Ken

Finish one, you mean people actually build this kit, I thought it was just a really expensive parts box!!! Great start on yours. Looking sharp!!!

Heck, I may go see the third movie just for the Datusn 510 that Sam drives. Saw it pictured on a few other sites earlier this month. Looks kind of like Bumble Bee is undercover...

Not to stir the pot... notice Harry, that I put my full name in my sig when asked, but JT is correct. In the profile section, under required information, it clearly states that first name is required. Now I realize that this is Gregg's forum and his to do with as he pleases, so he can make whatever rules he choose, but it should be a simple thing to change the required information to read 'Full Name, first and last' in the profile section. That way it should lessen the moderator's duties. I know that in 'o6 when I joined, I put my full name in my sig. I also had an avatar. During the last board change, both my avatar and my profile info was lost. When I went to finally fix it all, I saw that it said only my first name was required, so I put that there. I did not bother to re-read the rules to see if they had changed. Lets be honest, most of us when we join a forum, do not really read the rules, we skim them. Most of us do not join forums with the expressed purpose of violating the rules. If you change the required info line in the profile page, I believe that you will get more people to follow that one rule. Here is the required info as shown in the profile page. Opps, sorry, mine full name is actually just to the left under my displayed info and not in my sig. I will put it in both places just to be safe

Now watch it, the same thing can be said about the cars built today. Most will never see their first 100K checkup. I post pics all day long of the junkyards around here filled with them. The 79 Ford F-150 I learned to drive in logged well over 200K before my brother spun a bearing for not checking the oil. My 68 Dart went almost 300K before it was t-boned by an uninsured driver and totaled. There are those who would say that cars today are designed to go 100K before checkups because the manufacturers know that most people will dispose of them before that time. All of my old school Toyotas have well over 100K and some are just getting broken in. People's buying habits did not change over night. People have been buying new cars and disposing of them a few years later ever since the boom after WW2. Longevity is more a factor of maintenance than of build quality. Any car will keep on ticking if normal, routine maintenance is performed. Cars only tend to die prematurely when they are not cared for properly. Of course, there are exceptions to the rules

I have not forgotten this one, just working out the engineering bits in my head and on paper. You try and find plans for a 34 woody on the internet I have found a few pics and I am working something out using them. I have some basswood strips and some sheets to use when I finally nail it down.

Got a big box from Japan today. Lots of fodder for the JDM build... Most are Fujimi and as such suffer from the dreaded "old motorized kit" syndrome, except for the TE27, which is a new mold and is quite decent. I haven't decided which one will be used for the JDM build. I am thinking Boso Chaser, but I may go with kyushi celica as well. In all a great thing to come home to. The cats are loving the big box left on the floor!!! Oh yeah, I only got 6 wheels sets, not 12

Welcome aboard Jimmy! Glad to see you over here. I hope to see your engines in my mailbox tomorrow when I get home from work. Got a large shipment coming over from Japan just for the JDM build. One of the engines is planned for use in the build as well. I will post a review of the engines when I receive them.

Only two of them are half dead. The Cressidas reside in the driveway, much to the wife's dismay The rest reside at a buddy's shop. He is just as bad as I am with the 'collecting' The blue one will be going away shortly. After that, work commences on the supra again. Parts are still being aquired for the Celica. Mainly just some hop up parts. No use in putting it together if I just have to take it apart again.

I will help you start one. Daily 1:1 is a 2004 Tahoe with lots of hail damage, soon to possibly be replaced with a Honda Pilot... Not my first choice, but the bean counters rule. Project 1:1s, Sorry for this Nick! 76 Toyota Celica RA29. Bought from original owner, bla, bla, bla... Plans include a single weber 45 sidedraft and that is it. Gotta get back to this one, but I keep getting distracted by things like this. 83 Toyota Celica Supra MA67. This one was rescued from the crusher and work started on it. Found a replacement engine in the form of another Supra. Got it, it was a POS so engine was pulled and I started to part it out. Then I was distracted with this... This is an 86 Toyota Cressida. Plan was to take the 5 speed from the junk supra and install it in this. I got the limited slip diff installed and everything then last weekend happened... Buddy of mine saw an ad on Craigslist(the bane of my existance lately) and this followed me home. One owner 140K 87 Cressida with the factory 5 speed. Pretty rare as far as Toyotas go. Original owner was a little old lady, literally. She kept really, really good maintenance records. I know the mileage, number of gallons and service station for every fill-up since new. I also know the mileage, type of oil, number of quarts and the tech's name for every oil change. I bought it from the actual second owner, but they had only owned it a year or so. Their daughter used it to drive around. They put less than 8000 miles on it in the last 15 months. I picked it up and drove it home and she ran great. It has the usuall issues for a 23 year old car. The front struts are shot, but that is no surprise as it was driven mostly on unpaved roads most of the time. Now of course, I have to get rid of the 86...

