W Humble

This is ;our' White 3000, posed in front of Fremont Ford plant, new in '52. Trailer was a 1942 35-foot Utility furniture van, large for the time. Story: Step-dad tilted the cab at White Motors in Stockton once, forgetting his 4-cell flashlight in the sleeper; it fell right through the windshield -- which luckily they had in stock!!

Yes, indeed! I have that article in the box with my resin project -- as inspiration! I think the original DC cab is the basis for the resin cab, provenance unknown because it was a gift from my truck-modelin' nephew. There were many versions of the base 3000, and it sold very well, esp as an inter-urban rig. I tried to win the 'Space Patrol' rocket in the '50s, which was based on a 3000 straight chassis; remember telling my Dad "We boys could put the rocket ship in the back yard, and you could have the new truck for a job" which got a wry look, because he was already an vice-superintendent of schools! Ralston-Purina sponsored the 'Space Patrol' show (or was it 'Tom Corbett, Space Cadet"?) and the rig can be searched on-line. Make an interesting build, esp as a diorama! We used our 3000 as a yard-mule after switching to White/Freightliners (13-speed Road Rangers; some shifting!) It was swiped one night, but the thieves (probably joy-riders) didn't know about the CA 'spring brakes' that were added about 1963, and without enough air, the tractor stopped in the middle of an intersection! The old White had a red-jeweled light in the middle of the dash-board top that signaled to the enforcement folks that you had air pressure below 40-pounds. Guess they thought it was bling?! Step-dad had it about half restored when he passed, about 15 years ago. Oh, the stories!!

Our 3000 is still around; moribund with a poor repaint -- breaks my heart to see it now. It was a good driver, being gasoline (original flathead six replaced by later model overhead after about 1 million miles --so my step-dad claimed) with 5-speed and Brownie. I removed the fifth-wheel to make it a simple flatbed -- hence the model project -- and converted the electric cab-tilt to hydraulic, etc. Just too expensive for one guy to restore to what it deserved! Known as 'The Green Hornet'.

Issue 213: IF exhibitor Jarel Wolfe exhibited his neato ramp rod as a Dodge on pg. 45, and Tom Valento believed it, they are mistaken. It's a White 3000 tilt-cab, built during most of the 'fifties. I know, because our family (Armor Van & Storage) bought one new in 1952, and later I owned it in the 00's. Came as both gas and Diesel, and ours had the large wider sleeper cab. I'm converting a resin repop to that configuration for a car-hauler flatbed, based on a Ford C-Series chassis with big V-8 power as a car hauler. We oughtta' get these things right, huh?!

Love the Goat kit~ I converted one to represent my '65 Tempest Custom coupe; 326/3-speed, with redlines and chrome-rev rims... one of my college cars. Hard putting chrome trim strips onto a GTO, and faking in a basic grille. Ah, those were the days!? Wick (the nickname I have always gone by (for Wickersham)! PS/ guess I'm sadder but wiser; back to DOT 3 for soaking off paint!

The '62 B-A: I immersed it in Testors ELO overnite to remove the rattle can blue, and the 'bubbletop' posts crakced apart in three places! Anyone ever had that happen? It was old stuff, but... !

Ace: I sprung for the Challenger I and Ivo's Buick X 4 when they first came out, and... both defeated me. Still have a few parts, though. I build a little better now! Still, some of those old Revell kits -- like the original '56 F100?! I'm doing a 'period' LSR car with two Cad V-16's now, and a 'Hillbilly Showboat' with four Ford Y-blocks, dual slicks, etc. Wick

Heat gun works fine for me; have to be patient, but that ensures not frying the plastic. I use a mold made from Dowmans Fix-All; stays smooth, and very hard.

Sheesh: I left out a word in my comment on the AMT instruction blurb mistake on the '57 Ford kit! It should have read 'the '57 CHEVY retained the ladder-style frame'; sounds like I meant the '57 Ford! Despite all of GM's stats regarding the increased stiffness of their X-style frame (introduced on the '57 Caddie) it didn't seem to racers to be superior. However, the GM models using it, primarily Chevy and Pontiac, had a respectable percentage of wins on the speedways in that period -- this, despite the General's non-support of racing its products. The '61 Pontiac was a dominator, but it had gone to a perimeter frame by then, dumping the X- entirely, which I suppose could be called a variation on the ladder frame. Anyhoo; the blurb was wrong; don't use it fora footnote when writing car stuff meant to be taken seriously?!

