SSNJim

There used to be a swap meet held by an outfit that had a name similar to Capitol Miniature Car Collectors Club at the beginning of April and November held at the Dunn Loring, VA firehouse. Is that still being held? If so, when and where? I have never been able to find a schedule for it except at the show.

The problem with not having pictures has nothing to do with the quality of the castings; no one will argue that it is difficult to ascertain quality from a catalog/internet photo. The problem is with customs and phantoms in particular. Everyone knows what a stock '54 Ford looks like. What does a "Custom 49 Mercury" or "Corvette Wagon" look like? The Custom 49 Mercury is like getting a grab bag; lord only knows what you'll get.... After spending all that time hand pouring and hand demolding EVERY part, cleaning off any flash by hand. mounting by hand EVERY part to be plated on trees to send off to the plater, vacuum forming every windshield or back window that is needed via a hand operation, and walking to school uphill both ways, you'd think a caster could be bothered to find 5 minutes to take one or two pictures of at least each custom product sometime during the production run. Between batches while the next batch is curing would be a perfect time. Where would Sears be if they had printed catalogs without pictures? It is blatantly obvious from this and other topics that both model companies and the aftermarket can do no wrong. I just know that I haven't spent my usual $100/mo on models in the last year or so. I'd be surprised if I had spent $100 this past year. Money or time isn't any problem for me. What do you think is?

I'm not really sure it's reliving the past. The past is gone, and I, for one, am glad. Think of it as benchmarking. I remember reading an article in one of the model magazines long ago about benchmarking. What it is in a nutshell is to build the same model over and over again at certain periods - every year, two years, five years, whatever. The point is to see how your skills improve over time with measurable results. It's going to be hard to compare a 32 Ford you built at 15 with a 57 Chevy you built at 20, but if you build a 49 Ford for example periodically, you can see where you have improved and need improvement. Even recreating a car from years ago helps, especially if the original still exists for comparison's sake. How's that for justification?

But the manufacturers of the Mustang, Challenger, and Camaro aren't dead. Yet. Chrysler did save the cars it considered to be worth saving (Prowler, PT Cruiser) before shutting down Plymouth, but they didn't save the Barracuda. Why? Because they don't make a Barracuda, just like Pontiac doesn't make a Firebird/Trans Am. Even if there was a Firebird made in the last 7 years, and it was still being made as a niche car by GM, Chevrolet wouldn't tolerate it as a competitor to its Camaro. Chevrolet has always been very protective of its car lines - why do you think every attempt by Pontiac to build a successful sports car (read Corvette competitor) has been quashed? I will agree with trying to mimic the styling of Japanese cars. Some of them are way overdone and tacky looking. The reason the 4 cylinder 4 door sedan is the basic American car is because that's what sells. Ford still builds the traditional American sedan Crown Victorias (in Canada, BTW) but the public wouldn't buy them. Now they're fleet sales only. The platforms are shared for cost savings. That's why you may find a Mazda, Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, Jaguar, and Volvo all using the same platform. That's why Mercury/Nissan and VW/Chrysler share platforms.

I'll be following this, too. I'm glad you decided to restore it. The taillight issue brings up a question - are you going to restore the model or build an accurate replica of the car? Or both? I would definitely stick with authentic colors.

AMT did a snap Dodge regular cab dually, and some of the wrecker kits out there have them. There's a Revell snap 73-87 wrecker that I'm thinking of that has duallies. I don't know what's on the aftermarket.

One more place: http://tocmp.com/ . It's The Old Car Manual Project, and they have sales brochures for nearly every car ever made. If you need information on the 1923 Rickenbacker Six, this is the place to come. There are also period pictures and some owner's manuals. It's a great place to start research on a particular automobile.

Ticketing loud pipes (car or bike) IS serving the public. I hate loud pipes; trying to sleep or hold a conversation while a bike is passing by is nearly impossible. Many areas are now closed to motorcycles because of the noise issue. Harleys do not come stock with loud pipes; they are quiet bikes from the factory. Most people have the dealer install pipes prior to delivery. There is a thought process among inexperienced bikers that loud pipes save lives. Experienced motorcyclists know that loud pipes lose rights. Interestingly enough, loud pipes usually cut the power the Harleys produce because the pipes tend to be tuned for high RPMs. You're right about the LEO's - I know of police agency bikes in the DC area that have loud pipes. How can laws be enforced when the police ignore them? I am a motorcyclist; I own a (very quiet) 2007 Honda Goldwing. I have put 15-20,000 miles a year on my motorcycles for years. I quit going to most motorcycle events because of loud pipes. I don't know about the reducing visibility thing, but I do like foglights, or as I refer to them, a-hole lights. If I see a car with the a-hole lights on when they're not needed, I know the driver is a jerk. They'll weave in and out of traffic, speed excessively, tailgate, run redlights and the like. Rarely are the lights wrong.

I voted restore. It's almost totally complete, and just needs a little cleaning up. Polish the windshield, foil the chrome, and give it a fresh coat of paint. It'd be killer. It would be difficult to improve the car by customizing it, and when you were done, it would look like a custom C3, not a cool Astrovette.

Nice find! That chassis definitely screams MPC. They used the same one under all their C3 Corvettes. It has separate chrome A-arms with a spring (working front suspension), poseable front wheels, and rotating half shafts for the rear wheel. Any MPC-based 1968-1982 Corvette kit should yield the replacement chassis/engine parts you need, and perhaps some of the interior parts. These kits were basically annuals, and the body was the main thing updated.

