Bernard Kron

I've used Aleens Tacky Glue, too. Tac-n-Place is stronger but harder to clean up.

Nice custom body building in the contemporary idiom. I really like the rear deck and tailpiece development.

Thanx CadillacPat, Harry and Andy. Your comments pretty much nail it for what I wanted to confirm. My significant other would definitely not like the fumes. And frankly nor would I. I will need to plan accordingly!

Very nice. I also like the Caddy 'caps, they look good against that classy deep blue and the sweeping lines of your modified fadeaways. It's interesting, I've now seen several builds where builders either raised or lowered the line of the fadeaways. In virtually every instance it was an improvement over the shape Revell had chosen. Certainly in your case, by matching the shadow line of the fadeaway to the crest on the skirts, the result is far more graceful and elegant line than what you started from. On another build I liked, the modeler had raised the fadeway so it joined just above the wheel well opening. That looked nice, too.

Bill, just be warned about the cleanup thing. Definitely a case where the manufacturer's instruction of applpying a thin coat needs to be respected, It's effectively a contact cement that never dries completely. The joined parts can readily separated and re-joined many, many times but as the stuff dries it becomes harder to remove. When it's fresh it comes off with water but as it sets you need to go to a solvent like alcohol or mineral spirits.

Based on Art's comments and Harry's comments I find myslef curious about the distinction between the particals of pigment which would be trapped by the filter in a decent booth and the vapors which would most likely pass onwards into the air. Is this an important reason to vent to the outer atmosphere?

Very nice indeed!!! And here's a thought than needs some serious consideration... Hmmmm.... Thanx for that!

Bill pretty much covers it. I've tried white glue and carpenter's cement. It can work but there's zero initial setup and tackiness. Lately, with styrene joints I've been using MEK (methyl ethyl ketone - the active ingredient in most non-CA liquid styrene cements), just a light application for a relatively weak joint. Importantly, it provides a rigid connection and doesn't fracture easily the way white glues can. The nice thing is that if you like the result and have no need to break the joint you can further strengthen it by applying more liquid cement via capillary action if you have a crack to an external surface. I also use rubber cement for flat surfaces. The joint can be surpisingly strong and can be broken easily and readily cleaned. The down side is that for small surfaces, like tubing joints when mocking up a frame, the joint is quite flexible which is a big no-no in frame building. My favorite temporary adhesive had been Ambroid Tac-n-Place. Instant setup, very tacky, very strong, and can be broken and re-joined repeatedly. It works on dissimilar materials (styrene to resin or resin to metal, for example). It has some negatives, though. Clean up can be a PITA and the bottle can dry up pretty fast if you aren't religious about keeping it tightly closed when not using it. It's a sort of super rubber cement, but so tacky that it can provide a fairly rigid joint when thinly applied. This post has reminded me that I've been without for a while, so I just ordered some... Thanx!

This is of great interest to me, since external venting isn't very practical for me. Art, are you saying that you are venting to the air in the room rather than outside? Thanx, B.

"The Bug" or something like it, is on my list, too! Dan Himmel, proprietor of the fabulous StraightLineModeler website (http://www.straightlinemodeler.org/index.htm) has built a very fine example with which he won the Replica class in the 1990 GSL XI. Here's a link to the first of the four pictures of it Dan has put on his Fotki: http://public.fotki.com/straightliner1/my_models/bug1.html#media. Check it out! Also, a couple of years back I built a simple late 50's style rail job using the chassis from the Polar Lights Undertaker kit and a Revell Parts Pack Cadillac V8 with a brace of 97's on top. The brutal simplicity of these things is a great canvas for your creativity. Have fun, we all will enjoy following along, I'm sure.

Sssssanitary!!!! Nicely detailed, too. Pretty near flawless, I'd say. That's how these cars should be done.

Thanks again, guys! Here are some pics showing where I cut. The first picture is of an earlier build I did based on the same chassis but left full length. I cut two bays out as shown and aligned the remaining pieces along the upper frame rail. Then I bent the lower rail slightly to mate properly. The second picture shows the actual cut. I left the front bay intact and the riser that defines it is also the point that locates the parallel arms of the front suspension. I think this helps mask the cut. Historically many of these ultra long chassis were often done by extending an earlier frame, typically by inserting some extra bays, so this is sort of a reversal of the process. But, in actual fact, the Ivo frame is a very late build in FED history and Don Long built it as an extra long chassis. I think the next time I use one of these I'll shorten it using Drew Heirwarter's method he outlined in a magazine article, and replace the kit's half-round tubing with proper full round tubing from the firewall forward. With each digger build I get closer to simply scratch building my own which is probably the best way to do a correct replica of this period of dragsters.

Really exceptional. The graphics remind me of Bob Clampett's wildly surreallistic backgrounds in the Go Man Van Gogh episodes of Beany and Cecil.

Thanx everyone! This build isn't without its flaws but it had the desired effect: relatively quick and simple with a few new techniques I was trying for the first time. A nice break from some more ambitious things I have on the bench. For sure the somewhat shorter wheelbase improves the proportions of these cars enormously when you run them without bodywork on the nose. Photographing it was fun, and it looks pretty cool on my shelf...

