Alyn

dis Zuki for adding some scratch built details and then offer up a truck with no scratch parts and in the quintessential, one wheel up mall crawler pose no less. ya gotta love the internet

That is one fine looking intake setup; the whole engine for that matter. ... can't blame ya for not wanting to built as the blue #65, the wheels are kinda smallish. On the other hand, your car came in blue plastic, so you wouldn't have to paint it.

Exellent looking ride! The chopped top really sets it off. I love these 37's. It's too bad the hood always seems to not quite sit down into a good position. Your custom work, color and choice of wheels are great. Neato, neato, neato!!! I'm gonna have to fall back and check out the rest of this WIP.

Virgil, you're outrageous. I love how you sometimes build in pairs. Most of us have probably had alternating concepts of how to build a model, but end up picking one and running with it. You on the other hand, come up with two ideas and build them both. Your paintwork is beautiful and really captures the Giger style.

What Dave said; narrow the track a bit and it'll look better. It's nice to see a 4X4 being built by someone that has some familiarity in the 1:1 world. It appears that you know what it takes. I've seen too many off roaders built without a track bar (and no triangulation) or having leaf springs with shackles at both ends. Your bumper and winch really add to this build.

That is a great looking trunk. Is that a combo of the Ranger with the Lightning engine? The color looks pretty close to Tamiya TS-50 Mica Blue.

The pipes got a little attention tonight. The headers are .080" styrene rod, increasing to 1/8" rod. 1/8" aluminum tube is epoxied to the styrene. The pipes have a 45 degree cut at the end. You can't see it, but I drilled a .020" pin hole about 1/2" from the end of the tube. This will allow for a small rod that will extend out from the body for a rear attachment. I'm not really happy with the transition from the small diameter rod to the 1/8" rod. It's gong to need some work. Actually, I think the megafone style shorty headers look better, but my first two Flatheads had those, so it's time for a change. Building a model is just a long series of challenges. You think about each one, solve it and move on to the next.

Glad you like it, my friends. I wish I had one about 25 times larger myself, and these Flatheads are becoming my favorite motors to build. Last night was gas tank night. The stock 29 has the tank in the cowl with gravity used for the fuel pump. Looking in the trunk, there's a huge space behind the seat, so I thought a tank would look cool there. This one is made from 3/8" styrene tube with the ends capped. Styrene rod is used for the filler tube which will have a cap made from a slice of slightly larger rod. The brackets are glued to the inside of the frame rails to hold the tank. At its current height, the trunk hinges interfere slightly, so the rear of the body will likely get raised 1/16" for clearance.

of course, this sort of thing is rampant in the automotive world. Look at all the cars with fake louvres, fake scoops, fake bead locks, fake convertible tops and on and on. Just like lakes pipes, most of these things start out as functional items (in many cases, competition related) and evolve into costume jewelry as everyone wants "the look", but could care less about the functionality.

This rig is really starting to look cool as a serious 4X4. You're doing a great job with the axles, bumpers and other details; especially the winch. The normal CRV drive train is about the least likely to every see service off road. Assuming you are building it curbside, I'd hang a pretty serious looking transfer case underneath as well as some reinforcing tubing for the chassis to give it the appearance that you were only using the CRV body draped over a seriously built chassis and drivetrain. That would make for one cool trail rig. A real sleeper. 2 Thumbs up on the concept and workmanship.

and back in the day were called "lakes pipes", notice the "s". Intended for cars that went to the dry lakes to allow the exhaust to be quickly opened up.

Stance = ~50% of the "look". You got it down! I'm looking forward to the cycle style fenders, Fletch. They're a real throw-back to the old days that you just don't see much anymore. P.S. Remember to use black plug wires to be period correct.

I appreciate your comments, guys. JBWelda, I only have the one picture. My dad was showing me an old photo album and when we came across this one of his friends car, the picture jumped right off the page and screemed BUILD ME! The scanned .jpg I posted is actually about 50% bigger than the original that I'm working from. Just like Fletch's Shadowbox coupe, one overly dark picture and missing alot of detail. Both of us are having to make up some of the details, but keep them within the tradition and era of the original car. I suppose we could've done a "build an oldy from a picture" community build... thanks for following along

