Swifster

Kris, sorry to scare you... . I hit it the base with some Tamiya gray primer and then flat aluminum (didn't do the VW distributor yet). It looks great. And on a Ford FE engine, it gets center stage . These are a great product and they save a tremendous amount of wiring time. Thanks for making these!

Schweet!

Engines are dark blue and the transmissions were unpainted.

I think it speaks volumes of the trucking industry when most injector lines are steel.

Hi Chris, I'm new here too. I am starting my first build since the late 70's so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm starting with an older AMT '67 Mercury Cyclone. The instructions started with the engine so that's what I've started with. I've notice that many paint the parts while still on the tree. Having been involved in 1:1 vehicles my whole life, there are some things that I've carried over into my model. I would never paint a 1:1 engine in individual pieces, i.e., block, heads, oil pan, etc., if all of these parts will be the same color. As the long block on my Cyclone is all Ford blue, I glued the oil pan, heads, valve covers, intake and front cover together before painting the assembly. I think it turned out well. Because I will try things I've never done before, such as wiring, BMF, etc., I've bought a pair of MAD pre-wired distributors to cut down on the frustration. While I will get go in order of the instruction sheet for the most part, there are things I can do while I'm literally waiting for paint to dry. Putting the wheels together, detailing the rear finish panel and grille are some of these things. Of course that also means learning about black detail washes, but I'm not 'there' yet. Good luck and welcome.

Well, for 1974, I think it was innovative. The car has Bosch K-Jetronic mechanical fuel injection. The lines really weren't the problem, but they melted with the fire. It looks like whoever replaced the fuel filter didn't tighten the clamp on the fuel line to the injector pump. Fortunately, the fire was put out before the lines melted completely. By the way, don't give the Germans too much credit Michelle. The 5-speed automatics in the Charger and 300 are kind of crappy, and you can't keep ball joints in them for more than 25K. This is what happens when a parent company doesn't invest in the product. As a big Mopar guy, I'm glad that Chrysler has the ability to by their way out of Fiat if they desire to do so. It's like starting all over again in 1980. I can't wait until the revemped Avenger and Chrysler 200C (Sebring) are out this fall.

Well, my MAD pre-wired distributors showed up yesterday. I have to admit I was a little dismayed upon finding out the distributor base was resin and not billet aluminum. And the distributor sits about a scale foot taller than the engine! For $5 each, I expected a far better product... Ah, who am I kidding? These are great looking distributors and I'm sure glad I don't have to wire the darn things And yes, I did trim it to fit, and it looks great on the engine. I do have a question. Prepping to paint the base, am I good to go with just a shot of primer before painting with some aluminum colored paint. It's my first time with resin. Thanks!

I can personally vouch for the blinker fluid, the elbow grease and the flux capacitor. I've been wanting a couple of new power bands, but I'll wait until after Christmas.

Nope, no total loss. But it does need paint and new plastic fuel lines...

With Mercedes-Benz owning Chrysler Corp from 1998 until 2008, there was a lot of cross pollination between the M-B vehicles and Chryco stuff. Cars such as the Crossfire, 300, Magnum, Charger and Grand Cherokee have a lot of Mercedes content. The Crossfire was a rebodied SLK350. All use the German transmission. Very possible the newer Ram trucks have that transmission. I can't see too much else in the trucks. The new 2011 Grand Cherokee still has a lot of M-B ML320 in it. By the way, the '74 Porsche 911 Targa I looked at wasn't damaged nearly the way the one in the above photos is. Leaking fuel lines and superficial scorching.

X2 on "The American Car Dealership". I had a copy that has somehow been lost (loaned out maybe?). A lot of good information. As mentioned, that cars were the stars and there wasn't a lot of foo-foo in the showroom. Now, the service bay; that was the mechanics domain and there wasn't a lot of political correctness .

But you have to put it out sometime... It's not like they explode (that's just TV stuff). They must be paid by the hour.

And I just got an assignment to look at one of those today for the same reason. I hope mine isn't that bad...

That is where the power moonroof used to be.

This was from a fire that started with the Mustang convertible and spread to 8 other cars. The Lincoln was the car I was sent to look at. One thing to remember is that nothing melts into thin air. It may change form, but everything that was in that car before it caught fire is still there. The glass, the wiring, the seats, the carpet...it's all there. It might be ash, crystal or rusty steel, but it's all there. It's usually sitting on the floor pan in a pile of debris. Even the metal case of the radio ends up laying on the floor. All of the wiring looks like overcooked spaghetti. Where the fire started will be the area of most damage. Hope this helps.

I need to kneel and kiss someone's ring. I'm a big fan of the Chrysler letter cars and I'll pick up a few of those. And with any luck, the decision will be to continue with the '56, '58, '59, etc. so that we'll have access to all 11 cars. What I wouldn't give for a NICE '63 300J. (I wish they had a drooling smilie)

Just putting my marketing hat on, I would think in shear numbers that Revell would do better with a Laguna of any vintage or a Monte Carlo of '76-'77 than the Pontiac. There would be a lot of NASCAR conversions, as well as Chevelle and earlier Monte Carlos where the tooling wouldn't need to be completely new to bring out another version. This isn't to say the Pontiac isn't interesting subject matter, but like the real Can Am, I think sales would be limited. Pop out a Laguna, and the Resin guys would go nuts popping out those bodies not serviced. I'll take a '75 Monte Carlo please... If I was looking at a '70's Pontiac to do, I'd like an accurate '74 GTO (Ventura) or a '78 Pontiac Grand Am.

The topics you run into when your laptop is on the fritz . Cranky if you still need some burned out fire pics, I have some from a couple recent insurance claims on cars I had to inspect. Let me know and I can post them up over the weekend.

Well, I'm still painting engine pieces. I will say there is a lot more flashing and mold lines on the parts than I thought. I've been able to play with sanding these down and prepping for paint. I did order the two MAD distributors the other day so I'm waiting for them to arrive. I am deviating from the paint directions in the kit (aluminum intake & chrome valve covers). I found looking at real S-code 390's the the intake was painted blue like the rest of the engine. This isn't a problem. The valve covers really were chrome and the kit's are not (why not plate the covers?). I've decided that as this is just a project to get back into the swing of things, they'll be blue too. If this was going to be a show car, I'd by some Alclad or sent them out. Not on this car. I do have a question for the masses. The fan, in mounting it to the fan belt assembly, is really rather loose. How can I 'fill' the hole so that the fit is tighter? I'm thinking of SG as a filler. Any suggestions?

The Crown Victoria came out in 1980 as a trim pkg on the LTD. It was made a full model in 1983. The Country Squire lasted until the body change over at the end of 1991. The Mercury Colony Park also lasted until the end of 1991. The great thing about the Fox body cars was the interchangeability of parts from one line to another. I've seen Mustang engines and transmissions in just about every body style available. And in a Fairmont or LTD, it really catches people off guard.

Chuck having grown up in Detroit (and I know you're not that far away), I have a slightly different take. In the model car sense, I look at a 'Modified Reissue' as something discontinued, repackaged, some changes, and back as new. I really don't see this in the automotive world on a one-to-one basis. Platform engineering, yes. Nameplate games, absolutely. But the ones listed above are not what it seems. Just about every AMC small car made from 1970 until the Chrysler takeover, and this includes the Gremlin, Hornet, Concord and Eagle have their basis in the '64 American. If the platform form continues on, I look at it more as updating the 'Annual'. The '85 LTD is a completely different beast. The Granada was built on two different platforms. The '75-'80 was indeed a modified Maverick. But the '81-'82 Granada is a Fox body car. This was the basis for almost every mid-sized Ford from 1978 (Fairmont/Zephyr) until the Mustang was reengineered in 1994. The '83-'86 Ford LTD (not LTD II) is a the Granada replacement on the Fox body. The LTD II replaced the Torino in 1977 and lasted until 1979. Cars that used the Fox body platform include the Fairmont/Zephyr, Mustang/Capri, 1980-1988 Thunderbird/Cougar, '81-'82 Granada, '83-'86 LTD/Marquis, '84-'92 Lincoln Continental Mark VII and the '82-'87 Lincoln Continental. The GM minivans were a case of trying to take lemons and making lemonade. Ford and GM couldn't them, and still can't now, make a minivan to compete with the Dodge Caravan. So they tried something different. And any SUV/minivan/other that was sold as an Oldsmobile, was given to Buick. Again, just namebadge engineering. But these vehicles all stayed in production. The one I might conceed here would be the Studebaker Avanti. Production stopped in South Bend with the closure of all Studebaker production at that plant. Nate Altman was a successful Studebaker dealer in South Bend and he bought the plant, the rights, tooling and parts to start production back up and restarted production as the Avanti II. But with the engine foundry closed, he did what Studebaker themselves did in 1965 & 1966. He bought engines from GM (327's at first and 350's later). He would also let you order the car anyway you wanted it. Any color, any interior material, etc. But other than the engine, the car was all Studebaker under the fiberglass until 1983. He finally ran out of frames (and these were nothing more than modified Lark frames)! The company has been sold numerous times since 1983 and as far as I know is finished and done. The last few years in business, it was just an Avanti body kit on either a Firebird or Mustang. Studebaker made Avanti's in 1964, and Avanti II production started late in 1965. Same car, same assembly plant made by the same workers. BUT Studebaker did kill production, and it did come back 'modified' I don't know enough about the Super 7 to disagree with you on it. But at the same time, at least in the US, it's always been a kit car. You bought it, fitted your own engine and built the car up from parts. That is still done today. Interesting thought on this though. Many vehicles had the tooling sold off to 3rd World countries to live on again.

Hi John, I'm new here myself. The best place for choices on exterior colors is Auto Color Library. I'm not sure if it's listed in the 1:1 section or not. Many of the Ford 1:1 parts vendors, such as Mac's Antique Auto Parts will have the actual paint for the engine (I believe it's bronze). The frames are probably semi-gloss black like everyone elses. There are a lot sites dedicated to Ford on the web. Hope this helps.

While my skills are nowhere near others on this site, I'll give it a try. I might see if I can find a '53 Studebaker kit.

I saw those same cars at Sebring in '92. The bad part? They had alreay wrecked both of them in practice before I got there. I might have to see about picking that kit up at some point as I had a 1:1 '89 SHO. I like the color on this car. Mine was black.

I moved to Florida from Michigan in 2006. Before I moved, I kept thinking about getting back into model building. I have a 'few' kits and my mom's house (I hope they are still there ) such as the Monogram '59 Eldorado and a few others. But they were bought with this mind set. There when I want them. I hope mom didn't pitch them.