Wickersham Humble

My step-dad had trucks, and we had a lot of misc equipment around; one piece was a Borg-Warner built Roots blower that had a 'trimmed' case from the factory, as I believe after thirty or forty years past. He'd seen such a supercharger used to 'blow' grain through a tube at an elevator such as he ran, and bought it to try and build a similar device. Somewhere I have an ad from an old Mechanix Illustrated or similar mag advertising these as surplus equipment. Never seem one on a hot rod, though. It seems like the trimmed case era was mostly late fifties? Thx for the insights. Wick

Upon release, I bought this kit, and my bro bought the Ivo 'Showboat' dragster; they defeated us! Wonderful kit, but so complex (as were the original subjects!!) and too fiddley for impatient teen-agers in the early 'sixties! Anyone who builds the 'Challenger' is an artiste! Go, Bill! I still have bits and pieces of both cars in my parts drawers; don't think at 80 I'm up for a rematch, tho! Just swapped a generous forum member for a Mono 'Sizzler' kit, partially assembled but tasty, that is distracting me from my 1/1 duties now; doing the Bantam coupe body as a twin-SBC stormer, and putting the hemi in my old 'Green Hornet' chassis to revive it. The blown Olds will be handed down to an old Lindberg duece roadster kit. I bought a pretty decent 'Hornet' assembled kit at a 1/1 swap meet (a great place to find very modestly priced models cars stuff, I've found !) and am going to polish it up as a restoration to go with the other 1/24 diggers I have. The 'trimmed' GMC 6/71 on the 'Hornet' is one of the few I've found to resin-cast from; most Jimmy blowers in kits have the full mounting-flange ribs. Seems like ones with ribs/mounts trimmed were used mostly on street rod cars, for looks, back in the early days. Bill is the olde speed equipment guru; what's his take? BTW, the valve covers on the Long John dragster just fit the Sizzler hemi heads, likewise the unique header. Easy to drill out the ends of the plug-wire looms and run wires from mag. I'm filling their recesses on the 2-piece body, and cutting a hole up top to run a 1/24 Offy four, very period piece! Wick

Yep, I wrote the "How to Restore Your Datsun Z-Car" manual in the mid-eighties, published in 1990, and still in print, now by Car Tech. My original 240Z, bought while at Ft. Sam Houston, TX, was the subject of the restoration step-by-step, and was repurchased by NISSAN USA in 1995. (They gave $12K for it, now probably worth $75K, at least!) They wanted it because they had discontinued the 300ZX sports cars, and had an L.A. shop refurbishing about two dozen early Z's and selling them as new, with 12-month warranty, etc. I don't know if they re-serialed them or not; mostly the dealers who got them held onto them until they could go to auction, and the big market value. My HLS3547 was 'Japanese Racing Green' which is best replicated with 'Mack Truck Green' I found, with a saddle tan interior; I restored it using the black interior I wanted in the first place. My '71 restomod Z is silver ('03 Honda color, my first experience with base/clear paint) with black; the "20th Anniversary ZX adjustable buckets, using R-R Connoly black leather, and full carpet where the 'unborn lizard-hide' diamond-pattern vinyl was on the trans tunnel, etc. It has a Hobrecht roll-bar, L28 and steel-stynchro 5-speed, 280Z rear discs, and about two pages of other goodies I always wanted. Alas: my poor wife has fibromyalgia and osteo; can't stand the Tokiko shock/spring tied-down suspension ride (it handles like on rails, but is choppy and abrupt!) and I need to sell it. I know of a lot of Japanese cars that were collectable before the 1969-deubut 240Z, the Toyota 2000GT is probably the nicest one. However, it was the Z-Car that finally made the North American market take Japanese cars seriously, and 'Japan Inc.' stormed through the stick-in-the-mud American market like a katana! Sorry that GM/Ford/MoPar let that happen; I was hoping that Pontiac would be allowed to release their Banshee sports car, and I could have bought American, after all. It was a package I would have loved, with the SOHC-6 with Q-Jet, and good 4-speed. (I'm getting one of those motors next week, btw -- hope I can adapt it to a B-W T-5 five-speed! Any other Z questions; I'd love to discuss them! I have five unbuilt Z-kits in 1/5, and the big Tamaiya ZG kit which I want to convert to RHD and a stock nose. Are those replica Hayashi 8-spoke resin wheels back in production yet? Ole' Wick

Russell, Ford missed a good feature when they didn't try that tail-lite treatment! Can that body be saved, tho? Wick

Good take on '62 Dodges; they needed some restyling, but mostly around the back window, etc. Exner's swan song at Chrysler. I took two Revell '62 Dodge hardtop kits (4-door) that were crushed and made one two-passenger dream car/dragster I called the Dodge Dragon (pun intended -- good enough for MoPar) but it came out rather clumsy. I wish I had a kit of the Plymouth XNR sports car, with Hyper slant-six! Wick

Amazing how many modelers are also artists! Or not... I always wanted to be a car stylist, but not quite good enough -- or prolific enough for Detroit. Do you have more? Wick

