Force

I was talking about Super Stock and the Hemi Barracuda and Dart was classed B at first, later changed to A and now AH, all have 1968 sheet metal. So if I want to build one of those it has to be a 68 as there are no 69's with Hemi in Super Stock.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Most of the truck kits we have available to us now are old late 60's to 80's models, at least the US truck kits from AMT and Revell are, so I wonder why there isn't more aftermarket stuff from that era as much of the aftermarket stuff is for 80's and newer trucks. There are some but not enough. Many trucks from the 70's era used 22 inch lock ring Alcoa style wheels before the one piece 22½ and 24½ inch wheels came, and the only 22 inch wheels of this type I know of from kits is the AMT ones used in the Freightliner, White and Autocar kits...and they don't really have the right look, not the 10 hole nor the 5 hole, and most of the wheels from the other AMT kits are 20 inch and they doesn't look right either. Another wheel option that's not that plentiful of is 5 hand hole lock ring steel wheels, 2 and 5 hole steel wheels for tubeless tires are plentiful but not the older lock ring style. Tires are another thing, there are not many who does tires with correct treads from that era, KJ from Double Take Replicas is one but he doesn't have much available right now. For suspensions I would like to see some more options to choose from too, I'm so tired of the Hendrickson Walking Beam in many kits so the old 4 bag air ride for Kenworths wich was replaced with the 8 bag AG100 is one option I would like to see, maybe Monkey Motion, Page & Page 60/40, Rayco 4-spring, Rockwell 6-Rod could be other options...some are not available at all, a few are in resin and some you have to rob from other kits. More engines and transmission options would also be cool to have, some are available from different resin casters tho'. I don't have the skill to draw something up in CAD and have it 3D printed, otherwise I would have as I see a void in the aftermarket for these things, and I hate to have to rob other kits for things I like to use for a certain build, it would be nicer if I can buy the parts separately.

Great idea...and your models suites nicely in them.

I didn't know that...I just checked and you are right to some point...the website and forum are still there but all the pictures on the site are gone. That's a 362, I don't know of any model of that, likewise for the 352H and 352E in Jim's post.

I wish they still could do the 68 as it's the only year it's classified with the 426 Hemi for Super Stock, none of the 67 or 69's are so if you want to do a correct Super Stock Hemi Barracuda it has to be a 68. It's the same with the Dart but Revell has that covered for us...it's maybe about time someone did a new 68 Barracuda.

Nice start, I will for sure follow this.

You mean the old ERTL version right? I bought one back in the day when the kit first came out and it's very bad and not worth the money they ask for them today, you will get a AITM resin kit wich is much closer to what the movie truck looks like for about the same money. The ERTL kit is their regular DM 600 with some added parts to make it look more like the Rubber Duck truck...but they failed miserably as the built model looks nothing like the movie truck at all. The only usable parts from that kit if you want to do a model of the Rubber Duck truck from the movie is the bull bar, the grille, the air foil for the roof, the hood ornament and some of the decals...you can't even use the sleeper they included, it's too short and the wrong style. The rest of the kit is more suited to do something else from. I will follow this.

Very realistic.

Another gem from your workbench.

I can agree with that, I was hooked the first time I heard an American V8 and it's one of the reasons I'm in this hobby and classic American cars, and the first time I heard or may I say experienced a Top Fuel /Funny Car nitro engine I was hooked for life. And of course when I hear a WW2 Fighter V12 under full load I get shivers down my spine...so I do like the sound of internal combustion engines. Lots of performance car makers have a bypass in the exhaust system so the cars gets louder when you use the fun pedal in sport mode...so every car enthusiast must like engine noice. Electric...well we will for sure most likely go there eventually in some form, not necessarily the form we have today wich I think is a transition to something much better and more user friendly...but if going electric is the future in auto racing I'm out because if the only sound you hear from the cars are from the transmissions a lot of the total experience of racing is lost and I get the same "thrill" as watching a slot car race.

I have tried many different types of styrene glue but since I started with Revell Contacta Professional many many years ago I have never looked back...it's imho the best avlailable to us over here. If the needle gets clogged I just put a piece of the same 0.5 mm stainless steel wire I use for detailing through it to unclogg it, fast and easy.

