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Looks like gold leaf on the R.F. letters, not hard to do uses "sizing" to adhere the gold leaf to the surface. There are white gold, silver and German silver (which is like stainless steel, not silver at all) Been wondering where the Ed Roth and Weird-Ohs and other sorta car related stuff go too. Wouldn't want it to get mooooved!

Currently own, Paasche, Badger, Iwata and a couple Harbor Freight DeLuxe Airbrushes (all Dual Action) which have all been used extensively. With proper care and cleaning even the cheap airbrushes should last a whole lot of paint jobs. There are a couple of good YouTube videos on airbrush maintenance that I highly recommend watching. Even the most seasoned airbrush artist should pick up an idea or two after watching them, I know I did. While you're at it watch some of the videos on how to use an airbrush, it's free and if you don't like it you can move on until you find what you do. You will also see different airbrushes in use. Best advice that I would give anyone (after almost 40 years of fiddling with airbrushes) is to first figure out what you will be using the airbrush for. Will you be doing fine line detail work? Then choose something that has a fine tip or extra tips readily available and gravity feed cup. Painting small parts, get the a medium sized tip, gravity feed or siphon feed if spraying a lot of parts. Paint jobs, choose something that has a wide or fan tip and siphon feed, maybe even a small sized automotive detail gun for shooting metal flake or clear coats. Don't pigeonhole yourself into an airbrush that everyone says is the best, it probably is for what they use it for; but does it fit your specific needs, the one that does is the best for you. The other thing is price is not always an indicator of how the airbrush will perform for you, if the cheap one fits your budget and needs that one might be better for you than the higher priced one. Do your homework before you spend a dime on an airbrush you'll thank yourself for it. Don't get me wrong, after you learn to use one properly nearly any airbrush will outperform the best rattlecan paint job! The first airbrush I ever owned was the blue plastic Badger siphon feed with the propellant can which I quickly learned to get an air tank and fill up at the corner gas station, I painted a whole lot of stuff with that state of the art set up! The results for me were a world of difference.

Having been a Seattle Seahawks fan since year one, I'd have to partially agree with Pete, we have had more than our share of inept coaching and moronic owners. Even though Seattle won, it was difficult to even watch! I actually felt sorry for Payton Manning, to have fought your way through the season to get to the Superbowl then have your butt handed to you like that had to have been one of the most difficult games in his career. Finally glad to see these kind of results from a team I've watched for so long. Have to wonder if the talking morons are right about Seattle being the next powerhouse dynasty? They point out that there is that one team every decade that it just might be the Seahawks decade.

Nice, '55 &'56 Victorias are one of my favorite Fords of the '50's. Just wish that there was a better version of the Crown Vic' the body isn't bad but the upper chrome is in need of a lot of fine tuning to get it to look right; maybe now that Alclad is here it might be doable. I'm tempted to pick up another '56 Victoria now that it's been reissued,,, I've got a huge backlog waiting to be built as is, maybe later. You make that top chop look easy, I'll bet it wasn't either. Sometimes the things that look like they would be simple to pull off turn out to be one huge headache. Really like what you are doing with this one, looks like a bunch of us saw that one over at the H.A.M.B., good stuff doesn't remain a secret too long!

Not a rat rod or neo-traditional rat (shiny rat rod) fan per se, but your work is out of the ballpark! Impressive details and techniques used to attain them, I'll be watching this one for sure. Thanks for sharing.

Actually, any Mini should be able to swap from RHD to LHD and back again, especially the Mk I and II Mini. The "Full Size" or Actual Size" was manufactured with that in mind. They were exported to lots of countries that drive on either side of the road.

Replicas and Miniatures has them. You are looking for 48 IDA's right?

Like the redirection that you're going with, that first trailer was a lota trailer for the "Loner's" dragster. Even the local guys had fairly nice trailers for dragsters starting about the mid-sixties most of them were enclosed small and form fitting to the car. There should be a few examples out there on the web, if not I've seen one or two in the pages of Hot Rod DeLuxe. The trailers that I remember the fuel dragster teams towing were enclosed, narrow only slightly wider than the dragster. The front was low and kicked up just ahead of the engine, most were fairly aerodynamic. The big trailer you started with sort of looks like the one that T.V. Tommy Ivo towed around the country on his match racing tour; his looked like it was a double decker the top had the car "showcased" with plexiglass windows. Ivo's trailer was in Hot Rod DeLuxe a while back. Your Belvedere wagon is spot on for a '60's tow an push car, though lots of them wore mag or chrome reverse wheels Crager SS were big favorites. Should be a really sweet race team when you get things sorted and finished.

