torinobradley

Love the formals! Did you drill out the headlights? They don't look chrome-plated. I have this one as well as the '68 to replicate my own Formal GT. Lookin' good!

That silver thing going over the top of the throttle body appears to have the crossover wires on it. If that't the case, they would be black (or gray) to match your existing wires. There are some plug wires that cross over the front of the motor before going to the plug on the opposite bank. Other than that, it looks good from my recollections. Busted knuckles and all...

Thanks Philaupho! I ended up getting a pair from Historic Racing Miniatures for mine. I'm going to make the cutout mod to the drivers door thanks to you! I hadn't noticed that when researching this one. I've got a long way to go on mine. So much for an easy build... I'll check out your link for sure! I, too want to create the pickup. Have you done a WIP on it yet? Thanks Shucky! I can't remember where I got those nuts/bolts from but it had to be over 20 years ago. I loved them because they are on that black rubber piece and had no tabs to deal with. I wish I could find more. Maybe Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland? The alternator fan is from an engine detail set from Detail Master. I would love to find someone that just sells a sheet of these fans as I could use that much more than a the rest of the set. Just did some research and it appears DET2510 has FOUR fans plus brackets and so forth. Looks like I found what I needed! The pulley is actually two little pieces out of a watch gear lot I found a few years ago (thanks to Cranky). I was looking at them and realized they looked very close to a deep groove racing pulley when put face to face and the hole is the right size for a small pin. I filed the head of the pin to appear like a bolt and voila! I think they came out very convincing but I'm a little partial... Thanks again for the comments and of course, if anyone else has any questions about how I do things, don't hesitate to ask. I'll share.

Looks great! Where'd you get the front brake scoops? I see you trimmed the tonou cover and even added the 7 switch plate to the dash to match the actual car as well. Great job with the little details! I'm hoping mine comes out half as good.

I sold my '97 with a 4.6 otherwise I'd snap some pics for you. The 2 coil packs are in front of each head and one or two wires from each cross over to the other side along the front of the motor. I remember that back plug on the drivers side was a nightmare to get out. The boots are sunk into the intake so they are not really visible, even though they are about 8" long.

Looking pretty cool so far. A suggestion for a name would be Merc Speedster Sport. On other mod to consider would be either angling the headlight buckets or going the slanted route with a set of mercedes (sticking with the Merc theme) headlights. Just a thought.

Thank you all for the kind words and links! Lots of motivation for this build. I got a few more things worked on and will update soon.

Okay, it's slow going on this one. The more I do, the more I see, the more I add. It's a vicious cycle really... Ive been working on the kit carbs for a bit. I shaved off the trumpets for some made out of tin-plated copper crimp ferrules. Drilled a bit of a throat for a little depth and then drilled a center hole for the little tube that goes in the center of that. I also drilled linkage holes, glued really thin pieces of wire in them and small pieces of insulation over the wire for spacers. I also drilled a small hole for the float level adjuster nut. Other than that, I don't think I am going to much further in accuratizing the carbs. The kit carbs are way off but with the mods I have done, they will look good and a bit more accurate. I can't wait to see the linkage all together! Here they are, bodies and trumpets waiting paint and assembly I started making the brake and clutch resoviors and was making them from memory. Whoops... As you can see, very innacurate and all I ended up with is some really nice single resovior master cylinders for another street rod build. Here is the accurate ones. The real ones are fluid cans with clamp type brackets mounting them to the front of the driver's footwell. Here, you see the body, the hex fitting on the bottom of the can and the cap (yet to be cut down to size). Still got to build the brakets. Now, the piece I'm pretty proud of. I created the gas pedal assembly from three pieces of plastic, one piece of wire insulation and the kit gas pedal. I created the basic shape then laminated a strip across the top, then cut and glued to a mounting plate. Then drilled the bottom for the thinned kit gas pedal. Finally, I drilled a hole in the top of the driver's footwell for the pedal to hang down from. Now, some experementing with making the passenger vent hoses. The black one is plastic tube wrapped with wire with heat-shrink over it. Looks okay and is already black but lacks definition. The white one is something I read about somewhere. Same plastic tubing and wire wrapping but used teflon tape, the type used for plumbing connections to wrap it. The second pic shows it bent into a rough shape for the tubing. As you can see from the last pic, I separated the fender skirts from the frame as well. That should help with the detail as well as I will most likely thin those too. Thanks for looking and coments welcome!

