RancheroSteve

Charlie - good suggestion. I tend to engineer by eyeball in a lot of cases, but my best guess is that the amount removed isn't much more than about a 1/16, but it's enough to make a visual difference. Meanwhile, I shot a little spritz of primer on the roof and it's looking better. Now the thing that's bothering me is the way the top of the roof falls off too early at the rear (as Erik Smith mentioned in the other thread). I'm working on trying to improve the roof there, but what I'm also noticing is that the rear window is essentially too low - there should be a little more roof below the window before it meets the rear deck. I can't see any easy fix for that without hacking out the whole rear window frame and raising it up, so I think I'm inclined to leave it where it is and live with it.

Thanks, Bill - some decent shots of a very nice and mostly original car there. For those that care, a few unoriginal things that I noticed under the hood: valve covers, radiator, overflow tank, chrome upper shock mounts, and if you want to get really picky, the starter relay might be the wrong color (I'll have to check on that). I also don't see a battery, so maybe it's been re-located to the trunk? Plus the Hurst shifter in the interior shots, of course. Some shots of the undercarriage would have been nice, but hey . . .

Happy New Year - time for some action! I've moved the recently released Moebius kit to the top of the pile and made a start on it. I won't be going full "MrObsessive" on this, but I'm going to try to make a few improvements and corrections where I can. I haven't decided on an overall theme for the car yet, but in the meantime, I figured the body would be a good place to start. First up is the roofline over the rear quarter windows, which has been the subject of discussion over in the "New Kits" thread. I'll begin by removing the molded in drip rail: Next, I made a pair of new rails from 1/64" x 1/32" brass: I made them with just a little bit of a sharper angle than the kit rails. I glued the rail to the body, starting at the front. Once the rail was adhered at the front I was able to carefully attach it at the crucial curve, so that only a small part of the original body was "winking" at me from below the brass. (Sorry for the out of focus image). Next, I sanded off the part of the original roofline below the brass. Notice the rail stops a little above the small piece of trim at the base of the roof (see various reference photos). Repeated for the other side: There's still a little more clean-up to do here, then I'll shoot a little primer on it to get a better idea, but so far I'm thinking it's a definite improvement. Thoughts and questions welcome.

Yes - stay tuned. I'll be posting an "On the Workbench" thread in the next day or so with a relatively easy correction for this.

I'd have to agree with that - at least there's something decent to work with here. I imagine a lot of folks won't care enough about some of the mechanical discrepancies enough to bother, or plan on doing extensive modifications anyway. But part of me hoped that Moebius would take the trouble to get some of these details closer to correct. I don't want to dissuade anyone from buying the kit - I'm just trying to provide some info so they know what to expect.

Yes, you are correct - the lower hose is on the wrong side and the radiator has a shroud (which it shouldn't have), but I believe the Comet used the T-10, so the kit transmission is correct.

Yes Al, the AMT '67 Mustang is still the best 289 ever kitted as far as I'm concerned. This one isn't bad, but I guess I was hoping for something even better. The most obvious thing in need of improvement to my eye are the exhaust manifolds, which are rather generic and in fact not even really correct for a Comet. While I'm at it, almost every SBF ever kitted has this same error - the oil filter horizontal to the ground - whereas in fact it has a definite downward angle. Having the filter molded as part of the block makes it more difficult to correct. It might be that these - and some other mechanical issues that may come up for discussion - won't make a great deal of difference to the majority of the potential buyers of this kit. I'm sure some people might think I'm being a "rivet counter" here, but having over 35 years of familiarity with these engines makes me acutely aware of such issues. At least the good news is that the body looks pretty darn close to right.

Well Bill, you certainly set the standard, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with this one! I need to take another look at that windshield header - I hadn't previously noticed an issue there.

