E St. Kruiser50

Thanks Bill I need all the help I can get . I checked out your website on FOTKI - Very cool!! Love the build's. Thanks again for the help, it definetly makes a difference - dave

AHHHH PETER THIS IS SO MASSIVELY COOL . WHAT A SLEEK IDEA AND DESIGN. YOU MY FRIEND INDEED HAVE IT GOIN' ON. THIS SCREEMS "PAINT ME SOMETHING BRIGHT AND WILD", TO GET EVERYONE'S ATTENTION . I'LL DEFINETLY CONTINUE FOLLOWING THIS BUILD. GREAT JOB ON USING A BRAND NEW ROOF IDEA. DAVE

Well, here's more fun detail stuff . Didn't do much today, but had some fun tonight. Got some done on the engine, brake rotor's and interior tub. Used the kit "Rotor's" and drilled out all the "Air Venting Holes" on all four and used BMF to sort of metalize the surfaces. Went back with a toothpick, and punched them all out. You can see the difference between the front and the rears, as they haven't been done yet. Probably sounds a little "OSISSIVE", But well ya know, I gotta try to keep up with "MR. BILL" - LOL . The seams on the engine were filled and painted silver. I wanted a fuel injected tri-power set up on the 427 small block, with the tri-sided 427 air-cleaner, for more "Retro" look, so I had to modify the head area to receive the tri-power manifold. Worked great. I like it . On the interior tub, I cut clearance notches for clearing the door hinges, and all that works fine, and then some black primer. Tons more details to come, but havin' fun .

Thanks Terry Yeah, everyone else is doing "Retro's", be pretty cool if Chevy did a special edition "Retro 'Vette".

Hey Thanks my friend . Front wheel wells are stock. She jus' comes thata way - dave.

NICE "SHAKEN"

Hey all Things going pretty quickly even though I spend only a few hours a day doing this - 3 or 4 max. Other stuff to do . Anyhow, got the door hinges pretty much done and am ready for the latches in a day or two. Gotta finish the other door and install the hinge that's ready for it. Here's more WIP pic's - dave

OK OK OK This is just INSANELY COOOOL. I feel like a beginner when I look at what you and "CRANKY" build. You guy's are on another planet . Ol' George said I was runnin' on 10 cylinder's, tryin' to be nice , but you two are runnin on all "16 Cylinders". I don't know how to even think the way you guy's do - LOL. Anyhow, way too cooool build and I'ma still watchin' - dave

Well "WILD BILL" I hope you realize that mentioning your name was only "WISHFUL THINKIN" on my part. We'd all like to be good as you are. I been thinkin' bout them workin' struts before you mentioned them, so going to "Explore the possibilities", seeings that you mentioned it . Great TWISTED MIND"S think alike I think it was you back in about '01 on maybe the Dodge Charger that used watch spring pins for spring loaded latches. I always wanted to try that, so went down and got me a couple, and will modify the body door jam to receive a metal "Striker Plate" for the pin to work against. I must be NUT'S like George said, but sure am havin' fun doin this and learnin' more new stuff. I'll keep ya up to date on the strut idea as I gotta think about that one for awhile. When it come's to "Skills", I feel sometimes like I still got my "TRAININ WHEELS" on, when I see stuff from Ol' Cranky and CB and other's here. Insanely good builder's on this forum. Here's a pic

You're right George. I have an "OBSESSIVE " compulsive disorder

I decided to get a little "OBSESSIVE" like the "MR." guy on this forum . Wanted plenty of detail under the hood, like on my '59 "Shorty", but this later 'Vette kit has most of the really cool detaild molded in, so beings that I have several donor kits, I decided to grind and saw some of the best detail stuff from two kits. The existing tub loses the detail and then everything from the other tub gets added on, and then detail it with paints and correct decaling to make it more believeable. Inside fender wells under the hood will be painted the body color, so that the contrast will show up the details when their painted. More later

Thanks Marshall I'm down to the details now, which take a lot of time, as I'm probably going "Over-board" here, but having a lot of fun doing it . Detailing used to be a big pain to me, but the more I have done over the years, the more comfortable I am with it, and the more I enjoy it now. I figured out how to get the results I want, and that's more satisfying to me. I may have more updates by the weekend or the first part of next week. Things will go much slower now, as I am a "Picky Builder", and very "SLOOOW" and and methodical at the finishing, and there's lot's of details to build into this. Good to hear from you - dave

Well it's been a while since I posted on this.. Had to go back and "Dig" this outta the ARCHIVES Got the hatch jams on the body mostly done, and now got the door's fitted pretty good, and nearly ready for hinges. Had to get the door panels, and panel jamming on the backside of the door's done first. Also started the dash. Interior will be a little "RETRO" to sorta match the outside. Going to use CHROME DOOR HANDLES AND CRANKS on the door panels, and have started to modify the dash, using '67 "DASH HOODS" and gauge panels. I'll be using a fine wire and alum. tubing for the dash details on the gauge pods, and around the the flat dash panels. The steering wheel is from a '53 "Vette", and will be wood grained to match the dash panels. The hatch or trunk lid was extended all the way back to the rear of the car, and left quite a gap between the rear of the interior tub and the rear of the body. Part of that was taken up by the jam I built, the rest was fixed by adding a flat piece of sheet sock and some filler, to the rear of the tub. Lots of detail stuff - FUN!! . More to come. Anyhow, here's some update pics and then I'm back at it - dave

