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Been driving a RHD Mini since around 2001, takes about ten minutes to get used to, the only real coordination issue was shifting left handed. I always get the question of RHD being legal to drive on US roads, always answer with something like, "When was the last time you saw a mail carrier pulled over?" They always get that light bulb moment and look when they understand the goofiness of their own question.

I'd agree with your list, with the caveat of the old pre-48 rule which probably has slid way newer thanks to Goodguys and others. The '27 T looks way better in the black and white pic, most definitely the pics Glenn posted those are classic stance and styling. Never liked the '32 3W which Chip Foose helped with some styling including the Faux bare metal along the chop lines, supposed to make it appear to be a fresh unpainted chop. What looks good to one person doesn't always look good to another, browse through a stack of old Hot Rod magazines and you'll prove that point. Even when the Golden Age of Hot Rod styling was new there were those pushing the envelope and missing the mark by a mile. Most of who appreciate the Classic Traditional Hot Rod tend to be drawn to those cars which were mainstream in styling, especially those cars clean enough to make a magazine.

I've been using the Createx and their Wicked Colors lines for quite a while both for model, automotive, panels and other projects. I've found through the years that you are better off as far as being able to duplicate the desired effect when you stick with the paint manufacturer's paints, reducers and any other additives they recommend. Createx has their own line of Reducer and acrylic base which work well with their Createx and Wicked Colors lines, I won't gamble using anything else on either a customer's piece or even something I will be giving someone else. My normal formula is a base of automotive primer, White makes most of their paints pop, I've used Hot Rod Black and or Flatz topcoats of various colors, plain old white is the best. Depending if I am using the transparent colors or the solid colors would be to lay down a pearl "Backer" color reduced 2:1 with Createx Reducer (thinner). Next come the Transparent Colors reduced to 2:1 to begin with, adjusting for coverage either bumping up paint or reducer until the desired effect is achieved. Solid colors go straight onto the Primed base, again testing for coverage and adjusting color or reducer to get the coverage I want. Last comes some sort of clear coat whether it be an automotive clear, Future or other acrylic clear. Createx has an excellent DVD of how to use their products for best results, I've seen it at Hobby Lobby for around $5 or about the price of a bottle of paint. I shared my copy with another person on this board who was struggling with acrylic paints in general and he reported success after seeing how to use the products.

Just saw a set of block hugger type headers in a July 1960 issue of Hot Rod magazine. Honest Charley Speed Shop was selling them for Ford, Chevy, Pontiac, Buick... for $39.95. Difference is the collector shape looks like the early square type versus the later triangle shaped collector. So there's nothing wrong with those headers, (like there ever was). I stopped hanging around over at that Traditional Hot Rod site a while ago, just for the reason that there are too many "Rivet Counters" who seem to think someone else's Hot Rod is their "build by proxy". Even to the point of badgering and bullying the builder if they do something the "In Crowd" doesn't like.. No one owes anyone anything on the parts they prefer to utilize when they assemble their Hot Rod. It's amazing that people get far less excited about the trash used to put together a rat rod than they do when someone decides to put the wrong valve covers, wheels, headers, mufflers, nuts and bolts, or a dreaded fiberglass anything on a Traditionally Themed Hot Rod. As long as it drives and the owner enjoys driving their Traditional Hot Rod who cares!!!

Because they built it without a "Build Committee" dictating which parts they could or couldn't use to build their Hot Rod. Two some people could care less what others think or care about it's their Hot Rod. Three They probably couldn't find a sponsor to bankroll building their Hot Rod. Four it's their Hot Rod! Five The people who chip their gums the most about period correct Hot Rods, Vintage Cars, Brit Cars... don't even own one! Six Maybe they know they're not competing for The Riddler Award and could care less, they just wanted a nice driver...

That would be a late in the war B-17, Boeing painted the full exterior surface on the early ones, then as the missions stretched farther and farther into Germany less and less got painted until at last they were nearly all raw aluminum except for the cloth covered control surfaces. In the interest of weight savings, by that time the Gremans knew they were coming anyway, no need to hide. When I worked for Boeing I worked with a guy who was an Engineer on the predecessor to the B-17 once they delivered the plane to the Army-Air Corps he took a leave of abscence to fly those same B-17's over Eastern Europe. Amazing guy, would only talk about his WW II service when pestered to, had some cool stories to tell. Back to he Rat Rod in question, nothing traditional about that thing, nothing even close to a B-17 even in the Artsy sense of things. There one or two interesting features in the interior, I wouldn't want to see them on anything I'd be driving though. Agree the interior is better than the rest of the car. I like Traditional Hot Rods, I've got tons of little pages and early Hot Rod magazines with examples of them. Don't believe any of them contain anything remotely close to this nightmare!!

