W Humble

David, Too true! I had a $50 two-door 'Deluxe' with 16-in rims (and no floors, rockers, etc; an Illinois car that made it cross-country in '62!), then the infamous Club Coupe 'Custom', that endeared itself to me, then three more as parts cars, etc. Another un-tiltable Coupe became a 'brush buggy, sans body and shortened 15-in. The nice C.C. came to grief in a blinding snow-storm in extreme N CA where our clan lived, versus a '59 Dodge HT; I rebuilt the Ford to driving condition, but the Dodge was scrap iron. Highest I ever paid was $50 -- oh how I wish... That CC came with the O/D, but the wife's cousin, previous owner, had taken it apart, and I had a perfect box from the Deluxe sedan that had gotten totaled. Still had the 4.11:1 standard equipment gears though! My class at the NHRA drags was N/Stock; racing non-Spyder Corvairs, Chevy 235's, and... Volvos! I never lost a trans, partially because I bought one of the first Hurst 'Mystery Shifters' (story was; it was a mystery how they could be sold so cheap; $24.95 from Honest Charlies) and it came with the 'Synchro-lock' dowel pin that went into the side-cover replacing the coil-spring; kept gears from oversliding on hard shifts! I later learned how to rebuild B-W HD three-speed/ods on my brother's '59 Rambler wagon (room for our band equipment, and the seat folded...!) which eventually got a Hurst M/S also! Hurst's 'Shifty Doctor' told me to use their kit for a '59 Ford with o/d, but shorten the bracket and thread the rods further back; worked like a charm!! After the CC was sold, I went back to '55 Chevys -- did you drive those also? I'm making replicas of my '51, '55's, and '65 Tempest Custom HT 326/3-speed, plus 24-Z's. I'll make a 'show' and post them someday. Wick I was dangerous: Raced a lot, won a few! Wick

TJ, Thanks for the 'sympathy' -- I guess that's your contribution to 'How about a laugh?" I didn't, and now feel somewhat worse for your defense of 'pitties'. I'm not a dog hater, but I hate to be bitten! And I think humans come before other animals - no joke. When I was two, a collie put a tooth through my eyelid; I was trying to give him a 'love'. Then a little toy poodle, and a Scottie, both of which the owners denied. "The light bulb wasn't burned out." Enough. It depends on who got bit, I guess; I didn't bite the dog. THAT would've been a laugh, huh? PS, Call me "Wick", as in James Wickersham Humble. age 77.

That's not hereditary privilege; not aristocracy based on family only -- and I think that you know what I mean, huh? Just sayin' Wick

Possibly a car I learned to like very much; my second car, a '51 Ford Club Coupe with flathead v-8. I had several when I went to JC in Redding CA. What I discovered about the 'shoebox' Fords (always hated that label!) was that there was a capscrew (one of three, as I recall) on many that went through the frame to help secure the steering box. It was threaded up too short, and on the assembly line they would be torqued down with air tools until the thread shoulder seated against the cast iron box, and if the frame metal (it was a box, but not real heavy ga.) distorted, the screw shank would crack right where the last thread ended, thus promoting -- after twenty years -- a break. And mine did. It looked okay, but when another capscrew snapped (wow!) all that was left holding the steering box to the frame was one shorty at the top, and it, as I recall, went through a steel bracket, which allowed the box to move away from the frame cheek on turns; forget right or left. Now, my friends all had newer stuff, and named the old tin Henry 'The Wanderer', after the popular Dion song of a year or so before. It did, too, though it had a lot of idiosyncrasies! I've never had a car with that type issue before or since; tho it wasn't a fatal flaw, it was disconcerting -- until I figured out the problem, using a parts-car, of which I needed plenty! My first car was actually a very nice '55 Chevy Delray 'post' with all the street-racing attributes, but I simply couldn't afford to keep it and pay for school. The most dangerous thing about that ride was the proverbial nut behind the wheel! My folks were 'disciplining' me for being such a twit -- at age 16, fall of '61 when 'I had to have it!' Well, the lesson took! Still, I truly wish I had one of those little flatmotor coupes, but now I can't afford one! I am, however, make a model of it as well as my six-year old '55! Wick, class of '63

How many pit-bull owners does it take to change a light bulb? Two: one to say it isn't burned out, and one to say it wouldn't have burned out if you hadn't teased it! I made that one up, within 15-minutes after having a young female PB sink her teeth into my left hand. I was delivering paint and body-shop stuff to a shop, and didn't see the dog, but a mini-dog was pulling on my pants cuff while my arms were full of a 40-lb. box of paint. As it set it down, the PB struck -- and the owner was saying 'She don't bite!' Ah -- so how does she eat? Wick Was not fun~!