I will be watching this one as I have a couple to build and one to rebuild. Keep it going!

This backdrop looks terrific! That door is a work of art! Can you describe to us your "mortar" tecnique? Someday, I am planning on a creating some backdrops that fit inside a shelf to give my cars a more naturalistic place to be displayed. I would love to recreate your brick texture for one (or more) of those, thats for sure...

I found a set at www.pattosplace.com. They are for slot cars but look pretty good. They have a lot of other decals there as well. I was planning on using the green epoxy ribbon for the front spats (the same I used on the oil pan). I'll be watching this one and am sure you will be done long before I am. I tend to get bogged down doing details so my progress is extreemly slow. What color yellow did you go with?

Wow! Talk about right up my alley! I am working on the exact same car right now! I did a lot of the mods you have done and see a couple you have done that I might have to do, such as the spare tire well. How did you make the front fender skirts? Where did you get your decals? I even have the same wheels and tires going into my kit as well. Talk about cool!

The twin scoops below and on each side of the actual grill? The pictures show them to be there but I haven't figured out how to make them yet. I would love to find someone who offers them by themselves. I will have to see about contacting HRM about them. Also, I've seen them referred to as both brake scoops and a rudementry ventilation system for the footwells of the cockpit. On the 1:1s, you can see a black hose running from the top back of the front fender wells to a fitting attached to the top of the footwells and I assume this is where that scoop leads. That's a whole lot of scoop for a brake cooler hose. Does anyone know which one of these those scoops are for? Thanks Bryan! I am pretty happy with the way it came out too. I thought for sure the detailing was so shallow I wasn't going to be able to do it but, there it is. I'm still following that V12 '30 build!

Got a bit more work done on this little Ferrari slaying beasty. Got the decals to do the Coventry Motors Executor along with a few other parts from HRM. Started working on the generator, pully and mount. It's not exact but looks fair and eleminates the "magic" alternator/generator problem that plagues so many models. Also worked on thinning the trunk lid, trimming the rear differential, the red half shafts are from a doner Vette. Have a bracket on the front of the differential so it does not hang mysteriously in it's place. Still have to create the top mounts. I have also started creating a fuel tank for the trunk. I added two little filler pieces to the front wheel skirts to fill the area behind the grill. Speaking of the grill, the Executor uses a stock grill painted black. I don't like slab type grills you can't see through so I took some time and began sanding the back of the stock Cobra grill from the AMT kit. After quite a while and a lot of sanding, I ended up with a large quantity of fine, white polystyrene dust and the grill you see on the left propped up against my fuel tank sub-assembly. The untouched kit grill is on the right. Of course, comments and critisism welcome.

I got some time to work on this beast today. I swore I would not make this a stalled, super detailed build and, well... I did a white glue build up of what I have so far on the motor. Today, I added the bolt detail to the intake and flanges and bolts to the side pipes. I also cut the pulleys off the belt assembly and did some re-shaping. Then, stuck them in my poor-man's lathe (drill) and cut a grove in each. I also added a harmonic balancer (something that always seems to be left off the engines). There are pictures of the motor a-la-cart and of it sittin pretty in the bay. Other things I did but don't have pictures of are cut the hood scoop hole, glued on the scoop and then thinned the hood to the thickness of the tab pockets, trimmed the hood opening and added a thin piece of sheet plastic to create the shelf the hood sits on. I'll use thin black wire to adjust the hood to sit flush with the body at the same time imitating the weatherstrip. I tried bending a hood hinge last night but gave up after about 3 tries. I also opened up the ducts on either side of the grill just as the 1:1 Executor had. I also got some of the 2.5mm ferreles and they are going to make the carbs really stand out. They are wonderfly thin and being copper, don't take all that much to cut and file down to the right size, and since they are tin plated, they look good. Thanks for following my never-ending high-detail torment...

