MrObsessive

Oh Okay! I've used those..............they look fantastic against the red background!

That's a nice El Camino, and those doors look just right as that's how they should open for a '68! Jason if you'd like, you can check out my Turbine Car build where I go into detail about how I do hinges of this type. You want to make the kind of hinges that the door turns inside the fender, not swing outside of it. Just click here to take a look. The shape of the door jambs and hinges will vary from model to model, but this will give you the basic idea.

That's a nice lookin' Judge! Are those decals for the seats? That nicely replicates the "Houndstooth" look that was popular back then. Sigh...............I can still remember when these were a dime a dozen as cheap used cars. Saw a few of them in my high school parking lot circa 1978. Now you can't touch a pristine one that would cost you and arm and a leg!

Hmmm...................What brand was your Candy Red? The paints should be compatible with each other if they're going to be sprayed over each other. Something tells me your Testor's was an enamel and the candy was perhaps a synthetic lacquer? Those are "hotter" paints and will do enamels in. I'm not sure why it didn't attack the other areas on the body---------maybe you laid the paint on a little too think on the roof, thus the crazing you're getting. Yup! Metallics should NEVER be rubbed out and polished! Maybe a very, very slight sanding to get the dusties out (a tack rag beforehand is a must!), but one should always clearcoat over metallics then rub out and polish the clearcoat.

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!

Ron, that conversion is lookin' good! Rear window or not! It's funny, I was five years old when this car was new, but I can still remember an Uncle of mine buying a new '66 Caprice four door hardtop. It was silver with a black vinyl roof, and he bought it right around the time he was building a new house. Unfortunately, my Uncle passed away this past October...........I might like to turn one of these '66's into his car someday.

Welcome aboard Lani! You're lucky to have your Dad to help you out modeling. I didn't have that growing up, but then I didn't get started 'til I was 17! And yes, that is a nice Predicta! Anyway, don't be afraid to ask questions................that's what we're here for!

Hmmm.................I'm not so sure Harold. I had a '65 Dart Convertible once and it didn't have seat belts. I don't think they were "taken out" either as I never saw any anchors for them on the floor of the car. I was thinking that seat belts were federally mandated for 1968 cars and later.

Once upon a time I once drove a taxi for a living. Yes, you can run into some really nasty sonofaguns in that line of work. One thing that kept them at bay for me was keeping a rubber mallot in between the seats. I had my fill of it though back in 2000 when an individual fell on his rear end in my van, and then had a stroke the next day. His family tried to sue (unsuccessfully), and then the cab company was not very helpful towards my case as they were trying to cover their own rear ends. So I went and got a much safer (and much better paying) job where I've been for the last ten years. Over the 10 years I drove taxi off and on, I've been held up at gunpoint (for $10), gotten into fistfights with drunks (sometimes 2 or 3 at a time), had someone try to use me as a getaway car once, had babies nearly born in my car, you name it! The cab company? They've since gone out of business, after they were shut down by our state PUC due to lack of insurance coverage for their cabs on the road. Serves 'em right!

Thanks for the nice words and encouragement so far fellas! I didnt' get a lot done this week..............had some family issues to deal with (Dad was ill), and I was out of town all weekend and just getting home a couple hours ago. Now I'm totally beat and I'm soon off to bed! I took tonight off so I wouldn't have to deal with going in on third shift on a Sunday night. It's back to normal tomorrow night, and so hopefully I'll have more to share later this week. I hope Eric does continue to do cast cars! His castings are definitely Modelhaus quality as I saw nary a pinhole or badly misshapen part anywhere!

I'm at 260 lbs, down from 320 which I weighed a year ago! Yes, the weight loss was intentional as my knees, ankles, and feet could no longer take it! ........................And I've had a permanent tan since 1961!

Here's a full on side shot of what John's talking about................ Pic courtesy of Plymouth Central. One can see how the tailfin starts just behind the door like John mentioned. This is something I immediately noticed that was missing on the RC2 kit. Not to mention that my Dad once owned a '57 Plymouth when I was a kid, so I'm quite familiar how this car should look. BTW, if you can catch Okey Spaulding at a show, he might be able to scrounge up a '59 Dodge body in styrene plastic. One can cut the roof and tulip panel away from the body and swap roofs on the incorrect RC2 body. You could then use the windshield frame from the '57 Chrysler 300C, since Plymouth hardtops used the same for '58. The fins could be fixed using some plastic and putty-------------a lot of work for sure, but it's the only way I know to get a truly accurate '57-'58 Plymouth. Then there's that pesky side trim that's got to be fixed.................

I know of no assembly issues with that kit, but (I've vented about this before) the body is woefully inaccurate! It's not just the roof, but the whole shape of the car itself is distorted due to the rear fenders themselves not being the right shape and angle, throwing off the side trim, tailfins, etc. If I get time, I may post pics to show the deficiencies---------------but I'm in the middle of fixing dinner so I can get out of here to work in a couple hours.

Oh Yeah! I've dabbled into 1/43 at times!..................... 1956 Ferrari 250 GT 1965 Simca Abarth............... Still have a bunch more 1/43's that I've never touched...........Bosica Porsche 356, Several '50's racing Ferrari's, Jaguar D-Type to name a few.

