W Humble

Great suggestion, but I began this one so many years ago that I used what I had; luckily my 1:1 car was dechromed considerably! It's all painted and ready to finish except for a 'tube grille' that I need to fab from jewelry wire. Wish I could duplicate the exemplary pinstriping it had!! I'm doing one side with full "Hollywood Moons" and red rims, plus full-length lakes pipes, and the other a later mod with baby moons on black rims, and pipes delete. Styles changed on the street, even then! THX! Wick

I'm trying to assemble one of the first-run Revell 2-dr HT (opening door) kits as a car my brother and myself owned in the 'sixties/early seventies, and it has been stuck back in the box about three times now; I swear I wish I'd never begun it. The kit was his, bought for the purpose, and at the time I still had the metallic green paint we put on it in '69. Later it was sold, and the new owner got plastered, rolled it, and the girl riding with him was paralyzed from the neck down -- bad cess! Still, my little bro has chronic leukemia now, and I wanted to present it to him in a display case. AAUGH! Even the instructions on that kit were wonky; I could do drawing that well!In desperation I glued on door shut, but it's still warped. Lots of details I got right from my/his BelAir, but the realization is not coming out well. I combined a '55 and '56 kits to replicate my first car, a '55 'Post' Delray, and I glued the doors shut first thing; still not quite done! I owned it for about 18 months in 1961 thru '63, when I graduated and needed college money; sold it up, and drove a '51 Ford club coupe -- got my immunization for flatheads with it, and three more! That kit is progressing, at least. I've trolled for conversion parts to make the AMT '49 coupe a '51 numerous times, but no luck. Converting a '65 GTO kit into my '65 Tempest Custom 2-dr HT (single exhaust 326, Chevy 3-speed, bench seats) was a snap by comparison. Oh, the bench front seat; converted from a '55 Chevy one! Wick

Rusty; Yes, and lots of 'parts' too. Some resistors, if the lead wire is long enough, can be painted and used as inline fuel filters, etc. Most are too short, however. Still, it's worth it to look in thar! Wick PS/ Make sure it's unplugged... !?

Oh, one last material suggestion I forgot: guitar strings. Old strings, or ends pickers typically trim off have a lot of uses. A wrapped steel string (or nylon) makes a good armored cable, etc. I just used a bit to simulate a mechanical tach cable; looks pretty convincing! Wick

I've been trying to prove to myself that 'kit instructions in the old days didn't have these problems', and so far I haven't found much worth bringing to this forum. BUT, if you look at the suggestions for 'Customizing' a regular 3-in-1 kit, I think the god-awful ideas shown there would be so stinky that no one would look farther for Bloopers. Even about 1959, when I started spending 'way too much loot for car kit (leaving airplanes, ships, and military behind!) the 'speed and custom equipment' included was mostly behind the trends, gauche, and not very useable to even a 14-year-old maven. What was 'suggested' went a long way to retarding our (my) taste in car mods, and it took a couple of seasons for that to sink in! AMT and later Revell subsidized a number of 'customizers' of note to make the contributions, and George Barris was the worst offender; did he really LIKE the ideas he promulgated, or was it all a big consultant-fee chuckle for him? An exception, sometimes: the decal sheets still don't look too bad! I M Humble O Wick

Speaking of twist bits: our local Harbor Freight store used to sell sets of fine bits (fragile tho, alas!) with shafts that fit my Dreml chuck, and now I'm down to about three (from two sets; cheap enough!) bits, and they no gots! I don't see this item in Mircro Mark, etc. Is there still a source? Indispensable, for me!!

Right! I always try to look where I'm spitting! I just wish my boss would have sprung for some spares! Then, there was the time... Wick

I've mentioned this before: I'm a po' boy who has to economize on parts and materials costs, and have been in that mode so long that if I had deep pockets, the habit would still run strong! I use old-fashioned telephone cable, the kind with the multi-colored single-strand wires inside for some wires and tubes. Find some, don't need much; strip the individual rainbow wires out. Strip one end about one-half inch, and put the metallic wire in a vice. Then carefully begin tugging the insulation until it starts slipping away from the core wire; go slow and progressively -- I often get as much as three-feet loose and in good conditon at a try. Also, the copper inside that is left is useful for light stuff. Wick

