bobss396

I started another... a '66 Nova pro street last Saturday night. Flogged on it for almost a week, got a lot done. Sanity prevailed and I put it away... with NOTES in the box. Back on the Pinto Modified. Giving that a full week and then a full week on a '67 Chevelle pro street I started before the Nova.

I just saw a show of Full Custom Garage where Ian grafted a Camaro finned grille to a Corvair, it also had Camaro tail lights on it.

Nice job on the repaint and everything else. I have a couple of cursed projects that have been painted 2 or 3 times.

How about chopping the exit tubes short and pinning them back on later? Then they could be installed after the headers are in place. I'm to the point where I could use 3 hands more often. You could even attach the tubes to the exit plates, give it sort of a handle. I have one of those on the shelf, didn't use the headers. I built it maybe in 1998 and it still looks good. The biggest pain was re-scribing the door lines where they meet the roof.

VERY cool. The whole modified kit series, they all lack a cowl and dash board. I'd like to see someone come out with a decent '60s and '70's modified kit that looks real. These kits take a lot of work to do them up right, as you have done.

I miss the guy, he showed me a lot of stuff when I first joined the club around 1998. He wasn't at the NNL East this year.

BMF... the other white meat. I try to avoid it, but I can do it. I have 2 projects that need it. I wait until the house is ultra-quiet, sit at a clean spot at the table with lots of light and some surgical blades.

I used to hit a lot of shows years back. The Gilbertsville PA show was 180 miles each way, a good show but a NNL format, so I pass on that now. Staten Island had a couple of small shows, gone now. The club did well there. I was up at MASSCAR in 2011 with my brother, we walked out with 13 awards between us. We took the Orient Point ferry both ways. Same year I did Classic Plastic in NH, did okay there. Also a ferry ride. I was planning another trip to NH, but my girlfriend has a family member battling cancer. There is a show in Poughkeepsie NY I want to attend if I can find someone to ride shotgun. This is in late October. In Norfolk, look for a guy, Tom Valenta. A great builder and a former club member where I am.

I gots to take some shots... not too far off from yours. I sorted it out yesterday and I can work easier. I have boxes of kits, projects, parts, etc. next to where I work. I use those plastic shoe boxes from craft stores to put projects and parts in. My stock car tires and wheels takes up a big one, so does my street rod parts.

I have a big Clausing engine lathe, not running since I got it, was supposed to have some help with it, I may as well sell it for penny weight. I was around at work when the machine shop was going adios. I walked away with boxes of end mills, drills galore. I have a large assortment of carbide micro drills used on PC boards. Some guys in my club, they have nothing as far as tools go. No files, pin vise or drills. Of course no micrometer or dial caliper. I'm really the Lone Ranger when it comes to scratch building anything. My brother drifts by the meetings now and then, he does a lot of stuff like I do. BUT, he works to a shop and has access to lots of equipment. Before they deep-sixed the shop where I was, I had a little box with all my homegrown tools for the Hardinge lathe. I could come in and make wheels, details for coilovers, shocks, mufflers, etc. I had one boring bar in a holder that fit an Aloris tool post, that could face, turn and part-off stuff. All I needed to do was face off the stock, hit the zero on the DRO and hit my numbers.

I tend to save EVERYTHING. I have a full size Bridgeport mill I use now and then for model stuff, mainly making fixtures. I just did some flat plates to mock-up early modified roll cages. I have about 4 or 5 pin vises. One is set up with a #63 (.037) drill, clearance for .031 diameter pins. Another with a .026-ish drill to make spark plug wire holes and put holes in so I can hold parts for painting. One other I use one collet, one side for .040 to .062 drills, the other side is .065 to .110 diameters. My dining room table is quite the mess right now. I have to clear it off and sort things out. I have 4 projects going at this time. I picked up some inexpensive plastic storage boxes at Hobby Lobby that will help.

Richmond VA? There are some shows down your way, a couple of clubs too. One of out members moved down to NC some years ago. I don't venture out too much lately, I'll go to New Hampshire, the old MASSCAR club used to put on a good show. There is one upstate NY in October I would like to attend. Maybe stay over night.

