Elmer Fudd

As promised, there is new paint this update. A hot sewing pin made the pilot hole for the spark plug wires and the famous water pump bypass hose to the intake manifold. The engines look glossy but it's about 80% gloss, Am now committed to fabbing the bypass hose, hopefully from solid-core insulated wire. The transmission tops were left scabby because they do not show. The customized oil fill caps were filled with the superglue and microballoons then the surplus shaved off with the single-edge razor blade and finessed with a file and 400-grit wet paper. It's too much to make the engine compartment look completely right but the goal is to make the details noticeable enough that you can overlook the things that are lacking. Am thinking about trying the Revell distributor shielding and if it works, the Revell brake booster and master cylinder. Ya, $25 is a lot to pay for 2 small parts but it might be worth it.

That truly looks like an easily restorable example, provided you can find the missing parts. The important areas dodged the glue droppings. Good luck Sir!

Okay, more baby steps. Found another transmission to catch up 454-4 with the other three. This one came from Belgium and whatever they're using for model paint, it ain't Testors. After looking at it with the magnifier, the red paint is smooth enough to paint over without removing it with the EXPENSIVE paint stripper. So the mating flanges on the rear of the blocks and the bellhousing faces were dressed on a 12" double cut file and seemed to be square according to the trained eye. But after they were stuck on, it was apparent that the transmission tailhousings were off center a mil or less in one or both directions. That's .040" or less and the boss said "That's close enough!" The small engine parts except the starters have all been debugged of flash and mold parting lines and are ready for a bath and paint. Not worthy of a pic. After this pic was taken the 4th set of valve covers went on and the hole in the water pump was drilled (1/16th drill) through the blocks to accept a toothpick for painting. Since Chevrolet painted the engines and bellhousings together without the dust cover in place, the oil pans have to be painted separately to facilitate the hand painting of the black dust covers. We'll see some paint next round. The oil pan flanges on the blocks dressed to about 80% flat around the perimeter. Again: 'Close enough!" Time now to go back outside with the Superglue and Microballoons to fill the dimple in the OIL fill caps and touch up a few other questionable spots. Those Microballoons - tiny glass spheres - when you inhale some of them you know right away to not do it again. Bye for now!

Hey! Hope you enjoyed your trip down Memory Lane! Saw your critique of the Revell 1969 Chevelle SS396 wheels in another forum. Yes, the trim ring area is wrong. Those wheels came with polished stainless steel trim rings. The ones in the oft-reissued AMT 1969 Chevelle might work. The other thing: the piping on the bucket seat backs. The seat backs are plastic and a rougher texture than the vinyl. The piping is injection-molded silver plastic overlaid with clear plastic. It would be a mistake to make this piping look like chrome. That is all. Good luck!

The paint color, the thin whitewalls, the Race Hemi: it's the ultimate sleeper!

It is. It appears that the mold maker was trying to save a little plastic but he saved on the wrong side of the part. To his credit, though, my fading memory says that the 1968-72 midsize BOP crossmembers were made from channel steel. It's not as egregious an error as the master cylinder mounted on the passenger side of the Moebius 1961 Pontiacs. You'd need a co-pilot everywhere you went in a Moebius 1961 Catalina. "BRAKE NOW, I SAID!"

If it weren't for the way she repeatedly abused the edge of that door without ever learning her lesson i might've tried to swing a deal with her. Too hard to fade in some silver paint though. I went to AZ looking for an LS Firebird Convertible with a manual transmission and i got reeled in by some fool who thought she had a live one. But we took the scenic tour in Tucson afterwards. It seemed like a nice town.

Well, it's an iconic race car. Don took it to England in 1964. It was Top Eliminator at the U.S. Nationals in 1964 and before he retired it, he popped in the new 426 Hemi. For all those reasons, i'd love to take it for a test drive and i'd put up with some of the flaws inherent in a 55-year old model kit. But if everyone though the same as me, what a boring world it would be!

i looked at one of these awhile back. Was owned by a clueless woman who thought it had an LT1 350 in it. It had the all-aluminum LS V-8. Plus she had been parking next to a concrete wall somewhere and had been opening the driver's side door and had knocked off enough paint to expose the bare steel along the edge of the door. See where she had it listed for $12,250? The son and i went there to look at it (Tuscon, AZ) and i drove it around the parking lot, then parked it and asked her: "What's the price today?". Her reply: $14,000. I looked at the kid and said: "Let's go". I had $20K in hundred-dollar bills taped to my lower leg. She never knew. I ended up buying something else.

I've owned a few 1969 Chevelles, still own one. I'm curious to know what's incorrect about those pictured wheels. Am also curious to learn more about 1969 Chevelles coming with Buick seats and Oldsmobile interiors.

Baby steps: today's mission was to find some transmissions. That took probably a couple hours of sorting through boxes of glued and painted parts to find 3 engines to butcher. For whatever reason, the engines are always gluey but the transmissions not so much. The one with the black paint gets another 24 hours in the soup. Am scraping the bottom of the barrel now for these gearboxs. Next step is to scrounge the MPC 1966 Corvette boxes for one more. Picking thru the silver-gray 1966 Corvette stuff is almost like going to church. ? Trying to keep them all MPC, maybe as some kinda tribute. Gonna be a sad day when i have to start buying midyear MPC Corvettes again because they got kinda pricey in the past few years.

i looked at an unboxing on youtube and that one is workable. Thanks !

I'm looking for a few air cleaners similar to this. If nothing else, i need the bottom most of all and have plenty of common air cleaners to make the small lid and filter element. Not worried about the rubber seal or even the length or clock position of the snorkles as they can be altered. Where can i look?

I bought a couple airplanes with this engine at the thrift store. The engines were stuck from the evaporated fuel. I got them unstuck with lacquer thinner, then sold them on eBay ?

We're gonna attempt a batch build of MPC 1973 & 1974 Corvette Coupes. These are the ones with a clutch pedal and a 4-speed stick working a poorly done 400 Turbohydramatic. That won't do so the transmissions have been carved off. Now where is the cup of those excellent MPC midyear Corvette transmissions? Nearly all of this is used except for the green and yellow pieces which came from one of those spectacular eBay lots which yielded about half a cubic foot of just vintage engine pieces. So the incorrect left side oil cap has been shaved off and the other side modded to mimic the rubber oil fill cap. Maybe the dimple in the center of the cap will get filled. Who knows? The underhood detail is charming but woefully lacking. There's just too much needed to make it look right so we'll stick pretty close to the way they were designed. The oil filters separated from the oil pans for ease of painting. 1974 was the last year for the mighty 454 in a Corvette and it was also the last year for the working control arms with steel coil springs in the MPC Corvette kit. You gotta be pretty choosy when buying prebuilts because some of the kids poured the glue onto those delicate front suspension pieces.

With all due respect, the Buick Skylark series name was changed to Century for 1973. The Regal was a sub-series in the Century lineup. The Gran Sport was a sub-series in the Century lineup. Regal and Gran Sport are separate sub-series in the Century lineup.