whale392

Looking good so far. Your distribution block and injector lines look great. I quit skating in 1996, but still have my board (a Jaya Bonterov slickskin from Santa Cruz I believe). Every once in a while I pull it out just to see if I can still Ollie or Bluntslide a car hood!

Looking good Jordan. Like I said Mike......I went voluntarily ! Speaking of which, I guess I should get some pics of the Hako and the Hachi up sometime huh?

Why red for the engine? Correct color would be Race Hemi Orange, which is still available through Chrysler and just about any of the restoration companies catering to Chrysler products. Not knocking your build; just an honest question when the correct color is available.

Man, I go away for a day and this happens! Sorry I am late to the party; forgive me. foureyedpride.com is THE best site for early Foxes and as the title implies loving of the 4eye varieties. Foxbodyforum is another good site for the 79-93 cars. The next two are enter at your own risk (as the crowd is harsh and not too keen on 4eyes....they will try to talk you into Aero-swapping it) but are full of good info if you can sort through the bull: corral.net and stangnet. Also, should you wish to go turbo-4, give turboford.net a look. I am a member of all the above sites save stangnet, so if you need anything you can PM me here or over on the sites. Eric Stone can vouch for me on FoxBodyForum......as he and I are both members. As to performance mods to your car; being it is an 82 means it has some considerations to take into account that later FOXes don't. First, the gas tank straps are positioned narrower (closer together) on the 1979-82 cars, so swapping to a fuel-injected tank will require some work. Also, 1979-82 cars have a narrower cowl/cowl grill than the 83+ cars do, and the hood front lip is squarer than the 83-86 cars......only hoods from 1979-82 will work. Also, your steering column has the stalk-mounted horn versus the horn in the steering wheel. The steering wheel spline is milti-splined versus the 1983-up 'D'-spline, so just changing to a later wheel/contactor ring is out. You have dinky brakes; grab yourself the 87-93GT front struts, spindles, rotors, and calipers if you want to stay 4lug but with better brakes. While you are at it, grab the master cylinder, proportioning valve, and later wheels to clear the bigger brakes. Like I said, I have a TON of info for you if you would like it, just ask. I can show/tell you what it takes to go 5lug as well, and dang near any combination of brakes/axles/spindles (I have 3 4eyes and one Aero, and ALL have been 5lug swapped). Ok, models of your car. Unless you feel like hunting down the above mentioned Testors 1/20th Coupe or the 1/32nd snap coupes; your only choice is an earlier resin aero coupe and a nose/rear taillight swap from a 1979-82 Monogram 1/24th kit (I can help you with that too, as I have 4 of the AFXnScale resin FOX Coupes as they still have the 1979-84 body side molding) and have done the conversion. Let me know, and I will help as best I can. And welcome to the FOX world; word to the wise though, once you have one, they tend to multiply and you can never get enough.

Ok Cranky, I am with you on that! Model cars........check. Model Railroading.....check. 4 1:1 project cars.......check. A 1956 Harley and a 1971 Suzuki T500R motorcycle projects.......got those too. Garage space............(laughs hysterically, wipes tears from eyes and takes a deep breath)......NOPE!

Great Cranky; so you're saying that inhaling too much glue fumes and styrene dust will lead me to model HO scale trains?! (wait, I already do that too............ )

No disrespect meant, but why the stars? To me, a tattoo is a very personal thing and should tell a story or mean something dear to you. I have no ink yet (out of respect for my fathers living wish), but when my dad passes I will have a half-sleeve of my own work as a tribute to him. Tattoos were also used to identify you with a certian tribe or as a punitive mark. As I am sure you are not a member of an indiginous people or are writing love letters from prison, I would have to say that rules this reasoning out. This leads me back to my first question then. As to the quality of the work; for a B&W he did a fair job.......we will see how colorfast it is in two weeks though. That in itself will tell a lot about its quality. Artwork wise, for British Pound 30 it looks like a fair deal; as I have seen better and far worse.

Funny thing about Florida.............lots of retirees with nothing better to do, but an almost complete lack of clubs/organizations to support the hobby. When I lived there, there was a club in St.Cloud and also the Mighty Mopars of Orlando had a model club. Colonial Photo and Hobby used to have a show or two during the year, and the Osceola Square Mall had a hobby shop that had a show every year. That all failed in the Mid-90s for no known reason.

I can't say too much either guys, as I am behind where I should be. Work, vacation (well, going to Florida to help mom and dad after their surgeries anyway), and real cars has been cutting into my build time. That and Mike (Wheelman) roped me into his JDM CBP (just kidding Mike, I went voluntarily!) with two cars has taken its' toll. Thanks for the compliments; I will post some more pics I am hoping this weekend of other things getting done to the GT conversion and I might even have pics of the 'vert in paint.

