Quiet Eric

Side profile is sinister, looking good!

Very nice, very accurate looking work! Killer C10.

Beautiful duo

That is a great car, excellent choice.

Very nice. This is my favorite body style B-body. I built that Roadrunner kit as a kid and it subsequently was rebuilt numerous times, I have a soft spot for that yellow plastic! Haha. Before it eventually died completely.

Making progress. The real car has a Chassis Engineering X-member kit in the frame. I didn't want to build that from scratch, so the closest thing came from a Revell '40 Ford. After cutting out the tabs and other molded in pieces of the frame crossmember, I trimmed the legs of the '40 pieces so they fit right and glued them in. Before glue though, I put some scotch tape on the floorboards in between. You'll see why in a minute! I had already cut the gas tank away from the frame and assembled the top piece to it so the tank would go in as a separate piece. Then I cut the rear floor and coil-over crossmember out of the frame. I took the rear crossmember from the same '40 and flattened it slightly with a couple pie cuts towards the center. I glued it into the frame "backwards" from what it would have been in the '40 because my car used an original '32 rear crossmember which had a curve towards the back of the car and this is about as close as I could get. Then I added the plate along the bottom of the X-member pieces. It will get some more shaping later, but I needed to tie them together now for strength. All these joints were glued with solvent type glue, then reinforced with some CA. The reason for that tape was to keep the X-member legs from sticking to the floor. The floor was left in place from the beginning to keep the frame pieces in the right spot. Now that the X-member was in, I was able to scribe that floor off of the rails. The floor would have worked fine but in the end is inaccurate, so I will be building a new one from scratch. I am trying to get this frame to be as accurate as possible. To me, it is one of the most iconic parts of a '32 Ford. It is hard to tell from the pictures but I have significantly shaved down the sides of the rails around the reveal line. This kit has that line very exaggerated and on the real deal, the line tapers to almost nothing at the top of the rails, and is more of a flair at the bottom of the rails than the hard ridge out of the box. One of the other issues with this frame are the frame horns. Both front and rear they should be a C-channel. The odd notch in the top of the front horns is very odd too. I have done this once before on a project that was abandoned, but wanted to try it again. The horns were thinned out on the inside surface with a file, then slightly thinned top and bottom. I added an .020 strip of styrene to the top and bottom, then after it was cured filed them to a more appropriate shape and thickness. I have started on the rear too but haven't finished. Something I really never do or have the patience for is opening panels or doors. This project is pretty special though so I thought it was deserving of at least a functional decklid. The doors will remain shut because well, it's a roadster and what would be the point? Finally for today, here are the wheels and tires I've settled on. The wheels come from the AMT '69 Cutlass and look to be a pretty faithful replica of early American Racing 5-spokes. These might be a touch too wide (wheels on the real car were all 15x6) but they looks pretty close. I do not know where the rear tires came from, I stole them off of another never-going-to-be-finished hot rod project...they were originally whitewalls with a plastic insert, with that insert on the inside and painted black. Front tires supposedly came from a Revell Ford Thunderbolt kit according to the eBay auction I bought them from. The tread on them is almost non-existent which is frustrating, and they're still a little too tall...but close enough unless I find something better.

Started on page 1 then skipped to page 6 and wow you took it up quite a few notches. Excellent detailed and clean build.

Uff da! That’s rough about the shelf. But glad yo are rebuilding. That Supra was looking great!

These two cars were incredibly influential on me as a youngin’...I did have both as quick-builder kits way back when and did an awful job putting them together. Hopefully I can do them both a little bit more justice this time around.

Thank you! I struggled with hood pins...I have some photo etch ones I might throw on still.

With mag wheels and a forward rake, absolutely no skirts. Looks good!

Spotted this beautiful 300ZX on the way to work the other day, going to make me buy my first Japanese kit to replicate it. I must have one! Then last night at the local burger joint...

Got mine from Scale Finishes, they're for airbrush use. I bought an airbrush just so I could use their color selection and so far so good.

I have just the project in mind in case it’s a blanket ‘80’s street rod build off....

I love a good bare chassis, looking great.

Actually I was confused originally thinking R&M but looks like its actually Model Car Garage. The 6-gauge Stewart Warner Ensign panel. Though I can't seem to find it on their website except in the Big Deuce set.

Thanks for the tips Bernard! I’m still contemplating what to do on the dash. But also thanks for the source on that gauge panel as it is exactly what I need.

Nice looking interior!

Great project, can't wait to see it finished. Those west Texas boys knew how to build a racecar!

Thanks a lot guys! Special thanks to you Tim! Its an honor to have you following along. The color has kind of a story. At my last place of employment, we built a pretty high end '32 roadster to compete for a pretty high end award. I had suggested that color and everyone involved liked it so that is what I was expecting. Well, by the time the car's owner and the painter were done tweaking the color, it was nothing short of burnt orange mixed with tangerine. So I decided to keep the Aztec Copper plan for myself, but unfortunately never got around to it. I am thinking of an off white/bone color for the interior.

My justification is that on a real car, you’d be able to make bigger wheels and tires fit and have this stance. But being a model, with the thickness of the plastic and the way all the parts are made it becomes difficult. So I have been known to cut a corner or two to get the look I want, especially if it’s just a quick shelf model.

Working on this for a birth year build-off on another board. Obviously the kit is an '83 but with a color flip from black/silver to silver/black it magically becomes an '84! The red stripe in between will be a challenge. And since I can't leave anything alone, it's getting lowered as much as possible without really hacking things up, and getting the wheels/tires from a Revell '62 Impala kit. Spokes of the wheels will be painted dark grey. Otherwise, the kit will be stock save for maybe a new carburetor and air cleaner. Adapting the kit wheel mounts to the new wheels. Also cut off the molded in kit disc brakes to both add separate bigger versions and to narrow the track up a little to fit the new wheels. Haven't sorted out the front suspension just yet. Had to cut the tops of the rear wheelwells out and thin out the inside surface for clearance. Don't think I'll be doing anything else about them as they'll be very hidden. Kit rear springs will be cut down. Up front I had to cheat a lot. Cut away as much of the bottom of the inner fenders as I could without causing a lot of problems. I don't think the area that was opened up will be very visible under the hood. And then, one of the ultimate sins...I cut the tire. Ideally I would like to find smaller outter diamater tires which would fit and look better, but I really don't want to invest a lot into this build and it's on a deadline. Final stance. It'll do!

Nice and accurate chassis detail. Looks great!

Thank you! The gold Moroso valve covers were part of the plan from day 1, a must have. I bet that was a cool Grand Prix. I love Pontiacs.