HotRodaSaurus

Its funny what people think of your old stuff, you can always tell when someone's relative(usually elderly) has passed on by whats selling at flea markets etc. You know, a table with about 100 pot pigs, or a lot of Elvis memorabilia and that sort of thing. Sometimes things are of value that other relatives dont know the true value of. I have an old WWII A2 leather jacket worn by a flyer during the Mediterranean campaign,my Mrs says, "Whats that old thing doing in the wardrobe? chuck it away if you dont wear it any more". And of my vintage Hot Rod magazine collection "What would anyone want 50 year old magazines for?". As for my models made and unmade kits,well if I pegged out tomorrow they would probably end up in a charity shop. John

Neat Harley, I have always loved Sportsters. Check my HD Electra Glide a few pages back, I have always preferred stripped bikes to dressers etc. John

My first under glass: I hope it's worthy This is the old Revell Electra Glide kit from the 1970s. A real pig to put together, I decided to get rid of the ill fitting dresser junk and build this basically box stock. I had to scratch build a saddle seat as the kit part looked awful but retained the grab rail. Paint is just some rattle can acrylic, silver rattle for engine with a black wash over nut and bolt areas. You cannot really tell but some of the other alloy/chrome has been applied with using a polished aluminum powder coating(similar to police finger print powder) BMF for wheels and trim, kit chrome for large areas such as battery box and air cleaner, aluminum powder for headlight casings, rattle spray for engine casings. I learnt from this model how different textures and finishes of the shiny parts can really make or break the look. This was an interesting build, my first bike kit. I know a few of the details may not be 100% right though next time I may use different materials for cables etc and maybe even try lacing my own wheels. Thanks for looking, John

A friend of mine here in the UK owned a 1959 Cadillac convertable when they were considered just old cars(1970s). He always left it unlocked so anyone wanting to try to find anything of value only had to open the door and take it. One night someone thought they would have a look so what did they do? Slashed the roof not thinking to try the door though my mate was more pissed at them taking his AM CB radio(illegal in the UK) John

Hi, is this the Monogram 3 in 1(or whatever ), slightly bigger scale and came in a flat box? I have most of one, blue plastic. Johnny T

The Union Flag looks wrong. I don't usually bother picking people up on points like this but as I am from the UK A bit like flying a rebel flag upside down. Model looks good though J

Love the Lotus 49, Tamiya 1/12 by any chance? And how do you tint that screen? Mine has a clear screen. J

I bought them all to build originally, but alas now time is scarce so they sit on the shelf, I also love the box art. Revell Ford country Squire MPC Dodge Monaco Best of Show kit Monogram Sizzler (flat box type) Revell Mr Revell F/E Dragster(Dennis Priddle) Monogram 1955 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, now try to find one without a warped roof

I 'steal' ideas from everyone, models, I take ideas and knowledge from here, from the 1-1 guys its probably from those early days of Gil Ayala and Sam Baris and anything from those early magazines. John

Hi, interesting thread. I'm HotRodasaurus, have been for years. As I put in my sig, I sell old magazine from the early days of rodding, hence 'The Jurassic' age haha. Some friends say its a real cool handle, I originally wanted HotRodZilla but that was taken on other forums. So I imagine if you only sign on to one forum as say, 67Tiger(I have not checked this forum for that name) there is a good bet that on another forum there may be another 67Tiger, be it a car forum WWII forum or even a wild life forum. As it goes I am HotRodasaurus here but 40 Year Old Teenager on a music forum, really because it fits the forum better John

WoW, this shows why we bought those kits back then. Built to a good standard, who needed paint when the body colours were just right. Alas the grey plastic mouldings of today don't shout it out do they, then a gain the buying public has moved more to adult modellers than kids. John

Love that red one, welcome to the forum. John

Thanks Ken, I know the K & C fueler has different bodywork and the decals for the Mr Revell are apparently what makes it desirable , probably more so for British collectors. The original car was purchased from a visiting US team back in the 1970s. John

Here is a kit I have wanted to build for ages! Dennis Priddle was the number one British driver for years, was the first to get into the sixes and also drove Don Garlits Swamp Rat when he left it here in the 1970s The thing is I have been told it's pretty rare and I have a wedding to pay for. Dilemma Dilemma John

Hi, sorry no shots but the figures are 2 piece(front and back) look to be fairly accurate and detailed. With some texturing I think they will come out well but I am not the greatest figure painter. The Futura figures are one piece, similar quality detail but the Club de Mer figures are awfull as the heads are too large(1/20th?) J

Hi all, my hot rod and drag racing interest came about with the February 1973 copy of Hot Rod mgazine, the golden era of the Funny Car drags and rear engine rails. Now I see nostalgia drags are big news featuring many of these old cars and quite a lot of Front engine jobs. My question is do these cars have to comply with the current safety requirements? Or do they run as they were back then ie no explosion blankets over the blowers etc. And a last question: Were any spectators seriously injured by exploding engines blowers or bits of clutch etc? Johnny Tee

Yes a fantastic model, I thought they were the real thing as well! Peter, some of those Indian Rolls Royces(never call it a Roller )would have had real silver panels on them. The Maharaja of a state had such vast wealth in a poor country they tried to out do each other in oppulence. What we might called 'Blinged up' these days. There is a RR story that one Maharaja had a fleet of Rolls Royces, one broke down so he had them all converted into dust carts(trash dumpsters?)then bought a fleet of Daimlers as that was the car the English Royal family favoured at that time. John