Glue bomb '62 BelAir bubbletop for ten bucks at the 1\1 swap meet in Woodland CA. Ugly blue rattle can paint which I'm stripping. OC it had the legendary 409. The instruction blurb (who did AMT pay to write those things, anyhow?) was wrong on the orign of the "W" motor: it was not a converted or adapted truck motor at all, but simply a new larger-capacity block that Chevy designed for both cars and truck applications simultaneously. I know, I repeated the old urban legend about the truck origns myself in the 'sixties -- mainly as a slam at an engine I didn't appreciated, vs. the small block that I drove -- but it simply isn't true. I'm sorry that the author of that paragraph repeated the mistake twice. Or to put it another way, the SBC was a truck motor that also got introduced in cars simultaneously, I suppose. The design team at Chevy wrote a well documented paper for the SAE Journal (the bible for auto engineers, in which they dare not tell lies to one another!) in '57, and the facts are pretty clear on the topic! Research is research, and I did this in 1978 when the principals could still be interviewed 'real time'. Also, the AMT hack said in the blurb for the '57 Ford Fairlane that it was introduced with a cow-belly frame (good desing; belled out toward the rockers) versus what Chevy premiered with the X-frame then, and everyone knows that the '57 retained the ladder-style frame of the '55, the controversial X not being debuted until 1958. Both errors stated in print; and the printed word becomes a document that endures -- sadly in these cases! There: I got that off my chest! BTW: I have far too many scale "W"s in my stash, but using some strip styrene, filler, and parts-box BBC valve covers, I've made a number of credible Porcupine/Mk. lV/Rat/BBC representations, which have far more applications than the old 'W" for me. Long live the SBC!

Lacquers by their nature are thinned with the hottest of solvents, and so tend (often, not always) to cause lifting, bubbling, and wrinkling of 'cooler' solvent-based paints, such as enamels. Trad Testors, Pactra, etc are like Rustoleum in that they are 'cool' slow solvent-based. I respectfully submit that anyone who avoids these defects putting lacquer as a top-coat is either spraying it on in a very thin coat (mil-depth) or just lucky. I've never had any problems with 1/1 professional clears over most paints, but not if they are applied thickly. Everyone has their own system. Like with like is the safest!

Duplicolor colors I've bought at O'Reillys and Pep Boys work okay; mostly acrylic lacquers: dry fast but need clear coat to really 'pop'. I use PPG Shopline (mostly) as I also do 1/1 paint jobs and worked at a PPG store as a retirement job. Their JC660 or 661 are very good clear over-coats, but are catalyzed. I don't think of Duplicolor as a top-line finish, personally, but okay esp for models. I almost never use rattle-cans, nor do I use Tamaiya, Testors, or other modeling finishes if spraying. Too much $$! If you're an adult, try the local automotive finish stores for mis-tint and over-aged products; you would be amazed at what you can come up with, usually for less than half price, and if your personality appeals to them, FREE! OC, means using their reducers, catalysts. I share my finds with fellow modelers if they have the containers! Wick Age 76

Oh, also, most 1/1 paint suppliers will give or sell cheap mis-matched or over-age paints to grown-ups; you'd be amazed...!!

I not only have painted some show-quality 1/1 cars over the last 50 years, I've been blowing paint on model cars since about 1960, but I worked in a PPG paint store as a retirement job, and I can tell you that there is no really safe way to paint with air-sprayed materials. Even water-based aren't good to breathe, but at least don't contain cyanide-affiliated materials -- I don't think! You always run some risk, never doubt it! I usually use catalyzed PPG or similar 1/1 materials, but have a place to shoot that is not confined; eg., some air flow exists at all times. I don't think I could do a good finish in a little spray-booth box, frankly. I wear gloves and the best face mask respirator money can buy! Lots of light is essential of course, but also access to the subject from all angles. I have a pair of really nice Iwata brushes, but do most of my shooting with the little purple Harbor Freight gravity gun that they sell cheaply. I love my old DeVilbiss EGA 'finger gun' but it is a 1971 acquisition -- and the darned fluid tip gaskets are so expensive! Yes, I generally clear-coat with PPG DC660 or 661; it's pretty obvious, but at the last show, several club members wanted to know how I got my gloss... ?! I almost never use rattle-cans: I don't trust the paint quality, firstly, then there is so little control over the actual spray itself; no adjustments. The old PreVal system is a reasonable compromise; at least one can use 2-stage materials! Off the shelf aerosols; only if I find a color that I can't duplicate otherwise. Too many disappointments!

