W-409

This is an interesting thread! I live here in Finland and I definitely speak American even though sometimes I'm mixing things up with a British word. But, since I've mostly learnt this vocabulary in the internet or books and during my whole life we've had US cars in our family, most of the words I've learnt are US. Actually many of those British words are something I've never heard before.

Thanks Mitch! This has been a fun project, and I'm really happy to see it's coming finally closer to finish. Today I clear coated the body and luckily it looks good so far. Hopefully it's still good when it's dry, even though I'm not sure if there is enough clear for polishing or do I have to spray another coat on top of it. We'll see about that when it's dry... I also painted the class markings on side windows. I had no decals for them so I painted them by free hand and a tiny brush. I'm pretty happy with them even though they're not perfect. But to be honest, they do look better in person than in this closeup picture.

One thing I never liked on this Lindberg body is that the lower rear window chrome trim is missing. Well, rest of the chrome trims are not perfect either, but this would have been impossible to foil smoothly as there was no chrome trim molded at all. So the only choice was to add that chrome trim in there. Luckily I had some styrene rod in proper size that I just glued in there. Now I'll let the glue dry a bit and then smooth it out with some putty. Now I should have no problems foiling this one.

Thanks Rodney! I appreciate the kind words (Even though I'm a bit late with the thanks)! Well finally I was able to shoot another clear coat on the '55! At least so far it looks really good, but now all I can is hope it looks good when it's completely dry. Now I'll let it dry properly before polishing, but while the body dries, I can work on the interior, chassis and engine.

Don't want to highjack this thread, but has anyone had any experience with those Dragster front wire wheels from the same shop? https://www.shapeways.com/product/HKU3JEFEM/drag-front-wire-19-inch-1-25?optionId=61643929 If they're good, they would definitely be worth that price. But painting them would definitely be a real pain as the tires and wheels are molded together. Anyway I'd order a few sets of them immediately if they're good quality and the spokes are not too thick.

This looks like an interesting project! Here's an easy way to post pics: First create an account on some image hosting site, like Photobucket. I'm using it and it seems to work fine, and it's free. Upload your pics in there and once they are uploaded, click on the pictures for a larger view. Then on the right button of your mouse choose "Copy Image Location", and just simply paste that link on that "Image" thing when you're posting an update on this forum. Hope this helps.

Bummer, looks like I forgot I had posted these pics in here. Vinay: Yep, we were in NHRA Finals in 2015. It was a great trip, for me it was the first time when I got to see an NHRA event, something that I had always been dreaming of. I was there with our Drag Race Team (which means my dad) and he was really excited too, the last time he had been in NHRA event was in 1990. Thanks guys, here are some more pics... After the day at Fontana Drags, we headed to Burbank to a Cruise Night at Bob's Big Boy. Lots of cool cars were there and I shot a bunch of pics, but as it was a bit dark all of them are not exactly sharp. Here's a link to the picture gallery: Bob's Big Boy Broiler Cruise Night.

Next thing was to spray a couple of more light coats of that blue on the body. When the paint was wet I still wasn't completely sure if it's going to look good enough or if it still needs a couple of more coats of paint. Luckily when the paint dried, it looked pretty good so I could move on... So next up, decals! I didn't want to build any specific race car, rather something that could have been running back in the day. So I found a few decals from my parts boxes that looked decent on the T-Bolt. Those "Fagan's Speed Shop" decals on doors were very tricky to install as they broke up into several pieces when I tried to install them. I had to fix them a little with paint, but luckily I found a Revell Enamel that was almost a perfect match. Unfortunately there's only one picture of this body with decals on as my pics from co-driver's side were all out of focus...

When surfing in the internet I found a picture of Dyno Don sitting on the driver's seat of this Impala. It's the only picture where the interior can be seen a little, and looks like I guessed the seat colors correctly! That's some good news, as I originally just guessed that "they might have been this way"... This also shows the dash and steering wheel colors, so now I don't have to guess that either when I get the dash from paint stripping. The real car had Chrome Reverses on front and regular silver Steel Wheels on rear. So I painted the front wheels with "Chrome Silver" and rears with regular silver spray paint. The front wheels could be just a bit brighter, but that's the best I could do for now. Next up is some detail painting and minor black washing to make the wheels look good. Most of the chassis components were painted so I decided to install front and rear suspensions on place. The fitment was really good on both and gluing them on correctly was easy. I added a short piece of brake line to the rear end too. The rest will be done later, but this had to be done before installing the axle on place. It's made out of thin copper wire, the fitting that connects that rubber part of brake line between the chassis floor and rear axle and that regular brake line together was scratchbuilt from styrene rod.

Really nice work on this project, the body looks excellent after all of that hard work and your interior will be a beauty when finished, too. Hopefully you'll be able to find a proper set of wheels on it so we can see the finished product. Making that rear window from clear plastic packaging is a great idea. I've tried to heat up sheet acetate a couple of times but never succeeded in it. I think I'll have to try this one next.

Dang those are so rare nowadays! I have that AMT Boss Nova and that body will require some work to be modified stock... Plus that it's a '65, I'd like to convert it into '62... Well let's see what happens, yours is a great inspiration!

They all look very good! I like the headers you built for that '66! But is that '63 Wagon a resin body or original kit piece? It looks very good too.

Yep, Sylvia Hauser bought it from the States and ran with it in England before she sold it to Sweden to Joakim Mårtensson. It's an older picture, but I'd guess the car is still running strong even though I haven't seen in in a couple of years.

