bobss396

They are inside for the most part, but it is dirty and dangerous work. He makes a good buck for himself. If only he can hang in for his 20 years. I did heavy work years ago, but nothing like this.

Put me down for one set. These are details that a car can be built around.

I decided to clean up a chrome grill from the Mustang AWB kit. I opened it up from the back so it could be seen through. I didn't even try anything else, I went to oven cleaner, gave it a 1 day soak, took it out and brushed all of the loose plating and got some of the under-coating off. I threw it back in and just rinsed/brushed it off. No sign of anything left behind. The trick was giving it a full 2 days in the oven cleaner.

I back up to the causeway that heads to the Great South Bay. There are 2 stop signs between me and the ocean and about 8 minutes. We get everything from fox, possums, raccoons, deer, rabbits and a few turtles now and then. Lots of shore birds too. We know the weather is turning snotty when I have seagulls up by me. The fox keep the rabbits in check. Raccoons and possums I see at night. If it snows, I see tracks on my driveway and deck. I have to be careful about putting anything with food on it in the recycling can. Last summer I found a young raccoon in my big trash pail, no idea how he climbed in that high. He must have been inside in the heat all day. I tipped it over and he took off.

Nicely done. I have 2 in the queue, a '66 Impala and the '65 Faitlane. I tried to use the kit '66 chassis, but wasn't able to get the rear low enough. The bodies are great to put on old NASCAR donor chassis.

In my club alone, we lost a lot over the years. Some were club presidents, some regular builders who showed many of us the way. They got us into traveling for shows and contests, now I have cut down on my traveling as I'd rather go with a group which is more fun.

The book did a great job of explaining the car, the movie, not even close since they used a Lincoln. AND the cops tore the car down to bare parts and got it back together in the movie. In the book, they even had a jar of local French mud to disguise the hardware they had to access for the stash hidden in the car underside.

It was probably around 2004 or so when model companies dumped their NASCAR kits to the discount stores. I still have a load of Terry Labonte Corn Flakes cars, Dale #3 cars, countless Quaker State trucks. I also have some plastic bagged up complete kits, some bags have multiple kits in them. I also have some partials from the slot car builders. I have seen some great built-up ones, super detailed to the max. I wish more after market details were available. When I had lathe access, I made up front and rear spring assemblies from aluminum rod. I still have the drawings and they were exact fits for AMT and Monogram kits. Now I pick up springs from places like McMaster-Carr that I can slip dimensional aluminum rod into without a fight. Popular spring sizes are 1/8" OD and .148" OD. The day of the cheap kits at shows is past, now I see them for $10 and up. I was making money when I was selling them for $5. Thankfully the decal industry is still strong. I agree that AMT screwed the pooch with going 1/25 scale and not 1/24th. There are less decals and parts that fit the smaller cars. BUT.. the smaller kits fit better into small bodies like the Falcons, Camaros and Novas.

The AMT Craftsman truck kits were quite nice. They had some generics without decals. The aftermarket did few decals for them. They were good to do phantom builds.

I snapped up a slew of NASCAR kits over the years. I still come across boxes of them in my stash. Any time I saw one for $5 or less, I got it. We had an outlet store selling them, I grabbed a lot of AMT and Monorgam kits back then for $1.97 each. They are great for chassis donors and to grab other parts from.

I have been going back and forth between Tamita TS-30 and TS-76. I believe that the TS-30 is a little nicer on a body.

I have a thread on a similar car in the works. I'll post more on it today. I got the body on eBay, used a NASCAR donor chassis and an engine I had tarted a while ago. Yours has the same look as mine, nice work.

I would like to get mine down to a core of 100 kits. I have been giving away partial kits to other builders. One trader I know well, he is older than me and his stash is astonishing. He buys collections, big ones at times. From guys who passed or are in nursing homes. He sells year-round at collectible shows. I sold alongside him at a show last year, we both did pretty well. Some day, someone will have to deal with what he has. I no longer have qualms about raiding a closed kit for something I want. I just put a note on the box so I have an idea of what is left. Then there is the case of aftermarket parts, which I have a lot of. Most of that could be sold for close to the package prices.

That car has been "missing" for over 50 years. BUT.. there are loads of pictures of it thankfully.

Usually chlorine for hot tubs is granular or the 1" tabs. Being heated up adds to the caustic reaction. Be safe out there!

Having an off week between painful dental surgery recovery, food poisoning early in the week and seeing my pain management doc yesterday. The '40 Ford project got in the way, I'm also dabbling in the '65 Fairlane stock car. But the '56 is coming along.

Very nice. I put the nose extension on mine and went NASCAR. It builds up well out of the kit. I see it is out in a new box.

I took apart a Chevy II that I built around 1995... Testors paint and tube glue. I was astonished at how much glue I used to get the glass and tub installed. I thought it could be saved... nah... maybe a few parts but I'm calling it toast.

The 39 had great headlights too.

More work on the 40. Interior is done and I'm happy with it. Chassis is painted with Tamiya TS 4 German Gray. Switched to the Ford Y block late in the game. Body work is almost done, needs work above the windshield. I frenched in the kit light pods. Glued them in with CA glue and waited a few days for it to dry. Then sanded them to the front fenders. Prime, putty, sand, rinse repeat. I have fitted the lenses to the pods. Also the chevron tail lights.

No clue why AMT chose the '41, as the '40 was a far better looking car, at least to me. Kudos to anyone who tackles one and does it up right. Note: there are none of these in my hoard.

I got back into the hobby in 1995, I was away for 20 + years. I figured I would be good... not really. I was using tube glue, knew nothing about primer or removing mold flash. You will get there, little by little.

My son works for the NYC MTA, in the Coney Island Brooklyn yard. He works on wheels and axles for passenger trains and subways, these axles are very heavy duty. They have something around a 6000-ton press they use all the time. It recently broke and his group had to be reassigned while it was under repair, waiting on parts.

On the breaking-body thing, I have started a while ago taking material off the sides of the chassis before doing too much. I remove maybe .050" to .062" per side, it makes fitting the chassis a ton easier. Any sharp corners, I radius them with a sanding stick. Not too much, any little bit helps. On regular plastic bodies, I'll also sand some off from behind the rocker panels. Most kits for some inane reason, the bodies curve in at the bottom quite a bit.

VHT has a nice bronze spray can, made for wheels. But worth a look.