford Country Squire body ( I've got 2 donors sitting on the shelf). Let's get this puppy painted! Very cool, Joe ?

Yeah, my wife must have been driving it ☺️

Just be sure not to try this with a can that says "spray any way" on the label. ?

It's those snorkels that make me envious ?

It's kinda like "this A-Bone is sanitary...just look at my wheel wells!" . I can dig that . Honestly, I never thought to do it but hey, first time for everything. It could set a new trend! ?

This one caused me some respiratory discomfort, Bill. Had to hit the albuterol a few times.. And it was not the build/mock-up that got me going....it was the text. ? You probably forgot all about this.

Love that color, Chuck. On my Tab A, it looks more like a dark yellow (maybe my display setting. ) I also enjoyed re-living my frantic, vulgarity-laced (for the neighbors' benefit) decal application experiences. Thank you very much. It's good to know that it's not just me. Will you be leaving those wheel wells white? I kinda like it ?. Hey, they paint firewalls white, don't they? It's kinda cool.

Nope. No good. Gotta do it again. And added a little detail to the trunk lid. It's rough but some clean-up and paint and It'll be fine ?.

Those wheels are the cat's pajamas, Bil. Nailed! Love the dented rim. Is it my imagination or is the dust cover dented? Very real.

I really like your interior ideas. I think I'll go evergreen shopping. I reeeeeeeealy like those window cranks. I'll bet there's a big market for those ?. Good progress, Jim!

I should not have made light of dementia and, for the record,, I apologize to anyone who may have found it offensive. If anyone found it funny, SHAME ON YOU! ?. As far as building better models goes, I wish you the best. After I had mine done 5 or 6 years ago, I didn't notice any difference. I still build crappy models. I still have trouble driving at night. My floaters are much worse and my eyes are always filmy. I still need a lot of light and magnification to work on said crappy models. I hope you have better luck with yours. ?

Thanks, kraM! May as well post these while I'm here, there's not a lot of progress. I need a good day to shoot this puppy and then I can bring it home. Nothing fancy inside but it wish I could remember what kit the seats came from. ?