Peter Lombardo

Hey Marcos, this is looking great. I really like the engine detailing you are doing on this.....the washes make the engine jump up and come alive.....really nice. A few years ago my son gave me one of the Fujimi Porsche kits of a rally version too. I have a coupe versions of Fujimi Porsches from the "Enthusiast Series"......You are right, each one has at least 2 or 3 million parts in the box. They are great kits....and a bear to get right....looks like you are well on your way to making this one a real winner. I be watching......

I don't have the words to say how sorry I am for you and your family. Just be as strong as you can. Life is so wonderful at times and then it can turn and be so cruel.....it surely isn't fair. Hang in there....we're all praying for you guys.

Thanks Dave, and to everyone who has responded to this posting....I appreciate the positive comments.....now as to the San Diego comment....Dave, I would kill to be in San Diego....any time of the year. I spent the better part of 4 years in San Diego from 1968 to 1972 while in the Navy. My Navy friend, who was from New England kept trying to get me to stay out there in 1972....he said he would stay if I would stay.....in hindsight (I know...20/20), we/I should have stayed out there. San Diego was magnificent back then....still pretty good now (was out there a few years ago with the wife). The weather is wonderful, the scenery is wonderful, the golf is wonderful.....I could throw away the tops on my MG's if I lived out there. Well, enjoy it....I wish I could....maybe when I grow up I will get to spend more time out there. My son-in-law was just offered a big job in LA....I keep pushing him to take the job because it is a great opportunity and it is sorthern California.....if he and my daughter (and grandson) moved out there, Grandma would have to move out there to be with her beloved grandson....therefore, grandpa (me) would have to move out there too.....LA is not that far from San Diego....I have my fingers crossed that he will take the job.

Pretty nice.....normally, I only like the custom versions of this truck....but this blue paint job with the black fenders and red wheels looks very nice. Good looking build.

Once the doors were cut out, I fabricated door hinges out of aluminum tubing and brass rods. I set the hinges on the rear side of the doors so that they now open in what is called “suicide†style. Take note of the hinges…. you can see how they are mounted in the reverse of the typical direction…. .this way the doors open “in†where the leading edge turn inside the fender….not out over it….which is the more modern style. Next, I opened up the trunk lid. I cut an opening following the contour line around the sides and bottom and added a free-hand top line which has a gentle curve across the top. The lid is also hinged with a hinge made from aluminum tubing and brass rod. I use a slightly thicker super glue to glue the tubes in place….the thicker glue takes a little longer to dry, vs. the thin CA glue, but there is a much lower risk of glue getting carried into the tube via capillary action and screwing up everything. Once the glue is dry, I mix up a small batch of two part epoxy and smear that over the joint to make sure all will be secure. Once the trunk lid was complete, I cut a recess for the license plate in the lower section of the trunk. My plan is to use an older Cadillac V8, from the Revell 1931 Ford Sedan kit, with a white metal 6, 2 barrel carb. set up on top. The suspension, as of right now is most likely coming from the AMT phantom Vicky kit added to a modified chassis from this kit. The wheels and tires are coming from the AMT Dodge Copperhead roadster curbside kit. The paint scheme will be an almost complete rip off of the paint scheme used on the 2006 Ridler Award winning 1936 Ford Coupe called “First Loveâ€. This car was built by Troy Trapenier and it has a beautiful color scheme….so beautiful that I am not ashamed to rip it off for this car. Basically, it has Cream side inserts and a Deep Gold Flip-Flop for the fenders and center upper body. I am planning to paint the top in a matching cream color, only flat, not glossy and I am planning, as of now, to use an older Mopar color for the gold areas called “Char-Gold†which is a flip-flop gold/charcoal color….which will be different, but in keeping with the “stolen†paint scheme coloring. The interior will be a nice soft cream with gold highlites…..dah.

