rickr442

I've about had the whole course regading replacement parts over the years... Best strategy as far as I'm concerned is to avoid (like the plague) the parts sold a the chain stores like Pep Boys and Wal Mart. Pay a couple of bucks extra to go to at least a local jobber where real mechanics buy their parts. The components my still be Chinese junk but they should be BETTER Chinese junk! n the lesser parts tere are lesser quality plastic and nylon components used almost universally... I had a 'three time loser' starer on a TBird I had a few yeas back, and a veteran parts guy explained it to me... A further problem is chunking of metal internal components inside items like starters, etc. Good luck!

I owned a '69 Mark III in 1977 when I worked on the Pipeline and had waaaaay too much money. Mine was burgundy in & out, leather, with the black roof. I was told it had been owned from new by an exec at Universal studios, was sometimes used as a background car in 'McMillan', 'Kojak', and 'McCloud' series when the New York sets wrere used. I've only seen it once or twice on those. Magnificent car, absolutely silent and quite fast! A good resin kit would be a fine addition to any collection.

Clay! These two are just computer renderings done by a non-GM artist, originallyseen in magazines to pump up the return of the Camaro Granted, they shoulda HIRED the guy, but that's not the case right now...

Geez, If ol' Jairus keeps doin' this I'm gonna have to hire him as my agent or something! I came to know Toby a bit shortly before he was killed, neat guy if waaaay too sloppy with movie stunts! That's what got him in the end... Now, Jairus is correct that Eleanor is not a Mach One... just a rough, salvage title, theft recovery (who'd'a thunk?)302 fastback out of Toby's junkyard in Gardena, stripped and rebuilt as a 'tank' with lots of stiffening of the body and Chassis. Even with a lot of prep, the car pretty much broke in half at landing in the long jump on 190th Street! The stock rims like your model displays are right on the money, but you do need the flat hood and a good bit of semi-gloss black paint to make it convincing! The hot setup might be to select a point in the film and replicate the car as it was at that moment. It'd be cool to do a replica of Toby's jump practice car, a white '65 Fairlane 4-door! I also wish that more people could see the movie in its' original form. Tha original music was as awful as it was priceless! Toby's widow removed all the music from the new edit so as to avoid having to pay his family the royalties they deserved. In discussing the movie a couple of times with Toby I came away with the feeling that Gone was a documentary of sorts... at one time in the late-60s he was under indictment for 101 counts of Grand Theft Auto... Oh, the stories he could tell! Keep us posted on your build!

The steelies were often the 'base' for the Fiestas when a hot rod was entered in the stadium car shows that were common in SoCal in the late 50s when the truck was built by Roth. He even sold it at one of those shows. I recently saw a pic of Ed Roth's shop truck, (the 56 Ford in the kit) and even it had steelies in every day use. The Fiestas were easily stolen if left on all the time. His shop was in Maywood, Ca., I believe, no 'garden spot' even then. Now, it defines 'hellhole'... So there... GREAT lookin'40!

Golly... Wish I'd thought of that!

Or, maybe I was kidding? Unclench, folks!

Start without me, I may catch up later... still looking for my Lou Christie albums.

Prestige Hobbies on Beach Bl. in Anaheim, and Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove. There's a cruise night on Main Street in GG on Firday nights. The Burbank and Studio City shops are greatr places. The Petersen is on Wilshire Blvd near Beverly Hills.

Prestige Hobbies on Beach Bl. in Anaheim, and Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove. There's a cruise night on Main Street in GG on Firday nights. The Burbank and Studio City shops are greatr places. The Petersen is on Wilshire Blvd near Beverly Hills.

Yeah... Too bad I can't just avoid this section! Even though I don't particularly LIKE the music... UNDERSTAND the 'lyrics'(?)... GRASP whatever humor is intended... or CARE what's being dealt with... I have the absolute right to comment and/or complain about it and try to get it removed... right?

Jump right in, Slim! There's roommfor anyone here, and you'll eventually fit right in. Welcome! Bring freinds!

