Muncie

yeah, probably worth doing a search here and checking out the Perry's history... sorry to hear that it sounds like he's up to his old stuff.

Pat, is this plastic or diecast? It looks like it might be a chemical reaction with baking soda and the base material.

Before anyone starts cutting new door lines - Five window coupe and roadster have the same door opening dimension and the shorter doors. Three window coupe, cabriolet and 2-door sedan have the same door opening dimension and the longer doors. I believe the door opening dimension is at the beltline. The perceived door length is affected by the angle of the car in the most photographs. Back to the source, Reference Ford literature from 1936... Door opening dimension: Tudor Sedan 40 inches Cabriolet 40 inches Three-Window Coupe 40 inches Five-Window coupe 34-1/4" Roadster 34-1/4"

wow, that's really vague in the instructions - one of the cylinders (the one on the rh side) on the radiator support could be/is probably the receiver dryer for the air conditioner system.

decal artwork looks great! maybe a little too tall... Freightliner offered three sleeper heights - standard = height of the cab, raised roof = closer to the top of a van trailer, and mid-roof = could almost stand up inside but lower roof for operations with flatbed or tank trailers. Your 1:1 photo is a mid roof. Maybe lower the top until there is about 6 feet of standing headroom inside. I wish I had the actual sleeper dimensions... The sleeper roof in the kit is a custom top manufactured and installed by Sloan's. Not installed by Freightliner, but you could get a new truck delivered to Sloan's for a sleeper roof, upholstery and custom paint before it went to the dealer.

Best to strip anything primed with the Rustoleum so the Duplicolor goes directly on the plastic. Duplicolor makes a couple of different flavors of primers and different builders have different preferences. Some primers are made to spray on thicker so they can fill sand scratches and other problems - but they also fill in molded detail. The 1699 primer-sealer comes out a little thinner, less sanding after primer. A sealer is intended to be a barrier and block anything under the sealer from showing thru the top coats and to also prevent the top coats from attacking anything below. Light coats to start and then start building up layers. I've never been a fan of Rustoleum but that doesn't mean it won't work over another primer. There is a much better chance that Rustoleum paint (not bonds to plastic) will work over Duplicolor primer than the other way around. I'll admit that I'm probably biased, but my opinion is that any of the hardware store paints that say bonds to plastic are meant for plastic shelving and other utility plastics, not the fine work that we do. My rule of thumb for paint advise is that if you have 15 model builders in a room that can all do great paint, there will be at least 15 different methods and none of then will work for anybody else. Experiment, find what works, and that's what you do.

wow! bet that wouldn't happen if you wanted it to... I've seen that before - it's incompatible primer and paint... always a possibility for disaster when mixing brands. Use the Duplicolor 1699 Primer sealer. Skip the Rustoleum primer. Looks like no damage to the plastic so a quick trip thru some Super Clean (the purple pond) will get you back to bare plastic.

Here's more on the engine mounts. Håkan and I have exchanged a couple of messages. Let's break installing a big-block down to two era's - before side-mount engine conversion kits and after. Side mount installations are better but kits for a 1955-56-57 Chevy didn't become common until the eighties. Side engine mounts could be done before then, but it took some fabrication and welding because bolt-in kits were not available. So this is the way we did it 50 years ago. Hope this helps... Back in the '60's and 70's, there were Hurst engine conversion kits. This is the front engine mount kit for a big block in the tri-five Chevy. Bolts to the front of the block. https://www.hotrod.com/articles/vintage-tech-hurst-performance-swaps-new-396-v8/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- another photo from the same source - bellhousing and rear engine mounts - this looks like an aftermarket cast scattershield from the internet forum www.tri-five.com --- Stock rear engine mounts with big block Chevy and Lakewood Bellhousing. Notice how the headers have to drop below the bellhousing engine mounts. Lakewood adapter kit for stock engine mounts on a Lakewood bellhousing - if you think the countersunk holes weaken the bracket, you're right, mine bent with just a small block. The aluminum plate on the back of the bellhousing is an adapter to install a T-56 6-speed transmission - from the tri-five.com forum. Notice he also added a transmission crossmember in the above picture.

I'll agree with that - seems like an odd choice for a parts pack, but I need a couple of sets. wish they had been easier to see in the video. Hopefully this means more wheel parts packs are coming - like to see some good newly tooled Cragar five spokes

what Casey says filling in a few blanks --- Any of the old Monogram NASCAR GM stock car kits have a good Lakewood (like the red one in Casey' notes) style bellhousing and GM four speed - there may be some other parts that you can use. There were several ways to adapt a big-block to a tri-five Chev. The early kits used a Hurst saddle type engine mount at the front (which had two mounting points on the frame) and the standard rear engine mounts on the bellhousing. It takes an adapter kit to use these engine mounts with a Lakewood bellhousing. I'm not aware of any of these parts in any kit. Some installations added a crossmember at the rear of the transmission. A Camaro/Nova crossmember mounted on angle iron welded to the chassis was one way to add a rear transmission mount. Radiator notes - Stock V-8 radiators mounted aft of the core support, 6-cylinders had the radiator ahead of the core support. Big blocks require the 6-cylinder radiator location for fan clearance. I believe it's as simple as flipping the core support in the Revell kit. hope this helps

Tim, thanks for the great review. Don't hear about this museum often, but it is huge with a lot of great cars. It's the same Gilmore that sponsored several AJ Foyt Indy cars.

