Drake69

Now I see why this model's suspension is all wrong. It seriously droops the front and makes the back look raked. So I decided to add blocks to the frame rail in the front to lift the body up some... Now it's not as low as it was before.

More of the completed body, this time with the firewall. Will need to remember to paint that lower lip on the bottom of the body in the back.... From the front, showing the covered holes and firewall... Hopefully these skinny tires and bare rims will look relatively close to the real thing.... Better shot of the engine with the "floating" alternator. Will need to build a functional bracket for it soon...

If they did it for the Batmobile, I'm sure they can do it for Ecto.

So far, and again, not discounting anything since I haven't tried it, I don't hear it doing anything better than Future. I'll monitor this discussion to see if any of this changes, but I'm staying with what I know works.

That's one way to make your models unique...

Station wagon conversion = Awesome idea! I'd want to do a 2-door version though, but it looks great!

Make sure it says Acrylic on the bottle, and also make sure it's unscented.

Blank car magnetic material... http://www.wholesalemagneticsigns.com/blank_car_magnets.html They can be bought for any strength and outdoor longevity. And if they become too gunked up from spray paints, glue droppings, etc..., remove the nails and affix a fresh strip. Banner design shops have these, and at one point you could also find them at Office Max, Office Depot, Staples, craft stores, and even K-Mart, Walmart, and Target. And if you use magnetic stainless steel brackets (which also exist...), it's easy to clean off as well. LAST NOTE: the idea originated from the "other" car modelling magazine, FYI.

Here is the base standing on its end.... Base with Mini Cooper for scale...... Better lighting so everyone can see how dirty it is...... Last shot.... So I'm still unpacking and moving things around, and can't find my metal L-brackets, but imagine a piece of metal held in place by the magnetic base, pushed up against the car on either side, so that a newly glued wheel will set straight instead of askew.

The wooden stand underneath the "Mad Max" box top picture I made for supporting my cars as they glue. I nailed three small blocks of wood to a flat square piece, then nailed a magnetic sign (like the ones you see affixed to business cars every day) on the top with the magnet side facing up. I then have two/three steel elbow brackets that stick to the base so that I can move them around to hold car parts in place like wheels to an axle, door panels, etc... It really helps with keeping wheels level and straight if you have axle components that are glued and drying so that they don't knock themselves out of position (and so you don't have to sit there and hold parts together for hours while waiting for the glue to set...). At some point I'm going to attach aligator clips to the base so I can have new ways to hold glued parts as they dry.

Where I am now... Ford engine with flattop air cleaner and Stromberg carbs (what he ran)... Two-tone body... burgundy/white... I was already told by my brother-in-law that the paintjob on the body is "too pretty", even with a few flaws here and there. It seems Henry Sr. only cared about 2 things for his car... 1: Did the engine run right? And 2: Was his name on the car? Everything else was left alone. The car started life as a rusty burgundy coupe, so once he had the engine the way he wanted it he just slapped paint on it. So I'm going to spray the body with Dullcoat to bring down the shine of the paint before building, then plan to weather the chassis up with earth tones to simulate mud. Also, the chassis was black but I haven't got to it yet,

I remember seeing those on Dad's kits and always wondered what they were for. I think the only kit I have that had it was the silver anniversary 1979 Trans Am.

Box art is good for reference or ideas, but I've never bought a kit based solely on it. Whenever I buy a kit, I put all the parts trees in gallon Ziploc baggies along with the instructions, then I cut the box apart and save the pics to use as a reference for engine bay parts, color ideas, decal placement, etc. Out of all the models I've built, I can think of only two where I built the kit nearly identical to the picture on the top, and one of those was the Batmobile so it really doesn't count.

FRANKENSLED http://www.motortopia.com/driveonline/articles/frankensled-2-1780/ Lead sled all the way.

Boyd's has some nice colors, but after I went to acryllic lacquer, I never looked back. I hope one day someone gets the color chips and reproduces the entire Boyd's line in lacquer. That would make me very happy.

x2. I've had 20/20 vision all my life, and now my eyes won't focus like they should. I hate getting old.