Minimum length of the 'glad-hand' airlines was enough not to pull-up tight on a maximum angle turn -- or when backing 'jack-knife' style. Too short and they broke. Thus, they always drooped down in the old days, then when the 'coily' style evolved just dangled and bounced. Lots of trucks, especially conventionals with long wheel-bases (twin screws) had jack-staffs to support them and provide a mounting place when not pulling a trailer. I used to see small memo-type pads with coily-type retaining cords for the ball-point pens they carried; seemed like a good simulation of the latter day type. We always spat on the seals of the air-line glad-hands and rubbed them on our palm to make sure (?) of air-tighness. Well, you had to depend on those trailer brakes on long grades, man! I remember the time in '73 when I was comin down Stirling City grade with a load of stumps, there by Magalia road... Wick

For my $, the fastback is one of the most organic, aerodynamic, and aesthetically pleasing shapes ever put on an automobile (that wasn't an open car) and it's amazing how few I ever had. Of course, there were the semi-f.b. cars like my Dad's new 1948 Plymouth DeLuxe; along with the 21-stud-era flathead Fords it was attractive enough but not sexy. A Volvo 444/544 comes to mind; neat but not nearly as cool. The Cad/Buick/Olds (others?) Sedanette on that looong wheelbase got it done! Customizer/restorer Joe Cruces kept trying to sell me a nice Olds for about $2K; oc this was back in 1975. I was restoring a '35 Packard 3-window, tho. I'm a 1;1 Datsun 240Z maven, and love it's GT/hatch fastback. The stick-on fastback that came boxed with the AMT /53 Studebaker Starlite kit was the basis for many models adapted to it; I did my YOM '62 'Vette kit with that -- and while it was my magnum opus in '64, it only rates the back of the shelf today, even after I BMF'd it. I'm building a new '53 Stude, but this one will have phantom NOVI V-12 DOHC (my own resin), full belly pan, Kamm-back tail, and possibly use some of that fastback assy. Sorry for typos; lost the dongle to my ergometric Adesso keyboard, and can't get the replacement to work! 77 year old fingers! Wick

Mark, True, and I have both the original issue and much later versions of the '49. One got it's roof melted when a lamp under which it's new paint was drying (second rep) back in the late '80s, so it's sectioned, pancaked, and t'n'r, a full 'Kustom' now with Buick power, and the other is suffering through a conversion into a '51 to replicate my second car. Both those Cads are in other kits now. Well, the L-head would be more interesting; obviously it's gotten some interest on this post! Thx! WIck

The auction ad I quoted was in SPECIAL INTEREST AUTOS MAG about 1971, and specifically noted the non-ohv Caddie. Yes, i guess I meant lengthened in the hood area, thus requiring the sacrifice of two kits (not making it TOO hard on myself, after all; my time on earth is limited!) But weren't there other Fordillacs built? Like the Allard cars, they may have come in many versions as to the powerplants. So -- any photos of built ones out there?

Not me with $$$; despite it's uniqueness, I never liked the K-D. Nope, I just figured that anything that had been in d.c. was grist for the resin-casters mill, and replicas might be out there. The old Victress bodies, now.... To my eye, old and rheumy tho it be, the '57 MoPars had a coupe roof line not unlike the FoMoCo's. Still, it didn't have the solar-oven area of the '59 up cars. The Moostang was hailed as a revelation with it's long-hood/short deck styling (with the small smoochy-mouth grille opening) but just pike the '62 Plymouth and Dodge coupes! Even Exner's Valiant/Lancer body when it debuted had the same features. The Pony's roof was all Ford; from the '58 T-Bird, tho. The 2+2 was an improvement, but like most owed a lot to previous fastbacks, especially the Italian school. Nothing new under the sun?!~

Don't read the blurbs; mistakes abound! The Revell '57 Ford kit writer that elaborated on the superiority of the 'cow belly' frame of the new '57 versus the 'x-frame' design of the Chevrolet -- when the '57 Chevy still had the ladder frame of the '55-6 cars.* Cad inaugurated the X design in '57, but it wasn't a selling point, pro or con, until 1958 on the other divisions! In another kit instruction, the repetition that the Chevy 348-409 W-Motor was 'designed for trucks'; of course it was, but so was the original small-block 265 series, for that matter! The engineers who designed the W specially stated in an SAE paper of 1956 that was so. And more. This list is long: repeating urban legend, over-generalization, just plain guesswork -- but who reads those? *Yep, only the front frame horns on the '57 were boxed to support the new catfish-mouth grille/bumper. Been there.

K-D neven a die-cast? Thought I'd seen it in 3K Toys, or ??

