Daniel Peterson

Great. Now there are TWO disturbing images in this thread...and this lass certainly looks in the moooooooood G-rated...does the "G" stand for "gargantuan"?

My one uncle's an Archbishop, and one of my aunt's is a nun...and she was the principal at the grade school I attended "as a ute". You have no idea how eerily nostalgic that photo is to me. I didn't get away with NUTHIN'!!

I was planning on attending, since I plan to go to work that Saturday and my office is 20 mins from the shop...but now I'm worried...what the heck is a slot catholic? I'm Byzantine Catholic, many of my friends are Roman Catholic...and I have plenty more friends who approach their recognition of a supreme being from different angles... Does a slot catholic race only on Sunday, or never on Sunday....and are HO and the other scales like different sects of the same faith? Can you race on Saturday and fulfill your Sunday obligation to race? Missed you at Silent Traffic, Uncle Bobby...was it some sort of slot catholic holiday?

I looked my kit over, and for the most part I agree with the proportion and general appearance observations. This is by no means a bad kit. I do, however greatly dislike the axles. In 1:1 cars, a gaping hole in the engine block is a bad thing, and it goes the same for scale models. The other thing is the rear steelies. For some reason, they look more like front wheels than rear ones. They aren't deep enough, and there's what appears to be a dust cap detail instead of the end of an axle in the center of the wheel. That little gripe is something I can live with given the spare/extra parts count in the kit. It is nothing short of refreshing to score some extra goodies in a new kit. Overall, and considering all the factors, I'll have to concede that a new release as nice as this is not such a bad thing. My only fear is that plastic models will continue to trend toward toy construction as a concession to the economy of producing metal and plastic cars using the same basic engineering. And although I was holding the Challenger kit in my hand Friday night, my "spider sense" was tingling and I put it back. Sounds from some comments like it's a kit I can wait to buy until I can score it for a few bucks less.

Now hold one Lyle...I did some quick research and there is in fact a remote village in the tiny eastern European Republic of Ghawtanoplastika and...get this...one zip code in the Baltimore area where nobody ever heard of the MAMA's boyz. Oddly enough, I have some business travel scheduled for both locations (go figure) and I'd be glad to circulate some newsletters for ya.

Uh, yup. I just added the newest member info in to the CPMCC database (those punch cards take forever) and the total on file is 85. Headcount fluctuates a smidge from year to year due to people moving, dropping out, rejoining after a break or whatever, but the club has grown steadily (around 30%, near as I can tell) over the past 9 years that I've been in it. Or is that in spite of me being in it...whatever. Congrats to you on your Mustang, and to all of the other members who placed models on the table. There was some sweet stuff on display. I love the diversity we're seeing. The guys are really mixing it up! And I think the primer table is fast becoming my favorite! (Thanks for the photos Lyle...they look just like the ones I took! LOL!)

I'll either have very little time or no time to mess with a hobby shop visit between Dundee and home here in central PA, but it's worth asking. I head out tomorrow and come back Saturday. It's probably a long shot, but what the heck.

That's one outstanding build! I'm glad whatever troubles you had with the paint and decals and such didn't discourage you enough to make you throw it back in the box! Congrats on a simply fantastic completion!

I hope nobody takes this the wrong way, but THANK YOU for not "ratting" it. I think it is another in long line of well executed street rods, with pretty much nothing not to like about it. In other words, typical Willits. Well done, sir.

Very nicely done, as are all your projects! Your craftsmanship is outstanding, but can I respectfully ask that you look into setting up a better lighting arrangement to really showcase the work you've done?

If that's all you missed, then you read more than half of what I said. That's a more favorable ratio than I'm used to...I have a teenage son.

Since the tubing is hollow, I just slid the wire in there. I wish I had the label from the package of wire I bought, but I don't so I can't tell you the exact diameter to hunt for. It measures out to about 1/16th, but I don't know if it was originally marked in inches or a wire gauge. It was sold in about 15" lengths rather than on a spool.

