StevenGuthmiller

What are you afraid of Tulio? It looks fantastic! All of the custom work in the world can't improve on the class that these old cars had straight from the factory floor in my opinion. Great work!! Steve

Wow! I didn't notice that! Talk about raising the dead! Steve

Saw it in the parking lot where I work. A completely restored 1969 Shelby GT 500, 428 Cobra jet. White with blue striping & a black interior. This is not it, but an exact replica. There are no palm trees in Minnesota! Steve

Fantastic job Scott!! This sure was a beautiful kit for it's day. As a matter of fact, I would say it rivals most modern kits. A real testament to what Johan could have done if they could have hung in there longer. Some day I'll need to find another one of these. I had one years ago & still have a few of it's parts, but where the rest of it went, I have no clue! Nice work Scott! Steve

Very nice Al! Hard to tell them apart! Steve

Absolutely the '61 Invicta would be full sized. Built on the same platform as the Bonneville & Impala. Steve

That's a boat load of beautiful Rivs Steve!! Steve Was there anything from the 70s & 80s that looked good? Steve

Very nice Al! Steve

Thank you everyone, for your vote of confidence. Unfortunately, I view half finished builds in my stash, like this one, (& there are more than one) as monuments to the beginning of my 10 year hiatus. I'm not sure what you'd call it, maybe a form of attention deficit disorder, but I'm the sort of animal that needs to get something finished. If I don't finish something on occasion, I begin to lose all interest, and the next thing I know, my feet are up in my Lazy Boy & I'm off on another 10 year adventure watching movies on Net-Flix I've seen a dozen times before. I will admit, forums like this have gone a long way to keeping me engaged & therefore building, but I know that digging back into a quagmire build like this one would no doubt squelch any progress I've made in keeping interested with the hobby. I'm afraid simplified builds are going to be the norm for me. At least for the time being. Who knows what the future holds. Steve

Great looking stuff Dirk!! Welcome! Steve

I dunno Christopher. Same reason people put small block Chevies in everything? I guess I figured a Hemi powered Ford pickup was as good as anything else. Steve

I doubt that it will ever be finished guys, but thanks. But, never say never as they say. Steve

I was searching for some parts tonight & came across an old Revell '56 Ford pickup that I had started & never finished. A testament to my "overboard" detailing days. I had replaced a good portion of the chassis with '68 Road Runner parts, & was obviously planning on using the Hemi from the same kit. Every wire, cable & hose was planned into this build, right down to the tail light wiring which is evidenced by the photos. I had also planned on the extensive use of wood for the interior including a custom dash, a center counsel with glove box & cup holders & overhead counsels for front & rear with toggle switches & dome lights. There were also the beginnings of all sorts of other wooden interior parts, from a wooden steering wheel, to door trim etc. Another casualty of getting too involved & losing interest. Oh well, I had a good time sorting through everything & remembering. Steve

Just a couple more photos of some of the "refinements" I'm making under the hood. As you can see by these comparison photos, I removed the little square hood supports @ the rear of the compartment & added strips of styrene to the full length of the fender. Then I made a new top for the radiator support to give it some shape, removed the chassis "screw posts" & scratch built a hood latch plate that will be painted & glued on later. These kind of mods do slow down a build a little, but it sure makes the engine compartment look better @ the end. Steve

That's just downright beautiful Harry! Yes, I would say that it would classify as "full sized". They didn't make compacts back then, did they? Steve

At this point, I'm still working on prep & getting some "issues" taken care of with the body before paint. I decided to get rid of those eyesore "hood supports" at the rear of the hood opening that a lot of these old annuals had, as well as the chassis screw "tunnels" or whatever you call them, on the radiator brace. I'm also scratch building a few under hood details like the top of the radiator support & the hood latch plate. I'll post some photos of that when it's closer to finished. Another thing that I'm experimenting with is drilling out the head light buckets. It has always bothered me a little trying to come up with a painting technique to make plated head lights look a little more realistic, but I always just "lived with it". After seeing some of the nice results other members on this forum get with drilling them out, I decided it was time to put forth the effort to give it a try. I'm going to just "hollow" out the headlights with the Dremel, forming a bucket & then paint it silver & add lenses. It's a bit of a nail biter hollowing these out after the grille has already been re-chromed, so in the future, I'll do this step before chroming. That will give me a better "reflector" as well. At some point, I'll need to cast some clear resin lenses also so I don't have to keep robbing lenses from other kits. I'm guessing that I'll probably be doing this on all of my future build that need it. Steve

I've bought a couple something like this too, & I scrutinize them the same way Bill. It's always a gamble when you buy these old annuals with all of this BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH glued to them. Steve

The skirts might be the main problem. I always cringe a little when I see those cruiser skirts glued over areas where there are body moldings & the like. You never know what kind of a mess could be underneath. Steve

You guys are great! Thank you sooooo much!! Steve

Thanks a million guys! Your comments are terrific inspiration! Steve

Just came in the mail today. A '55 Pontiac 2 door hardtop. I had always been reluctant to buy these older re-pops of some of the Johan promos mostly because of the lack of interiors. So when this one popped up on ebay with a resin interior, I thought I'd take a chance. The interior is far from nice, but it is a fairly good starting point. The tub, door panels & rear seat are actually fairly well executed, although there are plenty of voids & pinholes, but the dash & front seat are not exactly ideal. Oh well, it's a place to start. Steve

Ooooo! Someone must have gotten a raise in their allowance! Steve

Is it just me or do those look just like the Monogram '58 T-Bird wheel covers? They're 1/24th scale as well. Steve

Works for me. I guess I didn't specify that it had to be made of plastic! Steve

I remember this one! Great work James! Steve