SSNJim

To get back on topic, I went to the local Tesla dealer during lunch. They had a black one on the showroom floor labeled "Beta Prototype Vehicle"; it's a nice looking car. Of course, there was an extension cord running under the car and plugged into a floor outlet.... What looks to be the grill appears to be a solid piece of plastic surrounded by chrome, with a small opening at the bottom. They had the hood and hatchback open; very odd not to see any kind of a propulsion system. I would imagine it's similar to the Tesla Roadster. They have a Roadster chassis on display in the showroom, too. It's pretty much a flat, thick platform with the twin motors/transmission mounted aft of the rear wheels. The driveline is very low; none of it extends above the brake rotors. The range is what's stopping me. I think the article said it can be charged in 4-57 hours. Still a little too long for my tastes, but if you use a properly designed charging station, the time would be closer to 4 hours. If you unplug your Dremel tool to plug in your car, it will be closer to 57. Neat technology. I can't wait to see where it goes. Supposedly the Roadster is comparable in performance to a Mustang GT; the GT will out run darn near anything built in the 60's with the exception of a few big block Corvettes. I think we'll be in the third performance renaissance once EVs get the details sorted out.

I'm going to say the second pic. It looks like it's funnelling the power of the twin engines back to the rear end/driver. There's a nice visual flow from front to rear.

If you search for "Gary Weckessers" in the Drag Racing Models forum, John Teresi's build of the car will pop up. He tells all his sources for it, and there's a pretty detailed build thread. Good luck on your build.

Here's a pretty cool video I found on another site. I've watched it several times; it just fascinates me. It's a rebuild of a Triumph Spitfire engine in 2:22 set to music. Hope you enjoy!

Very nice. I really like the bed.

Not from Chevrolet. There were several converted by aftermarket companies when they were current. I've seen a couple of them around.

I didn't mention my 2007 Honda Goldwing GL1800, but I've got several 1/12 New Bright diecast-ish models of the GL1800, too. No kits, though. I had a Tamiya model of my 1981 Honda CB750F, but nothing of my 80 Honda CM400E, 86 Goldwing GL1200, 83 BMW R80ST or 88 Kawakaski Concours ZG1000. The kits are available to do a R80ST the same way BMW did - combine the R65 and the R80GS, but that was a little more work I was interested in/capable of at the time.

Actually, it was one of your threads that brought this to mind - I think it was the Infinity thread. I think we, as well as several others, have had similar experiences in that most of the cars we've owned have been available as models, and that cartoon jumped out of the dim, dark recesses of my memory. I was wondering if that cartoon had any basis in fact. It seems not.

Didn't they do a 41? Keep your hopes up! It might still happen!

Mine was a police version, so I didn't have any such worries. The only visible difference between the police and non-police Crown Victorias of that vintage is the door moldings. Even the "police hubcaps" were standard on the lower end non-police Crown Vics.

A comment made in another thread reminded me of a cartoon I saw years ago in some modeling magazine. A husband (looking somewhat miffed) and wife are in a dealership talking to the salesman. The wife says "Oh, he just won't buy a car that hasn't been released in 1/25 scale." I got to thinking about it, and almost all my 1:1 four-wheeled vehicles (07 Mustang, 07 Focus Wagon, 97 Crown Victoria, 96 Ranger SuperCab, 92 Thunderbird SC, 94 Ranger, 77 F150, 91 Grand Prix 4-door, 85 Tempo, 83 Chevy Van, 82 El Camino, 79 Mustang, 73 Capri) have been produced in plastic. Maybe not exactly (the Grand Prix model was only a 2 door of a higher trim version, and the plastic Rangers were regular cabs for example), but pretty close. I do have to admit, it does cross my mind when I buy a car - is there a model of this? I'm not sure I have bought a car because it was modeled, but the fact has swayed me when choosing between two choices. Do available plastic models influence your car buying decisions? Or maybe modifications to your 1:1?

The horse from the grille of the GT - just cut the pins off the back and glue it to the Bullitt grille. I don't know where to get the logos, other than fine detail painting or making the decals.