This past week, I got some well need rest from the severe weather. I also picked up a Revell Thunderbolt for 14$ and some wood for the JWAC at hobby lobby. I also got a JZX100 Chaser, Fujimi Longchamps and deep dish Wats from HLJ earlier in the week.

Here is a story I shot about 4 years ago. Perfect for Memorial Day. I couldn't embed it so you will have to use the link. Don't worry, it is not spam! And while last I knew, he was still with us, it won't be long before he isn't. One from the "greatest generation" as they are called.

I think I mis-stated myself. I don't think that this is the first Pro-touring car out there, but shows the evolution of the breed. I too remember the Red Witch as pretty much the first car that made me go WOW! What is that! It is the first car that made me take notice of the Pro-touring movement. Honestly, I don't remember Big Red, but I don't think it would be a strictly Pro-touring machine. Seems more like a G-Machine to me. I see this car as one of the early steps in the Pro-touring movement. Most likely, it was inspired or built about the same time as the Red Witch, but without either party knowing about it. I am guessing that the 'Cuda was built around 93 and took a bit to get into the magazines. I would see this more along the lines of; This car is to the pro-touring movement as Muddy Waters is to the Rolling Stones. Not the beginning, but part of the inspiration and building blocks.

Cleaning out a shed this past weekend for a garage sale and I found a box full of old mopar magazine I had forgot was in there. I started looking through them during my spare time. I found this article from about 1995. I think it shows where Pro-touring got its start. I don't believe that this was the first official Pro-touring machine, but it was one of the 'switch over' cars. The stance is not there, but the intent is. I thought is was kind of neat and thought I would share. I have larger high res scans if anybody wants them. Hey Marc, got any of those MPC 'Cudas left? As I find more fun stuff I will post it. The magazines are mainly High Performance Mopar and Mopar Muscle. I also have a bunch of old Custom Rodder magazines I will most likely scan. I do have the issue with the Mooneyes Toyopet Crown that caused so much controversy in the custom rod world when unvieled. I will see if I can find the article and scan that one if anyone is interested. If anybody needs some Mopar reference, let me know and I will see if I have some and scan them in.

Yeah, I eventually corrected myself. The 500/Daytona always trips me up. Since the Daytona is listed as a 69, I always think the 500 is a 68. Strange, that the Daytona is a 69 and the Superbird is a 70. Another tidbit, I thought that the front fenders on the Daytona were lifted from a coronet and hence the difference in the sheet metal. Glad to see you found a transkit.

Sorry again, too little sleep and too much work. 1969 was the first year for the Charger 500. I keep getting that mixed up. Never mind on everything I said. I will now go back into the corner and start checking my facts before I post

Yes, on the Daytona, but not on the Charger 500 model. The Charger 500 was the first shot Chrysler fired in the Aero wars of the late 60s. In 1968, Dodge engineers realized that the deep grill of the Charger was limiting top speeds in racing. In an effort to streamline the Charger, Dodge engineers came up with a two pronged attack. First was the fitting of a Coronet grill, bringing the grill pretty much flush with the edge of the fenders, which ellimnated the deep scoop of the Charger grill. The next 'prong' was the filling of the rear window, which helped the air flow smoothly over the back of the car. The flying buttress window, while great looking on the car, created a ton of turbulence on the track. By moving the glass flush with the rear of the C pillar, the turbulence was lessen greatly. In 1969, the Dodge boys created the Charger Daytona and the 500 was made a trim option more than a copy of the race car. There are other small differences between the Revell 1969 Charger/Daytona and the 1968 Charger, but they are simple to do. Mainly, the marker lights in 1968 were round dots on the fenders and rear quarters. In 1969 the marker lights were returned to the rectangular shape common on most cars. I have owned a real 1968 Charger 500, but there was way more work needed on it than my skills and my then, college student, budget could afford. Unfortunately, I had to sell it. To make the 1969 Charger Daytona into a 1968 Charger, you just need a Coronet grill and change the marker lights. Oh yeah, the taillights need to be of the round variety. Thus, it would be easier to start with the Revell 1968 Charger and just fill in the window. If I remember my real car, the package shelf in the interior just needs to be extended to complete the conversion. Like I said, the Mopar purists can now jump in and correct me Forgive the above, I didn't realize you were starting with the Daytona kit. I believe you need to find a 68 coronet grill. Check with the modelhouse, I think those are the guys I am thinking of. They repop a bunch of stuff for promos and such. They should have a 68 Coronet grill in stock.

