Art Anderson

That's a vacuum line, not a fuel line. I believe the chamber it goes to not only served to aid in fuel delivery from gas tank to fuel pump, but also Hudson (just as with almost every car built up to the mid-1950's) used a vacuum motor to operate the windshield wipers. This was in the day when nearly all American cars used a 6-volt electrical system with a DC generator, meaning not all that much power in the electrical system to operate much more than starter, ignition, along with headlights, taillights, heater/defroster fan, dash lights and radio. It wasn't uncommon to actually run down the battery with extended driving at night in cold, rainy weather back in those days. While a few makes started using 12V systems in the early 1930's (mostly large multi-cylinder cars (V12's and V16's) it wasn't until 1955 that the industry changed, almost wholesale in one model year to 12V electrical systems. Art Art

Here's the restored 308cid Twin H-Power 7X Hudson engine from the Hostetler Hudson Museum in Shipshewanna IN, pics taken over Labor Day Weekend 2011: Those engines are metallic gold (I used Humbrol M16 Gold on mine, but Testors #1144 works just as well). I used Tamiya Italian red for the aircleaners, muted silver for carburetors, semi gloss black for pulleys (I know, they probablly were gold), Testors "Rubber" for the fanbelt (will use that for radiator hoses as well).. One problem with trying to judge engine colors from an old unrestored car is that most paints discolor badly over time from heat, oil leaks and just general grime. It was neat to be able to see this engine, helped me a lot, and it is one of the major references for the Moebius kits. Art

R&MofMd Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland. RM Revell Monogram. Art

DKCM! Uh, can't use the language on a family-oriented forum, but it does refer to a sharp knife! Art

Well, if it's a highly detailed flat 4 air pumper you want--pretty hard to go wrong with the engine from any one of Fujimi's EM-series Porsche 356's! Sheesh, did I just mention "checkbook modeling"? Forgive me puleeeze! Art

It's the Aoshima kit of the Austin FX4, and yes, it's larger than 1/24 scale, quite possibly 1:22. Still, it's wise to consider that the actual cars are fairly ungainly looking, in some dimensions larger even than say, a late 90's compact Chevy SUV. Some stats on the real car, gleaned from a websearch: Length: 15.05 feet; width: 5' 8.7"; height 5' 9.5"; wheelbase 9' 2.7"; track 4' 8" (same as a Model T or Model A Ford!). At 1:22 scale, it would be approximately 9% larger overall than a 1/24 scale model. The model kit itself is of the 1958-81 Austin FX4 London Black Cab, the kit, I believe, dates from the late 1970's from Imai--although my example is from Aoshima, as one of the commonly simple Japanese model car kits of that decade (other than Tamiya). It's still a pretty neat model, even if simplified beyond what most of us would expect in today's world, that that's the way of it with old reissued model car kits. It's wise, I think, to bear in mind that Japanese model kits (Tamiya armor excepted!) from the 1960's well into the late 1970's, just as with US-made model car kits were aimed primarily at children and teenagers. Japanese model car kit advertising from those years, just as with the likes of AMT, MPC, Revell and Monogram, if they showed real people building or showing off the model, featured kids, not grizzled middle aged adults, as likely would be the case today were there actual people posing in advertising pics of model kits in this day and age. After some Googling for the FX4, there were a fair number of variants, including a stretched limousine style, as well as hearses. No, it's not 21st Century state of the art, but it should build up very nicely indeed, and should display nicely as a curbside, and yes it is larger than the 1/24 scale that it's been advertised as being. Oh well! Art

I've used Duplicolor touch up sprays for perhaps 40 years, YES, they are good! Art

For a couple of years, AMT/Ertl used the term "Pro Shop" to denote kits, or versions of kits, that were intended for sale at your LHS, as opposed to the Big Box retailers. "Pro Shop"----->Professional Hobby Shop. Art

Except, in the US, NO Model A Fords were titled as 1932's. The 1932 Ford came in two designations: Model B, which was the 4cyl car, and Model 18, which was the V8. Minor techicality, I know. Art

