whale392

Well, Jantrix, I have to slightly disagree with you on the longevity. my fathers 1966 Plymouth BelvedereII Hemi has over 226,000 miles and he does all the maintenance on it himself (he is an ASE certified mechanic and I will agree that HEMIs are maintenance PIGS!). My 1991 Mustang GT has 272,000+ miles on it, and still has the UNMOLESTED original drivetrain in it. If you take good care of the vehicle, no matter the generation of construction, it will last. Do the newer cars last longer....yes. Due in part to better metallurgy, better oils and fluids, better design and construction methods. But they will suffer at the hands of lax maintenance. Some older vehicles will last LONGER under ill maintenance than newer ones will BECAUSE of slipshod build tolerances. As to soul; that is purely a personal call. Soul is a reaction to emotional stimulus by visual/aural means. The sound of a 5.0L Mustang......that has soul. The grunt of the Firebird Trans-Ams and Camaros with the LS1s.......that is soul. The sexy lines of even the SN95 Mustangs and the 4th Gen F-Bodies evokes 'soul' to those of us who put our time in WITH these cars. Does my 65 Dodge Coronet500 (both my vert and my hardtop) have soul? They do now, but when new they were just another cookie-cutter car from Dodge. Soul is what YOU interpret it to be. To me, my 1979-93 Mustangs have soul (they looked good and went VERY well for their time...well, the turbo4s and the 5.0Ls did). That is my counterpoint to your point. Soul is strictly individual (by and large). Some cars ingrain themselves into culture and bare soul in that manner, others do it by being remembered for doing something well, and others gain a soul just by being there time and time again and NEVER failing us. Each generation will have its own cars with soul, from the 19-teens to the future. As long as humanity has a love affair with the automobile, they will continue to have 'soul', no matter the era or manufacturer.

Well Andy (Android), gotta disagree with you on one of your points anyway. The Modern Camaro, Challenger, Mustang; they all make FAR more power than our beloved original issues. 1) The iconic Boss 429 Mustang, 450hp through a flimsy body with NO options really. 2011 Mustang GT500, 500hp from a SMALLER, more fuel efficient engine transfered through a much more rigid platform and available with every option. Yeah, the new Mustang wins (heck, when you have 345hp from a V6!) 2) The 426 Hemi Challenger of 70-71, 425hp through a clunky drivetrain that got 9-12mpg. The 2011 SRT8 Challenger, 425hp (from a smaller engine again) through a much smoother drivetrain and gets 16-22mpg with every creature comfort under the sun. 3) The vaunted Big Block cars or the High-revving 302 Z-28 Camaros; either absolutely scary flimsy to drive or super high revving to make power. 2011 Camaro SS, yeah, 400hp through a silky driveline (again, through, in some cases, a smaller engine) that can handle, stop, and go all without making you look around for your guardian angel! And let's not even get started on what the imports are doing with minuscule displacement.......some of their power output make American Muscle from the 'Golden Era' blush with embarrassment. Oh, and put me down for the 66-67 Dodge/Plymouth B-bodies as being some of the nicest cars to roll off the line.

Draggon posted a link directly to Reliable resins for the wheels. The Jada die-cast wheels scale out to 17.6" and 21" (roughly) from the 1/32nd scale car in question to 1/24th-1/25th scale. I bought 2 of the die-casts for the wheels and modified both sets for use in Pegasus sleeves.

Some of the Pegasus tires will fit as well.

Hey Cor, I like DnB. I try to listen to it as often as possible and knew Netsky was from your area (same for Hospital Records). Now, is He considered DnB or Liquid? Either way, he does KILLER stuff. I also like the remixes that Quantum and UKDnB post, killer stuff as well. I listen to all types of music, but find myself drawn to DnB/Dubstep/Liquid. Must be my old club roots in the 90s showing! Thanks for the reply; look forward to seeing more of your builds.

Looks like we aren't the only victims of USPS/Canadian Post. I am sorry to hear that Tony, and hope you can recover the losses and find another kit/bare Metal Foil. If you ever want, the offer still stands for some 80s backyard wheels!

Tony, I have a few sets of aftermarket wheels that would have been available back in the 80s that can be widened/narrowed to fit your needs. I have some Cragars, some Outlaws, and some various other sets if you are interested. PM me and maybe Canadian/American post will play nice and get them to you in a reasonable time frame.

Ok, please don't take this the wrong way (or get butt-hurt); you do an excellent job of weathering and go to all the trouble of adding carpet detail, brake line detail, and plug wire detail only to leave mold parting lines on the exhaust, trans, and rear end? Seems to be counter to your build. You go to length adding detail only to skip basic parts prep. The weathering is very convincing, too bad the mold separation lines immediately give it away as a model. Keep building as I want to see how this Lee3 comes to pass.

Welcome, and nice models! The GT-R is especially nice. Being from Belgium as you are, have you heard of a DJ who goes by the name Netsky? Love his music, and was just wondering what you thought of it (as he is Belgian as well).

Tony, I think Billy will have a nice looking ride despite the paint issues........he seems determined to let nothing stop him! Daves interior looks sharp, and will contrast well with the Black exterior. Scott; the progress you are making with the Futura is awesome. The rear looks great, and the front coil-over strut set-up looks dead-on. Awesome work guys, and remember; once the July deadline hits, we re-open this as an open-ender!