Thanx for following along everyone. I'm glad you all enjoyed it. This project is now complete. The final "beauty shots" can be found here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=63513&pid=770705&st=0&#entry770705

Mr. Eliminator – 160 In. Wheelbase AA/FD circa 1964 This was a simple project based on the AMT Two Much double engined early 70’s fiel dragster, a kit which shares its nearly 200 in. wheelbase chassis with the Tommy Ivo fuel dragster kit and the Digger ‘Cuda. Last year I used this same chassis to build a fuel injected Junior Fueler. When I was done I came away thinking that these end-of-era fuelers are just a bit too long and have somewhat awkward proportions, especially if you build them with an exposed chassis. So I decided I’d try my hand at shortening the chassis down to a more pleasing (to my eyes) 160 inches and build a classic California weekend warrior from the golden age of drag racing. The basic running gear, chassis and motor are from the Two Much kit with the following changes: Chassis: Shortened approximately 1.2” to 160 scale inch wheelbase. Polished aluminum tubing custom roll cage. Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit parachute. Motor: Kit 426 Hemi with Scott Super Slot fuel injector courtesy of Altered States Models. Exposed metal parts stripped of chrome and refinished with Testors Metalizer paints. M.A.D. pre-wired distributor cap on kit “Frankenstein” magneto. Bodywork: Altered States Models “Shorty” body with engine side panels removed. Paint: Duplicolor Metalcast Red transparent paint over Duplicolor Platinum Silver with home made “Mr. Eliminator” decal. Rear wheels: From the MPC Ramchargers FED kit stripped and finished in Testors Acryl Jet Exhaust. Tires: M&H Dragmasters from Early Years Resin. The W.I.P. for this build can be found here: http://www.modelcars...60 Thanx for lookin’, B.

Here are three of my humble efforts on the '34, two AMT 5-windows and a Revell SnapFast:

Great selection so far. The '34 is such a classic design that it makes a tremendous canvas for a wide variety of ,build styles. It's especially impressive what has been done with the lowly Revell Snap Fast kit. This particular build is one of my all-time favorites and I never tire of seeing it: There's also a great Australian ,hot rod and custom modeler named Bryce Michelmore. Bryce doesn't frequent the MCM board but he builds a mean '34. Here are some examples of his work (the first 2 are Revell snap kits) - hopefully he won't mind my presuming to share them with you all:

Thanks Bill. Nearly done and on its wheels at last. The motor is completed, although the metalizers have seen some wear and tear and will need touching up. The chassis is also done, requiring only some minor details such as the push bar, parachute pack and tie rod. Here are a couple of pictures. Thanx for lookin', B.

Thanx for the info, Tim. That's a bummer in my view but... I reviewed the instructions for the kit ( you can see the instructions on Bob Black's excellent Model Kit Instructions site here: http://public.fotki....oung-american-/) and it has an awful lot going for it - sort of half way between some of the pluses of the Garlits and Ramchargers kits and the minuses of the AMT Ivo based kits. It will definitely find a place in my stash even if I will land up remplacing the forward half of the frame if I don't run the car full bodied.

Glad to see this thread back up again. It's so old that, unfortunately, quite a few pics of some great builds have dropped away. Here's my most recent Deuces, from the end of 2011

Terrific!!! The Garlits/Young American kits are among my grails but totally unobtainium on Flea-Bay, trading for nose-bleed prices. For those of you who know, could someone please confirm that, like the shorter wheelbase MPC Dragmaster kit, it featiures full round tubing in the frame? I'm nervous because the frame, which is a one piece affair, looks too similar to the Tommy Ivo/Digger 'Cuda/Two Much chassis which has half-round tubing designed to be covered up by the full length bodywork...

This kit makes great raw material for a variety of approaches to hot rod building, When it was re-issued by Revell three years or so years back there was tremendous excitement as many hot rod modelers had ideas about what to do with it. It lacks accurate beltline detail so the more advanced and detail oriented builders corrected that flaw. Examples showed up in the full range from near-stock, to full fendered street rods, all the way to chopped and channeled renditions. The kit has tremendous character and has a tendency to make the modeler look good, regardless of their skill level. At the time I was only about a year and half into my return to modeling and my skill level left something to be desired. Despite this I took on a chopped and channeled traditional rod and the ability of the this body style and Monogram's version of it to shine through helped carry me. So, the bottom line is that I'm sure you'll really enjoy whatever you decide to do with it. (I really need to build another one now that I know my way around the workbench a bit better...) Here's a pic of that early attempt:

Necessity is the mother of invention... I managed to lose the roll hoop shortly after painting the chassis. After fruitless hours of search I resigned myself to building a replacement.* Fortunately I had a prior build that used the same chassis so I had a pattern I could use as a guide. I never cared for the kit original because it has a half-hearted attempt at upholstery detail with little snaps, but it's not too convincing and fiddly to detail paint. If you're a Freudian you might say that I subconsciously wanted to lose it! In any case I tried making a new one from plastic but had trouble matching the curve without snapping it so, as luck would have it, I had some aluminum tubing of the right diameter I could use. The result is what you see below. I've decided that if I polish it out with Simichrome it will have a chrome-like sheen which will nicely complement the Scott Super Slot Scoop and the silver stripes in the paint. It'll get epoxied in place during final assembly because the roll hoop interferes with the installation of the seat. Of course, this probably takes the build in a different direction than where I started from, but the paint scheme I came up with already had me going there. The "supporting cast" (non-touring) Fueler teams at the California strips ,during the sixties often has showy paint schemes and details so they would stand out at the line during staging, so this rail, without a nose piece, will land up being one of those. If you haven't figured it out already, I have a pretty improvisational approach to my builds! Thanx for lookin', B. *No doubt now that I've committed myself to its replacement it will turn up shortly!

As always your builds are a delight to follow and so inspirational/educational. I love leg under dragsters; the low cowl line is stunning. However, they don't exist in scale, making scratch building the only option. Great frame work. I'm following closely as I move ever more closely to doing my own leg under...