Chuck Most

Should be cool! One little tip if you're interested- all 1994 and newer F-Series trucks had a driver's side airbag. AMT neglected to update the steering wheel for the '94 and '95 versions of their kits, but if you happen to have an AMT Taurus SHO kit made after 1991, that kit has a steering wheel that looks pretty close.

Good point.

Same here. Seems kind of weird they'd use the graphics from a now-defunct monster truck on a new Camaro. But then again, I guess so would using the livery from the Larson funny cars...

Alrightie. For a wrecker boom, you could rob one from the Lindberg '34 Ford closed-cab pickup kit. You can trim the upright supports to adjust the angle of the boom. You could also scratchbuild one from Plastruct or Evergreen styrene. You'll need a bed or platform for the boom to attach to- cut down an existing kit part to suit, or make one up. Since you said the grille is from a semi, you could make one to resemble the wrecker body on a heavy-duty wrecker. A smaller version of the body on AMT's Peterbilt 359, or something like that. Or you could make one to resemble a period (1930's) wrecker body. Look around online for images of original '30's wreckers, some of them came with pretty cool looking Art Deco-styled wrecker bodies, and you could try to duplicate something similar. Dual rear wheels and cab lights might be in order- they'd help tie the semi grille into the total theme. An air horn wouldn't be out of the question either. A shop name or some other type of artwork on the doors would be a nice touch as well. None of these are requirements, really, just suggestions. And since it's a rat rod, there's really no 'wrong' way to do it. Unless you plan to graft the back end of a Grand Am and the front of an Alero to your cab. A few 'visual aids' that might help...

What kind of truck will the end result be? Are you using a '20's/'30's cab? Or something a little newer, like from the '60's?

Best way to improve the looks? Liberate that R-series IH cab, part out the Pontiac and Olds stuff, and do something else... ANYTHING else with it. Make a truckster hot rod using the proceeds from selling the GM parts. Barring that, use the cab for a tree fort, or something.

The thread that wouldn't die! Thanks guys! I no longer own this one. My neighbor, not a modeler but a life-long IH truck guy, now has it in his collection. Should NOT have done that... now he's hounding me to do a model of the '80 Scout II Traveler he used to own!

If only half of the Grand Am remains... can it still be considered a Grand Am?

Wonder if it might be a tie-in somehow to Bruce Larson's series of Camaro Funny Cars.

Is anyone in this guy's area? I'm asking because I'd really like to know if this thing actually exists. It's a real listing, but I'm thinking it's some kind of joke. And no, I don't want to contact the guy. http://knoxville.craigslist.org/cto/3091802234.html It looks like a well-played series of Photoshopped images to me, but it has been haunting me... if it is real, I don't know if I should hate the guy for ruining an IH truck, or love him for taking a red Grand Am GT off the road.

Welcome aboard!

Working on the splash apron.

Matthew McConaughey is in it... I'd let her go by herself.

Very cool! Gotta show this to a buddy of mine, seeing something like this built from a JoHan kit would irritate him sooooooo bad! Have to ask- where did you find the tires?

I know the Galaxie kit had some (very poorly printed) whitewall tires, and the foil that came with the kits seemed really prone to tearing. That last one may have been due to age (the first Prestige kit I ever bought was not quite eight years old when I bought it). The printed whitewalls in all of the Prestige kits I've had were a big letdown- they were printed off-center, inconsistent thickness, had a rough edge, or any combination of those three ails. Dan is correct in that the Corvair and Benz did not include the printed whitewall tires, but as far as I can recall, all the others had them.

Remember that Rambler American from way, way, way back? Well, I was surfing the web last night looking for images of a '63 Rambler Classic 660 (because I do stuff like that when I can't get to sleep), and stumbled across this... I'd planned to do the Rambler as a beater, and now I've got something to go by. Hopefully this means it will make its way back onto the bench.

Looks like I might need to start watching VH-1 again.

Hoping it works out for you! Meantime, I suppose I could stoke the creative fires a little bit. I've got two inline six projects on the bench right now, both Hudson 308 Twin H mills. This one is going to be mildy hopped up, and it'll end up in a lead-sled '52 Hornet convertible. I nabbed the Stromberg carbs and curved stacks from the Revell Tweedy Pie kit. Six of them are included, so I've still got four of them left. This one will have a yet-to-be-scratchbuilt finned head, patterened after the old Clifford piece. This one's more or less done- it has some old Strombergs from a Revell parts pack Cadillac engine, and already has a scratchbuild finned head. Not sure what kind of body I'll end up slinging over this chassis at this time- probably a '34 Ford pickup. And... Saw this thing today, and it would fit in the theme of the CBP. Old Dodge cab, Cat I-6 diesel, and an old Cat tractor grille shell. I might give a go at a 1:25 scale project based on this thing. I'm certainly not going to try it with my 1:1 '40 Dodge cab.

And don't forget- the MPC Lincoln and Chrysler Imperial were also sold as Airfix kits.

I've managed to cut back quite a bit- not having a steady job (and thus no money for smokes) certainly helps a great deal. Always said I'd stop once they hit five bucks a pack, but when that happened, I just switched to a cheaper brand.

Most comprehensive list of Classics I've seen Eric! One minor gripe- not all of those kits are 1:24 scale- all of the MPC and JoHan kits are/were 1:25.

Looks like we've got a couple of 'count me in's', several 'might be able to's' at this point. Now who's gonna be the first to jump in? Probably not me, but we'll see.

And, at this stage in the game- LOTS of mold seam cleanup. And be ever mindful of warped parts.

I worked out a way to fix it, too, trouble is I never got around to finishing the 'test subject'. I'd really like to see your take on it- mine seemed kind of tedious. Let's just say there was a lot of trimming and force-fitting parts with my method.

Go with the straw- otherwise you'll have all that paint and propellant flying back into your face! Using a straw or some other type of tubing on the spray nozzle will minimize that.