I dunno'; I often think of how glad I am that I was not born in a country where someone else is (undeniably IS) better than I -- by law. "I'm a natural sovereign, sir, a born American" Mark Twain As an American, I'm happy that some can distinguish themselves through study, hard work, and other laudable methods, not be born to distinction. Granted Liz did a lot for England (Irish and Scots may not agree, to say nothing of former colonies, commonwealth, dominions, and all that) but at least we don't pay our hard-earned into a government that lets one family have the top tier. A Brit friend heard my opinion a few years ago, and said "Well, but isn't it nice that the poor people have someone to admire..." and then she thought about it and said 'But that's why my kids want to be Americans, I guess." I guess so! That 1776 stuff was for a reason, in my book, and when George Washington was offered a crown, he wondered why we'd suffered through that under-dog war! From colony to republic. No to hereditary nobility and royalty, thanks! Old Wick ( the Vet), 77 & counting...

Les, Yeah; we ran a feature in Z CAR Magazine, when I was restoration editor, about what some Philistine might swap into the early (1970-74) 240 - 260Z, and my nomination was the Rover 3.5L, which at that time was available as a crate replacement for about $4K. The B-W T-5 was current then, but between the two of them the tab would've been pretty spendy! I almost bought a FI version at a dismantlers some time back, but judging from the condition of the Rover, it must have been the ening or trans that put it into a salvage mode. It didn't surprise me that the Brits (you're Scots, right?) wanted to stick a 'toilet-flusher' SU on top the thing, rather than a good US 4-bbl. Later oc it got FI. I was happy with my SU's on the restored '70 and restomod '71 Z's I have/had, but it's a weird mod. The '70 was used in my resto book, and was repurchased by NISSAN USA for a display car, when they tired of borrowing it from me for shows. Gees, I write like I was still getting paid by the word! WIck

I'm no expert on the BOP aluminum V-8s, but I thought the Olds had an extra head bolt for each cylinder from the git-go; si? Probably anticipating the little turbocharger that they brought on line. Wasn't that the block that Aussie REPCO adapted for their F1 racers, also? Pontiac didn't sell enough of them to justify the V-8 service section of the Tempest shop manuals for '61-2; less than two percent either year. My old man considered a Tempest V-8 wagon for the family, but decided 'what the hell; if I'm getting a V-8, might as well buy the '62 Catalina" which he did. A V-8 LeMans coupe was just offered via the Little Indians Club grapevine for reasonable money, but unrestored. The late (?) tech editor of HRM got the B and P '215' mixed up with the Olds -- in print! See, it isn't only poor old' MCM that I fact-check on engine stuff! Wick

Gees, I've always LOVED that car! Some history, too. I'd feel more empathetic for Virgil Exner if he hadn't styled those Excessmobiles in the mid 'sixties: Mercer Cobra, Deusie, Pierce, etc. He encouraged guys like Clenet... The malaise era wasn't bad enough! Did anyone, as far as that goes, ever make a kit of the XNR? I'd buy it! Like the Stude Hawk GT (1:1) I once had; not a superb car, but it sure dressed up my driveway! Sold it in '78 for $2k, now for sale by same buyer for $20K. Wick

I got to looking at my small collection (haha) and discovered my newest year-of-mfr kit was the AMT '65 GTO HT that I converted to a replica of my own '65 Tempest Custom HT. I bought it just for the purpose, and I guess all the other new kits are of OLD rides! When my kids were humoring me into thinking I'd be passing the hobby down to them, we did Trans Ams, 4x4's, and other newer cars, but while they wouldn't find time to build a kit nowadays, they took them when they moved out! Gees, I do feel ancient! Let me know if you have really ancient decal needs; my box is varied but there some good looking ones. Aside: even back in the early '60s, I thought that the 'grapics' that were supplied with the kits were about 70% really dorky, as far as someting you'd paint on a 1;1 car without getting the raspberry! Wick

Bill, I'll check them out. I was thinking that maybe the Casio thing was a new tool, tho. Never have enough tools, and I've got six roll-arounds... Wick

