StevenGuthmiller

Just a few more shots of what I'm trying to do under the hood. I added to the bottom of the firewall to close up that space a little, finished the inner fender wells & added a filler between the fender well & radiator brace to fill that space a bit. I also "topped" the radiator brace, finished the flange along the inside of the fender edge & added some "torsion bar" hood springs to the hood hinges. I figured I'd spend a little extra time adding a few details so I could display this one with the hood closed or open if I desired. Still have a few details to add here & there & then finish up any body work before getting ready for primer. I'll also have to do a little engine mock up to make sure the headers will clear the "extended" firewall. Steve

Yeah, at least it doesn't pretend to be "serious"! Steve

Masking paper is just a roll of recycled brown paper used by house & car painters for masking off larger areas before painting. Not much different than say, newspaper in composition without the nasty "print" to worry about. There are probably other types of paper you could use, but whether or not it would do what you want it to do is the question. Masking paper is designed to be impervious to the paint. I use it all of the time when I need to mask a larger area & I either don't want to waste the tape or am worried about the tape tearing something off of the body like foil, decals, or for that matter, clear coat! I've had instances where masking tape has left impressions in the paint, so generally I avoid tape, especially garden variety masking tape if at all possible. I guess I just feel it's safer to stay away from sticking too much adhesive on your prized paint job. This information won't help much with your project Bill. You still need to use tape for your paint lines, you just won't have to cover the entire body with it if you're just painting a pinstripe. I absolutely would not trust using any sort of cling wrap as a mask, especially if your thinking of it sticking well enough to use it for the line between colors. I can't get the stuff to stick to anything except itself! I've had this roll of masking paper for many years, & I'll be using it for many more. Steve

Perfect Yuri!! But then again, If it wasn't perfect, I'd know you didn't build it. You're a master my friend!! Steve

Masking paper works well too. You can pick up a roll in the paint department at any hardware store for a couple of bucks. Enough to last you forever! Steve

I was pretty happy with my '62 Ford. Steve

Well, I did a little digging & I'm not sure if these strictly meet the pre-1981 criteria, but they were all built sometime in the '80s. The model T & the '50 Ford were probably closest to the '81 time frame, but I think the '58 Chevy & the '69 Barracuda were probably a little later. Probably more like the mid-'80's. The '58 Chevy especially, as the trim was foiled instead of painted & the engine was pretty nicely detailed. I wish I would have kept these up a little better. Some of them were fairly nice when I finished them. Steve

Thanks guys! Still working on a few items under the hood, basically filling in the gaps. I added some extensions to the bottom of the firewall because anyone who knows these old kits knows the the firewall only goes half way down to the frame. I'm also going to fill some holes between the front of the fender wells & the radiator brace, as well as a new top for the radiator brace. I think I'm going to try something new & add the "torsion bar" hood springs to the hood hinges as well. I think after that, I'll call it good. You know how these things go. If you don't set some limits for yourself, you could go on forever. Yeah Charlie, they don't grow these '65-'68 Fury's on trees, that's for sure! Steve

Thanks guys. I'm not all that tech savvy, & I'm no photographer, so chances are, I won't be changing much about how I post photos. At least in the near term. Just wire Gary. I believe I picked up a roll of "radiator hose" wire from "Preston's Car Parts" many years ago & I still have a bunch of it left. At one point, it was left out too close to my painting area & wound up getting primer all over it. Since then, every time i use some, I clean off the primer with a little mineral spirits. That could be why it looks a little more realistic. The mineral spirits are taking away a little of the shine & making it look not quite so "black". Steve

I've got a bunch too. Problem is, whenever I pick one up, the first thing I do is "un-survive" them! I tear them down to get them ready to be rebuilt. The most recent ones I have are a '63 Bonneville & a '65 Merc. The Pontiac doesn't look like this anymore, but the Mercury is still sporting the dirt paint job. Steve

My main question is, how did these hideous monsters make it into a magazine? How hard up were these mags for material? Or were the magazines owned by Barnum & Bailey? Steve

I've always really liked the combo on my '59 Dodge. Steve

I used a Micro Mesh polishing kit & Novus polishes on this '61 Plymouth. This is bare plastic. Steve

True. I'm not sure who built this one, but I found it online somewhere. Shows a really strange yellow, coral & white combo. But it was a factory color option. Dare to be different! Steve

Depends on how involved you want to get. If there are mold lines you want to remove, you can sand them & then use a polishing kit to get everything smooth & shiny as possible, & then a polish like Ray recommended. I also use the Novus polishes & occasionally an automotive polish such as Turtle Wax. Nice thing about polishing bare plastic is, there's no danger of grinding through the paint anywhere during the polishing process, so you can really go all out on it. Bad thing is, if it's a light color, the plastic may be somewhat transparent so light will show through in some areas making it look like........plastic! Steve

Looks a little more like a horrific nightmare to me! Steve

If you're planning on ordering paint anyway, you might want to make it really unique & go with one of the more "far out" color combos that Edsel offered in '58. They really pushed the envelope a little with some of the combinations. Some of the strangest were "Jonquil Yellow" with either "Sunset Coral" or "Charcoal Brown". Or the Brown & coral. The yellow & brown combo is a classic IMO, but to be really different, you need to go with the coral. Couldn't find a photo of an Edsel in either combo, but they were available on the Ford in '57 also. Here's one of each just to give you the idea. Steve

Couldn't really have looked a lot worse in hot pink. Well............... Steve

The dark blue will be going on a '66 Bonneville for me. Already got the paint for that one too! The color is called "Blue Charcoal". Really more of a gray blue. Steve

I think I agree a lot with Harry on this one. Which is why I don't build "custom" kits. It's a lot easier to screw them up, & exceedingly more difficult to actually make them look better than how they came from the factory. I hate to say it, but I've seen some really dumb looking custom built kits that someone spent countless hours on & think that it looks really nice. Sorry, but not everyone can be a automobile designer, as evidenced by the short, fat Chevelle in question. Steve

This is one of those kits with the narrow inner fender wells. I usually don't do a lot of major re-vamping under the hood, but there are a couple of things that drive me nuts! One is screw posts. The others are huge gaps between the fender wells & fenders. In light of that, some scratch building was necessary. I removed most of the screw posts, got rid of all of the hood support "tabs" & replaced them with strips running the length of the fenders, & started making some inner fender detail. It will eliminate those unsightly gaps & add a little visual "oomph" under the hood. Steve

OOF!! That would take a whole bunch of beer!! Steve

Agreed. A lot of later cars already had a bit of a chopped look. Chopping them any further just makes them look like a cartoon to me. There are exceptions of course, as long as the chop is not too dramatic. Steve

Steve

There's this, And then there's this, Beauty is not always in the eye of the beholder! Steve