StevenGuthmiller

Am I alone in my thinking that as you get older you appreciate nothing else like a good burger? 1/2 pound of ground beef and 2 strips of thick cut maple cured bacon cooked on the grille with American cheese, a big slab of raw onion and Famous Dave's "Devil's Spit" BBQ sauce. Along with some fresh watermelon to cool the heat of the sauce. It was delicious!!!! Steve

I did manage to get some time in the shop today, and I got a bunch of parts painted. The chassis parts and exhaust are painted and ready for detail, as are the interior parts. I also got the arm rests and window cranks finished with Alclad chrome. The final piece of the puzzle will be the engine, which I'll get a start on at a later time. The small parts on the jar in the interior parts photo are the arm rest pads. It's also hard to tell from the photos, but the steering wheel and lower half of the dash are the body color minus the clear coat. Steve

Thanks Wayne! That was where I decided that I wanted to go with this one. I have this '65 and a '66 convertible, and I wanted to do one of them a little different. They are such similar designs that I thought that I would be bored with building both of them factory stock. Besides, I needed something to put on the street rod table next year at the NNL North show! Steve

There was never really anything to take over from Chrome Tech. They were merely a middleman who would mount parts and send them out to a plater. In all fairness, that's what most model parts re-platers do, but short of obtaining their plating racks and some information on how to manage things, there's really no business to take over. GT Kustom Khrome was previously owned by Bob Dahl who is now the owner of "Bob's Paint". When he was in charge a couple of years back, the service was beyond reproach and the finish of the chrome was unmatched! He is a terrific guy and I really wish that he would have continued with his plating operation! Since it was taken over by George Hernandez, things have become questionable. I have tried multiple times over the past several months to contact him by e-mail and have never received a response. And now the rumor is that he is either not able, or not willing to keep up and people are either waiting for months for the return of their parts, or are being forgotten about altogether. Granted, this is just what I am hearing, but if true, I don't expect him to be around for long. We sincerely need someone to pick up the baton for us. Steve

Right! Chrome Tech is gone. I hear that LMK is probably going away soon and that wait times are becoming long. I also hear that there are pretty major problems with GT Kustom Khrome. That pretty much leaves us in the wilderness if we want show quality chrome. As far as I'm concerned, no amount of Molotow ink is ever going to replace real chrome.........period!!! I'm glad that I at least had the fore site to get a good dozen or so of my annual's parts re-chromed before the sh*t began to hit the fan! Steve

I have a bit of an inside scoop on a possible new plater coming on line in the near future. Nothing is set in stone, and I promised that I wouldn't divulge any information yet, but I'm hopeful that he will be the answer to our plating prayers if all works out. Steve

The stance will probably be a little higher, at least in the front, when the model is finished. I really didn't intend for it to have this much of a rake. Steve

I have several of the old AMT annuals from 1958. Pretty much the beginning of the annual model kit era. I have 3 that I have restored. The AMT '58 Ford Fairlane, '58 Pontiac Bonneville and '58 Buick Roadmaster. Steve

Well, originally I had painted that strip black before clear coating the body and was planning on just foiling around it. After trying that approach, I found that it wasn't working as well as I had hoped. So I just masked off the the exposed chrome trim and then ran some flat black down the middle. Then I removed the tape and went over the foil with a Q-tip with a little mineral spirits to clean up any edges. It seems to have worked out pretty well. Steve

Just a few more teaser pics now that the body is fully polished, the vinyl top is complete and some of the trim is foiled. I really wasn't certain how well I was going to like this body style, but now that I see how aggressive it looks with the skirts removed and the right wheels and tires, I'm really starting to like it! Please excuse the usual bad photography! Steve

Absolutely it will work, but it's a bit risky. Steve

I observe the same thing with Super Clean. I recently dropped a bunch of chrome parts in a mason jar full of it on my bench and then proceeded to do some other work for a short time. Within 15 minutes, I had the parts in the sink rinsing them off. Clean as a whistle. Steve

Chrome is actually pretty easy to strip with nearly anything. Steve

It depends a lot on what you're stripping. If you strip a lot of enamel paint, there's not much to strain. The solution basically totally dissolves the paint. On the other hand, if you strip a lot of lacquers, the paint will usually come off in large pieces. I suppose that it would be beneficial to strain out these larger particles, but in general, I just leave it alone. But then again, I don't strip a lot of paint. Possibly 4 or 5 models per year. Steve