Here's my long two cents on the subject: @ Force; you are probably right regarding the carbs, from the time the teams receive them who knows what modifications if any are done to them. I remember reading about Bill Jenkins ordering a ton of Holly Denominator Carbs at a time placing each one on his flow bench, either returning the ones he didn't like or selling them to others. The ones that flowed well we're the ones he would tweet into Race Carbs, Cams,,, until he got the best of the best. That takes a huge pile of cash and the time to work the parts. (If I remember right it was in an early to mid 70's CARS magazine). I've read a lot of articles on Bill Jenkens over the years, he always intriegued me with his methodical approach to his engines, chassis and overall set up. Gotta know the successful Teams are doing lots and lots of R & D work still. I think going to Fuel Injection will help bring some competitiveness back to Pro-Stock. The other step NHRA has to do is get the Big Three back into the picture, if the excitement is there for the fans they'll buy their cars. It's happened before. I hate the Unrecognizable Jelly Bean Blobular Funny Cars with their Vinyl Wraps, maybe it's done for weight reduction (in theory). Just hanging a manufacturer's Badging on them doesn't make them Mustangs, Camaros, Chargers... It just makes them a Blob with a Manufacturers's Badges on them. The fact that Team Force could take a "Mustang" body and call it a "Camaro" and have NHRA buy into it is proof that the Funny Cars are Unrecognizable Blobs. There was a period during 80's through 2000 then the Funny Cars became not so recognizable in name of aerodynamics, until NHRA put their foot down and told the Teams to make the cars look like they were what they said they were supposed to be! NHRA, it's time to put your foot down again, bring back the driver talent that was once needed to drive these cars. Top Fuel, what do you say, they aren't supposed to look like anything production and never did. It might be time to return this Class to the truly "Unlimited" Class it once was, where only the best of the best drove them and survived! NHRA would have to mandate across the board Safety Upgrades to every track the Fuel Cars run on or they don't run there period! It took the death of Dale Ernhardt Sr. to change the walls of the NASCAR tracks, it has seemingly worked. NHRA still hasn't done the things needed to assure Driver's have as safe of a racing surface as possible, that goes for all the "Pro" classes. I never have got all that excited about the Pro-Stock Bikes for some reason, they're sort of an extension of the Sportsman classes. A door slammer without the doors! TV coverage would either be better dropping Pro-Stock Bike and having more interviews, showing close Sportsman Class races, viewer educational stories, how and why things are done, new innovations... Announcers - Mike Dunn does a really good job, especially giving the Driver Perspective which is much needed side of the stories most of the time. He also knows when to shut up and let the story tell itself, something that's needed in sports announcers across the Dial, get tired rather quickly with announcers who just drone on and on. That's what the mute button is for! Back a while ago, years, when TNN was broadcasting the NHRA events they had great announcers who knew what was going on, as well as the relevant sidebar stories to highlight, Bob Frye was really good at that. (He's probably retired or gone by now.)

Puyallup, Bremerton, Kent, Arlington a few times. In addition to the names you mentioned we got to meet guys like Ed "The Ace" McCulloch before the Ace, Herm Petersen, Jim Green - Green Elephant F/C, Gene Berg who ran VW Gassers, major VW performance innovator, Walt and Bucky Austin, Lee Beard before his Crew Cheif days... Bremerton, Kent which became known as Seattle International Raceway now Pacific Raceways are really the only two active Drag Strips in Western Washington. Wish the good old days were back, Drag Racing was so much up close and all around fun for both the Racers and the fans alike. Too bad things had to get so corporate that it just became a side show at the national level, it's still much the same at the regional and local levels.

You got 91% (10 right out of 11). The average score is 41%.

Welcome to the forum, (we must be about the same age). '64 was around the first year I got to tag along to the Drags, mostly local stuff like the Strips here in western Washington. i used to Tag along with my Uncles for the price of being their parts washer, cleaner, sander, sweeper and any other dirty job they didn't want to do! Well worth the price of admission in my book!

