customline

The chrome firewall is kinda cool. No drop in the front axle- that stinks ?. The chrome rocker covers are nice. I foiled mine, then painted them.

Thanks, Alan. I'm OK with the painted windshield frame. The chrome, I believe, is not original but a custom modification. Maybe our young rodder will save up and have it chopped and chrome plated at some point in the future. But I doubt it.

Thanks, Greg.

Not always, Len, but often ?

Hey, you may have something there, Greg. The roof of the Monogram Nomad is way too flat and its really obvious (It's not a great kit so I don't mind if it ends up back in the box ?.) I'm considering grafting a portion of some roof to the nomad to raise the "crown". This particular conversion involves a lot of scratch building but I have a ?-ton of Evergreen. I spent half the day on it. So far, a lot of fun ?.

Yeah....about that....I am thinking that I would like to maintain the identity of the Nomad by making use of that B-pillar in some way. The top half of the tailgate will be the easiest way to close up the cab but I don't want to lose that Nomad look if I can help it. In my mind (?), that's important. The T-bird is going in the box so there's room on the bench. This is your fault, Greg. ?

Oh boy.....glad I caught up with this one, Greg. I've got a Mono '57 that has been begging for this treatment. It looks like you had this one well planned. I'm on board. I have lots of questions. ?

A Masterpiece! It's pretty hard to tell it's a model, Steve. It looks like a 1:1 to me ?

Thanks, Robert. Don't look at the previous post. ?

The roadster worked out well enough, Len, but there was another burn-through victim I needed to fix that didn't do so well. My little birdie will need a whole new paint job now I tried to cover the rub-through on the lid...... Disaster ?. This is not my first attempted paint repair disaster, either. The above photo shows my attempt to remove what I applied. Imagine my surprise when I removed the masking tape ( and the subsequent outburst of cursing ?). Maybe I can cover the damage with primer and build a body shop diorama to put it in. ?

Quick update. I re-sprayed the panel below the trunk lid today and after I get it polished out I can start putting this thing together. Thanks for checking in.

Oh he's gonna love it, Steve. He may even let you take his 1:1 W30 for a drive! Now that would be pretty cool ?. I will be using your thread for a guide when I build mine. I have it bookmarked. Congrats!

Thanks, Dave, I will give that a shot when the time comes. ?

I did more sand/polish on this thing today, I wasn't happy with it. There are areas on the fender module that are quite difficult to sand and polish like the first photo shows. The second photo is something I picked up years ago, I think, at Hob Lob. They are high quality sanding boards. They worked quite well but I did need to cut the ends square in order to get in the corner tight. The finest is 7000 so you'll have to use your regular pads (cut to fit) to bring it all the way to 12000. I'm happy now. ? I think I'm gonna work on the exhaust now........naaaah.

Well, Bob, I prefer the chrome frame. My kit did not include one so I'm just going to use the one that was included. Let's just call it "my bad luck" ? Edit: I like the ride height on your roadster.

Quick update. I wet-sanded and polished it out but it needs bit more work. The rub-through on the rear will need some paint but it should be okay. We'll see. In the process of sand-polish, two things were mysteriously broken: the windshield frame and a bumper bracket (which is most likely in my sink trap where it will stay.) ? Its a process. Thanks for checking up on me ?

You think it's ethereal ? Hey, maybe I'm on to something ?.

Yup, a learning curve, for certain.

Thanks, Carl. I'm a big fan of the Boyd's line and have a few bottles for "special" projects. Too bad they dropped the whole MM line, Especially the Metalizers. I was devastated.

According to our back-story, those tires on the car now are brand-new re-treads. Our "rodder" is a kid with a gas station job. Ideal. But it's not a lot of dough. The Red Ram came out of a wreck behind the gas station. It's a stock 140 HP 7:1 CR, "economical" hemi. Quiet and smooth. The tri-power is just for looks. No-go-show-boat. The chrome windshield is a Revell item and the one I have is the chopped version. This kit is the AMT '29 roadster. I couldn't find a way to make the Revell frame work; my AMT windshield is an extension of the dash so I considered cutting the frame off and grafting the chrome frame to the body somehow....anyway, I didn't want two frames I couldn't use. I'll keep the original wind screen (that's the English ? term) and retain the up-top option. ?

Wow! Very nice!

Outstanding ! ? detail this thorough is pretty rare.

Thank you, Carl. The color was a last-minute decision. I have a few of those Testor's cans and I want to use them before they start to leak.

I'm on board, Mr. Mike! I just "won" one of these old Monogam kits a couple weeks ago. Mine is a bit better than what I see here, though ?. Good luck and don't break anything!

Progress! Yesterday the humidity was down so I spent some time in the garage catching up on the painting. Of the three I've been working on, two of them were ready for color. I decanted a can of Testor's Extreme Lacquer for the T-bird and shot it through my old Wren. Left the bird in the dehydrator overnight and did the polish-out this morning. It could have used another coat or two. I came very close to rubbing through on the front fender ridges and finally did on the tight radius of the deck lid just above the badge. ?. Gotta try an airbrush touch-up on it. It's small but it's obvious. the Thunderbird scripts survived the ordeal but the white outline from the fine white primer is evident. I'm OK with it. It was an experiment. Thanks for looking and your comments are valuable and welcome.