Factory stock 55-57 Chevys have four engine mounts, two at the front beside the crank pulley and two at the rear at the bell housing and the transmission hangs free with no support at all, if changed to side mounts most also take off the mounts at the bellhousing and replace them with a cross member and transmission mount at the rear of the transmission as it is on later cars. Your brother might have put in a cross member and rear transmission mount...but if he had changed to a big block he must have changed out the stock engine mounts as they have side mounts only and nothing at the bellhousing. Engine: as all Chevy big block engines basically looks the same you can use any 396-427-454 big block and the suggested sources are good, and as said earlier, put the radiator in front of the core support otheriwse the engine woun't fit as a big block is longer than a small block. Carburetor: if the carburetor is visible and you want the best there is only one option...Fireball Modelworks...they have the best carburetors around and in several styles, you said he used a Holley 780 and it's a 4150 series carb most likely a double pumper with mechanical secondary. But if you have it under an air cleaner it doesn't matter much as the carb in that case isn't that visible and a kit part would most likely work fine. Lakewood Scatter Shield: you allready have suggestions for that, otherwise the old Monogram 66 Chevelles has one. Headders: use a set that fits or make your own from solder, it doesn't matter wich one as most of the brands looks similar. Rear axle: 1957-64 Oldsmobile and Pontiac used the same rear axle and it was a popular upgrade on Tri-Five Chevys as it's a lot stronger than the stock Chevy unit, the 57 Pontiac rear end fits without modifications as the 57 Pontiac uses leaf springs like the Chevys, later Pontiacs and most of the Oldsmobiles had coil springs so you had to change to leaf spring brackets on the axle for it to work. You already have suggestions for this.

The original box art of the then new tool Auto Transporter kit #7424 from 1983. The first year 1983 Revell also issued this car trailer as a combo kit with a Peterbilt 359 and it was called Prestige Car Transport, kit #7432. The kit was reissued 1985 as Prestige Auto Movers, also a combo kit with the Peterbilt, a Pontiac Firebird and a Chevrolet Camaro, kit #7434. . The 2004 reissue called Car Transporter, kit # 07540. And the latest reissue from 2015 called Auto transport Trailer kit #85-1509. This trailer was appearently also planned to be issued with the Kenworth K100 Aerodyne and the picture is from a Revell Catalog (don't know the year), but I have never seen one so that never materialized. Note the same kit # as the 1983 Prestige Car Transport kit above.

I'm not sure this kit is the precursor to the Revell kit, I think it's a rebox of the Revell kit as I don't think Imex makes any kits of their own. The Revell Germany Auto Transporter first came out on the market 36 years ago in 1983 as a new tool and was reissued 2004 and 2015, I can't make out what year the Imex kit is from your picture of the instructions as it's quite out of focus, but if the copyright date is before 1983 I stand corrected. But your build is nice anyway.

It's about time, they have finally done a complete update with new Volvo FH4 and not just a new cab on the same old hopelessly outdated chassis and drive train as they have done before.

Very nice, you really do the old trucks well.

In Europe the maximum hight is between 4.00 to 4.50 meters (13' 1.5" to 14'9") depending on country, Ireland allows 4.65 meters (15' 3") and some countries like Sweden, Norway and some others have no hight limit, it's the hight of hanging cables, bridges and tunnels after the route you plan to drive that decides how high you can be, in Sweden things with a hight over 4.5 meters is not marked out, but everything under 4.5 meters is. In the US is the hight limit after what I understand 13' 6" wich is 4.115 meters. Here in Europe the allowed width is between 2.55 (slightly over 100") to 2.60 (slightly over 102"), and the US has 102" (2.59 meters) so it's close. If we scale down the 13' 6" hight to 1:24th scale we get 171.5 millimeters (6.75") and to 1:25th scale we get 164.6 millimeters (slightly under 6.5"), difference about 0.25" between the scales. The 102 inch width is 107.9 millimeters (4.25") in 1:24th scale and 103.6 millimeters (4.08") in 1:25th scale, 0.17" difference. Not much but there is a difference.

