Peter Lombardo

These are not exactly pure muscle car tire decals, but these could work, especially the Goodrich decals....I have this set and they work just fine for GT3 cars I did..........http://www.stradasportsstore.com/page136.html

Nice chop.............well done.

That is a beautifully clean build. Very nice. I am not a huge fan of that car, I find the styling too reminiscent of the late1960 Japanese car styling....too many "design" gadgets for my taste....but your build is first rate, and the underhood detailing looks great.

Nice little, and I do mean little, build there. Great job with the enamel top coatless paint. Now if Chrysler could learn how to market the new ones (hint, no one really thinks JLO would ever drive one) , and take advantage of the coming $5.00 a gallon price at the pump, there will be more Fiats around.

Thanks...yes, I stripped off and filled in where necessary the original moldings, then made a new one from strip styrene. I measured the length, and then sanded the ends to a soft point. Once applied, the top half of the molding got a second styrene strip, much thinner glued on and all was then sanded again to round the edges. Once completed, it was covered with BMF.

This is my just finished (well, almost, needs a few little details like a license plate and the inner door latches) 1953 Ford Victoria Custom Coupe. This is the Lindberg hardtop coupe kit. It has a mild roof chop and completely new side moldings like a 1954 version. The single side molding makes the car look longer, I think. The doors were opened and hinged. The vehicle was lowered and a dual exhaust with twin tips was added. The seats and inner door panels are covered with paint and real cloth for the center inserts. Car is painted in Mopar Satin While Pearl with a custom mix Cinnamon Pearl roof and interior trim. The Cinnamon is a combination of a few Jacquard Pearl pigment powders mixed with clear lacquer topped with Future.

So sorry to hear this......just be thankful that you knew great love and gave great love. I am sorry for your loss. You and Bobbi know you gave your best, and that was all you could do.

Very, very nicely done. The engine compartment is really sweet. I am impressed.

I am sorry and don’t mean to be overtly political about this, but I still respectfully disagree about that ad. Maybe old Dirty Harry meant well, but I have to ask, who wrote that ad? Who pushed and pulled people to make that kind of statement? On the surface it was a dark and moody ad at best. In the interview before the Superbowl, The President made the case for him getting a second term…he thinks he is doing a great job, and by his standards and stated beliefs, I guess he is happy with the results so far….but look around guys, are you better off today than you were before his taking office? The reference in the ad about “Half Time” is a blatant and overt reference to the period between tern one and his desire for a term two. Maybe I am crazy, maybe I look for the political noise in everything, but I can’t shake the feeling that “Good Old Chicago Politics” are at work here.

Hey, I thought you said this thing had anti lock brakes!

No surprise here, I found the two “taxpayer” supported ads to be way too political for my taste. Chrysler’s ad was absolutely, without a doubt, a pitch for a second Obama term. And whatever respect that I had for Eastwood is shot. He is a smart guy, Hollywood savvy; he had to know what that ad represents. I am very disappointed in him. Hey Clint, go back to San Francisco and hang with Nancy a while more. The “half-time” reference was as clear a message as there is. We are in between the two terms….get it? The next day (yesterday), Obama was out there pitching that he has learned a lot in the last 3 years, and he was getting better at this job and he should get a second term. ( and that is based on the “jobless” report of last week…..interesting report, we had less workers looking for work….our government dropped over a million two hundred from the workforce so that the rate was driven down…..government accounting, as trustworthy as the politicians that run it). Great, he wants us to let learn more on the job…..I heard Neil Cavuto from Fox News and Fox Business saying that yesterday….I sent him an e mail telling him that I want to be an anchor on Fox Business and since I don’t have experience at that, I thought they could allow me to learn on the job….look, if they are willing to allow the President, in his own words, learn on the job, I should be able to get a gig on TV….seriously, what job is more important? I look forward to his response….right. The second taxpayer supported ad that I did not care for was the Chevy truck ad. GM would be a completely different company if the taxpayers had not been forced to fund them. Ford is rock solid and stronger than ever without the infusion of any of our money. So the theme of the Chevy (think Government sponsored) ad is that the 4 or 5 guys driving Chevy trucks survived the holocaust and the one guy driving the Ford truck did not. Nice, the Government is angry that Ford did not need to be owned by the Socialist regime in Washington so they get targeted. What happened to the guys driving Ram or Toyota trucks? And then they drag out the Twinkie…… Yeah, I get the joke about surviving a nuclear war, but interestingly, Twinkies are made by Hostess, and they are in Chapter 11. Nice, a couple of business failures are being used to target the business winner. Hah, Life in America during a political campaign year, it will only get worse, and worse and then unbearable.

Very nice, the color and the interior look great on it...I like how the lake pipes come out of the body. Very well done.

I have made some more progress with the 1953 Ford Victoria Custom Coupe. Actually, the moldings have been updated more like the 1954 Victoria with the one piece molding running the full length of the car, rather than the two half moldings. Side quarter windows resized…….doors are hinged and interior panels in place……front lower corners of the hood were curved……side moldings are two pieces with a small triangle piece between the rear of the door and the rear wheel bubble extension……three rear quarter accent spears added to the front of the rear wheel bubble extension….rear gasoline and license plate recess is filled in….headlight and taillight areas extended and Frenched……chassis finished with almost complete engine set…..front wheels are turn-able…..all wheels lowered……stock hubcaps were used because they look great, just like baby Sombrero’s. Body is painted in white, still needs more sanding and filling in areas, but once set; it will be repainted pure white and topped with pearl white. The engine and suspension is painted with the same custom blend Cinnamon Pearl that the top and dashboard are to be painted.