I think most fabric softeners contain silicone in them including drier sheets, that's what lessens the static cling! Just make sure that you wash the parts really, really well or you could end up with fisheye in the topcoat. I use the dryer sheets to deodorize stinky or smoke smelling old magazines, works well. For models I usually wash in liquid dishwashing soap then about a tablespoon of baking soda in a ziplock bag, the box goes to the garage where it stinks up the garage until it's finally aired out. It may take a bit longer for the baking soda together the smell out, it works and I'm 100% certain that I'm not coating the parts in silicones.a

austinbantamclub.com The above link to the Austin Bantam Club has some really cool reference pictures of the various cars that the American Austin Co. made. I'd never seen that the "Coupe" sedan looking body style had the cloth covering like a Model A sedan, I thought that I knew quite a bit about them until I hit on that website.

That's really amazing, never thought I'd see anything like this happening when I got back into modeling. Strikes me as funny though when I hear people complaining about a little flash, mold lines, mismatch and other junk when lots of us would readily put up with a lot of this if we were able to build a 3D printed piece of something never kitted. For that matter look at some of the resin blobs, (some of which made slush cast parts look great) that a lot of Modelers in Europe have been turning into nice models for years

Appears to be a much better rendition than one one AMT's other Model A kits the '29 Roadster which had the everything molded into the frame bit engine, front and rear ends. from the instructions it doesn't appear that this kit was any better with the frame molded to the fenders. Looks like you would have to get a Revell Model A pickup or Tudor to make a decent '28 Tudor out of it. The last '29 Roadster that I built On my way! Model A rails went on a Revell chassis. The one thing that stands out is the pose able front end, though somewhat clunky looks like it could be pared down to make a nice front end, though the Revell is better out of the box. Just from the instructions the banger engine looks like it could be enhanced to make a pretty nice Model A 4 Banger, seats look like thy might work in the AMT '32 Vicky. That's a whole lot of money at collector prices for parts or to kit ash a nice '28 when you could take the Revell '31 Tudor, backdate it and have a really nice '28. Just my two cents! Oh, back to those everything molded into the frame AMT frames, seems like from a tooling standpoint that it would have been a whole lot easier for them to have molded the bare frames on the '29, '32, '34, '36, '40... And molded the wood detail to the bottoms of the interior buckets or even a separate piece. Tooling would have been cheaper to do that way too. Maybe the esteemed Mr. Art Anderson can fill us in on the logic that gave us the everything in one frames.

Mr. A., You have some amazing skills there Sir!!! Really like what you have done so far. My only change would be a LaSalle grill. Now comments. 1. Stance, How about picking up the front 1/16" and the rear 1/8"? I realize you're going for an aired out bagged look, but things got limits. 2. Interior is excellent so far, if you hadn't already thought about it. How about adding caps to the inner door and could wrap all the way around, would give proper bullnose on the doors and a transition to a headliner elsewhere.

Fluorescent paints no matter what the medium are almost always really opaque, I am wondering if there are not a large amount of pigment in these paints because of that. I've had some experience with the Vallejo paint line, when I begin using any new (to me) paint line I always use their reducers and any other stuff that the manufacturer recommends I figure their Chemists are a whole lot smarter than me. Most of the acrylic paints have a transparent base, which is the paint without pigment, which would be what I would add to a fluorescent paint in the first place no matter who the manufacturer, then add the reducer to get the flow. You may be getting your Vallejo paints from a dealer who isn't moving their stock quickly enough, you're getting old paint that isn't working like it's supposed to. Try using another source before giving up completely. In your case I highly suspect what has happened (from experience) is that the transparent base in the paint has somehow evaporated to the point you are left with the pigment and very little base. I've had issues with acrylic metal colors as well, again I suspect that it has to do with opacity as well, the metal or Mylar bits suspended in the base are laying down leaving voids where they should be overlapping and or stacking together so the light is reflected back in an even wavelength. Since I began using Alclad paints I've also began using black under the acrylic metal paints, it just gives a better reflection. Use a white base coat under the fluorescent colors to increase their reflectivity.

That is actually a pretty cool piece when you think about the possibilities, not with the model but that the GI Joe figures are 1/6 scale. This alone would make it a very collectible piece for someone who collects GI Joe and similar sized Soldier figures, which there seems to be quite a large following. (Probably all those guys my age or a little older whose Dads were like mine. "No kid of mine is going to play with dolls!!!" And I didn't.). I do see a lot off GI Joe stuff changing hands at the toy shows occasionally, so if you are looking to turn it there is a market. At that scale though the detailing opportunities are huge which would make that a fun model.

