Russell C

Pins can be pretty much any round 'rod material' under the sun, as long as you have a corresponding drill bit to match the diameter. Paper clip wire, used staples, heat stretched plastic sprue, etc. For years, I've been using mostly some old http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/uploads/gallery_12144_1240_34601.jpg I found in a discarded electrical thing, the insulation comes off easily and it is nicely bendable.

Mostly Cadillac.....

By random chance, I was leafing through my dad's old car reference files this weekend, and long ago he'd cut out the article seen here in Google's scans of the Sept 1966 Popular Mechanics magazine, about PCV valves. According to the drawing on that first page, the crankcase vent tubes were used up to 1963.

Block paint & test fitting. Color shows a bit too orange in this photo, it is Testors Bright Red, which is close enough for jazz in my book when it comes to the factory Ford color. For more visual interest, I drilled in freeze plugs and gouged out notches in the heads for where the head bolts are. I added a better looking mount for the oil filter and removed the excess plastic behind the water pump outlet tube. The fuel pump, crankcase vent canister, vent tube and oil filter are out on their wire pegs in a sort of 'exploded view' for this pic. The giant holes are for the AMT Crown Vic custom headers, and the two holes in the block in front of the oil filter (one is a mistake) are where the engine mount will go. The other holes are for the spark plugs.

This link works for me, automatically putting out a web page instead of just downloading a PDF file.... http://www.gslchampionship.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/GSL-25-Seminar-Schedule.pdf

Glad to hear that, it's a tradition that can't be missed. And remember, '56 Crown Vics were sorta bubbletops (hint).

Quite nice Yep, the Singer 911 is yet another reason why I need to win a major lottery:

Must all depend on what batches came out. I bought 3 sheets in the late 1970s, all of which experienced the wrinkle/shrink problem, but since I've only used short sections of the material all of this time, I just avoid the wrinkle areas. I'm nearly out of the one sheet below, I have more on the next one, and the third is still mostly unused, all with no bumpy surfaces, no discoloration that doesn't polish out with a bit of Simichrome polish, and no adhesive problems. In some cases where too-small pieces aren't sticky enough, I cure that problem with just a small dot of Tenax which capillaries under and holds the bit to the paint with no noticeable wrecking of the paint when I do that carefully enough.

Back in the '80s I converted a 1:87 scale Ulrich H60 Mack 3-axle to an H67, no need to alter the wheelbase, it was that long in the kit. Just dug it out of storage, it needs some restoration, had to use some elmers glue to get one of the mirrors to stay put along with the stack and upper half of the cab. Plus, the MV Products headlight lenses have all turned a ghastly shade of yellow just like what was described in this other thread.

Well, if roadster-izing doesn't go over well, we can always van-ize it.

Yep, and just a tad more wealth this year allows me the convenience of staying right at the Sheraton instead of the Motel 6 a ways down the street.

Fuel Pump & bowl. As the result of figuring out which fuel pump the AMT Crown Vic had in it via this guy's 1:1 truck engine photo gallery, below is how I busted up the one-piece kit part which was molded into the front cover piece. In the old days I would have been just fine with painting the entire piece the same color as the engine block, or maybe paint the case the same as the block and schlock some silver onto the pump, but being ever more observant while retaining my skills of working on itty-bitty parts, I just couldn't resist seeing if I could make the thing more fun to look at. Won't be deadly accurate, but this was at least an exercise to see what was possible. A chunk of white sheet makes the block mount part of it more similar to the 1:1 pump. Since I had a piece of yellow discolored clear sprue in my collection of clear lens parts, I 'lathe-turned' that on my motor tool to the proper diameter. Using my smallest drill bit (#80), I drilled the holes in the sides for the rod thing that holds (?) the fuel bowl to the pump body. This is just friction-fit together temporarily, I was amazed that the wire clings to the clear bowl with the tiny notch I carved into the bump on the bottom. Good thing it hasn't popped out of there only to be lost in the carpet yet.

Valve Covers. Close-up photograph is a great humbler. Top photo shows the not-so-good path I headed down first ..... ..... chrome spray paint with bits of soft paperclip wire I attempted to 'turn' on my motor tool into something that resembled washers & bolt heads, and fine marker-painted lettering. Initially looked ok from a distance, but the photo bothered me too much. I thought the ribbed area was just too prominent, compared to what is seen in full size chromed covers. Which, from what I saw, never have raised letters. So, I filed off the letters, masked over the ribbed area, and sprayed a dozen or more thick coats of primer to build up the area. Filed the raised rib areas flatter, applied five separate (top & 4 sides) areas of Bare Metal Foil to each cover, buffed it as shiny as I could get the surfaces, and then created the bolthead / washer effect by using gray insulated wire with the insulation stripped away from the very top. Much more overall satisfying appearance for me now. I've already nudged that one slightly askew bolthead/washer down a bit, and I'll have to make some of the ribbed lines in the tops a little wider. The white primer under the foil is just soft enough for me to mash in wider lines without wrecking the foil.

