StevenGuthmiller

That "roughness" was most likely caused by spraying too light or too far from the body. A little closer & a little wetter coats will most likely yield a smoother result. Steve

If your paint is a metallic color, I wouldn't polish the color coats. Polishing metallic paints can actually "smear" the metal flakes around causing inconsistencies in the finish. If your orange peel is very fine, clear coats may level that out depending on how many coats you apply. I almost always have some orange peel in my color coats but by the time I'm finished clearcoating, it usually smooths things out pretty well. Mind you, I usually use as many as 4 or 5 clear coats. Each consecutive coat will level it out a little more. The rest can be polished out. Steve

You should be able to do it either way Mike. Steve

I much prefer to have parts replated rather than replace them with resin parts. It's more cost effective, the parts fit as they should, & in general, the finish is usually better than a resin part. I feel, whenever possible, it's always much nicer to work with original styrene parts. Steve

I have noticed the propensity for the Testors lacquers to be more easily chipped than other lacquers. I've had examples where after the kit is finished and has sat for a few weeks, a tight fitting hood or the like would pull a chip from the adjacent fender edge or from the hood itself. I attributed it to the fact that the Testors lacquers seem to cure much slower than other automotive type lacquers & if the parts are touching before completely cured, they can actually "stick" together & pull paint off one of the edges when separated. I'm not entirely sure how long these lacquers take to cure, but I've had strange things happen to them weeks after application like cracking or dulling much later after a satisfactory polish was already achieved. Testors lacquers are a very different paint than an automotive lacquer, (not as hot) so I've concluded that one of the properties of it is a much slower cure time. It's probably not a bad idea to finish all coats, including clear, & then let it cure for a month or so before proceeding with any polishing or assembly of the body parts. Just my observation of course. Steve

Absolutely! Testors enamels will strip in Super Clean in an hour or 2. Lacquer could take several days or longer to come completely clean. Steve

Thanks Tommy! I don't know if it was really what you would call a "great buy" but it is pretty much mint. The chrome is a little "shaky" as it usually is in these old annuals & will need to be re-plated, but other than that, it's in fantastic shape & all there. I'll be sending parts to the chromer soon & the parts from this kit will be included. Hope to be working on it in the coming months. Steve

The '61 Is an oldie Tommy! Is it a Ford or a Chevy? The box art was the same for either back then. The Ford is usually more difficult to find than the Chevy. Great find in either case! I have the same kit with the trailer from '62 with the Chevy truck. Paid $25.00 for it from an antique shop about 20 years ago. Very nice stuff! Steve

Great looking Ford Tulio! I'm with you on the build philosophy. I figure what's in the box is close enough for me. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem switching out or scratch building parts on occasion, but I don't fret too much about a few inaccuracies here & there. For me it sucks all of the fun right out of building if I worry too much about those things. I really want to build another one of these someday, along with the "sister" '57. Haven't built either one for many years & I'm pretty sure I could do a little better job now. Terrific work!! Steve

I don't use brake fluid, I use Super Clean, but I'm sure that both will lose their potency over time. Clear coats will make a difference as well. I've had bodies that I've stripped that have sat for several days with little affect. Scratching through the clear coat in a few areas here & there to allow the stripping solution to get under the paint will help speed things up. Steve

Those are the old "American Satco" white walls. I love them!! Unfortunately, they are no longer made. But, Modelhaus does do a resin version of the same tires. I use a lot of them. The only thing that they are missing is the "Firestone" detail on the sidewall. Steve

You're an animal Al! Looks great to me! Steve

X3. Steve

I think we need a "Galaxie Intervention" Mike. Now I'm also wondering about that full length side spear I'm seeing on some pictures. Was that a standard XL feature, or was it an option? I'm seeing XL's with & without the spear. It looks as if the kit could be done either way simply by leaving it alone, or foiling the "peak" on the body. I think we need more input. I'll be building one of these soon, so I'm also interested Steve

Ditto. Steve

I think it may have been an "XL" thing Mike. I'm seeing just as many '67 Galaxies on line without the lettering as with it. The trunk badge is different on the XL & it seems most of the photos I'm seeing with the XL trunk badge are missing the lettering on the quarter panel. The kit does have the correct XL trunk badge, so the lettering may not have been correct in the first place. I'm no expert though, this is just a preliminary observation. I'm confident someone more knowledgeable about '67 Galaxies will debunk or confirm this theory. The photo you have posted is not an XL. This is what the XL trunk badge looks like. Steve

Well, the damage is done, so it pretty much gives you license to do what ever grabs you. I'll be watching to see what you do with it. I have a beautiful unbuilt example of this same kit to do very soon, & yes, it will be bone stock. Good luck! I hope it goes well for you. Steve

You know, it really amazes me to read the responses so far & to see how many Mopar "families" there are out there. In the small town where I was raised, Chevy & Ford ruled. Mopar fans were the ugly ducklings. It just surprises me a bit to know that there are so many Mopar people out there. Steve

Welcome mark! There have been a few trolls plaguing us from time to time as well. But lately they have been mostly non-existent. I think the moderators have been working overtime weeding them out. I applaud their efforts! Steve

Check out ebay. I bought this set a while back & it covers most any color you could need. The company is called "Hamilton Art" & this set cost a little under $15.00. They have many other sets as well if this is not what you're looking for. You can also mix these for a custom color. Steve

It's funny, but my dad was a purely Chevrolet guy when I was growing up. My mother was a Mopar station wagon freak. When I was young, I was a GM/ Mopar guy with a distaste of Fords. As the years went by, that all went away & I love all "classic" American makes. As far as what my family drives, it's been all Honda for more than 20 years. That just came from the trial & error of owning many different makes over the years & landing on Honda as being the most reliable vehicles that I have ever owned. We no longer even look at anything else when we're looking for a car. Steve

Sometimes I think we have a bit of a tendency to over complicate air brushing. This is my set up. Has been for over 25 years. No tanks, no traps, no regulators. Just a simple compressor with an inexpensive Badger siphon feed single action brush. Has worked just fine for me for a quarter century. I've thought about all the goodies over the years & the only thing that I can come up with that I may like to add would be a simple gravity feed brush for small jobs so I don't have to mix as much color & clean jars. Other than that, this is all I really need. I get perfectly good results with it. Steve

I use spray cans for things like priming, clear coating, & basic jobs like any parts painted black, etc. I will use spray cans when I'm painting bodies a basic "non-metallic" color like black, red or white. Where I use an airbrush is for any body painted in a metallic color or anything odd. I use MCW paints because I can't get past the large metal flakes in most spray paints like Duplicolor & Testors. Plus I like to use factory colors as much as I can. Pretty hard to find 1958 Chevrolet "Cay Coral" in a rattle can. I also use the airbrush a lot for interiors. I like to mix my own interior colors from flat enamels. Steve

I'm not much of a Beetle fan, but you did a very nice job Stefan! Very realistic weathering job! Steve

I wouldn't worry too much about that Bill. I almost always have a little bit of orange peel to polish out of my builds, but I rarely sand any trim for foiling. The paint has a tendency to "draw away" from high points like moldings anyway, so my trim usually looks smoother than the flat body panels in the end. Foiling usually goes pretty well for me & yields pretty good results without sanding. Give it a shot anyway. Steve