MrObsessive

John, my glue of choice is Ambroid Pro Weld............. Unfortunately, Ambroid is becoming a rare commodity to find as it comes and goes. Last time I checked, it was not available in the U.S. again, so my second choice is Tamiya's liquid glue. Tamiya's tends to take a little longer to dry, but it has a very handy-dandy applicator built into the cap which IMO rivals the Touch-N-Flow applicator which I have. Third choice among liquid glues is something called Bondene. This isn't bad stuff at all, but I don't recommend the applicator for using it as it tends to clog it up very easily for some reason. From time to time in the building process, I'll use various and sundry 5 min. epoxies, super glues, etc. For general body work though, those are my choices for joining styrene and getting a good bond. Thanks for asking!

Luc, it's interesting that you bring this up. I'm about to compose a letter to Round 2 not so much with a complaint, but a request to consider making their redline tires that are offered in the '68 Roadrunner kit, a separate parts pack item. So yeah, I want to make sure that what I'm saying is as coherent and error free as possible, if I want to be taken seriously. I have to do the same thing whenever I write an article for the mag. Make sure that errors are kept to a minimum as it saves the editor a lot of headaches to go and try and "fix" everything. It just makes life easier for all involved if what is trying to be to conveyed is done in a clear and coherent manner. Now that's my 2¢.

Luc, it's interesting that you bring this up. I'm about to compose a letter to Round 2 not so much with a complaint, but a request to consider making their redline tires that are offered in the '68 Roadrunner kit, a separate parts pack item. So yeah, I want to make sure that what I'm saying is as coherent and error free as possible, if I want to be taken seriously. I have to do the same thing whenever I write an article for the mag. Make sure that errors are kept to a minimum as it's saves the editor a lot of headaches to go and try and "fix" everything. It just makes life easier for all involved if what is trying to be to conveyed is done in a

Yeah, we're not getting any younger........I'd say the average age on the board here is somewhere from the late 40's to early 50's. Just a guess. Nevertheless, as time moves on and as generations grow up, they couldn't care any less about cars that we care about today. Just as 50 years from now, that generation of younger folks may not care so much about tuners, Mustangs, and the like. That's what time does to everything!

Now on to the rocker panels. Using some .020 plastic sheet, I simply cut a slice of it to match the depth of the rockers, and starting gluing. The little "rib" on the top of the rocker trim is a piece of .015" round rod from Plastruct. Some final tweaking and sanding will be done before any painting is attempted. Of course, this will be BMF'd after everything's painted. Looking at the grille, something seemed kooky about it and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then it hit me........it's too upright! Mustang's of this vintage always has a slight rake to their grilles. Well, I've remedied that as of a couple days ago, I ordered a PE set from Model Car Garage which has the grille, emblems, and other things needed to make this one stand out. You can see here that I did add the chrome surround trim to the outer parts of the grille opening. Later on, I'll cut the grille out of the front end, and then sand the opening to the correct angle, and make a provision for the PE grille to drop right in when it's time. As I mentioned in the beginning of this thread, I stopped work on the '59 Impala due to not being able to make satisfactory glass from my own doing with either polishing the glass to get rid of the distortion, or using clear stencil sheet to form the glass. Well today I ordered Micro-Mark's vacuformer machine and when it comes in (hopefully the end of next week), I'll play around with it to see what it'll do. When I can get a windshield molded successfully, I may do a tutorial here on the board to let everyone know the pros and cons of molding your own windshields and backlites. Speaking of glass, that's next on the agenda for the Mustang-------making window channels for the glass as I'm not crazy about the kit glass either, and then when the bodywork's all done, moving on to the engine and chassis. I plan to use either clear stencil sheet, or if the vacuformer is working the way I want it, making the windshield and rear window from that. Thanks for tuning in, and hopefully I'll have another update by the end of next weekend.

