StevenGuthmiller

The only "good" chassis would probably be the Trumpeter '60 Bonneville. I have already done a little searching for a suitable Bonneville chassis for mid and late '60s Bonnevilles, and there s basically nothing out there that will not require some sort of modification. All current kits, whether it's one of the many Chevy Impalas, the AMT '62 Catalina or the Moebius '61 Ventura, have shorter wheel bases. One of those chassis will work great for something like the '64 Pontiac Grand Prix project that I will start in the near future, but they will all need stretching to fit a full sized Pontiac. Steve

That's not a bad idea. cast one from the good body with some 2 part epoxy if you're not set up for casting with resin. Steve

Ludwig it is! My apologies sir. Steve

It's easy to get white "close". Steve

That's an easy fix! Steve

Yeah, I personally wouldn't even consider paying $85.00 for ANYTHING with destroyed pillars. I'll never get that desperate! I'm a little sad that you didn't start this project several months ago Trent. Some time back, I traded away a pretty nice '65 Fury hard top body to another individual. It would have been a fairly easy operation to transplant the entire roof. But I surely wouldn't let the damaged pillar stop me. With a little perseverance you will prevail! Steve

Thank you very much gentlemen! Steve

My bad. I thought that I remembered the OP, or possibly someone else telling me that his first name was actually Hans. I seem to recall that in some countries, last names are placed first. Is Germany one of them? I couldn't say. Maybe the OP could clear it up. Steve

Thanks Lee. In my quick search I wasn't even seeing any really noticeable trim differences. I was thinking that there very well could have been some significant interior differences, but I don't know. I thought that I would leave that to the experts. Steve

Just picked up a set of dog dish caps from Missing Link for my '68 Olds 442 project. They appear to be very nice! Steve

High guys. Just today I had a work colleague inquire as to if I would be interested in secretly building a Corvair model for her husband. It appears that he wasn't certain as to whether it was a '65 or '66 that he had owned. After perusing ebay and doing a quick Google photo search it appears that there was very little difference between the '66-'69 Corvairs. It looks as if the '65 had a little bit different front end badging. At the moment there are no '65 or '66 Corvairs available on ebay that I could find, and I could either spend $125.00 on a '67, or $25.00 on a '69. My question is, is there enough difference between say the 1966 and the 1969 Corvairs to justify a $100.00 price difference? Take into consideration that the customer is an automotive layman who is not even sure if the car he owned was a '65 or '66. Any info would be appreciated. Steve

There are lots of kits that contain extra "custom" wheel rims. It's a relatively easy task to grind or sand the original rim down a bit and add the deeper rim. I recently added a new rim to a set of Torque Thrusts on a build. Steve

Hey Trent! Hope this build goes well for you! As you already stated, I just finished a '65 version of this kit and had a blast doing it. If you're planning on doing the same sort of modifications that I did, don't be afraid to ask. I would be more than happy to help in any way that I can. That being said, I'm not sure how I would tackle the A-pillar. Looks like he tried to save the lower portion of the pillar that wasn't broken and tried to just glue the broken section back into place. I would try to save that lower section as well, but you might need to replace the broken part with some styrene stock. This is why I avoid old kits with broken pillars like the plague! I absolutely hate trying to fix them! Steve

It hasn't changed much. Lots of crickets and tumble weeds. Steve

Personally, I have become more motivated in the hobby in the past 8 or 9 years than I have ever been in my nearly 50 years of building! I know exactly where that motivation comes from. It is purely the subjects that I am building now. I have been building exclusively vintage kits since coming off of a 10 year hiatus about 10 years ago. The thought of building interesting and unusual subjects keeps me excited about what project I'm working on or want to start next to the point where I think about it while I'm at work, or even laying in bed at night. I guess you could say that if I had to rely on what is available in modern kits today, I would likely loose interest again and stop. I'm pretty certain that was a major factor the last time that I stopped building for an extended period. As far as shows go, I only attend one or possibly two shows a year. Just enough to mingle a bit with other people who share an interest in the hobby. I will confess that boards like this help a great deal in keeping the fire burning. Being able to to share what you are doing and what you have accomplished with other hobbyists is a great motivator to me. Steve

Thank you all! I am humbled by your generous comments!! Steve

Looks fantastic Hans!!! The color is terrific!! Steve

Looking very nice Geoff! Every collection needs at least one '57 Chevy. At some point I would like to build the Revell '57 Convertible and the 150 sedan to accompany my sport coupe. Steve

I have no first hand knowledge of this, but my understanding is that any of the Super Clean type de-greasers are very hard on metal. I'm sure that you have likely heard that you should never store Super Clean in metal containers. Steve

While fiddling around with my current project, I got to admiring the rather nicely engraved door handles on this 50 year old kit. I had thought about trying this before, but I thought that being as this time I have some excellent Fireball Modelworks handles to replace them with, that this would be the time to experiment. If I had some small enough files to smooth the body better behind the handle, it might be a solution on some future project. For this particular build, I'll shave them off and replace them. Anybody else ever thought of doing this, or done it before? Steve Before After

Thank you a bunch Cliff! Steve

I realized that I neglected to post any chassis shots, so here are a couple. I also thought that this would make a fun grouping. A "class of '65" photo of the Plymouth along with an MPC '65 Dodge Monaco and a Johan '65 Chrysler 300. Steve

Thank you so much guys! It's a real treat to receive so many gracious comments! It surprised me how much fun I had working on this project given all of the detailing that I put into it. I expected to lose interest after getting pretty deep into it, but I couldn't wait to get into the shop to work on it. I hope my next project holds my interest as well. Thanks Mike! You can see it any time. All you have to do is run out to Hawley. Barring any unforeseen events, I'm confident that it will make an appearance at next spring's NNL North show. Steve

I can't express my gratitude for all of the wonderful comments enough! Thank you all for replying! Steve

Thanks Chris. If I knew the definition of that word, I suspect that I might be flattered. Steve