I've been fiddling around with my latest Flathead. I really like building these motors. They have so much character. This one will look fairly worn, but not a rusted out barn find. The only hop-up parts will be the aluminum dual carb manifold and extra carb. As seen in a previous picture, the motor was originally primed in Tamiya gray to work out the seams and flash. Once that was taken care of, it was shot with a coat of black primer. After the black had time to dry, I brushed on some Floquil mineral brown and a bit of roof brown somewhat randomly about the motor. Then some liquid mask was dabbed in the plug holes and a few other random areas. After the mask had time to dry, a salt mask(ala Cranky) was added to produce a random chipping effect. The final engine color will be a worn gold, so the whole engine and tranny were covered in Tamiya TS-21 gold. The TS-21 is a gloss paint, so to tone it down, the gold was covered in Testors dullcoat for the final worn appearance. The intake manifold is covered in MetalMasters stainless steel and Testors dullcoat. The stainless is slightly darker that MM aluminum, giving it the look of weathered aluminum.

Replacing the wood panels with carbon fiber sounds like a great idea!!! Looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

You caught me looking for the Mustang too ... This was a nice surprise though. Nicely done, but the striped paint theme really sets it apart. Excellent subject matter.

So, you took the plunge... Deep breath and start spraying. I think it looks good. You can see all the body lines. As far as the clear coat goes, that will probably make it look a bit less traditional. It has a nice satin finish now. You're the one that sees it in person though. One thing that I'm not sure about is the top bows. I'm not sure why you went with round rod rather than a square or rectangular section. I'd probably have used the square section rod and colored them in some sort of wood tone, maybe a sun bleached and weathered light grayish hue. She's looking good though. I really like the rear three quarter view, showing off the slicks.

Oh boy, don't tell me you're going to un-chop the top!!! Looking forward to your "take" on this cruiser. Just for a little inspiration, here's one Jim Hernandez built last year. Talk about inspired. He named it The Friki Tiki.

Nice looking car. I saw one just like this on a contest table last weekend, but it was painted a yellow and white two tone. It's hard to say which color combo suites it more. Hang on to you blood pressure, Peter. I'm just kidding. You certainly have cornered the market on unique with this and many of your other creations. Gorgeous design, engineering and workmanship. You've hit the tri-fecta. Everything about it impressive. A wonderful car.

No matter what yer doing, duct tape comes in handy I was wondering how they'd work out, but those canted quads are blending in nicely. Go Man, Go!

Thanks, Dave. Speaking of drool? I'm ready to start drooling over a resistance soldering setup. Is this something you made yourself, or store-bought? From what I've heard, the store-bought variety can cost a buck or two. If you made your own, I'd love to see some details on that. I had to work late tonight, but here's a picture of my exhaust header jig. I don't know how well I explained it before, but a picture says a thousand words. The plastic is .080 round rod. Sounds a little big in diameter (2 inch in scale) for a small flathead, but by my eyeballs, looks about right. Artistic license strikes again. I also cut down the windshield frame last night. The joints still needs to be cleaned up and the wiper arm will probably go, but looks to me like a definite improvement for the cars attitude.

Thanks, guys. I think the stance is pretty good, but I'm holding off judgement until the windshield frame is chopped. It's canted back about 5 degrees from stock, but still really bugs me with how upright it stands; gives the whole car a character that doesn't work for me. I spent what little time I had tonight on building a jig for headers. Nothing fancy, just a 1" x 1/8" strip of aluminum with some 3/32" holes drill in one end. The holes are spaced to match a Ford Flathead block, so I can use it to bend and mock up headers. The good thing is it can be clamped up in a vise to provide a sturdy base to bend the headers. I don't use solder, but rather aluminum rod, brass, or styrene. The harder metals take a bit more effort to bend, so the rigid base comes in handy. I can even use heat if needed without fear of melting the motor. Once bent, I know that I can slide the headers out of the jig and they'll fit right into the block. I have another jig for SBC headers and plan to make a few more as the need arises. cheers

I've got one of these and don't have a clue what to do with it. It's good to see a man with a plan. You're getting off to an interesting start with some ambitious ideas.

Neat little car, Dave. That picture of the original car is as real as it gets for a retro build. I'm definately relating to your inspiration of a single old photo as a springboard to a really cool project. The matte black look is cool and certainly fits in with the original, but do you fear loosing the details in the darkness?

This thing is really progressing nicely. The details are looking good, but man oh man, the paint is a knockout. I grabbed some bottles of Boyd's purple enamel on a clearance shelf a while back and have been looking for a project to use it on. I will feel blessed if it lays down anywhere near as nice as yours. Did you shoot this from a rattle can, or airbrush? The color is a great choice as well. It really should pop with the other colors you described.