customline

This is what my interior should look like: Unfortunately it won't. It will, however, look like this but in red: oh, c'mon....it won't look this bad. There's a ?-ton of work to be done yet. Lots of filling and sanding. Be patient ?. Another week or so. The front seats are a total scratch-build using junk seat parts, cut up and not toasted. Right now this is what that looks like: thanks for taking a peek ?.

Yessir! That's how we do it here at AMT! ?

There must have been a ragtop as an annual. It clearly is a convertible interior because of the narrowed seat-back and the surrounding top rail bays. It's not the first one I've run into, Tom ?.

Yeah, I get it and I'm glad you brought it up. Gotta be more aware of this sort of thing. Thanks for coming by, Tom, your input is appreciated.

She's a real beauty, Dave. Be proud!

Moving right along..... I have committed to modifying the '63 interior tub due to the the unavailability of the MCW resin kit. So here we go! The '63 tub is a pretty fair P.O.S and was produced as a convertible interior because who would know, right? ?. My first task was to make it look like a hardtop interior by...well...look at the pictures. The part of the new rear seat-back is played by an obscure extra of unknown origin. I grafted a piece of .020 sheet to build a foundation for subsequent construction and added a small piece of .030 inside for further reinforcement. Then the fun began with Mr. Dremel and his good friend Mr. Circular Saw. There will be quite a bit of clean-up but, basically, the heavy lifting is done. The new details will be produced on sheet stock and then grafted to the smoothed interior. That's probably the easiest way to do that. Wish me luck ?

Maybe they bought molds from different mfgrs. to produce in their "Asian" facility under their name ?.

Yup. I've opined about this before but I had forgotten about it. Yeah, you have got to scrutinize these things because the mfgrs. make a lot of mistakes. To be fair, many builders don't really give a ?. What it boils down to is don't trust them and look very closely if you care about authenticity! BTW, what is "Model King"? Is it an entity like Round Two?

I was thinking F-16

I agree. Just zap it and sand before it cures completely. It stays soft like the styrene for a while. I will use it for small pits and depressions. No waiting, David ? ! Then you can do a final with "spot putty" before a fine sanding.

So you used what, specifically (brand and type), for a liquid solvent cement? In some of my attempts to use a solvent on a thin strip that was being pulled into a radius like that it would just weaken the strip and it would break. I found I had to use CA in those circumstances of a bend like that. Maybe what you used was "cooler" than what I've been using.

Yeah, sorry David, I'm doing it again....

Maybe with AI and all the 3D out there we could see these in 1:25 someday ? (that last one ought to be an easy kit-bash )

Dave, the sink-hole thing? What are you filling them with that is so time consuming? Why not use Bondo? (What am I missing? ?) you could be painting it by now ?

Oh, I get...I love the '64 Gal too. And the Marauder. It kills me that we have to combine kits at today's prices just to build a decent model, but it is what it is. And the Starliner is a very worthwhile build by itself. Great kit!

Be careful what you wish for, Ace ?. I would caution you about getting the original issue from Y2K (the black car on the box art.) Subsequent issues have some optional goodies you may want. I didn't know this when I pursued the Starliner kit. If you have not read my post carefully you should be advised it's not a plug-n-play situation. I can't speak for any other full size FoMoCo kits but this is hard-core kit bashing. This isn't my first rodeo but it's pushing my skill set to some new ground. Don't paint anything till you have everything down pat because, if you do, you may end up looking like this guy-> ?.....jus' sayin'?.

I think I've got the firewall worked out. I nipped the top front corners off the '63 tub and added a strip of styrene to the top, inside edge of the '60 firewall. Everything fits good in a mock-up but we all know how that goes.

Error

Oh he'll yes, Dave. The gold looks purty dern ? cool. Those gravel shields were kinda neat, weren't they? Great trap for salty slush in early March. Made quick work of those rear quarters ?. Wax on, wax off. Wax off, wax off. Wax on......

I'm so confused ?....but at least I got the right junk hanging under the trunk. Moving on to the interior/firewall/body length discrepancy/ tight engine bay/undiscovered surprises thing.

Ace! I need your expertise on something. If you would, please have a look at my Tasca 777 lightweight Galaxie build in the drag cars section. It's about the rear mounted traction bars. Maybe you could add something to help me understand those things a bit better.

As I was driving this morning my mind wandered away from the road and I envisioned the Tasca traction bars. I guess my subconscious had been working on your explanation of how they work and, like these sort of things usually happen, I finally got it just at the moment I was turning right on a red light and then I heard the blast of a horn of the pickup behind me ("where'd he come from? ?.) Anyway, I think I finally understood that the bar takes the action off the rear half of the springs and as the axle housing tries to turn in the opposite direction of the wheels,the bars actually pull down on the rear most part of the car without losing any energy from spring flexing. All that torque is used to pull the weight of the rear of the car down on the rear tires. I guess you said all that in different words but my brain couldn't "see" it until it ran it through that part of my brain that could deal with it ?.....so....do I get it?

The top of the front seats must have been tricky. How did you manage that tight radius?

This is an updated response to your comment: Thank you, Ron, but I screwed up. See above ?

This looks like fun, Dave. The thought of a car without windows makes me a bit clostrophobic but it's a pretty cool piece of automotive history. I'm following this one, for sure. What's this about stretch marks? I thought only pregnant women got those ?. Edit: BTW, I wouldn't call this box art "Art Deco". At the time this thing was current, Deco was old hat. I don't know what the official name for it is but I think of it as "Jet Age" or "Modern" or maybe " Futurama ". Maybe somebody here went to art school (but I doubt it) ?