The '53-54 Stude Starlite/Starliner was such a beautiful design that it often overwhelms the manufacturers attempt to replicate it! It's still my fave, even adding in monsters like the competition M-B 300SLR, various 'Rarri's, etc. I am 'rebuilding' a Maisto 1/18 Stude Starlite: changing o.d. green to red (like on my factory brochure cover), correcting the 'drip-rail' line on the roof (it's corner is too abrupt), and making the fakey 259 V-8 look more real, plus adding a scratch-built 'McCulloch' blower. This will be a low-key diorama, with a Stude dealers billboard in the background (save that for a surprise when I have photos!) something I'm getting into at the ripe old age of seventy-six. Also, I'm beginning a 1/1 scale '53-54 Stude 'roadster' conversion of a rusty 4-door: to be 2-doors, shortened wheelbase -- mounted on a modified S-10 chassis with IROC Z TBI V-8 and T-5 five-speed, all of which I have on hand -- and probably Moon discs, as a tribute to the Stude Bonneville record holders over the ages. Wick

Wally Cleaver had a bad day in a '62 Plymouth (Savoy?) in Driver's Ed; a gal named Shirley 'back-seat drove' him and he looked like a fool -- but passed his test when she didn't. MoPars supplied cars for latter-day seasons of Beaver, even Brit Rootes compacts show up. Wally and Eddie Haskell had Chevy's -- '54 ragtop and '40 sedan -- while Lumpy Rutherford had the beautiful '40 Ford cabrio with great sounding pipes. LOTS of car adventures on LITB! "Scotty" tries to tach Mary Stone to drive in Donna Reed, in what seems to be a '29 Chevy roadster with SBC ("It's a 355... ) and F100 steering; later with Doc Stones '62 Merc ParkLane 4-dr HT. Pediatricians must not have made much dough then, however, because they later has a Comet wagon! Sponsors! I took my driving test two days after my sixteenth b-day (8-21-'61) in the family '55 Pontiac 870 4-dr. 8-pass wagon. Easy to do, using a Hydramatic, after learning in column-shift 3-speeders, like they required back in the day. Of course, unlike today (if what we see on the streets is any indicator) the high school expected some competency to pass the course... ! A couple of months later I had my '55 Chevy Delray 'post', and we'd replaced the '55 with a '62 Catalina long-roof. Wish we'd had the 389 in the '55 body!

I have a footlocker full of 'Scotchcal' (and other brand) sign-makers vinyl, sticky-backed and press-on; works pretty well for lights, and other stuff. Larger circles can be neatly cut by using gasket-die cutters from Harbor Freight. BTW, cutting shirt-box plastic for big headlight lenses with the cutters comes out very nice if backed with a couple of layers of file-folder manilla card; it imparts a domed/convex effect! 3M: All scraps, including residue from sprint-car wing graphics, ctc. Metalflake and all. I'd share... but it would be complex, I suppose. I keep all my broken/replaced 1/1 car light plastic; a lot like tooth-brush material for making lights. Lite-Brite pegs are great, too, for customs/rods. I like the shiny 'jump-rings' from the craft store jewelry wall; lots more there for car modelers, of course! Gees, lots of great ideas!!

Well, Model A's, huh? I thought my '48 Plymouth would top the list. Of course, I learned in 1957...!

