Muncie

cool! - always been afraid of foiling that side trim but have a couple of projects that need it - thanks for the tip!

Brad4321 - you still there? OK, continued testing. Using better technique, I applied a good coat of the Duplicolor 1699 primer-sealer over the last test and let it dry over night. This morning, I applied a couple of very wet/heavy coats of Tamiya primer to try to draw the sharpie back to the surface like it did before. Nothing showed up. No sharpie. Just a smooth, clean, paintable surface. It looks like everything stayed under the sealer where it was supposed to. I'm satisfied, but there are still some unknowns about what the top coats may do or what may happen over time - should be good. If in doubt, strip the part, remove the sharpie, and carry on.

Yes, Norm At Replicas and Miniatures made a chopped 1930 Model A Coupe body - very nicely done and much more accurate the an the old Monogram kit. Talking yesterday with one of the local club members and he mentioned that Norm dropped it and took it out of the catalog when the mold reached the end of its normal life and Revell came out with the new kit. Replicas may have reissued the body when Revell stopped production. - Long way of saying that it would be worth a quick email to them to check availability.

Here's my completely unscientific laboratory results.... I applied spots of black sharpie on both sides of my well worn test hood last night. This afternoon, I gave one side several coats of Tamiya primer - The spots got worse with every coat and never covered the sharpie - that doesn't mean Tamiya primer is bad - it's just not compatible over sharpie. The sharpie bled into the primer which indicates the thinners in the primer are affecting the sharpie. I scrapped one of the spots with a knife and the sharpie goes all the way thru the primer to the plastic, Best I can tell, the sharpie did not bleed into the plastic which surprised me. The spots are blue which indicates to me the colors in the sharpie and primer are blending together. I think that will happen with most rattle can lacquer based primers. I used Duplicolor primer sealer #DAP1699 on the other side. - it went on good and after several thin coats the sharpie disappeared. We may have something that works. The Duplicolor sealer comes out kind of dark so it may take a white undercoat over the sealer for light color top coats. The sealer looks thin, so no detail was lost. It's smooth enough that it looks like the next color can be sprayed without sanding - or very little sanding depending on you procedures. Rustoleum and probably other paint companies make a similar product. your results may vary... phase 2 testing will be a heavy coat of Tamiya primer over the sealer to see if it gets thru and brings the sharpie to the surface.. edit - test result --- Well, heck - wet coats of Tamiya primer did go thru and bring the sharpie back... I may not have let everything dry thoroughly - well, I know I didn't let it dry. Tamiya primer does contain alcohol so that may be the curse that keeps coming back. Hope this helps

would a thin layer of super glue make a barrier coat? It seems like that is something that would not react with the base coats or the top coats... any experience out there?

The important word is sealer. that's the operational word - sealer. Most primers are not sealers but Duplicolor makes a rattle can primer sealer that does both. It is available at most auto parts stores --- disclosure - I'm trying the Duplicolor primer sealer tomorrow on a scrap hood that I sharpied up tonight. But I'm sold on sealers because I've used the old lacquer based automotive sealers thru an air brush in the past with success. Those old sealers did not require mixing, were very thin, went on smooth and never required sanding before the top coats were applied. They never crazed plastic sprayed on bare plastic straight out of the can, and I could use automotive lacquer top coats. The one to one paint techniques and materials have changed - and some of the new stuff is pretty nasty - but I have some of the old lacquer sealer left... I need to see if I can get more if it's still available. A trip to an automotive pant supplier may lead to a better product - but it has to be a sealer. Sealers are designed to be used after the body work and primer are complete. It's like and insurance policy to keep body work, different colors, and other ugly things from bleeding into the top coat. Duplicolor (and other manufacturers) make several types of primers for different purposes but not all primers are sealers - and some sealers are not primers. If it just says sealer, it will go over the last coat of primer. More thoughts - it sounds like you are working on something that has some time and fabrications invested. At this point it's kind of a science project to find a solution - It may be best to set that part aside for now - make up some mockups with the same process, shrarpie, primer silver to experiment with - save the wear and tear on the real part. There are two things that I never keep in the room where I paint to remove the temptation to use them - permanent markers are one, WD-40 is the other (another story...) I have some friends that have an old booth from a diner in their basement - they had it reupholstered with a white metalflake vinyl. It looked great after they got it back but after time, the blue marker that the upholsterer used on the backside started to show thru. That kind of cured me of using markers unless I wanted something permanent.. Here is a similar issue - might be a good read as well - http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/114755-mythbuster-red-bleed/?page=1 Hope this helps

A couple of places to check out for 1 to 1 pro-touring chassis reference.... Art Morrison Chassis Enterprises - https://www.artmorrison.com/homepage2.php - plenty of chassis and suspension parts information in their catalog and lots of tech on their web-site Detroit Speed - lots of pro touring chassis parts in their online catalog for many applications - nine pages of photos on one of their projects here http://www.detroitspeed.com/Projects/craig-hardee-1969-camaro/craig-hardee-1969-camaro-pg-1.html - plus installation and tech videos

It sounds like you are already past the point where the surface has been primered and it has a coat of paint - and the Sharpie has bled thru both. A coat of sealer should take care of it (but Sharpie could still be problematic) Sealers are made to create a barrier between what's underneath and what's on top. Not sure what brand primer or type of paint you use, but Duplicolor makes a primer sealer in a rattle can.

