Fletch

Impressive conversion, the workmanship is outstanding. I have several of the Hasegawa Buses and Delivery vans in the garage that I'll get to some day. The work that you've done here will serve as inspiration to do something with them other then build them straight out of the box.

Coming together nicely Chuck. Very well thought out, and executed. Cleanly built, traditional all the way.

That is a different take on a Hot Rod engine, I like it, very cool. If the rest of the build ends up this cool, you'll have a certifiable winner on your hands.

The SBC in the '37 has always been an option. The EFI set-up in the Good Guys version is even nicer the the original kit with it's single 4 barrel intake. But, then the Detail Masters P/E dress up pieces go a long way to help the overall look. I think before I go much farther I'm going to open up the window section of the rear, not sure if I'll open both or just the upper half. We have a guy here locally that will do hard wood surf boards in scale, he charges like $8 each. I'm thinking one slid in the back and perhaps 1 or 2 on a roof rack. I plan to use cedar cigar wrappers for the inserts as the grain is fine enough to look good in scale, but we'll see what happens.

Got the front suspension completed last night, it's a combination of the kit stock and lowered IFS from the Revell '37 Ford Coupe. With the suspension work completed it was time for the first serious mock-up to see if the Woody sits like I wanted it. Hosted on Fotki The tires/wheels are a combination of those from the Revell '50 Ford Pickup and the Revell New Thunderbird. The color on the side is Minwax Golden Oak from one of their Stain Markers. It has potential, I just need to get comfortable with their use. That's it for this morning.

Tough call Chuck, while there is a market for such things I don't think I'd go crazy casting up a bunch in advance. I think you'd be off to cast only when you have an order for them.

I totally agree, I have a couple of candidates floating around that could be used for a "Farm Truck" build, but I'm not totally clear on what entire concept is.

The plan was to use the kit flathead along with parts from MCG and RMoM, but with some of the other options out there nothing is written in stone at this point in time. I still have a couple of the Phantom Vicki's floating around, I might see how that 4.6 litre would fit before we're done.

Tom, the Thunderbird that Dave Zinn and I were talking about is the Revell 'Wheels of Fire' New Thunderbird. The copyright on the box is 1999 and on the instruction sheet is 2000. It's kit #85-1916, I don't think it's been in Revell catalog for some time now but are plentiful on ebay and swap meets. Hosted on Fotki

Turns out that the '48 Chassis is aprox .125" wider then the '37 Chassis. Requiring the IFS cross menber to be split and a .100X.125 piece of Evergreen .125 long to be fit between the 2 pieces of the member. The Cross Member mounted in the frame, I left the bump-stops in place on both the front and rear of the '48 frame to indicate the center-line of the axle. To mount the Corvette IRS in the '48 Chassis required that the rear cross member normally used for the transverse spring be cut down by aprox..090. After that the Independent Rear Suspension dropped into place. Hosted on Fotki Stay tuned

The clean up on the chassis continues. This has to be the worst of the Revell '48 Ford chassis I've seen. The only portion of the frame that didn't require a fair amount of filing and filling was the inside of the rails between the center X-members. The plan is to use the kit flathead with the addition of MCG, Parts by Parks and RMoM pieces MCG: MCG-1002 Finned Flathead Edelbrock Center Port Heads MCG-1009 2-Carb Intake Manifold W/Separate Risers Parts by Parks: 8002 Long Beehive Filter 8003 Flathead Air Cleaners 8013 Flathead Turned Aluminum Pulleys (1942-53 Set) Replicas and Miniatures Company of Maryland: FH-44 1/25 "Edmunds" Air Cleaners I am not sure which air cleaners will be used for the final build. The IFS and Corvette Rear suspension should be mounted later today. The clean up of the body has been completed and should get the first coat of primer later in the day. Yesterday, we were at the local one-stop shopping center and found a new finger nail polish called L.A. Girl Matte Flat Finish Nail Color. There are several colors in the line up and they are dead flat straight from the bottle. I picked up 2 bottles of their NL536 Matte Alpine Green for use on the Woody. Hosted on Fotki Stay tuned more to come soon.

Here I thought the idea was to show how your work bench looked like. Not how it looked AFTER you cleaned it up for the photos. Mine looks like Mercman,s before he cleans it up. I'll post photos later, after I clean up the bench so I can find the camera.

