BigGary

Here in Ol' Virginny, Sunday 42, Monday 71, Tuesday 53 and rain. No rain Wedneaday. just can't figure out what to do. After Christmas I'm moving to North Texas. Colder than Virginny on the Red River. Glad to see the Bug is snug. Global Warming????! Yeah, Right! Gary

Christian, you've done a good job here. Let Dad keep helping you to always get better. Practice make perfect. Keep doing more models. They are fun. It will help him too. Gary

Do you have a picture of what you need? I think I have what you need but I'm not sure. Gary

Oh please, VW DAVE! Please tell me you put the Manx away before the storm, and tree, hit the ground. I was heavily involved in VW's for 10 years. Repairs, VW club president, VW drag racing, etc. I've got a soft spot for the old Beetle. Gary

Whoever said. "six in a row don't go" never saw this ride! gary

Highly questionable? I thought that was normal. Can you get disability for that? Gary

Sometimes you can go through M.A.M.A. and get to Replicas and Minatures stuff. Let's see if I can remember the website: http://www.mamasboyz.org/ Gary

Somebody posted on a forum that Big Lots was to get the '51 Chevy convertible, but I haven't seen that one yet, except at the LHS. Somehow I have my doubts.... Gary

I hope somebody shows this to Dale Jr. He will either be doubled up in laughter or pronounce a string of unrepeatable words. Personally I cracked up. I never would have thought of this. It must be Kevin's evil alter ego. I bought this kit for parts the other day. I have no plans for it except to steal the wheels and engine out of it. Its time to think outside of the box. Gary

"06 Dale jr. Monte Carlo for 5 bucks at Big Lots. Gotta love it! Gary

Now that R-M is going to stop making Nascar kits, Big Lots has the '06 Dale Jr. car for $5. I picked one up for a parts car. Now the resin guys can get into that market if they want. Gary

Being umemployed and therefore, a cheap skate, my last airbrush was from Northern Tool. Its a copy of the Badger 250 single action. It was $8 plus tax. It will do most of my airbrush painting, but I don't do anything fancy. I now have 3 of these. Use one, thrown it in the paint thinner, hook up another, paint more, throw it in the paint thinner (or Acetone) jar, use another. Then clean all their interchangeable parts at once. When I only had one airbrush, I would paint 3 minutes, clean 10 minutes, spray another color, and clean again. Ed Shaver (up above this post) may not have the prettiest face but he's right about cleaning. When you think your airbrush is clean, clean it again! This is especially true with acrylics. The other secret of airbrush is practice, practice, practice. Even cheap acrylics from Michael's, etc. can be used to practice. good luck, Gary

Last summer another one of those struggling hobby shops bit the dust. It was sold to a new owner a few months before, but it didn't make it. Now we have 2 hobby shops, Hobbytown on the North side and Chesterfield Hobbies in the South. I live East so its a tossup. I've found that for me, with shipping costs going up so high, I can go to a LHS and actually save money. I wanted the new '68 Charger. It was on a model website for 13.95. Then I got to the $10 shipping. That's $23.95. The LHS wanted $19, so spent $2 of gas and saved $3 over the internat place. Works for me. I support my local LHS! Gary

Don't be too hard on him guys. A 426 big block could also be a '63 stage III wedge Super Stock engine, or the 426 wedge engines that were available in '63-65 Coronets and Belvederes before the GTX and R/T came along in '67. In '65 I was at Kingdon Drag Strip near Stockton, CA. It was a big Super Stock day and many of the West Coast SS notables were there, Dick Landy, Gas Rhonda, and a few others. There was one unfortunate soul who showed up in a stock, street driven '64 Plymouth Satellite with a 426 4-barrel wedge. They put him in Super Stock. His first race was against Gas Rhonda's Thunderbolt. Rhonda let him have about a 10 car length head start, then blew by him at the top end. He never had a chance. Gary

