jwrass

Good eye Gene With the grilles!!!! I didn't even notice that, I had tunnel vision on the paint. Pretty sure the top picture is a 1970 and the bottom a later year? Gezzz I get a BLAH BLAH with a game that's played in a Casino every day. I hope I don't get detention!!!

Jason, I have not seen pictures or heard D.Gs name in a long time, really one of the pioneers of the Pro Stock Class. From where I sit the side view looks black (It may be the photo as I doubt it's black) The front view is definitely Red, White & Blue more our less a patriotic theme. The Red and White look to be basic traditional colors but the blue looks like it's metallic (again it may be the picture) Most of those cars were painted by Custom Paint Shops back in the day so it's a BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH shoot, I doubt factory colors were used. I think he was going for a patriotic theme so I think traditional colors of the flag would be a safe bet.

Lee, Their used to be some really good products our there for heat sinks, however Gov regulations put a end to most of the good stuff. I think the Eastwood Co has a product. On of my guys who works for me (HVAC) makes his own brew and most of his co worker have a container on their service trucks because it works really well, I have used it too and it really does work well. Their is no magic recipe it's shredded paper and baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) S.B. is a fire retardant and is used in fire extinguishers. His Mix has the consistency of oatmeal or paper mache. I can't take credit for this one, but it does work and it's cheep $$$$$$ jwrass

Fireworks in the hood ALL night long! must have been a good party

I have bent larger tubing with the sand method and it worked well. I have also used spring type benders on larger refrigeration copper tube and that works great. I saw at Hobby Lobby smaller spring type benders made by K&S

Roger, Thanks much for the info! Again awesome build!!!! jwrass

Paul, With a vector file you could cut those as masks and airbrush them with no problem. If you do the artwork I will cut them for you! My sister lives in Glenbula and works in the falls I get up there a few times a year, I will cost you a beer! jwrass

If anyone knows of a good working Alps printer for sale please contact me! jwrass

Paul, I own a digital printer and a plotter and gobs of software that I use for custom painting and some signs too, Their are some good people in your neck of the woods that do allot of the sprint cars that run at the Plymouth fair grounds. The names escape me right down but I can make a phone call and get you names if you like. One of the shops is in Fond du Lac off of hwy 23 and one is just north of you. Stretch may be a good source, he used to be one hell of a good sign artist and pinstriper, I know of him vaguely as he used to hang out with some of the custom painters that I know in Milwaukee. I know he does allot of fleet work now. Some of the digitals don't print metallic so keep that in mind, also the minimum film thickness for a digitals is 2 mils which is fairly thick for a model. I have a very good cutter/plotter and I have cut some really small letters and do dads for custom paint masks with excellent results (I mean really small) you could have a mask made and paint it. With your skills and CorelDraw make it in a vector format and you are good to go, I really can't see the 1:1 image that well and I'm trying to see if that lettering is gold leaf or One Shot Imitation Gold, It looks like Imitation Gold. I do know that a good cutter can cut that size on the model for a mask with no problem. I don't think you will have any problem finding any of the contingency markings one good source would be Slixx. If your mind is set on waterslides I think Whoope Cat does custom work. With your skillsets you may want to print you own, I have not tried to make any decals but some people have with really good results. I have some white and clear that are made by the Bare Metal Foil Co and I have seen some Testor at Hobby Lobby. I have no idea of how any of these perform. I think their is a article on decals in the tips and tricks section. jwrass

Alan, Did you get the BTK decals from Heller yet? Curious to know what they look like, he typically has good products. jwrass

John, Very nice builds!!! The 60s car reminds me of the Freight Train that used to run back in the day. I bought a lot of various car magazines for reference material on fleabay. Their is a great article in the Hot Rod Oct 1971 issue on a twin motored rear engine dragster that the Dom Paris family ran out of Rockford,Ill regards jwrass

Dale, I wish it was something that gave me great pleasure! Maybe I should look into having one cast in resin, A big fuel motor, Halibrands with wrinkle walls! Nah talking about throughing money down a rat hole that would be one way of doing it, although I have seen Worshems fuel motored Margarita Mixer (not in use on display) I bet that thing mixes them in record time. Now that would be a party!!!!