A few years ago we swapped the inline six for a 390 in my brothers full/scale '53 F100 there's a whole lot of engine bay there the engine wants to sit down too low. We ended up using an aftermarket engine mount, which bolted directly to the frame and used the stock type rubber isolated 390 engine mount on the block side. He is running a C-6 automatic transmission on the rear with a round 3/4" tube transmission mount, also an aftermarket piece. Exhaust at first he ran the stock rear exit manifolds which have since been swapped for headers. All in all it was a pretty easy swap due to the aftermarket mounts. There were no clearance issues at all. That being said try searching for an FE Series engine swap in an F100 I'm sure that with the still huge following that the '53 - '56 F-100's that there must be a ton of stuff out there.

Interesting site, looks like they have a bit of everything on there. I bookmarked it for future reference. My normal reference for the stuff that I tend to build is the "Little Pages", digest sized versions of Rod & Custom, Car Craft, etc.. I have a pretty extensive collection of Little Pages plus Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Car Craft and others in the larger Magazine Format. While I don't always remember where an article or car I'm looking for is at, I can usually find it within an hour or so. I like those because when you're looking for "Period Correct" you are certain that it is, versus someone's recollection of what stuff was like.

Please, give us a '27 T. Agreed that including the existing engines from midget kits would be a great idea, maybe even a '31/'32 Banger. Look how well the Resin versions sell, if that's any indication a full kit would sell well.

That last Coupe in Greg's post #40 is probably one of the nicest in the whole thread so far. Including the American Graffiti Coupe whichever though fairly period correct has some visual flow issues for me, the height of the grill shell looks like it's going down hill. For a whole generation (myself included) the AG Coupe is an Iconic representative of early '60's Hot Rods, so we overlook the styling miscues, even if a serious Hot Rodder's would have tweeked them to look good back then. Too many decent, well built Nostalgia, Period Correct, Traditional Hot Rods get "Branded" as a Rat Rod because the builder thinks patina and rust looks good. That's what ruins it for me, being raised around Hot Rodders during the early '60's where they cleaned, painted and shined up everything that went on their Hot Rods. Both my Uncles had nice Model A Coupes, (couldn't afford Deuces I guess) from what I remember there wasn't a lick of Rust or caked grease on them, (my brothers and I were enlisted more than once as parts washers, free labor, the price a kid had to pay to hang around in the garage) so maybe that's what ruins it for me. Like someone posted, it's their car, build it the way you want to; maybe. Hot Rodding has and has had some long standing traditions, ugly flaking, faded paint, heavy rust, holes in bodywork, grease and caked on grime haven't been a part of that picture until lately. Sort of like "Historical Revision" where something didn't happen that way historically, but is changed in the history books because what really happened wasn't politically correct!!

Really love that wire trick on those pulleys that one pays off in a big way. Been around a while and have never seen anyone do that one, thanks a lot for sharing. Sometimes the simplest tricks and tweets look better than some of the expensive do-dads!

Le Mans Blue has got to be my number one favoritest color on a Comaro White Stripes of any shape go so good with it. This is really turning out nice, paint work shines so sweet, love those wheels. It's gonna be a Beaut when it's finished! Years ago I owned a Le Mans Blue with White Stripes and Black interior '69 RS SS Z/28 Camaro, one of three cars I've owned that I wish I'd never traded.

Interesting tour through the toolies with the aircraft and Non-Mopar Hemispherical Combustion Chambered Power Plants, and now back on topic, sorta. I can pretty much differentiate between the little Red Ram Hemi and the 392's, everything is pretty much the same to me in scale. The later 426 Muscle Car Hemi is different enough that it is readily apparent that it is the Later Hemi, distributor placement being the first thing I notice. The early Hemi's are all an interesting and cool alternative to the so often seen early Small Block Chevrolet engines in early and Traditional Hot Rods and Customs. Both the Small Block Chevrolet and Mopar Hemi's were the first OHV Domestic engines that Hot Rodder's could get their hands on in the wrecking yards. This alone is most of the reason that there were so many Go-Fast Goodies for these engines, check out a stack of "Little Pages" and you'll figure that out quickly! Love seeing both Early Hemi's and Small Block Chevy engines in the early Rods.