The pace at which I complete anything as become the stuff of legend, but I do actually start suff. I pulled out a GT350H Mustang and figured I could whip it up as a box stock build just to get the juices flowing again...but of course, I started thinking about modifications shortly after putting it on the bench. I'm now gathering parts to make it a 70's street machine of sorts. But I digress...the topic here is simple roll bars. I know this technique is not new, but it's new to me and I was flabberghasted at how easy it was. First thing I did was get some 3/32" (2.4mm) Plastruct styrene tubing. It looked a little bit too small in the store, but I think it scales out nicely for a believable roll bar. Second step was to root around for some aluminum wire. I don't know where I originally got it, but I'm going to guess it was purchased at a craft store, probably in the jewelry or floral section. Here are the two side by side. The idea is to insert the wire into the tubing for strength, which will prevent the tubing from kinking and to help the final form retain its shape. The wire has to fit the interior diameter of the tubing, and fortunately this size tubing and the wire I found were perfect for each other. Yeah, I know this is pretty simple, but that's the point. Now that we have covered "theory", let's get to the actual fabrication process. I personally have a terrible time sizing a custom roll bar to the interior...mostly because I can't crawl in there with some tubing and a tape measure. I discovered that using this wire to form a "dummy" roll bar was (again) waaaaay too easy. I simply took a length of wire, estimated the location of the first bend to get the proper height so I'd clear the roof and slipped it into the side window of the model (body on chassis with the interior tub in place). The rest was trial and error until I got one side of the roll bar to the shape I wanted. Remember, I've only got one or two bends on one end of the wire, with the rest of the wire sticking out and being used as a handle of sorts. Once I got the primary shape for the hoop "right", I placed the wire on a piece of paper and traced the form I made. I used that tracing as a template to get the other side bent the same as the original, and cut off the excess wire. Remember, this is not the roll bar, but rather my "dummy" for mock-up. Now that I have the form shaped correctly, I need to make the real roll bar. Rough out how much tubing you need, and leave some excess wire sticking out. Part of the reason for doing that is so you don't lose the wire in the tubing, but there's another purpose as well. You'll see what that is later. As you see below, the wire serves its purpose and holds the bend you make in the tubing. Without it the tubing wants very much to go back toward its original shape unlesss you heat it. Heating this stuff to bend it seemed too much like work to me. Take your wire-filled tubing and bend it by hand to match it to the shape of the "dummy". I can't offer much more instruction than that. You do want to remember that you'll want to expose some excess wire once you have everything sized the way you want it. Those exposed wires will eventally serve as locating pins. The photo below shows how I prepped the interior tub for the main hoop and rear braces. Again, I eye-balled this, but actually measuring things for location and placement can't hurt. Those little holes in the bottom of the interior tub are going to accept the excess wire I told you to leave exposed. (The holes in the back are for the bracing...this is a simple 4pt bar.) It's a good idea to leave an inch or so of the wire exposed until you fine tune all the bends. The excess sticking through the bottom of the tub will keep things located while you tweak. Once you have the shape finalized, double check that it clears the seats and anything else in the interior that might interfere. Now is the time to double check the fit of the body over the interior and roll bar. To make the rear braces, all I did was cut a pair of pieces of tubing, eyeball the angle I wanted and drill those holes in the back of the interior tub. I notched one end of each tube and raduised it to give it a fishmouth so I could glue it to the main hoop. I slid the tubes through those holes toward the hoop and glued them to the hoop with liquid cement and let it cure overnight. You want to leave some excess tubing at the rear as well so you can manipulate them while getting the cement to set. I did not cement the tubes to the interior tub, because I want to be able to remove the assembly to paint it and reinstal it later. You could create mounting plates out of styrene instead of cutting holes in the interior as I did, but in this case I want the illusion of these tubes passing into the trunk area and being attached to something of substance. This is the resulting assembly. You can see the little pins I left at the bottom of the main hoop. And this is what it looks like in interior. I'm thinking a cross bar behind the seats might be in order, but other than that, I call it ready for paint. You can get as crazy as you want with roll cages, but this shows you the basic process I used and is just intended to give you an idea of how to fab your own simple roll bars and not have to rely on the parts box to supply one that "kind of" fits.

