StevenGuthmiller

Very nice Rich! I do something pretty similar with these chrome headlights. I use clear acrylic mixed with a little metallic silver & just a touch of white. The affect is pretty much the same. Not 100% perfect, but close enough for guys like us! Just for future reference Rich, FoMoCo products from this era had the mirrors mounted on the front fenders almost exclusively instead of the doors. Especially with the high end cars. a few of the cheaper models had door mounted mirrors but they were usually the lower end round mirrors. Steve

Didn't know a '59 Rambler could look that good!! I always thought it would be kind of cool to do one of these "phantoms" in a factory stock style. Sort of a "what if" build. Looks like a nice start! Steve

I will concede that in certain display situations it may do what you intended it to do, but who's to say that there will be lighting consistency with the various places you may be displaying it. The lighting of different venues could vary greatly & in some circumstances might reverse your desired affect & make it look worse. Real cars are painted one shiny color & the body contours do the work of contrast. Military & figure models benefit from washes & high lighting because the are supposed to look used & dirty. Here are 2 pics of the same car, one indoors, & one out. There's plenty of shadow affect on both. I honestly don't see how shading the recessed areas would have helped. But, every one has their own techniques & no one should tell any one what they should do. If you like the affect it gives, go for it! Steve

Depends a lot on how far back you're going. White could be had with almost any color in the 50s. I imagine that started to lose favor in the mid 60s when the color matched interiors started to go out of fashion. Most of the ones from the 60s were, as you said, black & white. Steve

There's been a lot of them on ebay lately, which is strange in itself. These usually don't come up too often, at least not the kits. Finding a good one in that $65.00 range will be extremely difficult. steve

I'm with the skeptics on this one. I whole heartedly believe in washes for panel lines, cowl vents, grille & wheel back grounds, even interiors in certain circumstances. But unless you're going for a used or dirty affect, such as on engines or chassis, or even the body if you're going for a "laying in the back 40" affect, I don't believe it works on just your basic body crease. Shadows should be created by light, not paint. just like on the real car. Steve

I'll bet you won't find another in the same shape for $65.00 now! Probably not even close! Steve

Very cool John! Definitely something you don't see every day!! Steve

Thanks John! The inside ones are pretty simple. Basically just a piece of flat styrene shaped and sanded a little, & then a small plastic rod bent to shape. Easy!! The outside one on the other hand........ Steve

I get what he's saying. It would be nice to sort of "filter out the noise" of people you will never deal with while you're searching, kind of like having a "Zapper" on your phone to eliminate calls from people you don't want to talk to, (which is most people in my case). Believe me, There are a couple I would like to eliminate just to make sure I don't make the mistake of bidding on one of their auctions in the future if I happen to miss their name. Not because of prices, but for other reasons. There's one that I've given a chance to twice that I'll never buy from again because he likes to take poor & "favorable" photos & offer no information about condition that may be unfavorable to his sale. I realize I had taken a risk with him both times & both times I received garbage!! Another one flat out ignored the fact that I had bid, won & paid for an Item. I placed one bid for the starting bid price & won & strangely never heard from him again. When I started to question the situation through ebay, he claimed he never saw the "paid" message on his end & re-sold the item! I think we all know that he was hoping to get more for the item in the auction & when he didn't, he either re-sold the item or kept it & claimed ignorance. I of course got my money back, eventually, but the whole situation was so blatantly dishonest, it just burned my backside! guys like this should be banned from ebay in my opinion! Unfortunately Gary, I think William is right. I wouldn't hold my breath! steve

Thanks guys. I really hope to have this build done before Christmas but you know how it is this time of year. Busy, busy, busy!! So, a more realistic deadline would be before New Years! Maybe I'll get lucky & be able to sneak away to the shop for a couple of hours over the holidays! Steve

I probably wound up paying more than the $107.00 by the time I built it any way. I wound up buying a hardtop body later, which is really what I wanted in the first place, & I had to get a few replacement parts from Modelhaus because I broke a few trying to get it apart! But, it was an important part to add to the collection, so I have no regrets. Steve

Nice John! I've got a '59 build to do this winter myself. Stock of course! Steve

That was my guess but I thought it could have been one of those "gold green" colors so popular in the late 60s & early 70s. Steve

That's a great idea! I may have to check that out. Steve

Do you feel comfortable telling us what you paid for it? I got one of these in roughly the same shape, (not quite as nice) for about $40.00 a year or two ago. Steve

I had a ton of them too! Used to go down to the five & dime & pick them up for I think it was Forty nine cents or the like. Take 'em home & have 'em built in 10 minutes! steve

I knew a guy from school who bought one of these brand new in '70! I was just a pup of about 8 or 9 & he was the son of the owner of the dairy in our small town. He was the talk of the town when he brought that thing home! His was orange though. Nice job!!

Feels good doesn't it. Who needs a full show build! Just build!! Looks great to me! I'm having a little trouble with the color though. Is it green or gold? Steve

I think I have one of those somewhere! Steve

Thanks everybody! I think they look a little better with a coat of Alclad! Steve

Thanks Dan. I would prefer not to have to build them, but those ugly old square mirrors that all of the manufacturers used to include in the kits back then are just heinous!! Nobody produces a nice resin cast mirror, so I guess it's up to me to make my own. Steve

I never really got into the flocking thing but I recently tried the standard tried & true thinned Elmers & embossing powder & it worked fantastic! I won't hesitate to do it again. Not including the time it took to mask off the rear seat & door panels, (maybe 15-20 minutes) it took me all of 10 minutes to do it. well worth the time. Definitely prefer the looks of the embossing powder over the flocking too. Steve

I paid roughly $280.00 for a mint, in the box Johan '61 Plymouth Fury. I realize I over did it a little, but it was my Holy Grail kit! I don't regret it. It's only money. Steve

Get the "New Improved Chrome". Stay away from the "Ultra Bright Chrome". It's thicker & harder to work with. At least in my opinion the original stuff is the best. Take it from a guy who uses a lot of it!! Steve