Shaun, It looks great!!!!! from where I'm sitting. Keep going man! I love this build! Fred makes a very good point with regard to jambs and primer! jwrass

Bill, Thank You! I look forward to seeing your results!!! In retrospect I wish I would have taken notes as I never really thought it would be a topic of discussion and it was long before I joined this site. I did the best I could from memory! With my mini Alz and from breathing all the junk for years I surprised myself. Michael, Always willing to help and share, Thank you my friend! I have always been fairly diligent about wearing lung protection even before it was as popular as it is today. Wear breathers!!!!! this stuff will and can hurt you. Especially the Isocyanates in two part paints, these are nerve toxins and can kill you! I have seen the effects and damage done by not wearing lung protection and buried a few along the way. I personally have not seen any effects that I have been harmful to me YET. Do you and your loved ones a favor, wear proper lung protection!!!! jwrass

Skara, I couldn't agree with you more! What ever works for individual that's what you should use. And yes we shouldn't be afraid to try something new. I would like to make this perfectly clear! I have no allegiance to the NAPA brand. It's what has performed best for me and my style of painting, if I were to find something that performed better out of a rattle can I wouldn't hesitate to make a change, but for now I'll stick with the NAPA Bill, I did do testing. I'm submitting the following products I used and the procedures I followed, I am looking forward to your tests to compare notes. I used (.125) 1/8 styrene sign blank material. I sanded it dry with 400 grit followed by a red scuff pad. I cleaned the surface with a mixture of 20% Isopropyl Alcohol and 80% distilled water (mixed by volume) this kills the static electricity charge created by rubbing the plastic. It's a old pinstriping trick used when striping fiberglass, helmets, anything plastic for that matter. I have also used static to my advantage on say a taped out panel on a helmet, I can rub the substrate to create a static charge on the surface, load a striping brush and the charge will pull the paint out of the brush in a very random pattern like old school cob webbing only much more funky. Try this solution before you paint and I guarantee you will have less dust in your top coats because you killed the static charge. In full disclosure I did this test in February when I stumbled on to the NAPA primer while buying a belt for my Snowblower ( I can hear the laughing from here with the folks in the sunbelt) I did not time anything with a watch or document on paper, I did this out of personal curiosity, I did however try to be as consistent as possible as I wanted to get a fair comparison. At the time of the test I had not used any of the NAPA brand. Before I used the NAPA brand I had the best results with the Mar-Hyde brand. Products are as follows: BullDog adhesion promoter # ETPO123B,TamIya Fine Surface Primer # 87064 Lt Grey, Dupli-Color Filler Primer # FP101 Lt Grey, Plasti-Kote Sandable Primer # T-235 Gray, Mar-hyde Sandable Primer no # Med Grey, Omega Sanding Primer # 130-2 Dark Grey. Rust-Oleum Sandable Primer #249419 Red Oxide, NAPA/ Martin Senour # 7283 Red Primer Surfacer. That's seven brands of primer, all lacquer based Procedures: After sanding and cleaning as described above I performed the following: Two lite coats of bulldog adhesion promoter with 10-15 minuets flash times between coats in an effort to not trap solvents, I do watch the clock for minimums however I go more by sight and feel through my experience, when the solvents have flashed you should have a dull flat appearance if you have a sheen the solvents are still trying to flash, it is not wise to add more material at this time. After the adhesion promoter flashed I applied three semi wet coats of primer with adequate flash times between coats as to avoid solvent trapping. Solvent trapping is the enemy!!!! especially with Lacquer, (any paint really) when you trap solvents you can get sand scratch swelling, pinholes and a whole host of others goodies, My personal favorite (not) is ghosting of body work, sand scratch swelling, signs of feather edging in the top coat. if you get to this stage of the game with exotic finishes such as candies and pearls it's pretty much game over. You can repair standard finishes but with exotics you most likely are going to have to start over, I have saved some exotics but I attribute that to dumb luck more than skill. I found the flash times of the primers to be all over the board, based on my experience and with helping HOK develop their striping urethane I attribute the longer flash times to amount plastisizers in the formula, I have no scientific data to support my opinion as I don't have the formulas of each brand, however I do know that all automotive (solvent based) paints have plastisizers (resin) in their formulas I let the panels dry for a few days and performed a sanding test, I used two types of sanding material and did all of the sanding dry as I felt this was the best way to test the sandpaper on the primered substrate as the water in wet sanding acts as a lubricant and would not give me the results I was looking for. I used a blue 220 grit sanding stick and 400 grit aluminum oxide open coat paper. I tried to sand with equal pressure to obtain a fair evaluation I did not keep track of strokes, I sanded each primer until it produced powder and then checked the paper for loading. The primers with the most resins in their formulas loaded the paper quicker. I do remember this the Rust-Oleum and Plasti-Kote loaded the paper the most, the NAPA brand loaded the paper the least with the Mar-Hyde not far behind with the others falling somewhere in the middle. When time permits I may do another test with pictures showing the loading of the paper, but I'm satisfied with how the NAPA brand performs for me so that's low on my list of things to do. Loading of the paper is just one aspect of how a primer performs and really the least important as that can be compensated for, the real test is how it reacts to top coats, does it swell, do you get sand scratches, ghosting, color hold out. I did not top coat any of the other primers only the NAPA brand. I did not do so because when I found the foundation I liked I went with that and have had success with that product. It has been my experience that painting is a practice in patience, if you rush the process the more likely you will have problems. I know this from personal experience as I have blown a paint job or too along the way, When we do a full on candy or pearl 1:1 it's a eight to ten hour process and that's just booth time. I had a great mentor years ago that had a saying "When in doubt wait it out" I have found those words to ring true many times in my journey of Custom Paint In closing, I know we are only working with a plastic model kit and if you blow it's not the end of the world! You get another kit or throw it in the pond. But why waste time in do overs. I don't care what product is used, if you use best practices your chances of success are much greater! Respectfully Submitted, jwrass