For an early effort, you really did a decent job. I see signs of you having the basic skills under control, and you're obviously interested in learning and building more, so the rest is just practice. The best way to get that is by building. You've already received a lot of good advice, but if it'll help, check out my club's web site's "tips" page. Some of the pointers there might not be of interest to you now, or ever for that matter, but some of them might come in handy at some point. Keep watching and learning, and for goodness sake, keep building. You'll be impressed at the progress you'll make just by "doing".

It's a Spuner. You came up with a neat concept and executed it nicely! I agree with the others here, too. Your work is outstanding.

This is how it happened in the wierd Petersonian Universe...the origins date back to the late sixties... My first model...purchased for me as a gift by my elder gearhead (in love with everything from MGs to Gassers) brother. That was what an astronomer might refer to as the Big Bang...it was in fact (I believe) the Surf Woody that started things along. Built without paint and a lot of glue (the good, hallucinogenic Testors stuff) it shortly disappeared into anonimity. I do not remember its exact fate, but I hazard it does not reside in the International Model Car Builders' Museum... For some reason, it was soon thereafter determined by my relatives that not knowing what to get me for a birthday or Christmas was not a problem as long as there were plastic models available. I soon also figured out doing chores could finance a bike ride into the downtown Pottstown area to Town Toy to get another model. For less than 5 bucks, I could get a model, some paints, and dodge traffic for a burger across the street at Ginos. Oh, and the exercise that came with riding my bike a few miles either way meant all I actually took home was the score from Town Toy... Moving along to Intermediate School and later Junior High, I found several other buddies who built models. They had stashes ranging from a box of old parts to a stack of unbuilt gifts. (See, my relatives weren't the only ones wise to the merit of model kits as gifts.) Our school even allowed models to be displayed in the trophy cases near the office. This was the early 70s and cars as well as models of cars were still considered cool. This was also when I first started seeing that accumulating parts and kits was a noble, if not mandatory task if I was to pursue the hobby further. It's also when I was first bitten by the Auto World catalog virus. That's when I learned there was a lot more out there that I had to have in order to support my growing addiction. For a brief time, the beloved and legendary 3-in-1 and annuals fueled my buiding, which led to loads of excess parts and outrageous kit-bashing. Still, I was buying kits on an as-I-could basis with the intention of building the model, and usualy doing so. The shelves started to fill with built models and my parents still thought the hobby was an acceptable diversion. (That would change during High School) High school led to a 66 Rambler American and a 65 Pontiac LeMans in the back yard...and girls. Building continued, but ebbed slightly since bloody knuckles and cursing more than a bad golfer while working on the cars consumed my spare time when I wasn't chasing a certain blonde or two that couldn't be convinced as I was that I was the man of her dreams. That's the background, so this is where things really speed up. Pay 'ttention. 3-in-1s started to dry up, and many of my glue bombs and glue-bomb generated spare parts started to disappear and not get replaced. I continued to buy kits to build right up until graduation from HS and then things flat out stopped with my first semester of college. Fast forward to 1983...college graduation. I had squirreled away a few kits that awaited my return from University. They were built, but with the parts depot I had previously amassed now gone, I commenced buying kits just for their wheels or tires (MPC slicks the hottest targets) in order to complete them. I also bought kits for engines, or sometimes just headers. Remember, there was a time when the box art managed to tell you what options were in the box... Now I was accumulating the core kits I wanted to build, and the parts donor kits. Most every retail store had model kits and I still hade no less than 3 local hobby shops from which to harvest kits & supplies. I was now too far gone for help. I was working and had an income, was living at home for a little bit longer, and didn't have a steady squeeze to divert hobby money to movies and restaurants. I then moved out and with an 2BR apartment came the ability to set a hobby room aside and I had the freedom to build into the wee hours of the morning if I cared to. And I often did. My skills had improved over the years and I was now buying kits ahead of my building pace like never before. Then it happened. I got married and bought a house. My buying didn't slow down much, but sheetrock and carpentry consumed my waking hours. Needelss to say, I was growing a backlog of kits, all with the intention of building them when things slowed down. Then my son was born (Yes, I managed a little sumpin' besides sheetrock and carpentry now and again) and even the buying slowed down...though it didn't stop. Now we're looking at a couple years of kits getting accumulated, and no building. My son became old enough to not demand constant attention and the house was pretty much how we wanted it, so I started going to the garage to build for an hour or two before bed. That's when the real work started getting done...but no project was started without a second (or third) kit for parts. My work got so much better that I decided to enter a contest and I faired extremely well for a first timer. The second "Big Bang" came when at these shows I discovered kit vendors. I was done for. I'd walk out with 6-8 kits and a trophy, and starting jonesing for the next show. Enter my joining a model car club, and finding out that I could score kits at upwards of 5 bucks below hobby shop retail, and things commenced getting really ugly. Now I sit here freshly divorced, with a 60 hour a week job, and a 16-year old at home. I don't have time to build, but lordy I still have time to buy. Now I buy kits to replace the ones I destroyed or never had the chance to buy when I was a kid. My amassment (I refuse to call it a collection) weighs in at close to 400 kits, each and every one purchased to build, or at least support a build. Making matters worse, I have probably $400 in aftermarket parts waiting to get matched up to a project...some I haven't purchased the kit for yet. So you ask why so many kits. It's not my fault. Other people made me do it. Even a decade or so of ugly cars coming out of Detroit and the seemingly endless transfer of mold ownership and lost tools couldn't help me. It's my brother's fault. It's Town Toy's fault. It's my relatives' fault. It's my education's fault. It's my apartment's, and later my house's fault It's the girls I never hooked up with's fault. It's those darned cars' fault. It's the contest, vendors, reissues and aftermarket's fault. I didn't do anything wrong. I bought what I intended to build, and did so with a clear conscience. The fact I have 40+ years worth (If I started...and finished each one in little over a month's time) of kits to build is merely a sign that I had the best of intentions, and in fact still do. I am doing what is right and natural for people like us. It's all the outside factors that cause the gap between buy and build. I feel so much better, now having gotten that off my chest...