There have been many, but one I remember best was Darleen's in Portland in maybe '79. I had moved to Portland from Anchorage, brought a nice wad of Pipeline Money with me, started a business which instantly tanked as the economy went sour, (thanks, Jimmy Carter!!!). My only refuge (since drugs and booze cost a LOT!) was my old kidhood hobby, model cars... Darleen's had been a toy store for decades, sold stuffed toys by the ton, but also had lots of model cars. We got Rocky, the part-time sales clerk, to understand the concept of stocking as fast as HE could, so we could buy 'em as fast as WE could. Scale Auto Enthusiast magazine started in '79, and that opened the floodgates... lots of new modelers came in to the store and it was a standby for that group til the mid-80s. Rocky bought the store from the elderly couple who had owned it, and eventually he tanked. Good store, done too soon. The other that comes to mind is Elmer's Hobbies, a legendary store in Salem, Oregon. Elmer Roth was an 80-ish, retired toy wholesaler who apparently never threw anything away if it didn't sell... He turned a gas station (that he'd opened in 1932 on Market Street in Salem) into a hobby shop where he kept his old stock for sale to the collectors' market that started in the 70s. Elmer had walls lined with the finest selection of vintage kits I had ever- or since- seen. Early 60s annuals cost a whole $5, while the cool Trophy kits and fancy stuff was $10. He had a neat invenory control system... if you wanted duplicates of a single subject, he'd tell you, 'That's the last one I have!'. Next trip, you'd be able to snag another one, but never more than two of the same thing in the same trip. Elmer became a friend over a couple of years before a stroke put him in a rest home in early 1981 (I think...) He passed in late '81 and his daughters eventually moved in to get rid of everything at higher prices to anyone who wanted it. Elmer was a great guy, well-remembered, and sorely missed. Perhaps the best I've found in the past decade is Burbank's Housr of Hobbies, a great place run by energetic people who are also good at business. It and Pegasus is a wonderful place, but each pales in comparison to either of the two above...

Since there are so many Mustang fans and movie car fans as well, how about a neat mix of the two? I snagged a dvd copy of 'Point Break' last night at Wally's, $7.50, Keanu Reaves first starring role as he was emerging from his 'Oh, wow, man...' stage of his early career. His 'Johnny Utah' character in the movie uses a '70 Mustang Mach 1, in light grey primer... only thing that stands out is the primer and the missing front bumper, but it looks better than most movie cars and fits the role quite well. Chase sequences - especially the foot chase filmed using handheld cameras, with Catherine Bigelow's direction, are amazing, and the movie was the first to use many of the currently accepted methods for 'heavy' stuntwork, such as those used in the skydiving and underwater footage. All in all, still a favorite.

Hard to order when the site is closed every time ai've attempted to visit for the past week... When will it be 'up'?

Beautiful work! I recently saw an old home movie of a late 50s 'stadium car show' in LA, one where Roth entered that truck. He is said to have not owned it long after he finished it, a common situation for some of our legends and their 'drivers'. Your truck looks like a great tribute to Ed Roth, a genuinely nice man!

Not to stir things up or anything... but I think the sides are reversed. True card-carrying, flag-burning, Sheen-for-Pres libs hate anything that's individualized, don't they? I see lots of dingy clapped out first-gen Saturn sl-1s plastered with, (some even held together with), Earth First/Bush Lied/War kills/'anything leftist' bumper stickers. And the Sacramento socialists? They are the ones who throw fits at the very thought of an OLD CAR!(okay, unless it's their own first-gen Saturn...) They want'em all CRUSHED instantly!!! (even if they aren't driven!) Go to a cruise-in, though, and all the gray hairs have the old musclecars and street rods. What greenie worth his earth shoes would allow someone to BUILD a car in his own garage? EEEEK!!! I can see the car distinction if it breaks along 'music preferences', though Just a small observation...

