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I emailed, thanking Carol and Don for opening up the site for orders again. Carol said they got totally slammed right off the bat! Sounded like they figured they'd get a huge amount of orders, but were surprised at how huge.

Bittersweet moment, got the final of my final Modelhaus order in this morning. I couldn't figure out why my iPad wouldn't bring up the website, I had to clear out the history and it came right up! I've been haunting eBay for a reasonably priced '60 Ford Short Box Pickup for a long time, like the body style of the '57 - '60 Short Wide Bed Ford Pickups. While I was ordering tires, wheels, grills, bumpers I went ahead and picked up the '57 Short Bed. Figure it this way, if I had found a '60 on eBay it would have required cleanup, maybe shortening a long bed. Easily would have been a hundred bucks in spite of doing the work to make it what I wanted. I didn't make any larger order than I normally do from Modelhause, usually do the same with Replicas & Miniatures. I usually list out the stuff I'd like to get for future projects ahead of time. Once it's long enough I'll sit down with the vendors catalog and place an order. This time there was no sitting on the fence, 20 weeks out or not, if it was getting ordered it had to have been then!

That's interesting news. Kind of sux big time! Isn't Jeep all that's left of the AMC line? Not like Chrysler is going to resurrect the Rambler name one day. They have troubles of their own, just keeping themselves in business. One of my Dad's work beaters was a '59 Rambler Cross Country. One day he stopped at the bank, ran in to cash his paycheck. When he came out there was a guy staring at the side of his then brand new Ford pickup which had been slit down the side of the bed a couple feet, right at Rambler fin height! The only thing hurt on the Rambler was the fin was a few degrees off kilter, probably hurt the high speed aerodynamics. He never did fix the fin, it was kind of a badge of pride for wounding a brand new Ford pickup! Incidentally, the "R" fell off the grill, so he rearranged the remaining letters to "mable", my grandma's middle name. Which she hated, so she hated the Rambler so much she wouldn't ride in it after that. i was hoping to replicate it for my brother who learned to drive in mable, good thing I didn't tell him I'd hate to get his hopes up then have to tell him the bad news!

Nice bod there Ed, makes me wish I had a '34 5W project in the works. I've never had a bad body from Ed, highly reccomended!

their chrome is as good if not better than vacuum chromed styrene parts, in fact I would say far better. I've never had a chromed Modelhaus part I was even tempted to strip the chrome to get a crisper part, their parts are as crisp as they come. Modelhaus is the benchmark.

Ace, you hit on pretty much what I was trying to get across at 04:00 Hrs. The problem being most of the garage assembled / built setups lack any engineering to make them function correctly. There are always trade offs when you modify a stock based suspension like the dropped forged Henry Ford and Super Bell front axle shown. They were originally designed with the axle on one plane then it gets dropped to another. Posies, Bell, and a host of others have put the math and engineering into their products and it shows in the way they function. It really goes back to just because something looks cool doesn't mean it works, or works safely. You nailed it on the Semi and Quarter elliptical, which I nearly always get confused in the first place which is which, I was referring to Quarter Elipticalls in my comment, didn't Chevrolet use Quarter Elliptical suspended front axles, I know there were a few others who did. Point is when they are well thought out they work as they were engineered to do in the first place. Probably should have waited until the coffee kicked in to make a statement on anything requiring thinking. As an Engineer, my point is you just don't go and weld things up to look cool and expect them to perform like something that was engineered on proven principals to work a specific way. The front suspension set up which got me on the rant is the split wishbone with the "spring eye" welded to the wishbone, can't imagine how that one handles. I don't want to see either. Ford and others built their suspension systems on hard gained, tested and proven knowledge which they changed things a little bit at a time, not making huge jumps in theory and practice. That set up just reminds me of some of the stuff seen under rat rods, probably why I have issue with it in the first place. That set up could work, it's built stout enough, just the more distance between axle and spring tends to act as a lever to introduce torsional twist into the spring as well as up and down. There are so any ways to get a buggy sprung front axle in the weeds which use sound time proven methods and parts to get the job done without trying to reinvent the wheel too!