No, this is the AMT 289 Cobra in 1/25th scale. It will be re-released soon with the halibrand wheels I am using.

Thanks for the good words, guys! I found the Coventry decals from a firm in Australia that does both stick on and waterslide for a lot of different cars. They are for slot cars but fit the bill perfectly. I'm ordering a set. That being said, I went ahead and ordered the roll bar, tonneau snaps and windscreen from Historic Racing Miniatures. Looks like this one will be the Coventry Motors Executor. IF I get this one finished, maybe I'll work on the truck and trailer! Would be a nice display set. Regarding the trailer, looks as though I might be scratching this one. The Caprice one is too big and the sprint one may be too small. Does not appear to be a too difficult project, though.

I've had little leisure time as of late but snuck off and did a bit of work on this one. Since the last episode, I have done more work on the body, trying to fill the sink-holes and remove the mis-molded casting marks on the fender tops along with trying to get my rear fender flares to a more acceptable level. Initially, they looked very cool but were in fact, too large. So I am in the process of trimming them down. The major work, however, has been on the intake and exhaust system. I tried several times to heat bend some plastic tubing to create the side-pipes. I knew this would make or break the model so I wanted to ensure they were perfect. As anyone that has tried to bend plastic, it's pretty darn hard. After several tries and several tubes, I needed a better way. The aluminum would kink, brass was just too hard and I was running out of options. So I tried solid rod and pow. I had it. Then, I drilled the header end to accept a pin the size of the center hole in the photo-etched flanges, glued the pin in and drilled the bottom of the header to mate. I then cut to size and drilled out the business end and thinned the walls with the drill and exacto. I pretty much did the same for the headers. Drilled holes in the heads the size of the plastic rod, then used heat and persuasion to create the headers. Then, made sure they cleared the interior tub and chassis and lined up wth the side pipes. Enough talk, on with the pictures! Thanks for looking and feedback encouraged. After all, how am I going to know if I did something wrong without frank and honest feedback...

Looks convincingly real! What tecnique did you use to get that finish?

I'm definitely taking notes on this one! I am very interested in how your handling the front-end bodywork alignment and cove as I will surely have to address it when I get back to my build. You appear to have a vision and if any kit needs one, this is it. Great work so far!

That motor does fill up that engine bay nicely. And it's exotic and detroit! Terrific execution! Your header solution is great. I just spent the whole evening creating headers on my USRRC 289 Cobra so I know what a pain building them for such a tight space is. Have you thought about any other design elements for this V12 beast? Some wide wire wheels with knock-offs might be in order to hint at what lies beneath. Tan interior with red or blue seats? Quad exhaust tips out the tail? Wood-grained steering wheel?

You are too welcome! Thanks for the kudos! I've been wanting to do something like this for a while. I gots an idea of a rig rat type truck with a huge turbo V16 made out of big block fords. I love the progress so far! Keep it up. I can't wait to see how it looks sitting in that bay.

How about getting a couple of them ford small blocks and making a ford V12. Something like Ford did with the GT90. They took two V6s and welded them together for a V12. With the SBFs, you could shave two cylinders of the front of one and back of the other, a bit of glue and voila, instant exotic motor... Of course, you would need a suitably exotic induction system as well. How about a suitably long supercharger with four throttle bodies attop? The V12 would be exotic but the supercharger would put it back solid Hot Rod soil.

Looking cool so far. All you need now is a WAY too big motor sticking out the top and of course, the requisit sunroof with the shifter sticking out... All you'll need then is the cotton tire smoke.

I've got one of these (in the same brown plastic, I might add) that I was working on making a pro streeter out of. I narrowed the chassis so the wheel/tire combo fits under the body, dropped the front suspension and swapped the mouse for a rat. Other than the motor and some styrene scraps/pieces, I am trying to build the car with the kit so that seems to fit right along the lines of where your going with this one. If you wish, I can tell you what I did to do the mods I have done. I even modified the kit headers for big-block usage. I hadn't considered correcting the cove trim but am considering swapping in the MPC rear wheel radiuses. I also sanded the back of the grill till the teeth fell out. Wanted to be able to see through it. I can tell you from experience, we got our work cut out for us...