alan barton

That came out great Drew, but before you get paint and glue on that nice white surface, go and get a sheet of glass cut to fit, with a polished front edge for safety. You are a racecar and hot rod builder like me, and glass is the only way when you are trying to fab chassis, setup suspensions, keep the wheels upright and all fours etc etc etc. You will never regret the very small investment. Cheers Alan

Hi guys, Glad you love our Aussie icons! Yep, even as a Ford guy, I think the HQ coupe was the prettiest car we ever made. There are hundreds of show cars and street machines built from these and though their older brothers , the HK, HT and HG get more dollars, they are still a very desirable car. There was a facelift with the HJ, HX and HZ models but they looked like a Monte Carlo and frankly, were square pegs in round holes, or blunt square noses on a sexy flowing body. Those later models did have upgraded front ends that made them handle much better than the HQ - I once owned an HQ ute and I never understood how a woman could have parked one - the non-powered steering was heavy as a truck! The HX and HZ front subframe (think Camaro) is a popular bolt on swap into an HQ. Fun Fact - every HQ,J,X,Z Monaro coupe came with a tinted band rear window - why? Because they pinched them off early seventies Chevy Caprice - for a low volume market like Australia it was a cost cutting exercise using the GM parts catalogue. And TomZ, if I can speak on behalf of Jason and Michelle who are great friends of mine and run TPB to support themselves and two boys, can I discretely say that the lack of identification on some of their parts reflects the need to avoid spending huge dollars of their income on heavy licensing fees - get my drift? A little google searching will reveal what their parts are for. An unfortunate fact of the modern business world. Not much help to an American but every Aussie car guy knows exactly what a "red motor" is, it only refers to one make and generation of Australian engine and easily the most popular of all time. it was in production for at least 30 years that I can think of. "Red Engine" is their way of not treading on toes yet telling Aussie modellers, at least, what it is. Again, Google is your friend Cheers Alan

Made some progress on the weekend with the frame. I fabricated a new torsion bar lever arm to replace the broken one - it's just bits of plastic. The engine is glued in so that I can start getting the exhausts repaired and aligned. I found a suitable replacement for the broken rear shock ( I was amazed at how similar it was!) and got the rear end in place. I still have to add some details to the front axle such as king pins and hubs and backing plates - it's just a bit toylike in that area. And just for giggles, I dropped the Vicky body on for a mock-up but this is only temporary - more news soon!

You're right there, Goatguy, I couldn't get the smile off my face when I saw them. It takes a lot of stress out of the build. There is still a lot to do but I am very happy with the chassis - front and rear axles are the next bit of scratchbuilding to contend with. The engine is going to look after itself but I made need to scratchbuild the injectors - I have a found a few parts that are close in shape but too small. I heard a few more interesting stories from Greg on the weekend. One of the ways that he was able to identify that the sandblasted and generally neglected body was in fact the Mickey Thompson car was by the rear marker lights. Ford supplied crates and crates of parts for this effort in order to promote the then new Mach 1 Mustang. Somehow they inadvertently sent Mercury marker lights instead of Mustang ones - that is what went on the car and the spacing of the holes helped confirm it! You can also still see evidence of damage to the right hand windshield pillar (underneath) that occurred during an accident. Once I get the front and rear axles sorted and the frame sitting on wheels I think it will start to build itself. Hopefuly I will have more photos by the weekend. And Codi, thanks for your comments. It is your approach to scratchbuilding simply everything that has inspired me to tackle this project. I wont meet your levels of metal mastery, even in plastic, but I will try to use your approach to keep me on track. Cheers Alan

Green is a suitably alien colour for this one - cool concept! Cheers Alan

It always hurts to go backwards, especially on a beautiful black finish like that. Earlier this year I went to polish out a very small blemish on a black 32 roadster. I had a major brain fart and started polishing with Tamiya PUTTY, not Tamiya COMPOUND. Similar tubes, radically different results! You've got some stunning proportions on this little roadster. I'm a big fan of suicide front ends but they are not easy to get looking right and this one really hits the high notes for me. Love the half tonneau as well. Good luck with the repairs! Cheers Alan

Believe me Bob, I'm thinking about it! The AMT wire axles would make it fairly easy to do. I often build full bodied or full fendered cars with different wheels on one side to the other (I used to be indecisive, but now, I'm not so sure!) but fenderless cars, well, it's kinda hard to disguise what you are up to! I got the instructions off the Drastic Plastic website today and they show that I am looking pretty good as far as parts go. I doubt whether I have the taillight assemblies but there are many other options - 49 Merc custom units, C2 Corvette, Corvair, all could be made to work. I'm not pedantic about getting every single part as per AMT but I do want to maintain the spirit of the model. After all, it is no beauty queen but it does accurately represent an era in both hot rodding and modelling history - that's what I want to preserve. Cheers Alan

I'm kinda late to the party but wow, this is a stunner, Mike. As I am now in the process of building the same model form leftover parts, your photos are also a great reference source as well. You also have me seriously re-considering my choice of wheels! And Craig, love that Vicky! That was my plan (B) until I got a very generous offer that I will reveal in my thread when it arrives here in Australia. Cheers Alan