http://www.honestcharley.com/hot-rod-parts/28-31-model-a-ford/complete-front-ends/full-frt-end-w-tube-axle-28-31-4-5bc.html Something like this is infinitely more streetable versus the welded spring eye onto the radius rods. The drop, proper geometry, ride are all a part of this suspension system. Ask yourself this question, nothing has changed since Henry Ford's Engineers designed their suspension system why didn't they go with a variation of the one shown? Likely because there are geometry issues with it, I've seen this setup but never ridden or driven a car with it. My question however is while this is likely as strong as the original design placing the axle that far ahead of the spring with a set of disc brakes will make the axle want to roll under during normal braking. I know this front suspension has been around and in magazines for a while, I'm just a tad bit leery of it, one concern with the frame horns above the axle it could bottom the axle on the frame horn and not have bump but bang steer! Second, I hope there is more airspace between that axle and the brake line /fitting or it might get snapped off when the radius rod hits it. The issue associated with semi-elliptical suspension systems is when you put efficient modern brakes on the axle which may or may not have the spring rate calculated. On a soft spring the brakes will cause the front axle to ocellate which is why you see it on a lot of light roadsters without front brakes. Semi-elliptical front suspensions were production suspension systems with brakes and without a pan hard bar. Obviously someone felt they were a stable front end, not to mention a whole lot of board track and early oval track roadsters. I have ridden and driven a properly setup semi-elliptical suspended roadster, with brakes I didn't feel any of the skittishness mentioned, it's all in the spring rate. With the dropped original Ford designed suspension, the lowering is done first by the reversed spring eye, softer spring and or the additional load of the larger engine. Second the dropped axle itself will bring the front end down accordingly.

Hopefully they will open up for at least one or two more runs, I wouldn't blame them if they didn't though. Don't think they anticipated all the frenzy created by all the uninformed speculation on every modeling board on the 'net. It's almost been akin to someone yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater!! Even so, I'd like to get at least one more order in, got one just after Don and Carol announced their intention to retire. I do hope someone can swing purchasing the business as the Modelhaus has been a gianormous asset to the model car hobby. The person(s) who do buy Modelhaus (if anyone does) may have to realize that they may be slow at first due to a whole lot of people going overboard with orders for a year or more prior to a buyer taking over. However, that might be a good situation especially if no "training" is going to be a part of the sale of the business; things are always negotiable when it comes to selling or buying businesses. It will certainly be interesting to see what the outcome is.

Some pretty amazing examples of "Glue Bombing" even more amazing are some of the restorations you guys have done with them. Thanks for sharing them.

I use the flip open jewelry parts storage boxes at Hobby Lobby they're about 18 X 12 X 2" with 2 X 2" compartments for the parts. It's usually the small stuff that gets lost anyway. I usually store larger stuff in the stacking plastic drawer modules purchased at most big box stores. Most of my tools are either stored in a small three drawer toolbox or hanging off magnetic tool holder strips. After market parts resin, photo etch are kept in their original package until used and are stored file box fashion in plastic Stero Shoeboxes. I use the same shoeboxes to keep in work kits, parts and needed items together during the build process. Pays to be organized, I've done it both ways where all the extra parts got thrown in a common container mixed about so anytime a part was needed it got dug for which ruins chrome quickly. I like the organized system much better, I store all like parts together when I need an axle, I open the bin they're in and choose the one that works. Same thing for any other parts. Beats digging!

