The Modeling Hermit

You might be fortunate with that 60 ford. If you choose to rebuild it, all of those layers of brush paint can act as a barrier to the glue. I've found that in many instances that the glue sticks to the paint without touching the body. I agree that they are time machines, and it would be nice to leave them as they are.

I have a son in the Navy that's going to be arriving in Pearl Harbor sometime around the first of October. I was wondering if there are any modelers there that would like to show him some of the sights? He's married and not a drinker or partier, so he's not looking for anything like that. What he wants is to find some hobby shops, and some rare wood places, historical places; that sort of thing. I thought that I'd read someplace that at least one of the members of the forum is from there.

For no knowledge of big trucks you did just fine. Welcome to the world of big rig modeling. WARNING, it is contageous. LOL

For cars I would go with the 1962 AMT kits in the pink boxes. For trucks, it's a tie between the Original Ford L short hauler (yellow backed to a loading dock) and the original Pete 352 also corresponding tank trailer (both placed in refinery setting).

When I was a youngster, there was a gentleman that had a large warehouse on the edge of town. He had some sort of arrangement where he got items from trainwrecks among other ways. This was back in the mid to late sixties, when models were selling for $1.50-2.00. He was selling them for half and sometimes for a little under half. His store was always packed, not just for models, but for all of the stuff he had. It was great until he was granted the honor of being a guest at a well known government sponsored institution for about 20 years; something about fraud, I do believe it was.

No matter how much safety is built into a vehicle, it all comes down to the nut behind the wheel. I guess that I'd probably be one of the worst. When I was driving stock car, my car owner told me that I knew just enough to get my fool self killed.

This is great; a dedicated parking place for my bicycle. Seriously, I get a kick out of all the fuss over fuel efficient vehicles (not actually a bad thing), yet those who walk or use non fuel type transportation, still get shoved aside. One might ask the management of that complex, where all the bike racks are. I think it's time for some changes, but shoving "green" down peoples throats is not the answer. Changes and education should have been started 35 years ago, when we were first warned about our fuel vulnerability.

Back in the seventies we used the driveshafts from the trucks in my uncle's junk yard. This should give you an idea for size.

There are some resin casters that have this covered, including one that makes a delivery version. I don't have the information with me right now, but I think it was covered in one of the model magazines.

The experiment, although it does sound like something one of those big companies might do. I definitely would expect it of the government. LOL

So that means that if I do the research, and know what I'm talking about, that my books will be flops. At least now I have an excuse. LOL

That helps a lot. The car in my story is a 49/50. I know that Packard had it before WWII, and that there was an aftermarket kit that hung on the window.

I'm writing a novel involving an old Mercury. I need to know in what year Mercury started installing air-conditioning? Could one tell from the outside of the car if it had air-conditioning? Did it hang under the dash, or was it incorporated into it? T.I.A.

There are resin casters that make conversions for this, but I'm not sure which ones. Start with the Modelhaus.

Cal That was all just a tongue-in-cheek joke. GM never did a project like that. I was just having some fun.

Firestone lost my business when they trashed the strikers in the 90's. I had several friends that worked there that lost big time.

That's a nice build, but does it have a Hemi? LOL

I'm twice as old as I would be if I was half as old as I am. In other words 55.

You might also consider using metal tubing for exhaust.

At least you have a building to guard. My first guard duties were out in the middle of a jungle. Every leave on a tree can be imagined as somebody with a gun aimed at you. Actually after I got back stateside I did have an interesting guard session. There was a building that I had to pull four hours shifts in. I was locked in and was told to read or just find something to do. One night the O.D. came to check on me, and I'd brought a model to work on. He saw it and I expected to catch heck for it, but instead he spent almost an hour talking models. He was also a modeler, but was into military models. Keep up the good work, and don't worry about those ghosts. You're just continuing to protect what they've already given their lives to protect. They're just there to keep you company.

Ron I think that either the 66 Buick Wildcat or the 65 Buick Riviera has some cool 2 piece wires that would look cool on it. They were made to fit the AMT narrow tires.

Just a doodz That gas tank is prototypical for a very rare experimental car that Chevy made. In the late sixties, the environmental issues were just coming to the knowledge of the public. The environmentalists were focusing on the automobile as the major source of pollution. One of the cars that they kept showing pictures of, was the 1963 Chevy II. GM became concerned about their image, and started to work on an environmentally clean car, and used a Nova as the base. In 1969, they took a Nova 2 door off of the assembly line and secured it in a secret work area. They removed the gas tank, and remounted it backwards. Testing was done and found that they might be onto something. With the tank mounted normally, fuel is drawn from it to the engine, and then expelled as exhaust. With the tank reversed the car breaths the exhaust, runs that through the engine, and produces gas which is then drawn into the gas tank. Instead of producing dirty emissions, they were actually producing gas. Even though this was a rousing success, the idea was scrapped because of worries as to what impact it could have on the world economy. By the way, the project was called the Environova. So if anybody complains about the gas tank being mounted wrong; you just tell them it's an Environova.

I've got several comments to make. Let me start off by referring to the next to the last picture. The angle of the picture enhances how well the opening of the hood scoop and the wheel arches compliment each other. I like your choice of the chrome mag wheels and the narrow white wall tires; something that was coming into vogue at the time that car would have been new. I'm unsure as to your mindset, but you're definitely on track for a vintage custom, which would really be cool. My suggestion would be to have it lowered all the way around. I've always thought of the stances of cars in several ways; nose up is an attack stance, nose down is a prowl stance, both of which promote aggression, but one that's lowered all of the way around is alluring and seductive. Dropping the rear end, and the right choice of colors, and this car will meet the last criteria. I might also suggest incorporating some of the Thunderbird elements into the interior, especially the dash. I've restored two or three of these back to original, and they're definitely fun builds. I'm going to enjoy watching the progress on yours.

This is a well done truck. The only thing that you might consider adding, is some more weathering to the wheel hubs.

Fantastic detail. I like the hinged gate.