Raul_Perez

I sold my Goldwing a few months ago. With my mother-in-law now being disabled, my wife spends a lot of time with her on weekends, so we didn't get much time to ride the bike. I used the $$ to buy my wife a new ride. It's an '09 Toyota Venza. She likes it beause her mom can get in it pretty easily and there's room in the back for the wheelchair.

It sounds like you're going to miss the computer more than you'll miss the girlfriend...

Alyn, I'm glad to see that you're back to working on this one. Yeah...it looks like you need to take a bit of material off of the pinch-weld, but the added detail is pretty cool... The stance and ride height looks right on the money!! Later,

Happy birthday, Gregg!! For your birthday, I'll have my wife renew my subscription for 2 more years!! Thanks for all your hard work on the magazine and support of the hobby!! Later,

Now that's one very nicely built little flathead sleeper!! It would look really cool sitting next to the black and red '32 roadster I built for Bernard!! Later,

Very nice work!! Nothing screams Italian sports car like a red Ferrari!! Later,

Very nicely done!! The color fits this one very well...

The posable steering is looking good, Dave!! Yeah...change those tie-rod ends to brass when you get time. Those stock Revell pieces are pretty fragile... Later,

I like it all, except for the big bow tie on the tailgate, (but that's just me...). The front is really coming together nicely, especially the quad headlights!! With all of the mods you've done so far, are you also going to do something with the running boards? Later,

Yeah...that was pretty much what I had in mind when I decided to tackle this one... Go ahead...give it a go!! If nothing else, you can always put it back in the box and mark it as "parts only"!! Later,

Yeah...the chassis in this kit is really nice. I've got most of it cleaned up, assembled and ready to paint. Thanks for the idea of using the wheels from the Phantom Vicky. I just picked one up at the NNL West last week, so I'll see how those wheels look on this model. For me, the 32 Phantom is nothing more than a parts car!! (More so than the WagonRod...) Laying the grill back a bit sounds like a good idea, but if you look at the profile lines of the grill bars with respect to the parallel line of the running board, it's already tipped back enough to see that that bars are starting to point upwards, so without rebuilding the grill, that's not an option that I want to try for this build. I agree...the over look of the kit is pretty fugly, (so much so that I almost didn't buy it), but I think that the headlight housings are the major contributor in that regard. I'll post a few pics this weekend after I finish molding in the headlight housings and try a few different wheel sets. Later,

Those old custom cars are just too cool!! The color looks GREAT on this one!! Thanks for sharing,

Another GREAT build, my old friend!! You must have a pretty large collection of those old 1:12th scale beasts sitting on the shelves these days... Later,

Yeah...the wheels aren't favorites of mine, either. I may change them later. I thought of pie-cutting the hood...and I still might...but I really don't want to put that much work into this one... I've actually seen one of these built and I thought that it looked pretty good. From what I could tell, all the builder changed was the headlight housings. It was painted a dark burgundy with dark and light accents on the woodgrained panels. It's interesting how many people really don't like the kit as it's meant to be built from the box, but see a lot of value in it as a donor for something else... Later,

I use household ammonia. That's because I strip the parts in the house and the ammonia won't damage the carpet or my clothes if I spill any of it. Depending on how well the chrome was applied, the ammonia will typically strip off the chrome in less than 5 minutes.

You can find them on eBay for a couple bucks per pack. Here's a couple pics of the Chevy engine. There's also a 427 Ford, a 354 Caddy and a 421 Pontiac available in the series. Send me a PM if you want pics of them, too. Later,

Yeah...the Revell Parts Pack with the Chevy 283 has a Potvin option. That one comes with a Hilborn 4 port injection setup, (similar to the 2 port setup pictured below), but no scoop...It also includes the front mounted fuel pump. What a beast!! Later,

I buy direct from Testors: http://www.testors.com/category/50736/Paints

How about a picture, George!! Yeah...the wheels are a bit clunky...I may swap them out for a set of late-model Vette Z06 wheels. I agree that this is generally an ugly kit...but I think that a lot of that comes from the malformed headlight housings. I've seen one of these built with the headlight housings modified like I did mine and I thought that it looked pretty good. Later,

Yeah...I'll model it in the computer without running boards to see if I like it or not... I'm trying not to modify it too much...I wanted this one to be as close to an out-of-the-box build as possible...

Yeah...I know...I haven't posted any builds in quite a while. I won't bore you with the details, but I've been busy with a lot of other "stuff". Anyway, here are a few shots of the WagonRod that I'm building. I really wanted to build this one right from the box, but I don't like the way the headlights look like two limp, (...well, you know...), sticking out lethargically from the fenders. Other than the headlights, this kit has some really cool Corvette ZR1 parts in it like the engine, tranny, suspension and much of the interior. It's a lot like some of the Vette inspired trucks I've built over the years. In this pic I've removed the original headlights from the WagonRod with my Dremel, then shaped and glued on a set of stock headlight housings from a Monogram '39 Chevy. At this point, the hood sides have also been glued to the cowl. This one will have a side opening hood that's attached to the right side panel. You can also see that I've removed the molded-in wipers. This pic shows the stock 6 spoke wheels from the WagonRod that I'll use. I may also add about '.06" of styrene to the tops of the running boards, or maybe delete them all together...I haven't decided yet... Well, back to the build... Later,

Well...maybe we'll see you at the Stockton show on April 11th. It's supposed to be a pretty big show. As I understand it, the IPMS guys will be there. Later,

Yeah...I had a step-brother back in the early 70s with a really low intake scoop like that on his Harley. I asked him if his bike was a Hoover-Davidson. He didn't think that was very funny... If you think about it though, the shear size and mass of the Potvin was a bigger problem for guys to deal with than any dirt that got pulled into the engine. What a beast!! But, that's what makes it so cool now!! Later,

Check out the 3D pics on this website: http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=64661 Later,

Correct, a "waste gate" is the mechanism used more commonly on turbo chargers to control the boost level by diverting exhaust gasses away from the turbo, thus regulating the impeller speed. Some people have adapted them to work on centrifugal style superchargers to control the boost level to the manifold. The part I was referring to on the Potvin setup is the pop-off valve, (also known as a blow-off valve), used to prevent over-pressure of the system when you close the throttle at high RPM. On the Potvin supercharger, it is simply a spring loaded plate. I used the term "waste gate" because it is a more broadly understood. Good catch!! I had a '96 Bonneville SSEi with an undersized pulley on the supercharger that Eaton installed for me when they rebuilt the unit at about 100k miles. The only problem that I had with the overdriven supercharger was that when you got into really hard, you could hear the pop-off valve modulating. Unfortunately, the tranny started going south before I got around to upgrading the pop-off valve and I got rid of the car. But, that's another story for a different day...