MrObsessive

Thanks for the reference pic Pat! I'll definitely be using it!

I'm not sure about the hood------I'll have to check my pics. Could be that there were two different hoods offered for '67-'68? If that's the case then some reworking is in order. Well, it's time to go to work...........maybe this evening I can get some more done on 'er. Thanks for all the compliments and suggestions fellas!

I'm not a big fan of Tenax........seems as though it evaporates much faster than Ambroid, and over time loses its potency. At least that's been my experience with it in the past. Hmmm.........I'll have to look into that! That's a cool idea, and your model looks great!

You've been reading my mind John! I thought about this very thing as the next "major project" to tackle once I got the '59 Impala done. I was going to do something crazy though.............combine the AMT '57 T-Bird with the body panels (rear fenders and such) to their '56. Don't know how successful I would have been, but it was a serious project going on in my mind, and I may yet attempt it. Yours will be fun to watch get this old kit together!

HA! Wouldn't you know it?? After all this work getting this post put together, Fotki is now back up! That's just as well, as I'm about to hit the sack in about a half hour. Waiting for them, it would be 9:00 before I got to bed!

Continuing on, I then took some 30 AWG black kynar wire and made a sharp bend to it……….. Then just simply slipped the insulation on the wire……… Notice how there’s a “break” in the insulation? I just filled this in with gap filling super glue, and used some Zip Kicker to speed things up. Now since super glue tends to “frost” when dry, I'll just painted the frosted area Polly S Engine Black. Now just repeat this eight more times and there you’ll have it! The next job is putting all of these (will probably be a tight fit) into the distributor that you see here that I made from scrap plastic. I don’t have a pic yet, but I did make a vacuum advance……..it’s a VERY tiny piece that I have a piece of wire looped through for the moment to keep it from getting lost. Now I was playing around with the wheels for a moment………..I was trying to detail the wheels with paint. Here’s what I have at the moment……… Those redline tires are from an extra new issue ’68 Road Runner kit that may be part of a possible future magazine article. I figured I may as well put those tires to good use since they won’t be needed for the article. I’m not sure I have the shade of gray in the spokes dark enough……….some pics show this shade, other pics I have it appears to be darker. My better sense tells me to darken them up a bit. Any thoughts on this? Well that’s pretty much it for now……….I’m not sure when Fotki might get their act together but for the time being, this may be what I’ll be doing as far as doing a post. Thanks for looking!

Well, since Fotki is on the fritz, and I’d like to keep you folks on track with an update, this is coming to you via my blog page I had set up some time ago. I’ve nearly forgotten about it, as it’s been awhile since I’ve posted there, but with all of Fotki’s constant hiccups, I’ll be using this a bit more often. Basically, I’ll compose this through my Microsoft Word, and then copy and paste it on the blog. An added plus is that I can save what I’ve composed as a webpage on the model’s folder I have on my hard disc. It’s something I can then refer to in the future when I try to figure out……"Just how did I do that?? ". Well, here’s what I have so far……….I’m pretty much done with the body work including the glass, so it’s time for me to move on to the engine. I started with gluing some of the sub-assemblies together, and then painted these as a unit. The block, heads, oil pan, water pump, and transmission parts were all airbrushed as you see here. While these were set aside to dry, I wanted to start work on making my own distributor. While I could have gone out and bought one of those pre-drilled ones, they lack some of the detail that I want to put in. Namely plug boots, (which I could add) and a vacuum advance. A challenge for me would be to make those angled spark plug boots that you might see on older cars………especially cars that have the old points and condenser (remember those??). I’m going to present now a mini tutorial on how I make mine……… First, since I work in an industry that deals with cables, I have access to all sorts of wires and shielded cable of all sizes. I’m not certain of the size that I’ve used here, but the diameter of what I have looked “right” to me in 1/25, so this is what I figured on using. I took my scale and measured 3/64” of the insulation. Then I did an angle cut of the insulation-----the total length of the insulation is about 7/64”. With a sharpened toothpick, I then wanted to expand the insulation slightly. Slicing the jacket deforms it somewhat and I wanted to get back the roundness that it had. I did this to both pieces. Be right back!

