ChrisBcritter

Oh boy. There were many, but among them... 67 Mustang convertible - restoration completed except paint, new top, $1500 in 1981. Reason I didn't buy? It was November and I didn't want to drive a primered car through the IL winter. Bought a '74 Coupe deVille instead. '57 Rambler Rebel - at the L.A. County estate auction about 15 years ago. Solid original running car with no rust and good paint; rare as hens' teeth and one of the hottest-performing cars that year; sold for five hundred freaking dollars . Reason I didn't bid? There was a ratty '59 Silver Hawk in the warehouse awaiting probate; blinded by Stude-lust I decided to wait for it. Result? Some family member came along and took it back so I got neither one. Ones I had, briefly, but let go: '88 Starion. 44k miles, excellent shape. Bought it at the estate auction to flip it; paid $2400 and sold it for $3100 - but I fell in love with the way it drove (turbo!!!) and I would have kept it if I hadn't been upside down in payments on my '90 Trofeo. But the one I miss the most (only photo I have): '64 Catalina 2+2 convertible - one owner 105k-mile original car. Again, the L.A. estate auction; I bid it up to $3200 and literally jumped for joy when the auctioneer said "SOLD!". Put the top down and drove it home feeling like the luckiest guy in the world. Reason it got away? 6 months later, my roommates couldn't come up with their $1000 for the rent and it was either sell it or live in it. Got $3600 from the guy I'd been buying parts from (it looked decent but did need a lot of work), who flipped it for five grand to some local Japanese guy who was ready to do a five-figure resto job. So if you see a white 2+2 vert with CA black plates QKP 818 cruising around SoCal, tip your hat to it...

Got the remains of a couple sheets somewhere; one was cut a little wrong so some had to be stitched together. Don't know about the rest, but the Illinois plate is the wrong color/style for 1961 - they used a '60 plate and changed the year. "Land of Lincoln" should be on the bottom (as it was an odd-numbered year) and the plate should be red with white characters.

Once again, I'll recommend licenseplates.tv - you have to do a screenshot to get the image but the images are sharp enough to reduce to 1/25. Most importantly, the fonts are the most accurate you'll find. One problem: they dropped the CA, FL and TX plates; if you go to archive.org and pull up an older version of the site you may be able to get the blank templates. I saved the complete alphabet for the CA black plates, so if anyone wants a particular number, post a request and I'll post a set. Example - Here's the Stone, Woods, Cook Willys: Save, shrink, print!

Unfortunately, there are are quite a few vintage cars getting destroyed even today. (And where the he are they finding Imperials?)

That roof looks familiar - is it from a Palmer kit?

Hate to tell you, but that chassis has '58 Lincoln wheels, not Buick. On the '60 wheelcovers: Another use for them is to paint the inner center black and add the four-bar spinners Jo-Han put in lots of their early '60s kits. Makes really good Royal Lancers.

No, you made an excellent deal. There are two on eBay now in worse shape and they're both higher priced. Decent builtups are in the $70.00 range now.

Got mine in - awaiting moderation as usual.

So long, Mary:

With an Auto Cutter, of course!

Love that Fool's Goldster for all the kustom touches using period factory bits - not to mention it's a Mopar - no chance it'll win (traditional roadsters are the thing now) but it's an honor for it to be nominated.

98% - got one year wrong. Not an obvious one, but... still embarrassing.

The Dodge Cheesy Bee! Somebody draw up the logo!

Good news - kinda - is that the rear glass for the chopped hardtop is still there on the tree; maybe some resin caster could tackle the missing tops, fins and skirts?

The '64 Galaxie survives to this day as a Craftsman kit - how much do they retail for?

Nice work! Until now the only source for these was the MPC Barris Bed Buggy.

To be fair, MPC wasn't kind to their full-size Dodge either: Or... "This is why we can't have nice things (like '66 Polaras)."

Very obscure but very good: Jerry and the Diamonds, outta South Gate, CA with "Sea-N-Shore". The address on the label is now the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant.

And Molotow makes a 4mm liquid masking pen for just such occasions. The Deerfield Hobby Lobby has a couple on the clearance rack for $4.10 each (originally $18.99 ).

From Past Time Hobbies' site:

He does have a following of several wealthy collectors who bid each other up. He just recently joined the forum; why not ask him? His '59 DeSoto wagon is a jewel, plus he scratchbuilt an excellent trailer for the Coronado boat kit that I'll be shamelessly copying studying very closely when I build one.

I used to read a lot of English vintage car restoration magazines like Practical Classics, and it amazes me what so many restorers over there accomplish in the land where the even the rust has rust. Almost makes up for the banger racers...

Teeny tiny fan belt for the '68 Ford SOHC engine. Thanks F-J! When I get this '58 Fairlane sort-of-street-freak-sort-of-gasser-complete-Frankenstein done I'm going to put up a thank-you list of forum members who helped with parts.

Are there many variations for car parts in Brazilian Portuguese as opposed to how they speak it in Portugal? Like in Spanish - I've noticed my friends from Mexico refer to station wagons as camionetas, but in Cuba they're called pisicorres.

I do remember there were some Beavis/Butthead types in SoCal back in the day who got sick from ingesting Mr. Zogs Sex Wax ("The best for your stick"). It's surfboard wax. And I believe they did add a warning label.