Anybody else got anything going on their FOXes? I will have some more pics up this weekend (I hope).

Thanks for the pointers guys! As to the 93 Cobra engine: it is junk and that is why I am asking for a better detailed unit. The 93 is based on the 1979 kit engine, which is COMPLETELY incorrect for the platform it is intended for. Monogram did a junk job on the casting even back then, and time HAS NOT been good to it. The tranny isn't a 5 speed and it isn't even the SROD that came in the 1979-83 cars, and the SROD was a 4 speed. I will check out Strada-Sport (even though I am STILL waiting for him to fill a 3 month old order) or grab one of the early Mustang kits. Thanks again for the insight guys.

Ok, I am wanting to know what you all think is the most highly detailed/accurate 1/24th (NOT 1/25th) Ford 260/289/302 kit engine available. I know everyone will have their own opinion, but I want to know. I know which ones AREN'T, but I want to know which ARE. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You know, I am liking the flat-hood, poverty-cap, buzzin half-dozen idea! Bench made from the 330 sedan seats, slant with a header and a custom 2bbl or Weber sidedrafts all in a plain wrapper. Revell has given us some potential with this modified re-issue.

Hey Marc......no problem. I wasn't bagging on the build. You put so much into the build so far that I found that one little thing odd, especially going so far as to replicate the Fel-Pro Blue Neoprene valley pan gasket (which I hope you don't mind me borrowing for a future build!). I am loving the A-notch, as it gets no full-sized love either and besides my 1965-67 B-body love the 67-69 A-bodies are my favorite Mopars (especially motivated by a nasty B, RB, or potent hot-rodded LA engine!).

I'm starting to smell a 'Tokyo Drift' sequal.

I am loving this build. So far, every detail is looking A-1. That is why the distributor/plug wires not being routed in the proper firing order is KILLING me! Everything else on this build is just so nice....why slack there?

Jason: in what respect do you mean address the door issue? It is the door from the Cobra kit cut from the car it will be used on. I am adding the proper window dew wipe molding and the door turn-up under the mirror location. I will be shaving the door edges back down thin to simulate the proper thickness of metal, and will be adding the inner door panel/structure as on my 1:1. I am trying to get the inner lower cowl area constructed right now, so that I can start on making correctly functioning hinges (thanks in part to Aftashox tutorial). The front fender lip will also be shaved to represent proper thickness sheetmetal and have its mounting tabs/bolt detail added. I have scored the belt molding to give it a seperate piece look as well, and subtle paint detailing will bring that to life (I hope ). Matt: the headlight bulbs are just seamstress/dressmakers pins that I will be cutting to length, polishing, adding appropriate color (amber to the inner turn signal bulb), and gluing into drilled holes in the buckets. The buckets themselves will be treated to a coat of Spaz-Stix chrome and have the seperations added with thin black lines. I have already cut a set of the headlight glass apart (to form the 3 seperate lenses) and have made the vynil seal around the headlight with some .010" stock painted Black. The outer surfaces of the lenses have been polished and the corner marker has had cigarette package foil (tinted with Tamiya Transparent Orange) added to its rear corner to simulate the reflectorized portion of the lens. Mark: I like the stop light detail! Interesting as to how you did that; I will keep that in mind for a later build/project. I hope this has helped and answered some of the questions. I will post more pics when I have them handy. Until then, build on!

PT Cruiser non-turbo in the Mountains of Colorado. Faster than a speeding......................who am I kidding, I got passed by Grandma on a skateboard on I-25! Other than a complete lack of power, it was a fun little car, and the company I worked for at the time payed for the rental of it.

I fogot the wheels! Talk about retarded! These are Jada 1/32nd scale wheels cut down to fit into Pegasus 19" stepped sleeves (thanks scaledreams!). Believe me, these die-cast wheels (even though they are plastic) took some love with my drill and collet/razor to get turned down. I did not like the way they turned out, so the paint is stripped and I am going back and re-shaping some of the spokes. They had 3 bar spinners cast in, and that made for a nightmare to get the wheel spoke indents correctly shaped (part of what I am unhappy with). I will have pics up when I am happy with the results, but here is a shot of the first try....they are Shelby-style wheels. My 1:1 is going to be wearing 18"x8.5" fronts and 18"x10" rears; polished outer lips with the high spokes Satin Silver and the low spokes Magnesium. Center caps will be flush mount with a Chrome lip/Black Center/Chrome SVT lettering.

