bobss396

Drag City Casting has a tear drop hood for the '63. Bob http://www.dragcitycasting.com/

I don't care how they do it, just give me a '55-'56 Mercury or '54 Buick on the level of the Revell '49 Merc and I'll be happy. All kidding aside, give 'em a chance and see what great new things come about. I'm psyched about the ownership change, it's all good! Bob

The Revell '49 Mercs are out? Just kidding, I like the Buick headlights, ought to be a killer build. Bob

I always liked '36 Fords and have a couple started already. Yours is off to a good start, show us more progress pix! Bob

I like it! Rods are like a blank canvas, anything goes and the "gotcha" factor is key. And you got it with the fenders and it sits just right, dare to be different! Bob

I grab any black wire that I come across and stash it. Even the wire that holds kid's toys to the package is worth looking at. I ran across some with printing on it, looks like the factory markings on molded radiator hoses. Sometimes the military type wire has identification marking on it. Bob

I basically make it up as I go along, but will look at pictures to get a sense of scale. Make up some pieces from thin cardboard and see how you like them first. Bob

Sometimes I'll simply cut out the firewall completely and make a new one from flat stock, quite often less labor and time involved in cleaning one up. I try to cut the old one out in one piece between the razor saw and xacto and use it for a template. For the fenderwells, I'll scrape them with a chisel xacto blade and use sanding sticks as well. Once you're dome (or think you are) squirt some primer over the areas. Its almost a guarantee to get some ghosting. So sand some more, going to the micro mesh cloths in the coarse grades works well, make sure you use water so they don't clog up. Count on having to use some bondo or putty to fix up the nicks and gouges. Bob

I used to have better luck finding parts on my green didning room rug, they stood out pretty well. Now I'm working on a ceramic tile floor and whatever gets dropped takes a bounce into another dimension. When I do find something by freak chance only, it'll be 12 feet away on the carpeted area of the room. I do have a spare floursecent light fixture that I am some day going to install under the table to aid the recovery process. Bob

Oh yeah, tweezers, aka parts launchers. PING! I used to wonder why the photo etched sheets came with SO MANY parts on them, figured I was getting a GREAT deal. When you've lost the 3rd part in a row, you look at the dwindling number of parts left and re-think your handling process. Bob

I go through that all too often. I'll lose a part in a matter of a few minutes, I haven't moved off the chair and the part is nowhere to be found. I look in my pants cuffs, in my shoes, shake out my clothes in an open area. Just like some little gremlin came in and took it on me. Years back I lost a steering wheel to a '59 Chevy in my kitchen, looked under and behind EVERYTHING using a flashlight. I had one from a '58 Chevy that I used instead. A steering wheel is pretty big, hard to lose. Of course it was all painted up. A few months later I was remodeling the kitchen and remembered about the steering wheel. I had to take the radiator out in the process, was sure it HAD to be behind it somewhere. I took it apart surgically, NO steering wheel was to be found. File that away with Jimmy Hoffa and Amelia Airheart. Bob

I can take an early retirement at 55, but won't have enough to support my lavish (ahem, cough..) lifestyle. I do plan to bail at age 62 or so and get into making machined parts for model cars. All I would need to make is maybe $15-20K a year to keep me happy plus it would give me something to do a few days a week and go to MORE shows. That's the game plan, I do have a product line and CAD drawings for some of the parts. Bob

As a kid, the sign of a sucessful build was how well it rolled and how little glue was on the windows. I'll let them roll now if possible, just enough so that I can "dial in" a car so it won't be a tripod on the contest table. Get a mix of resin wheels, aftermarket tires and scrounged up backing plates and you're lucky if it sits square upon completion. Bob

I have a couple of bikes started and would be interested in some new parts for them. Besides the wheels, what do you have in mind? Bob

Nice job! You did toss in some detail so it is an improvement on an out of box build. I'm not crazy about the chassis under it either, I only bought one of them myself. I agree on the Power Slide decals as the way to go. Bob

I like lacquer products in general. You really can't go wrong with Tamiya acrylic lacquer TS-13 clear. I've used this over Tamiya sprays, also Duplicolor and HOK lacquers. It is not as "hot" as Duplicolor and HOK and lays down very thin and smooth. Bob

Thanks all for the great advice. I have to look the body over good to see if any body work is required, this will be the deciding factor for me. I'm leaning towards the Tamiya bright white if I do paint it, this has always been a user-friendly paint for me. Eventually I have to try out Future, so many people say so many good things about it. Bob

.. instead of painting? Since the body is going to be left white, has anyone polished one out and left it as is? My main concern is yellowing. It is a stock car and will be decaled up. Would a good clear coat keep the white body from turning yellow? Thanks, Bob

I use the Devcon and it doesn't really smell that bad to me, maybe I've burnt out the fine windings on my sniffer? I just use a dot and dot of each, mix it, use it and toss the leftovers. I keep the tubes in their original package so they won't touch, carefully roll them up as I use them and keep the works in a plastic bag. I usually get to the bottom of each tube without them being too much of a mess. The big bottles you describe are for the RC car crowd, definitely a bargain but can you dispense a small dot of each? Bob

Small parts are a good way to break into resin, maybe a hood with a scoop or add a scoop to an existing plastic hood. A bit of advice, if the caster used a mold release compound, use what he says to wash the parts off first. If you sand them first, you can imbed the mold release below the surface which will cause paint problems later on. Bob

I was in there Sunday with the President's Day 50% off coupon. Picked up another AMT '34 Ford coupe for $7.50 and some craft chain that was the right size. The 40% off coupon is always good for a can of their Plastikote primers. Bob

If Bonsai wire is hard to come by, try plain old "floral wire" which is used for keeping dry arrangements together. Bring a piece of tubing and size the wire up accordingly. Bob

Great idea to do the initial louver slitting in a sheet of PE brass. It doesn't have to be much, .200 long x .010 wide slits spaced conveniently apart is fine for a 5" louver. Most of the resistance in louver punching is getting the material to shear or perforate. I drew up a 1:1 louver at work today in CAD, shrunk it down to scale and man is that a small punch and die! Bob

A few NNL Easts ago I had a 1/2 hour conversation with Larry and his louvers and realized who he was much later in the day! They were done in separate brass panels and then grafted into the plastic. I don't recall if someone made the panels for him or he had a press himself. We talked about alloys and thicknesses of brass sheet and he had some loose parts on display. It's really not that hard to make up the punch but it would have to be done out of tool steel. The female die section would be a little harder to do and has to line up with the punch. The female die could be a straight shape through or could be made out of die-quality urethane rubber. Bob

The LIARS monthly meeting is on for Thursday night 2/21 at 7:00-9:30 PM. We're always looking to add new members to the roster, so come on down! Dues are something like $25 for the year and you get the right to wear the signature black LIARS t-shirts and other apparel. The location is: Henrietta Acampora Recreation Center, 39 Montauk Hwy, Blue Point, NY. From North LIE: LIE to exit 62S, Nicholls Rd. Make a left onto Montauk Hwy and take it for approximately ¼ mile. Center is on the left-hand side. From the North Shore: Take Nicholls Rd. south. Make a left onto Montauk Hwy and take it for approximately ¼. Center is on the left-hand side. From South Shore: Take the exit for Nicholls Rd. South. Make a left onto Montauk Hwy and take it for approximately ¼. Center is on the left-hand side.