Pactra Paints? I haven't seen Pactra Paints for about 20 years. Gary

I once wrote all about my hot rod experiences from the early 60's. It was 22 typed pages. I still have it on my antique computer, 1999 model. Here's the stand outs. My first ride in a '55 Nomad with a 2-4s equipped 409. I was hooked. What first got my attention was a '49 Ford, lowered, spinner hubcaps, (not like spinners now), spotlights, and a nice rumble. I was 12. I discovered a neighbor had a '35 Dodge p/u with a hot 318, 2-4s, and Chrysler wires. Over the years that followed that truck mopped up on 406 Fords, big block Chevys, and other hot rods in town. It had the first 10 inch wide tires I ever saw. The traction was awesome. They were road racing tires, definately not DOT. What surprised everybody the most was that it had a Ford Transmission. He had cut down the input shaft to fit the Plymouth. His wife raced it on the street too. A friend of his had a '33 Plymouth coupe, channeled, minimal fenders, and a 241 Dodge Red Ram Hemi. It turned heads everywhere it went. If you're around Modesto, CA, find "Signs by Wild" and ask Glen about that car. Later Glenn also had a '29 Ford Coupe with a 241 Hemi that he drag raced. It had Hilborn injection and was barely streetable. We were at Sacramento dragway one weekend and Glen, who was about 5'7", was resting on the running board on one side of the car. A couple of guys came up to the other side and looked where it said “241 C.I.â€. They looked at the Hemi and one said, “Can it really be only 241 cubes?†The other said, “You know those Mopar guys, they always lieâ€. Glen said he nearly rolled off the running board laughing. The car was called “Mini Hemiâ€. I’m planning to build a model of it. My favorite was a '49 Chevy coupe belonging to Johnny. It had a Plymouth 318 with 3-2s. He left it stock outside, and one side of the exhaust was hooked up to the stock '49 Chev muffler. The other side of the dual exhaust went through a glass pack. It sounded like it had a hole in the muffler. One night he had it uptown cruising 10th and 11th. A new '63 Chevy Impala SS pulled up beside him and yelled, "Ha,ha! Momma's car!". Johnny pulled the Vette shifter down to 1st, jumped on the gas, and popped the clutch. That coupe quickly disappeared from sight in a cloud of tire smoke. When the Chev finally caught up, he said, "What the hell you got in that thing?". Johnny just laughed. Later the car got bright yellow paint and a straight axle. Kind of killed the sleeper aspect. I grew up in the town where "American Graffiti" is based. Though I didn't know George Lucas, he grew up there too. Watching that movie was like going home for me. I can tell you that many of the scenes and events in the movie are based on fact, including the scene where the rear end gets pulled from under the '62 Ford cop car, in spite of what Myth Busters says. I read about it in the newspaper. A friend told me he knew one of the guys who did it. I knew where that car lot was on the North end of 10th street. One of the notable characters of those days became a cop. His name was Gomez, and because of his lead foot and broken engines, he was nick-named "Blow-mez". He got an attack of maturity one weekend and traded the 348 in his '60 chevy for a 283. We swapped engines in and out of 3 cars in that weekend. I left Modesto in January of 1972. That spring my mother sent me a newspaper clipping about a city cop and a county sheriff racing their patrol cars on the main cruising street of town. They both got days off w/o pay. Those were the days! Gary

What scale are the fighters and the airliner? You must have good eyes to build in that scale. 1/72 scale is quickly getting too small for me. I guess that's why I went back to building cars. Gary

If one night in the freezer doesn't do it, leave it for several days. I tried overnight and it didn't do much. A friend of mine leaves them about a week. Give that a try. Gary

Is anything up and running for a car club in San Antonio? I expect to be moving to SA in the near future. I'm just getting back into cars after several years away. We're trying to get an informal club going here. No special meeting place except someone's house. I hope to get together with you when I get there. My interests are hot rods and Mopars. Gary

If I can go back to Friday, I got 8 kits at a yard sale, one for half price at Michael's with a coupon, and a '57 Dodge sweptside P/U given by a fellow model freak. I'd say that ain't bad for one weekend. Gary

I've seen the Allison V-12 in a few drag cars from the 60's. The TV show "My Classic Car" had segment on one of Jay Leno's cars that has a 12 cylinder Chrysler tank engine from the 50's. Car weighs 9500 lbs and is mostly medium truck components. Gary

I've been thinking about writing the same ganeral idea Pete brought up. Some of you have really gotten carried away. Can we cut it down to one picture or less? Gary

Carb cleaner? I hadn't thought of that. It'll take almost anything off. Sure is handier than taking the gun all the way apart everytime I use it. I'm a believer in the old adage, "When you think its clean, clean it again". If you forget that, you'll find yourself muttering, or shouting, unrepeatable words. Been there, done that. My first airbrush was a Badger 350. It has its limitations, but I learned what it could and couldn't do. Took lots of practice. Gary

I was puzzled by the title of this post until I remembered the letter from "Alan" in the Oct. 08 "Gregg's mailbox". Though he starts with "all due respect", that's about all the respect you get. This guys Mama should have slapped him around a little more and given him some manners. I've haven't bought the Nova kit because I tend to be Mopar fixated, but I'll be interested to read many reviews and posts about this kit before I build one. I've seen a lot of negatives about the AMT '69 Nova, so we'll see what the consensus is on the Revell version as time goes by. I'm looking forward to seeing the finish on this build and your comments, fixes, etc. Gary

I heard about the $5 kits at Big Lots and jumped on it. I bought 5 of the '66 Chevelle wagon and 3 Ferraris. I sold two Ferraris to a friend. I didn't look at the Ferrari for about 3 months, but when I did, it picked my interest. I'll build it somewhere along the way. 3 of the wagons have given up their wheels and engines. Great Wheels! One has given its front suspension to a '55 Chevy pickup. One is in the works to learn to do BMF. Lots of practice there. Two might become part of a '66 Chevelle SS 396 Limo!? Gary