MrObsessive

Yup!

Ha! Silly me! That's what those are for! I'll see if I can put those on......interior is not set in as of yet.

Noooo.......! Too flimsy for that! I could have drilled them, but then left with a wheel that would not have stood up to being placed in the dash. A PE one would have been nice, but there isn't one in the set that I have.

One thing I'll need to do yet according to my reference pics, is to add some kind of brightwork to the rear "parcel" area. This is showing where the floor meets the rear seat, and top of the seat which I take is a hinge for it to fold. I'll definitely do that before everything is set in permanently.

I used foil on the seats, door panels, and console. On the dash, I had to paint it as the BMF wouldn't take to the complex surfaces, particularly on the driver's side with the gauges and all. Not an exact match, but in a closed car such as this, it won't be seen as readily.

I dunno.........that would be cool to see though! If not MOPAR then perhaps an aftermarket outfit.

Same here about the pics, and I've tried both Mozilla and IE. Not sure why that's happening. From what I did see it looks very nice and I'm sure Moebius has another winner on its hands!

Hmmm.........Someday-------maybe!

Tom that's it!! The Altima while a very nice car, was just that.........too much of an appliance for me to get excited about! It had as much soul as the refrigerator in my kitchen! Now that's not to put down anyone who's bought one-----but my friend who told me about this car said it all............"Bill, that car is just you!" He didn't know me when I had my '69 AMX, but I've told him stories about it, and this car reminds me a lot of it.......albeit a LOT more comfortable to drive, but performance wise, certainly right on par with it!

You guys thought I'd abandoned this one eh?? Not on your life! Just involved with another model project (top secret) so this one has to be second rate at times. I did manage to finally get the chassis and interior done. Not a lot of explanation on how I did things------I'm changing the way I do WIP's inasmuch as I won't get much into the "how-to's" in a build much anymore. With my time being at a premium these days, it can truly be a lot of work to compose a step by step post on each thing that I do. What I can do is try to take pictures of certain things, then if someone has a question, I may be able to post a pic of what was done. OK---------on to some pics of late................ The dash cries out for some nicer gauges. I hate trying to paint molded in ones so I bought a set of gauge decals for '67-'68 Mustangs off of eBay. They turned out very well, 'cept the smaller ones were a bit of a challenge to cut out and place in. OK, here's the finished interior. Carpeting is red embossing powder, and the interior is just some automotive red paint with some Testor's Dullcoat mixed in to blunt some of the glossiness. And now the (nearly) finished chassis. Just some minor things to add, and some paint touch up......... And the engine in its final resting place in the chassis............ I wanted to get an idea before I move on to painting the body on how this thing will sit. This is just a mockup of how things look at the moment. Stance isn't bad, but the rear may sit just a scooch too low. I have seen 1:1's sit just like this so this may not be a problem. Next step is to cut out the grille, and replace it with the PE one from Model Car Garage. Should have done this a while back, but I definitely want to do this before any painting. The angle of the molded in one isn't correct either (too upright), so may as well fix that issue too when it's cut away. Thanks for lookin' guys..........Not sure when the next update will be, but this one will get done!

The wheels are what sold me on the car. The stock ones always seemed to be a bit "small" even though they're 18" wheels that come with it. The design of the wheelwells scream out for something more aggressive and larger! Those are 20 inchers on all fours-------I just hate to see what the tire replacement cost will end up being!

I don't think it'll fit the Trumpeter as its a little "big". I had a '60 Bonneville a while back (sold it on eBay) and I can remember trying to fit it and the '59 which I still have. The problem came as the molded in wheelwells of the Trumpeter took up a lot of space IIRC. Maybe with some slicing and dicing, you could make it work--------might be easier to simply stretch out an AMT '58 Chevy chassis and go with that.

It has traction control-------to me rear wheel drive cars are more predictable in snow/rainy weather. Not always the case with FWD.

:lol:

Gerald, someone mentioned to me that the insurance companies now put a surcharge on cars that can do (I may be off on this), 0-60 in seven seconds or less. The V6 Challengers will do that in 6.5 seconds (so I've read), and that may be well be a factor why my insurance went up so much. Used to be they went by horsepower, but you've got little pocket rockets that can best that by a wide margin. Looks like model buying will certainly be a bit less until I get that one under control! Edit: Also, I gotta say----this is the first Chrysler product I've owned since the early '80's (last was a '65 Dodge Dart convertible) so yeah, it's nice to be back. It even (to me) has that very familiar Chrysler starter sound!

The triangle is the dealer sticker (Lancaster Mitsubishi), and it had 49,900 on it when I brought it home-------just ticked over 50,000. Not bad for a 2011 car. Incidentally, the payments on this one are about $100 cheaper than what the first dealer wanted for the Altima. Albeit the car was the same year, but to me just doesn't have the "gotcha" factor. Yeah, a Magnum wagon was also on my mind to look for if this one didn't pan out. Unfortunately, sometimes the banks don't want to finance cars that are over five years old. I would have wanted an '08 (the rarest ones), but those are hard to find as it is.

It's funny how time flies and how your perspective and wants/needs can change. Back in early 2006, my tried and true 1990 Mitsubishi was getting tired, and was showing signs of having electrical/electronic difficulties at 155,000 miles. I had just done some major work on getting new wheel bearings, new front discs, recent timing belt change among other things, and now the electrical gremlins were creeping in. I had to decide whether to keep the car and keep fixing it, or trade it on a new car. Well, enter a 2004 Saturn Ion coupe at the local dealer which is just what I needed at the time as back then I drove 30 miles one way to work each day. Being that it was a four cylinder and a 5 speed, it got about 33 MPG on the highway, which was exceptional as I figured it would save me a LOT on gas. Well, fast forward nearly nine years, and the time arrived when now the Saturn was getting a bit tired. Not totally worn out------but it wouldn't pass inspection, and I'm faced once again with fixing what was wrong, and then the possibility of new troubles creeping in, or getting a "new" car and not have the feckless attempts at fixing problems as they arise. So, off I go last week while we were on holiday shutdown at work and look for either a new car, or one that's just a few years old. When I saw what I wanted online at a particular dealer, I first checked to see if I could get credit lined up before I talked to the dealer. The first car I saw and liked immediately was a 2011 Hemi Charger. I spoke to the dealer and then made an appointment to stop in this past Friday morning. When I got to the dealer, I told him that first and foremost, I want rear wheel drive. Front wheel drive cars have their place, but even in my Saturn a trip longer than two hours in it could be torturous, due to the limited leg room because of where the front wheels are in relation to the front of the door. He left the room for awhile, and came back and said that due to how I wanted the payments to be, and at that point I wasn't willing to trade in the Saturn, he couldn't swing a deal on the Charger. HOWEVER-----he had a Nissan Rogue (??) and a 2011 Nissan Altima with 14,000 on the clock that I could check out. I immediately said NO to the Rogue, and figured I'll check out the Altima even though that wasn't exactly what I wanted. I drove the car, and while it was competent enough, it was just lacking a certain "personality" that I look for in a car. My friend and his wife who were with me as they drove me to the dealer were telling me I could do as I'd like, but they didn't care for how the salesman tried to push off a car that HE wanted you to have, and not push for getting what you wanted. I kinda agreed, but was going to go for the Altima as I didn't want this to be a long drawn out process in looking for a car. Well, my friend took me home and I was all set to bring the Saturn in on Monday, finalize the loan, and take the car. About 45 minutes after I got home my friend called me almost shouting and said "BILL!! YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS CAR MY WIFE AND SPOTTED AT THE DEALER IN LANCASTER!! AS SOON AS I SEEN IT I THOUGHT OF YOU!!" Well, to make a long story short, here she is.............as she came home with me Friday evening, and yes, I did trade the Saturn in to make the payments a bit more manageable. Here are the first pics when she was at the dealer's..............................texted to me-----interior pic's a bit blurry. And now parked safe and sound in the back of my place----off the street as I DON'T like on street parking, especially overnight! One downside of the car is that my insurance has gone up $90 a month!! They consider this a "muscle" car despite the V6-----I will say that I've planted my foot in it a couple times and it'll plant you in your seat. Needless to say that I'll be shopping around for another insurance carrier! This car is a head turner as well, as I haven't seen myself coming and going. When I drove it to work, it was all the buzz as no one else there has one. Well, I intend to live with this gal a loooooong time! I had my Saturn for nearly nine years (the longest I've ever had ANY car), but this one is definitely a keeper simply because of what it is. If I were to make one change to the car mechanical wise, I wish the car was either a 5 or 6 speed manual-----but the manumatic shift is a nice compromise. I've owned manual shift cars pretty steady for 20 years so going back to an automatic is a nice change. Thanks for lookin' fellas..........any comments or questions are most welcome!

That's pretty much the technique I would use. It's similar to what I did on my '59 Impala WIP, when I swapped roofs from a '60. I did keep the cowl intact though------slightly different from the '59, but oh well.

One of the things that have led to "suckiness" on the part of autos today is the fact that styling departments seem to no longer want to take chances on styling directions. Why must most new cars I see on the road today have that same C pillar "kickup" in the rooflines (I call it the Fusion kickup)? It's also a bit sad that whenever a new model is intro'd on the auto circuit, by the time the production models hit the showrooms, the design is so watered down that it looks mostly nothing like what was shown previously. Case in point............. We all remember the absolutely gorgeous 1999 Charger show car that was shown at most of the major auto shows back then. The automotive press was tripping over themselves as this was the best looking car that Chrysler had made in some time, maybe since the Viper, and certainly since the "cab forward" look was making inroads earlier that decade. There was much talk about the Charger being reintro'd right around the 2005-06 time frame, and everyone had expected (maybe wrongly so) that the production car would look pretty close to the knockout show car. What did we get?? A car that looked absolutely nothing like the show car, and was creamed in the 'net and the automotive press for looking the way it did. It wasn't a bad car, but names mean things and I can remember Car & Driver saying that in their many years of publishing the magazine, they had never received so much angry and negative press over one car. Now Chrysler did make up for things somewhat when they restyled the car in 2011.........but it was still watered down from before, but of course over ten years had passed, and styling tastes had changed. While it's true that some concept cars are not practical to build in production, I just hate the teasing that gets you all excited for a particular styling change, only to be terribly let down. Now having said this, it seems as though another reason cars appear the way they do is the fact that so many government regulations have dictated what should and shouldn't be on a car. Hardtop rooflines?? Forget it! Pointy tailfins?? Not on your life! Yet we get such far out designs (Nissan Cube anyone??) at times that I don't know how they got out of the styling department's board rooms. It would be nice for car designs to be a bit more daring and not be ugly, and yet still be distinctive from one another, than for the appearance to be nothing more than a mundane account of the styling department's time. Of course we know that styling is subjective..............jus' sayin'......... Just my 2¢............

They're expensive, but worth the money IMO. I have their Volvo P1800 (1961-62) and yes it will require some cleanup, but the casting is nicely done with no woefully numerous pinholes to speak of. As John said, you'll have to think ahead of time of what needs done. BUT-----you'll have a model in the end that more than likely won't be seen elsewhere, and probably will never be kitted by the major model companies.

Mike that's lookin' terrific, and yes that kit can be a pain to build! I swapped the wheels on mine as I wasn't quite happy with the stock ones. Too bad Revell hasn't seen fit to kit the '13-'14 versions of this car.

What he said........

Ed, if you click here (scroll down a little), I have a very mini tutorial on how I did the glass for my '63 Chrysler Turbine Car. There is some text with each pic to help things along. Also checking here (scroll down a trifle), will lead you to my '67 Mustang thread which shows how I'm doing the glass in that one. You're working with resin which is naturally a different animal than plastic------in this instance I would use super glue to fasten your window post strips, and 5 min. epoxy to hold your stencil sheet in place. I'm a big believer in replacing kit glass when possible. Too much distortion and way too thick in its appearance has been a major turnoff for me for many a year. Hope this helps you out!

On my build I simply painted the centers with Tamiya clear blue, rubbed away the emblem and called it a day. Wheel decals never quite worked well for me.......they always seem too big. This is coming along reeeeal nice! ??

You could always check his feedback later on......it would list the item that was sold for up to 90 days IIRC. EDIT: BTW, I was watching that auction as well. Interesting that he started the bid at such a high price! Most times potential bidders don't bite when the starting price is so high. He's a regular seller as I watch his auctions as well as Paul Hettick's (Robbbbbb57), so he may now have a following that will buy whatever he puts up. That is a lot of coin for a built model............I couldn't part with something I built that turned out so nice, but that's just me.