Tony N

I was just looking at the latest car culture Deluxe and saw this 36 Dodge truck and love the sweeping fenders on it. I thought they looked a lot like the 36 Ford car sheet metal. So I grabbed an old Monagram 36 ford kit and cut the fenders off at the part where the running boards glue in at. Then removed the 37 Fords front fender at the edge were its running board stop and a little super glue and tape and got this. So this was to easy and I am sure this has been done before. So now if I could just stop starting new models and never finishing them. I have two models that are almost finish, but I have just little things to fix on them to get them done. Must be that ADD or that other problem many of us have. Tony

Dave The T-bird does looks a lot like the drawing, Great work ! Tony

Wow, do I have a different view on shiny vs flat. I grew up in the 60's and 70's and I remember lots of primer-ed cars. There was a saying we jokingly used "primer American racing colors" lots of local street racers cars were primer only and some had rust on them too. Most of the money the guy had went under the hood on go fast parts, so looks wasn't as important. I use to go to the Fremont drag strip in the 70s and early 80s and I always had a soft spot for primer-ed cars. I was rooting for the underdog. You know the guy with less money or backing, beating the factory racer. So to me the whole Rat Rod thing isn't really new Its just got a name now, love it or not it's always been here. So my next model could be a 62 Chevy II Nova. My friend had a Primer Gray with a 365 horse 327 in it with a four speed. Tony

Is this better? J.C Whitney add from Hot Rod magazine Jan 1961. TonyN

Hey Virgil I hope this is what you want? I went to High School in Nor Cal in the early 70's and we were all into Muscle cars' mostly Chevy 's. My buddy had one of the quickest cars in town, a red 70 SS396 Chevelle with a LS6 454 in it and a B&M turbo 400 trans. He said it was a 396 when he was street racing it. I have to admit the cars all looked alike as far as personalizing mostly factory stock looking with Mags and jacked-up a little in the back, but everyone had a Garter on the passenger side sun visor ( like the ones you see the Groom removes in Weddings). My buddy had six Garters or more, the girls loved him. Everyone had to have at least one Garter made by your girlfriend on your sun visor to be cool. I had only one on mine and I married the girl that made that one. We also use to put all the speed parts decals or stickers under the back side of the hood, this keep the car clean looking and kept a low profile from the cops and other street racers. You know stop light to stop light racing. Tony N

Don I am glad you are thinking out side of the box, keep going on it . I see the car you are building is a hard top and it's a custom. Just a thought, you could make a convertible, T-top or a Opera top. a Opera top is cutting the front half of the top off over the drivers area. This way you can show of all your hard work. TonyN

Thanks Guy's for the great comments and yes thanks for the suggestions. I really wanted the suggestions to get the gears turning in my head. Rod (Jantrix) suggestion on painting the pillars to look like wood, this got Glenn (Hypermung) suggestion of using Bamboo. Making the pillars to look like Bamboo will go with theme of this Surf Tiki build. So now I am carving up some plastic to make Bamboo to cover the pillars. The nice thing about just covering the pillars is I don't have to carve up the body of the van now. I can first see if I can make some thing that looks like bamboo. If it doesn't, I can highlight the pillars in gold like Mike (Foxer) suggested. The picture of the back doors was blurry so retook it. Here is what the Vampire Van or Dark Shadows van look like before. This one show more of what it was before MPC change it forever into the Vampire Van. I wish they would make a new body and give us a 32/33 Chevy panel again. I know they have most of the molds to get there. Maybe they could make a coupe and a sedan also, like Revell did with their great 32 Fords? Tony N

Wow I haven't posted a build in along time, I forgot to add my work on the rear door. I didn't like the curtains on the back doors so made two Tiki figures for each door. Painted them gold but I didn't like all that gold so I paint over then in the Lime-time Green pearl color of the body just enough to see some of the gold color coming thru. I am open to any suggestions on this build. Tony N

Hi All I started this Surf Van or Vampire Van over two years ago and I would like to get done by the Western NNL. It is the Vampire Van body on a 32 Chevy fenders, which was once a 33 Chevy Panel before it was change forever into the Vampire Van MPC. I don't normally paint the car first but I was experimenting on how it would look. I thought that the Van body didn't look like a hearse, it looked more like Art Deco anyway it is just too short for a hearse. Anyway I wish I had not painted it first because of fit issues and lack of the original paint I used. It's House of Kolor Limetime green Pearl, House of Kolor doesn't make hobby paint any more so I thought that I was out of paint. But digging around in my paint stash I found 3/4 of a can so things are looking up. I plan to use the wheels and tires from the new Ala-Kart kit and a hop-up six for a engine. I have plans for the insides with wood panels and what ever else I can think of. Tony N.

Hello my name is officer Friday and I just saw our new unmarked car and it is BITCHING!

My first car was a 67 Riviera and I really wanted to build a copy it of years ago. So I hunted on eBay and swap meets for 66-67 Riviera junkers and bought a 69 kit. For an unbuilt kit it was over a 100 dollars, this was a very rare kit. So once I had all the parts needed to build one, guess what! The new 66 Rivera kit was released and it is a far better kit. So now I have four of them unbuilt, so far, and two older bodies to build someday. Picture of my Rivera:

Bitching Truck, Harley rider right a Harley will not fit in the bed of a 34 Ford truck. But there has been some 1/24 scale Harley's die cast built. I have seen them on ebay all the time. A Rat rod is something without shiny paint job and some rust. Just my two cents about Rat rods. Tony N

Who's going tomorrow, I have cash in my pocket and the great snow storm "ha ha" is not going to happen here in the bay area. Instead it will be in the low 30s. Hope to meet some of the local modelers tomorrow. Tony

Hi I thinking of building a copy of "The Hog" drag bike that my wife's uncles built in the early sixes. I know that Revell made a Harley Drag bike and I think it had two long tubes for fuel and oil with the name "The Hog" on it like the bike I want to build. Here are some pictures of the bike to help. Thanks Tony

Hi I thinking of building a copy of "The Hog" drag bike that my wife's uncles built in the early sixes. I know that Revell made a Harley Drag bike and I think it had two long tubes for fuel and oil with the name "The Hog" on it like the bike I want to build. Here are some pictures of the bike to help. Thanks Tony

I built my daughter a old stingray from a old frame and parts brought on ebay. It took me almost a year to built it the way she wanted, but I got done. I also have other bikes from when my son raced BMX. I have them hanging on the wall of my garage a Schwinn Super Sport and BOSS frame. The BOSS frame was built here in Livermore where I live.

Wow I love early Drag bikes, you have great start there. My wife's uncle, Stan Dishong won the Nationals in 63 or 64 with a Harley he build. He use to start it with putting the rear tire on rollers power by a Indian Chief V twin. you could build something like that to hold the bike up if you wanted. Tony N

Hi How stock are going to build this Z28? My brother has a black Z with skunk stripes and I am told a rare option of rear disk brakes. There was only two hundred made. It has all the goodies on it, cross over manifold cowl hood headers etc. Tony N

Help I have forgotten all my old log-in password and can not seem to get any results from (I Forgot log-in) Tony