Now just some miscellanious stuff. I will be using an 84-86GT three-spoke non-cruise wheel in my 91GT, so an SVO wheel will be used for this build. I also have the 83-86 GT Halo headrests in the 91, so the 83 GLX vert gave its Halos for this project (as my real GLX has the low-back sport seats and large headrests......swap the headrests and both projects are happy! I also am cutting the seats to have posable knee bolsters and all articulation of the rear seats. I am using a lot of the Tamiya 1/24th scale 1995 CobraR pieces in this build, like the K-Member, entire front suspension and brakes, rear housing and brake detail, 3 point underhood brace, and other goodies to enhance the FOX model to be more realistic. Also, the oil pan will be used to correct the single-sump Revell junk to the proper double-sump unit. , I am adding Z34 Lumina hood vents to my real car, so I might as well add them in scale as well! I am using Plastruct handrail material (I think N Scale.....might be HO) to represent the venting with two more vent gills added to each piece by adding .010" strip in between the existing vents. That's it for tonight. I hope I didn't bore you and hope i might just have inspired some of you; God knows I need inspiration and motivation in droves!

Ok, so what's next? I hope I am not boring you guys with this stuff. If I am, let me know and I will stop. Well, sinse the GT and the Cobra kit both use the same front-end architecture (kit-build wise), it is dead easy to swap the GT nose to the Cobra body. Not saying either is 100% accurate, as they aren't. I opened the front lower grill vents, am opening the front spats, corrected the sharp lower corners to proper smooth tapering corners, have re-contoured the body side molding recesses to be accurate (I have yet to add the styrene back into the molding area to represent the nose cap/front fender extension joint), and have added the correct nose cap/fender seperation lines to the nose. Also, I have drilled the headlight and parking light housings for bulbs. , , Subframe connectors and Matrix braces/Jacking rails are under my FOX right now, so I had to add them to the model as well. strip styrene in the .080"x.125" variety was used for the subframes, and the Matrix Bracing/Jacking rails is .040"x.040" styrene stock. I have yet to add the seat rail reinforcements and the front convertible angle braces from the rails to the subframes, but they are being added. The seatrail reinforcements are .125" styrene channel. , , , The engine bay and front framerails are horribly inaccurate, so I cut the engine bay free and will be going at it with various thicknesses of styrene (mostly .010" and .020", along with making the front frame rails and radiator core support. Once again, more in the next installment.

That fixed spoiler looks good Jason. Exactly what I will do to the SVO kit I have. Ok, update time.......the GLX body is in paint (no pics at the moment), and the GT conversion is going slowly. But I do have some pics of that to share! Making the GT sideskirts fit the Cobra requires some surgery. I cut away the lower skirts from a lowrider convertible kit, dressed the front taper down, smoothed the Cobra body back to LX profile, added a strip of half-round to the very lower edge of the Cobra body, cut a bend notch in the GT front taper, and glued it to the Cobra body. , Why go through all this trouble when I could just cut the Cobra below the beltline, cut the GT below the beltline, and swap lowers? Because the Cobra is actually taller below the beltline than the GT is, and the GT is too short scale-wise by my measurements of my real car. Good thing is, the Cobra and the GT share very similar door profiles, so the GT skirts will at least clear the Cobra doors. I will have to fill in the taper cut and the space between the side tapers and the body molding, but that is no big deal. I will have to make new rear spats for the GT skirts, but again no big deal. Also by doing it this way, it gives the proper effect of the GT side skirts being added on versus the molded-in look they have right now. My car will be sporting the Cobra rear bumper cover, so I left that in place, but modified it to represent an accurate unit versus the inaccurate molded kit supplied piece. I did this by cutting a pie-sectioned piece vertically at the bumper wrap and re-gluing it. I also opened up the tailpipe notches as they were half-filled with flash. Being as NO 87-93 GT Hatch spoiler exists in 1/24th scale, I took an AMT 1/25th scale unit, widened it by .100" and test fit it. The wing feet will be heightened with .010" styrene and the wing deck will also be depth-enhanced by .010" to make it correct for 1/24th scale. I will also be making the correct 3rd brake light from scrap clear red sprue material. , I also cut the doors open as I will be going full-detail interior wise with this kit. The hatch has also been opened for the same reasons. I used a few #11 blade backsides for this, not to mention some blood and missing fingerprints! , More to come in the next installment, as I am pushing the file size with just these pics.

For some reason, I like the JDM DC2 ITRs in Championship White. Nice build of a sweet car.

Very nice. My dad has a few of these era built-up Pick-ups (one the Chevy and the other the Ford) that I might restore someday. I will be watching even if I do not comment much.

Warning on the Moly there Mike......it is used as a lube for a reason. That stuff in pure form will NOT come out of your skin until it wears out of it, and not a whole lot will stick to it after it has been applied. I still have two vials of pure Moly powder (looks like liquid the grains are so fine) from my Navy days, and I use various types of Moly coating currently (I am an aircraft mechanic). Again, we use it as a lube because of its resistive properties and because NOTHING sticks to it when dry!