Nice work, resurrecting a glue bomb is always a challenge. I have never tackled making a body side before. I have an old AMT '62 Ford glue bomb in process, I was lucky to get it apart and not break anything.

I place an order with Mega maybe 2x a year. They have some Detail Master stuff like sanding cloths, I try to fluff the orders up to offset the shipping. There was a site, Scale Dreams, but it has seemed to go POOF... gone. When I have a decent order of Evergreen, I buy from them directly. I buy a lot on eBay and have some saved sellers I use over and over. I buy touch up paint from Quirk Auto Parts, free shipping but the paint is not cheap. I use a lot of Mopar colors, the cans spray nicely. I have a hardware store not too far that has a good K&S line of materials. The NNL East is in April, Wayne NJ. Not a bad ride for me, over a couple of Bridges and I'm there in well under 2 hours. The ride home is like 3 hours. Many vendors I had expected were not at the last one. One guy I like was there this year, Model Empire. He sells on eBay too.

I have a plastic storage box that sits on one of my dining room chairs with all the plastic stock in it. That is largely in an Evergreen bag. I have to often sift through a bunch to find what I need. I'd like to separate it out into cardboard tubes, round stock, flat and angle and other odd shapes. Metals are in a smaller photo-album box, I keep the unopened stuff separate. The box you have looks pretty neat, something like that might help me.

I picked up one at a Hobby Lobby, 40% off. So far I have opened the box and looked at it. The exhaust in the floor has got to go. I have a few 572 3D printed big blocks that may be good options, although the headers may be too short. Maybe I'll make up some fenderwells out of solder. I would like to open the rear wheel wells deeper and lower the rear, like a TLBT car. I have only got about 15 projects ahead of it in the queue. I also got a '66 pro street Nova... cracked that open and cut out the trunk lid last night. Gonna be rainy here today, will make a batch of pickles and hang out on the bench.

Thanks, now I NEED one... I'm on a semi pro-street binge lately...

Thanks. Real odd that they would do a partial ship of a fairly large order. I'm not happy about losing the 3/64" tubing. Maybe I will set up an account. I buy from Mega Hobby and of course eBay, quite a bit. My local hobby shop has zero aftermarket stuff, has some scratch building stuff. The other 2 big shops are 25 miles each was and the pickings are slim. I used to make up a shopping list for the NNL East each year, but this last year many vendors that I knew were not there.

I see one on the road now and then, always liked wagons of any type.

I ordered some material from Hobbylinc on eBay recently... well... 1 piece shows up via AMAZON, the 3/64" thin wall tubing, and it looks like a pretzel. I have to check on the status of the other 6 things I ordered. I have some square tube in aluminum. Pretty bad when I have more stock on hand than most hobby shops. My latest count of Evergreen stuff is over 70 items.

I use mainly the Shabo dry transfers for my tires. I have a bunch of brands. The decals that come with the Performance Plastics tires work well. I wash the tires first, soap and water to get any mold release off them. Apply the decals, give a light coat of Dull Cote. I'll do another light coat the next day.

I never ever cut the stainless pins, use them as is. I used to be able to get brass pins, but they no longer carry them. I use brass pins I cut from stock, I roll them using a hobby blade and snap them apart. I sharpen my blades with a Smith hard stone.

Look at the 18-8 pins. Really a good deal buying 100 at a time. https://www.mcmaster.com/products/pins/dowel-pins~/diameter~1-32-1/

I really paint nothing until all attaching parts are completed. I have guys in my model car club that do things like paint the body first... no test fitting of anything. One guy got to a final stage with some odd kit with a huge windshield and was stumped. I tend to tackle those obstacles first since the whole project hinges on how good the glass looks. Lately I pin almost everything. I picked up some 1/32" stainless steel pins from McMaster-Carr, 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4" long. I was cutting up brass rod. I still cut up 3/64" brass rod, no pins are available. I use a small Palmgren vise to file the ends square and flush. I'll leave the brass exposed since it adds a coolness factor.

Kim Haynes was a good guy to follow 20 years back, he did great restorations of old Cup cars.