Ok. Wait a minute. Hold up a second here. 1: Future (Pledge with Future Floor Care) absolutely DOES NOT HAVE AMMONIA IN IT.... WHATSOEVER. 2: Dipping an entire car body in Future WILL NOT HARM THE PAINT ON AN ALREADY SPRAYED BODY, on the condition that the paint has had time to set properly (at least 24 to 48 hours) before dipping. This might be longer if the paint is airbrushed on, but if a good basecoat of primer is first AND HAS HAD TIME TO DRY, the next layer of paint, be it airbrush or rattlecan, should adhere properly to your model. Then dipping it in Future afterwards will be fine. 3: A car body can be dipped in Future MULTIPLE TIMES without EVER harming the paintjob. Don't believe me? Look at the pics below... In the case of the Mustang, I dipped the body in Future after a successful spray of Model Master Lacquer (I let the paint dry 24 hours first), let that dry for 24 hours, applied all my decals, let them dry (12 hours), THEN REDIPPED THE BODY IN FUTURE AGAIN, and let it dry. This sealed in the paint, the decals, EVERYTHING, and never once hurt my previous work. In the case of the General, the decals from Hazzardous had two sets that needed to be applied separately for them to work. The first set was the white backgrounds, and the second set was the color. After painting and dipping the body, I applied the white set first, dipped the car, applied the last set, THEN DIPPED IT AGAIN, all with ample time inbetween to dry. Not a single decal has ever curled, yellowed, or fractured, and the paint is the same color as it was when I put it down. Whenever you dip a car body, you immerse it in Future for about 15 to 20 seconds, then lift it out and allow it to settle. This will wick off any excess and seal in whatever's underneath. This also goes for BMP and aftermarket MCG badges. Now, I will admit, I have ZERO EXPERIENCE with airbrush paints. I have no idea how thin they are or what entails putting them on. I would imagine that if someone was experienced enough to paint a car in that manner, then it wouldn't be all that different than rattlecan in terms of coats. But I have never had a problem with any of my models and Future, and I would say that 90% of them were dipped this way.

I built this Prestige model for my mother. Hers was the same color gold with tan interior....

That's about right. Or at least take apart several valuable kits to cobble together an exact replica.

I want it in white. Another of my '60s favorites...

Awesome stuff. This actually gives me hope of building a model of one of my all-time favorite cars/trucks...

Definitely, but it does help to know where to source the right parts for that authentic build. That's why I'm copying the text to Word doc so I can have a detailed reference point for my next one! And it doesn't hurt that I've found some great vintage pics online of these racecars, either!

Absolutely STUNNING.

Thanks a lot, guys! But due to money constraints I may stick with the kit's original chassis. I haven't completely decided on this yet, as I'm still going to search for the proper wheels and tires, but I don't think her family is going to notice the suspension ain't factory. Yes, everyone HERE will notice it though, and that's why I'm planning to build a more authentic racer sometime later this year when I have all my parts lined up (I've also got the '37 sedan Ford kit which has the same identical chassis...). BUT, one of my modelling friends pointed out that I don't need to run through all that when most of her family hasn't seen a '37 Ford racer since the early '50s anyway. Still, it never hurts to have knowledge from those that have invested their time and money into projects like these. Keep 'em coming!

I may have posted this before but I can't seem to find the topic. My wife's father owned his own local Texaco shop here in Richmond and raced this Ford all along the eastern seaboard. The only reference points I have to build this car are historical pictures from the net (whatever I can find, anyway...), some sketchy memories from his kids who were really young (ages 2~5), and this only pic of his actual car: From my brother-in-law's recollection, the fenders and wheels were black, the body panels are burgundy, and the roof line is white all the way back to the rear bumper (CORRECTION: white to the bottom of the rear window, burgundy all the way down to the bumper...). The bumpers themselves were metal girders attached to the chassis by the frame rails, and very little, if any, logos were on the car save for his name, the "number 9" on the door panels, and MAYBE a Texaco label somewhere in the back. Since he ran his own Texaco shop, he wasn't much in the way of advertising for anybody else, so he didn't decorate his car like all the others. What I'd like to know is info and pointers from those of you who have built these old racers. Specifically, I picked out this kit to build the car off of... From the looks of the image on the box I suspect the car is lowered somewhat so I'll have to actually beef up the suspension some to make it more natural looking. Any thoughts on this, or am I using the wrong kit for this project?