charlie8575

Over the last couple of years, I've found very few paints really cover all that well without primer anymore, brushed or sprayed, so I've taken to priming entire trees with Plasti-Kote gray prior to anything. For some small items, I've been using white Tamiya primer in the bottle. It's very thin, doesn't look like it covers all that well, but it works great, especially if you want to be careful about not making something too dark. Charlie Larkin

I agree with the shocks, after two Cutlasses in my family. Even just good-quality shocks will help a lot. Another suggestion I'd make is that if your car has P195/75R14 tires on it, to go to P205/70R14. We did that with my mother's second Cutlass and it made a HUGE difference in cornering stability and still rode well. We found that Uniroyal Tiger Paw AWPs were very nice tires for that car and had a 3/4" whitewall that looked really nice on it. Those '78-'88 A/G-Bodies are very nice cars; I'm actually keeping an eye open for one for me, preferably a wagon, but I'm negotiable. And with the 267, it'll be cheap to run, not real fast, but good on gas and not too powerful to get you into trouble. If you want to compromise a little, I know one guy that put an Edelbrock 4-barrel intake and a Q-Jet on it on it; it woke right up and still gave him 24-26 miles a gallon on the highway. If you do the whole Performer Plus (low-RPM) package, you'll get a slightly-built 305 power and pretty close to 229 gas mileage provided you drive reasonably (a low-rpm "torque/economy" cam might also be a good move, like an Erson 308.) Sounds like a good deal to me at +/- $2.50/gallon! Charlie Larkin

I was thinking more "strange looking critter" myself, but it seems that can be said for a lot of European-designed items of the 1950s-60s. Somebody's making resin school buses in 1/25, I'll have to do some digging to see if I can find the link in my bookmarks because I can't remember who off hand. Don't forget to check out HO Scale, there are plenty of buses available there. Charlie Larkin

I've wanted to get one of these for a very, very long time. The kit and the real thing! Two quick questions: 1. Where'd you find the wheels? 2. I know R&R can be a bit hit-or-miss; your thoughts on this particular kit? Very nice build by the way. Charlie Larkin

I was considering making this a used-car hauler, or perhaps a small sub-contractor carrier for new cars (i.e, the primary carrier had too much to do and shopped it out to someone else or something like that.) Of course, I could load it up with Ramblers and AMCs! Too bad I can't seem to put together enough of any one year of those to pull it off. Perhaps I'll just stick with the used-car transporter idea. As to colors...I know a lot of those trailers were yellow, but I can't stand aything that big in yellow. I was thinking maybe a nice two-tone green or blue, or perhaps something snappy like green/beige or gray with red trim. Any other suggestions for what might look nice? Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions, I really do appreciate it. Charlie Larkin

Put some Rustall on it and use it as a back-field diorama subject. Charlie Larkin

Wow, talk about a rare car! I think I've seen maybe 3-4 of them when I was old enough to know (or care about) what I was looking at. Hmm...that'd make a cool resin. Charlie Larkin

SeVille sold the AMX, Rambler and 'Cuda molds to Testors. After that, I don't know what happened, but I do know those are the JoHan molds. Castillian Gray is charcoal...and looking at it, I think Tamyia Gunmetal is pretty close to it. The charcoal interior was an off-black, best replicated by mixing a drop or two of white into some black paint. Charlie Larkin

I like the Illini stuff. That Diamond-T 921C is cool. Any ideas what chassis you'd use under that one? Thanks for the tips, everyone. Charlie Larkin

I'd go for the standard car; I like quiet and understated; besides more mainstreamers need to be seen out there in plastic. Charlie Larkin

Had to do some computer stuff and wanted everything shut off. Charlie Larkin

I just saw that Revell is releasing a Kenworth W900 snap in 1/25 scale. I'm looking for something to use with my AMT car carrier. I went to Kenworth and found that the W900 was first sold in 1960...my question is is the Revell kit, as depicted, appropriate for a mid-late 60s vintage trailer hauling cars of that era? I imagine some detail changes and such were made. I'd probably alter, or altogether remove the sleeper cab, as that just doesn't look right for that time frame, but beyond that, I don't know what else to do, if anything? Suggestions? Charlie Larkin

Very nice.

One more reason to be thankful for the guys that're willing to take what for some of them is a very big risk in capital and time and give it a go with sedans and wagons. If I had more money, I'd be buying anything that was good quality and priced reasonably. Reasonably defined as "I pay for what I get or more." Charlie Larkin

I've been hearing about this for months...I can't wait. A detailed Brougham with skirts and that thick vinyl top with the vinyl-top-covered valance panel. I'm thinking triple dark blue.... And yes, I'd buy a Country Squire/Sedan if made available, too. Charlie Larkin

Here's a couple of ideas: 1. The present generation "Romeo" modular V8 (281) as seen in almost everything FoMoCo lately. 2. How about a Lincoln V12? Just for something a little different. Charlie Larkin

Building your own wired distributors is a bit of an art, and one I'll admit I've never accomplished. With that, I don't mind using pre-wired distributors. You might be smart to try one of those first just to get the feel for how the wires will behave. I do agree with getting some scale wiring looms, but you can add those later if you don't want to go crazy with money. As far as building your own distributor goes if you want to give it a shot, Radio Shack has approximately the same diameter wire in 100-foot coils for much less money than "spark plug wire," per unit cost. In other words, foot for foot, the bulk wire is one hell of a lot less money over the long run. You can get distributor kits which are the shaft and cap for 4/6/8 cylinder engines in resin, although I can't think how much they're going for right now. Charlie Larkin

I've only had to strip chrome a couple of times, but I've found that bleach is fantastic for it. I had two valve covers that I had to removed the chrome from to paint them, put them in about 1/3 cup of bleach in an old jelly jar....not even ten minutes. Leaving the lacquer on didn't bother me, though; I found it actually makes a pretty good base for the paint. Charlie Larkin

Pretty good for a first time out, Kyle. You'll improve as you build more. There are plenty of great people here and all over the Internet at independent boards, too. Look in the links section. I frequent The Modeler's Haven most often. Awesome builders and a great bunch of people. Charlie Larkin

I'll second these comments. Having worked with kids for so much of the last eight years, I can't even begin to tell you what I've seen- so much either just not very good or really terrible, but so much that is really good, too. I'm glad to see a case of category 2 here. Charlie Larkin

I logged out for a while, and then logged back in. Almost every topic I read while here earlier (about an hour before)had reset as if it were unread, including a couple I was the last responder on. Just a heads-up that something might not be processing right. Charlie Larkin

The only thing I'd do differently is put a set of Vogue-style whitewalls on it. That looks great! If that thing was ever built in 1:1 and I had the money, well...I wouldn't refuse to consider one. Charlie Larkin

Great....yuppie cops, just what the world needed! Helps explain the attitude problems of a lot of the younger ones I've run into around here, too. Charlie Larkin

Nah, way too powerful and too much metal! Charlie Larkin

That HHR dragster manages to be beautiful and sinister at the same time. I agree...that's one modern car I'd love to see in 1/25 plastic. Charlie Larkin