Mike, friend: Sounds so easy! You know how, I don't. I don't know a single car modeler in our town of 120,000, and though I recently joined the IPMS chapter in Yuba City CA, Covid intervened, and I haven't had much contact with those cats, either. Even tho I've worked as a Graphic Arts/Illustrator*, there is a for me a mighty gulf between doing what you do, and what I can reasonably attempt, right now. Got printer, got paper, got images, or can draw them, but unless you come over and teach me??? Well, I'd still like to have my question addressed. Wick, at 77, first model in '53 *US Army 81E20, 1979-70 plus an MA in Art 1973 :-<)

They say confession is good for the soul, and at age 77, I have to unburden myself to Mr. Revell, Aurora, Monogram, AMT, and all the others: starting at age eleven, I began a secret sin of larceny against their companies! It was the fault of 1.) living in a tiny, rural high-desert town in CA (so far north/east that it could have been in NV or OR just as easily!), and 2.) those darned coupons in the kit instructions that offered to replace any parts that were damaged, warped or MISSING! Well, also 3.) I guess even a modeler can be a rotten kid?! And me a Boy Scout! Mea culpa -- maxima I developed a bad habit of sending those coupons back asking for the 'missing' decal sheet from my kit -- and Messers. Revell, et al, kindly sending the sheets requested by return mail, no questions asked. It gets worse; looking through my collection of vintage instruction sheets (late 1950's-on) I realized that I chiseled them out of a few chrome trees as well! Now, I know none of you ever did this heinous thing (though I thought our police chief would eventually come banging on my door, I couldn't stop; the goodies were just to tempting!) but perhaps someone out there who is without blame can give me absolution? I'd sleep better! If you won't tell what happens in confessional, I'll also admit that I still have some of those decal sheets in my files -- ooh, the shame of it. I noted that the first one was from Revell's multi-piece 1956 Ford Convertible kit, and the last probably the orignial AMT 'Ala Kart', or that ilk. Goes to show! So, they say confession must be followed by restitution, and since I doubt the kit guys want 60-year old decals back, I'll share some with you, my confessors. Can't guarantee quality, but... Gee, I feel like a new man! What a load off my mind! Still, it didn't stop the eleven-year old... remind me to tell you about the time I swiped a package of Schick injector blades for cutting styrene... Wick PS/ Actually, I felt so guilty swiping something I could buy for a buck that I risked getting caught AGAIN and snuck them back into the store and on the display!

Anyone's experience: possibly is Casio's 'Label It!' sticky label printer ever useful? The one I have has a lot of options I've never used, but before I devote any precious time to experimenting with the tecnology for quick standard-font 'decals', I wondered if anyone else has experience with the thing? I made some strips for the top of the 1:25 model windshield touting 'HRM Drag Week 2021' and it worked well enough in black letters on clear tape, (looks pretty good!) but I wondered if there were more that could be done. As opposed to making a sheet with the computer/printer, it is fast and cheap to use for simple strip-banners as I did above. I had to download and print their Owner's Manual (mine is a used KL-750 model) and it isn't specific enough to be certain what the thing can do. There are a small variety of fonts embedded, I believe, and it can also do clear letters on black, which is interesting. Anybody amongst you masterful-modelers have any input? :-<) Wick, modeling (and ruining decals) since 1953.

Thanks for the kind words; I know this car doesn't photograph very well, but my eyesight fools me into thinking my work is better than it is! I imagine that most big-league modelers know the trick of the intake hoses: a spring inside a length of heat-shrink tubing, often formed over a piece of hard wire. Not for pressurized hoses, like McCulloch blower, but okay for intake from scoop or air filter. I got the idea for the 2X4 intakes from the Dodge turbine-car mule (there was a Plymouth one also in '62) that Chrysler publicized a lot in the magazines. Both sacrificed their inner headlight assemblies for the 'suck' tubing. These might have used a spring of too much diameter, but ball-point pen springs (what in '62 I kept trying to substitute for leaf springs or solid coils ) work well for smaller ones. I keep a whole drawer of salvaged springs; small electric blender motors supplied these. Wick

Agree; but when you talk about 'sixties stuff, my orientation is very early (pre-Moostang) 'sixties, and that's getting less likely every day! Still, I guess that's why I hung onto my 'barn find' kits, huh? So many are promo/curbside, and take a lot of work and parts scrounging -- possible only because of MCM forum members generosity! I just forgot I was working with a '61 JoHan, and cracked that egg-shell styrene; more work! That's why I never work smaller than 1:25 models! Ole' Wick