That was my thought as well. I decided that I would build my '65 as a "day 2" sort of street rod, but my '66 Fury convertible will be bone stock. Steve

All you can do is try it. Use an old body or such and give it a whirl. The isopropyl alcohol shouldn't do any damage, but acetone will dissolve polystyrene plastic, which is what models are made of. Something makes me think that ethanol won't do it any good either, and I have no idea about the other one. Just because a chemical is used to clean some plastics, or possibly even stored in plastic containers, doesn't mean it's safe for all plastics. Polystyrene is basically the same stuff that styrofoam is made of and it's not very stable. This is why you see so many posts on the forum about what paints and chemicals are safe to use on styrene plastic. My guess is that you will most likely not be happy with the results of using this cleaner on styrene. Remember, gasoline evaporates quickly too, but you certainly cannot use it to strip paint from plastic! Steve

You can put your body in Super Clean on New Years day, and retrieve it the following New Years eve and it won't damage the plastic in any way, shape or form. If you're looking for a safe, effective, no muss, no fuss paint remover, there is nothing out there that will beat it! It might not work on everything, but if you have any kind of coherent painting regime whatsoever, it will become apparent rather quickly whether or not it meets your needs. I use almost exclusively automotive paints and primers, (ie, Duplicolor, MCW, Scale Finishes) and while it might take a few days, I never have problems stripping these paints. I also never have to worry about any damage to the plastic whatsoever! Super Clean will also strip chrome in a matter of minutes and most enamels just as fast. What gets lost in a lot of these discussions is the importance of the substrate, (primer) that you use. I hear a lot of complaints about difficulties with stripping Tamiya lacquers, but I guarantee you that if you use a primer like Duplicolor, the paint over the top of it matters very little when it comes to stripping it. Steve

It's possible. I used finger nail polish remover for taking off enamel when I was young and foolish. The last straw was when I tried removing a coat of red enamel from a Johan 1960 Desoto body withe acetone, and before I even got it half stripped, the body had cracked across a C pillar and right through the cowl. That was it for me. Steve

You're right. And I've ruined many model bodies over the years with acetone. I wouldn't recommend it. There are far too many safe options available. If you feel that you must use acetone, use finger nail polish remover. Same stuff, just diluted. Not as likely to wipe off a layer of plastic. Also be aware that acetone will dry the heck out of styrene plastic. I've had perfectly good bodies become so brittle from it's use that they literally have fallen apart in my hands. Steve

I finally got the body all polished, as well as most of the chassis plate details complete, so it was time to paint the vinyl top. Isn't it funny how you spend your whole life trying NOT to get any orange peel in your paint, to the point that it becomes nerve wracking when you're actually trying to get some! Steve

You must be stripping some pretty "weak" paint if you are getting anything accomplished with diluted Purple Power. Steve

You're a braver man than I ! Most "paint thinners" are petroleum distillates, (mineral spirits) and are about as safe for plastic as gasoline! Just be cognoscente that all paint thinners are not the same and not interchangeable for applications like this. Polystyrene plastic, (the same stuff that Styrofoam is made of) is highly unstable and does not play well with almost any solvent. That's why you see so much discussion around here about what is safe to use for stripping and painting models. I wouldn't want some poor novice visitor to the forum get the impression that they can drop their prized rare model into any old paint thinner to strip it! Steve

You're using paint thinner for stripping paint from plastic models?! You might want to be careful with that. Not sure what type of thinner you have there, but as a rule, paint thinner will turn the plastic into a nice little puddle. Steve

I love this stuff too! Been using it on every build for the past couple of years! But I have to admit, I did not know that it was not as hot as the Duplicolor sandable primers. I've been treating it the same way, using the same safeguards as the sandable stuff. Steve

I had a '67 Chrysler 300 in high school. Red with a black vinyl top and black bench seat interior. It had the 440 4bbl with an automatic. I bought it in a local salvage yard for $200.00 and fixed it up a bit. The engine was pretty tired so I pulled it and swapped it for a 383 Magnum that a friend had Later I found a dual quad intake and carbs for the Magnum at a swap meet, and a buddy and I stuck it on. Never really did get those carbs tuned quite right, but they were on the car when I sold it around 1983 for $300.00. I wonder haw many guys over the years have scratched their head over a '67 Chrysler 300 with a dual quad 383 Magnum? Sorry for the horrible pic, but this was a bit before the digital age. Steve