I built one using the revell Futura kit, have a go, its a whole load of fun You dont have to scratch build much as most of the conversion is just adding or extending what is already there. The hardest part was making the bat fin scollops, but these I only needed two goes at. The wheelwells are just cut out and shaped. Scale Auto did a feature on the conversion which was a shame as I had already built mine, but they used the same processes as I did so I guess I had it right. About 14 years back I took it to the Doncaster custom car show when they had a model show as well, entered it and won a certificate for best slammer, well chuffed John

Shill bidding can also be a problem with pushing up the price but can backfire on the seller. If I really want something I often stick my highest bid in one go. Example; A vintage Suzuki badge I wanted, probably worth around $10, so I put in the most I want to pay as I really want it and bid $25. Not a fortune but enough for a first bid, then I watch it creep up in 50c or $1 bids. If I think that it is being shill bidded I withdraw my bid, if I think they have out shilled themselves and won the item They may give me the old second chance offer which I will decline. I also somtimes get bidders making me an offer to finish the auction with their own buy it now offers, I usually refuse but tell them to bid their max in one go! I have been accused of now setting a holding bid (on a G1 USN leather jacket) and actually got reported to eBay as my bidder put in a fair full price bid for the jacket as he would not be able to final second bid on it. Seems you cannot win on eBay, they make their rules for themselves, I once had a 3 day ban for selling a Hausser Elastolin figure of Adolf Hitler giveng a nazi salut. I was told I was not allowed to sell items relating or depicting racism or hate though this is a historical toy and not something that could stir up racial hatred. John

Here is an idea if you already have the discs but the finish needs restoring Clean off any old chrome or painted finish in the usual way with one of those items we normally clean them with, I use spray on oven cleaner, you use whatever you feel safe with. Spray a light film of slow dry varnish over the part and also something like a small piece of flat styreene sheet. Allow the varnish to become almost dry, this is where the test piece comes in. My method! lick finger and lightly draw across test piece, if it sticks the varnish is still wet, it should feel tacky but not stick. Next I sprinkle some aluminum? Aluminium powder over the part then lightly rub it with a lint free cloth in a circular motion. Allow to fully dry. It takes a bit of practice but gives a nice natural metal finish, if you muck it up just stick it in the cleaner and start again. Very hard to keep the dust off. I took this idea from a magazine titled Fine Scale Modeller. The feature was aimed at NMF on model airliners but I used it on a Harley Davidson motorcycle model that really brought out the different metal finishes used on the real thing. I have used spray laquer, it does work and dries much faster but the finish is not as good. Two recomendations for using the cleaner: Full bio hazard suit with oxygen supply(so you cant drag me through the courts) or common sense. Cheers, John

The best looking dragster paint jobs ever! I had the Revell R/E when it came out, been looking for another for years now. The F/E, I only know from old drag mags though I did have the 1/16 Revell kit to be restored. I bought some Fred Cady decals to finish it but never did. Great model, thanks for showing, John

I buy and sell on the 'Bay' and as I am from over the water so to speak here are a few of my views: To post a model(typical 1/25th scale for example) to the USA from England, the price I charge is around £10, somtimes a little more. This covers all postage and packing materials if I have to buy them. And yes I DO take into account that I have to take time to pack and take the items to the post office as I could be doing somthing else like watching TV, making models, reading a motorcycle magazine, or cooking dinner. I also combine items to a fair degree and adjust pricing within reason. Many dealers from the USA use some kind of postage estimator, as to send a 1/25 scale model to the UK list postage well in the $30 bracket when in the past I have had kits sent for around $12-15. I do imagine postage prices have risen but to what? I used to use a US postal service website to estimate postage and items were usually about the quoted pricestaking into account packing and going to the post office. Well I will be listing some models soon(Monogram Sport Coupe for example) and all you will pay are my reasonable postage fees, probably about £10 To the member that says we(non dealers) are amature sellers, you are right, as I hold down a day to day job. I post out my items within a day or two of listing end and list whenever I can. If you would rather buy from pro dealers then let them bid on my items and you can then pay for the same item with their premium on top! Finally, yes I think eBay has had its day for bargains, sometimes you get them sometimes you dont. Sometime back I scored a great JoHan 1960 Cadillac for $1.00 and postage of only $12 to the UK. How? the seller had typed Johann Caddillac in the description. Now eBay has its own spell checker in its search engine haha. Cheers, John

My favorite model, model box and real 1-1 scale show car as well I have one I built a few years back,I even have the skeleton from the first one I built in 72. That by the way is my favorite box art, the one with the spooky house in the back ground. I still by magazines that have a shot of the Coffin that I have not seen. Not so sure about the restoration done on the 1-1, the roof doesnt look right. Nice build anyway, thanks for sharing the pics, John

Hiya, I forgot the kit was re-done by Polar Lights! the AMT kit has the standard Cadillac light pods but in between is a checkerplate step, that is why I asked the question. The old JoHan model, though its a 68 has all the roof lights and a stretcher, though I dont know if these items can be dated to the year of car. John

Hello, I'm from Essex too, also not built a model for a lonnnnnng time. At the moment I get by looking in here, posting a few pics of models I have built when I come across them(most are in storage) There are builders here of all levels, some well known from the magazines and international modeling world, you can learn something from everyone so enjoy the site like I do. John