Uncle Mike

Right on, Bob! At our old house, I had a table behind the couch where I built. Family and I could watch TV while I built, (my wife built also) and little daughters were fascinated with small versions of hot rods, pickups, and Mild Customs that they actually rode in. (we were modelling our own cars as well as friends' cars I worked on) In this house, I have a whole hobby shop! But it's off the living room, and exiled from the family room. Our girls are grown, and my wife and I are working more on her BMW Coupe and my '27 T Roadster. (1:1 scale!) Really enjoyed your pics, Bob. Comfortable surroundings!

Uhhh...'Squeal like uh,...Pig?'

Parson? Did somebody grab thet there Model T an' park thet '29 Roadster Pickup in its place? Right respectable '29 'A'. More pix? That black looks elegant. Very tasteful, yesiree.

Not directions, but just 2 more hints. We can find it from there, by triangulation. LOL

Oh Yeah! And while you're there, look to Dave Mann's axle page. All about the different configs of Ford axles, from Model A thru '48, the part that makes-or-breaks a scale hot rod! Lotsa scale help here, just a splendid site. Remember the axle and spindles from the Orange Crate? Nice.....

NICE Hinge Job on the Golf Bag Door! This is a Very 'Clahssy' Kit! I think it's brilliant to make a Pace Car out of this! You have a fan!

It Is the correct way, although the 'U' bolts are not fitted squarely atop the bracket. The correct 'U' bolts would fit properly. As for the 'pin' rotater, it is a tried-and-proven setup. Look under some of the serious race designs today. Chris Alston uses a setup like that with his 4-link suspensions. It is a 'no-bind' design, and utilises an identical rotation pin for suspension.

YES! I've got some started that I couldn't wait for! (one, a '32 Phaeton, or 'full-fendered tub') I looked for a time for the original AMT Roadster fenders, with the spare tire wells, found them, and went to work. Lotsa Deuce stuff here, but project slowed down when it just didn't get finished in time! Soon, I was making errors...like the luggage rack on the rear: I had it narrowed, shortened, and it tucked right up tight against the rear of the body...then glued it on upside down! Aggghhhhh! Tub got boxed and put on the Deuce Shelf for a time, for I was 'chompin' at the bit' to do the old 'Lightnin' Bug', (Norm Grabowski's first version of the "Kookie Kar") Von France's clone of the real one started in my Campbell, CA. shop, and I was always telling him the old version would be 'cooler'. So, I gathered all the parts necessary, and am just about ready, BUT: "There's this ONE little 'easy one' I'll do first, just to get brushed-up"... That sound familiar? This morning I am scheduled to go in for cataract surgery, right eye. (Had the left one done 6 weeks ago) Between these 'acts', I had been working on the '32 Tub...but I couldn't see for poop! Reading glasses used to work, but 3 different pairs I had were focused on one eye, and blurry on the other! Now, I'm not trying to make an 'eye-excuse' here, but that luggage rack on the back of that tub is still upside down, and I reshaped it to fit, and know "all about it"! (sure ya do, pal) When I get home today, I rest. By Wednesday, I should be fitting some big stuff for the 'Lightnin; Bug', (frame shaping, body fitting, axles laid out; I'll leave the fine stuff for later in the week when I get eyesight back on both! I can now take pictures, but understand there is a post here (somewhere) that is a 'seminar' on how to post? It should be interesting, hopefully. The subject is, anyway. (in the real life size, Von Franco's buds helped him clone this version as well! He is driving it now, and has moved to Austin, Texas. There are blogs and U-Tube film.) The guys I.M.'d me, and invited me in on the Dragster build-off! I've been busy with the fullsize hot rods this last few months, and missed the lights! I have some dragster stuff I'm itchin' to build, but that Lightnin' Bug is ready now! Doc says no heavy lifting, so looks like 2 weeks of Models! And my new bench is almost clean! (can't find anything, it's all back in the drawers where it belongs!)

