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That looks really great. As for the white headers, you could always give them that slightly charred around the edges look that white VHT header paint gets after being run a while. Even more so with supercharged engines. The last one of those I built I ditched the frame and put it on an Orange Crate chrome tube frame with a Chevy 6 out of the '51 Bel Air kit with triple Webbers (don't remember their source maybe Revell VW), weed burner headers (Plastruct tubing). Came out pretty nice, that is until it rolled off the shelf and my nephew thought it was a great toy. Quickly destroyed! Fiddly parts don't stand up to the four year old toy tester!

jb, That came out great. Ride height isn't too bad either. Didn't notice it on your on the workbench photos but the tires look a little tall for 10 inchers, is the rim size taller than 10 inches? Must just be the pictures. Engine bay is spot on, I've poked my head around many a Mini engine bay. (Literally too, that hook-like catch that they added to keep the bonnet from flying up at speed I think Mark II or III and later gets the back of the head almost every time!)

That's nice, big fan of Forties, so much so we are looking for a full sized Forty Coupe right now. Like how you did it without the trim.

Needs a spreader bar on the front of the frame rails and that's all.

Alan, that Fireball 500 trailer really fits the Mooneyes dragster, at first glance I thought it was scratch built. I got the Cube as well. As jb and others have pointed out the variations on the Mooneyes dragster changed almost every time they ran it! My Cube comment above more so refers to the fact I'm not a fan of the Cube in the first place. Looks too cutesy, cartoonish. Like the designer tried too hard to make it look like it came from a Manga comic.

There is an "Air Box" sold for that, the hole in the back of the firewall is already there and has a blanking plate fitted over it. The "Air Box" fits into that hole and seals off the back of the Centre Binnacle so that the sucking noise from the carburetor stays on the engine side of the firewall. I've never fitted a Webber to a Mini / Spridget engine, but I understand they are a bear to tune properly. You see Side Draft Webber 48 IDA's on dedicated Race Engines that primarily run high RPM's pulling huge amounts of air through the motor. On a street & track Mini / Sprite / Midget you see mostly SU's and some recently running the Mikuni motorcycle carbs. For "Hot Street" a whole lot of Mini's are running the 1-3/4" Bore SU they pull as much air as most of the smaller bore dual carbs. With stock crank shaft and main bearing configuration Mini engines are not a high RPM Motor, which is why the Weber is difficult to tune to a small motor. They look cool though!

jb, How thick is the Bonnet? Could the thickness be contributing to your issue with the bonnet not properly closing? What about removing the head from the block and shortening (decking) the block enough to gain enough room to make it fit under the bonnet. Removing the material from the block would probably be the least noticeable place to remove material, the height of the head would pretty much disguise it.

Bill, it's called "Dumbing Down". Johnny or Susie can't understand how to do it so they stopped teaching what kids didn't understand. That's why all the standardized testing is huge in the world of education right now. As in the U.S. Education system is trying to play catch up with the rest of the world who refused to stop teaching the basics, they just found better methods to teach kids in ways they understand. (My wife is a Teacher, I hear about this stuff almost every day!)

I've used a standard old calculator forever, most of my measurements are made with either dial or digital calipers or a machinists rule (hundredths). So converting the measurements to decimal just makes the whole scaling up, down all that much easier. Accuracy normally boils down to how many significant digits beyond the decimal point you wish to take it. Even with digital calipers styrene has enough give to it that there could be some loss of accuracy as no two people measure with the same amount of pressure. In scale modeling hundredths of an inch is probably more than accurate, unless it's metal thousandths are just overkill. The key to accurate number crunching is to allow the significant digits to float throughout the calculations, then round the output to the appropriate significant digit, which would be the last mathematic calculation. Most decent calculators can be set up to float the decimal point, they do it throughout the calculations though; so there could be a minute amount of loss of accuracy.

When I first saw your raw material my minds eye saw replacing the top with a '59 El Camino roof and bed with a matching Triumph Bobber in the bed. Must be looking at too many Weesner prints. With that said, I like the direction you took with it, silk purse out of a sow's ear so to speak. Some of those "Barges" from the late 50's early 60's really respond well to some mild trim changes and cleaning up. The paint is reminiscent of the "Jade Idol" in Gold, hey maybe "Gold Finger"!! (Ha, Ha!). Those wheels and white walls fit right in with your clean up theme.

Wonder if the vinyl type self adhesive shelf liner might work for that. Comes in a roll and could keep you in white walls for years.

That really came out great. Those pictures could pass for the real thing.

Thank you for showing some of your body work techniques, that really came out nice, that color really pops. Actually the whole thing is stunning, liked how you show it alongside the stock '55 Olds. I am not too familiar with what REN is, the stuff that you carved the Carson top out of. Is it the hard machinable foam block that are often used to do tooling prototypes? I searched the net and can tell you what it's not! Tail lights what did you carve them from? Edited because I can't spell right after working all night!

Tulio, That is one of the best AMT '32 Ford Victoria's that I've ever seen Stock or Hot Rod! That paint looks flawless, either that or you did a masterful job of hiding whatever imperfection there was; from the looks of it you had nothing to hide. It's perfect, as paint gets. With all the crowns and high spots on that body polishing had to have been fun! I remember the first '32 Victoria that I built as a kid, the paint came out really great lacquer if I remember right. My Dad wanted to show me how to make it really shine with toothpaste rubbing compound, it burned right through the lacquer all along the belt line. I had that model for a long time, wish I still did, brings back the memory of doing something together with Dad every time I see one! Thanks for sharing, you took something pretty simple kit wise and built an all around gem out of it. By the way, did I mention I really like this one!!

jb, In 2003 we attended Mini Meet West in Victoria B.C., there was actually a Broadspeed Mini there. I remember it not having the normally seen Riley Elf tail lights but having two small lights, about the size of the front blinker on a Classic Mini, I think the amber set were. I also remember a few of the "hardcore purists" grumbling that those were not the "correct" tail lamps. Oh well, I always feel like asking those guys if that's their car!