The Revell Germany Kenworth W900 and their other truck kits are in the same 1:25th scale as the AMT and Moebius trucks and trailers, the Italeri and Heller trucks are in 1:24th scale so they are slightly larger. But the difference is quite small so it will most likely work, one thing to remember tho', the AMT trailers are from the early 70's so most of them are 40 foot, the trailers today are longer, up to 53 foot.

The engine in the AMT 58 Edsel Pacer is the E400 wich is a 361 cui version of the FE wich was new for that year in Ford and Edsel, it's yellow with white valve covers and air cleaner and it was in the smaller Ford based Pacer, Ranger, Bermuda, Villager and Roundup. The E475 is a 410 cui version of the larger MEL engine wich has no relations to the FE, the MEL was available in Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln and was in the larger Mercury based Edsel Citation and Corsair, the E475 is green with white valve covers and air cleaner.

Nice build and your diorama makes it even better. I know you took libertys with this build and you are of course indeed entitled to as it's your model and you can do whatever you want. But one thing still bothers me some and it's the carburetors, as far as I know Holley 4500 series Dominators are not allowed in any Super Stock class regardless of sanctioning body, a pair of Holley 4160 series carburetors would have looked more right and the awsome Fireball Modelworks resin carburetors would be perfect.

Yes they did, all of them except for the Peterbilts and the Volvo VN. You can find the same type suspension on the AMT Peterbilt 352 and the small window 359 kits as Peterbilt used the Stabilaire suspension in the 60's, later Freightliner took over the Stabilaire and Peterbilt did the Air Leaf suspension instead.

It's supposed to be a 1969 Hurst/SC Rambler...the decals and hood scoop are right for the Hurst/SC but the body is still 1966 as the rear panel and tail lights are wrong for 1969...so it's not exactly correct.

Yes it's an old topic but I think it's about time someone did new tooling kits of both the 1963½ and 1964 Galaxie Fastbacks (in my eyes the nicest looking Galaxies made), the old AMT kits from the 60's of these cars has lots to desire both detailwise and accuracy...and how many Chevrolet kits can you do. I had hopes with AMT when they did the very good 1960 Galaxie Starliner kit that they would continue with more Galaxies based on that tooling...but no, nothing...and now woth Round 2 it will most likely not happen any day soon.

The boxed part is a regular oil pan with two sumps found on many of the more modern Fords like the Fox body Mustangs, the rear sump holds the oil and the front sump is to make room for the oil pump as it's directly under and driven by the distributor. But most NASCAR cars has a dry sump system wich is a shallow pan with several hoses that goes out of it, and a separate belt driven several segment oil pump to scavenge the oil out of the pan and into a separate tank and pump the oil back into the engine. The racers in NASCAR started to experiment with dry sump systems in 1968-69 as you can mount the engine lower in the chassis and you don't have any problems with oil pressure as the engine allways gets oil...as long as the drive belt is on. Here is a system used on many race cars.

No whatever it's supposed to be it's not good at all, if it's a bad 385 family engine it's an even worse representation of a FE as I see it, it's really not correct for any of them. The 385 family did not have the exhaust manifolds pictured, they look more like FE, likewise for the valve covers as they look to have five bolts, two on the bottom and three on top, the 385 has six or seven, four on the bottom and two or three on top. But the thermostat housing on the intake manifold looks like it's on top of the manifold pointing straight up as on the 385, the FE has the thermostate housing pointed straight forward, sometimes with an expansion tank and sometimes with an elbow that goes out in front for the hose, the water pump and timing chain cover also looks more like the 385, the 385 water pump mounts to the timing chain cover as the cover also is the rear part of the pump housing and the water goes through it into the block, on the FE the pump is separate and goes over the timing chain cover and mounts directly to the water jackets on the engine block and don't touch the timing chain cover at all. The fuel pump is on the same side on both engines so you can't go by that to decide what engine it is, and as I said the oil filter is mounted directly on the block pointing slightly downwards on the 385 and vertical to a separate aluminum adapter on the FE as the FE blocks has no casting for an oil filter. So most of the clues points to a 385 family 429-460 because if it's supposed to be a 332-428 FE it's a very bad rendering.