Dave this is a great tip about using the tires from the new generation Thunderbird in order to get a big and little combination for the larger diameter wheels. Hosted on Fotki The wheels at the top are from the '37 Coupe, while the ones at the bottom are from the '50 Pickup. I don't know if I will use either on this project, but you never know. It certainly not set in stone at this point in time.

Shane, every time I run across photos of this coupe/dragster I have to smile. Without a doubt this is one of the most unique pieces down the 1/4 mile. With your skills I have no doubt that you will do this subject justice.

It's great to see the Austin back in someones line-up. That always seems to be the kit that sells the best and commands the highest prices when they are no longer sitting on the shelves at the LHS. I like the idea of including the grille and headlights, those are great additions to the decal sheet.

Actually Dave, I had considered those wheels, still not 100% sure. A couple of other sets I have that might work for this build are the Halibrands from Historic Racing Miniatures. HRM-405: Large Hole Kidney Bean Halibrands Hosted on Fotki HRM-406: 2 Large and 2 small Hole Kidney Bean Halibrands. Hosted on Fotki The large hole wheels were slated for another build, but I've already ordered 2 more sets from HRM. They are fantactic wheels the photos do not do them justice.

That is a great idea Dave, however I remembered earlier this evening that Revell had put in additional parts in the Good Guys '37 Coupe. Both the front spindles and Corvette trear suspension have additional drop to them. Hosted on Fotki Being this is not going to be a 100% traditional build the IFS and IRS should accomplish what I set out to do in regards to ride height.

I needed another project like a hole in the head, so I jumped into Cranky's Christmas Model Contest. I dug out a kit that I had been meaning to build for sometime now, the Revell '48 Woody. Hosted on Fotki The first order of business was to get the Woody to sit as I envisioned it. The first attempt was to use the dropped axle and spring/wishbone from the Revell Good Guys '40 Ford Coupe. Hosted on Fotki The parts were not quite a drop in on the '48 chassis but with minimal modification it fit nicely. Using the wheel/tire combination from Revell '48 Convertible, the results were not what I had expected. It doesn't even begin to sit like I want it to. Hosted on Fotki So the next option was the 'Hot Rod' wheel/tire combination from the Revell '40 Coupe, even though the front sits lower the rear high attitude still isn't what I'm looking to achieve. Hosted on Fotki Next up was a set of tires and wheels from an AMT '60 Starliner I had sitting on the bench. While they don't look to bad, the Woody still is to high. Hosted on Fotki So, we're now to 'Plan B', which is the installation of the IFS and Corvette suspension from the Revell '37 Coupe. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Stay tuned

The placements were well deserved Dave. The thing I've noticed over the past couple of years is that the quality of builds showing up at contests/shows in the PNW has improved greatly. Everyone has stepped up their game. It sure has made our jobs more difficult when it comes to judging. Which is a nice problem to have.

Went and played photographer and judge at the Oregon Society of Scale Modelers Model Expo & Swap Meet today. Attendance was down about 20% from last year but the quality of models was up. Hosted on Fotki http://public.fotki.com/dcfletcher/model-c...n-society-of-s/

Very Cool Lyle, I can tell you that there was a lot of work went into converting that thing from right hand drive to left hand drive. I started the LS Hobbies full length version a coup;le a years back with a '37 Ford front end. It has since had the '37 Ford parts removed and shortened 1 full window behind the rear wheels.

That looks Great Jeff, but then My Friend I would expect nothing else from your work bench.

Actually Chuck, it was the Testors repop of the Johan Rambler American that was the Hobby Shop Only (HSO) version. It wasn't horrible compared to some of he last of the Johans, but it had these seriously ugly cast white metal rims to go along with a set of P/E plates so Testors could justify the $15 price tag when all the other plastic on the shelf was going for $10. It had sat in my garage for well over 10 years with out coming off the shelf, so to me it was a great deal.

The overall build looks fantastic. Great concept, great execution. But, you're right the grille needs something to give it the attitude of the rest of the bodywork. If you have access to the blank grille insert from the '32 5 Window Coupe you might take a look at that and add some speed holes to it or do a Salt Flat thing and just add a snorkel opening at the top of the blank insert. Something along these lines, just a suggestion. Hosted on Fotki

I'm thinking Gregg should put it on his tab, see how we are supporting the magazine and the forum.