They were 'Hot Rods' then! (and "politically Incorrect!") Also known as 'Cut-Downs', 'Strip-Downs', 'Hop-Ups', 'Heaps', and 'Irons'. Hey, these chopped and fenderless 'Hot Rod' VWs with the Dago axles up front are way cool... Plug a 2180 mill in there and a 1,000 lb. car will run high 11s! Certainly worth modelling! Take a look... so•calook official homepage

George, drag boats ARE part of the 'culture'. I recall the early '60s, around San Jose, CA. Everybody was cruisin' the main: Customs, Gassers, hot rods, and Corvettes; No Datsuns, Honda cars, or Toyota tincans! But there was a new thing: Towing your drag boat around! There were Ski-Boats with shiny Olds, Buick, Cad, Hemi mills; Dry Stacks made 'em look like Drag Boats,,,the girls followed these guys like the rats after the Pied Piper! Some tow vehicles were milder than others, but most sported candy paint, scallops, or chrome wheels. Seems like everything was lowered, and the boat trailers were no exception! Ernie Rose was a Big-Buck guy of 21, had a new '60 Cad Coupe DeVille, shaved with Candy Apple red paint...Looked like a Full Custom! But his boat was a Sanger hull, with trailer to match it AND the "Candy Caddy". Boat engine was a 430 Lincoln, with 6-71 GMC blower, driven by 6 Vee Belts! You could hear the gasp as he drove by...In those days, it was like something right out of the Oakland Roadster show! My bud and I helped Ernie unload it one day at Anderson Dam. He says, "Jump in, we'll warm it up." Jim and I got in, Ernie idled it out about 100 ft., and cracked the throttle. The boat literally jumped out of the water, running with only its prop submersed...Jim and I almost flew out the back. Tightened up my respect for boats. Traction City! My brother did an AMT Runabout with a flathead, behind his REvell '46 Woody, custom trailer. Got an award at the Santa Clara NNL, 2004

It was SATIRE, TERRY. (it was also on private property, the cop didn't know the make, model, or year of the F100...and I had to explain that the smoke was from the tires, as he thought it was engine smoke. He was 'challenged' to be working traffic.

Yow! Just strolled thru there, some of my wheelbases are gonna get altered...Great site, Bri!

Yeah. They want to erase God, but just try for "bastard" or something as 'politically incorrect' as that, and you are the object of subversion. It's just now getting so you can say "hot rod" again, but those thanks go to all that applied it to anything with two exhaust pipes. (or one extremely outsized one!) Right on, George!

That's right, Sam. Fireflyte valve covers 1:1 are scarce as hens teeth, too. (I have a DeSoto Firedome in my 1:1 '27 T Tub: Hiboy on '32 rails) My brother and I have 354 Chrysler Hemis in our '27 T Hiboy roadsters, and both have '37 LaSalle boxes. His valve covers say "Chrysler IMPERIAL", while mine are "Chrysler INDUSTRIAL".

My wife worked with me in my shop years ago, she was in her early 20s, and real good looking. There were lotsa 'Ricky-Racers' (young Camaro-Pilot types) that would come in for parts, suspension mods, etc., and occasionally, one would pay way too much attention to her. This annoyed her. One day she was torquing the rods in an engine she was trying to finish, and in drives this clown with an Olds 442. He races the engine a coupla times, and the dry fan belt is screeching like crazy. She puts down the torque wrench, and walks up to his car...the guy gets out, banties-out his chest, and says, "Ever since I put this cam in, I can't gat the belts to stop screeching. It IS the belts, right?" She opens the hood, and the alternator is 1/2" out of line with the water pump. She closes the hood, points down the street, and says: "Parts house. Fan belt gaskets." The guy drove straight to the parts house!

Dave, I had a 'differing' with your wheels at first...(I'm a hopeless traditionalist) but the rest of the build was 'way above the 'tens'. Then the Packard guy came on, (was it his Boattail you did this to?) There are extremes to everything. The top on this car said volumes. Scale snaps! Overall impression was wonderful. Even the wheels.

Well, I'm 65. Cop stopped me for smoking my tires ('55 F100) and told me I looked old enough to 'know better'. Then the imbecile asks me if it's my son's truck! I still have all my hair...and my shades are cool. I got a young wife! And a Roadster with a Hemi!!! I can't grow up...or 'know better'...I'm trapped in here!

Wow! Two of those kits on my shelf, unopened, and I did not know that!!! Thanks, guys! My Dad had a fast '37 Ford Flatback Tudor when I was a little tot. The '37 had a Columbia axle, (as he called it) and he would win bets from fellow truck driver friends by unscrewing it to 85 MPH in 2nd! (that would be 2nd gear main box, in overdrive) Dad said that car would have paid for itself if he had kept it a little longer! I had a '40 Ford DeLuxe Coupe years later, got it in a trade. Car had a 364" Buick Nail in it, '39 Ford box. Rear end had an innordinate amount of gearlash, felt like a half turn of pinion from accel to decel! Jacked the rear up, and Lo! A Columbia rear! Tore the housings off, replaced the sun/planetaries pack, and was good as new. Sure like this site! Learn stuff all the time...Thanks!

