customline

Len, that is a wonderful anniversary gift. My 40th is coming up soon. I prefer the coupe but a convertible would also be nice ?.

Oh that's a beauty, Len. When was the restoration done?

Thanks, Carl, progress is waiting for paint now and paint waits for weather, which has been uncooperative lately. Whenever the opportunity presents itself though, I try to move forward and get some paint done. I'm preparing to prime a bunch of yellow plastic today. This thread and Lenny's have brought this kit some fair attention. The builder is faced with how best to build it based on the builder's skill set. I can't see this kit (and some others on my shelves) being anything but raw material rather than a real "kit". Like a resin body with some usable components thrown in. Like the "Craftsman Series" from AMT, it's a good start for a gasser or custom but not an authentic representation out of the box. Full stop. I know I complain too much about the deficiencies of some kits but it's because there are a lot of great kits out there for comparison. Gotta take the good with the bad, I guess. ?

Lenny, you gotta show me the '39. Please. (I have an unnatural thing for the '39)

Build it as a flip-nose gasser and you solve all the issues. A) The nose becomes a one piece fiberglass unit with only a vague resemblance of the original. the crappy rear axle and the incorrect shock placement gets upgraded to something that actually looks like a rear axle housing (and you get to add ladder bars, laddie! ) (C) a tube axle replaces all that nonsense in the front suspension and steering. And D) you don't have to worry about trim....let's face it, this kit has much potential- just not as a stock '41 Plymouth ?. Think of it as a resin body with benefits ☺️.

I like the middle pair of buckets, Len. They look like mid '60s style out of a GTO or some such thing. Same era as the mags you are using. Like a street rod built in 1972. Especially if you go with the kit V8.

Thanks, James. It's unfortunate that mods of this nature are necessary to produce a good likeness of a '41 Plymouth but it is what it is. Maybe another manufacturer will step up and create accurate representations of these pre-war MoPars but don't hold your breath.

Yeah...I tried that too. As far as the welt goes, It's a bit large but there's so much out-of-scale nonsense going on with this kit, it's not relevant to me anymore. The liberties they took with the chassis and drive line turn the whole thing into a joke. I started the assembly of the suspension and when I got to the rear axle/springs/shocks I found very little resemblance to the 1:1. I started to "fix" things and realized it was useless . ? it's pretty "toy-like", not a serious model. Maybe it can be detailed by someone with a better attitude but I've had enough of this one and just want to settle for making the body look more realistic and move on. There's your delayed intelligence, Dave. ?

While waiting for my Hobbylinc order to get here I figured I try to complete the boat mooring. I found a great photo of one and thought it would be cool to connect the ignition wires like they did back in the day I figured I give it a try. I soldered my wires to .020 brass and painted below the connection with gloss white. Drilled out the molded-in plugs and inserted the brass. Cut the wires to length and inserted in my "distributor". A very fiddly operation(for me ?). So I got my .020 styrene and installed the fender welt. Thanks for your interest ? All right then.

Well, there you go folks! PM Charlie if you want in on this! It's way over my head ?.

Well...actually it was Ringo's song first and his friends were pretty helpful. And oh, yeah, licensing....that's a big one. I guess we gotta do it the hard way ☹️. The .020 styrene rod showed up today. Yay. The work shall resume ?

Can you really do that Charlie? Sounds like a worthwhile undertaking, for sure. I would be interested in a new front clip that is accurate to 21st century standards (or a whole new kit, for that matter ?). Not sure if it's cost effective but I have no knowledge of that stuff. I'm still stuck in the 20th century. ?

I'm curious about the custom engine. It seems kinda small. Does anyone know what it's supposed to be? Small block MoPar? Niiiiiiiiiiice paint, James! Beautiful blue. Can't wait to see it in foil ?

Thanks for your comments and suggestions, Bill. I will be trying some .020 styrene rod when it arrives. The normal prime/sand process should render it a bit smaller but I plan on down-playing it as much as I can by painting the car black. The welt situation has taken on a life of its own but, for me, its just something I've got to deal with to finish out the nose mod. In fact, yesterday I put a full coat of primer on the car and then remembered that I was going to wait till the welt was put in ?

