maxwell48098

The parts that AITM sells/sold were the wooden spoke wheels, hood, and chain guard covers to back date the AC to 1917-1919. You have to contact Dave via his email on his site for info and prices. I think the same applies to the Peterbilt 351 conversion that our own Tim Ahlborn mastered for him.

One thing to remember about Hobby Lobby is that you can sign up for their e-mails and every one has a 40% coupon. Twice last year our local HL put out their own e-mail announcements with 50% coupons. Can't beat that. My local hobby shop has a tremendous model department, along with trains, die casts, military, and even doll houses, and their everyday prices are 20% off list for everything they sell. From time to time they also have old model collections that they sell for customers. Have picked up a number of great old kits at cheap prices.

Nice builds. A.J.

The article in Overdrive Magazine was also in this month's Heavy Duty Trucking. Some nice detail on what the restoratioon took. Now it just needs an electricla system. A.J.

Some guys are very insightful. A.J.

Before retiring from Chrysler, several of the departments that I oversaw utilized the camouflaged prototypes in order to complete our tasks. It was not unusual to take up to an hour to remove the camo so we could get access to the area of the vehicle that we needed. Living in the Detroit area, you get used to seeing these vehicles, referred to as "mules" running around on the local streets. As they get closer to production, the add on panels and canvas get replaced with "zebra stripe" paint to hide the final sheetmetal and trim details. Vehicle "spy photography" is a BIG business and the marketing types really don't like public exposure too far in advance as it makes today's vehicles "old" even though they might have 2 or 3 years left in production. Some of these guys aren't at all shy about selling their photos to competitors, besides the automotive media which is willing tpo pay through the nose for the first pics. FYI - Looking at the spy phots in the first post, it appears to have been taken at Chrysler's Chelsea. MI proving grounds on the "ride road" that gets within 200 yards of the perimeter of the the property. Local farmers that have land surrounding the PG have been known to rent out tree houses (they claim that their deer tree stands) to the photographers for as much as $100/hour. Despite the company letting vegitation grow naturally and block the view from outside, individuals have been caught scaling the 10' high barbed wire-topped perimeter fences with hand and chain saws attempting to cut down trees and other brush at night. They've been successful many times, but occassionally get caught, pay the fine for trespassing and go back to their business. A.J.

Awesome. A.J.

Before retiring from Chrysler in 2006, I used to go out to the Chelsea MI proving grounds on a regular basis. The last time I was there was in 2006 and they were in the process of updating their technology on one of the durability test courses. The course was a mile long oval track with a control tower in the center and robotic drivers doing the driving on up to 6 vehicles on the course at any one time. The reason for the robots was that the course was so rough, that it was too severe for human drivers endure for more than 15 to 20 minutes. They would run the vehicles at speeds from 10 to 60 miles per hour, 24/7 to accumulate the equivalent of 250,000 severe service miles on the vehciles in just a few months of driving. They also had several road simulators in the Chrysler Technology Center where they duplicate the motion and impacts on the vehicle as if it were on a road, but they couldn't quite duplicate the affects as when a vehicle was turning and hiting bumps etc. at that time. The robotic cars, Jepps ,a dtrucks were cool and worked on a combination of gps, radar, and computerized radio commands. I'm sure that they have improved on all of this since I left, but back in the day it was amazing to watch. FYI - The coolest thing I ever did was to drive a police package equipped Hemi Dodge Magnum on the 5 mile high speed oval. Flat out, I had the Magnum up to 143 mph for 25 miles (5 laps). The track was 5 lanes wide and the turns were banked at 35%. Going 143 into the turn, you could let go of the steering wheel and the vehicle tracked right around in 4th lane (next to the fatsest) and never left its lane. What a rush!

Very nice. A.J.

Beautiful buils. A.J.

Simply amazing build. A.J.

Bobby Griffen, his casting company Griffen Designs, and the masters done by folks like Tim Ahlborn are long gone. His castings were pretty good, but the resin he used with the thin thickness of his castings were subject to distortion over time, especially after building. Look at P&P Resinworks for future conversions. He's got a new, long hood already out for the upcomin little window Pete. http://www.ppvintagekits.com/CARS/Resin-Price_list.html

Really nice build Brian. A.J.

Nice. A.J.

Wow that is nice. A.J.

Here is a 1960 Chevrolet C30 rescue that I built using the Modelhaus body and wheels. A.J.

Went to my LHS last Monday, and he was already sold out of the 12 or each that he had originally ordered. Said he'd try re-ordering some more and set a couple aside for me when they come in. Shop owner was surprised that they sold so fast. A.J.

Awesome build! A.J.

Turned out really nice. Thanks, A.J.

It looks like you have 1969 Chevrolet Fleetside "Firetruck" MPC kit #0869 which was issued in 1969. Hope this helps. A.J.

Nope.

Love the Pepsi-Cola license plate! A.J.

Amazing build. A.J.

Wow that looks great. A.J.

Wow that turned out fantastic. A.J.