W-409

Great project! I built one of the Chevy II AWB kits as a kid and even though the kit had problems, I enjoyed building it. Now I've wanted to do basically the same upgrades on one of these kits as you're doing here. Very nice work so far. I think you nailed the stance and front tire placement. The Cammer looks very good, too.

Love seeing these old and kind of oddball Stockers being built! You're off to a good start, I'll be watching the progress.

Personally if I buy a model kit, I have the intention to build it. No matter if it's a very rare kit in mint condition or a glue bomb, it'll eventually end up on the workbench. Like someone said earlier, that is a reissue of Mickey Thompson's Titanium Pinto Funny Car. While the original issue can be thought as a rare kit, I don't think this reissue is super rare because there's plenty of them for sale all the time. But, these days, anything with a Jo-Han logo on it, is not cheap. So I'd say build it. It's a great kit. If you end up building it, here's my build thread on the same kit. Even though, the progress has been stalled for a while now...

Looks great! I think you'll be finished way sooner than me. This summertime is just so busy that it's not often that I get to actually sit down at the bench. Nice work with the body and chassis. Love the obscure intake manifold setup. Definitely something that someone could have created for one of these.

Exactly! My daily driver ('64 Rambler American) has a "three on the tree" with un-synchronized first gear. It's actually really easy to drive as everything works the way they should, but still no one else wants to drive it, because they think they can't figure out the shifter situation.

That's sad news, condolenses to Bill's family and friends. While I didn't know Bill personally, we spoke a few times via PM and E-mail, he also helped me with model car parts that I needed for a certain project. A really nice guy. RIP Bill.

This is great news! I have personally zero interest in anything Pro Touring, but will definitely buy a couple of the stock versions!

The kit has been around for a long time. It's quite simplified in many areas, but it builds up pretty nice. I built one as a kid and didn't remember having any major fit issues. However, if you want to build an accurate '55 Chevy Gasser, I suggest picking up another kit to start with. I built one of these kits as a Gasser a few years ago, and I think I ended up modifying or replacing every part of the kit one way or another. It was a ton of work and would have been a lot easier to start with some other kit. Here's a link to my Fotki album where you can see all the build pictures. To give you an idea how much work it needs to be somewhat accurate and a little more detailed than what the kit offers. https://public.fotki.com/NostalgicDrag/55-chevy-bel-air-ags/

Like Chris said above, I don't think there's much you can do to unwarp a promo that is made out of acetate. Even though you got it fixed, it will most likely warp again at some point. It's a bummer, because many interesting bodies that were never produced as a model kit, have been made as an acetate promos. In case of the Hubley '60 Ford Wagon, I'd suggest you finding the model kit version of that. Hubley made a model kit of that car and it's made in regular styrene, which doesn't have the warping problem. The model kit is not that easy to find though, at least at a reasonable price tag. I found mine a while ago on eBay, compared to their normal prices, mine was fairly cheap at around $100.

Never heard of that manufacturer before, but glad I did now. Checked it out and looks like this was another expensive day...

Thanks Pierre! I kind of would like to have the body removable to be able to get a good view on the chassis. But, at the same time, I'm not really a fan of models that look like a yard sale at a model car show with all body parts removed. I mean, there's basically nothing wrong with that, but you can't figure out the overall view that way, and to me, the overall look is pretty important. So with that said, the body will not be removable when this is done. So basically all of the fabrication on chassis and axles is just for our entertainment and WIP pictures, as it can't be seen on a finished model. I will have an opening hood though, so the engine can be displayed.

Now with my Optional Super Stock '61 Impala finished (see here, if interested: https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/200176-don-nicholsons-61-chevrolet-impala-oss/), it's time to get back working on this thing. Last weekend I got a Quick Change rear axle for this build. As I couldn't find one in my parts boxes, a friend of mine decided to cast a couple of them in resin, so that's what I'll be using. I also found a leaf spring that could work for the rear suspension. The only problem with that leaf spring was that it was too wide for this application. So I narrowed it a little from both ends. Then I mocked it up to the rear axle, drilled holes for mounting tabs to both, leaf spring and rear axle, so now thanks to the mounting tabs, I'm able to do mock ups easily without any glue. I decided to go with the kit tires, because of a couple of reasons. First, I like the idea of using as many parts as possible of this simple and quite rarely seen kit. Second, they are pretty much the correct size for this thing, and third, while they're not the most detailed out there, with the belly pan installed, they're not seen basically at all when this model is finished. To make the tires fit the rear axle, I had to drill their mounting holes a little bigger. And here I'm doing a mock up with rear axle, leaf spring and tires to see where I need to fabricate a rear crossmember to the frame so that I have something where the leaf spring will actually mount. That crossmember will also determine that rear axle will be mounted into a correct height to achieve proper ride height. Once that's figured out, I can fabricate somekind of control arms for the rear axle.

The interior is looking really good so far! Excellent work with the detailing and weathering to get rid of the plastic look. Very nice work!

Really nice work on a beautiful car! I might have missed it, but is it an actual model kit or resin? Or 3D print?

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind comments! It was a long time in the making, but honestly most of the time it was just being boxed away for some reason. I'm happy to have it finished and it looks pretty good on the shelf. Last weekend we had our annual FHRA Model Car Contest which is a show I've been participating every year since 2008. The judges decided this thing was worth a Top Ten finish, which was unexpected, but nice.