My reference is the out of print book "Chevrolet Book Of Numbers Volume 2, which itself is a complete set of reprints of Chevrolet Dealer Literature (dealer only, not brochures) 1953-1954. It has a lot of information on all Chevrolet series, Chevrolet, Corvette, Corvair, Chevy II and Chevelle from those years. As for Hemmings Classic Car Magazine, I take all popular magazine articles with a grain of salt, until I can check them against known factory information. And, for Kodiak, the book I mention gives all the available colors for 1962 Chevrolet full size cars, be they Biscayne, Bel Air or Impala. Just ask! Art

Methinks you misread my post! I said that the 235 was the last Chevy 6 to come with optional oil filter, and oil wet or oilbath aircleaners--coming as it did, from 1937. It was also a more powerful engine than the 1994cid Chevy II 6 (which lent it's design ultimately to the 230, and eventually 250cid inline 6's). Also, the Chevy 216/235 really wasn't quite the same engine as the GMC 302, but that's a different story for another time.

The correct color for Chevy 235's from the first passenger car use in the 1953 Corvette, out to 1962 was a sort of "dusty medium blue" color (Odds & Ends enamels--themselves a continuation of the more popular colors of Pactra 'Namel hobby paints stemming from way back in the late 50's, called "Marina Blue" is so close to Chevrolet Engine Blue it's scary!). All the various bolt-on stuff was semi-gloss black (pulleys, generator, fan, starter, aircleaner, distributor). My Chevrolet reference for this era, "Chevrolet Book Of Numbers--long out of print I think--lists power steering as available on all levels of the full sized Chevrolet, regardless of engine. However, though I don't have a pic of the PS pump, I tend to think it followed Saginaw Division's practice of piggybacking the PS Pump onto the back of the Generator--as seen in the excellent Revell kit of the '59 Cadillac Eldorado's, and not as a completely separate unit, unlike those from Ford, Chrysler, Studebaker and AMC in that year. Art

My Chevrolet literature of the period indicates that the 235cid 6 was standard equipment all across the full sized 1962 Chevrolet line--no mention whatsoever of the newer Chevy 6 which was introduced for 1962 as the standard engine in the Chevy II (wasn't the 230cid unit though--that came a few years later, larger bore and stroke, base line engine for the 1964 Chevelle). In any event, 1962 model year was the swan song for the 235, which began life as the medium-duty truck inline 6, a larger bore engine than the 216cid, both of which were new engines for model year 1937. It was the last inline 6 from Chevrolet (and I believe the last one in the US auto industry, to come standard-equipped with your choice of oil-wetted or oil bath aircleaners, and one of the very last to be equipped with a bypass oil filter, as an extra cost option only. Long time in production, that engine series--25 years, started with poured babbit lower end bearings, cast iron pistons--even a few 1/4-28 slotted head bolts used (hence the nickname "Stovebolt" as that size and style bolt was common in the days of cast iron stoves), and splash lubrication, morphing into a more modern engine with insert bearings, aluminum pistons and full-pressure lubrication. Art

nboldman! We have a pretty nice model car club here in Lafayette IN: Lafayette Miniature Car Club. We meet (September through April) at Community Reformed Church at the corner of South 18th Street and Iroquois Drive (two blocks south of Tecumseh Middle School); at 7:30pm--meetings usually last to about 9-9:30, age range of club members is 14-65+. Anyone is welcome to stop in--no dues, no really formal business meeting, just a couple of hours showing off builds, talking model cars. Come May, we move outdoors for May, June, July and August, with an outdoor club display at the Saturday Cruise Nights, which are one per month, on the lot of McDonald's, 510 Sagamore Pkwy North--generally we start showing up about 5pm, have our own display table set up as a miniature parking lot, even have portable lighting for when dusk settles, and a yard tent as well to cover things. You're welcome anytime! Just show up, we'll introduce you around! Art Anderson