Not much of a truck fan, but I DO like the pic of the '53 stepside bed on that! Hmmm, yet another kit I'll be considering picking up this year............

Glenn, thanks for the suggestion. The problem with the format on there is that you can only upload one pic at a time, not in bulk like I can with Fotki (I have their uploader on my hard disc). I also like to edit the pics there with text which I can then copy and transfer here when I want to do an update. Well, it's getting close to me fixing something for dinner-------if they're not up and running by 6PM EDT, I'll have to call it a day and try again some other time. I get up VERY early in the morning (1:30-2AM) as I'm working 10 hour days on the job as of late. Thus the limited time to build, let alone do a reasonably coherent post that's presentable.

To my sight, the problem with the RM '69 front end is that the headlights appear too low. It's almost appears like the car went out for a night of drinking, and it's suffering from a hangover. The 1/24 '70 Boss 429 suffers from the same front end malady in that there's too much real estate above the headlights due to the grille being too tall. I suppose this can be reworked, but get set for a lot of time put into this, not to mention both sides need to be symmetrical to boot.

Well, this is really a bummer! The only good day during the week to compose an update and post pics-------and of course Fotki seems to have indigestion at the moment! Sigh..............I had some engine work that I wanted to show, mostly how I'm doing those "angled' spark plug boots that you see on some distributors. Well, if Fotki isn't up in a reasonable amount of time, then hopefully I can give you guys an update tomorrow, or it'll be next Sunday before I'm able to do it.

Those look like '63 hubcaps on it as well.

Tommy, I can recommend the AMT '67 Mustang GT kit (originally released in '94). You may have seen this thread, as I'm currently building one of those. Not a bad kit at all, but it is missing some things that were specific to a GT, but I'm adding those as I go along. To me the body lines are right on the money, and it's not giving me any fit troubles so far as I'm building it.

After a rather rough week at work, it's nice to come home to learn of this very pleasant surprise! I once owned a 1:1 '69 390 4-spd, so I'll take any and all things AMX. In fact, I once had a 1/20 '68(?) MPC kit, but it was "lost" in a move years ago. With all the new and very much wanted releases this year------especially for the second half, I'm going to be in the poorhouse as well as far as model dollars. This despite the fact that I just got a raise on the job!

Oh! One more car from that era that was parked at a local bar just a block from me..............one of these! There was an elderly man getting into it--------if he was just getting out, I might have pulled over and got a pic as it was literally a block away from my house. Like the TC and Reatta, you just NEVER see these anymore on the road. At least around here I don't!

Very slim!!

Just getting home from work and one of these passed me by...............(pic courtesy of Google) The one I had seen had a darker soft top and at first glance I thought it was a Chrysler LeBaron. When I saw the rear end, it was indeed a Chrysler TC by Maserati. This was Chrysler's ill fated attempt at a personal "sports car", but its downfall was that it looked too much like the LeBaron (which had debuted for 1987), and this one was two years late to the party. Nevermind the fact that the LeBaron cost THOUSANDS less than the TC, and was obviously far more popular. It was nice to see one of these running, as it's been literally YEARS since I've seen one outside of a magazine on the road.

Charlie, the shims I used were Evergreen .020 sheet plastic. Really makes a difference in not having those louvers set so far into the body. Of course, with paint they may stick out a teensy bit more, but I can compensate for that. Thanks for asking!

Passed a 1968 Chevelle Malibu two door hardtop on I-81 south in the Chambersburg, PA area yesterday. It was VERY clean with not a spot of rust on it, although I thought the front end sat up a bit high. It was a nice shade of red with a black interior, and nary a bit of smoke was coming out of the tailpipe. I wish I could've taken a pic, but I'm not good at that sort of thing while trying to drive. Yeah, it's been a long while Harry since I've seen a Corvair running down the road. It's funny how time will change the landscape of cars on the road. When I was a kid, those things were EVERYWHERE!