I've actually got a couple in the works. The best starting point is the Bullitt Mustang because it doesn't have the foglights or other ornamentation in the grille. All the lower bodywork needs to be sanded off except between the wheel wells. The indented center part below the lower grille needs to be filled in with some sheet plastic. The upper part of the bumper is totally different between the V6 and GT. The V6 is recessed between the turn signals, and the GT has a raised ridge. With a little care and filller, you can get the front end looking like the V6. The lower grille will require another Bullitt grille or a resin copy to be cut up to fit the opening. That's actually one of the things holding me up on my conversions - I need to make some copies. A GT horse with the pins removed will finish the standard V6 grille. The usual V6 spoiler (see above picture) will require some scratchbuilding or serious modification of the GT-type spoiler. The GT spoiler is also available on the V6, as is no spoiler. The V6 spoiler also comes with the racing stripes on the lower part of the doors. Oh, the "gas cap" has a different logo, as does the steering wheel - they're the tricolor bars with the chrome Mustang. The Mustang has a 4.0L V6. I tried one Ford V-6 (TBird or Ranger? I don't remember), but the starter is on the wrong side. Still looking for a good 4.0L. Duplicolor has the red paint shown above as BGM0379. The rocker panels are black on the V6. The other sticking point for me is the wheels. My car has the base wheels on it; nothing like them is available in scale as far as I know. I'll probably throw some GT wheels on it just to get it done. Eventually. Good luck to you on your conversion.

There were several models of the Avanti kitted, mostly by AMT, if you have any thoughts of building it....

I like to use a sheet of glass as a surface to determine if a part is straight or not, or to glue parts straight. I take the glass out of a picture frame. Get the cheapest picture frame you can find (I usually use 8X10, but other sizes are available) and make sure it is glass, not plastic. If you're worried about it breaking, you can put a piece of Contact or laminating paper on the reverse side. A mirror would work too. Actually, if you have a workbench, you can mount the mirror/glass to the workbench using mirror mounting hardware available at any place that sells hardware (Not recommended if you use the dining room table). Glues and paints will not solidly adhere to glass, but you can use a single edge razor blade to scrape anything off without damage. You can also use it as a base to construct jigs by taping various blocks as necessary in the appropriate areas, and taping your parts to those in the correct alignment. A sheet of glass is as close to perfectly flat and level as you can find, and is quite handy especially if you do a lot of scratchbuilding/modifying.

There is a Lego Store in Indianapolis: http://stores.lego.com/en-us/Indianapolis/LandingPage.aspx

How about none of the above? Since this is to be a 2015 car, large modern tail lights might be in order. I'm thinking large 68-69 Chevelle type tail lights that wrap around the top and side rear corners by maybe 2" or 3" so they function as side markers. Other designs will work, of course, but that's just a quick idea that will quickly identify it as a Chevelle. The rear bumper would need to be smoothed, moved down and out a bit (look at the rear ends of the most recent Caprice and Impala for the style rear bumper treatment I'm thinking of), which may match the front end a little better. Just a quick thought.

The earlier model Mustangs (2005-2009?) were like that. GTs had painted rocker panels, and V6s had the black. Apparently it changed when Ford introduced the new styling.

I've never seen it done either, but the two biggest things that come to mind are: first, to work in the largest possible scale (1/8 would be easiest); and second, finding something to use as an airbag. The air system wouldn't be all that difficult. Suitable small tubing, tanks and connectors shouldn't be too hard to find. Finding something that would be useable as an airbag would take some thought. Maybe some sort of medical tubing? Doesn't some of that have a small inflatable balloon at the end to hold it in place? A small balloon or telescoping tubing (think shock absorber) inside some O-rings or faucet washers? I'd also build a mock-up out of scale-sized scrap plastic, wood or something to work out the mechanics before hacking up a Pocher kit to try ideas out. I don't know if any of this will be useful, but at least there's a few ideas and things to think about. Good luck!

That is almost identical to mine. We must have read the same article.... I finally chipped all the paint build up off mine, so it's down to the wire again. The wood base still has all the paint buildup.

Nice work. Some really impressive customs there.

I'm the same way; I've got many 20+ year old projects laying about in addition to the newer ones. I tend to do a lot of customizing/body work, and when it gets close to what I expect (or not) and looking good in primer, I move on to the next. I tend to look at them more as recognition models than finished projects. Recognition models were model airplanes used by the military to train forward observers and pilots to visually identify airplanes. They were 1/72 scale, and painted solid black so the person could get a feel for the different aircraft. Part of it is that I'm not as good at bodywork/painting as I would like to be, and part of it is that I've got a lot of cool ideas. I do finish some with paint, wheels, and everything, but the ones I do are curbside. On the bright side, with all the reissues coming out, I am working through my stash, not buying any more models and finishing up some projects. I've got almost everything that interests me that is out now, and have for a while. I will buy most new issues of 80s and later cars, though. Anything earlier has to be really special.

Let me be the first to say it's a self-portrait. Now that that's out of the way, I just thought it would be a little different and fun. I use it as my login picture on my computer at work, too.

Very cool. I'm not big into the zombie hunter/rat rod/post apocolyptic look, but the concept and execution is great. I've considered doing a mouse car, but never quite figured out how to pull it off. "Back to the drawing board", he says while eyeballing his mouse.... Nice job!

Look at post #2: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39870&st=0&p=412291&hl=+84%20+longbed&#entry412291