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This kit has peaked my interest a time or two. The only slight change I think I'd make to the bodywork would be to lose the side pipes. To my eye they have always looked like an afterthought, albeit a well blended and executed afterthought, losing them would tighten up and smooth the flow of the lower body. Doing so might make routing an exhaust system somewhat of a pain in the end it might be worth the work to the eye, bring the retro-mod look a little ,ore up to date. Impressed with what you are doing with this build, looks great in the weeds with a pro-touring stance.

Yes

Bill, i think you captured the look, looks like metal! Now you need to build an out of the box Challenger to sit side by side for comparison. Great job!

Six years old, Dad took my brother and I to Century Twenty-One in big ol' Seattle. We rode over on the then "futuristic" Art Deco ferry Kalakala from Bremerton. Mom and little brother were in the hospital, he was just hatched, must have been why we went. Still have a sterling silver "Century Twenty-One" silver dollar sized coin. Didn't get to see Elvis, they were still there filming when we went. Don't remember seeing the AMT exhibit, just lots and lots of people!

Nice one Rich, you almost made a Ford nut outa me with this one!

Wow, Bill that's a huge difference, watching this one for sure.

Ha, Ha! That's great. Even better the ad that came up when I looked at it is for "Waste Management, Easy Trash & Recycling Pickup"!!! OK, maybe it's because I'm working nightshift and my brain isn't functioning normally, but that's pretty funny. You couldn't set that up better. (Hopefully the same ad comes out for everyone.)

The filler thickness issue was going to be my next comment/question, was wondering just how you were going to stabilize all that weight on the existing plastic. Please,show your progress and technique when you get to constructing the plug and the "new" body. Very impressed with the way that this one is going, can already see that it's going to be a beauty when it's finally finished.

BTW - Thom signs his name Thom Daniel, no "s" but there's an "h". check his books, Street Rodder articles and illustrations.

Nice, Traditional Lines, other than the wheels it looks right out of early '60 Hot Rod Magazine!

Humidity issue? Was it raining or foggy or... the day it was sprayed? Almost sounds like humidity blush.

Mineral oil is a little better on brushes than motor oil, the new oils have detergents that the old ones never had which are hard on the brush. Used Valvoline for years, switched to mineral oil a while back works just as well and I know there are no additives. Lacquer thinner works great for any oil based paints, gets the hair squeaky clean. If you have a ultrasonic cleaner you can cycle your brush through it using thinner in the well instead of the regular cleaner, you'll be amazed at the old paint that comes out of the ferrule. If you don't then lay the brushes in a flat pan cover with thinner and soak for the afternoon. Pick up and spin the brush by the handle between the palms of your hand, like you were trying to make a fire. Pulls the dried paint out of the ferrule, then gently dry Shape and oil. If the bristles are really beat I've heard of using hair conditioner on them, never used it, never had to though. Better yet retire it from painting chores a and get a new one. Bent bristles can be reshaped using artist's brush conditioner soap. Wet the bristles. Work the brushes hair through the conditioner soap bar, shape. Allow to dry for several days, so it takes a set. Throughly wash out the brush soap dry and check the set, repeat if necessary. Never, ever dry a brush by pulling it through a rag between your fingers, it pulls the hair out of the ferrule. Instead, gently stroke the brush back and forth until dry. Don't store a brush standing on its bristles, it bends the hair causing it to set that way. Instead store your brush standing up on the handle. Better yet get a pencil box, store your brushes oiled, shaped and laying flat. Don't buy cheap brushes in the first place, buy the best brush you can afford then take care of it as you would any fine tool. Use the proper brush for the job in the first place, don't use your good painting brushes for applying liquid cement, white glue, masking fluid.... Those are jobs for either cheap or retired brushes, use your good brushes for paint only. With proper care your brushes should last you for years, which in the long run is cheaper than buying several inexpensive brushes and not taking proper care of them. I too have quills and stripers that are probably 25 - 30 years old, some of the hobby and watercolor brushes are nearly as old. All of them still work great almost like they did when I got them only better, they are broken in and taken care of. Edited for spelling.

Nice, Forty Ford's are one of my favorites. I'll be watching this one to see what you come up with. That AMT kit's got great bones, it's stood the test of time and still builds a sweet Forty.

India ink, cut it with water until you get the effect you want. Dries true flat, can be cleared or Future'd over. Can be removed with a Q-tip and plain old water if you don't like the effect.

The threaded M/T Sportsman tires came into popularity with the Pro-Street look, so say mid 80's early 90's with narrowed rear ends.