That's a great tip! It's going to get used around here.

Krylon Dull Aluminum is also my go to - Ace Hardware, some stores have it, some don't. Good results, easy to use.

more on the side windows - the side glass behind the doors was two pieces - one window for the rear passenger and the stationary quarter window aft of that which curved into the tailgate pillar. The 210 series had roll-down rear passenger windows - they only rolled down part way - kid safety I guess. On the 150, the rear passenger windows were fixed. There was a thin divider painted body color between the side windows.

Casey, - great answer, my first car was a 1956 Chevrolet two-ten 2-door wagon and I agree with everything. Mike, great project. The tailgate on the regular wagons was more vertical than the Nomad. It is a difficult shape to get correct in scale. The Star model SD body looks like a duplicate of the body that Modelhaus made. Need to soften the peak on the top of the front fenders. It needs the quarter panel trim added (it's the same as the Revell DelRay) and it is a little too flat at the top of the tailgate below the rear window. I'm also thinking two door - the post in the side window is narrow - it would be wider and further forward on a four door.

here's a case of knowing too much to give you a good answer... The kit, including the engine, is not a good replica of a CF tractor... It is more of a standard day cab with CF decals. It even has some deluxe features which are nowhere near CF's style. The standard color for a Cummins inline (kit engine) in a Freightliner would have been Cummins Beige in the 70's. The Cummins inline extended past the back of cab on the day cab COE's. In most applications , it didn't matter but CF used a very short wheelbase. They used Cummins VT903 and Detroit Diesel 6V engines for clearance to the trailer (if I remember the math correctly). Freightliner painted the chassis on the production line with the engine installed. The engine and radiator were taped and masked off but there was a lot of overspray around the edges The transmission and axles were painted chassis color. You have a very good start and your truck looks great. I'd continue with your plan. If you want the engine red, go for it, it would look good.

thanks, your PDF answers some questions

and from the choir - AY-men

Well, none of this applies to the current conversation but what the heck... I picked up my last gallon of PPG thinner a couple of years ago. I'm sure the formula has changed a bit since the old days and it's probably not available most places due to environmental regulations. In the full size world, the new automotive paints are probably better for their intended purpose in refinishing real cars anyway. Things change. The PPG thinner came in three formulas for painting in different temperatures. For model cars, I preferred DTL-105 High Gloss Slow Thinner which was recommended for 85 to 110 degree temperature. PPG's 1976 Ditzler Repaint Manual says "worth every cent it costs" I always tried to paint about 70 degrees and we don't have much humidity around here. The PPG recommended thinning ratio is 2 parts lacquer and 3 parts thinner. 18 psi in a Badger 200 airbrush. The paint flowed out well with the slow thinner. Under the paint , I used Plasti-Kote T235 Gray primer and although it's not popular around here, I applied sealer after the sanding was finished before the top coats. It's good to see the information that's been posted here. It's been an interesting topic. It's very helpful and I'll need it when I run out of the PPG thinner.

Tom, that's a very good explanation. GF works at a regional distribution center. In very broad numbers, the machines there can sort 10,000 letters in delivery sequence order in the time it takes a person in a local station to sort 10 letters to go to the next place they would be sorted. and yes, there are some smart people who work very hard at the USPS. The train museum in Sacramento has a rail car from the early 1900's (IRC) that was used to carry mail - looked just like a box car. Mail handlers sorted mail in the car as it was travelling to its destination. A legible address helps

Bill, sorry this didn't go well with FedEx Same here - tires were shipped direct to the tire store - it was painless. Even better, I checked with local tire store first to set it up and they matched the online price.

yep, ask away - a new thread can bring out new answers that have not or wouldn't be made in an old thread

Slixx has some - drag racing contingencies, a couple of Willys gassers. might be something you need... http://ecsvr.com/slx/ShopDisplayproducts.asp?Search=Yes

I couldn't turn up anything either on the Simpson transmission blanket. It looks like Simpson doesn't make them anymore. However, it would be almost indistinguishable from something like this more modern part. The material is "ballistic" nylon, multiple multiple layers with webbing straps and buckles. Thanks for posting your work - I'm learning a lot and enjoying following along. Very nicely done.

It's art, it's won awards at big car/rat rod shows - have seen it a couple of times and had a close look - the metal work and art on the cab are amazing - If you see it in person, you won't walk by without taking a longer look. more on the artist and the truck: https://www.pbs.org/video/oregon-art-beat-metal-artist-kelly-phipps/ http://www.kellyphipps.com/automotive-design.html