As an owner of a '62 Chevy II, it's always nice to see a 1st Gen Nova being built. Looks like you've done some excellent work correcting the errors in this kit. I'm sure it'll be looking great once it's done!

Wow that one is a must have! I see a Volvo with a Small Block Chevy in the future... Does it look like it's going to have somekind of fender flares or what? Hopefully not, removing them would be no fun. Edit: Something like this:

I have a soft spot for these GM H-Bodies so it's great to see a couple of them built. Both of them look really good, but those headers on your Vega catch my eyes...Did you scratchbuild them or are they from a kit?

You can never have too many Stock or Super Stock cars on your shelf! Excellent job on this one, flawless work with those decals, I always seem to have some trouble with larger decals but yours turned out perfect. Little details like tachometer cable and valves on the wheels are a nice touch too.

That looks fantastic, you don't see too many Mavericks being built! Nice work on the paint and decals, and where did you get those Weld DragStar wheels?

This is a good thread on a bit similar subject: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/69554-box-top-blunders-omissions-false-advertisements/#comment-859988 This is my favorite, it's Revell '64 Impala Lowrider:

Now this looks interesting! I'm a great fan of the look of a Two Door Sedan and the start of your conversion looks really good. Do you have a specific car in mind that you want to replicate or will this look like something that "could have been"?

It's always great when someone else is interested in this kind of music too, it definitely doesn't happen too often! Sometimes I listen to Psychobilly too, even though not as much as Rockabilly. Batmobile is probably my favorite Psychobilly band, and I was happy to see them live here in Finland last year. Nekromantix and Zombie Ghost Train are good too, but that Red Elvises was a new one for me, I gotta check that out! And looks like I forgot one important band from my previous list.... The Shakin' Pyramids from Scotland. They're fantastic, and nowadays two of the original members are playing together in a new group, The Veloninos. That sounds great too.

Wow that turned out really nice! Everything looks just right, beautiful paint job and a perfect wheel and tire combo too. I've always liked the combination of steel wheels and dog dish hubcaps. Stance is spot on and your detailing finishes it off. Fantastic work!

I really like the look of both cars. What ETs does that Biscayne run and what engine it has? That's not the lightest car, but it has lots of cool factor! Spending some great time with dad at the Drags is a lot of fun! I drive a '74 Malibu in Stock Eliminator and we built the car together with my dad and now we're racing together too, daddy-o being the second and only team member.

That's a good looking Double Bass right there! I'd like to have one myself too (Even though I probably couldn't play it )! There are lots of great bands all over the world. Too much to be listed, but why not to name a few... ´-The Go Getters, my favorite and they come from Sweden. -Stray Cats...Everyone knows this one, right? -Blue Cats. This band makes the fans go crazy! They're from England... -The PoleCats. Another British group that are well known for their wild live performances. They sound excellent too. -The Wise Guyz. An excellent group from Ukraine playing old style Rockabilly. Their live shows sound excellent! -The Rockin' 8 Balls, a Finnish group that tears the house down every time. They do both, slow and fast songs very nicely and live performances are great! -Mike Bell And The Belltones, another Finnish band that sounds great! Seen them in person several times, and whenever possible, will see them again! -The Greasers, Finnish trio that is, in my opinion, one of the toughest bands in this country! -The Generals, an older Finnish group that was around in my dad's teenage days. They did a comeback a couple of years ago and they sound really good even after those decades! -The Bull's Eye. Another Finnish band that has been around for a long time. If you like Crazy Cavan, you'll like this one too! The guitarrist has a wireless connection on his guitar so he's often playing in the audience. Once at a local cruising night he went playing outside in the parking lot while rest of the band was inside on stage. -The Lo-Lites. Yet another Finnish trio that sounds great! -Shoebox Revue. Finnish group with a lady in the vocals. They sound great and do great job with both, slow and faster songs... Whenever they're performing I try to make it to the audience! -Teddy And The Tigers. One of the first Rockabilly bands in Finland, they were active in '77-'80 and at that time for a while they were even the most popular band in Finland. They have done a few gigs after that, but nowadays the singer and guitarrist, "Teddy Guitar" has had major health issues so he's unable to perform... Well there's something. Most of them are Finnish, but what would be the point to shout out bands you all know...

Well, it's been a long time since this build has seen the bench, but I want to say a late Thank You to Carl, Cliff, Joe and Michael. The kind words are highly appreciated! While it's a bit cold outside (something like -8 Fahrenheits now) I'm unable to shoot a second color coat on my Ford Thunderbolt or clear coat my '55 Chevy Gasser, so I decided to take this one back on the bench to do something. Next step was to figure out the stance. On my previous mock up, front end was too low so that had to be fixed first. I cut short pieces of plastic rod and drilled a proper size hole to mount them to the spindles. A Same size hole was drilled to the inner wheels too, so now the front suspension is in the highest possible place with the original kit spindles. Next I had to do the same thing to that rear axle. The problem was that I couldn't drill correct size holes to the axle, because the axle is glued together from two halves and when I tried to drill a hole in there, those two halves just came apart. So, my rear inner wheels had bigger axle hole in them than the axle itself, so as a solution, I installed that plastic rod on my motor tool and filed the other end smaller so that it fits inside the rear axle, while still the other end is a tight fit to the inner wheels. And now when I was able to mount wheels and tires properly on place, I decided to do a mock up to see if more adjustments are needed. On rear, everything except the wheels and tires are stock and I think that the ride height on rear is pretty good. Front end is a lot better than on my previous mock up too, and I think it's actually pretty close to what the real car was. (That last pic was borrowed from George Klass' site.)