Thank you for reposting the pictures - that is a great looking model, nicely done. I've picked up an interest in the Nichels cars lately - somewhere on the list of projects is something driven by Len Sutton, an Oregon driver who drove USAC stock cars for Nichels - so he was a teammate with AJ Foyt. Your Dodge is adding to that inspiration.

Although this doesn't work on everything, I've had some success loosening some glued joints and small parts with a technique I learned here - http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/53962-any-way-to-loosen-old-glued-parts/#comment-622964. Dip the assembled parts/model in water, seal in a zip lock bag and throw it in the freezer for a couple of days. The expansion of freezing water will loosen some parts.

If somebody was looking for a something that bolted to the top of a blower, an injector hat comes to mind pretty quickly. It bolts right on, fuel injectors or nitrous nozzles can be screwed right in and it's aluminum so connections for the turbo piping can be welded on to fit. Probably why three of the engines here have done just that. Maybe its a difference of opinion, but it looks like a good solution to me and one of the things that I appreciate and impressed me about the engineering on Rick Dobbertin's Nova. function, yes, even though there is probably a plate welded behind them to seal the hat, the throttle plates fill the holes - enough for me.

Chase Knight's Golden Gator dragster - http://clunkbucket.com/the-golden-gator/

Rick Dobbertin's 1965 Nova, from 1982, supercharged, turbocharged and nitrous - more going inside that you can't see. plenty out there on the internet, Google Dobbertin Nova. pretty cool for 35 years ago. I don't have any reason to believe it didn't work. http://www.streetmusclemag.com/news/video-the-original-triple-charged-dobbertin-nova-up-for-sale-again/

This will be a must have kit for me thinking a little out of the box and looking over in the slot car world... Electric Dreams - http://www.electricdreams.com/Shop/dec331-cox-124-scale-decal-sheet-for-chaparral-2-kit-p-891.html?zenid=244974be1645fed8fddad5af787f4272 and Professor Motor - http://www.professormotor.com/product-p/pmtr6501.htm have 1/24 Chaparral decals sheets

yeah, that'll work, very nice, cleanly built

agreed - taking customer service to a new level.

here's a pic - by the mid-70's, in the Monza funny car era, the Mallory Super Mag II magneto was the most popular ignition in funny car and top fuel. Mallory mags used an external coil (transformer) The Super Mag II had a regular socket terminal cap. Plug wire retainers came later. The magneto in the '70's Revell kits is a nice part, the coil is molded as part of the engine block behind the blower drive.

consider using the four link suspension from another kit - the Rherer-Morrison Camaro pro-stock would be a good donor - it has an accurate four link suspension with the narrowed Ford 9 inch rear axle with good detail. It also has the wheel tubes and chassis to work with the four link. Just cut the back half of the chassis off, trim to fit, and swap it with the stock chassis. Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but it works.

Whoopie Kat Decals - http://whoopiekatdecals.com/

Contest rules vary so much that it is difficult to say. I'm going to go out on a limb and say most curbside contests don't require an engine except for any part that may be visible with the hood closed. - common sense I guess. The oil pan and underside of the engine that would be visible from the side with four wheels on the ground should also be finished. Some builders leave the rest of the underside unfinished and some I've seen have been pretty rough. I try to make the underside at least look finished even if there is no chassis or suspension - I know it's there.

8 lug? could it be 6-1/2"? it appears everything popular 8 lug is 6-1/2" bolt circle - Ford, GM, Dodge http://www.roadkillcustoms.com/hot-rods-rat-rods/wheel-bolt-pattern-cross-reference-database.asp#axzz4sViYTR82

Chris, thank for another great review - you're correct, never owned one but drove a buddy's Z28 to Billings Mt and back in a long weekend - 1800 miles, Friday afternoon to Sunday evening - the things we did when we were younger. Round 2 may have never had the right vintage tires in their inventory - the original issue of the kit came with the Polyglas GT Goodyears - correct for size, but the wrong tire for 1983. I robbed the kit for the wheels to build a model of my S10. other parts eventually drifted into other projects. Never thought I'd see this kit reissued, good to have it back.

there may be others but take a look at M & S hobbies - http://www.mshobbies.com/ - they are always a vendor at the NNL West.

There is no disagreement - we're talking about different things. Telescoping sections of tubing can be used can be used to locate and drill a hole in the center in the end of a rod - no doubt here. I like the ideas that have been posted and they answer the important "how to " question in the first post. Just adding some information to identify the tool in the link on the first post. It's a different tool that is used to transfer the mounting hole locations from a bracket to a bulkhead and drill a specific size hole for the hardware. There is a cone at the end of the tool that fits into the hole on a bracket to locate the drill. It's a strange spring loaded device with one function. I ended up with one in a closeout grab bag that had some things I needed at the LHS. Figured out what ii was but no use for it. difference is - one tool locates from the outside diameter of a rod, the other locates from the inside diameter of a mounting hole.

I've noticed that this is an old thread. The tool in the original post is not described very well on the web link but it is for transferring a mounting hole in a model aircraft engine bracket to a flat bulkhead. It would be of little use for finding the center of the end of a rod piece of rod. However, we have a great forum here that has supplied several good methods that will get the job done.