StevenGuthmiller

Just came today. AMT '64 Bonneville. She has a couple of issues, but it's a good start. For some reason these '64s are pretty tough to find. Steve

Nice Tommy! This is one of the few "intermediate" cars that I still have on my list of "ones to get". They don't come up very often. Steve

That's a thought. I usually don't have much trouble with the parting line showing on stretched sprue. Depends on how much you're stretching it I guess. Melting the plastic to this point will more often than not obliterate the parting line. Steve

You can use whatever works for you for a heat source. A candle or a lighter works fine as long as you are close enough to the flame to stay out of the "soot zone". It only takes a matter of seconds in the flame to liquefy the plastic. I usually hold the plastic on the side of the flame rather than directly above it where the soot will form. Steve

Yes, & unfortunately, we've already run out of "other peoples money". With a nearly 20 trillion dollar national debt, that is quite obvious. Steve

Just thought that a quick tutorial on how to make those early 60s Mopar & Pontiac steering wheels might interest a few of you. I've made several of these & they're very easy to make. I start with a piece of clear plastic sprue. Gently heat it over a candle flame until it softens to the point that it begins to "sag". Then you need to work quickly before it re-hardens. grab both ends of the sprue & slowly stretch just far enough to get the gauge you need & just long enough to stretch over your form. The form can be anything that is round & the correct circumference of you steering wheel. Quickly stretch the warm sprue over your form & you'll get something that looks like this. Then simply trim it to the correct size. This '62 Chrysler steering wheel only offered the top half as the transparent part so the wheel has been cut & a couple of small holes drilled at the mounting points to help guide the glue to where it needs to go. Then simply glue into place. This one has just been tacked into place to show the result. If you wish, a little more realism could be added by shooting a light coat of clear metallic with possibly a tiny bit of clear yellow added. most of these wheels had metal flakes in them & they yellowed very quickly. Steve

Are these the ones you're looking for? If so, you can have them. I'll never use them. I never build race cars. Steve

Harry & Richard pretty much said it all. Steve

When you're one of the people receiving the free health care & phone, (and that's just the tip of the iceberg) & not one of the people paying for it, you could care less where the money comes from. I once heard someone say, that when the day comes where there are more people feeding at the trough in this country than filling it, our country will cease to exist as we know it. If we haven't already reached that point, we're extremely close to it. Steve

As far as I can tell Scott, the Johan '62 was the only letter car Johan did. I know the '64 is a non letter car, & I'm pretty sure the '63 is the same. Steve

I think those homeowners associations were originally designed to deal with issues like this. But as with everything else, you give people a little power & it goes to their head. Steve

An increase of 20 times. That would make that 1968 house cost $180,000.00. I paid much more than that for the house I'm in now in 2001. So I guess we should consider ourselves lucky. That $2.00 kit should cost us $40.00 today. Steve

It's all relative gang. What did a loaf of bread cost in 1960? A gallon of milk? A gallon of gas? A brand new Buick started at under $3,000.00 in 1960! Try that one on for size! My parents bought their first house in 1968 for $9,000.00! Steve

I had forgotten about the MCG '57 set. That certainly should make life a bit easier. Steve

The '62- '64 300s could be had as either a letter car or not. The interior you mentioned for the '62 kit looks goofy because it's actually a tub swiped from the '65 promo. Evidently the correct interior tub mold was lost before Johan reissued it. This is what the original interior looks like as apposed to the later addition. The blue one is the correct original. The white is the '65 promo re-pop. Steve

Really shouldn't be too hard of a transformation on the outside. Not sure about the interior. My guess is that might be a little tougher. You could combine the grille surround of the New Yorker with the "cross" on the '62 300. The side spears might be a little fiddly, but there again you could probably cast the ones from the '62 & cut them down to fit. There seems to be very little difference in the rear styling between the two. Steve

The good old "Mod Tops". Steve

I guess I can go along with that Kevin. I build almost exclusively stock models so I like to keep them as close to factory colors as possible, but I'm not obsessive about it. This project is a good example. The color I used is actually a '61 Chevrolet color called "Fawn Beige", but it was what I had on hand & it's relatively close to '65 Plymouth "Medium Tan" or "Gold" & good enough for me. Steve

Not much Dan. I did finish up the clear coats, so now it just needs some cure time before the polishing can begin. I also started a little prep work & got the color mixed for the interior. I'm kind of working this in conjunction with my '62 Chrysler convertible project, so depending on how things progress, updates could be scarce. But I will definitely keep everyone posted as to how they're moving along. Steve

They look to be exactly 1 & 1/8 inches in diameter. Steve

Perfect example. Here we have one of those "boring" gray cars. But that splash of color, & a beautifully complimentary color, makes it look as classy as can be! Steve

Color just for the sake of color is not always a good thing, as evidenced by these photos. Sorry, but their both just "butt ugly"! I guess if you're going to spring the big bucks for a Mercedes, they should offer them in a wide variety of colors, but I think a bit more thought should have gone into these interiors! Steve

I can read it just fine, but I'm not sure that I get the point anyway. Steve

Very nice work Raoul! The color is interesting & the car does look good in it. Not terribly far away from 1959 Ford "Sherwood Green". Steve

Now if you could find an app to tell you why your cans are blowing up.......... Steve