In between some of my more ambitious builds, I like to take on a few less stressful ones. This 1936 Ford Custom Roadster is just one of those kinds of builds. Back in around 1995 I picked up an AMT 1936 Ford 5 window coupe for one of those “future buildsâ€. I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I like the basic look of the car and I really like the idea of a classic looking “period correct†build of it….the car sat in the box for years burred under boxes and boxes of other cars and got very little attention by me. About 8 years ago the roof from a Boyd’s Smoothster, that I used the engine, wheels and chassis in another build, found its way into the box and completely forgotten about, only to be discovered in there the other day. I was completing the build of the 2 door runabout so I wanted to begin looking at something else to begin. I started moving around a few boxes and came upon the 1936 Ford 5 window coupe. I opened it up and started looking at the pieces in the box. For anyone not familiar with this kit, it is an older AMT tooling that comes with three building choices….stock, race or custom. One of the more interesting features of this kit is the way the roof is molded as a separate unit. That makes it very easy to visualize the car built as a roadster….which is what I must have thought early on because I put the Smoothsters roof in the box many years ago. I also liked the way the rumble seat was built into the trunk, but sadly, that did not fit into my plans so it was eliminated from the build. Another point with this kit that I really like is the type of styrene used in the molds. It is molded in rather soft gray plastic. I like the gray color for obvious reasons, but I love the soft styrene. I like to make many modifications and opening features on my builds and working a knife through that soft styrene is a real pleasure compared to some of the hard brittle stuff out there today. Sure, the molding is thick and a bit simple, but for a custom version, none of that is a problem. The first thing I did was cut the windshield away from the top unit….then, because the front section of the top is interfaced with the sides of the car, I cut that area away. Those sections were glued to the sides in the general area of where the doors are. Next, I glued the windshield area to the body and raked the windshield pillars back at a sharper angle to give the windshield a more modern look and in effect, lower the height of the windshield at the same time. The Smoothsters roof is lower and I wanted the windshield to match up height wise. I still need some modification to the leading edge, but that is no problem. Next, I thought I would split the hood into two sections, left and right and hinge them so they would open up. I left the hood intact so that the distance and proportions would remain the correct width. Next I cut out two square “holes†for the knuckle of each hinge in the center of the hood and super glued two dollhouse hinges to the underside of the hood. Once they had dried (a few days later) I carefully cut the two sections apart. I needed to make the center gap a little bigger than I wanted, but that is necessary to allow the hood to open enough to make me happy. Most of the gap will be filled up from the bottom later so the line will not be that noticeable. After that, I looked at the headlights and thought I would mold them into the front fenders to give the car a more updated look. Once I did that and added some putty it occurred to me that I thought they looked terrible. I was very unhappy with the look of the lights there on the fender. As I pondered the look of them over a glass of bourbon and soda, the idea of a set of Prowler headlights might just work out better. I have a donor Prowler kit that has given up its wheels, tires and a few other items, but still had it’s headlight components intact. To quote that overweight chef….Emeril…..Bam! The Prowler headlights were just the kind of styling que I was looking for….sleek, modern and a perfect fit. I pulled out the Dremel tool and grinded the stock headlights into powder and filled the holes with Bondo finished with a small amount of Tamiya putty. As I mentioned earlier, I liked the rumble seat, but it just wasn’t going to work on this build. I glued the seat lid to the trunk area and filled the cracks with more putty. Next, I wanted to open the two doors, but I was not happy with the shape and size of them. I drew out the basic shape of the doors on the side and settled on a door that was about 1 and half the size of the original door. I placed the rear trailing edge of the door at the point on the car where the roof leading edge rests so there is an unbroken line down from the lower roof edge straight down to the door line…..it makes for a smooth transition. I rounded the lower edges for a more modern look and I angled the front line forward and curved it to loosely mimic the new angle of the racked back front windshield. Once I cut out one door, using a three layer build up of tape to form a guide so I could make a straight cut, I traced the reverse of the door shape on the other side and drew on the lines so I could have two new door openings that matched one another.

Great....that is a great way to begin the year.......Employed!

I really like the exterior blue...neat color, and I am glad to see that you are redoing the interior....the two blues clash and that just won't do....black will look great.

Wow Kane, that is great....I love the Twin Turbo plumbing and detailing. That is a great build. The paint ain't too bad either! Talk about Over-Kill....you have Twin turbo's feeding a Supercharger....how will that engine hold it's self together under a heavy load???? Seriously...that is a cool build!

Dave...that is really nice. The color works so well on it. I like the spare tire in the holder on the trunk....nice "period" touch. I could see that car on the streets if I close my eyes...very authentic looking.

Lyle, your "Hot Rod Style" is so clean, smooth and recognizable. I love the blue pick-up, but the black '36 coupe is just perfect. The light green contrasting trim color is just right. That is my favorite of the bunch.....very nice as usual. Like I have said before, you own that style of rod. Just like in the real world you can tell a Roy Brizio Rod at a glance....you can tell a Lyle Rod in the model world.

Curt, you are "out of control"...."insane" with the number of high quality builds you complete each year. I know, they say you control a work force of elf's and spirits that work all night....there may be something to that since you complete these bad boys so fast....I don't know how you accomplish it but you do. Nice group....do you have to rent a storage shed to house the completed units?

