Snake45

That's what I use the MM Jet exhaust for. It looks close to the carb in your pic.

Photographed it today "Before." Everything's there except the wheels, tires, and differential, and engine. Went diving into the Snakepit and looked everywhere I thought any of that stuff might have been. Turned up the engine but no joy on the rest. I do have a new one for an organ donor, so I'm gonna just build up a new complete frame (replacing the tires with something better, as you did) until they turn up, if ever. Will probably make the "new" top too--it'll be fun to display it along with the old one with 7 or 9 coats of hand-brushed Testor White. Hey, anyone can build a new kit, but the old ones are only original once, right? I take it you didn't find the pictures I asked you about? Oh well.

But "My four-speed, dual-quad, Leonardo Four-Oh-Nine" just doesn't sing....

Without full (stock) fenders, it would be in Altered.

Exactly what I thought! And even cooler, IMHO.

I wouldn't have any idea what's going on at CBS. I haven't watched anything on that network since Jericho and The Unit went off, whenever that was, and I "fired" Letterman in the spring of 2009 over his repeated inane and hateful comments (after being a loyal fan of his since the late '70s).

Looks fantastic! I wish I had one of these.

If you want that on a model, you could get darn close with Model Master Jet Exhaust.

Very clean build--nicely done!

Very nice! You made it your own--what's not to like?

Congrats, Jim!

ESSO jingle, circa 1964?

First MTM, now Mannix? Is the Reaper wiping out the entire CBS Saturday night lineup? Who's next, Bob Newhart?

You nailed it. Drive on!

That's probably about what I paid for this hot mess, including shipping. (Might have even been a little more, I don't remember exactly.) Many, MANY hours of work later, it currently looks like this: You started with a low-mileage, never-driven-in-the-rain cream puff!

A "return" is your report of your income. If you get some of YOUR money back that the government has held without interest for months, that's a "refund." Two completely different things.

There were double kits of, say, the Tony Nancy cars available in the '80s, but I'm pretty sure none of the so-called Parts Packs cars--Fiat, T, Bantam--were.

Bill, you've inspired me. I dug out what was left of my childhood build last night, and I'm gonna try to do a "survivor resto" on it. And then maybe build a new one.

Very nice, but you made me cry a little. I wanted one of those green Craftsman GSs for about 40 years. Finally found a fairly "workable" one I could afford on eBay, and spent about 40 hours blueprinting and tweaking and polishing the body just to get to what you started with.

If you could compile all his posts here, it would probably make a pretty good one. The man's a walking encyclopedia of all things vintage US car and the models thereof!

Yup. And it would be great in rain and snow, on twisty mountain roads, for driving Mom to Bible study, and the perfect ride to your Sierra Club or PTA meetings. Or to take your insurance agent to lunch.

Oh yes. My work friend has been talking about "epic fail" videos for years. But she doesn't drop "epic" into almost every conversation the way she--and FAR too many others--do "awesome" these days.

I was recently rereading an ancient Rod & Custom mag that showed Ed Roth promoting and painting one of the "flaky" Mopars.

I asked a young co-worker, who must use the word "awesome" at least three dozen times a day, "If everything even halfway cool is 'awesome,' then what do you say about something that's REALLY impressive and amazing and maybe at least a little bit scary?" "Oh," she said, with no hesitation whatsoever, "that's 'epic.'" So there's your free preview of the next word that will be overused into complete meaninglessness....

I remember a Metalflake Dodge or Plymouth of some kind from, what, 1962? It was molded in a clear-ish plastic with flakes, and the idea was you could brush paint them on the inside for a cool finish. I'd love to run across a glue bomb of one of those and give the system a try sometime.