BigTallDad

Nice tutorial and some great photography.

There's something else that should be mentioned... WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!

I've used a PRISMACOLOR silver pencil (available at Michaels) on fine details, such as brake/fuel lines. It is very forgiving...if you have an "Ooops" situation, a paintbrush and Windex will allow you to remove the errant color.

My LHS recently started carrying a tool that punches hex shapes (in varying sizes) from sheet styrene in varying thicknesses. At about $100, it's a bit pricey. There is a similar tool to punch round discs, and the armor/aircraft guys are using it to make rivets.

I'd be a bit leery of using a heat gun (to seal the foil) on a plastic body. I'm also a bit skeptical regarding the much tighter curves seen on model cars.

What is car foil? Can you show an example? How well does it conform to curved surfaces?

Very nice work; it doesn't look over 50 years old. On the down side, now you've raised the bar and I'll probably start working on my old planes.

Chuckle...I'm curious how you're going to use a bandsaw to cut the inner circles.

That's where I found my lazy susan bearing

I use an old flannel shirt

Here's a relatively easy way to bend tubing. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/102629-bending-tubing/

What is Plasti Dip?

Your thoughts about donating them are very admirable! As a suggestion, have an estimated value in mind for tax purposes.

For those of you who are members of IPMS, you'll be seeing this car in the latest issue.

You've already watched the movie, but here's a shorter method for future reference. http://www.imcdb.org/ Just for giggles, open the link, enter the movie title (hot rod gang), and see what you get.

Note that a lot of the bids are auto-bids too, which would account for the high number and low-dollar amounts

Great tutorial! Harry P? Might this have a place as an article in the magazine?

That's why I sometimes take two years to build a model. I'm getting close on a '48 Sportsman...maybe I'll paint the body tomorrow, but if the forecast calls for rain I won't.

Yep, if the material is thick enough, the tapered grinding bits should work fine. I was kinda wondering that myself. I also do woodworking, which sometimes calls for countersinking (typically 1/8" or so) so I was curious how thick the plastic being used was. I've used .040" recently and would never dream of countersinking that.

There are also tapered/pointed end bits for Dremels

That appears to be a clear top on the front part of the roof. What did you use for it?

But the foam rubber will still help maintain the temperature, because of the heat retention it provides. Are you saying that the foam rubber will not help at all?

Since there seems to be some concern regarding the can cooling off, why not use several cola-can foam insulators to maintain the heat?

What is the "step chop method?" What are you trying to accomplish?

You can scan the whole sheet, then (on the image) delete the ones you don't want and move the remainder around to minimize the amount of printing required. Hopefully, somebody will have the decals you need.