EXCELLENT thread on your working suspension! I love all the fiddly little pieces! Keep it going!

I know the answer to this one too! Lets just say I used to "live" above a vehicle like this for a bunch of years in a garage apartment I once had. Those that know me on the board and knew when I lived there, might remember what type of garage that was------------thus they may know what this vehicle is.

Welcome along Dave! Remember, there are no "daft" questions here, just unasked ones! To those wondering, yes I can speak British!

Well first off------------Welcome! And WOW that is nice!! I'm not into customs at all, but that is one clean piece!

Update time! As I mentioned in another post, I want to use the interior floor and frame out of the '66 Olds kit. This requires however some tweaking and fitting as it's not a direct swap as I'm learning. Some grinding of the rear wheelwells was needed to get it to sit lower in the rear. One of the disadvantages of kitbashing older kits is there are no positive locating points to put your new chassis or interior. I needed to determine how far up the chassis floor would have to be, so that the frame rails won't hang down too low below the rockers. If you look at a 1:1, you don't see much of the frame if at all below this area. While I was test fitting the floor from the '66, I noticed it was a tad narrow for the '64 body. I just added some plastic square rod to tighten things up a bit. Here's the floor and frame rails test fitted in the body so far to get things lined up wheelbase wise. Side profile shot to make sure those frame rails aren't hanging down too low. In another post, I was working on the inner fenders from the '66 kit. I didn't like the "flush" look of the inner fenders against the outer fenders, so I modified and widened them a bit. If you look at 1:1 pics of GM A bodies from '64-'67 you'll see that the inner wheelwells are "tucked in" a bit from the lip of the outer fender flange. This was the look I'm trying to replicate. I'm going to use the firewall from the '66 kit as well. While not 100% accurate as far as every minute detail, it's better than the original kit supplied firewall which doesn't have much detail for me. Not to mention it's easier to mate these parts together than to try to mix and match the old with the new in this respect. Here's a shot of the outer fender lip and flange I mentioned above.................. I mocked up the engine for the time being to get an idea for hood clearance. As the pic shows, I did find an air cleaner from a beat up '70 Toronado builtup I have. Problem now is if I ever want to restore that Toro, I'll still need an air cleaner! I replaced the oil fill tube from the kit as I thought it was too short. The engine was painted with Alclad gold and set in the engine again to check clearance with the new oil fill tube against the hood. Also, the intake manifold isn't exactly correct for a single carb 4-barrel for a '64, but this'll have to do as I don't want to raid anymore kits just for the manifold. The air cleaner will be mostly in place so I won't worry too much about looks. So far so good! I have decided on a color for the body...............Jade Mist Metallic which is a dark metallic green it appears. I may pick up the color this week from our local paint jobber. After the engine is done, I'll primer and overspray the chassis floor with this color. Interior looks like it'll be white at this point for contrast. Thanks for lookin'!

Niko, I rounded up a few pics to demonstrate the similarities between the Mustang and the AMX's front suspensions.................... The AMX's........................ The Mustang's.................. Hope these help!

Yes, they are molded to the body. You can take the back edge of an Exacto blade to cut them free from the outer fenders if you'd like. The pic you linked is very much like what the kit has. As I mentioned, you'll have to do some reshaping and tweaking to get them to look more like the AMX's inner fenders----------but it sure beats making them from scratch. Also, take a look at that kit's front suspension. The lower suspension arms on the Mustang are very much like the AMX's for '69. Up until '69, AMC was still using a trunion setup for the front suspension. 1970 and later they finally switched to ball joints. This would save you some work as well for scratching a front suspension. I know about those trunions units because I had to replace 'em on my AMX as the handling got very iffy for a time!

Wow! I LOVE this car! I once had a 1:1 '69 AMX 390 4spd...........what a had snapper she was! Your project is coming along great and I'm glad you got rid of the molded in rear axle. That's one aspect of that kit I've always hated (along with the molded exhaust), and I've got several of them. One suggestion for the inner fenders............if you haven't gotten too far, you might want to consider the inner fenders out of AMT's '67 Mustang kit. They're quite similar, and with some tweaking could be made to fit. Here are a few pics of the AMX under resto before the engine's in........................ Hope this helps and keep up the great work!

I built this '05 a couple years ago..............I used BMF to mask off the outside window trim, and hand painted it with Polly 'S' Engine Black. It's a water soluble color sold here at our local train shop. Great stuff as it's not a pure semi gloss, but not a total flat either. Just like 1:1 trim isn't............ Here are a few pics............ Like Bob mentioned, I also used the black sharpie method for the inside of the windows. You can't beat it as far as ease of application!

Gotta agree with ya there George! When Bill Mitchell was running styling in those days, there wasn't an ugly one in the bunch as far as GM was concerned. I think that '66 IMO was a high water mark for GM, as in later years the styling began to take on a "heavy" look-------witness the '67-'68 Pontiacs and Olds. Those full size 1965-'66 B-Body hardtops to me are my favorites next to the '59-'60 lineup. They all angled in the right places and the lower body styling complimented the hardtop look.

Ooooh! I just LOVE this car! Nice start to such a BEAUTIFUL car! I have this same kit (never touched), and it's nice to see how someone else builds it! Keep us posted!