ChrisBcritter

Having now seen a few photos, when I get my 442 I'm going to move the front wheels forward 2mm to get them centered in the wheel opening.

Sorry guys, I was thinking of how to do it in plastic - my bad. Carry on...

Last couple days, got the hood neatly cut from the '70 Buick Wildcat and filled the holes left by the screw/interior posts, then went after the engine. I removed the misaligned driver's side cylinder head, intake manifold and front cover with a lot of careful scraping and sawing with a photoetched blade. Got them to fit straight with no gaps - and now looking on "Wanted!" for some 455 valve covers.

For the CdV, you could take a builtup '61 Fleetwood kit with a bad roof, or the current Decko resin kit, and use a '62 Buick roof with modified C-pillars to get you close. Don't forget the wheelcovers are easily found custom items from the '64 Mercury kit.

Drill three holes - two small ones and a larger one in the middle, then whittle the rest open with the tip of an X-acto blade. Maybe simulate the spiral fins with part of a wood screw?

One last score before bedtime (almost didn't check for it!), and it's an important one: '58 Buick Roadmaster interior and dash. Been looking patiently over a year for one - it's for the '57 Roadmaster styrene body from Argentina that Tom P. never got started on. This is the last big piece of the puzzle!

Been a while since I picked up an airplane kit, but when I found out this existed I had to get it: The predecessor to the P-47, it saw limited wartime use but was successful in China as a high altitude photo recon ship. In the USA they were mostly used as trainers and squadron hacks; several were used in the 1943 film Air Force playing Japanese fighters, and a single one appeared in the 1944 movie God Is My Co-Pilot. I'd like to test out my weathering skills and build it as this one, s/n 40-2897, seen here at Chino, CA awaiting scrapping in 1946: No complete P-43s survive; Earl Reinert, an old friend of mine, tried to rescue one in the early '60s from a farm in Indiana but the owner sold it to the scrappers a few days before he came out to get it. All he could save was this engine mount/backing plate and the main landing gear. Some smaller parts supposedly turned up in Australia about a decade ago but they've never been confirmed.

in her bonnet

Thanks for posting these, Steve! So many beautiful cars with one thing in common - the owners want to want to get rid of them Did you get any closeup shots of that '39 Mercury convertible?

Spotted this one looking through Louisiana's state photo archive: As well as this one: And this one I found in a 1963 high school yearbook from Muncie, Indiana:

in your ears

Yeah, I'd like to see what the buyers of those parts do with them - build, trade or hoard?

Niiiice. Windshield opening is a little high (to me) but an easy fix, and the engine looks great! Lots of good photos here to help detail the chassis, engine and interior: https://www.lostandfoundclassiccarco.com/vehicles/100/1964-oldsmobile-442

Oh well. Please pass the thought to the powers that be, anyway... they'd sell at least three of them to me, Lee, and Mike

Instant mouse soup

If it's a '48/'49 Hudson, I'm in!

Sweet! Now I won't have to do it What issues did you run into with the roof swap, and where did you make the cuts?

For a change, didn't get outbid and picked up an NOS '63 Mercury Meteor 260 V8 and Merc-O-Matic, plus a supercharger: Simple but effective; something I could put in my '63 or '64 Comet.

Minus the "the"

I asked about this stuff last October; answers were less than encouraging:

Some junkyard diorama builders would love to have such realistically rotted tires...

"It's a '25 Hupmobile - green coupe, sir..."

Strange Brew?

Worth every penny?

Stepping away from the Newports for a bit, I dug into the '70 Buick Wildcat. Took a resin copy of the '69 radiator wall, sanded the front side level, then took just the radiator from a second copy, thinned it WAY way down, and inserted it in the front to give it texture on both sides. Ground off the front screw and interior posts and did some test fitting. AMT, bless 'em, didn't delete the firewall and front wall locators when they changed the kit from '69 full detail to '70 curbside, so both the front wall and firewall slipped right into place, with minor adjustments to fit the chassis (ground about 1/16" off the bottom of the firewall, then thinned the fronts of the wheel wells so they'd clear the front wall). Next up: cutting out that great big hood! Will also have to rework the axle holes to get the wheels sitting right in the wheelwells; moving the fronts back 1/16" and the rears forward the same amount should do it.