Began in the family '48 Plymouth 2-dr sedan, but driver training in '61 in a new Ford Custom 300 4-dr sedan. Our dealer got in two black '61's, on with six/stick for driver training at our high school, and the other, ominously, for the local police department -- like Mayberry, a one-car operation. It was the Interceptor package 390 V-8, and three-speed. I was pulled over by it in my first car, a '55 Chevy Delray 2-dr 'post' car, but 'catch and release' that time worked! I wish we still had the Plymouth; it was a nice looking ride. Do have Dad's next car, a 1951 Chevy two-door sedan, now restomodded. Editorial: I think kids who got driver-qualified in high school became far superior drivers to the current 'Jerrio the Clown Driving School' format!!!!

Loved those A-bodies; all of which were basically Chevelles, after all. No 'corporate engines' in those days, though; a Pontiac had a Pontiac, etc!! When you looked up the wheel fitment however; all Chevrolet! I put a '64 4-4-2 rear sway bar on my '65 Tempest; perfect fit. ( My AMT conversion from GTO Tempest has a bar, even now!) Later, it went on my bro-in-laws '71 Malibu 1/1. Now I can't even afford one! My bro had a '69 that was on the Automobile Quarterly Chevelle poster for a while, former GM factory rep's car originally; monogrammed doors -- and amber signals. PS; I do have a '62 LeMans ragtop; nice Y-body; tight and solid, and cute.

The pics give me impression that the rear windows are a bit smallish, and the 'V-8' oversize, but what a neat kit! It's accurate in that the front edge of the hood is a poor fit/screwy gaps, as the real 1/1 cars have that curse usually. I'll pretend I'm buying a spendy diecast... The 1/1 sedan I'm making into a 2-dr roadster has that curse. When I get my Maisto 1/16 d/c done, I'll post photos, prob on the d/c forum. Wick

Bill, Funny I couldn't recall exactly when; I should have considered that my neato '65 Pontiac Tempest Custom HT (326/stick shift, etc.) didn't have amber. At 76, stuff just sneaks by you! Still: "People who don't get old don't have old people's problems" my quote, btw! Thx!! Wick

First, I apologize for not having any photos! I needed to print a product logo sponsor on a race-car once, and used this trick. The car was for my bro's birthday, an old '64 Pontiac coupe he'd given up on as a kid, and as an adult he'd become the proprietor of five Orange Julious franchise stores in CA. I had the correct corporate colors and other decals for the drag car, but 'OJ" couldn't be sourced, so I carefully trimmed the 'Orange Julius' raised script from the plastic lid from a drink cup. Then I glued it to a block of rubber (an old 3M glazing-putty squeegee) with weather-strip cement; others might do. Then I took the correct orange -- an acrylic enamel from PPG that I had for another store project -- and rolled it unthinned onto a piece of glass with a rubber printmakers roller, or brayer tool. Using that like a stamp pad, I carefully dipped the lid 'stamper' into the thick paint, then transferred it to the rear fenders of the 1/25 car as you might expect, 're-inking' for each from a clear are of the orange paint. It came out strong and very well defined, to my joy, and had just enough of a raised surface to look convincing. It helped that I also had an ancient Hubley race car decal that said "Stock Car Races, Dec. 10" which was his birthday! The roller on glass thing can be used for a number of other things; give it a try!

Forget the booze! I have found good wood in left-over pieces of 'Venetian' blinds, stained-wood samples (from paint stores), and even an old Asian beach umbrella (bamboo; very interesting texture). Balsa bits can be sourced from old (failed) model airplane kits. A great source is simply paint stir-stick, come in several sizes, in both clrear tropical woods and bamboo. [Boy, does that last word LOOK funny, huh?] I use an abrasive blade (for metal or plastics) on my table saw to rip the blind slats; great for fence palings, planks, etc. Wood for models and dioramas is where you find it!

Good ideas, all! However, as another 'veteran' modeler and I were discussing today, it seems too many amber front turn signals are 'turning up' on cars that originally didn't have them; the '57 Ford DelRio wagon in a recent article was one: in the USA, anyhow, the amber lens wasn't instituted until about 1964 (if memory serves) or therabouts. Of course, a few aftermarket lenses became available for older rides back then, but weren't common. More often, drivers just put amber-tinted bulbs behind clear turn signal lenses for the effect. As far as I know, there never was a 'retrofit law' passed to require amber lenses in front on 1/1 cars. My restomod 240Z came with amber lenses, but I did it with Euro-spec clear lenses to keep the metallic silver paint popping. Just sayin'...