MarkJ

I got the tunnel finished so I can move on to the dash. I noticed when I was trying to see what the seat looked like from the one ref picture, I have, which only shows the extreme top part of the seat, it was very telling. The seat had the ribs going vertically down the seat. The seats in the 64 Fords were not like that but the 63-ford bucket seat was. I believe the 64 Ford that Ned drove had a 1963 seat in it and it is gray in the middle and white on the outside edges. Luckily, I had a left-over seat from the 63 Fireball Roberts build I did a few years ago. If you guys use that streamer stuff dont use the plastic welder type liquid adhesive like I used. It comes loose later on. You could probably use elmers but it might be too thick. I guess I'm going to have to redo mine. Bummer.

Wow, this makes my head hurt thinking about doing this micro type of scratch building work like the transistor. I'm in awe.

Pierre, you must have some sort of Hoblob stores up there. A party store might actually sell it. It looks the same on both sides. It's very, very thin. And of course, there's always Amazon. They sell everything. The company name is Brother&Sister.

Bill, the steamer must be some form of plastic because I used the "Same stuff" liquid glue that is actually a plastic welder type adhesive. I have to wear a respirator when I use it because it gives me a cough and a sore throat if I don't. Like I said Ned's guys must have just painted over the aluminum because his door and quarter panels are white.

Bill, I found that streamer material at hoblob and it does do a good job of looking like a textured aluminum sheet that was used by cars of this period for door and quarter trim panels. It's a pretty chrome color but Ned's office was all white except for a red dash and a blue seat so I will be painting them flat white. Thanks for that tip. It was pretty easy to cut and install as well.

Will be waiting with great anticipation to check it out.

Pierre, the one you chose will be awesome. I'm looking forward to progress reports on it.

Thanks, Pierre. I agree about finishing quality of the body being more about what I care about doing then the added detail. Especially when it comes to the interior which is hard to see when the model is finished anyway.

Thanks, Mike. The real car showed the rear fender humps in the back corners, but I'm not going to get ridiculous with it. Just a basic tub. I think I might just do printed shoulder harness hardware. In other words, it will be flat. Trying to figure out how not to spend 6 monthst on one build.

I'm going to try to find that tape Bill was talking about to do the door and quarter panel trim at Hob Lob tomorrow.

Some more progress. Gotta figure how big the drive shaft tunnel needs to be. I have some pretty good ref pictures for that.

Starting to come together.

I agree with Haken. I had to remove a lot of material around the wheel openings on my Dick Brooks Daytona. If not the tires would not have fit right much less have the right stance.

Cmon Mike, you have a lot of room to talk tackling that warped Porsche. I can't just put a roll cage in a stock interior. It just wouldn't look right. Ya think?

You know which one I'm voting for. "The Turd". Then I would have a guide when I got ready to do it. Penske's Grand Sport I did, was the one he beat Miles in at Nassau when he blew the engine on the Cobra. Miles would get ahead of Penske on the straights, but Penske would catch back up with his little 377 in the turns. Penske ended up sweeping all the races that week at Nassau.

Yes, I will have to do the same thing with the frame. Lots of carnage.

Started on the interior. Have to get rid of the floor and seats, but save the driver's seat. I will need to add a new floor with drive shaft tunnel. Add a new rear foundation and package tray, and fix the door trim panels. After all that I can continue with the dash and roll cage and the other stuff. The sprue cutter comes in very handy for the demolition of the old interior.

Pierre, I finally found this one. You should build the Ken Miles Cobra that gave all the Grand Sports fits with the 427. It could go real fast on the straights but had a problem with tight turns. Plowed like a dump truck so they say. And the brakes weren't up to the task either. Thats another one I would like to do some day.

Herbert, here is the brush I use for painting large items like body's, frames or interior tubs. Works great.

Pierre, thank you so much for keeping me from making a mistake. I should put a couple of coats of clear acryl on the color coated model first before I start sanding or polishing. I had forgotten completely about that step. Thanks again. Another senior moment on my part.

Herbert, I will take a photo of the brush and post it here. It is good to buy a high-quality artist brush when brush painting models. Hobby Lobby sells them and sometimes they have reduced prices on them. It is good to use a soft brush. You will save money in the long run buying a high-quality brush. By 1964 they were no longer driving the cars to racetracks. The taillights were left in because there were no rules to remove them yet but eventually during the season, they would get damaged so they would cover the spot where the lamp or whatever it was with some kind of metal cover. So early in the season you would see taillights and later on they were gone, replaced by sheet metal or aluminum. I heard a story that in the early fifty's Hershell McGriff drove his car from California to Darlington South Carolina, and then raced it in the Southern 500.

Thanks, Mike. Now I can move on to the interior for a few days and hope the polishing process will pan out okay.

I believe I have enough paint on the model to start the sanding process with the 6000,8000,12000, sanding cloths. If it goes well, I will follow up with the Novus 1 and Novus 2 polishes. If not, I will add more paint and try again. This is the first time I did not have to sand between color coats, so that is giving me hope that this might be my best result yet in this brush painting deal. Hopefully I've turned the corner and can finally get some presentable results. I will wait a few days to make sure the paint has fully cured before I start the sanding and polishing.

Sounds good, I think you will like it. Let me know if your retarder is thick coming out of the bottle. Maybe I just have an old bottle that went bad, or it's supposed to be thick. It still worked great.

Pierre, I was surprised how well one drop of the silver really did integrate well into the mix. And I used one drop of the retarder and I do believe it helped with brush marks. The retarder comes out of the bottle almost like glue because it's so thick, but if you put it into the mix before you add the thinner it dissolves perfectly. I think the retarder also made the paint look less flat, so I'm thinking the polishing might not have to be so intensive. I think I will mix up one more batch of the mix and just hit the light spots. There are a few in the trunk. I also forgot to say that I added one more drop of thinner since I added the silver and the retarder. Your recipe for the blue looks perfect to me as a match to the color ref pics I have and the ones you posted. I'm Very happy with it.