The bigger problem from my point of view is that they don't have anything to sell except licensing. Why would GM provide and rebadge cars for what they consider to be a failed nameplate already spun off from itself? There may well be plenty of unused manufacturing capability around the country, but New Pontiac needs something to manufacture. Everything they made was owned by GM. All Pontiac designers did was slap Pontiac-looking trim pieces on cars designed by the head corporate office. I've always liked Pontiac; in fact, I'd rather have seen Chevrolet offed. There's not a lot of difference, and Pontiac was always a direct internal competitor to Chevrolet.

I'm looking forward to the Pantera. I'm a big fan of early 70s Italian supercars. I think I have a Pantera bought built stashed away. One day I need to get it rebuilt. I remember seeing a Pantera or two in Louisville when I was young - definitely the first "exotics" I'd ever seen. The rumor was the owner paid about $10,000 for the car. At the time, you could get a nicely equipped Corvette for around $5500, and a house for not much more than $10,000. Enough geezin'.

The Merak was introduced in 1972, well before any fuel economy concerns, gas guzzler taxes or CAFE standards. It was a 2+2 as opposed to the Bora's 2 seat configuration, and had a small backseat. It was a GT car for the family guy or "economy-minded buyer", in much the same way Mustangs were available with 6 cylinders or 8. The Bora and Merak shared the same body shell, and the Merak's lighter weight was due to the Merak's V6 vs the Bora's V8. There were no significant dimensional differences between the two. I do agree that this particular specimen was probably dogged out, and that Chris did a very nice job.

That's my third favorite Italian car, after its big brother the Bora and the Countach LP400. I've built a couple of those kits - nice kits. One I tried to convert into a Bora without much success. I have since obtained two Bora models. The 83HP car is very odd. The Merak had a 200HP V6 installed.

That's about the way the real ones fit together. Neat kit - at least it would be if the parts fit. Is that a new release? I hadn't heard about that one. I've always been a fan of British sports cars, and have driven or ridden in many of that car's contemporaries, though never a Spitfire/GT6.

They're 911's built between 1993 and 1998. The Porschephiles tend to refer to the 911 by its internal Porsche project number. Each more modern revision of the 911 gets a new number. The original 1964 911 was the 901, followed by the 930, 964, 993, 996, and the current 997, but they were all sold as the Porsche 911. The 993 was the last air-cooled 911; all subsequent are water cooled.

That may be the one I'm thinking of. Also someone (maybe Revell?) did some snap kits of at least two Japanese trucks with fender flares, I think they were Baywatch/beach patrol trucks. I'm digging way back in the dusty corners of my mind for those. AMT did a kit of the Chevy Extreme in their series of S-10 kits.

Aoshima has a line of custom curbside minitrucks, including a mid 90's Toyota, Datsun 720, and an older Hi-Lux. They're right-hand drive, have no engines but good bodies, custom wheels, a simple interior, poseable wheels, and varying degrees of details on the undercarriage. The 720 I have has a decent chassis, but it's 4WD and lowered with wire wheels. The Toyota has an adjustable, not realistic at all chassis with a tilting bed and is ride-height adjustable. I have also seen 4 door Japanese market trucks from Aoshima, mostly raised 4WD. Aoshima models can be difficult to find, but I have seen them every so often in a hobby shop or model flea market. Here's a shot of the Toyota: I think Revell did a Chevy Luv hot rod years ago. The MPC/AMT Ford Couriers came with either a stock bed or stepside. I have seen a diecast Chevrolet Colorado (wish I had bought that). Revell/Monogram did the old square S-10 (standard and Cameo), and AMT did the newer aero ones in both Chevy and GMC versions. AMT did the 93-96 2WD Ranger in standard and Splash configurations, and a SnapFast Plus 4WD. Hasegawa did a VW van based pickup. These are the ones I can think of right off the top of my head that weren't mentioned by Mustang3.8; there may be more. There are lots of minitrucks out there, but may require some searching.

Wow. Awesome find!

The inside of a 1st gen Camaro without a headliner or upholstery: http://www.hotrodscustomstuff.com/Cars/Alo...amaro-08-07.jpg . Do you have any idea of what you are interested in building, or are you just scoping out the project? I noticed you mentioned a Fairlady Z. It might be more difficult to find pictures of bare shell tuners and imports than American/muscle cars.

Check out http://www.hotrodscustomstuff.com/construction.html . Not model related, but lots of pictures of frame off restorations on many different types of cars, many of which are replicated in scale. It's a great reference site. I found it because of a car they built. On the Construction page, it is referred to as the Golden Calf, but it is now known as the M-80. The picture on the page is a concept drawing - it ended up looking nothing like it. It is probably the most beautiful custom I have ever seen. I got a MCW 1951 Chevrolet coupe, and am now working on a custom inspired by the M-80. Most of the major bodywork is done with the exception of the lights. I am trying to get the body smooth now, and trying to decide whether to use the M-80's headlights or the stock ones. I think it is doable, and in some ways easier than building a model with opening doors, a flip-front, and opening trunk. Most of the work has been done before in-scale; the hard part would be getting exposed sheetmetal edges thin enough to be believable. Good luck. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

I was a Submarine Sonar Technician (STS1/SS, paygrade E-6) in the US Navy from 1976-1992. I took a break from building during a couple of the early years, but otherwise I've been building since around 1970. I hope my skills improve soon.... We couldn't build models on the boats due to a lack of space and the fact that most of the paints/adhesives were atmosphere contaminants, but I did when ashore at home or in the barracks.

For comparison's sake, a Tenth Anniversary Trans-Am... Note the wheels and rear side marker lights.