I think the operative term that crops up here is "enamel". For starters, enamel paints are basically pigmented varnishes, of one sort or another. I've never seen a pure clear varnish in all my life as a model builder. The solids in varnishes I've known are either slightly amber (yellowish) in tone, or they soon turn so upon drying, and aging. To see this, take a look, if or when you can, at the varnished woodwork in older houses--even on white oak, or white pine, that varnish gave a "golden" tone to the raw, unstained wood, and gradually darkened over time to varying shades of brown. With the coming of white pigments, most generally white lead, cadmium white, barium white, titanium white, color technicians found that those pigments themselves do not yellow with age, or if so, only so slightly that the yellowing is almost imperceptible unless compared to a fresh sample. But, with enamels, with their varnish carriers, will darken over time--I've not seen a truly white enamel, with the possible exception of the white house paint my Dad used to use on the siding of our house back in the 1940's into the early 1960's--the carrier for that type of white paint was linseed oil, thinned with turpentine, and if it yellowed, it was more likely due to pollutants in the air, rather than from exposure to light--that paint chalked out readily, the carrier wore away with rain, wind and sun, exposing more white lead pigment. Most :"white" automotive colors historically were never really "pure white", that was pretty much reserved for kitchen appliances (think "refrigerator white"), but rather were muted to some degree by adding traces of colored tinting pigments in mixing--this gave the white automotive paint a "warmer" shade, which didn't contrast quite so starkly as if it had been truly pure white. I've been told over the years that it was also thought that adding minute amounts of "tint" to the white used was believed also to slow down the weathering and "chalking" that was a common feature of nitrocellulose lacquer finishes which were used almost universally across the auto industry from the mid-20's until DuPont introduced acrylic lacquers (which are plastic based) on General Motors cars in 1958--the so-called "Magic Mirror" finishes highly touted by GM for almost a decade after '58. With both nitrocellulose (basically cellulose nitrate, a clear material once used as camera film, dissolved in a blend of acetone, ketones and other strong solvents) and acrylic (synthetic clear plastic based carrier) lacquers, there is little if any yellowing of the carrier over time. Even with urethanes, there are urethane resins, and there are urethane resins. The finest, and most expensive of these is optically clear, and stays that way almost indefinitely. The solution to doing a two-tone color such as this, a combination of both white (ground base color) , "Day-Glo" or fluorescent colors (which in themselves are VERY translucent (fluorescent colors are made with dyes rather than pigments), is to use, to the greatest extent possible, clear lacquer as a top coat (most all fluorescent colors give a dull, flat finish, and need to be cleared to not only seal them from dirt and grime, but also to give them a shine. Most readily available fluorescent, or Day-Glo colors tend to be enamel based, but they can be applied over lacquers, and they CAN be cleared with clear lacquer (I've done that many times in the years I concentrated almost exclusively on modeling the cars that ran the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, which collection included several STP Indy Cars, even other teams who used at least some fluorescent colors as accents or trim. Paint the model white, mask off what is to remain white, then spray on the fluorescent color, remove the masking tape, and then AIRBRUSH a clear lacquer such as Modelmaster or Tamiya, gently so as to not disturb the fluorescent. That always worked for me, and no, it never yellowed perceptibly, even after the model had been done for several years. Hope this helps! Art

Pace ran a sale last winter (January-February), which is when I bought mine Harry!) Seems to me it was 15-20% off. Either way, I LOVE my Pace Peacemaker--given that I live in an apartment in an older house with central heat and AC, NOBODY else even notices that I fire up my airbrush--all the smell goes outside, and no overspray dust inside either! Art

Well, There was a Duesenberg owner in suburban Chicago, who at the outset of WW-II and gasoline rationing, transferred ownership of his 1930 Model J Berline (a semi-formal sedan body style) to a farm he owned in Illinois. He then paid a body shop to cut down the body into a luxurious truck cab, and had the thing fitted with a stake body--that gave him access to an A gas rationing sticker, meaning unlimited gasoline for agricultural use (the car has since been restored). The late Lee Baker modeled that "Duesenberg Truck", which made any Cadillac Truck seem plebian by comparison! Art