I may have mentioned this (poss on another forum) but I've been messing around creating 'phantom' Miller style engines using various bases, and then just scratching things up. I wanted a Miller straight-8 looker, so using an old Monogram Indy car Offy four, I resin cast a double block and got a pretty nice eight. Not a lot of detail (not like this beaut'!) because the original was pretty basic, and I can't see little stuff so well any more -- watch out for that in aging, folks -- but it looks okay. Other base for a V-12 was a Hawk 1939 M-B GP car that had a very simple display engine -- oddly, they didn't make it fit the car -- that is easy to enhance. Wick

I drive (on nice days!) my restomod '71 Datsun 240Z, with '75 L-28 built by Pettersen Motorworks, Chico CA and 'steel-syncho' 5-speed. The rest (every bit) I did myself: 4-wheel disc brakes, Hobrecht roll bar, early SU carbs, Japanese home-market exhaust manifold (w/o smog fitting holes), 20th Anniversary leather seats, Tokiko suspension, Konig 8-spoke rims, and almost finished air conditioning. Alternating with a restored '62 LeMans ragtop, 4-bbl. 3.25L four, A/T, and the stock solid flex driveshaft, and transaxle. White, white interior, black top. Otherwise, a '07 GMC Canyon 4-dr half-ton; replacing my neato '72 C-10 (350, 5-speed) which was one truck too many! Finishing up Dad's old '51 Chevy two-door sedan: 350, 5-speed, four wheel discs, FiTech Fuel Injection, Sanderson headers, HEI, battery in trunk, etc. Restored with original green metallic lacquer (by me), black vinyl interior, new tinted glass, custom gauges, and about $2K in over-priced chrome/stainless. It's actually gone to my son, who is paying the parts tab, but I still get to drive it, he says! Wick

Names: Pontiac borrowed the LeMans name from Caddie (Briggs Cunningham did run a 'stocker' Cad at LeMans, along with a special-bodied Cad the French called "Le Monstre"), and Chevy adopted the Monte Carlo name from PMD's '61-62 show car roadster -- which I have modeled -- but Pontiac had a '62 Tempest homologated with the FIA that had a full-sized iron 389-cu.in. V-8 aboard. This was pre-SD 421 '63 racer, or the vaunted '64 389 A-body GTO. Any big Poncho V-8 will drop right into a Y-body Tempest, since the 4-banger was just half of a 389, even to the horsepower ratings. Not that you'd want to, unless you were the factory or Mickey Thompson, who won stock eliminator at the '62 NHRA Nationals with one of two he built, if I recall correctly; Hayden Profitt driving I think. Big Pontiac drive train, also, of course. I have a '62 LeMans ragtop with the four-bbl. four, but our local old school wrecking yard had a derelict with the iron 326 swapped in; think it just got crushed this spring.

Agree. But some of the letters/comments in the Studebaker Driver's Club magazine are pretty incensed about eschewing the original V-8 for others! Lamm's article also pointed out that it is likely that Caddie engineers let their counterparts from South Bend see their design trick bag. Also, that there was the expectation of increasingly higher compression ratios due to advances in anti-knock fuels, which didn't really hold up: "No substitute for cubic inches!" In 1966, at Shasta Roadsters Drag Strip, Redding CA, I saw a brand new Lark (Daytona?) coupe with a Chevy 396/B-W 4-speed, and this was when BBC's were pretty rare in Chevrolets. John Geer Chevrolet, local dealer, just got in a BB StingRay, and the word was that his guys ran it for a day and night over the roads to break it in for a showing on Sunday. Naturally, it was 'Vette vs. Stude Lark. The latter had big Caslers or M&H's on deep rims for traction, but when the green went, the Lark driver either broke an axle/hub, or pulled the lugs out of the steel rim. The Lark made one great big loop around the wheel/tire, which got cocked inside the rear wheel well, and that was that. Everyone said that it was a real factory experimental from Canada, trying out another non-Stude powerplant. Maybe; that was the common wisdom that day in the pits. Never saw the car again!