9.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas…ours was very subdued with the exception of last night at my daughter and son-in-law’s with our 8 month old Grandson. This year was 100% about him….which is the way it should be…fun to watch him playing with the wrapping paper…..hey, at 8 months, that’s what gets his attention. Ok, here is my class of 2010. All are complete except for the 1958 Thunderbird that is currently missing its headlights….I have them; I just haven’t gotten around to installing them yet but I will. First up is the 1961 Thunderbird custom coupe, built as a replica of John D’Agostino’s “Firestar†showcar. The top is a swap meet find that was chopped and added to the Thunderbird convertible. 1. Next up is a 1977 Tyrrell P34 6 wheeler. The body was vacuum formed to replicate the late 1977 version of this car. 2. This is a replica of the famous “Silver Bullet†1966 Plymouth GTX Hemi that dominated the streets of Detroit back in the day. I started it and basically finished it years ago, but added the final touches to it this past year…so it is counted as a 2010 car. This car had the “secret†backing of the Chrysler factory with a one of a kind tricked out and enlarged engine….somewhere around 490 cubes masquerading as a 425 hemi. 3. This is the 1958 Thunderbird with a copy of a Dodge Stealth roof and multi color paint job…as I said before, I need to install the headlights….no biggy. 4. This is a 1970 Chevelle with true fire flames….not much else done except the doors were opened and two tone paint applied. 5. This is my Art Deco Aero Coupe …..vacuum formed from a wooden master…..Viper engined and gull-wing doors….this is the 2nd car in my 4 car Art Deco Group. 6. This a Viper ACR converted to a ACRX for racing. The snake skin decals were printed on a printed from a design derived from actual snake pictures. The paint is a custom mix of Jacquard pigment powders and airbrushed on. 7. This is my Audi R8 converted into a GT2/3 race car. The “splash†decals were printed on decal paper and laid down over silver paint. Then the Jagermeister decals put over that. 8. This is the Art Deco Dual Cowl 4 door roadster/hardtop which is number 3 in the Art Deco collection. The top retracts into the trunk, it has leather seats and door coverings with wood dash’s and door trim. The headlights also retract. The car is painted black and a thin mix of copper pigment mixed with clear was sprayed over that to give a brown appearance…..but the car is really black….you just can’t tell here. 9. And finally, here is the finished 2 door Roadster Runabout which is a shorten version of the Dual Cowl from above. This car has a retractable convertible top. This is the final in my 4 car Art Deco group. The Cybele Special Roadster, the Aero Coupe, the Dual Cowl and the 2 Seat Runabout. 9.

Clay, terrific group of builds in a short time. I really do like the Lark Convertible very much....I remember thinking that car was really cool back in the day. Keep at it, you are steadily improving with each build. Have a save year in 2011....and remember to keep your head and butt down!!

Hey Curt...you nailed that one...perfect likeness if the real thing. That would be a cool rod to go cruisin'in on a summer evening. Very cool. Hey Curt...you nailed that one...perfect likeness if the real thing. That would be a cool rod to go cruisin'in on a summer evening. Very cool.

Obviously, this is a very slick looking conversion. It has a nice mix of Corvette and Ferrari styling ques working very well together. I am very impressed with the over all look. I did the same thing with the rear transmission, converting it into a trans-axle by removing the drive-shaft between the motor and trans on the rear engine Corvette I did a while back. It would seem that more than just a few of us would like to see a rear engined Corvette.....will GM ever figure it out? Finish this off nicely, I want to see the end product.

Mike, this post is like the "Energizer Bunny".......it just keeps going, and going, and going.....seriously, this is looking great....I am following along....keep it going.....buy the way, Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Jim, I do it just like that all the time....it will work fine, just use some putty to round the contours so it looks natural. By the way, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thanks Danno.....do people still give you that "book'um Danno" now that Hawaii 5-0 is back on? Anyway, back at'cha.....have a great Christmas and may we all have a Happy Prosperous, plastic laden and Healthy New Year.

Yes...I like this very much. A number of years ago I built this car, but converted it into the Penske Sunoco version. I really do like the true Ferrari red version though. Nice job....I know what a bear that kit can be.

Boy that is smoooooth. The engine detailing is first rate and the color sets it off perfectly. I think the headlights were a great little touch too....they look very natural on her. No surprises here, another beautiful "era perfect" Hot Rod.

Man, I need to get my wife to look at this thread. She thinks I am crazy because I have a collection of built and unbuilt (maybe will get built....if the good Lord keeps me around long enough)model kits, model and hot rod and sports car magazines....about 20 years of Gourmet Magazine....anyone interested in them?????? and a small collection of once used golf clubs.....I have nothing compared to most of you guys. You make me feel sadly inadequate. This calls my manhood into question!!! My God, the next thing you know, I will stop and ask someone for directions. Oh the horrors of it all!!

That sure must have been quite a handful at speed running over the salt flat. Great looking build, as usual John. Very reminiscent of the garage built lakesters, built back in the '40's, '50's and '60's. Those guys were the real pioneers of the hot rod and drag racing community. They blazed whole new paths with ingenuity, sweat and, in some cases, blood. Very impressive looking build.

See.....I told you you could overcome this....hang in there and keep the faith....obviously you did do many things right with your son.....keep moving forward.....it will get better.