oldcarfan

I recently hit the point of "UUUGGGHHH!". We live in a small 2 bedroom apartment with the idea of saving for a house and paying off student loans. Austin is big on "Tiny Houses" and making use of available materials. My workspace is what I call a "tiny desk", a modelers version of a tiny house. I took over some of the shelves from an IKEA storage unit that we bought for extra storage room. It is 32w x 24d x 24t and is tucked into the utility room beside the washer and dryer. It's small, and is stand-up with no room for a chair, but it beats using the kitchen table and having to move everything to eat. The space is fine, but it has gotten more and more jammed with unfinished projects and well, junk. Tools and model parts would get buried, stuff would fall off the side or back and get lost, and you know... Anyway yesterday at work, (it was quiet) I redesigned the area in my head. When I got home I spent 2 hours boxing up unfinished projects and cleaning up and dusting. I ran a power strip for electricity, bought a phone holder and charger so I can have tunes or watch a movie while working and put in two very bright LED light strips for these tired eyes! They may be a little too bright. Then I started rebuilding with the idea of making my tiny space work for me. I used a bunch of leftover 1/2" foam core, balsa and basswood from one of the kid's last science fairs and enclosed the back and sides with it to keep everything contained and made racks for paint, a place to hang tools all from scrap foam and wood. I basically made a place for everything with the idea of getting it up off the desk having a clear work area. I also turned the shelves below and above into kit storage and also I have room above the stacked washer/dryer for most of, well some of the kits I've bought and not built, the rest are still in storage at the MIL's. It was also inexpensive in that the only thing I really had to buy was a power strip, two $15 LED strip lights and a new cutting mat and that was 40% off! Now I have to make sure I keep the area clean and uncluttered. We'll see how long I stick to that! This is pretty much the area I'll have to work in for the next couple years unless I hit it lucky with the Lottery or something. If anyone has ideas, suggestions feel free to toss them in!

I came across the Revell Lightning kit on the LHS shelf. I want to do one as the F&F parts truck. Has/does anyone made decals for The Racer's Edge? Google has failed me on this search!

You might put Japanese license plates and street legal lights on it. Apparently it's a thing among wealthy Japanese to turn old race cars such as this into street driven vehicles.

Is there a website?

Can someone re-post the info on the fund here? Never mind, I just saw it! https://www.gofundme.com/2pndgj5w

You are what I call an aspirational builder. Guys like me read your posts and it makes us think, "I want to do what he does". Then we start to build and remember, "Nope, he's got skills I lack." Oh well, as long as we have fun!

Interesting idea, can't wait to see how it looks!

My thanks to Toy Shop Japan Hobby One in Tokyo. I placed an order, my first from another country, through Amazon with them last month. I was going to just get a set of wheels and some anime stuff. I ended up buying more. The order arrived in the mail a couple days ago, no damage in about three weeks. All together I spent less than $35 and it came with free shipping. I prefer supporting local business, but in this case the LHS said that if they could get it, it would be $60-70 dollars and they couldn't be sure of delivery time.

Just an update, I received a package in the mail this week from Tamiya with a new body in it. Not bad at all, $4 for the body and $5 for shipping. I'm really happy with the service and speed that they got me the replacement body. Also thanks to all those who suggested contacting them. I always forget that these companies sometimes have replacement parts available. I was on the verge of buying a whole new kit and consigning the rest of this one to the scrap pile.

I went to the site but some didn't list a size. If they are 19" that's cool because that's the size I need! Also, my LHS said they are having trouble getting Pegasus products and wasn't sure if they were going out of business. I sure hope not since I've just discovered their good stuff. That would be just my luck!

Your post has reminded me of some fun stuff! I have a Black Widow finished and on the shelf, a Long John in the works and a Blue Beetle sitting in the to do pile. I also have several Tom Daniels kits waiting including almost enough of two Poison Pintos to make one.

Really good save. It would be fun to do a series of builds using the re-releases starting with the Blue Beetle all the way down to the last reissue before the parts were restored!