One of the mysteries of this kit is that it's missing certain things that were very common, if not universal for all 1967-68 Mustangs. That is, the trim is conspicuous by its absence in certain places on the body. I don't know what car AMT used to model this particular kit, but every '67 Mustang I've ever seen (I saw a lot of them growing up in the '60's and '70's), has had the hood and grille surround chrome trim. Well, it's time to break out the plastic stock and add my own trim first to the hood. Using some .020 plastic stock, I first sanded away the very faint if not non-existent chrome trim that was on the hood. I then added the plastic sheet that was cut at an angle to match the contours of the hood. When it was dry, I sanded everything as smooth as possible, and as you'll see in a later pic, it's a lot smoother than what the pic is showing here. Also missing was the chrome trim that should surround the taillight area. I used .010x.020 plastic strip (Plastruct) to replicate this. The same needed to be done to the trunk. Some careful bending was needed------Plastruct styrene has come to be my favorite for detail like this as their plastic is a lot more dense than Evergreen, and holds up better for bending around a tight radius. After the body is painted and polished, I'll BMF these areas. There! That's the '67 Mustang back end I've come to know! OK...........the body's looking rather naked here. Seems as though AMT left some important details off here as well. Missing are the rocker panel chrome trim sections, as well as the wheelwell chrome trim. I have seen Mustangs of this vintage without wheelwell trim------if a Mustang expert out there could chime in-----was this exclusive to the GT's or could this be ordered on the garden variety Mustangs as well? Just the same, I want to add this trim as I think the car will look so much better with them. As you can see here, I used (Evergreen this time) .010x.040 plastic strip surrounding the perimeter of the wheelwell. I let this sit for a while before I started to sand things down. You can see the result here.............after everything's said and done, I'll BMF these as well. This has been done to all four wheelwells. But wait there's more!

Since I'm stuck on the glass area of my '59 Chevy build (more on that later), I want to do something that won't be as crazy making, and won't have as many bells and whistles as the Impala. I looked around my stash and came across this.............. AMT's 1994 release of the '67 Mustang GT. I figured it's kind of a Mustang year, so why not do something related to the 50th anniversary of this car? I originally thought about doing a '66 and backdating it to a '65, but that would take some work albeit somewhat minor, and I want to make this build as painless as possible...........or so I thought as you'll see! One of the first things I do per any "normal" build is the bodywork. Getting rid of mold lines, sink marks, and other maladies is Modeling 101. Your paint jobs will come out much, much better if the basics are done first. So, I started with what looks like a design issue with the body itself...........the roof vents. In this pic here, the roof vents were mounting too far into the body giving them a "tunneled" look. According to my many 1:1 pics of this car, the louvers should stick out ever so slightly beyond the bodywork, so I added these plastic tabs on the inside of the louvers to push them out slightly. Ahhhh......that's much better! No more tunneled look, and after everything's all painted, I'll position them in the cavity for the best appearance. I'll epoxy these in as I don't want the regular cement to distort these in any way. I don't know why AMT does this, but why aren't there positive locations on either the front end, or the rear section to be joined on the body?? It makes it difficult if not downright frustrating to get them to line up properly without some kind of positive location pin or whatever. I've decided to add my own positive locaters by cementing in these tabs. These were not only glued in with liquid cement, but after the glue was dry, I also used super glue to make sure there was no later movement when the front end was being glued on. I know, I've got to cut my nails! I didn't have time to get to the manicurist before making this post! Now this is looking like it should! I'll fine tune the lower edges ever so slightly to line up the lower valance with the leading edge of the fenders-------this was much better than trying to glue this on without going through that extra step. BTW, color will be the same as the box art car--------black with the red stripe above the rocker trim. Tires will be redlines---although I don't know if these would be totally correct for a '67. I just don't care for the plain-jane blackwalls, and if I were buying this car new in '67, that's what I'd want. I'll have more so stay tuned!

Well, after the first couple or three seasons that show was on, my Mom made me quit watching it. She said I was getting "bad dreams" and she thought it was coming from that show. No matter...........we'd just go and watch it over at some other kids place! Don't remember the "bad connotation" as a kid given to guys watching that show, although it kinda makes sense as it WAS a soap opera!

Studebaker was really hurting for cash even back then, so this was probably the cheapest/most cost effective way to "update" the cars without going through a lot of expense in making new fender dies. Yeah, the Hawks were pretty ponderous for their time. IIRC, their wheelbases were something like 120" or thereabouts. So they certainly were no lightweights! Studebaker wouldn't get much on track again until the '59 Larks hit the road, but by that point the writing was on the wall.........Stude wouldn't make it through the '60's.

Ahhh Speed Racer! There was a tug-of-war between watching that when we got home from school, or Dark Shadows! Remember that wacky soap opera??