Wow, you guys with all the paint, do you realize the incendiary capabilities of all that paint if there were a fire? They don't call those things spray bombs for nothing! If you were a business OSHA, Fire Marshall and all the other regulatory agencies would make you get a fire safe cabinet for all that volatile material. I have one for all my sign / striping paint, all my spray model paint goes in there too. I know a lot of Fire Departments that if you have exploding stuff in a structure fire such as ammunition, spray cans or other explosives going off they move from a put the fire out mode to a stand back and keep it from burning other nearby structures. The other major issue is homeowner's insurance, if they find out ahead of time they can cancel your policy; if they find out after the fact... Well let's say one of two options for them reduce the payout or not payout because you had a whole bunch of paint cans exploding! Do yourself a favor, talk to your insurance agent about what you are storing and how to mitigate the liability. (Ours is a good friend, I came right out and asked.) Things like fire safe paint storage. Disposal of rags with enamel, lacquer or even oily rags mix the three together and you've got the recipe for fire, containment in this case is as easy as keeping the air out. A one gallon glass jar with a tight fitting lid works great and costs nothing. Not sure how or what cheap storage methods there might be for spray bombs, there are enough smart people here on this board to come up with something. Sorry to be a downer, when I saw how much paint some people are storing things sorta clicked, it stinks to hear somebody had a fire.

When brushing multiple coats of acrylic paint it's nice to have a hair dryer to dry the coat, it also appears to help the paint adhere to the nooks and crannies. Just make sure to use the hair dryer on low temperature, it will help you lay down those thin washes on seats that give things an aged look. This works with the craft paints on up to Createx and Vallejo acrylics. The other tip when it comes to acrylic paint is you get what you pay for, those really cheap craft paints don't have nearly as much pigment in them and or have more fillers than do the better branded acrylic craft paints. The cheap craft paints are great for washes where you thin the paint to almost a transparent coat, they take more coats than do the better craft paint. Artist type acrylics (in the tube) are another great alternative they normally have the greatest amount of pigments than do craft paints. With artist paints there are two categories, Artist and Academy the Academy is the cheaper of the two and has more fillers and the pigments may not be as good as the Artist variety. Tube paints can be used for those applications where you would like a high build coat of paint, like for rubber parts, undercoating and anything else you want to appear to be thick. Nearly all types of acrylics will need some sort of clear coat whether it be gloss or clear to bring out washes.

That's too bad Casey, been around the block enough that what comes around usually goes around. Small enough community that once word gets around that anyone who leeches off others good faith won't be given the opportunity to do so again and again...I also appreciate you saying what you did about this individual, especially as a Moderator. We need to hear more of these type of comments from you guys. (Don't even know what and how this person burned someone on this board or anywhere else for that matter, others need to hear about bad trades and traders. Within reason.) Edited because I tried to quote Casey and only his quote showed up, not my comments. Odd.

JB, Did you "enhance" the welds on the cowl bars. Looks like the joints on the cowl bars where they meet the top rails have the weld quality of the early '60's before MIG and TIG were really common. They would have either been GMAW or GTAW for chrome molly tubing so the weld beads would be pretty noticeable. (Sorry if I got a bit technical,,, AWS Level 3 certified weld inspector pops out every once in a while.) Hmm, maybe some of our glue joints on our old dragster frames are just a bit too clean? Just leaving a really thin CA glue fillet might just look like the real thing, especially if it was tooled a little bit with a sharp dental pick or needle just before it set up.

Absolutely neat stuff. I remember the explosion that took part of Garlits' foo (from magazine coverage), how it was widely believed he would never race again. Then the rear engine dragster which was an oddity at first, then everyone else followed suit once he proved it could and did work. Garlits was an innovator almost from the start. Have to say I am really impressed with Don's wife Pat that's one strong lady, a lot of women would have walked away from it or told their guy enough!!

Try brake fluid on a Q-Tip, lightly rub the stripes. With the Q-Tip just dampened with the brake fluid. If the brake fluid stays on the paint it will soften the paint. You might try Purple Power on a Q-Tip too, it might work too.

Looks like you've put a whole lot of work into the interior and chassis that's looks like "fresh" Custom; sort of doesn't fit with the rat look. Iconic model years like the '32 Ford and Merc's (in my opinion) don't look plausible as a rat rod, most people who get one know their worth and heritage within the Rod & Custom community. It's your model so do it the way you like best.

Yes, right near the door so it could be reached either in retreat of going in with another already in hand.

I didn't see that one but I have on other shows, they hammer form the panels just like Ford did, with the same type of old craftsmanship. That alone is why they are worth what they ask and get for them.

It isn't because of the builder's quality, it is because the builder represented them self as a "Pro" Modeler. As I stated in my earlier post I blame the high sale price on the buyer, the quality of the product is clearly represented in the seller's pictures. Yet someone thought it was so great they couldn't live without it! I think it's also more of a case of " I can't believe someone actually bought that". To each their own, go figure.