Get yourself a Coronet grill... BAM!! 1969/70 Charger 500. 1968 is the only year that had the filled rear window. After that, it was pretty much a trim level. Mopar purist now chime in and kick my butt If you want to do a 68 500, get the Special Issue 1968 Charger to start with. Using sheet styrene, build a rear window plug. Modify the interior bucket to match. Slap on a Coronet grill. Paint and put on shelf. Stand back and admire your scratchbuilding skills

Terry, you guys need to let Dan's Monkey take over a bit more. I miss the banana beer fueled fun! Maybe you can contract him out to Gregg to help with the moderating.

You are correct! The Mark II eventually became the Cressida here in the states and Canada. The Corona quietly faded into oblivion to be replaced by the Camry. The Crown did not sell well here and was no longer imported for Toyota after about 75 or so. The top of the line Toyota in America for years was the Cressida. Nice thing about the Cressida, is that it pretty much shared the same chassis as the 82-86 Supra. I happen to have 2 of the MX73 85-88 Cressidas, a wagon and a sedan. I also own two of the 82-86 'wedge' Supras. Unfortunately, only the cressida sedan runs right now and not for much longer. It is in line for a 5 speed swap shortly and installation of an LSD out of a Supra. It should be much more fun when done . I wish that Toyota kept selling the Crown here in the states. The arrival of the Lexus brand pretty much killed any Toyota sedan ranked higher than the Camry.

Are you sure it is not an early seventies Mark II. In the late sixties, the Mark II was just an extention of the Corona line. In 72 or so it became its own model. Those early seventies models are the one I would almost do bad things for... especially the coupe. Late sixties mark II 1972 Mark II 1971 Crown Coupe... Super Sexy car!!!

Yeah, skip Ebay and just go to the source. Here is just the Rider Armored up http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10054647 Here is the kit with the separate cycle and rider http://www.hwjapan.com/sh/ABK138550.aspx I order from both these places all the time. Very easy to work with

Nope, it came in both G and J designations. To confuse the issue even more, The exact same chassis here is know by the MX designation. The first letter is usually the type of engine in the chassis. The Mark II GX81 originally came with the 1G-GE/GTE. About halfway through the model's life, Toyota started using the mighty 1JZ in the chassis and the designation changed to JZX81. The same thing happened with the 86-92 supra in Japan. The early models are MA70s, and the later models are JZA70s. Unfortunately, America never received the 1JZ. Nicely enough, Americas took to the Lexus brand like ducks to water and we ended up getting plenty of the 2JZs to go around. The Aoshima kit linked above should still have the stock parts included in the kit as well as the drift parts. Most Aoshima kits are this way. If he had a 1JZ in the car, look for a Tamiya 92 and up Supra. It has a full engine, which is a 2JZ-GTTE. Nice thing is the JZ series like most other toyota engine lines share the same block. Nicer even still, the only real difference in the 1JZ and 2JZ is internal. So you can use the 2JZ out of the Supra for his JZX90. Tell him I am jealous if he had a JZX chassis car. I would love a cresta or chaser front end for my Cressida.

Bob, unfortunately is right, there are no full detail Mark II kits on the market. The best one I think, for the MX32(76-80) chassis is the Aoshima kit. They have it in both normal street clothes and the Gran-Cha series with wing and hippari(stretched) tires. For the GX61(81-84) again I think Aoshima is the best bet. Most of those will be listed under the Cresta Name. For the GX71(84-88)I believe that Fujimi makes the best one. For the GX81(88-92) look again for the Fujimi kit. Aoshima Mark II http://www.hwjapan.com/sh/ABK147040.aspx Fujimi Cresta(GX61 Mark II) http://www.hwjapan.com/sh/fuj03771d.aspx Fujimi GX71 Mark II http://www.hwjapan.com/sh/fuj18925a.aspx I too am looking for a decent kit to replicate my MX73 Cressida. The above links also include pictures of the kit contents that may be helpful in deciding which one will work best for you. Now, if your friend actually had a first gen(GX10 chassis code) Mark II, which I would just about kill for, then I don't believe that anyone makes a kit of that. Okay, enough about the Mark II/Cresta/Chaser chassis than anyone cared to know... Ed, that engine will not work for him. The X chassis had an M series inline SOHC six. The 2000GT had an M series based engine, but it was a DOHC engine. The easiest M series engine to back date would be the 5M from the MPC supra. All M series engine shared the same block, the heads were really the only difference

Glad to see the wheels got there and that somebody had a use for them. They were just collecting dust here.

Thanks El, I was about to confuse him even more by answering..... BOTH! It also appears that I will not be getting the celica just yet. He has stated in a new ad that he is firm on his price. Unfortunately, his price is about twice what the car is worth. The amount of rust and such just doesn't justify his price right now. So, the waiting game begins.