Longbox55

Works great, it's more agressive than Superclean. Definitely wear glove when handling it, it will burn your skin rather quickly.

Just goes to proove you can make a Rat Rod out of just about anything! :lol:

May have to get creative, the frame is diecast same as the body, unlike most diecasts that use a plastic frame. Might have to reinforce it, or perhaps simply use the frame as a pattern to build the proper length from brass or styrene.

I'll give you the transmission, but the engine was a new for '53 design, with very little parts interchange with the earlier engine. Even then, it was only a 16 year old design had it used the earlier engine. I do agree with you on Mercer and the Stutz, plus there was the Stoddard-Dayton.

The Ertl diecast is pretty nice peice, have a few of them myself, including one I'm converting in to a tow truck using a Maisto '53 Chevy tow truck bed. Only real issue I have with them is that the fender badge is wrong. It's badged as a 6400 (154" wheelbase), when it is actually a 6100 (130" wheelbase).

That kit isn't in the current linup, but it was reissued a while back. Should be relatively easy to find. I don't recall who made it, but there is a resin cab available for it that eliminates the multi peice unit from the kit. I beleive the conversion may also include glass, which the kit does not have. BTW, this kit is 1/48 scale, so it not very big.

Nice job, there. But where's the caved in door half bald tires??

Not to come off the wrong way, but the plugs on that particular engine are not located under the rocker covers. They are located between to the exhaust flanges on the outside of the head. Other than that, not bad for a first time.

1971 for me. Mom and dad brought me home in one of these, but it was a C20 in Hugger Orange/White.

Gassers are closed vehicles, there was a separate class for open cars. IIRC, the class was called Street Roadster.

That is incorrect. Chevrolet and GMC went to 5 lug on 1/2 ton 2wd trucks in '71. '70 and prior, and '99 and newer 1/2 ton 2wd and all years (except early '55 1/2 ton NAPCO) of 1/2 ton 4x4 are 6 lug. Some versions of the '88-'94 3/4 ton without the C6P also have 6 lug wheels on both 2 and 4 wheel drive models. Also, 3/4 ton trucks prior to 1946 are also 6 lug.

I have an original issue of that one. It's not handy at the moment, but when I get a chance I'll check it.

The Round 2 site doesn't specify an engine. Most likely, its a straight reissue of the Roadrunner kit, which has a Hemi/4 speed combo. The original kit did include custom wheels, I believe they were Centerlines, don't remember the exact style. They were somewhat of a dated design when the kit was new, very 1980s.

It would depend on how and where the mold line was situated on the part. If it matched the 1:1, I would leave it, only perhaps knocking it down a bit to be more scale accurate. Along the same vein, there are some cases where there's a mold seam on a body that is present on the 1:1 that some builders will smooth out, but should be left in place. Case in point, the AMT '55 and '57 Chevrolet trucks. There is a mold seam below the headlamp that runs down to the bottom of the fender face. Most builder will remove that line and smooth it out. But, on the 1:1, there is a very noticeable seam in that location, as it's where the fender is joined together after stamping.

Burt, I see where you're coming from. I've been seeing about finding a good source of factory pix for you, not coming up with much. However, I can give you an excellent source of information and references, Stovebolt.com. It's a site for pre '72 Chevrolet and GMC trucks. Here's a link to the '60-'66 Gallery http://www.stovebolt.com/gallery/gallery%2060%2066.html You might also check out House of Woogeroo, who is a moderator on Stovebolt and '60-'66 Chevrolet truck nut. http://houseofwoogeroo.wordpress.com/19601966ctis/ One more site that may help you is Jolly Goodfellows (yes, that's his real name) site, 6066 GMC Truck Guy http://www.6066gmcguy.org/ His site deals pretty much with GMC only, but there are similarities between them and Chevrolet (back them, Chevy and GMC were not the same truck with a different badge).

There really isn't much wiring that goes to the bottom of the engine compartment, with the exception of the battery cable that goes to the starter solenoid. The only wiring the would go to the bottom of the truck would be the harness going to the tail lights, fuel gauge sending unit, and the back up lights if equipped (those were optional). The rest of the harness is pretty much on top.

Probably had the shifter arms on the trans upside down.

Yes, the Panel was released separately, but only once. I believe it was sometime in the late '60s. The original release of the Cabriolet was a Gangbusters kit, which also included the Panel body. It too was only released on time. After that release, it got butchered into the "Vampire Van", which has seen 2 reissues recently. Gotcha, and agree 100%.

MPC did a pretty nice kit of a '32 Chevrolet Cabriolet, with the original issue having the option to be built as a somewhat inaccurate '33 Panel Truck.

For the most part, pretty much all Small Block Chevy engines look the same externally. There two exceptions to that, where there are noticeable external block differences, the '55 265 (no oil filter) and the 400 Turbo Fire (3 core plugs per side instead of 2). I believe a few years of the 327 did have a different set of rocker covers, not 100% sure if that applies to trucks. There won't be any problem with calling the engine in the kit a 327.

Several of the 4x4 MPC '78-'82 Chevrolet Stepside kits have a similar wheel with the correct bolt pattern.

I like the Peterbilt better.

The Testors is in a spray can, listed as Candy Transparent Red. It should not need clearcoated, but adding more coats will add depth to the color. Other options would be to use Tamiya Clear Red, either bottle acrylic or the spray lacquer. Scalefinishes is still around, here's the link to the candy paint http://www.scalefinishes.com/candy.html

Count me in on this list, too. Most of mine is tired up in tractor/ag equipment and Chevrolet/GMC truck books, lots of very dry reading. I also have a habit of reading shop manuals for fun.