MrObsessive

YIKES!! Gregg, I'm sorry that happened! I use Carbonite for all my backups. It works silently in the background so you can't tell it's working.................I'm kinda paranoid about the hard drive taking a dump. I had a 'puter gets it's modem and hard drive fried by lightning a few years ago. At home backup systems are nice, but if there's a severe power surge or heaven forbid a fire, all is lost. For 50 bucks a year it's well worth it, and they're even working on a system for Mac users.

Harry, what I meant by the separate chrome is that in some instances, the chrome doesn't quite fit right in its recesses (or the recesses too big), and seems to me somewhat heavy handed. Better for me (some'll disagree of course) if the chrome is stripped, put on the body, primered and painted/polished with everything else, and then BMF'd. It lends to me a more in scale (and consistent) appearance as chrome fender/window trim on 1:1's are more of a polished stainless or aluminum finish, and not mirror chrome like the bumpers. I'm looking at the kit as I type this, and it has some sprue tabs that'll have to be filed and smoothed down anyway, so might as well go for the whole nine yards. True, I can empathize with those builders who have shaky hands and or no patience.....................but for me this works best. Just a matter of taste.

I just picked up this kit Saturday, and I'm very impressed! You've all seen the '58 I've done, this kit bests AMT's in a lot of ways------namely you don't have to screw around with the fiddly doors, and the chassis engraving is very well done. The separate chrome is curious, in that I'd much rather BMF the body-------but I'm kind of a masochist with things like that! I'll probably strip the chrome, mount it on the body making sure everything lines up and then BMF the chrome after polish. The body lines are exactly right, and even the A pillars are well done being the correct thickness, shape, and angle for a '58. The spinners for the hubcaps are nicely done, and reference material for this car is all over the 'net. I'd like to build mine as a Fuelie........very rare in '58, maybe in Sierra or Anniversary Gold. Of course everything else will be stock as stone!

That's great Jeff! One thing I forgot to mention to you at the meeting Saturday, is you may want to seriously consider switching browsers! I'm on Mozilla Firefox and have never had an issue with someone hijacking my browser or my I.P. address. Despite what Bill Gates from Microsoft says...........Vista while much improved security wise over XP, can still have some problems with Internet Explorer. Click here if you want to look into Mozilla. Hope this is the last time you have a problem with hackers..........they can make your life miserable!

Bill, click here for Hendrix's models. He's got pics of the '55 in raw resin and builtup pics. You'll have to scroll down a bit to see 'em. HTH!

I talked to Jeff at our MAMA meeting yesterday and told him that he has to keep his antivirus, spyware and firewall constantly updated! I swear hackers stare at the ceiling in the wee hours of the morning, beating their fists against the headboard, wondering how to hack into others PC's. Unfortunately Gregg, as the cyberworld marches on, it won't be long before Macs suffer the same hijacker problems as us Windows users. I've heard and read stories where this is already starting to happen.

I saw that too at our club meeting today. Someone bought one and so I peeked at the contents. I passed on it because I saw nothing extra that made it any different than what's already been done. The white plastic is a nice change though as opposed to the gray................If I were King, all models would be molded in white!

That's right! I remember a couple episodes where John Steed drove a Europa..........put it up on two wheels IIRC!

Thanks for the pic Manuel! BTW, your under trunk stamping looks very good! That's a detail that can be a pain to replicate at times .

Cool looking model Randy! Yes, you're absolutely right about the lowness of the 1:1! About 10 years ago there was one that sat in a local car dealer for what seemed like forever. I got nosy one day and tried to see if I could get in..............................I did but barely!! Then there was the embarassment of trying to get out! I can just hear the theme music of "The Avengers" just looking at your car.....................you remember that show with Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg?

I like this tip! Excellent model too Manuel! I used magnets years ago on a '66 Nova to keep the doors closed------but the magnets seemed to lose their "hold" once they were painted over. I agree with Jairus.............if you can, you gotta show a pic with the magnets holding the trunk open. I may try this trick on my '55 Ford!

Tom, to get the doors to close the whole way, you may have to reengineer the hinges a bit. Test fit the doors/door jambs with the interior (and dash if possible) in place, and place the doors closed on the body. Check to make sure there is enough clearance and no binding of the hinges against what would be the kick panels in the interior, and no jamming against the dashboard. You might have to shave the radii of the hinges just a bit to make the clearance, or grind in a slight divot in the interior kick panels to let the hinges clear. The dash also may need some trimming a bit to allow the doors to close with the door jamb/hinge in place. Having built this one a long time ago out of the box, I remember the doors being fussy................I also remember trimming the dogleg below the A pillar a bit to get them to close properly along with the other suggestions I made. The '55 I'm building right now is based on that '56...................I wanted to avoid drama with the hinges, so I scratchbuilt my own! Tom, if you're really brave, you can try this technique I did recently on my Turbine Car................it was an article I did with Tim Doty years ago on his website. He gives step by step pics in the article on how he did this to his '56 Ford. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the nice words Bill and Steve! Bill, hopefully I can get back to Toledo in '08------I haven't been there since '03! With home ownership and all, my dollars don't go as far as they used to in the "old days"! I also have more vacation time at work now, so that at least won't be a problem. Steve, I've seen R&R's '55 Ford------and while not bad, it's not quite representative of the car I want to do. Ray's '55 is more of a Crown Vic without the tiara, not the round roof car I'm doing. Here's a pic of R&R's I got from Star Models....... I should have bought one though to steal that trunk trim! Hendrix's Ford isn't bad either, but it's a post sedan. If I can carve out some time, I'm about to paint the chassis red oxide primer as I've got the floorpan and chassis widening pretty much done. I'm debating now whether to scratchbuild the rear suspension, or just leave it alone. The axle and springs are so dang plain that either way, I've got to dress 'em up somehow! Overtime at work is taking its toll on building------at least I'll have this weekend off to get to the big MAMA party on Saturday!! (hopefully no snow!!)

