Ben

Man, you really build some awesome stuff!!!!!!!!!! Looks like Bob is one hell of a machinest as well!!!!!!!!! I have a Sherline lathe as well but i'm not up to that quality yet! I was looking at that crew cab dually build ou posted pics of. Where did you get those Alcoa ten holes?

Did you say Grok, or grope? LOL I have groped quite a few kits!!!!!!! This post makes me feel a lot better! I was starting to think I was the only one! I have literally hundreds and hundreds of kits that I Grok! Don't get me wrong, i'm not afraid to build them but I also really enjoy having them, unbuilt where I can open them up, inspect all the cool parts and think of how I want it to look when i'm done! A couple kits I have sitting here that fall into that catagory are the Renwall visible chassis, mint in a mint box with every single part inventoried. I bought one of those big Testors visible Hemi's to put into it! How cool would that be!!!!!!!!!!!! Problem is, I have nowhere to put it if I do build it!!!!!!!! LOL It sure is cool to have it sitting there though whispering "buuiiilllld meeeee". Thats the one thing I try hard to avoid is that feeling of "man, I sure wish I would have bought that when it was available"! I always try to buy at least two of every kit when possible. One to Grok and one to build. I have been checking out that Trumpter GT40 and i'll probably get one! It's a little pricey but for what all you get, it seems worth it to me!!!!! I know i'd be bummed out if I miss it and the price shoots up to 500.00!

[attachment 4132:MVC_085F.JPG]You don't have to explain a thing! I'm a 6'6", 310lb guy and I would have done the exact same thing! My cats are my whole world to me, their my children!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't bear the thought of losing them! They make me so happy and they never ask for anything in return. I truely believe that you can tell how nice a person is by the way they treat an animal. I was going to work one day and while traveling down the highway at 70mph, I noticed something fall out from under a car in the lane next to me, just forward of my truck. It was a kitten that had crawled up into the car to get warm and probably just couldn't hold on any longer. I was a wreck from then on, it still bothers me!! For a while, here where I live in San Antonio, Texas, we had someone that was killing cats and doing horrible things to them. It was on the news over and over. I tell ya, god have mercy on them if I ever get my hands on them!!!!!!!!!

I wouldn't put any resin parts in Castrol Super Clean as it has been known to damage them. It is safe for plastic though.

Hey Dave, are you going to mold and cast that engine in resin? It would be a shame not too! Not only would you get copies for more builds but others could benfit from your great work as well! I try to do this with all the custom things I make.

Wow!!!!!!! It really turned out nice!!!!!!!!!!

Very nice work!

Man, that is some nice paint work!!!!!!!!!!! Can I send you my cab to paint?

Thats cool! I know of Jamie quite well. I send all my wheel masters to him to be cast. I thought yours looked familliar. Those are actually resin copies of actual miniature Machined aluminum Alcoa wheels that Bill Drennen had made years ago. VERY hard to find now! I was wondering if you had the real aluminum ones on there. I have those tiny Alcoa decals too, neat stuff!!!!! It would be great to see more pictures of your work! Looks like your oneheck of a builder!!!!!!!!!

That is some outstanding work Dave! I would love to see more "in progress" shots of the trailer being built! In particular, how you did the side bracing and dirt sheds. Really sharp looking so far!!!!!!!!!!

The fix is reletively easy. Time consuming, but easy. First, lightly sand the damaged area with a very mild grit sand paper to remove any large imperfections. Then gradually work your way to finer and finer grits of sand paper. This will start to polish the glass back into it's normal state. Then, when you get to the point of only having a very light haze where you sanded, get you some Future Floor Wax and dip the whole piece of "glass" into it. When it dries, it should be crystal clear again. For more incredible things that can be done with Future Floor Wax, go to Google and type in "the complete future" There is a web site devoted to the stuff!

I'd really like to see more pics of this truck!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where did you get the wheels that are on it?

Just a suggestion if it's not too late. The front, five spoke wheels from an ERTL kit (S Series, 4200 conventional, 4070A cabover,etc would be more accurate for this build if you have a pair laying around?