Thanks for the link Casey. Somehow I missed this one entirely ( and I never skip a hot rod post, not sure what happened there!) It is a beautiful model, a real inspiration and a great reference as well. Only problem is, I am now confused with wheels. I had intended to keep the kit wheels purely from an historical aspect but Monogram whitewalls and five spokes are my favorite wheels of all times and look killer on that Deuce. Ahh, decisions, decisions! Cheers Alan

A little bit of progress last night. I got home from work and pulled the interior tub out of the caustic path and it was spotless! I was very impressed as black often is very tenacious and can stain the plastic - the fact that it had never been sanded would have helped a lot here. I can't get over how pure white the 50+ year old plastic is! I also cut some fine mesh to make a backing for the grille and I'm pretty happy with the look. I also got some gold paint on the engine and rear end and some white primer on the firewall - but that may change - stay tuned! Cheers Alan

Great to see you got these done! Never, ever give up! I'm a big fan of woodies and it is amazing how different they look just with a change of colour. Nice work! Cheers Alan

Not a bad idea, Steve, but I have something in the wind that could be even better! I am going to keep working on the frame for now and will let you know when I have it. Cheers Alan

Thanks for the interest , guys! I have been talking to Muncie who has been full of information and assistance and he told me that the original headlight bezels were in the Blueprinter Grilles Parts Pack. Opened it up and there they were along with an Edsel grille which is apparently slightly different to the Double kit unit. So I went looking for the original nose and as I expected I found it on this long stalled 3 window. This is the old Monogram Beachboy's coupe (I think Snake45 would call it a backbirth!) but it was the only thing available when I started it. It is intended to be an east coast show car. I will concoct something new for the coupe - I always thought the custom headlight units form the 66 Corvair would make a startling custom nose piece so we will see what happens there. Cheers Alan

Thanks for all the support, guys. I got a coat of paint on the fuel tank before heading out to Greg's workshop this morning. It is made of 13 pieces of styrene sheet and tube and I am very happy with how it came out - just got to build a second one now. Greg's painter did a magnificent job on the two resin bodies. He is taking the Slixx decal sheet to his signwriter to see if he can retouch the name - all Greg's research indicates the shading on the name was in bright yellow while the decal sheet shows a very soft pastel pinky orange. Got a heap more photos, spotted a few corrections I need to make but overall progress is good and Greg is very happy with what he sees so far. Cheers Alan

And for those of you who would rather be injected than blown, here's some photos I took last year at the brilliant, totally amazing, unbelievable Speedway Motors American Museum of Speed in Lincoln Nebraska. If you are on this forum , you NEED to visit this museum. I have been fortunate to visit about 35 or so car museums in North America and this one is in a category all of its own - words cannot describe either the depth or quality of the items on display. Trust me, just go. If the wife insists on going, drop her off at the International Patchwork Quilting Museum at the university but tell her you WILL be gone for several days. Fortunately, my wife, a very skilled and passionate quilter, actually preferred the car museum and took over 1500 photos for me on our first visit in 2010!

Hi guys, Today, as part of my commission build to do two replicas for the current owner of the 1969 Mickey Thompson MAch 1 funnycar, I got an "access all areas " pass to photograph the daylights out of a complete assembled SOHC. The most noticeable inaccuracy to the Ohio George motor is the shape of the bumps under the rocker cover. On the OG they look like half an egg cup but on the real motor they are very subtle and I will be filing them down appropriately. Yo will see that I also got some close ups of the front cover and of the location of the header flange on the heads - a lot lower than most motors. Bill, I hope these help you in your quest and if you need any more photos or dimensions just yell and I will be sure to get them for you. Cheers Alan

Plus, you won't have any trouble parking it with those little marker balls up the front to guide you! Sorry, mate, couldn't resist! I love the direction this car is going and have to admit that it had never occurred to me to convert a kit dropped axle to working steering. I have scratch-built straight tube axles before but this is a classic case of "Why didn't I think of that?" Cheers Alan

I must confess to not taking nearly enough photos during the reworking of the frame but I promise to take more when I start on the second frame. I must have been hiding under a rock but I had no idea that Revell had completely retooled the old multi piece Buttera frame from the sixties into a magnificent 21st century version! This has saved me hours of frustration. I have built at least four of the original nightmares so I was over the moon to open the new Jungle Jim box and find a pristine, STRAIGHT frame. I got some primer on today and I am heading for Greg's workshop tomorrow to check my progress against the real car and also to take more photos - it doesn't matter how many you take there are never enough. This car also has a rather unusual rear end arrangement so that is one thing I must photograph tomorrow. I will also be picking up the two bodies - Greg had his painter finish them in the same paint used on the real car. What a relief - that is a huge weight off my mind. The phone photos I've seen of the paint look amazing! I have changed the rollcage to a six point design, installed the torsion bar crossmember, removed the original fuel tank mounts and added the front weight bar brackets as well as a start on the rear end location.