Hi Welcome to the "CLUB". This is a great place. I hope you stick around and share what you love to build - dave

GEEEEZ This is just crazy coooooooooool!! I think you must be on the same stuff the Beatles were on, when they wrote YELLOW SUBMARINE Oh yeah. Ditto on what George53 said DUALLIES DUALLIES DUALLIES

Hey Brewster Glad to see someone being adventurous and diving into a die-cast. I've done several, including some customs, and have a die-cast project on the bench - a '57 Pontiac Safari wagon, using Danbury Mint and Franklin Mint bodies for the build. MR. OBSESSIVE would like it. As to "plumnuts" comment, a bondo type polyester filler works really well on metals. That's sorta what they were made for . Not a criticism of you plumnuts. It's actually nicer on metals than plastic, because it adher's really well when prepped properly and the metal has more resistance to being sanded away. Plastic you have to be very careful with, that's why I use quite a bit of the "Red" "GLAZING AND SPOT PUTTY" by Bondo. It's a lacquer based filler and attacks the plastic for adhesion really well, sand's and finishes easily, and takes primers nicely. Me, I don't use Bondo polyester filler, I use Evercoat "RAGE" and have for years. It costs more than Bondo, but to me gives much better results IMHO. Hope this helps All the best,and good luck - dave

WOW You certainly kicked er' up a notch or two or three . You have some serious painting skills goin' on here. Love them all, but especially the "Merc". Color's, design of graphics - very cool. Lotsa "Eye Candy" Now I know I have a lot more to look forward to on this forum - for suure . Lottta guy's here seem to be "Kickin It UP" and it's fun to see all these new projects. Thanks for sharing your "Weekend Madness" All the best my friend - dave

Oh man is this a good topic . Checked out the receipes, and will definetly adding some to my repatoir of of favorites. Between typing my latest topic here, I've been gettin the ingrediance ready to cook up some "Stir Fry" Teriyaki chicken and rice. I'm gonna cook all the ingrediance seperately: rice, stir fry veggies, and chicken, then combine in a WOK with some olive oil, and teriyaki sauce for a few moments and VOILA - UMM,UMM,UMM GOOD. I need to go wipe off my chin

This is a cool place and we meet a lot of cool people here on this forum, but the friendships usually stay pretty superficial, so I thought I'd share a little about me and how I ended up in "PLASTIC" LOL, and hoped maybe some of you guy's would share in return. Life is really good now, but started out pretty rotten, probably like a lot of you. Home life pretty much "Sucked", as parents made it very clear pretty much from the beginning, that they wished they never had any kid's. But I found that friends made a big difference in the "Happiness Factor". I had several great friends, including my buddies parents who seemed to understand my home situation, and sort of adopted me into their family. They even tried to marry me off to several relatives. Pretty cool. When I was seven I really got into military model, by talking my dad into taking me with him to the hobby shop. He never talked much to me, and never really figured him out. Mostly a stranger to me up until the day he died. Kind of a loner and no friends , gone all the time and wanted to be alone when he came home from work. Mom was pretty much the same as dad, and lived a solitary quiet life with no friends either, so I sorta lived in my little world of plastic until I became a teenager and discovered cars - plastic and real. That really opened up a new life for me, as I passionately enjoyed model car building and was pretty good at it, and won some awards, and was in some of the early car mags before there were model mags. My parents thought it was pretty cool, and bragged to all the neighbors, but I found out they weren't proud of me, they were proud of themselves for having such a talented son . Oh well. Then I met a couple of local mail men, a few years older than me, who were into street racing, custom car shows and the drags. They seemed to understand my situation, maybe better than I did. They used to haul me everywhere with them to all the events on the weekends- even paid for me and never asked for a dime back. That still amazes me to this day. All that made a huge difference in my future. As I got older, I discovered life was really exciting apart from my home life, and there was so much to try and enjoy when it came to my interests. besides my model stuff, I built some nice 1 to 1 cars, A few streetrods and customs. In SoCal, in the 50's and 60's it's what everyone did - me too. Grew up, got married - TWICE, finally went to counciling for a few years after the second one ended, to figure out how to fix my life. Somethin' wasn't workin' and I wanted to figure why. Kind of expensive too - divorce. Lost everything twice, especially the second time, "about a half a mil", and that one hurt. I found out the problem was I was marrying women just like my mom. No kidding. I heard about other people doin' that, and the problems that came from it, but never realized I was "One Of Them" doin it LOL At the same time though, the non-relational part of my life was great. I restored cars, built street rods and customs, bought antique furniture and restored it and even taught refinishing for a while, and collected antique glass for a few years. I got into art and sculpting and poetry for about 10 years also, and belonged to an art association in Berdoo. I was always into several things at the same time, as well as spending plenty of time with my wife and kids and friends and relatives. Also got into furniture building and inlay work like the antique furniture, and spent several years being trained by a professional furniture builder and refinisher from Poland-NO JOKES PLEASE. My career it seems, I mostly got paid to play After college, somehow I seemed to make all the right choices about where to work, always in plastics - vacuum forming. I loved it. I got to design, create, and work with a huge varity of machines, tools, supplies and materials, plastics, metals, resins, and casting mediums of all sorts. It seemed like the more the better, and I thrived on learning, and I still do, and love being challanged. The more complicated and challanging a project, the better. I learned machining, pattern making, and tool making. For a number of years I was a designer and mechanicl engineer and project engineer, and a dept. manager, managing half of a large business, under the owner/president. I owned a successful business of my own for several years too, while staying involved with my kids. I had a high energy level back then and only to sleep 3-5 hours a night average. Still only about 5 or 6. So all that learning and extreme difficulties at times, during those 58 years and finally letting God get involved in my life, to make life so much better, because part of it really was pretty miserable, is how I got to where I am here today, and enjoying this hobby and passion we all share here on this forum. As I look back, I can see where God was involved with all of it, and I give Him all the credit fot my skills, talents and my passion for people, life, and this hobby. I build for Him now, and hopefully you see more in what I build than just me and my talent's, because it's really Him you see, because to what ever level you think I build at, it's way above where I coud have been without Him. If you made it this far , congratulations for you interest, patience and perserverance, not to mention putting up with my spelling . Now hopefully you'll tell me about yourself now. Thanks all - dave