I was lucky enough to see Harold Bradford bring the Cheetah to life little by little as he was preparing the kit, and bringing it to the MAMA meeting from time to time. Yours is absolutely fantastic!.............You should send pics to Harold-----(I think he has email). He'd surely appreciate the terrific job you did! Those of you who are into vintage racers......you owe to yourself to try one of his kits! I've got his Cobra Daytona Coupe, as well as the Corvette Grand Sport Roadster. Harold gives you everything you need to make a beautiful model as can surely be seen by Brendan's Cheetah!

I LOVE this thread! Takes me back to being a kid! The green one in the front is the "Sugar Caddy" modified from their Custom Eldorado, (One of the "Spoilers" editions) and the blue one I believe is a Lincoln Mark III.

Hee Hee........just did a little diggin' around, and I came up with this!

Despite the doors Jeff, that paint looks flawless!! Absolutely Beautiful! The doors are troublesome on those...........I've taken to totally reworking the hinges on my '55. Now the chassis is giving me fits! I'll get 'er done one of these fine days!

I got my first Hot Wheels when they were intro'd in '68............it was the Custom Camaro in Antifreeze. I LOVED that car!! I carried it around with me all the the time...........and as a 7 year old I thought Hot Wheels were the neatest thing ever! The second Hot Wheels I got didn't stick around too long though............it was the Custom Mustang in Candy Red I had all of three days, when a best friend of mine and I were playing with our Hot Wheels on the porch steps. There was a 1½" gap between the the top step and the porch and............you guessed it! The Mustang went down the gap never to be seen again! Needless to say I was one upset 7 year old! Of course, my Mom wouldn't buy me another one (right away)........... she told me to "Learn to be more careful where I played with my toys"! I liked all of the original Hot Wheels especially the 1968-70 versions......after 1970, they got kinda wierd with body styles I couldn't relate to because they looked like nothing I was seeing on the streets at the time. I'd have to say my all time favorite Hot Wheel of that era is probably the Sand Crab. I think every kid I knew in the Fourth Grade when that one came out had a Sand Crab! Right now I got probably about 30 or 40 original Hot Wheels in pristine shape all from the '68-'70 era. I started collecting them again about 5 years ago..........and BOY are they pricey now!! I also have a bunch of the original "Sizzlers"..........You remember, those little motorized cars that ran on the "Fat Track"? I've got some of the original ones, and yes, they do run! They've been restored though. Mattel is even making Sizzlers again, and they're at your local Target Store! I have some of the accessories of course, such as the curves and orange track, Fat Track, Super Charger Sprint Set, and "Tune Up Tower". Both the Super Charger Sprint Set and Tune Up Tower are in working condition! BTW, anyone here remember the "Hot Wheels" cartoon series that ran on ABC during the 1969-70 season? That featured none other than the Sand Crab and "Jack Rabbit Special". (Got an original of that one too! heehee)

Boy Mike, you sure know how to work your magic on what looks like lost causes! That turned out beautiful! If you hadn't pointed it out, I'd never have known that those posts were broken and missing!

Pure Rocketship '50's!! Sigh........... Wouldn't it be nice if the car designers today could have free reign with designs as they did back then?..............Good or bad! Instead we get super boring designs (although that IS starting to change) that seem to hang on for years. Pity.

Funny thing is, I don't remember seeing many '57-58 Mercurys of any sort back in the '60's when they would have been mostly on the road. I noticed a LOT of '50's cars as a little kid in the '60's but Mercs seemed rather scarce. Their shapes were certainly distinctive enough to be anything but forgettable! From what I was told by my Dad, 1958 was a bad year for the country in general due to a nasty but curt recession. So there wouldn't have been much of '58 anything to go round I guess compared to other years.

FWIW Andy, when I built mine in '96 (that long ago? ), I had a large photo album lent to me by Harold Bradford (Historic Racing Miniatures) of a 250 GTO on the lift undergoing a resto. It had the exhausts go into one as shown in my pic. I thought it odd too............but those cars had so many changes when they left the factory, who knows what was correct from car to car.

The top photo is what looks to be a Turnpike Cruiser (a '57), and that one would have glitzier tailights than the rest of the Mercury line------given that it was the top of the line back then. If it were a '58 it would have the "rocket spear" inset in the rear fender. The other two below are definitely '58's.....not much changed between the two years 'cept for front ends and tailight/bumpers. I'm a little fuzzy on 1957-58 Mercs as they were a weeeeee bit before my time! Someone else who would remember when they were new could probably give more info.

I would've called the police friend or no. Maybe that'll shock her into getting off whatever she's on. An old Rabbi once told me a liar is a thief and vice versa. She'd deny it all day long that she took it-------maybe cutting off friendship is the thing to do. (NO contact! Not even a note!)

That's the tank for the Daytona's dry sump oiling system. Ferrari probably did it this way to lower the hood------eliminating the tall oil pan, which would've made the engine taller. Where the lines go I have no clue...............I built a '63 GTO years ago with the tank (in the rear on those) and all the lines in place, but their system was quite different I'm sure than on the Daytona. Here's a pic of the underside of the car I built..............a little crude by my standards today............ but this may give you an idea.