Sigh...........I had to deal with that just this morning Harry! I usually try to do grocery shopping very early on a Sunday morning. The fewer folks = less hassle for me to get in there and get out. But this morning, I got a later start I as I needed to wait until our local Michael's opens up (10AM). I wanted to do everything in one fell swoop.........get 'er all done at once and get home! Just as you've described above, there's always got to be a few numbskulls that are islands among themselves. They have no clue that OTHERS need to shop just as much as they do, and their time is just as important as anyone else's.

Now here is the "glass" made from clear stencil sheet. It's just placed in for the moment so I can get an idea of how things are going to mount once the body is all painted and polished. Please excuse the fingerprints! A lot of trial and error can go into making this thing sit right! You can see here the windshield and how it sits in its channel. I may tint the glass, but since this is basically a flat piece of acetate which has to be bent to shape, this may be difficult to paint, and then I run the risk of scratching the surface when it's time to be mounted. If this were molded, I would go ahead and tint this as the glass would be nice and stiff and ready to pop right in after the tinting was dry. That's it for now fellas.............Time to do a little more minor tweaking to the body work, and then it's on to the engine. Thanks for lookin'!

Well, I can't put it off any longer.......it's time to tackle the glass! The kit glass really wasn't bad fit wise, I just really hate the optical distortion that it gives. So...........what I did here is to start adding channels to the A pillars to have my clear stencil sheet pattern lay against once its epoxied. I did the same to the rear backlite. The channels are nothing more than .020 sheet plastic cut into strips, glued with liquid glue, and then with my Exacto blade cut a groove so I can just slide the rear window into place. Once the glass is all mounted, I'll carefully paint this area flat black to simulate the rubber sealing you see on cars. In the 1:1 pics I have of this car, this is somewhat prominent especially when looking at the inside of the glass from the rear seat. Next, I took a piece of 3x5 card and traced a pattern of the windshield opening from the inside. I cut this pattern out and started test fitting it into the opening. In the case of the windshield, because there's no "lip" on the A pillars to hold the glass in place, I bent the sides of the pattern. When it comes time to epoxy in the clear stencil sheet, I'll do the same to it. The bent sides will have a more positive location to lay against, making for a stronger bond to the posts. The same was done for the backlite........... I'll be right back with more!

Wow! I just love 1959-60 GM "flattops"! That is a super sharp paint job, and a superb rescue! I've got one of these as well and yes, they are getting harder and harder to find. Heaven knows when I'll get around to rescuing mine, but you've done a fantastic job with this one!

Nothing extra special Dave. I'm going to detail the chassis with fuel/brake lines, but there won't be any poseable steering. The chassis rear wheel wells could use some filling in as I can see through to the interior. Some surgery will be needed there. Yesterday, I was able to fashion a back window using clear stencil sheet. I was out of town all day, and I'm just getting home a bit ago. I'll try to post pics of what that looks like tomorrow sometime. The engine will get full detail with wires, hoses, linkage, etc. I've got some very good pics of the engine, and also a parts manual to sort out the throttle linkage. In the meantime, I'll also be working on the windshield. That'll be a little tricky as there is no side "lip" on the A pillars that can hold the glass. I may have to fold the edges on the stencil sheet so that they lay against the A pillars when it's epoxied. Of course, I want the glass to be as flush as possible without that "tunneling" which is all too common with kits out there. Actually though, the kit glass doesn't fit too badly, it's just too distorted for my tastes. Something I've long hated in model building!

Hmmm........I'll have to give that a shot! I do see Ambroid on the 'Bay, but it's an overseas seller that has it. This would be much more cost effective as I don't go through a lot of it at any one time. I'll definitely look into it!