Roger, Very nice build!!! I saw you used a resin body and Gibson engine what type of under tray did you use? I had one of the original kits in the 70s ( can't remember who made it) and it had exhaust pipes, mufflers you name it molded into the chassis. The engine bay was bad too, washer fluid tank etc. I'm curious! Again great build!!!!jwrass

Art, You know your stuff and have done your home work, I'm old enough to have been able to see and hear these cars racing at the Wisconsin State Fair Park Track in West Allis ( I still can't get myself to say the Milwaukee Mile) they indeed had a unique sound. I smiled with the mention of the snakes not many people know that fun fact. I saw Dario run the car at the Speedway in the pre race events the day before the big one. We have seats entering turn three and he gave it a squirt in the short chute and it gave me chills and great memories of my Father taking me to all the races back in the day. Their was a article that I read, I think it was in Autoweek where Dario said what a thrill it was to lap the car as Jimmy Clark was his hero. Colin Chapman changed INDY much like the Beatles changed rock and roll. It was indeed a revolution!!! Art, thanks for all the fun facts, it brings back great memories! jwrass

Chris, Did you get my photos? jimmy "RASS"

Not buying it!!!! but all is cool! respectfully, jwrass

As a avid Indy car builder I have a few of those kit too! Art you are spot on with regards to the MPC Cammer being the most accurate. If memory serves me right the other engine was a highly modified small block ford (maybe a 289) I have a Sinmast and a Jorgensen Eagle (blue) I'm looking for a Olsonite eagle (white) to trade, I have many Indy kits. (I want to keep my other two) I have a friend of mine who is a 2nd generation hobby shop owner and I can buy them but I would prefer to do some trading. You should see the stash he has of vintage kits, When his father would buy kits he would get a extra container of kits and stow them away in a warehouse that he had. (His father was a collector too) When the father retired he had a spot adjacent to the hobby shop that was only open on Saturdays for a few hours where he would sell all types of vintage kits of which he had multiple copies of at reasonable prices. He passed away a few years ago but the stash still exists

Lee, Do you know anything about that car? when it ran? how it ran? very interesting!

Hugh, This is a great site for the Ford DOHC. I tried to get the link to stick but to post without success. Anyhow Google quadcamford.com/development.html and you should get it. jwrass

Chris, The misting is always a good practice when you get swelling as the solvents flash before they have the opportunity to penetrate previous coats applied and soften them. I feel the problems you were having is trapped solvents or wetting the previous coats without enough dry time. When the solvents soften to deep into the under lying coats it can open up a can of worms. Even if you adhere to best practices Lacquers can be a strange animal. Their are so many variables in the painting process, the key is trying to keep them under control and not let them control you! Couldn't agree with you more with our good Lord, He blesses me each day! And for that I am thankful!!! The tins look outstanding!!!!! Jimmy "Rass"

Bruno, Fantastic!!!!! I love what you did with all aspects of all the paint on the build! Interior tins, motor, chassis and the body wow!!! it still looks wet!! jwrass

Chris, Blows me away!! glad you let it settle down for a few days! You have so much talent!!!! Jimmy 'Rass"