Same here with Bill, did a real '61 "Gasser Style" chop. There are several schools of thought on how to do the same thing. The lower the lid is lowered the more material needed in the middle or the more slanted the "A" pillars will be. We did a quarter cut on the roof to allow the roof pillars to remain somewhat in their "stock" angles, sections from a second or third VW roof are added to fill in the gaps. Windshield and rear window are shortened or chopped with this method. This method gives the appearance of the roof being narrowed slightly as well as a little longer; looks a little more proportional. Some of the early "Gasser Bugs" were chopped this way, while others were chopped using the stretch chop. Another "stretch" chop cuts the roof in two to three sections, adding sections from a second roof in the gaps created by lowering the lid. The control points are the pillars as they are in any top chop, which is where cutting the roof into sections comes into play. Normally this method will allow the roof to remain visibly stock in width, the additional roof sections make it look longer though. Then there is the angle chop method, the windshield is cut at a lower height, ending with several pie cuts almost but not completely through the rear pillars. Requires adding more angle on the A pillar, the "B" pillar is often angled forward along with the rear of the door window. Supposedly the easiest method, though not the most eye appealing as it clears an "egg shape" to the car as a whole. This is more of a "Street Custom" chop. The other consideration might be that most of the early "Cal Look" Bugs were not chopped, they had suspensions which were as low as one could get them without resorting to air bags or narrowed beams. Of course no one was running bags on anything let alone Bugs. The basic idea of the Cal Look Bugs were first to go as fast as you could go and be streetable. Second was that the wheels were under the fenders, the rarer the wheel the better, tires were something to the effect of a 185R15 rear and 135R15 in the front, radials not bias ply. Third the exterior straight as a pin and shaved of the trim, interior hot rod styled tweed center section and leather or vinyl sides, door cards vinyl outside with tweed insert, 1 - 2 inch wide tuck and roll on the tweed. These were fast cars in their day, many ran 13's and some in the 12's or lower, normally aspirated and without nitrous oxide. I remember reading about a couple of Cal Look Bugs that ran lower E.T.'s but they were pretty much purpose built race cars. Oh and almost all of them had quiet mufflers on them, no need to advertise you were street racing especially to the law!

I've heard baby powder as a flattening agent before, but never for texture.

In addition to the 91% isopropyl alcohol. Try a rag soaked with lacquer thinner rubbing the surface until it breaks through the cured topcoat picking up a little color will indicate when this has happened. Don't let the lacquer thinner soak through to the bare plastic it will craze it enough that you may experience ghosting from that on the next coat. All you need to do is soften the topcoat, after doing that you may find that you can strip it off with either brake fluid or Easy Off (yellow top can). This is weird, I've seen brake fluid eat through lacquer topcoat clear down to bare metal several times on cars and trucks. I also know of a very thickly clear coated 60's style flake job which was vandalized by someone using brake fluid. It bubbled all of the lacquer based clear coat and flake into the lacquer base coat in a matter of a days time. So unless the Alclad is catalyzed or epoxy based then there is no real reason that brake fluid shouldn't work. There is always aircraft stripper, but I think it eats plastic like my English Bulldog goes through treats!!!

Look at either the Paasche or Pace spray booths, both have isolated fan motors which greatly reduce the chance of electrical ignition source. I have a Paasche booth and it works great, I'm able to paint inside year round without any paint odor in the house. Prior to purchasing the Paasche booth I too was considering building my own until I came it the conclusion that the cost of building something equal or close to it was about the same, considering time and materials. The true deciding factor came after talking to my insurance agent about it, his response was something to the effect that using something not designed specifically for the job and having any type of accident could be grounds for an insurance company to get out of compensating for a loss. So even if it did cost less to build, there is a remote possibility it could cost you more in the long run.

Wow, Bill that's an interesting story on the Duryea Race Car. Sounds like it was about fifteen minutes or so away from me when it was here in Washington. Great to see that it went to the right museum for it. What is even more interesting is the "chain of custody" that makes up the provenience of this car. The odds of someone buying it to make something else out of it, then it remaining in tact are amazing in itself. Thanks for sharing, I've always had a thing for Speedsters, the true original Hot Rods.

Lacquer thinner.

Nice job. Tongue in cheek is always welcome.

Same here, I still have the issue of Rod & Custom with the Hollingsworth Nomad, it caused me to run out and get the model. Now that would have been ambitious to make it look like a '57 Nomad, let alone Sam Hollingsworth's Nomad! As with a lot of early failed model projects back then; there was a still unsolved mysterious case of arson!!!

One word. Hideous! I wish I hadn't picked up my new glasses!