When I was growing up in Muscoy ,Calif., outside of San Berdoo, we used to catch lizards like this and play withum. We called um HORN TOADS. They lived right under the surface in sandy soil, and were hard to spot until we learned what to look for. We had big ol' tarantula's to play with too, but stayed way away from the "RATTLER'S" .

Great topic For me, after trying a host of different adhesives and glue's, I settled on three different one's in my "arsenal" of supplies, for different applications. (1) The first is Hobbytown's "MAXI-CURE" soper glue, that I use with "ZAPP-IT". USE A RESPERATOR!!!!! Most of the body work and custom work is done with this one. (2)The second is a 5 minute epoxy made by PERMATEX called PERMA-POXY. A general purpose epoxy that dries crystal clear. I use this one primarily for windshield's and adding all the finished detail pieces on the body, interior, engine and chassis. It makes for a very clean assembly. (3) The third is the good ol' standbye TESTORS styrene glue. When I want something extra strong and durable, I pull out my trusty Red and white tube, and squirt it on, and then let it dry for at least 24 hours, depending on how "Generous" I was. I use all three of these alot - dave A side-note. >WARNING< PLEASE STAY FROM STRAIGHT MEK Bad enough in Testors glue. THIS STUFF IS AN ABSOLUTE KILLER WITH ALL KINDS OF DISEASE POSSIBILITES. >I DID SOME RESEARCH, AND THE RESULTS ARE BEYOND SCAREY<

Hey Lyle This is a very nice build. I love that color - sprayed abot a half dozen or so builds with mine, 'cause I like's "Orangy" color's lol. Nice stance, and the wheels are way-cool with the "Chev Caps" in the center, and the interior is very, very nice and detailed. Wish you had some pics before you installed it. Maybe I missed the build-up to this. I'll go back and look, and see in "On The Bench". Thanks for sharing it Lyle - dave

Hey Dave This is lookin' very nice. Glad to hear your workin' on the "Slump" LOL. Happen's to all of us now and then. I like all the "Upgrade's" you're doin' on this - Very clean!! The firewall is really cool. I didn't know you scratch-built - nice touch. Been following this since you started, so keep posting, and keep us up to date on the progress. I want to see the two-tone paint job you mentioned in an earlier post. You should bring this with you this Sunday for our club meeting. See you then. God Bless - dave

Yeah, we LOVE the putty . "Putty-meister" here . Anyway pretty simple shaping. Only took a few minutes, and then a little primer and "VOILA" - round fender's. Just too fun. Here's a coupla pics. Last one's for a while, asI need to get back on the "Vette".

Playin' hooky today. Takin a break from the "Retro-Vette", to play with a couple other projects, includin' this '55 Vert. Just a little fun on the side . I rounded the top of the front fender's and doors ala Chezoom when I had started this project a few weeks ago, and liked it, so today I decided to round the top's of the rear fenders from the "Dip" to the tail-light's, to match the front and give it a little subtle change, but not be too obvious. Subtilties can make a big difference sometimes without people realizing right away, what it is that has changed. Here's a few pic's