Easy enough to source; think I have a couple. But, accrording to what I've read, the original had a flattie. I once burned myself pretty good on the Cad exhaust manifolds because they, unlike Henry's, came up above the heads, by the intake manifold! Well, I've left skin on a lot of manifolds! Wick

Who has built a version of Bill Frick's "Fordillac" hot rod, from about 1950? Surely it has been done! I'd like to, but it might mean sacrificing two '49 Ford bodies -- and sourcing a Caddie flathead V-8, huh? Never a resin? Wick

Riley, et al: the consortium of bright boys who brought us the 1949 (through '51) Ford cars lost traction in the 1952-'54 era bodies, as Ford backtracked on the rear-fender 'haunch' or bulge, and brought it back! Mercury did worse; they reinstated a large, bulged-out rear fender that went from 1955-'56! Only Kaiser-Fraser could claim the full-envelope body sans 'haunches' from that early time; even the vaunted Exner 1947 Studes had bodacious 'haunches' until 1952, though they were integrated into the trunk lines. Courage of their convictions; not much when style is involved; witness clothing modes, etc. I M Humble O.... Wick

When PMD didn't produce this car, they lost my business to Datsun, as I bought a new '70 240Z in 7-'70. I was still in The Green Machine (US ARMY) at Ft. Sam Houston TX, and paid $3,661 for a cash sale. Later restored it, and later yet sold it back to NISSAN USA. I wrote an article for Z-Car Magazine, when I was restoration editor (since out of print) comparing the two cars. I would love to build a kit of one. Looked a bit too 'Stingray' but still very nice! Wick

I realize this is the wrong forum, but I have some '62 Revell Imp parts, if needed? I hate the '62 because my fine little '55 Chevy (265, stick) Delray got beaten by one that year; the family (mommy's) car of Force funny-car driver Robert Hight's daddy. He dared me one time to many, and I raced the 413, Torqueflite car, and not only lost by a length but also ruined a U-joint, which wasn't in my budget! Well, I never ran cars I knew I could beat! Quarter time of about 16.8 sec, 85-86 mph. Wick

That was sort of the idea, but with exhibition stock racing as the goal. There were a lot of Detroit one-offs out there; the SD Pontiac Tempest 421's, Ford T-Bolt/Mercury Super Cyclone, a '64 Dodge roadster with blower and parachute. I remember seeing an NHRA class 'Super Factory Experimental', above A/FX. It was the predecessor of the AWB cars and later Funnies. I never like the styling of the '62 Dodge; everything seemed to be fighting everything else, and Exners reversion to the old Studebaker peaked rear window (his design, too) was out of synch with other competitors; obviously it was deleted for '63! As was Ex! This seemed like a way to fix the look, though I'm not sure It was any more than 'different, not better'. Glad, however, that you like it -- for sure! I posted my '62 Plymouth 'restyle' on another forum. WIck

Rob, et al; The LR sheet sure looks like the tech artist just flipped the image; far from unusual, but doesn't show much perception of reality -- if building kits has a reality side! It's funny that a mfr. would purposely mis-spell trademarked names, as opposed to just omitting them; 'magneto, front cover & fuel-injection' without TM's have been used many's the time in my long experience; the mis-spellings just draw negative attention to the sheet. Having said that, it's obvious that I missed two of 'em, which proves someone's contention that the instructions are just there to dan alternative way to assemble the job! Apparently I don't read the things?! "Life is just one damned blooper after another" perhaps? Wick

It was pre-Molotow; could have been better! Still, it got a 3rd in closed wheel comp at the IPMS meet in Yuba City CA last year. :-<) It's sad -- and kind of a shock -- to find that your vision isn't telling you the truth about what your fingers can't do anymore! Beware~ Wick at 77

It was "Mallory" not 'Allory', and that looks like a Vertex mag to me. The call-out to the headers misdecribes the part. The 'valley cover' isn't??? Wick

This is constructed of two crushed Revell '62 Dodge 'Polara' 4-dr HTs, one that I had in storage since '68, another from a friend. They were horrible, so I decided to build a phantom drag-racing offering I call the Dodge Dragon, two seater, shortened wheelbase, and grille-induction 413 B-Motor. Since I had two hoods, I made two versions: one with single scoop, like the factory comp version, and another I like better with streamlined scoops. The color is genuine 'Hemi Orange', the one-year exterior color. The slicks are old 'cheaters' but this was not supposed to represent an AWB racer, but a factory model for racing, ala Hellcat. I posed it next to a promo photo of a convertible. As a Chevy/Pontiac guy, I don't much care for Dodges, but... couldn't resist! Wick