I think what he is asking for is the descriptive actions of each. Sanding refers to color sanding which levels out the high and low areas of the color coat and or clear coat using ultra fine Wet sanding paper/ pads/ films from 2,000 - 12,000 grits and finer. polishing refers to a series of liquid based polish compounds, which the grit is suspended in the compound. Think rubbing compound. A favorite polish system of a few people oon here is the Novus three part plastic polish system which is used on the topcoat and works well, needs no waxing. Next step for both would be to wax the topcoat whether that be color or clear coat

I don't have a problem with the way (Rotorbolt73) Matt's doing business on eBay, it's honest, (and as demonstrated by the next reply to his post) doing someone else a favor making the remainder of the kit available to someone else who knows upfront what they're getting. I know there are others on here who,are doing parts and pieces sales as well as partial kit sales, I've bought from some of you got what I wanted at a reasonable price, Thanks. Your doing the same as casual sellers used to do. I buy stuff from these sellers all the time. My issue is the same as others have mentioned before and is a two fold issue in my book. 1. Seller marks up the headers (or ?????) from any kit for like half to a third of the sales price of the whole kit. 2. Seller cherry picks the best parts out of the kit (new or rare doesn't matter) then prices them at half or more than the kit sells for, because they're doing you a service!! I've heard others mention this and have experienced it myself; you make a reasonable offer for said parts. Next thing you know you have a two page email explaining first what an idiot you are, then explaination of how much overhead that they have in this business. You know, you don't expect them to "offer this service" for free do you? There's gas, overhead, their time, their inventory, their this and that, postage, handling, gas to and from the post office, time in line eBay fees.... they feel no shame in itemizing very little thing they think it's costing to offer this valuable service! It'll be a cold day in July when I buy anything from one of these preditory sellers!

Yep, I started that one with the intention of getting some intelegent dialog going on the subject; what I got was the same as the asker here has, smart a$ked answers from the same people who did so on both threads. Kinda sad at times when a civil discussion can't be held without someone's comments tossing the discussion into the ditch! Yeah, I've probably been guilty of doing so a few times and am sorry for it. It just gets to me when the same individuals repeatedly drive a discussion sideways with either inappropriate humor or comments that have little or nothing to do with the subject! Rant Over... Return to previously scheduled discussion if you can...

I think I've told this story before but bears repeating. I once followed a Trabant and a two stroker SAAB 96 to a car show in my Mini which was spotless before I left the house. When I got to the show, following two two stroke cars it was covered with little spots of two stroke oil! At least the 96 was running Castrol R two stroke oil whichever actually smells kind of good. Definitely a better use for castor oil than drinking it a spoon at a time!! For a couple years after there would be little bits of oil which would come out of the windshield gasket when the weather got hot! Needless to say both guys helped me degrease the Mini after we got to the show, I also never followed those two again!

Interesting. The story we always heard was that the former Soviet block countries were so starved for new cars that they would almost take anything they got, not to mention the wait to get one. From what I understand there are a whole lot of Trabants here in the USA. Lots of Mini's too. Funny thing when I drive my RHD Mini, I almost always have some brilliant soul comment on they didn't think it was leagal to frive a RHD car where everyone else drives LHD cars. My stock answer is in the form of a question. We'll have you told your mail carrier that their mail truck/van is illegal to drive? (Most U.S. Mail carriers drive a RHD, makes it easier for them to place mail in the mailboxes). When they figure out that they've sorta made a wrong assumption they almost always get a little red around the edges!

You're just knocken' those Trabants out of the park, another beautiful job. Your flocking looks just like the indoor outdoor carpet in the kit I got for the boot of my Mini! (Major compliment!!) Where are you finding all your reference material? The three Trabants that I've seen up close have more of a semi-gloss paint; love your glossy paint on them.

I ended up buying a Paasche spray booth for the exact same reason, I've been very pleased with that decision. The booth that you've shown looks like it should work well for you.

