Chuck Most

Temporarily attached the hood to the body so I could blend in the countours. Truth be told I'm thinking of keeping the hood in place and doing it as a curbside, but I guess we'll see....

For the '56 you could start with a Revell F-100, and widen the front fenders/enlarge the wheel openings to make it into a heavier-duty version. I'd start with the Hot Rod Magazine version, since it has a small back window. You could use an Opel Blitz for the chassis. I thought somebody cast a heavy-duty 56 F-series cab years ago, but I could be wrong. I'm not sure if anyone casts a '67-72 heavy F-series, but they would use the same cab. If there aren't any out there, you could start with an R&R resin '72 cab.

I'm thinking it can't be- the Henrix kits have a one-piece interior tub with separate seats, and the castings are usually way cleaner than this one. Didn't see any images of anything like it on STAR Models' site, that rules out Hendrix, Jimmy Flintstone, and R&R.

Nice! Love those cars.

Gloss all the way- I'm leaning toward a dark burgundy for the body, with a burgundy/white two tone interior.

But there's one thing you're overlooking there... even if you buy a car built anywhere but in the good old US of A... You bought it at a US dealer. The dealership made money off of it, as did the sales rep, who earned a commission by selling it to you. The car is going to need oil changes- so you take it back to the dealer, the local ten-minute place, or go to the parts store to pick up oil and a filter if you do it yourself. Speaking of parts... any vehicle will need them eventually. So you head on over to the local parts store and get them there- thus putting money in the parts store's coffers and paying the employees. So even if your car is a an import (I'm defining an import here as anything not built in the US), your purchase of it is supporting jobs here in this country. Yeah, the guy at the US auto plant probably isn't too happy, nor would be the guy who took it from the factory to the dealer, but since the same after-purchase rules apply to any vehicle, you really aren't cutting too many people out of the pie. And if you bought an imported car, somebody had to drive it off the ship or transporter truck and take it to a distribution center, then transport it to the dealer... those are American jobs too, right?

First of all, a bit of history... What actually became the '49 Mercury was originally meant to be the Ford, but management deemed it too big and it was instead used for the Mercury and junior Lincoln line, known as the 9EL or 'Baby Lincoln'. The larger Lincoln Cosmopolitan was a completely different car, though it did appear similar to the smaller Mercury/Lincoln 9EL. The 9EL was a bit longer than the Mercury, both in wheelbase and overall measurements, but I'm keeping the Mercury wheelbase and body length for this. It's a custom after all, right? Here I've cut the hood free, and extended it down all the way to the grille opening, by cutting the top off the grille opening and gluing it to the bottom edge of the hood. Compared to the Merc, the Lincoln's hood was a bit more narrow, and the fenders were slightly wider in front. I glued the hood along the front and sides, and then cut along the hood bulge. The former hood sides will be blended into the fender tops with putty. I've also blocked off the stock headlights- the Lincoln's lights were a bit lower and more inboard compared to the Merc. I will also rework the grille opening to resemble the Lincoln's. I happened to have a pristine set of wheel covers from an AMT '62 Lincoln Continental annual, and they fit the Revell tires and wheel backs after I filed the backsides flat. That's about it for now, I'm leaving the body mostly stock (the rear already looks like a Lincoln with the '50 taillamps), but I'm thinking of leveling out the 'step' in the fender line- that styling trait never made much sense to me. The interior will also be mostly stock, but the dash will be reworked into the Lincoln piece. For power I'm leaning toward the Laethem-blown MEL 430 from the AMT '25 T kit.

Nice! I tried telephone wire for the trailer lines once and had the same problem- looks okay bundled up behind the cab, not so good when hooked up to the trailer.

Awesome... Metro! That does qualify as an AMC for the intent of the CBP.

On it, perhaps not. IN it? Fuel and fluids may not be of US origin. But that's a whole 'nother ballgame...

Started out with a parts donor kit, and threw it together just for fun. My homage to the type of beater car you used to see in central Michigan high school parking lots in the '80's and '90's, with a few late '70's/early '80's street machine cues.

Looks fantastic in that color! A custom rig that can still earn its keep as a working rig.

Regarding cars, the terms 'Domestic' and 'Import' are outmoded anyway. My neighbor is big into the 'Buy Amurkin' thing, and he's quite proud of his Dodge Charger... which is built in Canada by a partially Italian-owned company. Figure THAT out for me, would ya? The most reliable car I ever owned was my Mercury Tracer, which was built in the US by an American manufacturer... with a great number of Mazda Protoge parts. It doesn't even matter where the car was built anymore... once it's here, you still need parts and materials to repair and maintain it. Nobody I know with a Japanese car orders parts from Japan, they go right to the local NAPA or Auto Zone and buy parts for it. And most of those parts are made in China, whether the car is 'domestic' or not. Still, I'm sure the parts store people or the local repair shop you frequent is grateful for your business, no matter where your car came from. I don't even see what the fuss is about anymore.

Rotten Pumpkin might be done tomorrow. Guess we'll see.

Exhaust manifold is also different- it is set up for duals.

Oh, yeah!

Came out looking sweet. Nice save!

http://public.fotki.com/ChuckMost/kit-contents/amt/amtertl-60-chevy-pi/

Loved the Andy Griffith show, but I also thought he was great as General Rancor in Spy Hard.

Think I might know why- and this is just my theory, I have no hard data with which to back it up. Feel free to poke as many holes in this idea as you see fit... While the '48 Convert has all of the stock trim, panel lines, etc, intact, the coupe has all of those things shaved and filled. So, suppose Revell did tool up one body with two top options. Then you'd have a stock-height coupe with all the trim shaved, and all of the panel cut lines (as well as the cowl vent) filled in... and therefore not capable of being built stock (or at least with a stock-appearing body). Yes, you could graft the stock top onto the convertible body and have yourself a stock coupe, trim and all, then people would gripe about the need to purchase two kits to build one stock '48 coupe. So, even with with a theoretical pair of tops in this kit, there'd stil be quite a few people unhappy with it for one reason or another. Or, what if Revell had released the kit with both tops and a mostly stock body? "Totaly stock body with an optional chop? Some 'custom' this is", they'd say...

Traded a pair of Holley 'Fly Eye' air cleaners for these- And that complete '56 Vicky came with a pretty cool 4-door resin transkit.

The 1:1 Spitfire had to be one of my all-time favorite TV moments. The plasticene garden was pretty cool too, but just seeing that full-scale kit was so cool! Gotta love the James May pilot figure, too.

Anyone know who may have cast this? The front seat is molded right to the floor, and the kit also includes a set of what appear to be '49 Ford hubcaps to replicate the base-line '56 Ford parts.

Exactly what I was thinking!

That trim goes over the rubber seal- some of the rubber is visible, but it's mostly covered by the brightwork. This one lacks the greenhouse trim, but the same window trim was used. The backlight is the same way. This picture shows what the lips molded to the glass parts represent.