MrObsessive

To expand upon what Rich said, if I'm gluing two engine block halves together and that includes the oil pan and trans, and there's a seam, what I like to do is brush a coat or two of Future (Pledge with Future Shine) on the oil pan and trans before I paint and let the Future fully dry. At least whenever I'm building something, despite the fact that I've blended everything smooth and I've covered those areas with either putty or CA glue, it never seemed to fail that down the road that seam line is staring back at you and saying "Hi!" That drives me CRAZY! Future will negate the crazing/ghosting effect of paint (even the so-called "cool" hobby enamels).

Ahhh! The Celica GTS! I can remember the salesman tried to sell me one of those, but I had my heart set on that Supra! I was spoiled by its straight six-------it sounded soooooo good! It was mighty quick through the gears, and handled extremely well for a car of its time. That $14,000 price tag though................ I see them on the 'Bay at times for less than $20. The one I have has that yucky dark glass though including the running lamps. I'd never use those as that just looks terrible to me. VERY nice detailed straight six and independent rear. I'd have to say for its time, it was one of the better engineered kits out there. MPC got the body lines exact on that one, and of those I've seen built, I don't remember anyone having anything bad to say about 'em.

The 1:1 Supra is a car I wanted badly when they were brand new in '82. IIRC, the car was something like $14,000 out the door. For someone like me making "only" $5.00 an hour (not too bad a salary then), the car was way outta reach and I never gave it another thought. I still like those after all these years, and I still have the kit I've had since that car was new. Guess I should try to build it sometime. They came in a pretty copper color (not sure what Toyota called it) and with that roof mounted spoiler and flip up headlights, I liked those actually better than the all new Camaro. Unfortunately, as what happened to a lot of '80's Japanese cars here in the northeast, the dreaded tinworm claimed a lot of them, and I can't remember the last time I've seen one on the road.

I've got a few of those particularly the Fieros and the Supra. I'm surprised that the Fiero hasn't been seen for some time, especially the GT version. Yeah, their box art could leave much to be desired, but the kits weren't bad at all!

All of those are very nice, but I like that coral and black convertible the most! Excellent color combination!

Thanks for all of the encouragement so far fellas! This has been a real challenge! My sight is improving, but the biggest annoyance/hazard now is my depth perception. Because the bubble implant is getting smaller, it now blocks my lower vision in my right eye. I've already stepped on one of my cats because I simply couldn't see him! He wasn't hurt as he moved his buns mighty quick when I stepped on the tip of his tail (I think it was his tail). Guess he'll know when he sees these size 15's heading his way-------he gots to move! I have to be careful fixing food for myself as when I make coffee for instance, it's easier to pour the water with one eye as I've already missed the cup and had water pouring on the counter. Thankfully, I didn't get scalded! I can see fine dead straight ahead, it's looking down slightly where my sight is blocked by this now very dark bubble. I liken it to a very dark contact lens that blocks half of your sight looking down. How long this will last...........I hope not too much longer! I made a post yesterday trying to show the wheelbase difference in a future project, and even doing something that simple was a challenge. Typing is no problem as I don't need to see the keyboard looking straight ahead, it's the other things that require looking down where I run into trouble. Of course, there's still the light sensitivity at times, so when that gets to be too much-----I take a rest/nap for a bit. I'll just need to be patient until this implant totally dissipates!

That's a thought Chris! I'd hate to cut up a pristine kit though. The '62's are out there in a lot more numerous numbers than the '61's as that '62 was reissued under the USA Oldies series from Johan. I'll just keep my eyes open for a junker kit/body, and go from there. As far as a frame.......it looks like I'll have to cobble together several sources. Either stretch and rework the frame out of AMT's '68-'69 Mopars, or rework the chassis out of the '57 Chrysler 300C. I'm leaning more towards the latter even though the '57 car has a separate body on frame construction. I can rework and massage the frame more into a unibody one-------it'll be some work involved, but at least I'll have the correct wheelbase as that one does scale out to 126". Also, what I would make out of a front subframe with the '57 car would be more accurate than what I could do with the late '60's frame/chassis. Lots of work either which way, but I won't ever count on there being a mainstream kit of this car.

Nope! I tried! The hardtop and convertible's glass is too short. Like the 1:1's the sedan's roof was about an inch or so taller than the hardtop. Thus the glass would be taller as well. Same deal goes for the convertible since it shared the same windshield frame and glass as the hardtop. That could be why the fella let that kit go...........he got frustrated with the glass! I can vacuform one-------but I gotta tell you............ it's gonna be a loooooong time before I tackle another '59 Chevy! Making the glass for that alone will be a lot of work and it would require pretty much scratchbuilding a buck. Sorta what I did with the Impala's glass when I was frustrated with the kit piece, but the sedans have different dimensions, so I can't use that. As I said...........that's a loooong way off!

I'm quite positive that started out as a convertible with the Johan '59 Cadillac six window hardtop roofline modified to fit. '59 Cadillacs had the same sedan roofline as the Chevy Biscayne/Bel air sedans, 'cept that all Cadillac models were hardtops across the line. Chevy sedans and convertibles I believe shared the same trunk lid and tulip panels in '59. I also think that resin was originally done by AAM. He may have gotten a kit from someone or somewhere and re-popped it. As I mentioned, getting glass for it will be the real challenge as I don't know of any source that you could get it from. The sedan and hardtop's glass are very different from each other, and you'd almost have to vacuform the sedan glass to get it to look and fit properly. My eyesight is a bit wonky again this evening so when I'm able to see better to find it, I'll see if I can take pics of it. Mine started out as a project I got off the 'Bay, but the fella I guess lost interest and sold it on a "Buy It Now". I got it for a very good price, and it came with all the parts to finish it except.................you got it--------the glass!

John, indeed I am taking a bit of a break from the '50's! What with my current BMW build, and the Green Hornet to follow, when I get back to the '50's high up on the totem pole will be that '58 Plymouth! I like to plan out builds several models in advance, and this Chrysler is definitely in my sights! Funny you mentioned about the wheelbase issue.............I was groking the body just before I needed to take a nap to rest my eyes, and I thought is seemed a bit "short" to me. Soooooo........after I got up I decided to take a closer look, and get some measurements of what we have. Here's the future "victim" of what will be some plastic surgery by me......... When it comes time to start this one, first order of business will be to cut the front clip away at the leading edge of the doors, and lengthen the fenders and hood. It appears to me that the extra length was indeed in this area. I could leave it as is, but one thing that made the 300's nice is that they had a "presence" and I'm quite sure that had a lot to do with how they sat on the road due to the longer wheelbase. Something that many modern cars today could benefit from with their too short and too close to the front door wheelbases. I dug out my old school architect's dividers and did some checking of the wheelbase from approximately centerline to centerline of the wheels. The '60-'61 Desoto's wheelbase in the 1:1 world was 122" as you mentioned. Using some quick and dirty math (.04 x 122") this works out to 4 and 57/64's of an inch. This would equal out to 122" which as I thought, this model's wheelbase is working out to. Yup........I'd need to "stretch" the wheelbase about another 4 scale inches (about 1/8") to get to 5" on my scale, or 126" in the real world to make the body accurate. I don't know at this point if this one will have opening doors and all that stuff. Since I'll have to cut the body at the leading edge of the doors to stretch everything out, I may attempt that. I first would need to get a firewall in place to give the body some strength and rigidity through all of the cutting. Hmmm.............I'll have my work cut out for me when the time comes! But heck, since I did a COMPLETE roof swap on that '59 Chevy among other things, this should be a walk in the park!

I would REALLY, REALLY like if somehow, someway Round 2 could see fit to get the molds for that '55 T-Bird, and reissue that. I didn't know that the '55 and '57 'Birds were intro'd at the same time. I thought the '57 T-Bird came out later, and AMT had changed the molds on the '55 to make it----------thus why we've never seen that one reissued. At least I HOPE that's not the case! I also hope that if they reissue the '57, they find a better way to package that one. EVERY one I've ever seen always has a bent windshield frame including the one I have. I can fix it, but others less skilled may not be able or want to do so.

Rob, is that that the reason on some of 'em I've seen, there's a gap where the roof attaches at the beltline? I know there was a complaint on the other board about this. This is a good heads up as that can be a major turnoff for someone tackling this for the first time. I'm not much of a street rod guy (I have a few in my stash), but who knows--------I might shock you all and build one someday. Just "out of the box" of course........

Tom! You're killin' me! I just went to that site and took a look at the BoS stuff, and it's too tempting! Yeah, it's VERY easy to get carried away..........there's stuff they offer that I've never seen in ANY scale! A '78 Chrysler four door hardtop?? A 1978 Lincoln Mark V?? And the body lines were dead on accurate! The scale is an odd one for me (1/18), but I don't worry about that a long as it looks right. Sigh...........I gotta really watch the pennies till I get over this eyesight difficulty and get back to work!

I'm not much of a street rod guy but I like this! VERY pretty paint job and color! One question though.........since the top is a separate piece from what I've seen, how did you get everything together so seamlessly? I've seen another one done where you can see the gap where the top goes. They mentioned they couldn't get the interior in without the top on first. Did you have to build up the interior, put the top on, mask off the insides, and then paint everything "inside-out"? Super great job!

Thanks for all the help with your replies fellas! Ok, I did break down and buy the Ross Gibson engine I saw on the 'Bay. He had a "make offer" deal, so I did pay less than he wanted for it. Joe, I have the '69 Dart kit you showed, but I've never touched it and I'd hate to break it up just for the engine. The other options were good ones, but since the RG engine was readily available without much fuss------might as well grab it while I could. Of course, there are a few other bits and pieces I'll be gathering up down the road. Chassis stuff for instance (I'm keeping that idea top secret for now ) and of course, getting bits and pieces together for the interior. I'd also like to put wire wheels and WWW's on it like the Leno car-------I kinda have an idea what to use for those.

Ha! Seems like a lot of us got the same amount for an "allowance"! I got around $2.00 a week in the early '70's when I was in junior high. Once I hit high school, that came to a screeching halt as my Dad said I could get a job and make the money myself. I was a skinflint though with my cash as I was a saver. I still had a dislike of models back then------that wouldn't change till I was a senior in high school. My Dad would sometimes be asking ME for money as he spent all of his before he got paid again, and if his then girlfriend was in town and he wanted to take her out for drinks at the bar, he was broke! in '78 when I started building models, IIRC the kits were somewhere around $2.00-$2.50 per kit. Just starting out, I didn't buy paint and other such things. I was glue 'em and put 'em together guy for quite a while! I don't think I started painting anything till maybe the early '80's? In 1969 my Mom bought her second Javelin.........a 390 car with an automatic. I distinctly remember the service guy coming up to the car one time, and my Mom telling him to fill the car with High Test (Sunoco 260?). Gas prices for that stuff then was 30-33¢ a gallon! I can remember my Mom was short on cash one time, and she told the service attendant to fill the car with half of regular, and half of high test, and let 'em fight it out in the gas tank! The car did run fine that way though! I do believe regular gas in '69 was around 25¢ per gallon.

Dan, very very nice and clean! I'm certain had GM tried this styling cue at the time the '59's came out instead of waiting till '62, they would have sold! It would have been a nice alternative to the "bubble top" roofs that was all the rage with them then. Interesting that Ford did have a much more squared roofline choice with their '59's..........and they did well with that. You may or may not be interested, but there's a fella on the 'Bay (T.M. Resins) that does a '59 Chevy sedan (Biscayne?) conversion. It looks really good, and it would save you some work if you wanted to check it out. I have a started '59 sedan that I got off of there, and in fact it was about to be put on the front burner when I was having trouble getting the hardtop done. Only caveat is he offers no glass with the conversion------you'd be on your own there. Edit: I found one of his completed auctions..........you can check it out here.

Steve, the interior particularly the seats, I'll more than likely have to scratchbuild those. Either from nothing, or modified from other seats. The side trim..........I can scratch that also, including the roundels on the side. Or, I could order a PE set from MCG as he does a set for the '57 and do some "mixing and matching".

Mind you this project is in the distant (not too distant) future. Once I get my sight back to normal, I plan on finishing the BMW. Next on the agenda as you all know is the Shelby "Green Hornet". In fact, just before I started having trouble with my eyesight, I had made marks and lines on the two bodies (the '66 and '68) of exactly where I want to make the cuts. After the Shelby, I'll probably dig out another box stock kit (more than likely Tamiya) and then it's back to the '50's. Absolute high on my list is to forever fix that '58 Plymouth! Even more so than doing the 300G, that's one car that I've been itching to fix for the longest time, and now I have in my mind and arsenal just how to fix it. After that (or maybe simultaneously), will come the 300. Barring anything unforeseen, I'd like to have these all under my belt within the next year and a half. We shall see!

Ohhhh! I have plans in mind for that!

Craig, your comment had me going up to the (very warm) third floor of my house and do some scavenging. Years ago, I built a bone stock '49 Merc and had kept the box with all the extra bits and pieces. Sure enough, I see the engine you're talking about, but the intake manifold wouldn't be correct. When I built my '69 Daytona years ago, I built it using the Hemi from another kit (the kit only gives you a 440) so I have the complete engine with the manifold leftover from that one as well. With some fiddling, I could take the manifold out of that kit, and get it to work with the engine out of the Merc kit. I just checked on eBay, and I do see one. Hmmm...........I'll have to think about that one as it's a bit pricey. OTOH, as you said his items will only get harder to find.

Christian, thanks for the link! I had forgotten about that thread and that clears some things up.

Oh Ok! I've got a number of those kits lying around! BTW, here's what got me very interested in tackling this car someday. I tune into Jay Leno's Garage from time to time, and got a message on my phone recently that this particular car was being featured. I watched it and saved the video for reference that car was soooooo sharp! Also from what my Dad had told me years ago, this was a car he wanted BADLY when it was new as he was a solid Mopar man through and through. The car was too expensive for him at the time as my Mom was pregnant with me, and he was the only one working------the car cost as much as he made in a whole year back then.

Ok, I'll admit I'm not a Mopar expert 'cept when it comes to how they should look body line wise and perhaps certain models. I got recently a clean built (not a glue bomb by any means) '61 Chrysler New Yorker. What I'd like to do as a someday project (sooner rather than later) is turn it into a 300. Yeah, there was a resin kit out there, but when they do turn up prices are outrageous at best, and I can build the same thing and have nice chassis and engine detail to boot for a LOT less money. What I need to know is which kit (if any) out there would represent the best engine that was in this car in '61? IIRC, these came with 383's with the long ram induction for the carburetors. I have the ram induction tubes for the carbs, but I'm not sure which engine out there kit wise would be reasonably accurate. Thanks for any info guys.........I know there's plenty of you Mopar folks in the know!