The Dawn dish soap worked well, it didn't remove it all but did a good enough job that the parts were allowed in my hobby room. Since some of the items were plastic, resin and plated plastic I washed a few pieces in the vinegar solution, there was also a marked reduction in odor, but then there was a slight vinegar smell that washed right off with the Dawn dish soap. Also tried sprinkling a good amount of baking soda on the parts first, the baking soda reeked after just a day, then Dawn dish soap; to my sensitive snoot I believe that this worked the best of all methods that I tried. Recommendation, Dawn dish soap for a one shot treatment. Baking Soda, soak in plain old Baking Soda for a minimum of 24 hours inside a closed container; I used ziplock bags. Next place the parts in another ziplock bag, place about a teaspoon of Dawn dish soap in the Baggie, finally add just enough warm water to cover the parts. Gently agitate the parts around to allow the dish soap to dilute into solution. Shortest time that I found worked for a single soak was 2 hours. For a two time wash I found that the odor was mitigated in two 15 minute soak, rinse, soak and rinse sessions. Once again, Thank You all for the great suggestions, this is just one of the things that makes our community great!

I'll admit to having one too! It was on the basis of the recommendations in both Model Car Science and Car Model magazines that I sent in a money order for a dollar forty nine cents comes to mind, this was probably around '64, so a $1.49 was pretty big money. I remember waiting and waiting, then waiting some more, AutoWorld was never the quickest shipper I think they must have shared the shipping department with J.C. Whitney and Johnson, Smith Novelties, because six weeks was like average. When you finally got it, it was like Christmas and your birthday all in one, because as a kid it took so long to get that sometimes you forgot that you even ordered something! The first "Project" I attempted with the AutoWorld Auto Cutter, was opening the doors on a '59 or '60 Corvette Promo (which I wish I still had in its pristine, pre melted state), given to me by my Uncle. Soon the door shortening turned into a vertical sectioning project, I blamed the issues on the Promo's extra thick plastic. For the Auto Cutter's second attempt I began work on a Monogram 1/32 scale Fiat Altered, which the Auto Cutter Altered too much to salvage. I did manage to do some of the fancy "stitch welding" which was demonstrated in like two pictures in Model Car Science, I remember being majorly stoked about that! Alas the Auto Cutter was relegated to a tool of destruction, for which it was suited quite well!! What I remember the Auto Cutter doing best was burning skin either by itself or by molten styrene! I still have a rather noticeable scar on my right hand between ring and little finger, right in the web. Molten plastic is nearly impossible to remove from burning skin, it just burns deeper until cooling to the point where it finally cools and no longer burns deeper (or melts completely through)!!! Once cooled to that point it is literally welded to the skin and whatever else it has burned through. Now there is one slight benefit to burning yourself with molten plastic. The molten plastic is so hot it cauterizes as it burns, so there is no bleeding to make one more squeamish than they already are from the excruciating pain and combined smell of vaporized skin and melted plastic! Remember this was before companies felt the need to place warnings or even age recommendations on packaging. Otherwise no 8 or 9 year old kid would be burning themselves with scars still visible today! I often wonder when I hear or read about people getting themselves branded with a red hot chunk of metal, did they get that idea from the AutoWorld Auto Cutter?

This of year many stores draw down their stock for inventory and tax purposes, could likely be what you are noticing.

May not have been supercharged, but very sweet example of a really nice mid-50's Hot Rod! Like I remember seeing in the early 60's, not too shines not at all rusty.

I see my tongue in cheek wasn't cheekish enough!! Vinegar and baking soda make a cool frothy fizzy mess, yes I did know that. Could be why the Dawn dishwashing detergent was going to get tossed in too,,, then again if you drank the deodorizing vodka, who cares what it smells like and the mess you just made!!!

Will try that one for sure, safe on resin I hope! Lots of vinegar left over from making pickled peppers last fall. Probably try some dish soap along with the vinegar, maybe even a dusting of baking soda, for alcohol, (would vodka work instead, you know drink the vodka until you no longer care about the smell! I don't drink so it wouldn't take much!!) Didn't they try vodka on sneakers on Mythbusters? wouldn't be that bad but it is just that wicked, rancid, stale cigarette smoke smell, I could smell it on my hands even after washing them!