I think the grille looks great. The headlights, which look kinda "fat" could be replaced with some custom kit parts (48 Ford). The hood might need replacement with a styrene part. Resin means CA for assembly so trim work is a bit more difficult but not impossible. Maybe some reworking of the bottom of the front fenders/cowl/door area. The trunk and hood badges looks pretty good. The running board covers seem too deep. I dunno, Len, it's just a matter of desire, but if you want a '42-'48, it could be done. The backlight opening needs work too. Because it's resin, you may find you can modify an original kit a bit easier but that's just my opinion and you know what they say.

Probably more correct than AMT would have rendered it ?. Maybe some day.

That makes two of us, John. Thank you!

Thanks, Dave. The trim on the cowl was pretty poor so that was replaced too. I was after a better alignment with the trim on the hood, which was narrowed in the process by removing material beyond just the hood trim. The sides were sanded quite a bit. My hood had a slight twist so I twisted it the other way and it seemed to fit better. Styrene is pretty good about that sometimes ?.

I love these little magnets. I use 'em to keep doors and trunks and hoods closed. But not just closed but, more importantly, in alignment. in the case of this hood, the rear alignment is provided by the "stubs" at the back corners. All I needed was something at the nose....MAGNETS! ? I was waiting for the glue to dry on the magnets so I "created" a distributor from sprue. Crude but the wires have gotta go somewhere ?. Also, I just remembered to add the correct seam lines to the nose. I haven't done it yet....but I did remember it and that's something ?.

Another update. A re-do of the trim on the hood- the left side trim was removed and replaced.....twice. I'm having a great time with this one ?. I think I got it as good as I can get it. We won't know till the foil is on. I'm thinking about trimming the foil on the body a tiny bit wide and then tight on the new stuff to maybe compensate for the difference in width. My estimate for chance of success on that is about 50/50 ?. When it warms up out there I'll get some more primer on it. Thanks for sticking around ?

Yup, that's how to solve the problem, Rick! I have one of my $13 Ollie's kits planned for just that solution ?. But what are you gonna do with six of 'em?!?.....OK..... gasser, short track, street rod, rust-out, showroom stock, custom, salt....yeah, I can see that ?. Maybe I should try to buy a few more. Just what did you pay for the six, if you don't mind me asking? BTW, thanks for your encouragement, Rick. I appreciate the kind words!

Quick update. Decided to attack the hood issues. Started by removing the molded-in trim and continued to remove material along both sides in order to facilitate adding new trim using .040 half round. I also removed the trim on the cowl and replaced it because I want the hood trim and the cowl trim to line up better. Everything I do creates another issue to resolve. Ya gotta love it. I removed the small top nose trim bar because i will need to relocate it slightly. I also added some sheet stock to the bottom of the hood peak. This seemed like an easy way to get things a bit tighter. I discovered that my hood was slightly twisted and some tweaking was in order. Before I do any more, though, I will be setting up the magnets that will keep the hood closed and in alignment ( I hope.) Thanks for keeping up! ?

That's a great shot of the 1:1 nose, Len. The work you did on yours looks darn good. I would (and plan to) go with .020 but making it stick without melting it will require some finesse. I'm waiting for mine to get here. I'm not too sure about the BMF idea but I wouldn't tell you not to try it. I may paint the car black simply to avoid the problem. The wheels provided in the Rocker kit are a far sight better than the ones in the current kit (why would they do that?) I think I need to do some re-doing, Len, it's unavoidable if I want this thing to work.

Yeah, Greg, it's a hot mess. It's as if they didn't care about accuracy very much. I guess it's all about the bottom line. It's unfortunate. If they had gone with a '36-'38, they might have had an easier time of it. Oh well, at least we have this.

I don't know, David, it's challenging my patience, certainly, and lately I wonder if it really is worth it. If it helps to keep my old brain functioning properly then yeah, I suppose it is. Thanks for your encouragement, I appreciate it.