The correct inline 6 for full-size '62 Chevrolet was the 235cid Blue Flame engine. The most correct one of those is the engine in the AMT/Ertl '60 Chevy pickup, but it needs the correct aircleaner (pickup truck aircleaner will not fit under the low, flat passenger car hood). Ken Kitchen of Kitchen Table Resins has that aircleaner. Art

Terry, With the use of conductive base coats, plastic can be electroplated, and is done industrially as well--the chrome grilles in the few cars and pickups that have them are chromium plating ON PLASTIC most generally. While Danbury and Franklin Mint cars have plastic bumpers and other chrome trim, it's plated by this process: Electroconductive clear base coat on the plastic, then a layer of copper is plated. Next comes a layer of nickel, followed by a layer of chromium. I went to modify a set of Danbury Mint '35 Ford pickup bumpers for use as masters for a resin transkit or two back about 13yrs ago--only to find that a brand-new jeweler's needle file just SLID across the back of the first bumper I worked with--didn't even scratch the chromium (pure chromium is far harder than many steels!). in doing this, they do insist on the very finest in injection molding tooling, and then they pay workers to polish away any hint of mold parting lines, before the parts are racked for cleaning, basecoating and finally the three-step ("triple") plating operation. Art

What's funny was: Back in 1991/92, it seemed as though EVERYBODY was clamoring for duallie this, duallie that, crew cab this, and crewcab that. So, I obliged, mastered a 90 Chevy C3500 crew cab dually, and the '92 Ford in the same ilk. However, the result was less than spectacular--the Chevy parts made it to a second set of molds. The Ford F350? Perhaps 30 or 35 transkits. Pretty disappointing. Art

Harry, an easy answer here: While that grille and bumper are molded in plastic, the part was removed from the sprue, parting lines smoothed down, then the chrome parts used on Danbury (and Franklin!) Mint cars were electroplated with copper, nickel and chromium--just try and strip one with what we normally use to strip vac-plating--no go!. Of course, that Packard cost what, $129.00 plus S&H? Art

I once had the experience of having the body of an original MPC Gurney Eagle Indy Car kit actually delaminate, while removing masking tape from the paintjob (was building Jerry Grant's '69 Bardahl Eagle, which was painted a black and white checkerboard pattern all over the body shell. As for the softer polystyrene blends used today--those are as much a function of modern-era model car kits than anything else--thinner section body shells, with a lot of "tumblehome" in the sides of the bodies (meaning the body shells of the cars modeled in kit form had lots more curve to them than the relatively slabsided bodies of the 50's though mid-60's, meaning that the model kit body shell has to be able to flex outward, in order to come off the inside core mold (which makes the inner surfaces of the body shell. Try that with the much harder styrene blends used in the early days of model car kit production, a body shell like I described would merely split and break apart. So, the factories producing model car kit bodies have tended to use the softer blends of polystyrene. Art

In the case of most cars, from the first closed bodies through the immediate postwar years, windshield framing was very small indeed (unless one considers that part of those fold-out windshields before cowl vents became common). But with the coming of heavy A-pillars and highly stylized chrome trim thereof, it becomes a matter of making things so that the windshield AND the surrounding framing come out even close to looking EXACTLY right. Trust me, on more than one occasion, I have lobbied for a solution to this problem, as a sort-of "outsider" looking in, but much of what I said here is a compilation of answers I've gotten over the past 40 years or so. Art

Chuck, that is so very true of the very simple shapes that bumpers were UNTIL the postwar years. It is possible, with a Deuce bumper, to put the sprue attachment points right on the ends of the bumpers--but with the highly sculptured bumpers that came into being by say, 1958, and carrying on until the USDOT mandated LOG bumpers of 1974-onward, not easy at all. It's well to remember that the sprue attachment points are among the "ports" that admit molten styrene INTO the caviity of any model car part, bumpers being the most visible place on most model car parts. Art

Oh, and one other thing: I have never seen a real car with window framing attached to the window--usually, the glass is installed INTO the framing, with the exception being those pre-1961 convertibles and hardtops, where the side glass panes had chrome channel frames secured to the edges of the glass itself. Art