The aforementioned Wix Filters / Icons Global collectible in 1/24th scale, scored from an ebay sale where I was the only bidder. Fun to compere it with the 1:18 scale one. Until a person really looks closely at it, this 24th scale one could pass for a well-built plastic kit, but if you know what to look for, then the 'die cast-style' toy car details start to pop out. I remember a time when no die cast toys could get away with looking like a built kit.

Shown in this blog post (which I got from a Hemmings Motor News blog post), which links back to the original Photoshop guy's site...

Nice close up pic of what I assume is the fuel pump (out of this guy's photo gallery of the engine rebuild for his '55 F250 truck), which seems to most closely resemble what's in the AMT '56 Crown Vic kit. I wouldn't have known the lower section of the kit pump was a clear glass piece without this pic. But what is that upward angled black can immediately behind the fuel pump and what's with the pipe coming straight down from it? I see that in other Ford engine illustrations...

Aha, the Aurora "Woodin Wagon". As a result of surfing through the current ebay "built" listings today, I ran across one of those (photo below), but had no idea who made the kit. After a bit of searching here, I landed at Alan's post above, and from there I did a brief Google image search of "aurora" and "1/32", and straight away I found a French vintage rodder site and one particular guy's photo thread post of his built Woodin Wagon along with the instruction sheet and box. But from my perspective of this parts-missing glue bomb, the thing would lend itself to a deep-dish off road wheel 4x4 woody wagon, if I was to jack up the back end a bit and pop in a transfer case and front differential .....

Aha, Mark Gustavson's Custom Clinic Contest, didn't know it was back. MCM link for it here, Mark's site link here.

Aha, an even better reason for me to go over there and visit for a while. Excellent upgrade of venues!

This Hobby Town USA at 2945 N Scottsdale Rd .... is no longer there? Haven't been by that way in a couple of years and it doesn't come up as an address in their store listings. Hobby Depot has been my other choice in recent years.

Welcome to this hobby. Back in the fabulous 1970s, I don't remember if kits were marked with any particular skill level, so after I got past the first few kits I was given which I could still play with in the carpet, I got into immediate trouble by purchasing kits I thought looked neat but were actually what would be a skill level 10 or 20, such as the Revell Cherry Pie '31 Ford. Looked easy enough, but that sort of thing nearly drove me out of the hobby at an early age. Tempted to get one again in my old age just to see if I can build it properly now. One tip you can use on the leftover sprue from your kits is heat stretching it - Youtube link here. Infinite uses, as spark plug wiring, color piping on seats, turn signal stalks, all depends on how thick or thin you can pull the sprue. I use the stuff to fill in shallow seams and cracks on car bodies, too, where you lay a heat-stretched string in a seam, dunk a fine paint brush (not a plastic bristle one, though) into Tenax liquid glue, and then just barely touch the brush to the sprue. Capillary action draws the glue in along the seam, essentially melting the sprue into the body. When it dries a day later, you can sand it smooth. I still use cheap body putty to fill in gaps and scratches, but sometimes the solvent-melted sprue or teensy plastic scraps just work better.

Water line / oil filler cap. One item missing from the kit engine that's hard to miss in 1:1 photos is that 'water feature' thing (I only use highly technical lingo) at the top front which has a small two-size diameter line going to the front of the intake under the top radiator hose inlet. I made that out of a small chunk of a leftover suspension part with a flat piece at its back, and there is just a temporary copper wire there where the two-size diameter line will go later. Next, I happened to have an old chrome oil filler tube cap in my parts pile, but the chrome on top was worn off and it had a dimple in it. So, I chucked it in my motor tool and 'lathe turned' it into a better dome shape. I didn't re-chrome the top, that is no more than a circle of Bare Metal Foil mashed onto it and polished with a tiny bit of Simichrome polish I still have from that decades-old tube in the background. That stuff really shines up BMF. The oil filler cap is parked there temporarily on a wire peg. Ignore the bits sticking out from the sides of the heads, I'm filling in the locator holes for the headers so I can have a better appearance on the heads with the headers located just a teensy bit farther up.

Distributor. Ground off the part below the cap, glued a rod into the underside hole to have something to grip the remaining cap with. That's a #77 drill bit on the left (minus the pin vice I used, of course) and some nice reasonably soft blackened wire from my wire collection on the right. I can see why there's some demand for pre-wired distributors. Bit of a chore drilling nine holes, I got two of 'em nearly perfectly centered......

Ran across this one in a current ebay listing, had no clue what it is... A bit of searching here in the forum turned up Dave "Gowjobs" McGowan's 2nd set of 'most fun build' pics (after his BattleBuggy) where he called it a "Lindberg Drag Queen" kit:

This one? From several pics down at Sourkraut's gallery page...