Mike, Thank You that's exactly what I was looking for. Would seem that the Resin Caster Gary Doucette, gets pretty high praises over at the Open Wheel Racing Modeling Forum, I wasn't aware of that forum, wouldn't have had to ask the question if I did. Took a second to match up the Boyle Special on the Indy Car forum with the eBay Auction for the same car. I poked around at the Open Wheel Racing Modeling Forum, it appears that these are really nice kits that can be built into stunning models, definitely worth a trip over there to see some of the great work on that forum. Now to get saving pennies! EBay Item - http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-25-SCALE-1940-MASERATI-INDY-500-WINNER-RESIN-METAL-PHOTO-ETCH-KIT-/191133628698?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item2c8073b91a Open Wheel Racing Modeling - http://mb2501.proboards.com/thread/6009/1939-1940-winner Edited to add working link to eBay Auction

eBay's not evil at all, I thought since most use eVilbay for its name I'd just go with the flow. I'm pretty picky with what I purchase off of eBay, some sellers have a different idea of what is a quality product than most of us. Like a friend who bought a box of parts listed as a "Model Parts Junkyard". That's what he got, a handful of useable parts and the rest broken unusable junk. I buy lots of stuff off of eBay, after seeing the truck stuff from Fr@ntier Resin on another thread I didn't want to drop a C-Note on junk. Also figured this to be a big enough community that someone on here had seen one of these kits up close.

Does anyone have any experience dealing with ovaltracklegends58 on eVilbay? They are selling 1/25th Scale Replicas of early Indy 500 Winners and Racers from the 30's thru 50's. The models appear to be constructed in curbside or in the same manner as high quality European 1/43rd Scale Resin Models. I did a search under the seller's name and Indy Cars without any hits for this Seller's models. Having built a few 1/43rd Scale Resin and White Metal European Kits I've seen firsthand that quality is a relative term, back then anything from pinholes to craters, slush cast to resin cast, great to horrid white metal. Seems that the 1/43rd scale modelers are willing to put up with a great deal of work to get a finished model. (I hope the quality is a lot better now than the last ones I built) $95 Is a lot to spend on an unknown product, especially resin, we've seen some of the "High Quality" Resin Products in some of the questions here regarding other Resin Casters idea of quality resin. The Feedback is 100%, the pictures look great (unfortunately we've almost all been bit by others's ideas of what great quality looks like on eVilbay, even in pictures. Which is why I now question almost everything on eVilbay.) Appreciate any constructive comments especially anyone who has built one of the kits or seen one of these kits up close in person.

jb, That really turned out nice, had my doubts when you included the Cube, it grew on me, sorta like it now. I really love the Dragster, looks like all your hard work paid off.

Rich, that engine is a jewel. The whole car is going to be a real stunner when finished. You got good taste.

Looks absolutely great! Your paint color really pops, great cross between the type colors Pontiac was offering and what the AWB "Funny" cars were running at the time. BTW the AWB / AFX classes evolved into what we now know as the Funny Car, someone coined "Funny Car" supposedly because they looked "Funny". I've read that story in more than one (a few) publications /books, so the story's gotta be true! This kit proves that you can build a fairly simple model using clean building techniques and come up with a winner, which is what you've done here. Good job. Picked one up off of eVilBay a while back think it will be the next kit I build. Always remember the Rat Packer, Mustang, Cyclone and Tempest as fun models to build. Half toying with rearranging the wheel wells on a certain'65 Goat to fit... Nah, try to build it out of the box for once.

The comment made by the 25 year friend of the family says it all. It all boils down to a quality of life after such a devastating accident like this occurs. So sad. Observation in general, nothing particularly to do with this case. Not meaning to Hijack this thread, however it makes you think about "What if that happened to me?" Sadly in many cases it is family who keep the person alive when they wouldn't want anything to do with the kind of life they will live without some sort of miracle whether it be faith based or medical. I for one wouldn't want that for myself, my family knows it too. That's why it's important to talk those things over with family ahead of time, if you can't talk it over with them put it in writing. A guy I knew when I was younger was accidentally shot in the head in a tragic hunting accident in his early twenties. He was never able to exist beyond a vegetative state, couldn't talk, you weren't sure if the lights were on and nobody was home. He lived like that for another 12 years, in my mind all because his mom was afraid to let him go. That to me was the saddest part of the whole accident.

Goats have always been one of my favorite cars, '65 GTO was my High School ride, not every day but plenty enough.

Sounds good, agree on self healing cutting mat, doesn't have to be a large one as long as you use it. Plexiglass will hold up well with just that one addition. Lighting, go with LED and at least one small fluorescent tube light, LED lighting produces a harsh read that bright light the fluorescent softens it just a tad bit. In addition to room lighting, above my Hobby Bench (24 inches) I have a 36 inch strip LED light which I found almost blinded me until I started turning my large fluorescent magnifying lamp on with it. Bench top is a section of Formica countertop, cleans up and is great to work on.

That's what I thought too. Considering a few of the people who post stuff on this board smoke or use open flames to bend stuff. So concentrating the flammable vapors into one confined space could get rather exciting, quickly too!