OldNYJim

And, it’s the weekend, so another fun day at the bench making seemingly slow progress… Got the engine assembled so I could see if my stock non-recessed firewall actually had any hope of working. Shockingly, no…turns out a Hemi is kinda big. Who knew! Just sneaks in there with the kit firewall (which I know it should, but I had moved the mounts back a scale inch or so, so I had to check…) Meanwhile, had my printer running - wanted to try a different front tire (and print better versions of the front wheels): Same height, slightly narrower…fronts and rears all cleaned up: Next project today was stripping the frame back down so I can get it cleaned up for paint…also made a new set of aluminum floorboards and started getting them for nice ready for installation after paint on the frame is done: This aluminum is really thin, but it settles down nicely with some glue and you don’t have to baby it too much whilst you’re working with it…seems to polish up nicely too, although I won’t polish these particular pieces until after I’m done installing it… Here’s about where it sat before I stripped it down…still got some scratchbuilding to do and some stuff to figure out but it’s close enough I can start doing some paint…exciting! (Note: that oversized grill support bar won’t be on the final build, just the grill kept laying back and irritating me…) More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Looks like that Beetle on the door needs some Gas X

Saves me a wasted trip - thank you!

This is artisan-level craftsmanship - THANK YOU for sharing your work. Absolutely stunning (and beautiful)

That red is WAY better!! Nailed it!

Cool build Bob! Is it large scale, or are those small-scale diecasts in the background in that second pic? A little more progress on the frame today…I wanted something like a ‘40 Ford crossmember to help reenforce the frame, but an ACTUAL ‘40 Ford crossmember wasn’t a good fit because of how I have the suspension laid out. So, I build something ‘inspired by’ that will fit right for the parts I went with… Used the kit brake master, as you can see - the rest is styrene bar and a Titchy Trains styrene bolt (love their hardware…) Looks like this, when dropped into the frame: I need to do some more work on the frame itself still before fitting this thing for real, but getting closer… Moving on to the interior, spotted this brake lever in with my vintage Revell (reissued by Atlantis) parts-park parts and love the grip on it, so I modified that a little today for a shift lever: And while I was playing with the interior I resin cast a Moon gas pedal and figured out clutch and brake pedals too: Not a particularly impressive display after most of the day spent at the bench, but it’s all progress! Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

I would counter that Scale Finishes lacquer is pretty ‘hot’ (possibly more so, in my experience, than Rusto and Duplicolor) too… I picked up a craft paint from Michael’s named ‘School Bus Yellow’ and found it to be a good match to the Pantone color I matched from an ACTUAL school bus: https://www.michaels.com/product/folkart-acrylic-paint-10616011?cm_mmc=PLASearch-_-google-_-MICH_Shopping_US_N_Craft+%26+Hobbies_N_PMAX_BOPIS_N-_-&Kenshoo_ida=&kpid=go_cmp-18514199759_adg-_ad-__dev-m_ext-_prd-10616011&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADkMxxf2kTZ856NmvkfVU2sjFmyC2&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkeSsBhDUARIsAK3tiedgQYPAwxcG0lJU1XpXwFOTlimtn-gbMfc6vlHnM_zh4Qxaq7wmth4aAj1mEALw_wcB You WILL need to thin it and airbrush it though - I used Createx thinner, and then clear coated it as I would normally (my favorite mild rattle-can lacquer, in my case). Definitely a not-hot solution that has basically zero risk on styrene…

Good tips, @peteski, thank you! For clarity; when you say the “highest F stop”, that refers to the lowest NUMBER, correct (5.6, in the case of my camera)?

This is a really cool project David - nice work so far! I picked up one of these kits recently and did a double take when I saw the body…I got used to working on tiny early-Fords I guess, because this thing looked HUGE to me ? I’ll be following along!

I have a few of his parts that I’ve found at shows and on eBay, but not nearly as many as I’d like…saving a bunch of them for a special project at some point!

Great tips Greg, thank you! I won one of these kits in the raffle at a show last year and I’ve been casually researching these trucks to learn a little about them. Great to have some of the flaws and fixes spelled out, thank you!

