mikemodeler

As the saying goes....Where there's a will, there's a relative! Money has a funny way of tearing families apart and causing headache and heartache.

Probably the best vehicle I owned had to be my first- a 1982 Chevy S-10 pickup. It was a bare bones no options truck, not even a radio! I installed a Blaupunkt system from a BMW and it rocked! The truck had a 1.9 liter Isuzu motor that took all kinds of abuse and never gave me any trouble. Drove it for nearly 6 years until I traded it in on a new 1988 S-10 pickup that was the opposite- fully loaded, 4x4, power everything! That was a good truck too, but nothing took the abuse like the first one. My wife drives a 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe and it has been the best car we have had in 28 years of marriage. Oil changes, a battery and maintenance is all we have done in 8 years of ownership and 82,000 miles. Garage kept and still shines like new, probably gonna keep it a couple more years before unloading it.

Sorry to hear this, he seemed like such a great guy. We did a couple of trades awhile ago and talked at the time about life in Chicagoland as I am a former resident of the Northern Suburbs. RIP Johnny.

If you don't have a good razor saw and miter box to make square cuts, that will cause your project to not be square. Some people have created a jig out of small pieces of wood and used it to keep a project square during construction. Like you, scratch building something like that is somewhat intimidating but I am willing to give it a try. I like to use some thin cardboard to get a feel for what it would look like before cutting up a pile of plastic. With that said, Jeff's bed sounds reasonably priced and a whole lot easier!

Nice work so far and great choice on the colors, would have been easier to go with orange, red or blue but these will stand out being green! This model is my favorite too as I have built close to 12 of them, some snappers, some glue, but something about that body style has me hooked!

Nice work so far, a couple of my favorite subjects. Nice scratchbuilding on the Bronco!

Moebius is the logical choice due to their development of the Ford F series pickups, but given Revell's recent history of surprising us with models many of us thought we wouldn't see, my money is on Revell. Not sure how much of their 64-66 Chevy pickup parts would transfer to the 67-72 series, but they have a starting point.

Nice job, I have a couple of those to build, gathering ideas for colors and options. I think one will be built as a replica of a friends Dad's gas station plow/service truck.

Geez. at least 6 people agree with me today, I better buy a lottery ticket! LOL! Nice to know that I am not alone in my thinking and makes me think there is hope for a new or re-issued 67-72 GM truck kit.

That is true, but it's best to ascertain what the owner's wishes/directions are before assuming it is theft. Always best to put something like that in writing and have it notarized, makes any legal battles or criminal charges a lot more clear if you do (personal experience).

A small bag, easy on the salt and butter, doctor's orders! LOL!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ! I about pee'd myself reading that, thanks for the chuckle Daniel!

Awesome and impressive work Charles! Looking forward to seeing this one done, which shouldn't be much longer.

The six lug wheel with the red painted lug nuts looks like the rear wheels out of the old AMT Modified kits of '30's and '40's cars. I remember buying a combo kit back in the '70's that included a Ford pickup, trailer and IIRC a '40 Ford modified race car and it had wheels very similar. Being on a race car probably explains the 6 lugs.

A more modern medium duty truck would be most welcome, along with some different bodies for it- rollback, wrecker, dump, box, utility, boom truck. I know there are plastic models of promo trucks with these beds on them, but it sure would be nice to have them available to build. Back to the topic, having the truck parts mentioned- dump bed from the AMT Ford LN8000, the wrecker beds from the Revell kits, mixer drums from the AMT/Ertl kits- all make some kind of sense if they can be done in small runs profitably.

Appreciate the update Gregg, will look for it at the Hobby Shop.

I would rather see that GMC short bed stepside come back than the poor excuse of a tow truck kit. That wrecker is not representative of any 1:1 truck that I am aware of and we would be better served putting either the bed from the Revell Midnite Cowboy wrecker kit or the resin wrecker bed from Jeff Ballard at MCRC. In a perfect world, someone would tool up a new 67-72 GM pickup kit to include a real detailed chassis, long and short bed and 2wd/4wd drivetrains. Imagine the different variations that could be done, 6 years, 2 brands and if they tried hard, they could also do a Suburban!

On my calendar and looking forward to going! I will probably get a table and sell off the last of my overstock and concentrate on building ! Ha!

I am on the email list from Hobby Lobby and today's email has a section for Clearance items. Some of the kits mentioned on this thread are there on the HL website on clearance but are marked 40% off, not the 75% seen in the stores. I guess if you really want some of those kits, 40% is better than nothing. I was tempted to buy a 75 Corvette but decided I needed to wait and get one at a swap meet.

That's true, local tracks do produce more "real" racing! But a Chili Bowel? That's got to be painful! LOL!

The trouble with races at Daytona and Talledega is that one wrong move and the field gets mangled and sometimes a driver is taken out through nothing more than being in the wrong place. I agree that the banging and wrecking might seem like a good thing, but if your driver gets knocked out early in the race, do you continue to watch? I saw some of the pre-race and caught a few minutes early on in the race but didn't watch it much until the end with 20 laps to go, much like I did the night before with the Xfinity race. Between Darrel Blabbermouth Waltrip and his annoying little brother Mikey Imaidiot Waltrip, I have a hard time listening to the race. Sure wish those two could find employment elsewhere because I think Jeff Gordon brings a better driver's perspective to the table and Darrel is 18 years removed from the driver's seat. Mikey lucked out having the ride he did at DEI and the wins he got were more luck than skill.

IMO, they were not very accurate and lacked real detail. I think we are overdue a "new" wrecker kit, either a rendition of an old Holmes 440 single line bed or a modern hydraulic wheel lift bed that could be put behind a pickup truck.

The AMT Chevy short bed pickups will fit on the Tahoe chassis to give the appearance of a stock 4x4 pickup. There is no adjusting the suspension height and the detail is all molded in so some careful painting can yield a realistic but simple chassis. As Aaron mentioned, the Escalade suspension can be swapped, might take some adjusting to make it look right. Definitely more realistic looking compared to the Tahoe basic chassis, haven't tried it yet.

Jeff, Pics and pricing would be appreciated, if it's anything like your wrecker bed I am in!

That is the dreams of winning the lottery and deciding to indulge in building the cars you have always wanted!