$20k for what you're getting isn't that far off of the mark. Figure in what it actually costs in today's dollars to have the bodywork done to bring that same 5 window coupe back to the same condition and it might seem cheap. Yes, you could do the bodywork yourself, but for almost everyone else that would be way over their head. Official Ford Liscensing means that you can take a brand new panel off do this body and in theory it will interchange. The Liscensing gives the manufacturer the right to make the parts to Ford's original dimensions. I can't remember the percentage off the top of my head that a non-OEM part has to be different from the original to not infringe on the manufacturer's patents, (which is why aftermarket sheet metal doesn't always fit as well). Case in point. My uncle bought a really nice '32 3 window back around 1990, he took it to a local Hot Rod shop to have a few of his own tweaks added. Turned out that the coupe body wasn't as pristine as it looked lots of different owners over the years had added their tweaks too. Some of them shouldn't have either. The car had been on the road almost since new as a stocker, then a drag racer and finally a Hot Rod. The top chop was poorly done, it had "Coupe Cracks"* and other issues requiring correcting to make a really nice Hot Rod. Other modifications like filling the poorly fitted gauges in the original dash added to the costs. All this was justified because it was a '32 3 window after all! All said and done he had somewhere around $10 - $15 grand into the coupe body itself. This isn't a case of a shop ripping off someone either, the shop is a well respected, well qualified and not cheap by any means either. (I have taken my own stuff there.) The car turned out nice enough that it had a feature layout in Rodder's Digest magazine in 1992. When you are talking about doing the body work on a '32 Ford you probably wouldn't take it to just any shop either, probably to the most qualified and knowledgeable shop you could afford. So, this isn't that uncommon of a story. I've heard it a few times while discussing someone's nice looking Hot Rod. ( I've been around Hot Rods about as long as I can remember). I've also heard the same sort of tale from guys with restored stockers too, once you start correcting something you just keep finding more. So, in my book $20,000 for a unmolested steel '32 Ford body isn't ridiculous, when all said and done the cash outlay will be nearing the $100,000 mark. I've yet to see a genuine '32 Ford Coupe rat rod, not to say someone hasn't. It would probably be ran out of even the most casual cruise night, most Hot Rodder's are pretty tolerant but a '32 Ford is an icon after all. The reason that you see Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Cadillac and even Pontiac overhead valve V8's in many early Hot Rods is because they came out before Ford got around to it. Read some of the old Hot Rod magazines of that era, the new Chevrolet 265 inch V8 was beating the pants off of Hot Rodded Flatheads, and Ford was still building them! Can't change history. *Coupe Cracks form at the joint of the coupe top and rear quarters from the body flexing, they appear in most Ford coupes from the Model T through '36 or '37. In some cases the rear part of the coupe's top almost cracks from one side of the body to the other. Not a cheap fix.

Nice Comp Coupe!

Great choice on that color, looks even better than black would have. That paint looks flawless. Very impressive, then again I'm always impressed with shiny things!! I did say I loved it didn't i, if I didn't already say it,,, I really love it!

In this case those who have bought the spray bombs that are being passed off as works of art bear a little of the blame as well. In the case of the white Nova those pictures clearly show that there are issues with the paint; yet someone bid on it! The pictures show that there are issues with fit and finish; someone bid on it after seeing that too. If someone truly knew what Bill Jenkins Super Stock Nova/Chevy II really looked like they would not have bought a Pro-Street Nova, but they bid on it anyway. If the bidder knew anything about the engines allowed in Super Stockers they would know that even Bill Jenkins himself couldn't get a tunnel rammed small block to pass tech for an SS classed car, they chose to bid on it. Why? Even in my most sarcastic moments I couldn't come up with a smart Alec enough answer! If people quit buying stuff that clearly looks like a garage sale refugee those who try to pass off this stuff as if it were the absolute best of the bestest. Maybe, just maybe they would go back under the rock from whence they came. Back to the model, if people keep buying these creations then their builder gets he self notoriety that they are going for. In their mind they probably feel that since their models are selling for as much as they are that they are putting out a quality product. Probably not, when you build something you can normally point out even the most minute flaw which would go unnoticed by all but the most critical person. There are all sorts of ideas on quality... I'm not going there all the low hanging fruit is gone!

My first car was a then nine year old '65 GTO copper with a white interior, Crager SS mags, headers... The original 389 Tri-Power engine had been bored 60 over and got hot pretty quick, eventually seizing. A guy my Dad worked with had a Pontiac motor sitting in his garage for free, come and get it. The price was right so I got it, figuring it was a 326 or something, turned out to be a 421 out of a wrecked low mileage Bonneville. This was right in the middle of the gas crisis around '73 so no one in their right mind wanted huge engines anymore, I did! Worked pumping gas to get and feed that car, seemed like a lot of money then looking back it was pretty cheap fun! My other car necessitated by the Goat's "drinking habit" and being in the garage for a while, which turned out to be my daily high school driver (much more to my parents liking) was a '57 VW Sunroof Beetle. If my folks knew half of the crazy stuff we did with that car which I held onto long after the GTO was gone. Both were really fun cars in their own ways my girlfriend liked the Beetle better than the Goat, probably thought she was "safe" in it, she wasn't. I'd take them both back, cars not the girlfriend, saw her at a class reunion she's got old and a little pudgy nothing like the "sporty compact" I knew!

http://www.tcpglobal.com/itemdetail.aspx?itemno=PAS+HSSB-22-16 I've had a Paasche booth for quite a while, haven't had any issues with it. Can't remember where I bought it either Coast AB or TCP Global (buy stuff from both).