I have never used either the focus stacking technique for taking photos OR the trick of auto/blending the layers in Photoshop - great tips Urs, thank you! Do you have any recommendations on lenses? I’m using a base-model EOS that I picked up recently, with the standard 18-55 lens that comes with it but getting everything sharp and crisp is tricky…

Thanks fellas!! I’m not familiar with the siding stock Evergreen, I’ll have to check that out! Thanks for the tip! Tiny update tonight, because it’s our wedding anniversary this week and I’m meant to be spending time with my wife… I went through a tonne of options for headlamps on this thing…I knew I wanted some real big stock-sized ones, even having read a bunch of different times by different people that those big old headlamps were the first thing to go on a lot of hopped up early Coupes like this. I figure I like them now, and if I was building this in the 60s I’d like them then too, so I’m rolling with it… Ended up, after an hour of playing with about every pair of lights in my stash, going with a pair from the kit ?. I didn’t like how high and far-forward the kit had them though, so I drilled out the brackets on the frame, added pins and then drilled the lights out so they drop right on: I need to fix that kit grill - they always seem to want to lean backwards and it’s bugging me…also mine sat way off center, which I’ve since fixed. I like the look tho! I’d like to get the frame wrapped up this weekend, but I’d also like to figure out scratchbuilding a 40 Ford style crossmember for it, plus I’d like to mess with the engine and scratchbuild an exhaust I have in mind…plenty to do before I can start confidently laying down any paint I think… Like I say, just a mini update - thanks for looking!

I never knew this kit existed - cool!!! Looks like a good start - I’ll be watching!

Thank you! Huh! I knew someone would know - thanks Bob! Thank you too, Paul! A little more progress tonight - working on some of the boring stuff so I can get to the fun stuff… Printed some nice brake drums for the back - not that you’ll be able to see TOO much of them from normal viewing angles, but I still like the look of any kind of ribbed drum: I don’t mind drums on the back, but I think I’d feel better about disks on the front if I was building this for real…so I tweaked the kit parts a little to make them work with the new wheels I printed… I’m using the kit steering linkage, but I won’t be using the standard rack and box that mounts to the frame - I really like this little cowl-mount steering linkage that came in the old Revell Parts Packs and wanted to use it (even if it would be far from ideal for a 1:1 build)…using it strictly for the coolness factor… Whilst I had the printer running, printed a Mustang (I think?) radiator… And because I don’t want a mechanical fan spinning out front of that cool Hemi I’ll be using, printed a fan too…the fan especially is a BIG upgrade from the kit Revell part… And that’s tonight’s progress…tomorrow’s project will probably be headlamps, and then I need to do some more work on the frame…thanks for looking!

We’ve all been there I’m sure - it’s surprising how badly most red colors will cover anything other than white or pink. Actually, I found a yellow primer in Ace Hardware a while back that worked pretty well too…but even a light gray can be too dark for some red paints. Don’t be discouraged, this is coming along great!

This is coming along nicely - and you did a GREAT job designing that air filter! Looks awesome! What did you use to design it?

Nice work so far - did you make that hydraulic pump?

Nice start - that Inca gold will be a GREAT color on one of these!

Agreed! I love hard-to-find old stuff like this! Is that a Dudek machined axle?!

This is a great looking build - I need to pick one of these up myself! Great color you mixed up too!

Those look GREAT! Have you had any issues shooting it over anything at all? I assume it’s not particularly ‘hot’?

Thanks for all the comments, gents… @bobss396 - thanks for sharing those printed parts! Those are all cool - could definitely find a use for all of those! A little more progress tonight… Ended up going with the hairpins on the front end - that was my first instinct and I like how they look: I drilled them out (carefully!!) at the frame end so I could pin them to some brackets I added to the frame: I’ll let the glue set overnight and clean up those brackets ready for paint… As you can see I printed up some wheels and tires too - a friend sent me this file and they’re not something he sells, as far as I know, but they’re super nice! I think he’s on here, so feel free to speak up and take credit if you want it [redacted person’s name]. Now I’ve got the front and rear suspension roughly where it’ll live, time for the first mock-up of this on it’s wheels: Need to print some better wheels - these were a test and they’re a little rough, but I love how they look! And finally tonight, I was thinking about the interior and felt like hunting for some parts…it’s fun to visit the junkyard! Found these bucket seats from ???: I think they’d be a more sensible choice than a bench seat - haven’t totally got my heart set on them yet but they fit pretty well and have the kind of look I imagined. I wonder if they’re meant to look like a particular 1:1 product? Anyone know? And that’s it for tonight - next jobs are figuring out brakes and getting the axle widths correct, and I want to play with some headlamps too, try and find something that matches what’s in my head…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

This will be a cool one - following!!

That looks great!