Casey

Find the Accu-Pro cab on eBay or at a swap meet, and you're done. No work required other than clean up. Someone sold the shortbox and extended cab, as well as the AMT kit on eBay last month for $25.

Or easiest of all, show the coupon code on Hobby Lobby's mobile page when they are ringing up your purchase.

The 1/25 AMT SnapFast regular cab dually and regular cab longbed, and the Revell 1/25 Ram VTS regular cab shortbed are the only 1/25 kits of that Ram bodystyle, and the two AMT kits are unassembled promotional models, with fully molded in chassis/engine/exhaust/suspension details...not so great underneath. Accu-Pro made the only aftermarket (model, not 1:1) extended cab and pickup bed I know of, but the bed was a short box. You'll need to find one of the Accu-Pro resin cabs and combine it with the bed from this AMT kit, and maybe use the chassis from the Revell kit for added detail. If your truck is a 4x4, the suspension and drivetrain will need to be kitbashed/scratchbuilt:

And now we're done.

Look into the Minicraft '31 Ford pickup kit. I recall it had a slightly dropped, beam style front axle with steerable spindles, and I think the cross spring was molded with the axle. Not sure if it had hairpin style radius rods, too, or not. I guess I didn't take pics of those parts, but I may still have them in my stash. I will have to look tomorrow. Some pics of the '31 pickup kit here: http://s916.photobucket.com/albums/ad9/tramhl/Plastic%20Models/Reviews/Minicraft%2031%20Ford%20Pickup/

I can only speak for myself, but I would rather pay for a fastback body, interior parts, rear "glass", and rear spoiler as a package to be used with the Revell kit than buy the old Johan kit. My Fred Cady Rallye 350 decals need a good home!

Yep, lots of times. Try "donor" in the Gen Disc search box and you'll find a bunch of different topics on pasts donor kits, like this one: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=50239&hl=donor#entry558634 The problem with a master list is that not everyone will agree the valve covers from the Matt & Debbie Hay Pro Street T-bird or the BFG tires from the MPC Toypta Supra are he best, and so on. Opinions will vary wildly, and what you think may be a great kit or part, I may think just the opposite. Maybe listing your favorite kits which you use as a parts donor might work better? There may even be an existing topic like that, too.

Never, but RMR offers one (maybe two, the second with duallie fenders) in resin. MPC offered the 1/16 "Action Snaps" '73-'86 Chevy Fleetside shortbed in the snowplow version (the other had a dump bed), but they appear very toylike from what I've seen.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=67367&hl=%2B55+%2Bnomad+%2Bamt

www.scalehardware.com I was very pleased with their service and my order arrived within four days. Nothing but good things to say about Scale Hardware.

Maybe. Jason, what did you do or change which fixed the problem?

That darn mid-'77 model year fuel tank change really messes with things in the trunk area, doesn't it?: I have a ton of reference pics from my F-body days if you need any.

Which photohosting site are you using? Are you pasting it into the reply box? I don't have any issues copying and pasting image links from both fotki and Photobucket here or anywhere else.

Shades of Wheelman in that reply. The attitude against people who do[/ take their work seriously was something Mike was very passionate about, and I tend to agree. I don't see anything wrong with taking this hobby seriously, either, and if someone builds for the sole purpose of competing and winning trophies, more power to them. A perfectly polished out paint job and loads of aftermarket sourced parts may not be your or my thing, but there's room for everyone in this hobby, regardless of what, why, or how you build.

Agreed on most counts, but I'm not going to speculate on the cause of the fire. All three buildings are what I would call "dumpy", so I know that going in, but maybe that's why they still have a lot of the older kits. I have found some great kits for fair (though not cheap) prices at the other two stores, and even though some appear to have water damage, the contents, including the decal sheets were fine.

http://public.fotki.com/tomcoolidge/revell-1950-oldsmob/page4.html

Which hardtop will it be? The fastback or formal roof?

It wasn't horrible, but there wasn't much time nor money invested in maintenance. The roof was always leaking, as evidenced by the numerous model kits with soggy, mold stained boxes, and even a few kits which were opened up to dry them out.

I recall you mentioning the bead cones at Michael's had a seam, so I looked these cones I saw at Jo-Anns over thoroughly and saw no seam at all. They were a bit heavier/more solid than the cones at Michael's and had a nice, rolled lip, too. I think they were priced at $3.99 for this package:

I agree. You can get two different varieties, either 180/220, in black or 320/420 in pink at Walgreens, Target, etc. and they have a much finer, more consistent grit, too. The cheapy nail files are good for fast material removal, but they are very coarse, and the grit is not very even.

The X-brace parts are not included with the non-convertible versions of the 1/25 Revell Tri-Five Chevy kits, so ignore the part where it says to pass the driveshaft through the X-brace. This series of Tri-Five Chevy kits started out with the '55 Bel Air convertible, which DID have the X-brace (which added stiffness, due to the lack of a fixed top on the body), so when the instructions were modified and used on the second version (the '56 Nomad IIRC), they were not accurately updated. You can see the X-brace parts by viewing the '55 'vert's instruction sheet plans on Revell's website. http://manuals.hobbico.com/rmx/85-4269.pdf

Looks like the fastback body will be ready very soon.

It was the Happy Hobby store in West Allis, on National Ave. There are two other related Happy Hobby stores, both in Milwaukee-- one on Burleigh St. and the other on 76th & Good Hope. I hadn't been to the West Allis store since April or so, but it was always fun too look around, and it's one less option to have now. http://fox6now.com/2013/01/01/happy-hobby-store-in-west-allis-damaged-following-fire/

I see what you did there. Nicely done. Out of curiosity, how many parts specs do you have memorized or written down for the Sevens? For example, do you have the mill specs/data for the cylinder head on file(?), or are you going on memory...or just going with what feels/looks good at the time?

Why is this man smiling? He just officially became the driver and got a name...but more on the name (much) later. His head will be swapped onto the body/driver Ed sent me, and since this driver's helmet is sans visor, I decided to add a canopy over the driver, instead of exposing his head from the nose up. The canopy is from an unknown jet kit, sanded down and tapered to conform to the body: Once the hole in the body is opened up, allowing the driver's head and shoulders to protrude, the canopy will sit flush against the body, though I will need to remove some material from the inside edge, to ensure the canopy sits level with the ground. I will likely add a flange around the canopy's perimeter to both tie it into the headrest/fairing behind the driver's head and make it easier to secure to the body shell. I pretty much ruined the hoop style fairing I was thinking of using, but it was a bit too narrow (or the driver's head was a bit too wide) and to widen it would've meant widening the original Avanti hood bulge, so the fairing was probably doomed from the start: It will be sanded to butt up to the back edge of the canopy, and the trailing edges will retain the Avanti's C-pillar trailing edge shapes, so it will end up working out just fine. I also added some details to the turbine engine, particularly the fuel metering device, starter motor, and whatever else some of these bits and parts are. I used some random, exquisitely molded parts from an unknown Japanese-made race car, as the MPC engine was lacking detail and definition. Things like hood or door hinges worked perfectly for making flanges, and other unrecognized bits simply added detail and made parts stand out against one another. I will be adding some wiring and fuel and lubrication lines later on, but looking at reference pics of the real engine gave me a good idea of what needed to be added: I remembered I had some two-piece hard plastic tires from the AMT Piranha dragster kit, so I measured them and found they were almost the exact diameter I needed for the front tires. I glued the halves together and will bore out the centers to a larger diameter, making the front tires the same sidewall height as the rear tires: