Skip

The sink holes you showed on the Mustang, probably Bondo 801 glaziing putty or CA glue and baking soda and lots of block sanding with what ever fills the holes.

Recently picked up an old Foodsaver vacuum packing setup along with a couple of jar attachments which I am going to give a try at adapting the setup to pull a vacuum on the silicone mold to evacuate as much air as possible. I think I paid like $10 for the Foodsaver, so I can aford to play around with it. I've made stuff for slot cars for quite a while, mirrors, rims, headlight blanking plates, fuel caps, drivers and heads, easy stuff. I am thinking about doing some stuff like engine blocks for early smallblock Chevy, maybe a quick-change rear end, a set of blockhugger headers, Holley 4 barrel carb... You could spend a bazillion dollars getting into resin casting, unless you are going to make a go of a "Hobby / Business" of it you probably don't need all the neat toys. I think this is what you were asking when you posed the question in the first place wasn't it? At least that was what I read into it, you are not interested in casting bodies and other complicated setups yet, just interested in getting your feet wet and casting a few parts for your own use. Honestly that's what I am looking to do as well, reproducing some of the parts I would like to have a few more of without having to buy the whole kit(s). (I'll gladly leave the difficult and fiddly bits to the Pro's they earn every cent they get on their bodies and cool parts have to help them buy all that expensive tooling somehow.) If you want to get into casting your own stuff just go for it. Far too much stuff is done by proxy, everyone has some sort of oppinion on how things should be done. (Not just on this forum but almost every forum you want to go on. That comment was not meant to step on anyone's toes, just weird how people have become so indecisive lately.) I have never tried this one yet. Years ago (like around 1980) I saw a little blurb in "Fine Scale Modeler" mag's tips section about using "Silly Putty" to make an impression mold. From what I remember the gist of it was something like; carefully pressing the part into the Silly Putty then carefully removing the part and casting resin into the void. The tipster was using 5 minute epoxy from the tube for the part which had excess, needing to be trimmed down.

Pinstriping, sign work & vehicle graphics for fun and profit Classic Mini, (wrenching and driving) Autocrossing Above on occasion Slot Cars Watercolor Painting & Drawing Gardening - Tomatoes & Peppers (= Salsa!), Big Pumpkins Chilihead BBQ

As has been said the Canopy Sunroof was an option on the '72 model year only. Shortly after a friend of mine bought one new he hit a deer with his. The way he tells it he hit the deer square in the middle of the front end to the deer's side taking it's legs out then pitching it onto the hood then up the windshield, he thought that he was going to get away with minor damage. Until the deer dropped head first through the canopy wedging itself sort of into the front and back seats, appearing to be dead on impact he was able to pull off the road to survey the damage. It was a good thing as the deer came to life trashing the passenger and back seats with it's sharp hooves before sucumbing to it's injuries. The Canopy didn't leak before the deer incident, but it sure did after it. You might be able to find something close either on a 1/24 - 1/25th scale Classic Mini Cooper a 1/32nd scale might be just about the right size and it would be pretty flat so you wouldn't have to modify it for the Nova's roof contour. I've seen some cheaper 1/32nd scale diecast Mini's with the sliding sunroof, worth a look.

Wow! Finally something that isn't slathered in two feet thick syrupy clear coat and everyone hates the finish... I've seen some weird stuff done to cars in my time butt this is just a bit too ugly for mortal words!! It must be the work of some sort of "Car gods" who personally imparted the knowledge of this Monstrosity!! The owner should have rolled this in and collected on the Cash For Clunkers program! If the government would have used this "vehicle" as a poster child the Cash For Clunkers program may have been a success. Surely the "builder's" name will be right up there with the likes of Barris and all the other great car customizers this world has known, it's just a shame who ever did this got their "custom carreer" started about 50 or 60 years late.

Not to mention that an upside down dropped axle would want to torque the dropped part of the axle outward under braking resulting in catistrophic failure of the axle at either of the two bends. The suspended weight would want to spread the dropped part outward as well with the same results. Looks just plain nuts! It doesn't break under normal use in it's intended design because the moment of force is lessened by the triangulation of the two bends. I have seen dropped tube axles break under extreme use, as in a not so light car that could pull the front end off the ground then sets down with a less than gentle landing! Dropped I-Beam axles start out as a stock axle that is clamped in a press heated then pressed downward under huge amounts of hydraulic pressure until the metal moves. The fixture holds it in place until it cools and stays, they are not 100% as strong as before being dropped which may be why you don't see them on too many heavyweight hot rods. Been around the block a time or two with hot rods, race cars, I've never seen this done even on a show car. Not to say that someone hasn't tried it, the minute you say that someone comes up with pictures. Pretty sure no self respecting tech inspector would OK this set up either.

The beading wire is what I was going to suggest while reading through the first page, I see Harry already did so. Some of the beading wire is pretty flexible almost partially annealed. The other idea that I was thinking while reading through was using a drill bit smaller diameter than the wire, like is sometimes used to "locate" small photo etch details. Drill the original or new trim location clear through the interior panel with enough holes to locate the trim. Super glue from the back side with thin stuff, then use accelerator at each hole working down the trim one hole at a time. Doing it like this might keep the excess CA glue run off and cleanup to a minimum. Sounds like it might be a little time consuming, so is cleanup for that matter.

Why change long established terminology to fit a few? Does it change anything? Will it help you to build a better model? Been around model cars since I was a kid in the early 60's it was kit bashing then, everyone knew what it meant still means the same thing as it always has. A model assembled from more than one source of parts. Call it what you want, it's still Kitbashing!

I've got a 155, one of the first serious airbrushes I got. The only problem that I've had with it was the teflon bearing wore out from nearly constant use, Badger replaced it for free no questions asked. It's a good little workhorse, it will do most everything you want it to do for modeling. Most important thing for you to do is learn how to clean and maintain it, how to diagnose when it has issues and how to dial in to make it work right. That said, get some spoons or better yet old model bodies and get to practicing.

Yes, in principal they are as most are set up to open the second set of barrels progressively in essence you are running around on a two barrel carb until you tromp on the gas. Many of the tri-power setups are set up to run on the middle carb then depending on the linkage a second and then third carb comes on the harder the gas pedal is depressed. I have seen some set up to run on one then on all three at about 3/4 +/- open of the center, coming on all the way when the pedal is on the floor. When I got my '65 GTO it's Tripower linkage was set up in the 2 + 4 (barrels open) set up, it ran much better when changed to a progressive 2 + 2 + 2 set up. Basic idea was to give performance with a degree of economy (even when gas was .27 cents the average guy was making $2 - $4 an hour, much like prices Vs wages today). That one barrel carb's discharge tubes look more like shower heads, looks like it can supply a lot of air and fuel in a hurry. Bill, yes indeed those metering blocks look like Holley's design, one end probably feeds one tube and the opposite feeds the other. Sure does look smooth enough to shove a whole lot of air down the throat.

Two, both have previously been mentioned and both are or were in the top 10 movie car chases of all time. 1. Bullett 2. The Itallian Job - Original 1969 version, (by far better than the 2003 "remake" which they had to explain everything for the viewer)

Funny how over the years I (selectively) remember the Camaro's underhood wiring as being much cleaner. Not! Got a few pictures of the '69 Z/28 I owned back in the day out, It wasn't as pretty as some of these newly restored Camaro's. I was the second owner so I know that it came from the factory that way. Back to the COPO Camaro, sure you could buy a whole lot more horsepower for less than that money. Could you buy this kind of provenance for less than that kind of money? Probably not. As long as there are yuppies who feel the need to be seperated from this kind of money on muscle cars we see this kind of price on them. The average guy has been nearly priced out of collecting the cars we love, kind of sad really.

Monogram - Uncertain "T" - (My friend built that one as a kid, it was pretty uncertain that it was anything but a gluebomb!) Monogram - Sizzler Dragster - (Don't remember that one on the shelves) AMT - Ohio George '33 Willys Gasser - The one I built had the plastic wheels. AMT - "Rat Packer" Nova & Mustang "AWB Street Freaks" - Those had the plastic wheels too. AMT - Myer's Manx - Got the first issue with display for Christmas, bought the one with out with paper route money! AMT - "Gasser Bug" (would have been an altered due to its shortened wheelbase). MPC - Shalako "Ford "J" car look-a-like dune buggy Still have the seats from the Rat Packer and Mustang AWB kits, I remember not liking how they were mounted so I made mounts out of "bell" phone wire soldered together to make pretty convincing mounts. Pretty close to what my older neighbor kid was running in his "Wicked Fast" '57 Chev. I've been hanging on to them for just the right kit to put them in. Still have one of the traction bars from those kits too.

We know that issue 175 is out and about in the hands of happy Styrene Addicts!! So the question is who's labor of love is in the 2013 Contest Issue? There are some real beautiful models in there, nearly all of them that would make any builder proud to have their name attached to it. Just a flip through and I see a few familiar names from here! Here's your chance to let every one know you are famous in print!! Way to go lots of eye candy, lets hear who made it! Please don't combine this with the other issue 175 thread, the intent here is not to let everyone know who got their magazine on time. It is to recognize individuals for their amazing works of art.

Gonna go out on a limb and say the Halibrands. They go with the Flathead's aluminum heads. If you are looking for a little more weathered appearance you could flatten them up a bit then do some light grey to light black washes. Then super thinned white spattered over the dark (spattered off a toothbrush's bristles) to look like corrosion. There is a seller on ebay that is selling a similar wheel as you have on the front in resin, PM me if you want the seller's info. BTW, I'm not super crazy about the rustified look, but I like this one. You've got the rust down pat, it's convincing without being over done. If you can get the rust that good you should have no problem with a little corrision on magnesium.

Ira, I never tire of your amazing imagination and modeling skills. This one is cool as usual, thanks for sharing.

That's Cool. Looks more like a Model T Speedster now than a Bugatti. A "T" radiator shell would have looked right at home on it.

Wow, Get well soon.

This is sort of a spin-off of Derick's "This years Darwin Award goes out to..." Hopefully we can humor his injured digit back to full function with a few laughs at our own expense. We've all done something really stupid, so let's hear about it. I've got two to start off with. First, I was using a Dremel "slit saw" in the flex shaft (no guard of any kind) cutting into a chunk of aluminum. Next thing I know there is a redish spray and a slight pain to the tip of my left ring finger. I quickly shut the Dremel off, examined my finger which is split open from the tip through the nail to the nail bed, not bleeding yet! My wife came to see what all the four letter adjectives, asking if she should look or not, "no just get the car out of the garage so you can take me to the ER". The Doctor thought that this was a very humorous injury, even calling another Doc over to look at it. The nurse throually enjoyed scrubbing it out with a "wire" brush as the feeling had now come back with a vengence! I was told that they didn't stitch up these type of wounds anymore they just superglue them together. They even gave me a couple of tubes so if things opened up again, I still have one in the garage and the other in the hobby room! Finger healed up nicely, it was more embarrassing than anything. Lesson learned, just use a razor saw, as in the right tool for the job. Second, While sitting at the drawing table that I was using to build on at the time an exacto knife went rolling down the table top between my knees. Now I knew better than grabbbin the thing with my hands, I might get cut! Without a thought as the flying exacto was dead center between my legs, I quickly brought them together, with enough force to impale myself halfway up the knurled tightening ring!! Hole in jeans and leg, oops! Worst of all hole in flesh is squirting blood, just barely knicked an artery! Again ask the wife to get the car out so we can go to the ER. Evidently the Doc felt compassion or just didn't want to get blood everywhere and got me sewed up quickly! I was lucky that the cut to the artery was small otherwise they would have had to do it in surgery. Two lessons learned. First - if an exacto knife becomes airborne get out of the way and let it fall. Two - feminine hygene products are good for more than their intended use, don't be embarrassed to use what you gotta use!!

Looks like solvent pop.

Anne, Great story! My neighbor had a cute daughter and a A/A fuel dragster. The dragster drew me to his garage first, then I "discovered" girls and hardly spent as much time in the garage!! Went to a whole lot of races though and had a lot of fun with both.

The header on the film clip says that it's "Hot Rod Magazine's Ingenuity in Action 1958". One of the coolest cars that they didn't show run is Creiton Hunter's Sidewinder Dragster. I've only ever seen it in magazine pictures, those are few. In '58 Ohio George was probably running a blown Caddy, he was using a '57 Cameo truck to get it to the strip and back, (I think that I read he won it at Indy). I don't think that a model of the Green Monster was ever offered. The Allison engine was in Parts Packs and the "Miss Budweiser" hydroplane, locating one would be half the battle.

Everyone keeps saying to soak or wash their Resing parts in Wesley's Bleche White, but I havent seen it in the auto parts stores in a while. Where is everyone getting theirs these days? I've been soaking in the purple pond and having no adhesion issues. I think that I heard or read that some use TSP - Tri-Sodium Phosphate on their resin, stands to reason it is a standard painter's item that cleans almose anything.

That's a great fit on the chassis, perfect for a "Street Freak" which is what the Shorty / "Stubby" Tri-Five Chevy wagons fit into. None of the sanctioning Drag Racing organizations recognized them as Gassers, they would be classed as Altereds. I remember seeing a few Stubby wagons at the drags, they were relegated to bracket racing, even so they were fun to watch! How many inches in scale did you remove out of the middle? All of the Stubby wagons that I remember seeing started out as four-door wagons that had the doors modified to fit the radius over the wheel wells from the rear of the back set of doors. The way that you are doing it looks like it is going to result in a cleaner look when it's finished. Looks Great!

While you'e at it figure it out for the Fotiki guys too.