Group build suggestion: How 'bout a rat-rodded Corvair? Maybe a barn-find Crown rear V8 conversion in gray or black primer, 70s 'storm-door' sunroof, DIY radiused wheel wells, steelies... mistreated 'Vairs could usually be kinda ratty lookin' in their own right. Nader, me, and Corvairs: My grandfather on my dad's side was a low-paid but very earnest small-town attorney in Oak Ridge Tenn. from the 40s to about 1982. On his 65th birthday in 1966 he treated himself to a new, marina blue '66 Monza, 110 horse, 4-speed... just an exquisite car! I was in high school a few years after he bought it, we lived in Huntsville, Alabama, maybe 210 miles away, and when I'd wheedle a summer week or two out of my folks I'd go to Oak Ridge & spend time with my Grandparents. I usually chose to act like a spoiled brat, but my grandparents were cool and let me drive & have use of their cars. Gee, how hip was I? During my visit one summer great noise was made in OR about the impending visit of Mr. Nader, who I thoroughly hated due to his famed treatment of GM and the 'Vair. ( I'd had a '61 as my first car.) Somehow I found out that his itinerary included the local landmark Atomic Energy Museum, so I made it my business to park that gorgeous blue Monza coupe right in front as I attended the Nader lecture... a total bore, BTW. Got a 'look' or two as I exited the museum, BUT got a different 'look' when My Grandfather saw the pic of his car as background for Nader's arrival, on the front page in the local paper the next morning.

Don't know if the D word is veerboten here, but Performance Years is offering a 1/18th scale D....C....model of the '65 GTO pace car for that same race. Nicely done, a bit pricey, but a beautiful model... www.performanceyears.com

Beautiful work one of the best from one of my favorite builders, but... the rest of the car is waaaay too cool for that plasticky steering wheel! (Had a Zephyr Z7 for a while, didn't like it THERE either!)

I love this thing! I was lucky years ago to work some small jobs with and around some great old show cars from the 60s and 70s, and some from the great 'Metalflake era'. Some had an 'aging' problem... Many of these cars were first built in a style just like your '57... Later, if there was a scratch or a finish problem, they'd put on some more paint! You captured the original look quite well! All that said, I miss CUSTOMS! They're rarely built anymore, and rarely as cool as yours! BMF the w/s and rear window frames, black out the rear of the grille shell, maybe do a simple scallop to give it a little texture, and you'll have a winner...

Pretty to think so, but... Your $2 each (x6000) would need to be $20,000 each (x 6000) to even get it off the drawing board, unless you could get a few hundred people to do factory work for pennies an hour... WAIT!! That's why there's a CHINA!!! and now that China's population is discovering cool stuff like 'new Buicks' and 'refrigerators' and 'polo shirts' and 'shoes', even that country's cheap labor is in doubt in the future!

Neat little hot rod, Boyd woulda bid that at maybe $150k! and for the kid, 'way neater than another black Solara convertible! I see that some of the early rat rods here in SoCal are being rebuilt much in the style of your model, as they get a bit more mature. Seventy mph on the freeway with no floorboards is only fun for the first decade or so!

I think it looks great! Customs are really easy to overdo, especially a big long box like the Impala... It's lucky the style was changing back then to performance cars, else there woulda been a lot of butt-ugly 'Kustoms' back then! Have you thought about adding some color in the recess where the upper rear trim was removed? I always wondered how a fine grill (shaded, matching the front grills) in that area would look, might have to build one myself to try it out. Keep up the good work! Your builds are really interesting and fun!

Chuck went out of his way to provide for the small audience he had, to the point of having tables available at the rear of the store where they could have work space. Granted, this soon became a roost for geriatrics who'd sit and bitch for hours on end... but there also was a good bit of actual work done there by kids who needed mentors in their building (and other areas of life as well). Chuck even provided storage space for projects when the builders weren't there. It's unfortunate that he wasn't able to make it in the modern market, but he made singular choices that in the end killed him off. You can't get the customers' money til you get their attention, he did neither.