I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest, but there are some posts that to me are unreadable due to either bad grammar/spelling, or "crowding" of the text. In other words, one long drawn out paragraph will get the no-go from me as far as reading it in a heartbeat. I have to wonder however if folks even know what that means when they see a word underlined when they are typing. It's put on the board by default, so one has to actively uncheck the box to turn this function off. Just sayin'...........

Hmmm..........I've had two people (who know nothing about the hobby) say the exact same thing, particularly after I had shown them videos of the type of work I do via my phone. So who knows..............I may do just that down the road.

The skirts look great on it.............Sure suits those low, lovely lines! That's an excellent resto! Gotta love those spaceship taillights on top of the fins! I have somewhere in my stash the two door version of this car, I wonder how well AMT's '57 Chrysler 300 chassis would kitbash with this?

My understanding about electric power steering (which my Saturn has), is that in case there's an engine shut off, one would still be able to steer the car without trouble because there's still current going through the mechanism-----as long as the key is in the on position. At least that's what my owner's manual is telling me! I haven't had the engine shut off unexpectedly yet, so I can't vouch for this setup working or not. All I know is that I did get a recall notice for the steering, and I have to carve out some time (again) to take the car in and have this fixed.

Thanks for the compliment Robin! As far as the BMF, I do mine in sections. This saves on BMF as it's not exactly cheap anymore (what is?), and it just seems a bit easier for me. Some like to do a single square and that's OK.......it's whatever is easier for you.

Thanks Scott! I still have the Merc after all this time-----I just wish I had gotten the engine color right! Just goes to show you that we all make mistakes-------I guess one lesson in all of this as you can never fully trust an "original" car for reference pics! As far as the tutorial, I'm still learning things all the time-----and I've been building for over 35 years now!

Indeed I did do that post on "Modeling 101" back in '09, but I would read and follow what someone else has to add. One can never learn too many techniques to get a particular job done. Hmmm........I don't know what happened to the lost pics in my original tutorial. They may have been "lost" when Fotki made their move recently. There are some pics that I know were posted their that were never replaced after they moved/switched servers.

Sigh......I hate to read posts like this as well. 51 is waaaaay young to pass away. He was certainly talented and looking at the Fotki album, I couldn't help but save pics of this gem........... NOT necessarily an easy conversion to do! Needless to say, my condolences to his friends and family.

Actually, I believe it was a "stop sell" order from the GM brass. They're doing this just stopping short of a recall.

Goober Smoocher = Brown Noser I could use another term, but this is a family board!

That is one NICE Charger! Engine looks really great! IIRC, Hemi's were more a OSHA safety orange, and not the Hemi Orange used for the body color. But I shouldn't be talking..............I'm the guy that painted his '49 Merc engine light blue when it should've been green! Beautiful work!

Ugggh! That can be a bear to fix and keep straight! Here's the link for eBay Motors in the U.S.

Don't forget eBay Motors when it comes to finding nice detailed pics of this car. The more expensive the car, the more pictures you're likely to see. eBay is one of my first go-to places when I'm trying to find good pics (including the underside) of any given car. Also, you can check out here for a '69 GTX under restoration..........some nice pics there.

That looks like a KILLER kit, but I don't have a Porsche 911 to kitbash it with. Did Bob mention that Harold has a Maserati 450S?? I've GOT to get in touch with Harold about that one! The 450S is one of my favorite road racers of the '50's!

Hey Chris, I have that top and here's what I'm getting............ Overall length = 3 and 1/4" Width from side to side = About 2 and 3/16" Length at the base of the sail panels = About 1 and 7/32" Now mind you as Art said, that's provided that both kits are scaled the same, AND that IMO the contours are the right shape between both of them. I have a '59 Pontiac built-up, and it looks as though the header contours are not quite the same as the convertible top you want to use. I always thought that the windshield header/frame in the Revell '59 Impala convertible was a little "flat" (like the hardtop), which is the reason I swapped roofs on the '59 kit I was building using the more correct '60 instead. I'd take pics of them, but I'm about to leave the house for the day and won't be back until late this evening. I did a quick check of the measurements as I see you'd like to know what they were. As far as keeping the top "pattern"-------you can always take a sanding block with 220 grit sandpaper, and do a criss-cross sanding of the area to get the cross weave pattern that you want. I did this years ago on an up-top and it turned out pretty well. Hope this helps you out!