atomicholiday

I built the Monroe handler and California cobra when I was a kid. I'd love to see that tooling come back.

Worked out a deal with Curt Raitz to get both of us some parts we both needed. Everything went great! I’d do it all over again if needed. Best of luck with your project Curt.?

That looks great! My kind of build.?

Nice looking guitar. How’s it play?

Great looking warbird! Nice job with the figure too.?

Many thanks to all of you for your comments. I truly value your opinions. And yes, ultimately it's my decision, but for the most part we think alike on a lot of topics. It's one of those projects that makes me a little sad to see the state it's in. And yet preservation has always been a priority for it. As said above, I think the term "sympathetic restoration" sums up best what I really want for the old '57. I think about it like this. If it were a real car, and had a strong family connection, I'd want to make it drivable so it could still bring joy to the family and maybe continue to do so into the future. It's been hidden away for far too long, while I waited for my skills to catch up with my ambitious. I might never get to that point. So I'm putting together a plan. I have a few other active projects rolling currently, and don't want to pull off of them since I'm making progress. But at some point next year, this one is getting my full attention. No more waiting for the day that might never come. It's time to get it back under glass properly.

Okay then. Happy b9th!

Looks like a lot of the clean jokes are taken already. ? Happy birthday! Hope you have a great one.?

That looks amazing.?

Yup. I keep expecting to see the 70 1/2 Camaro show up.

That is one beautiful little rod. Excellent work!

Hey guys & gals! I posted this in Slotto’s thread about new vs. rebuilding kits. Great read it you haven’t checked it out yet.? I dug this out for a pic for that thread, but I thought I’d share a few more and kick around my thoughts on its future. This was built in the mid to late 70’s. It’s the old Monogram ‘57 Chevy kit in the white box with red car on the cover. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it and lots of you have probably built it in the past. What really caught my eye was the black car on the side of the box seen here. At seven years old, that was about the coolest thing I could remember seeing in my youth life. Just looked so cool and so fast! But alas, my dreams of black speed were dashed! It was molded in red!! How could I possibly build this dream car now? My dad is even more of a car guy than me, and I live for all things automotive. And in this one and only case in model building, he came to my rescue. And beyond that he added his own custom touch to it. So, he shot the body black, and then fogged gold spray paint over the whole thing. I can still remember watching him shoot it, and being amazed. He said it was an old technique they used to use on custom cars. Then he masked it off and painted the side trim, and free hand painted the "V" emblems on the front and rear. When the paint was dry, the rest of the build was up to me. It certainly wasn’t pretty when everything was finished, but he must have been proud enough to display our combined efforts. It held a place of honor and sat on our fireplace mantle for about 30 years. Only model I ever built to hold that distinction. So fast forward 30ish years. It’s now the mid 00’s, I have a small family, and I’m just starting to get back into the hobby, thanks to a good friend (miss you my brother). My mom’s health was failing her and she just couldn’t keep up the old house any longer. So the old ‘57 comes back to me. The years sitting unprotected had not been kind. Many parts had fallen off, the chrome was badly faded, everything had an inch of dust on it, just a mess. Being special to me, yet knowing my limits, everything got bagged and stuck in storage. Now here we are, another 20 years down the road. I haven’t done anything with it but keep it preserved. What’s the future look like for this old dream car? Well, first and foremost, the original paint on the body won’t be touched, other than gentle cleaning and polishing. That’s the whole point of this car. The rest of the car is another story. I’d like to redo everything else, using the original parts. Maybe adding plug wires, but that’s it for additions. For the most part, just build it straight from the box, but with modern paints and techniques. Might even foil it. I think it could look really cool, kind of a 60’s vibe to it. Let me know what you think. Thanks for taking the time to check out this old piece of my hobby history!

As promised. She’s seen better days, but hopefully there’s a brighter future in store. I still have all the original parts in bags stored with it. So, yeah, I’ll do a rebuild, but it’s got to be a pretty special project.?

I hear you. Here’s the story on this one. Dad painted the body, but I did everything else. Very poorly too, as I was just a little kid. It sat on our mantle for a few decades and time wasn’t good to it. We’re talking mid to late 70’s here. I got it back when Mom sold the house, but it was in pieces by that time. It sat in a box for a few more years until I started getting back into the hobby in my early 30’s. It’s now the mid 00’s. Not sure how I managed it, but it’s not a total glue bomb like you’d expect. Anyway, I disassembled it back then and back in the box it went, where it will remain until I feel I’m up to the job. My plan is to clean up and redo what needs done with everything except the body. Dad’s paint job is by no means perfect, but it does mean quite a bit to me.. I plan to preserve his work. At times I considered clear coating it, but I don’t think I will now. If it got screwed up, it would be lost forever. I’ll dig it out and post some pics tonight.

That came out really cool.? I know what you mean about the color. I shot my ‘71 beetle that color recently. Very nice paint.

I'll go for the new kit too. Only reason I would do a rebuild is either you can't find them anymore, or the kit has something sentimental about it. I have a Monogram '57 Chevy that I plan to rebuild. Very common kit, right? But there's only one that my dad painted for me when I was a kid. You can't put a price on that.

Some great looking builds there Tim. Is that SVO the old Monogram kit?

Classic Monogram. Love it! That looks great.?

That is sharp.?

Great looking car!

Flea market today. I got lucky and found my first Jo-Han kit today. I haven’t gone through it yet, but at a glance it looks untouched. Found a few other kits too.

Looks great! These cars had such beautiful lines.

Had a great time with my wife yesterday. We went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Totally worth the trip! And I got to get up close to some of my heroes guitars. Notice the excellent photography of my thumb!?

Looking forward to your findings. I ordered some thinner designed for gel nail polish, but it would be great to find a cheaper alternative. This stuff was $17 for 2oz. But if it works, I think it will be worth it. I totally agree with you about the possibilities. I'm curious about the gold. Could be a good product for brass era cars, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Could be a game changer? Not sure, but I'll find out when I start the next round of tests. I'll keep you posted. I was watching a video tutorial by a girl doing her nails (yes, seriously ?), and one tip I learned was that if you don't put the powder on pretty soon after the gel, it won't stick. But all you need to do is wipe the surface down with alcohol and it will work again. The alcohol must reactivate the gel somehow.

Oh wow, that’s just ridiculously cool! Very creative, excellent execution.?