Now Mike, we know that the RX-7 in Japan got a 3-plate rotary fitted to certain cars....and being that the rotary is somewhat of a 2-chamber per plate design it would be considered a 6 cylinder

There was a tutorial around here a short while ago about intercoolers. What does this have to do with welds you ask? Well, one of the links was to Brians Model Page where he scratchbuilt an intercooler with weld detail. He used thin sections of Milliput laid on the area he wanted to replicate the weld at, then rolled an old stiff bristled brush over it to simulate the weld texture. Let it dry and paint to highlight the overall look....VERY convincing! Found it......... http://www.briansmodelcars.com/tutorials/tutorial/2

The paint came out SUPER for a garage spray Tony! I need to wheel some of my projects into your garage for a spray-down. most of the early fender flares were fiberglass and were painted the same color as the body. The later Poly flares didn't come along until the early-mid 90s, and they were either Black or 'Trim Black...gray'.

Bodies are very similar. The Bullitt has a slightly larger chin spoiler than the '06 GT does and no trunklid (boot) spoiler. Bullitt has the cold air kit and the underhood strut tower brace, plus the 'Bullitt' wheels and no secondary headlights/foglights in the grill. As to the models; the Bullit is just the GT body with the lightless grill and chin spoiler detail. The Bullitt kit comes with the strut tower brace and open air filter, as well as the trunklid spoiler (boot) as options. You will have to fill the holes in the trunk lid (boot lid) to properly make the Bullitt even from the Bullitt kit. Your call as to where to start from for the Saleen build.

Even with its 'inaccuracies', it sure does lend itself well to this style of build. To me, not being a Falcon owner but just an admirer of Fords econo-cruiser, this build looks good and does the kit justice. Will I spend $50 for it....no. Will I wait until it is at a price point that I can afford....yes. It does build up fairly nice with the transplanted parts, Gregg. The 5.4L looks right at home in those fender wells!

At the rate that our dollar continues to lose value, we will be the ones to once again manufacture the kits as we will be the cheapest labor force on the face of the planet. Then again, we won't be able to afford to buy our own goods, as the prices of those goods will be out of our reach (Hmm...if America does again control the manufacturing of many goods, we CAN control the supply of the items in question. Maybe it is time to tell our little Tree-hugging buddies to shove off and use our own oil as well. These events could turn us around and build our economy back up to prosperous levels.).

The current reissue of the AMT 62 Buick has quite a bit of the 'Styline' stuff returned to it.

Jimmy, good to have you back at the bench! To boot, you are now building up one of my all time favorite Japanese cars.........I am watching with interest.

Jump in Ridgley! I need to update my progress, with pics. Sorry guys for no visual progress..........life is a pain sometimes.

Don't worry Tony, whatever you decide to do with this is cool by me! One of the guys who used to come to our Mopar club meetings had a Hemi-powered D50.........that thing was WILD. (If you ever have any questions regarding your 86, just ask.......I might be able to answer them!)

Ridgley, the CBP may end on July 1st, but it will be re-opened as an open-ended build thread for the FOX chassis (as I have 40 FOXES in various stages of build myself!). Owning (currently) 4 of the real FOXes, I too love these cars. You are more than welcome to post here! Tony, Dave's 79 does look SHINY indeed! Thanks for the updates, and keep 'em coming when color hits the plastic!

I like that, 'Cars with a purpose'. I think what gets me going is a basic car with speed mods done (I don't mean a park bench bolted to the trunklid on a stocker either). Cars that one would almost pass by except for that little 'something' that only those in that fold of motorsports would notice that tells you something is out of the ordinary. Hood vents to extract underhood heat/pressure are one of those things that are overdone, unless they are functional. Larger wheels and tires are the norm these days, but look behind them and see the 14" rotor/6 piston calipers/brake cooling scoops sitting behind them. 5 bolt wheels where 4 bolt wheels sat........is it really just for the looks? Function, then form attracts me. A very nice blend of both is automotive heaven to me.

To make it handle with 800# of dead iron over the front wheels? Well, set the engine as far back and down as you can, throw in the heaviest torsion bars you can find (I believe the Hemi bars were 1 and 1/2" diameter), stuff in some heavy shocks and an aftermarket sway bar (also about 1.25"-1.50") and it might stand a chance! A lot of the real Mopars built for corner-carving now feature tubular k-members, adapted rack and pinion steering, tubular lower arms, and caster/camber adjusters for better handling characteristics. Wide front tires and beefy brakes would also be a serious requirement to stop that much weight. When we were racing, we tried for a 50/50 front/rear weight bias. However, with a FOX Mustang, that is almost an impossible task. What we found that worked was diagonal balancing, where the RF/LR weight was the same as the LF/RR weight. This way, the car has the same weight shift/handling loads on the front corners in either direction, and the cars rear was also load balanced. Now, with that said, we would spring-load the right rear with a slightly higher spring rate to help compensate for the torque-squat we would encounter blasting into the straight from exiting a corner. But I digress, this is all rear car stuff and will in no way affect the model! Keep at it Tony, I am watching.

This is a subject that I too am interested in, and Aaron has some very good questions for specific use that I will be paying attention for answers to.

Jim, my guess is that it is a custom pogo Stick made from a spare trailer air line unit for the tandems.