Great build! I clearly remember admiring this car in the paddock of Road America and seeing it race. I was 7 years old. I need to build this kit! Yours is beautiful.
I have found it funny that threads in the On The Workbench section are WIP instead of being all OTW or naming the section Work in Progress. Not problematic just funny.
I just painted a '40 Ford with Testors Model Master French Blue. At least in pics, the overall concept is very similar. The huge difference is that your build is beautiful and mine may never see the light of day!