True that! I get the exact same reaction when I tell people you're 74! Happy Birthday Lyle! Whichever one you say it is!

Blair was a pleasant surpise when he joined. I thought he was heavy into light commercial subjects, but he knows his way around pretty much any kit. His real talent seems to be taking perfectly good, fresh- from-the-mold styrene and getting it to look like 60-year-old neglected ferrous metal...it'd be like somebody taking a rosy cheeked junior member and making him look like...well, Lyle. (I'm probably going to pay for that analogy, aren't I?)

It might be worth it to get a photo of Cruz sitting in the parking lot...

For 23 years it's been on the first Saturday of the month...heck, even Lyle remembers most of the time!! Since you weren't there when we were...your pennance is to go there NEXT Saturday when none of us are there. Fair's fair, my brother! Without balance all that's left is anarchy and decay!! Consider yourself scolded.

So, Bill...or is it Mr Geary now? Being featured regularly in Classic Plastic wasn't enough for you? You had to go and take a run at the big time? And succeed?! Just remember the little people (compared to you, that'd be most of us) you met on the way up, okay? Congrats!

Thanks for the photos Lyle! It was a great meeting! I'm still amazed by the quality of the models both completed and in progress each month, and the generally warm atmosphere...or was that the birthday candles? Imagine...you and Lou are only 38 years older than the club itself!

Well, Bill. You've done it again! Another gorgeous build-up! I hope to see it at the January CPMCC meeting! You can come, too!

Stud finders...whatever happened to rapping your knuckles on the sheet rock until the tone changed? I had an electronic stud finder years ago. My son, then 5 or so, saw it and asked what it was. I told him "It's a stud finder...you press this button and and slide it across the wall to find a stud." I handed it to him...he placed it on his chest and pressed the button, and a red light came on. His eyes lit up and he immediately imformed me he was a stud. Now that I'm single again, maybe I should carry a stud finder with me and use it when I'm introducing myself to available middle-aged ladies...course if they're my age, they'll ask why I didn't just punch myself in the chest until the tone changed.

Ya didn't need to get specific...