bobss396

I likely built them all. I still have one I did MANY moons ago, the glue let go over time, it is fixable. The kits are a kit-bashers dream.

I have painted them on with great success. It helps to have a tire with a recess to border the acrylic paint. The old AMT blackwalls were good to use. I would wash and scrub the tires with hot water and dish soap. Then do the painting, sometimes it took a couple of coats.

Quite nice. My brother did one, someone in the club casted a few crew-cabs that were excellent. He scratch built the entire back, that made the model magazines. I really need to do one for one of my modifieds to sit on.

I may have combined the #1 and #2 pieces and left them intact. You can always separate them later.

I struck out with hex beads at Hobby Lobby, eBay has them in a 15/0. Since they are so brittle, I have to use them as-is. Which works for me.

I like to lay down the best clear coat as possible. I mentioned one I am not going to polish out. I usually go 2-3 coats of clear regardless. I'll even sand between clear coats.

There were a lot of obscure one-off cars back in the day. Very hard to document the one you want to recreate. Just take your best shot at it.

I probably have 3 built and 10 other AMT kits around. They are really nice to build. I found a guy at the NNL East that sells vacuum-formed blank floor pans for this car. They may fit the AMT '36, have yet to try it. The beauty of the Trophy Series kits is that any engine mounts up the same. I have swapped the hemi from the '53 Ford F100 and the chrome 390 from the '34 Ford truck into the '40 Ford.

I'm using my 3' x 5' dining room table... maybe I can eat off it. I have to clear it off if I cook for 3 or 4 people. Mainly we eat outside on the deck. Right now it is fairly well organized. I keep parts in old pill jars, I mark them... although I did "lose" one for the Pinto I'm working on. Projects get their own plastic "shoe" box and I use jewelry storage boxes for sub-assemblies, etc. On the kitchen counter, I have at least 25 cans of paint out. I have most boxed so I can move them out of the way.

Iceman makes good stuff. Are those Jay's Resin Wheels? I buy them on eBay, good stuff as well. I have a '34 coupe also going, plan to use a VCG Resins 409 Chevy and a 5-speed, also by VCG. I have a very nice chopped body from Drag City Castings (Ed Fluck Jr.). I got it at a show maybe 15 years ago. I did chop a '32 three-window body, Norm Veber wanted to use it as a master, but it took me forever to get it looking right. I cut out the roof insert first and made a blank panel as an interm filler, this I used to get the roof parts lined back up.The top was cut into 6 parts. Attached is a coupe of sketches I came up with.

I use to talk with him after the races when he was in the modifieds. A really nice guy to shoot the breeze with. His #24 was one of the nicest looking rides at the time.

Black paint is... a black art to get it to shine. I have some car touch-up black I use, not on bodies so far... The Tamiya TS-4 is pretty nice. I have a metallic black I'd like to use, more forgiving than a straight black. I paint with a heavy hand. No mist coats ever. For the 1st coat, I turn the body over, get the underside and make the lower parts of the body have good coverage. Orange peel is unacceptable... at least in the finished model. I heat my paint too, in a pot of tap water in the sink. 10 minutes is good, I refresh the water after 5 minutes. Then shake the hell out of it. I start most color-sanding with #1500 cloth. Then onto #2000 and onto about #6000. Anything past that clogs up the cloths despite using lots of water. It is tedious work to avoid blowing through the color. I get it close these days and shoot clear over it. Also warmed up. I will tape off areas I don't want to touch. It may take me 3 4 or 5 passes around the body until I like it. I did a '62 Ford with the 1K clear made by SEM. The last pass was so good I'm not going to polish it out. With my last color coats and clear, I'm on the ragged-edge of at least a sag. Those can be polished out unless they are close to an actual run.

I like that too. I use an Arm & Hammer one... just what I use anyway. I have some Meguairs polishing compound but wind up going with toothpaste as of late.

For exhaust work, look at .085" diameter semi-flex cable. It fits inside aftermarket mufflers or .125" dia aluminum tube, which has an I.D. of .093". The cable has a textured jacket that looks like OG flex pipe.

Smokes... maybe what I need for modified lug nuts, pretty close. I was using #00-90 nuts, which are too big at .078" across the flats. I have Michaels Crafts and Hobby Lobby close by.

I force myself to do a big clean up every few days. I work on an 8.5" x 11" mat, I tape post-it lined paper over it so I can scribble on it. Now I'm working on 1 thing at a time, or trying to. I tend to accumulate odd parts I keep by my lamp base. I have to put those away or they pile up.

Real nice. I have to do one of those. It is really a little car compared to other cars. I knew a guy with a real one, he drove it on the street too. What a rocket!

Also start the spray off the body and complete the path also off the body. This keeps it from getting too grainy. If you move too fast it can contribute to making it grainy. I gave up on Testors or any enamels a long time ago. I use mainly Tamiya spray cans, I tried the Testors lacquers and of course auto touch up paints.

I tend to do things the same way if they actually work. I'm in the middle of 2 modified projects. Its just a little more work to get parts for a 3rd one going since I have everything out already. I have a completed cage from scratch and a jig to build more of them on. I should document things as I go... but that may show that I'm a little organized.

I have never kept time I spent on something, maybe in a matter of months or YEARS... The Vega modified I finished in April, likely 150 hours into that one. I'm doing a Pinto now, likely 100 hours so far and more to go. My brother did a stellar roll-back wrecker that made the model mags, won everywhere he took it. That was a solid year of work, he documented it and had a "book" on display with the finished product.

In a nutshell, the canopy is a model in itself. ZERO room for error, it has to be right on the money. Good luck. I have a couple of stalled chop-top projects that need glass formed for them.

I like projects like this in the raw state best. Once it gets shot with primer and paint, the magic is lost. But good that it all blends in at the end. I'm doing a Pro Street '66 Nova, I have it in a roughed out state. Tons of flash to deal with all over, but good detail. It was a struggle to get the front headlight/grille/bumper piece to nestle down in the body. So watch out for that pitfall. I will probably add some positive mounting tabs to help hold it in tightly. The last thing I want to do is fumble with something during final assembly.

That is the brand I use. I just washed off my black ones after some abuse and they look new again. I probably have 1.5 years on that set. While in the beauty supply shop, pick up a set of nail repair silks. Mine are Sally Hansen and look like 1/25 scale fiberglass. Great for fixing cracks or adding strength to a spliced in piece of plastic. They are sticky on 1 side, put it in place and soak the back with CA glue.

Again, if you have a beauty supply store, those sanding sticks last for a long time. I wash them when they get clogged up, let them dry and they are good for a while. I replace them when they get ragged. I keep a set of the beat up ones by my sink for wet sanding. Good to remove raised ejector pin marks fast via wet sanding.

Model Car Garage has a great set of PE saws that fit an Xacto handle. They come 5 or 6 to a package. I have bent and flexed them and have yet to break one. I use them to cut glass and interiors from old glue bombs.