customline

I love a good story like this, Len. It's totally relatable. I'd love to tell y'all about what I did to the tip of my right index finger with a hacksaw yesterday but it may bring up bad memories for too many of us. Needless to say, I won't be doing much detail work for a few(?) days ?. Sorry about the wire thing. I didn't mean to cause trouble for anyone. ? Yup. Doing a special project for Wifey. Long story.

1.2 tons....yeah, that's a handy little tool. Who needs guages?

Wow. It looks like it has tons of compound leverage. It looks pretty old, too (the metal box). A nice collectible, for sure.

That's a serious tool, Greg. I'll bet you could punch sheet metal with that thing. Dimples are ? cute.

The headlight plugs are kind of interesting, Greg. How'd you do that?

Well, even if I had the right tools, I still need better eyes and hands. This grille mod is just beyond my current abilities. I may try again, because I'm pretty stubborn and I have another spare grille. Greg suggested a hacksaw blade and I think I may try stripping the chrome (to improve visibility) and try a mini-hacksaw (that I have out in my truck if I can find it but had not thought of until now)...maybe. I actually had that drill you pictured. My grandkids loved to annoy me with it for years. Much as they tried, they were never able to kill the battery in that damned thing. ?

I tried. I really did. It's just too much for me. Luckily, it was a spare grille. ?

How about giving us a tutorial on how you slotted out the grilles. What did you use to cut the slots so neatly?I just tried with several tools at my disposal but nothing I have in my arsenal will do a proper job so....what did you use and where can I get one? ?

Don't scrimp on magnification, Greg, you might be surprised when you zoom your photos- happens to me all the time ?.

I'm glad somebody appreciates my sense of humor ?. Well, the yellow plastic makes the toy comparison easy. Yeah, the fenders could be "rounder" but some work with a sharp #11 on the headlight bezels and opening the holes downward will get the headlight-to-fender top relationship in a better way. Keep Band-aids handy (I prefer Curad 1" plastic strips myself but it's a personal choice). Then there's the windshield issue, sorta like the Fleetline situation but not as bad. The more you look, the worse it gets. I'm drawing the line at the nose job ? Maybe I'll try something with the windshield....more on this later....maybe. stop looking ?!

I am amazed at how many us are willing to spend our time trying to take this "sow's ear" and make a silk purse out of it. Greg has found yet another issue that needs fixing and I am now following his idea to make the grille correction (the next chance I get). The more we study pictures of the 1:1, the worse the kit gets. Between all of us, we just might have the formula to make this awful kit awesome ?. Can someone please do something about those horrible rear springs and the Fisher-Price rear axle? AMT had good intentions, though, providing a way to lower the rear. I suppose we should be grateful they didn't mold it into the floor. I really like what you're doing on the grille, Greg. I wish I had thought of it ? (and I was getting ready to spray the fine surface primer....oh well)

Oh wow, Greg. That totally sucks! ..... Well, at least it's not yellow ?. OK, not funny. I will look at my other 2 kits and PM you later today. Hang in there.

Take your time, you have a year ?. Incidently, I was comparing the '39 to the '41 and the (coupe) body is different so...I'm giving up on that idea. ☹️

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. ?