Impressive; nice composition, too! Ex art teacher, Old Wick

With 1/1 cars, and not being able (elementary school teacher's salary, and only a small book royalties and article fees) I had and have limitied my 'stable' to 2/3 cars, once of which I often drive daily -- BUT I always hungered for tthat special, low-production example. At least, one that I could restore, not exotics like Ferrari's or even Cobras, etc. but seldom scored something really nutty. My '61 Pontiac Tempest with OEM Buick aluminum 3.5-L V-8 is as close as I'm coming right now, and it's essentially finished up. I added dual exhausts, MBZ suv rear sway-bar, and soon a 4.bbl. carb. We once restored and drove daily a '55 Nomad, a striking '62 Stude Hawk, and of course, the '35 non-classic but bitchin' Packard coupe that I had to sell when the kids both needed tonsillectomies! Other restos have been relatively plebian rides, but satisfying. The Muntz, for all it's period styling, might have been that car, esp if upgraded with a modern mill. I'd like to see your photos; one might be this car, as it wasn't prepossessing to contemplate! Wick

Great replica of a significant car! Missed the WIP segments; what did you begin with? I had practically swapped a '56 Chevy 210 wagon for a basket-case Muntz Jet back in the early 'eighties, but it turned out the kid (literally) who had given up on the Muntz wasn't 18 yet, and his mom queered the deal. It had been a Lincoln 337 or Cad 347 flathead V-8, but he took a 390 FE out of it, which apparently hadn't ever run. It was a mess, but rare enough I might have sweetened the deal for him, except for her snotty jibes. It would have been a huge project, and I had my own '35 Packard 120 coupe 'in the works'... also missed an Allard at the Turlock Swap Meet about 1980 for about $1,400; four door (K-3?) but all there and running -- as I recall, a Zephyr V-12, a snakebit engine at best. Can't afford 'em all! "...what might have been!" Wick

Super replica of an important car! Wick

I always loved Pontiacs; only had a few: '65 Tempest Custom 2-dr HT, '62 Tempest ragtop (155-hp four with 4-bbl) and current '61 Tempest coupe with Buick 215 V-8 (original, aluminum mill), took my driver's test in '61 with the family '55 Chieftan wagon, and put lots of miles on it's replacement, a '62 Catalina wagon. Have models of most built or in progress. However, my first ride was a '55 Chevy Delray 2-dr sedan, all built by an older guy who got drafted (red rims with big Moons, no less, and lakes pipes!) also modelled. Wick

Reventlow, as I recall (too lazy to look it up) had the incomparable hot-rodder Chuck Daigh as a mech and driver, and possibly Travers & Coon? Like the AC-cum-Cobra, the Scarab was more or less a rip-off stylistically of a Ferrari, but as Groucho Marx once was credited with saying: "If you're going to steal, steal from the best!" I think that the Halibrand quick-change did wind up in a few other rod-derived sports racers; seems like the Edwards had it too, or ??? The 'Old Yellers',Cunninghams, Bocars, Echidnas, Hussar, Allards, Chevy/HMW, and other innumerable sports specials made the 'fifties a memorable decade. Eventually led to the Chaparrals and all of Group 7 and CanAm monsters. For kits, I wish there were a better source for scale Firestone Super-Sports tires, even the natural rubber ones we used to see. Lance R., lucky devil, married blondie Cheryl Holdridge (sp?) long-time Wally Cleaver girlfriend from Leave It To Beaver, but not Mary Ellen Rogers. Wonder if she got a ride in a Scarab? Wick

Sid, I'd defer to Bill, but I think the were among the first, postwar. Remember, Harry A. Miller designed spoke mags for his TNT racers well before even Bugatti came out with a very similar rim; Miller in the mid-teens, no less! We're not worthy, men! Alloy/mag wheels got a huge boost by the mid-thirties on aircraft, when just like on cars, they replaced the wire wheels previously so prominent. I had a set of American eight-spokers on my '70 240Z, the one I restored for my book in the 'eighties, and they were from a Triumph. Though risky, I had them cut by a machinist on the reverse of the spokes to clear my front disc brake calipers. They were early, and a very high percentage of magnesium, I was told; they began to erode on the inner drop-center, and after glass-beading them, I sold them to a Datsun roadster (nut!) that had a fetish for them. Very like Minilites. Replaced them with ARE 4-spoke 'Libres' for a while, then went to Konig 8-spokers, which look much like Panasports. Love that Dow 7 patina, also! Wick

Bill (and Chris), Yeah, my kit still has the two different style Hali's, and oc the rears were wider. Def 1/24 scale, which makes them look pretty slick on a 1/25 car, too! I wish I could find a reliable person to resin-cast some sets, or even 3-D print. Funny early slot-car design, used batteries for power, but my kit from '59 wasn't that deluxe. I built it as a curbside Devin SS about 1960, with chrome-reverse rims from the old AMT Corvette kit; white with red/black racing stripe. I was going to recreate the space-frame, suspension, etc. but need to finish it, so will be curbside with SBC and opening hood. I still have the original decals, but probably beyond use now. I should scan them, at least, huh? Somebody, I think, makes a new one, also. Still have a sheet for the Comet 'Panther' racer, too!l Besides one of the Strombecker (notice that company uses both that trademark, and the StromBecker one) rims being broken, I want to be able to source more for other projects; this old guy's favorite wheel. I see to recall that the company once was sold as Strombeck and Becker...? Memory very worn out, now!

I'd probably do more than autograph them, to get more readers (reviews and ratings) and thanks! The cheapest way, if you like Kindle, is that mode, oc. Wick