I have decided to use the SOHC motors out of the Ohio George Willys kits, simply because I had two of them! I cut the trans off and trimmed the rear of the block to accept the Vega firewall. The SOHC front cover also needs some corrections and I have to fabricate a new front motor plate. I will be using the Vega headers ( I think) manifold and blower because they are very close to to items on the real car.

Here's the start of the chassis mods. I had to cut off the front crossmember and stretch the frame, pinning the sections of Evergreen I had to add to the front. The challenge here is to try to keep everything straight and parallel. The car has an unusual leading arm torsion bar setup with trailing radius rods. The axle is dead straight so I cut the ends off the Vega axle and pinned them to a piece of Evergreen rod.

I got talking to Greg and he explained that he found the body in the U.S on one of his regular visits and managed to secure it just before the previous owners, two partners in crime, were about to saw it in half down the middle to make a garage wall art installation. On top of that it had already been lengthened to form the mold for a nostalgia funny car and was now painted white. Greg was able to confirm that it was indeed the original M/T car Mustang from '69 so he organised to have it shipped to Perth. Now before anyone jumps in and questions the accuracy of Greg's build, he is quick to point out that this is not a concours winning perfect restoration of its 1969 form. Greg said he could have organised to have a new Buttera frame built and collected all the parts for an era perfect resto but then he would have had a museum piece, not a racecar. Australia, just like America and Canada, has racing regs that make it virtually impossible to race historic drag cars. Instead, Greg hunted down the last chassis Lil John ever built. Fortunately it had never been raced so it was in perfect nick. Of course, it had to have a SOHC! So what you see here is an evolution of the original M/T car. Hopefully it will get to do its first full noise pass sometime this season. The car is absolutely stunning and the workmanship has to be seen to be believed. Greg has a long history in Australian hot rodding. In the early eighties, he built a 350 Chevy powered Model A coupe, won every award he could at the Perth show before driving it across Australia ( that's over 3,000 miles in mostly isolated single lane country roads) and then repeated the wins at the Melbourne show, then the biggest in the country. On his return to Perth he worked the motor a bit more and soon had it running 12 second passes. This car could do everything. So we get talking and Greg asks "How hard would it be to build a model of my car?" Now I should have turned around at that point and run to the exit but before you know it I hear myself saying "OH, you should be able to get most of the bits pretty easy". Next thing, Greg hands me a handful of cash and asks " Can you make two, I want to give one to Danny Thompson, Mickey's son who just Broke the world land speed record for wheel driven cars. So then I got an order off to Slixx for their decal sheets and a pair of Competition Resins bodies and fished around locally to find a pair of Revell Jungle Jim Vega funnycar kits. Here's what I started with.

Hi guys, I thought I would post this project here as it is fairly ambitious and I suspect I will need some assistance from some of your guys at some stage of the build. Back in June at our annual Hot Rod and Street Machine Spectacular I was stunned to see this car on display way out here in Perth, Western Australia. It turns out that not was it restored here, I have known the owner for over forty five years. Here's what I saw as I walked into the show.

So here's the catch. Over the last forty five years I have collected the parts of two of these models. Some parts I have duplicates of, others just the one set. Bottom line is that I have enough parts to build one complete car EXCEPT for the body!!!!!! Not that I lost them, but both have been built into finished models - the clean one became my black full fendered Tudor that I posted last year and a very tatty one became an early California Jalopy Association stock car. A great use for both bodies but now that I have this bug to build the original custom, I can only see one practical solution - do a Vicky! I have several spare Vicky bodies so there is no pain there. I considered a Revell body but I only have two of those and I already have other plans for both of them. I also considered an Orange Crate body but I think it would lose its identity - everyone would see the Revell kit, not the AMT. It does however come at a cost - I would have to carefully cut and shut the custom interior to fit the shorter Vicky body. The firewall and the fender running board units fit fine. I could also imagine cutting the roof insert open so that you could look down into the custom interior. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this idea. And yes,I have the original Ala Kart style nose - but I have to cut it off a very stalled custom 3 window coupe project. At least I had never got to the paint stage so I will think of something different for the nose of the coupe. Cheers Alan

I found the original front axle but it is missing one of the torsion lever arms - shouldn't be too hard to scratch up a replacement. The original torsion bars are long gone but the ones from the Iron Lady 32 Vicky kit should do the job. The rear axle has come up nicely with primer and just needs some final fine sandpaper to be ready for paint. I thought I still had a full set of clean-ish wheels but found two reasonable ones and these two with red centres - thank goodness for Molotow! Round 2 AMT parts Pack tyres will be perfect for the job.

Digging through my Buick box I found the original engine - I must have had plans for it once before because I had already stripped and primed it. I still had the original spark plug covers but will general freshen it up with new rocker covers and oil pan form the Revell Model A Hiboy kit. I just rechecked Greg's Internet photo and I have a hunch I have the original carbs and ram horns somewhere.