W-409

Those springs look very good. They are not very easy to make, but once done they are done, they look very good. I like how it looks so far, keep it coming.

Yes. This cover version by The Rockin' 8 Balls is definitely the best: I've seen that band once in person and it's one of the bests!

How about this one? Casey Jones he was a mighty man But now he's resting in the promised land The kind of music he could understand Was an eight wheel driver under his command

Nice to see this being built! In fact, I've planned to build this Bug as well, but never got started with it. Yours is looking very good, great detailing on the engine and excellent job painting that number and car's name on the body. Nice work.

That's a good looking Lumina. It's always nice to see these Stock Car builds and this is done very nicely. Excellent paint job and great decal work too. I like the paint scheme as well as it's so simple.

Oh well, another kit I need. And it looks like only one of these won't do, so I'll have to pick up at least three to be able to build different versions. Moebius is definitely my favorite model kit company nowadays!

Well, I have most of the parts needed for that Edsel. I'm going to use AMT '58 Edsel as a donor kit where I'm taking chassis and engine. Only thing that kind of slows me down is the interior. It might be that '59 Interior does not fit with '58 chassis, so it might be that interior will need to be pretty much scratchbuilt. Pickup is waiting for a chassis and engine donor, since it will be "full detail" build, too. And it's true that these annuals are getting harder to find. That's why I've been trying to buy them as well whenever I see one for sale with reasonable price. I really like building them compared to new kits.

Interesting to see how this turns out. After seeing your other builds, I'm sure this will look excellent. These kits are a lot of fun to work with even if they are not the highest quality possible. Start looks good already, keep it coming!

Great to see one old Annual Kit brought back to life! I think restoring old Glue Bombs / builtups is probably the best part in model building. It's surprising how poor quality "junker" can be turned into a real beauty. I bet it will be the case with this one since you do great work. These '64 Americans have been on my must have list for a long time, but never came across one. Well, maybe some day.

WOW! Anoter beauty from your bench, Steve! It's always great to see these old annuals being built, and you're probably the best guy to build them. Great job on paint job and foiling. Interior looks very realistic too. Excellent work. Seeing your builds makes me want to start my AMT '59 Edsel or '61 Chevy Pickup. One day they'll get on my bench.

Wow that's super nice! Probably the best Superbird I've ever seen. Honestly there isn't much to say, it makes me almost speechless. Oh well maybe I'll just go to pick up my jaw from the floor...

With a bit of work that chassis fits pretty nicely to Jimmy Flintstone's '58 Chevy Sedan Delivery as well. I bought one that was already started and looks like the previous builder had extended frame a bit from front, and floor from back and widened the chassis a bit from sides. Nothing major and it fits nicely. But a good way to make it fit on almost every car you can think of, is to cut just that rear end of the chassis apart from the rest and that can be combined pretty much with every model kit's front section of the chassis. It's not as easy, but it sure makes it possible to create unique Pro Street cars. I had '58 Edsel that was done this way. Unfortunately I sold the body & front section of chassis for a friend needing replacement quarter panels for his old AMT Annual Edsel built up.

I've never liked those modern engines (Chevy LS engines, new Chrysler Hemis etc), especially I find it horrible when they're installed in an old car. I see those engine swaps done sometimes, and some people say they just wanted more horsepower or better reliability. I understand that, but old engine, especially in pretty much stock form can be very reliable as well. And if you want performance, why would anyone want the car to act like every other family sedan when you drive it normally? I think a high performance Street Machine has to be loud and sound like it has a "healthy cam" in it... It doesn't have to give you the smoothest ride ever. Plus that if you want to have an old car, why start modernizing it with today's parts and technology? It makes no sense to me, why not to buy just a 2015 Tojota Pr*us then? Of course this is just my personal taste and I know many guys disagree with it and I'm not trying to say how it should be done...Just saying my opinion. But that being said, I'm never going to install any of those new engines in my car unless my car is not so new that the engine came as a factory option (But I doubt that). I prefer old technology on this subject. ...And soon when I have to go to a shop to get me a bit of Bondo to finish bodywork on my daily driver, I'll fire up that 55 year-old 283 SBC and if everything goes as usual, it fires up really nicely and runs & drives like it should.

Wow, surprising how good that kit will look when it's done properly! Excellent job creating a good looking Caddy. Paint job looks flawless, which is great since gloss black is by far the hardest color to get right. Sharp BMF work finishes this off. Now I gotta get me one of these kits...