I've grown to love the Pegasus wheels, but there is no longer a hobby shop in my area that stocks them. I have ordered some online but have trouble guessing scale inch sizes. Some of them will say for instance 19" or 21" which helps, but a lot of them have no size listed. Does anyone know of a listing that gives the sizes of all their offerings?

I have the latest couple of releases of this kit. I will eventually build one as a 70s Fad T, but I would like to back date one to look like the original release. A lot of the Monogram kits recycled parts such as wheels from one kit to another. Is it possible to find the 6x2 intake or the wheels in another kit that is easily available? Maybe use parts from the Blue Bandito or some other kit?

On a related question, is there a two part putty that comes in smaller amounts? I prefer Bondo two part and such, but my work are is limited.

I stopped at Hobby Lobby on the way home yesterday evening and saw the new Bronco just being put on the shelf. It was marked at $25.99 I think. I'll have to use the coupon and get one cheap!

I'll get a couple most likely. I have the old Revell kit that I combined with the AMT kit years ago to get a stock '56 so I don't need a stock one. I like Foose's work and I'm glad to see any tie-ins that might bring new builders to the hobby and new kits to market! I would love to see a line of Overhaulin' kits based on the T.V. series that would result in new tools.

I used to love the really detailed kits, but I've grown to appreciate simple fun builds over the years. I found that it was getting to be too much like work..

A related question, do we need to do a build thread on the In Progress Page or just do updates here?

I fleshed out the back story for the Impala. These bingo-mobiles are everywhere on Craigslist cheap, so the guys have bought one for $2500 from a grandma who has upgraded to a new Hyundai. It's in good condition except for the usual parking-by-braile mishaps. The guys stripped out the 3800 V-6 and rebuilt it and the transaxle to put out 350 hp. I came across some parts from an unknown police car model so the passenger and the back seat passenger will be fully equipped with electronic counter surveillance- equipment. I also decided that for maximum stealth it would have to be grandma gold in color with the standard mouse fur velour interior. I located a can of DupliColor Chevy gold and actually got a decent paint job on it.

Greg, I still have the Eleanor I bought from you last year. I got it painted and that's as far as I got with it. I came across it the other day and it is currently moved up in the build queue.

I have built this too, I think it's the old kit but it has new retooled vinyl tires that I think are worth the purchase price alone!

I love what you've done here. I bought two in a junkyard bag at the model show a couple weeks ago that may yield enough parts for one good car.

I started one a while back. It is currently sitting in its box on the shelf. It will stay there until it has learned its lesson and promises to behave! I've moved on to the Monogram curbside 911s to calm down.

I built some of these cars back in the 80s using the available kits and Fred Cady decals, unfortunately they were lost when I got out of the military and the movers squished some boxes. I would love to see a series of Trans Am kits, but I would prefer them to be a street body car for a specific reason.The problem that I see with the race versions is that they had flared fenders and other non-street mods so kit manufacturers would have to tool up two separate kits to do street and race and I don't think the market would support a series of Trans Am only kits. But if they provided the basic street cars, the aftermarket could pick up the difference. There were so variations from team to team and even race to race that it would make more sense to do maybe a 2-N-1 kit to build a street stock bodied car and include the basic race parts, i.e. a roll cage, seat and some Minilites and let the aftermarket jump in with detail and decal sets. That way you could buy the kit and then choose which team car you wanted to build and order the parts and decals designed for that car. This would get around some of the licensing issues as well. There were so many teams and sponsors that that could be a logistical nightmare. Also, by doing this it would leave the door open for the Grand Am NASCAR versions and don't forget the drag versions of these cars. Who wouldn't love a Grumpy's Toy Camaro a Sox and Martin car or a new Dragon Lady Javelin? It is way past time for a 68 Mustang coupe and the 69s Mustangs we have are not very accurate. There are already lots of decent Camaros to choose from already, don't forget the Sunoco 69s that Penske built. The Challengers and Cudas kits are out there and reasonably well designed. The Javelin and the Firebird would be much appreciated. While I'm on the subject, how about the under 2.5 liter cars, we already have the BRE 510 kit and I think someone did the Alfa Romeos years ago. Sorry, I just realized I'm rambling, I've been up for a while and had 2 Super Caff-Pows and a lot of tea!