dodgefever

Only two this year, but I have a couple more almost done.

The ZZ top coupe has a Pontiac engine, bastardised to pass for an SBC (incorrect valve covers). It's still a Pontiac block & heads with an early Ford trans, so with some Pontiac valve covers and a more old school intake, you're in business. Given the ZZ top coupe is a modified reissue of the old Monogram '34 coupe, I'd expect the engine to drop into the '32 without too much trouble.

The upper part of the front fender does appear a bit too tall, but it may be the oversized lip on the opening that's making it look bulky. I've done a sloppy job on trimming them (lowering it in the process), but see what you think.

According to the MSDS, Tamiya Extra Thin Cement is a mixture of butyl acetate and acetone. Never tried it myself, I buy MEK and methylene chloride in litre bottles.

I think you have it the wrong way around. Most seem to be built to fit the style without much thought for safety or basic engineering principles. If that's not putting looks before function, I don't know what is. I hope the rat rod thing dies a death before too long (on here as well as in real life).

interesting hypothesising, but there are indeed four different windshields, in descending order of height: station wagon, coupe/sedan, fastback and hardtop/convertible.

Really nice work, but I'm still waiting for a reissue with a hardtop. Even if it's another stupid California Wheels thing, I'd rather have a hard top because I'd replace the wheels anyway.

If you're talking about Photobucket, read their terms and conditions. When you upload your photos, you're granting them a license to reproduce and distribute your images in almost any way they see fit. I'm sure Photobucket isn't the only image hosting site where that applies.

No hard top: No Sale.

I've noticed a couple of people painting the bellhousing on the Olds engine a silver/grey bare metal finish. The bellhousing was integral with the block casting, so it should be engine colour. This is a slightly later 324, but the same basic casting.

Does anyone know whether these Firestones are from the Tiger Shark kit, some other kit, or aftermarket? I've been looking for some like that for a while.

Impressive.

Front tyres look good, but what's with the slicks now having 7.10-15 markings (as on the skinny Revell slicks) as well as 10.00-16?

No, in fact it's common practice to fill the water jackets with a solid material to add rigidity. Also, bear in mind that methanol engines run a lot cooler than gasoline.

There's one of mine in that photo: headers that don't match the engine they're mounted on e.g. SBC headers on a head with equally spaced ports (Hemi, Ford) and vice versa. Others are plug wires that look more like heater hoses and plug wires routed to the wrong place. If you're going to add wires, at least fit them properly.

Real scratchbuilding, that's impressive!

I think the old AMT Bronco had the grille moulded open - whether it fits the F350 cab, I can't remember. The Bronco hood also has the F O R D lettering, but I do remember that it doesn't fit the pickup cab very well. Probably not much help... Since you have a 1:1, can you clear up the issue of the wheelbase and wheelwell locations on the bed? I read something about the kit representing a camper special and therefore not being accurate for a regular F350. Is that just referring to the spare wheel housing, or are there other differences?

I can understand sellers wanting to protect themselves by only offering Priority shipping, but I'm not paying $35 shipping on a $15 kit. I'll just forget it and move on to the next one. If I'm buying something rare or expensive, I'll pay the extra for Priority, but for run of the mill stuff, I'll only buy from someone who offers First Class shipping. Then, if it goes missing, I knew the risk and I accept the loss. That's only happened once, and it was around Christmas, when the mail is busier, more casual workers are employed and things are more likely to be lost or stolen - lesson learnt, I avoid buying at that time of year. I lost out, but even so, one loss of $25 doesn't look bad compared with paying an extra $15 - 20 every time for Priority mail.

That's really nice. Beautiful paint.

Nice work. If it matters, the trans in the AMT Nova is actually a Powerglide. You could cut the pan off and stick a TH350 shaped one on there and it'll look OK from underneath. As mentioned, the Monogram '70 TA has a TH350, as does the Monogram Chevy van. There may be others, those are the only ones I've come across...

I've ordered form them once, because their prices were OK and their shipping costs to the UK was much less than the other sites I compared with. The order was slow being picked, as others have mentioned, but I'd still order from them again.

RIP. Interesting that it says he scored a rare Allison that rotated the same way as an auto engine... there was a feature on Lytle in R&C about 20 years ago with some good photos of Big Al and in there it said he'd got a Pontiac rearend turned upside down to compensate for the Allison's reverse rotation.

What a nice man. Got to prevent those old kits from getting out of the country, eh? Fortunately there are still reasonable people prepared to send to us poor unfortunates who happen to live outside the US. {edit} I sincerely hope with that attitude that you never buy anything from outside the United States?

If you do it the way I suggested, you'd only have to add a strip of plastic to fill the gap between the trunk and the rear window. If you just chopped it at the pillars, rear window and all, you'd then have to lengthen the roof, which is more difficult and doesn't look as good to me.

I would try to keep the rear window close to the original size - cut out the whole rear window frame out first, in one piece. Then chop the top and move the rear window frame forwards; trimming the rear of the roof if need be.. That looks better IMO than a simple chop with the rear window cut down. I did a quick hack job on you photo to illustrate: