Aaronw

The Ghostbusters kit isn't a high top, so you may still want the flintstone body (I think he offers a hightop ambulance and a hearse body). Schaefer ambulance still exists, so it might be possible to get a color from the company if you are lucky enough to find someone older with some time to spare. http://www.schaeferamb.com/ The professional car society has a Socal chapter which might be another option for finding the color. http://www.theprofessionalcarsociety.org/about.html

Neat idea. I remember in the early 70s Shell stations would give away hot wheels with a tank of gas. When I'd visit my grandmother it was kind of a ritual to get gas so I could get a hotwheel. Had a shoe box full of them over at her house. I looked for the box when she passed away, but I was the oldest of a number of grandchildren and somewhere along the line it must have been given to one of the younger ones or thrown out. They were pretty beat from me, but would have been fun to have anyway. The Custom Barracuda is one of the more tame ones that really stands out to me, I was thinking about doing one in dark blue metallic like the one I had. The ones that really stand out in my memory are the more wild customs Python, Beatnik Bandit, Silhouette, Twin Mill, and Mantis being particular favorites.

I have a hard time actually putting the finishing touches on a model, but once I'm "done" I try not to look back. I have occasionally made a modification or fixed something that I missed, but that is rare.

Hope this is a good change for you. This seems appropriate for the new ride

Ours was gold, with a beige interior. As far as chrome I don't recall much, wheel covers, a few small trim details and the bumpers. Most of what I see chrome in your photos was actually metallic grey or black plastic. This one is pretty much identical to the one we had. http://bringatrailer.com/2013/10/10/restored-1970-toyota-corona-deluxe/ I'd love to find one or two myself. My parents bought a '70 new when I was about 3, and my dad drove it until probably '83-84. I had an aunt with a Datsun B210 Honey Bee, and another aunt had an older Corona (the one that looks a little like a Datsun 510).

Well not models, but cars are model related. If you end up heading west into Nevada there is the Hays Truck museum which recently moved to Reno, NV from Woodland, CA. The National Automobile Museum which houses the Harrah's collection is also in Reno. Harrah acquired a pretty amazing pile of cars during his lifetime http://www.automuseum.org/ There was a decent hobby shop in Reno back in 2005 or so, but don't know if it is still around.

I was just reading about some of the driverless tech here in the US. It works fine in lab conditions but they are finding it hard to make reliable in the real world. Bandwidth is a major issue as is combining driverless vehicles with human drivers, pedestrians, wildlife. They also found real world roads a big problem compared to a perfect track. Human drivers are much better at avoiding pot holes, and other hazards. I'll try to find the article, I just read it within the past month.

I like Novus polish, it is available in 3 "grits" to allow progressively finer polishing. McGuires Scratch X works pretty well also. It is easier to find, but only has one "grit" probably about the same as the middle grade of Novus. Both are California legal so should be available anywhere in the universe.

Wow I had no idea somebody did a Toyota Corona. My parents bought a gold one in 1970, it even had mirrors like that, just mounted on the doors instead of the fenders. I was 3 when they got it, and my dad drove it until I was in high school so that is the car I remember most as a kid. Will definitely have to add one of these to my must find list, actually maybe two of them. One as a nice one and one like my dad drove. He should have bought a truck, that poor thing always had a roof rack, and he brought home a trunk full of concrete bags (probably weighed more than the car) on more than one occasion. Got backed into by a city bus, so he took a come along and attached it to a telephone pole and pulled the front end back into place (more or less...) The poor little thing gave remarkable service, but was a mess by the end. Deserved though, it put up with 12-14 years of abuse and neglect that no compact car should have to put up with. It had a tin foil body, but was a heck of a car.

The Ford lettering only on the early trucks makes sense. The grill most likely fits all years regardless of the oval or / lettering so probably resulted in many trucks getting the wrong year grill out of convenience. The grills are plastic so I imagine quite a few were replaced over the years junk yard finds and left over stock probably ending up with FORD on later trucks for a couple of years after the change, and with only the first few years having the letters, the blue oval grills would be more common later in the run so you can find them on early trucks. Interchange of the grill would certainly explain why it is so confusing when looking at photos of these trucks where you might find an 80 with a blue oval, an 85 with FORD and then an 87 going back to the blue oval. Thanks

The 1980-94 Ford medium duty F series pretty much ran the same grill during its whole run until it got a new hood in 1995. The vast majority have a blue oval in the center of the grill, but I run across a few with FORD between the upper and lower grill halves. It looks like possibly a 1-2 year thing as most seem to occur 84-85. Is anyone familiar enough with these trucks to know what the deal is with these grills? Just a limited time, aftermarket, weight or trim level? Also anyone with access to one of these who could measure the length of the hood? I've got an old Pinecrest resin cab for the Ford, and I'm pretty sure it is quite under scale, probably more around 1/28 as the whole cab is a tiny bit shorter than a 1/25 f150 which seems wrong to me. Thanks

I've got a Capri II in a rally racing boxing and the TR8 targa in a Revell box (assume reboxed Monogram kit). Also the Dodge Ram Charger which seems to fit in with the rest being a fairly simple kit. I'd like to get the TR7, Land Rover and Mercedes SL450, and would be happy to see any of these re-issued. With the recent re-issue of the Ram Charger along with some of the simpler Revell (Monogram?) kits like the Chevy Wrecker, GMC snow plow and Ford F150, I'd like to think we may seem some of these other kits in the future. While relatively simple they are not bad kits, and for many of the subjects the only kit we have. While we are at it I'd love to see a pre-5mph bumpers '69-72 Capri Mk I, but I expect that is very unlikely.

So basically a DM800 with the regular cab from an R series? Good idea, I understand the reason for the offset cabs, but they do look a bit strange. Not as weird as the half cabs out there, but still odd. Looks like you got a good start. Were you able to center the DM800 cab or did you have to scrounge the cab from an R model kit?

Have the frame in primer, but found a few small details to fix before the color coat. The air ride suspension was replaced with a walking beam and I added 3 scale feet behind the rear wheels (stinger). Some of these keep the frame a straight box, but I like the look of the angled tail end better so I trimmed the last cross member just a bit. The frame will be the same IH red, but just a bit darker due to the grey primer.

Drivers from the days of yore brought us classics like these

We didn't in 1950 there were 7 deaths per 100 million miles driven, in 2015 we were down to a hair over 1 per 100 million miles driven. Actual automobile deaths per year are fewer today than in 1950 despite a huge increase in the number of cars on the road. If we were still driving 1950s cars the death toll would be over 200,000 / yr vs 30,000. But hey as long as you look good what is a few hundred thousand additional roadway fatalities.

It's Hawaiian slang for finished / done. The Big Kahuna here lives in Hawaii and adds a little Hawaiian flair here and there. You may have noticed that many members have Ohana under their name, that being a term for family both actual and "adopted". Don't know when that happens but is tied to post count.

Ah, ok so literally the grill. Good to know that at least can stay the same except of course for the extra set of parking lights.

I don't mind people pointing things out, its how we learn. I've found photos of the later dash with the brake knobs down at the bottom of the dash, not up on the edge where I mounted mine. This is from a 1972 359, perhaps a change during a restoration? but one of the photos I based my dash on.

Thanks, thought that was the case, but figured I'd check before spending too much time on it. Future project so I have time...

No it isn't, look closer, I made the same mistake initially. The Deserter has 4 headlights with parking lights in the grill (and the bumper). The truck I linked to has only 2 headlights with parking lights directly below the headlights (where a second set of headlights is in the kit), no lights in the grill or bumper.

So is this grill out there somewhere or am I going to have to make my own. I thought it was perhaps later than this kit, but my notes show it is in fact an '82, so possibly just a different trim level? Note parking lights directly below the twin headlights lights, not quad headlights with parking lights in the grill or bumper. http://modelfireapparatus.com/apparatus/Brush/Brush4/BrushS3.JPG

Thank you for the photos and other updates to the info. So many options on these trucks.

This topic comes up frequently There is a fairly complete listing in this post from 2006 I'll take the liberty of quoting it since it was my post. Official colors as well as suggested paints to use.

I really couldn't find any good photos of the dash that quite matched up to the one in the kit, I just assumed AMT took some artistic license. I searched Peterbilt 359 dash photos and went with the closest I could find to what was in the kit and went with that, it showed the knobs where I put them. The oldest truck with airbrakes that I've driven was a '70 Ford C and it had a yellow air brake knob (fire engine so no trailer brake knob). As the kit is of that period nothing said to me that yellow and red knobs would be incorrect.