You're welcome, Bill. I think the glass might be the part of the kit that has impressed me the most so far. Separate front and rear of course, but also separate wing window glass. I'm going to test fit it soon, but it looks like it will drop nicely into the channels. The body looks good overall, but one aspect that appears to need a little correction (and was remarked on earlier in this thread) is the curve of the roof over the rear passenger windows. I'll have to agree that it should be a little less rounded. I think I've figured out a relatively easy fix.

Yes, I'm funny like that! And right, the "BPD" is out in front of Burbank's House of Hobbies.

Yes, black was definitely available. It was called "Onyx" on the Comet.

Ron, I've got about three things going already, but at the same time I am kind of tempted to start on the Comet. I just can't promise a lot of fast progress. We'll see . . . I most likely won't be building mine box or factory stock, either.

Pedaled over to my LHS and picked up my Comet today. And as promised, I took a bunch of photos (too many to put in this post, so here's the link to the Fotki album): https://public.fotki.com/Roullier/model_cars-1/moebius-1965-comet/ So I'm just throwing a few in here: I'll start by saying that this is a highly anticipated kit for me and admittedly my expectations are high. Having owned and wrenched on a '65 Comet Caliente with a Super Cyclone engine for several years, it's a car that I have I feel I have a fairly intimate knowledge of. I'm glad to have it and I commend Moebius for their choice of subject. This is the first Moebius kit I've purchased, so I don't know what's standard design and engineering procedure for them and where this kit might follow or deviate from that. I haven't test fit anything yet - my first impressions are just based on looking at the parts and instructions. There are some aspects of the kit I really like, some things I might have chosen to engineer differently, some things that disappoint me, and a few inaccuracies that I anticipate wanting to correct when I build this model. Time is short so I'm not going to do a full review here - plus I don't want to muddy the waters by going into great detail about my likes and dislikes with the kit right just yet, but I suspect there will be several aspects of this kit that will provide fodder for discussion. If you have questions or comments about the photos, fire away. Otherwise, let the games begin!

I got the call today from my LHS (woot!), so I'll be heading over there tomorrow to pick up my Comet. I'll post some photos and a few quick impressions as soon as I can (unless Tim Boyd or someone else beats me to it).

I guess this is how international commerce works - I'm assuming that the kits came over on a boat that docked about 30 miles from here, now my LHS tells me they'll be getting them from their east coast distributor in a few days. That Comet is going to have a lot of miles on it by the time it reaches me!

Photos, we need photos! The suspense is killing me and I need to start forming opinions. Gonna call my LHS tomorrow if I don't hear from them by noon.

I've got one on pre-order at my LHS. Just waiting for their call and I'll rush out there.

Yes, the Ford Racing engine of the period is essentially a Windsor block with Cleveland style (canted valve) heads.

Thanks! Yes, I went back and looked at the instructions again and I see that now. I even have the jack stand from that step, but I still can't find the brake.

Well, I've scoured all my parts boxes to no avail - I'm going to put a post up in the "Wanted" section. I even pulled out the instruction sheet from the AMT '63 Galaxie. Interestingly, it shows some other custom display parts, but not the disc brake.

Thanks for all the responses, guys! I built that '63 Galaxie years ago - I should have that disc brake around here somewhere, hmm . . .

I seem to recall a kit (or kits) coming with a chrome disc brake as a display item - I'm thinking most likely some AMT kit from the sixties. Can anybody help jog my memory?

I seem to recall that I used the engine from the Craig Carter IMSA Camaro on this one. It's only a curbside, so not much of it shows. Are you building yours "full detail"?

It appears to be basically the stock suspension, although they did some major surgery - narrowing the shock towers and moving the lower arm mountings outward - to accommodate the big block cammer. The small block Ford is a tight enough fit in the engine bay to begin with. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some extensive re-fabrication of the individual components, as well. The spindles look to be taller than the stock items, for example.

Close - it's actually Kinsler fuel injection: https://www.kinsler.com/ A Monogram NASCAR Ford engine would probably provide the closest basis for building a correct Ford powered sprint car, but you'd probably have to scratchbuild the intake and some other parts.