Remember, according to the article, she kept the claim under $10,000, which allowed her to sue in Small Claims court. Honda will appeal and if this goes to a higher court and the full force of the Honda legal team is brought to bear, this may get reversed and change others mind on whether to jump in or not. We will see how this plays out.

Harry, I was speaking with one of the district reps from Chrysler today. He was saying that Honda is fearful of a "class action" suit so they may go back and start writing checks to people who own the "offending" model vehicles........this may well be a huge can of worms before it is finished.......we need to keep an eye on this situation. All manufacturers could be caught up in this type of case before it runs its course.

Hey, that is a terrific build and the paint looks great.....not my favorite Ferrari, but you did make it all come together nicely....I was looking on HLJ at that kit because it is on sale....I thought about it....but since I'm not crazy for the Daytona shape, I held off, but seeing what you did with yours, I just may have to rethink this. Very nice.

They don't get any cleaner or sharper than this. Great job on the flames and the black is sooooo smooth. Well done.

Ok Dan, I hope this works....if I did this right there is a 15 slide, slide show that should make the process clearer for you. If you still have questions, please post it and I will address them....but I think you will be able to follow this. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are fifteen thousand words on how I did the hood scoops. Click the link below and you should be able to follow along. First off this method will build the scoops in two slightly different ways depending upon your preference. This hopefully will explain these two variations on the scoops. First, these scoops can be set up two different ways. The way I did them is to have a larger opening in front of the curved outer section so there is a larger opening; the other way is to have the opening recessed behind the outer section so that there is a much smaller opening. To do that, just move the curved outer section more forward to front of the opening and then glue it. Either way, this method will accomplish desired effect. Also, use the very thinnest styrene you have to make the outer covering section.

It hurts my eyes it is so shiny! Ouch! Should be something when it is done.

Just goes to show you what can be done if you are properly motovated. It is an impressive build, thats for sure....and as was mentioned before...........Wood?

I built that exact same kit a few years ago. I built it into a replica of my 1977 MGB. I lowered the suspension on it to mimic the lowered look of my real car. The real car was a rubber bumper car, but was retro fitted back to the chrome bumpers when I restored it, which, in my opinion, is the only way they should be. I opened everything and scratch built the engine and left hand dive dash. I shortened up the front springs, just like I did on the real car and put a spacer block between the rear axle and the springs, which is also the way the real car is lowered. It really wasn’t difficult.

Very nice clean build. Just the right custom touches to make this a very convincing street car. Great use of the limited color palette. I like this very much.

Son of a gun, you made it to the BIG 50! That is quite an accomplishment! Enjoy the day. Now, go out today and eat something that you want, that you are not supposed to eat, because you get special dispensation from your Doctor on this day only.

As we all know, inspiration for a build can come from many places and at any time. Back in 2007, I purchased a current issue of the Rodders Journal. I looked at that issue many times over the past four and a half years always drooling over the cover car, a spectacular 1953 Buick Skylark roadster in lavender pearl. The other morning while flipping through it, a different feature car caught my eye. This is a 1954 Ford Victoria Coupe. I apologize for the poor quality photo, but I wanted the picture from the magazine so you can see exactly the shot that caught my eye. This car is a rather mild custom that has nothing of any consequence done to the body. I think it has a nice clean look to it. It is pure white with a silver roof and a black and white interior…..simple enough. I have a Lindberg 1953 Ford Victoria Coupe that has been in my stash for a number of years now and I could never decide what I wanted to do to it. I know I would not build it stock, but exactly how I never really knew. As with most cars I build, I buy the kit and throw it on the pile and wait for the inspiration to hit me. Even though I am working on a scratch built 1956 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket body, I got the irresistible urge to start this car. My plan on this car is a little different than the car in the magazine. I want the same kind of clean smooth look without any tricks or design gimmicks. For starters, I opened the doors and then I chopped out about 6 scale inches out of the roof. Basically, I dropped the roof “V” in the back pillar down to the top rear fender line, than removed the same amount from the front “A” pillars. This gives the car a nice subtle chop that does not look too noticeable. You it looks different, but it does not look like it was manipulated very much. As you can see, I need to adjust the front vent window height yet, but that should be easy. Next you can see some putty around the headlights, from where I am filling in the headlight surrounds so they have a clean frenched look. (Sorry, this image is a little fuzzy….I must have moved a little) As you can see from the real car, a major difference in the 1953 (model) and the 1954 (real) is the side molding. I like the clean long flowing lines of the one piece molding of the 1954, so the model’s two piece moldings will filled in and a new one piece molding will be substituted to help make the car look longer to the eye. I am planning the same style wide whitewall tire with most like the sombrero style wheel cover (from the new release of the ’62 T-Bird kit) I will install the half rear fender “mini” skirts from the kit and most likely remove the bumper over riders that the kit has, just to lighten up the look of the car. And, obviously, the car will be lowered down. I am also planning to radius the lower edges of the hood opening to match the curves on the trunk lid. As for color, I like the two tone look, but will most likely go with a pearl white lower color, rather than the pure white like the ’54 has, and do the top in a cinnamon pearl rather than silver….it will be similar, but different than the real ’54 in the picture. A nice clean flathead under the hood and a tan and white interior with some nice tuck’n roll, and it should be good to go.

SWEET...that is beautiful.....the color looks a mile deep...nice door lock detailing. The right-hand drive makes one stop and think something is amiss.....very nice touch. It sure is down in the weeds out back!