Cool truck! I got a kick out of the pics! I have seven.........yes, seven helpers! LOL One of them, Smokie, (in the pic) waits until I open the door to the model room and then he runs in, grabs the small plastic rod stock out of my Plastruct carousel and takes off to chew them up! LOL

Ok, I need some addresses to send my bodies too! Those are some really beautiful paint jobs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lookin good so far! Nice work on that rear suspension. This truck is on my "need to build some day" list!

Cool tips! Very useful! Thanks for posting them!

Lookin really good Chris.

The cops are probably afraid that they would be pulling over the wrong hearse! LOL

Pretty sweet! It's got that creepy cool look! Have you ever seen those chrome skulls that you put in the trailer hitch with the red eyes that are lit with the park lights and get brighter when you hit the brakes? That would be a two fer gotcha! A trailer hitch on a hearse and the skull starin at you! LOL

The smell you are smelling is the clear paint under the chrome plating. Model parts are vacuum plated and require a wet coat of clear paint to be applied to the part so that the chrome plating dust will adhere. More than likely, the batch of clear coat was old or bad and did not cure properly. I would suggest stripping all the plating (and clear coat), clean up any mold lines and flash and the either have the parts rechromed or simply paint with Alclad. Hope this is helpful.

Autoworld is going to release a HO scale version of the Tom Daniel S'cool Bus sometime this year. Has anyone heard of a release date or where to find them?

I didn't know they were that rare! There is a grey one running around here in San Antonio that I see from time to time. I'll have to check it out more closely the next time I see it!

In my 35 + years of building and collecting kits, I have learned what to look for when dealing with a "sealed" kit. I buy mostly truck kits and have two or more of almost every american truck kit that has ever been produced fom the 50's till present. Not to mention hundreds of car kits, pickup kits and a smattering of everything else available as a kit! LOL I can tell, usually by the feel of the shrink wrap, if it's original or recently done. The shrink wrap from the 60's and 70's was more crisp and crunchy so to speak whereas the shrink wraps today are softer, more like a clear vinyl than clear plastic. I had purchased a "factory sealed" AMT Bandag Bandit from a reputable seller a few years back and when I held the kit in my hands for the first time, I knew something was wrong! The shrink wrap did not feel right. It was too soft and loose fitting. When I gave the box a little shake, things did not sound right. The parts inside made more noise than they should have. I then looked very closely at the box itself, under the shrink wrap and I could see tiny"wear" areas that could only get there if the shrink wrap was not in place. I contacted the seller and told him I would like my money back because I felt that this kit was not factory sealed as stated. He gladly refunded my money and I sent the kit back to him. When he got the kit back, he opened it. He wrote me back telling me that I was right, the kit had been opened. It was the correct kit inside but all the parts were out of their bags and loose in the box. Which explains the elevated level of noise when the box was shook. I sometimes wonder if there is a kit in my collection that is not what it appears but feel that it's kinda like gambling. Ya win some and ya lose some. If I never open that kit and it is filled with scraps or something, then I feel I win because it did it's job as a sealed kit so to speak, but if I open it to build it and it's a bunch of trash, oh well, that's the chance I take. On another note, I had won an auction on Ebay a few years ago for three truck kits that were open. The picture showed the three boxes with one box open showing the contents. I recognised the kit for what it was and felt that, with the seller stating that "all parts apeard to be there" in all three kits, this was a good deal! I got the kits in the mail and opened them up. The one kit in the picture that was open was complete as stated, the other two kits were filled with parts trees, with no parts!!!!!!!!! Basically, one kit and two boxes of trash!!!!! I was not happy! I emailed the seller and found out she was a lady that knew nothing about kits but was told that they were complete. She refunded my money and told me to just keep everything. I got one good kit out of the deal so all was not lost.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, It's all in German!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't read German!!!!!!! Why is all the cool stuff in German!?!?!?!?!? LOL Chris, can you help me with this site when you have time? I am really wantig to order some of those acorn nuts like you have! Do they come in packs or do you order them one by one? How many Euro's are they a piece? Thanks for that site!