CabDriver

Cool pic! I hadn’t seen that one - although I did a bunch of reading up on the car today - it’s really cool! You’re right, it did some exhibition runs, but I guess no one was quite crazy enough to actually floor the thing and see what happened ??

I wasn’t totally sure where to put this one - it’s a showrod/hot rod but kinda a drag car...but a drag car that never did any real passes (and would likely kill you if you tried) and it’s kinda a commercial vehicle if you consider hauling bodies a commercial activity too...so I figured I’d post it here with the more normal stuff and if it’s in the wrong place I apologize to the mods... Anyhoo; I’ve had this kit on my shelf for at least a decade, probably more: Finally got around to opening it and looking it over and it’s all fresh and ready to build except for a cracked pain of glass and the engine was missing. Probably too late after a decade to ask whoever sold me it on eBay to send the missing bits... Luckily, I just finished an AMT 53 Studebaker and had a complete Hemi from that sitting around, and though it won’t drop right in it’ll allow me to build the kit anyway. I’m not going for an all out replica of one of the 1:1s (this kit would almost need reworking front to back to get it REALLY right) but I’d like to get this looking good and on my shelf anyway. First up was to figure out how to mount the AMT Hemi in the Monogram frame. The original kit block had pins either side of the trans but I decided on making a trans cradle type mount for mine: And a quick mock up of the engine in the mount - I’ll need to extend the driveshaft because the original kit transmission was longer but itll work! Everything is just poster-tacked together right now for ease of messing with the frame...but dig that weird 5-leaf suspension system: More soon, soon as I’ve done more! (Sorry again if this is in the wrong place...)

Nice!!! I had the Phoenix edition NB - same color but a chocolate brown interior. Really miss it!

Thank you Bob! Im waiting for the humidity to drop here after a week of rain and snow so that I can get the flamed bits into clear, so I spent a couple of hours today making some headway on the engine instead. Got some wiring done, added some silver receivers for the fuel lines on those four-barrel carbs (not that they’ll be too visible once the air cleaner is on) and added a couple of chromed metal pulleys to the front of the block to replace the blobby kit part - more soon!

That NNL East one is COOL!

I think I found the perfect candidate ?

Ohh, awesome!! I’ve been waiting for this one to get a re-do Kicking myself for trading away one of these that I picked up for $5 a few years ago...like others have said though, I’ll think more than twice if it’s priced at $28 ?

I agree! What a great way to organize parts! I like the ethos of it - always naturally dividing down into more and more organized versions of itself as it gets bigger. Brilliant! And like you say Alan - it’s inflation-proof! I’ll definitely be doing this myself, it’s great!

Yep, that’s the stuff - I’ve used some other brands with no issue either...but as always, your mileage may vary and test it on something you’re not worried about first...

Oh yeah, that’s KILLER! Way cool! Love the wheels!

A little more on this one today - made a little cover for the top of the fuel tank and added some lettering: I wanted to shoot some clear on it today but the weather’s not playing ball...more soon tho!

I’ve struggled with that before too - you have a flat-ish panel and it’s hard to glue. I started using Gorilla contact adhesive and it works GREAT - it’s super thick and has a slow dry time so you can get stuff positioned nicely, and it cleans up easily if you get a drizzle in the wrong place

I’ve tried using those - they’re really tricky to get right. Best thing I figured out was to pre-bend them around something smaller diameter than the hose you’re trying to put them on so they’re a snug fit - they’ll naturally spring back to a bigger radius than you bent them to. That minimises the need to try and glue them in place - which is hit or miss at the best of times

If you can get used to using metric too, it’s super easy - 1 inch in scale is (give or take) 1mm.

Did some more work on this one today - designed some flames and shot them over the base color: Need to do a little touch up before clearing these - but I’m pleased with the look, it’s how I imagined it! More soon!

Interesting! I didn’t know that! Thank you!

Beautiful work all round Steven - you’re one of my favorite builders and I always enjoy seeing your projects! The vinyl top looks great, and I really like how you handled the bezels. Whats the story with the red inner fenders? Why did the 1:1 have that?

I’d like to see a build thread on this one too! Or some more pics at least!

I like those 3D printed wheels! Who makes those?

They’re such a fun kit! I’ll definitely be picking up more of these - so versatile! I’ve got another build lined up for the left-over parts too, when I get that far along. Thank you for looking! Whilst I’m replying anyway...not much progress today (although I made a few little parts for the engine and ordered some machined metal pulleys for it) but I got some clear on the blue bits...I want to flame the fenders, bed and body but I was worried about damaging the base color so I shot them all with a couple of coats of Future. Hopefully have an interesting update tomorrow!

Looks really great! I’m really enjoying this build - and every time I see if I admire that paint again. Nice work!

Spent a couple of days this week working on a leather battery cover - this was cut from styrene sheet, drilled and then hand stitched. Just a fun little detail that I’d seen on a bike before, but not on a car... The metal strap is made some some thin steel sheet - I’ll add some fastener detail to that further down the line when I’m doing assembly: Aside from that, I got tired of seeing the frame and fenders (and some other bits) in primer so I shot them with the same baby-blue Createx that I’ll be using throughout this build...only done the undersides of the parts so far, but when they’ve dried for a few hours I’ll flip them over and do the top bits: More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

A little progress on this one - I didn’t like the fussy dash in the kit, so I made a little insert piece to cover all that up and make it a little cleaner: I shot that with a pearl metallic blue to compliment the baby-blue body color but without it looking too same-y...I think I like it! I decided on a tan two-tone interior with matching tan carpet and went to work on that yesterday - still needs a little clean-up here but this is roughly how it’ll look: And a look at that with the dash - I like how the colors work together! And I was going to use the kit windshield but came up with the idea of using my Silhouette cutter to see if I could etch a logo into the corner of the ‘glass’, so I designed something in my software here... ...and then cut it from some PVC sheet: The engraving is pretty subtle, which is fine by me - I just wanted an extra little detail that someone might spot if they looked closely enough. Whilst I had the cutter running I made a mask so I could put a black surround around the edge of the windshield and shot it with a little rubber-black: Once that dried I shot the whole thing with some Future to make it super-shiny...the black edge, like the etching, will be really subtle on the finished model but I wanted to try the technique out for future builds where you’ll see this stuff more prominently. More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Does anyone happen to have a picture of one of these rubber belts? I’ve never seen one!

Could we maybe relax the rule for hot-roddy pick-up type builds to just be posted in the category with the other hot rods without them being moved? No need for an extra category, less work for the mods who have to move them constantly because they’re in the ‘wrong’ place (because it’s the rule currently, which is fair enough - no complaints about that), the people building them are happy because they get to show them off with very similar builds, and the people who like ACTUAL commercial vehicles don’t have to see them ?. Just a small change in editorial policy that might work well, in my opinion... Either way, thanks for the work you and all the other staff do Dave - no complaints from me about how the place is run, just a thing that could make it even better easily, in my 2-cents worth of opinion