Steve: okay, I should have read the Customrama stuff first! The conversions of 1953-up Studebakers was really popular in the late 'fifties, and later; numerous aftermarket sources sold complete conversion kits, especially for the ubiquitous SBC. It was enough lighter to help the Studes' handling, vs the Caddie swaps. Mike Lamm explained how twisty/limber the stock frames were, unless (as in the Avanti) one had a convertible X-member, and I don't think that was available until they produced the Lark evolution in a ragtop! I've found ads for a nearby (Yuba City, CA) Stude dealer who would hop-up the stock 289 V-8 "We make the Hawk fly!" I loved the Stude Starlight/Starliner, and drew dozens of them with shortened wheelbases, Chevy motors (T-10 4-speed for me, not the adapted Stude box!), and usually tasteless scalloped paint jobs! I drove a '55 Chevy, then a '51 Ford (well, wore out several!), but never scored the Stude. In the late 'seventies had a Hawk GT, and really liked it, but it was an automatic -- not for me! Three pedals, man! Stude guys are typically pretty sensitive about repowering their babies, but even Stude went to the SBC in the end. Cheap to keep! I have a '53-54 4-dr. sedan body that should I have that much 'gas' left in my personal tank (survived C-19, anyhow at age 77) I want to build into a 2-door roadster on a S-10 chassis (shortened), with '82 IROC-Z power -- and T-5 five-speed, of course! Maybe... Wick

I finally learned (?) resin casting, and have made a flock of crazy Miller or Novi-like DOHC V-16's. Not too bad, for basic castings. I have two 'Miller' phantom conversions in progress, one from Caddie V-16 roadster, and one from R-R Derby roadster. Mike Lamm, in SPECIAL INTEREST AUTOS Mag back in the early 'seventies did an article on 'classic swaps' into hot rods; some crazy conversions back in the early days! Lots of torque, cheap to buy in those days, and low-stressed parts, if lousy fuel mileage. I still rely on the SBC (my son-in-law is an LS advocate!) but yes, the vintage swap would be the most suitable. The interior; tough! Wonder if any magazine has ever found in-progress photos of Frick's real creation? I don't have any pics of his famed 'Studillac' car(s) either; not even sure what year the body was; guess I could Google it? Oh, my basic V-16 model for surface-molding was the Hawk 1939 M-B GP racer, which came with a nice but stripped-looking display engine (never made to fit in the model car!) which I bought about 1960. It had those terrible clear-plastic 'wire' wheels, and was fiddley for a 15-year-old, so I never finished it. The rear section wound up on a AA/FD from the AMT Double Dragster kit (an inverted Topolino grille from it is going on my Cad/Miller creation) and other parts contributed to some builds; the rest lost. My other V-16 is scratched from two flathead blocks sectioned together, and styrene; okay but not refined. Miller engines had a million fasteners, and acres of fins; hard to model. Thx! Wick

I can easily imagine a salvage yard diorama full of 'em! That's where I'd put warped promo parts too! See, that's the problem: I'm 77 years old on Sunday, and no longer have that youthful pizazz... or vision, or small-motor skill, or... :-<( Wick

Les: maybe, but I had enough 'shoebox' (don't like that nickname!) Fords to be able to tell that the front fenders a 'way over length from stock. Also, wonder where that unassuming little fender trim originated? Some old Cad, probably. This example (may have been more?) seems to have '51 chrome tail-light moldings; more bling the better on Fordillacs. Really, sounds like something Dr. Seuss would make up! Also, I have to wonder what kind of hinges that extended hood must have required; the FoMoCo items were not winners, even at 12 years old, when mine was acquired in '63! The steel reinforcing that extended thing would have required must have made it weigh sixty pounds, at least! I know Scotland doesn't take credit for the Jaguar. My younger bro left a lot of skin on the beautifully enameled black exhaust manifold of his 3.8S Saloon. Three power-steering boxes later (leaked when brand-new rebuilt from the box!) he sold it. Credit? Wick

I have an article about Bill Frick's Garage, and his conversions somewhere. An old SIA Mag has a full-page ad for 'the' Fordillac; def L-head powered. I'll dig it up asap. I'd have to sac two '49 Ford kits to extend those fenders, I guess... though I've done others the hard way = epoxy, sheet plastic, and Bondo. Still, where would I get a Cad flattie? Can't be too populous, and while more efficient than the Ford they looked wierd! Buddy built a '38 Ford hay truck in '63 with a Cad L-head. Burnt his hand on the exhaust manifold, while trying to set the carb idle, too! >Hisss!< Actually, my only intro to the earlier V-8's. Wick