OldNYJim

Those headlamps definitely look a little surprised ?

Those colors are cool too! What paints did you use?

Thanks buddy! Still moving on this one, slowly - stuck in an endless cycle of Bondoing, sanding and repriming trying to get it PERFECT...I’d LOVE to get some color on this this soon though...

Love the color! That’s gorgeous!

And a little more progress today - made a front axle, linkages and mounts: As with the rear end, I left everything so it could pivot and move for now ready to make front shocks so I can set the ride height how I want...it’s going to look pretty wild! Not totally done on the front yet, but exciting to get it to the mock-up stage at least! I was excited to see this ridiculous thing on it’s wheels ? More soon!

Rear end all roughed-in...time to work on the front next!

A small update, as I’m posting anyway...made some axle mounts and rear ladder bars for this thing so I can start to get it on it’s wheels. I used a Ford 9” axle (I know, Ford on a Chevy ??) and scratchbuilt the rest with styrene sheet, bar and tube: I added a couple of mounting tabs to the frame to connect it at the front and left it so it will pivot and move like the real parts would so I can mess with the ride height and make some shocks to get it sitting how I want: More soon!

Ohhhh yeah, that’s the look I’m going for! Love it, thanks buddy! I was stuck on an idea on how best to do the front suspension, and this gives me a good idea! Thank you! ?

Thanks buddy! I didn’t forget about this build...but I DID spend a few days thinking “how am I going to do ANYTHING like I’m trying to do with that kit chassis?!”. You ever start a project with the intentions of it being relatively simple and before you know it you’re scratchbuilding or modifying EVERYTHING? Yeah, I think this will be one of those... Started a frame anyway - I figured I can keep the rails straight when they’re past the firewall seeing as this this will have a crazy-jacked-up rear end, but what I gain in simplicity there I’ll lose in scratchbuilding all the rest of everything but the body and engine ?? More soon!

Perfect, thank you! ?

Oh, and you might notice that the interior as a whole looks longer than it did - I removed about a scale 12 inches of parcel shelf so that the rear passengers could actually have legs and still be comfortable ?

That’s basically what I was thinking too, yes! Smooth it out and run a console right up the middle! Actually made a start on that since my last post...sliced the stuff out that I don’t need: And then started rebuilding it with sheet: Excuse how rough it looks here - I’ve just hacked the pieces out and taped them in place as I went. The floor needed a hump (to match one in the chassis) so I couldn’t use flat sheet for that...made it out of three pieces of sheet to get the curve I needed, and then I had the idea of having a little bit of the shape of the wheel arch showing through there so I sliced up some plastic spoons to make that little bubble that you can see in the top corner there...nothing super interesting but I’m pleased to have this roughly resembling an interior tub again! After I sliced it up I was like “oh no, what have I done” ? I’m just about to glue all the little pieces in place and let it set up overnight so I can smooth it out tomorrow ??

Nice scores! I’d be pleased to own any of those, especially the showrods. I have a conversion kit to make the Li’l Cashbox out of one of the more easy to find Li’l kits...I really need to get that thing built one of these days

Nothing super interesting, but I wanted a nice deep red oxblood-type color for the interior of a Paddy Wagon that I’m building and picked up a bottle of this Citadel paint from a store near where I’m working today. About the same price as a jar of Tamiya paint but it needs thinning so it’ll go a lot further I guess...interested to see how it lays down through the airbrush:

Ahhh, I thought this was a problem at my end - I’d had it for a few days. Seemed I couldn’t access the site on wifi, but then I could if I used my phone’s data connection. I hereby apologize to my iPhone for the names I called it, and ditto my cable provider. Thanks for keeping the site tuned up and running right Dave!

I need a reference pic of the top of the engine - can you get them to roll it on it’s other side next? ??

I guess this Corvette put a face mask on so it didn’t get the Corona virus Spotted this last week in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn: And all the other cool cars seem to be packed away until spring - haven’t seen nearly as much cool stuff lately!

Whilst I’m replying anyway...smoothed out the frame and gave it a little filler to help smooth all the surfaces out: ...and whilst that dries I’m starting to think about the interior. Found some custom seats in my spare box - I’m doing to have some fun removing that moulded-in rear seat and building all that back up but I had a particular idea of how I want the interior to look so I need to do some choppin’ here... More soon!

That’s K&S brand aluminum sheet - I think I got that at Michael’s, but you can get a small amount of the same stuff if you buy a can of those nuts with the sealed lid that you open with a ring pull ?? I did basically what you recommended, yes! Laid some plastic sheet INSIDE the block halves so I had something to glue to then carefully cut and angled some filler pieces to fill the gaps. I just laid some Bondo on there, so I’ll give it a smooth-out when it dries and see how much more work I need to do ??

I’m thinking I’d like to go Flathead - the kit engine has some pretty awkward-to-fill axle holes to contend with, but I’d like to use the one in the box anyway if I can! I’ll try and level it out and see how bad it looks ? Did a little on the suspension this weekend - I replaced the straight-thru axle with some aluminum tube and started drilling out all the moulded in bolts on the frame so I can replace them with some DIY metal ones...next job is to get this all smoothed out and then start thinking about the exhaust, and removing a section from that stock gas tank so it doesn’t crowd the axle as much More soon!

A little update...found a Quickchange that I liked for the rear end. Not exactly a COMMON choice for a Shoebox Ford, but I really love how they look, and I found some 1:1s on The HAMB running them so that was good enough for me...sliced the kit axle off the springs and took a look: Definitely needed to c-notch the frame but couldn’t find a file the exact right size...made one out of a chopstick and 100 grit paper ? Worked pretty well! I wanted to use the kit springs ideally, so I moved them inside the frame rails and took a look at how the rear ride height would look if I set the axle to a height where it would still have travel in 1:1 but as low as I can get it at the same time... Not bad! No front suspension on the car yet, but I like how the rear sits anyway! Had to make some lowering blocks to help the axle meet the springs, but that aside just waiting for the glue to dry: More soon!

Very cool!! I’ll be watching! Love a Miata!

That’s a cool little tool! Added to my “things to look at next time I’m at Michael’s” list!

That looks great! This kit is on my to-build list...are you replicating a particular 1:1?

Brilliant!! Thank you so much for updating this! It’s a great technique, I’ll definitely be using this a LOT!