Yes, that was it. "Astro". (knew it had something to do with the moon or stars...) Thanks!

Joe Wilhelm's shop was on Stockton Ave., in San Jose, CA. I used to spend lotsa time there, late '50s thru the '60s. The "Wonder" was unfinished in bare metal, and was being 'worked'. I couldn't for the life of me understand what he was trying to do with that cherry 'T' body! Some guys loved it... Also in his shop was Cliffy Inman's '57 Chrysler. (an already black car, dropped low...) Cliffy was from Willow Glen, (a posh neighborhood within San Jose's City limits) and was downtown every night, cruising the Main, and John's Drive In. He had Toupal's Auto Upholstery do his interior, and dropped the seat 4"...he sat loooow, and I used to rib him: "Cliffy, why don't you chop the top and lose some of that headroom?" He finally did, and Joe Wilhelm chopped it 3-1/2", had it in the shop for over a year. Car first had a '63 Grand Prix CONCAVE-GLASS rear window, but that got changed before the car was painted, and went on the show circuit. Cliffie NEVER cruised the Main again, garaged the car until he sold it, Harrah's had it in their museum for 12 years, then sold it in a package deal with the original James Dean Merc! Street Rods West brokered the deal, and a West Coast Show Promoter got the Inman Chrysler. (he had the 392 Hemi replaced with a 440!) Street Rods West was 3 blocks from my shop, and owner Brian Burnett (of "Deucari" fame) had me come over, pick up the James Dean Merc, and take it back to my shop and put a new clutch in it! Sorry for the 'long story', but these cars are what make me build models of them!!! Very nice, by the way, of you fellas to study up and get the info on this stuff...It's like a compliment to where we were, and what we were doing. It takes dedication to research history that you've only seen in pictures, then go ahead and replicate it!

My son had some old models from the '70s, he gave them to me. One of them was a Corvette, molded in white AND red! It was a post-'67 (not really up on year changes of Vettes) with a pair of molded-in rear skirts. Box was white with red areas, (might have been MPC) but the Vette was a Bonneville-type 'semi-streamlined', has anybody any idea of what this was? ("Moonliner" rings a bell, but it wasn't anything to do with Dean Moon's stuff) I traded it off to Bruce Treadwell before his death, he assured me it was rare.

A story from the late Bruce Treadwell was that the Sedan Delivery was put on hold for the loss of the rear door tool. "Mislabeling" was the right term here, the door was in a '40 kit, (Coupe or Sedan??) and some alert modeller contacted AMT, alerting them the missing door was indeed available: All they had to do was check the "right" ("wrong") '40 kits!

I thought it was 'cute'. As a real scale (1:1) hot rod builder, it has been more than a few times the body I found out there had been used for target practice, riddled with holes by some idiots that had no regard for real vintage tin! The car (or pickup) they were shooting from would be some late model store bought ride, right? Seems so... So, my little dio was of a '57 Chevy, out in the weeds, weathered, faded, no wheels or tires, trunk open...Some bullet holes, but the rib was the little '27 Model T Sedan stopped by the road, and the 2 hot rodders leaning over the half hood, taking careful aim at the Chevy...with a Bazooka! These 2 guys got all uptight, asked what the 'legend' meant. "Figure it out," I said. Then I laughed. (legend read: "Got Firepower?") Oh, the 'T' has the Chrysler Firepower from the old AMT Roadster in it. Somebody liked it...he gave me $90 for it, said it was "Classic"!

Yes, it already looks like the real thing! (I'm building a 1:1 '54 Ford Coupe gasser now!) Also modeling the '56 Ford Gasser (like yours, only mine has a tube axle, and will be Wimbledon White; so will my 1:1 '54) I especially like the stock rear fenderwells you are using. Lends an air of 'fidelity' to style...The factory colors will compliment this in RED! (and black.) The gathering of minds here is staggering. So many ideas! My favorite breaktime.

Thanks, guys, for the response! Thanks to Zeb for the personal msg., I'm gettin' it! The 6 cyl. engine would be a perk, as I'm doin' some inliner cars, and there are never enough sixes...