Usually I'm not so much into this type of cars (They can look very good, but usually I'm not so interested in them that I'd like to build one too) but this is an exception. After seeing this I somehow got an inspiration to build one of these. Well, luckily the kit is so old and expensive that I'm not buying one right away... Excellent work as always, Cliff! It's always great to see your posts since your builds are usually something that's not seen every day plus that they are always top notch quality. Just like this one, great job.

That's a very neat trio right there! I like these X-Frame Chevrolets a lot so it's great to see three of them built this well. Great job with all of them, but I have to say that '60 is my favorite (Yep, there is one parked in front of my house). Maybe I'll go for a little cruise with mine after seeing this. Great work.

Very good looking Shoebox Ford! It looks pretty much like I'd want mine if I had one in full scale. Those body shapes are just about perfect and your nice paint job with those flames really finish it off. It's hard to believe that the interior from Revell's Mercury fits there with that little modifications. Excellent job. Only thing on the styling that I'd do a bit different would be adding a rear bumper. A smooth bumper without any bumper guards or anything would look very good on there. But it's very cool like this, too.

Very nice Hemi Cuda. I really like how it looks without too many factory options, especially steel wheels with those Dog Dish hubcaps look very good under this body. I like the color as well. What kit is this built from?

Very nice build on a very nice kit. That color is just about perfect for this body style and that combined with your flawless BMF work make this stand out from the rest. Engine looks very good too. I built this kit years ago as well and it was a lot of fun. Gotta get me another one some time...

Great to see one of these being built! I have the same kit as well and it's going to be a Mild Custom one day when I find an AMT '59 El Camino chassis for it. You did an excellent job with this. That paint job is fantastic and very nice and clean work otherwise, too. Only thing I'd do different is that it's a bit too low to my taste. Otherwise it couldn't be much better.

Excellent looking '69 Chevelle, definitely one of the bests that I've seen. Your modifications sure make it stand out from the rest, details like that always make a big difference. Good looking paint job (I never seem to success with gloss black!) and very nice clean work all over. And actually if you didn't say it, I would never thought those taillights being decals, they look so good. Great work.

Thanks guys! Michael: Yes, it feels great to do some scratchbuilding after a long break. Somehow I think I like doing these modifications more and more, it's very rare that I build something out of the box nowadays. And I believe that a 427 Big Block Chevy with Tunnel Ram intake will be nasty enough for this one. Mark: That Edsel is one that I can't wait to start. It's going to be a Mild Custom, but I'll need to do pretty much modifications to that as I'm going to use AMT '58 Edsel chassis and engine in it. Andy: It's true that those cars look like each others a bit. Maybe that's the reason why I like so much about this Cortina body.

Looks like this is an okay kit after all. I'm not too crazy about it being so simplified, though, especially it would have been nice to have a properly detailed engine with lots of parts. Engine bay with molded in batteries and other parts is a bit disappointing, too, but I can live with that very well. Those stance mock ups look very good to me and I see nothing wrong with body shapes either. Being molded in color doesn't matter me at all, a good Primer will take care of that easily and actually I think it's even easier to do bodywork (Removing mold seams and sink marks etc) when body is molded in color. I will pick up one of these for sure.

It would be great to see this kit hit the markets. That Oldsmobile is not actually what I've wanted to build for whole my life, but I would need probably two, or at least one, to be built as a Super Stock Drag Car. Interesting to see if this is really coming out or not.

Thanks Carl! It feels good to be back building again and this project is very interesting. I haven't had too much time to work on this, but I have a good start on the frame. I bought some styrene rod from a Local Hobby Shop and after looking at old pics of a Street Altered car's frame I got the idea how it should look. It needed a bit of planning to figure out how it should be built, what tubing should be glued where, how, and when. After all I hope I'm not doing this the hardest way... These are the longest frame rails needed. They are mocked up with tape so that I could measure how wide those frame crossmembers should be. First crossmember was glued to the front end of the frame. I couldn't make other crossmembers yet, because I must mock up rear axle, engine and driveshaft before so that I know if I have to do bends for them. On my reference pictures the car had very simple rear section of the frame (Part that goes on top of a rear axle). So I made a similar one to my Cortina. A couple of crossmembers are still needed here as well, but I'm going to use them as shock mounts so they can't be added quite yet. So the next thing is to glue these two parts together and then continue by adding more tubings to sides. Hope to have more soon.