TimKustom

Thanks for the Nomination Modlguy! I remember SAE did a list like that on one of their anniversaries (200th issue maybe). That was a pretty good start, for the "oldies". As far as what I like that didn't make the list then or have been since, and really knocked me out (and not already listed). Randy Derr: AJ Foyt Camaro Ken Hamilton: "Home Sweet Home" Mark Baston: Superflo Days of Thunder #46 Steve Boutte: Blue 1950 Ford Kustom Ricky Couch: Moo Milk Truck Jarius Watson: Concept 2032 Tommy May: "Red Hot Chili Pepper" There are many more, but I'd need to go back thru some mags & photos. Tim K.

Hey Tim, How 'bout scanning those articles and hosting them so we all could see. I've got a major thing for Turboniques. Got some ideas for a future project powered by one.

Yep, way cool model there! Y'all gotta see it in person! Good seein' ya at the show!

A tank engine in a street rod will always get me out of lurking! That's one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Nice scratching there! If I may, I want to second putting it in the back. Seems a simple in and out box could solve the trannie problem. Hook that straight into the real axle. Hmmm, maybe one of the old 2 speed rear axles, if you need to change more gears. It would look like a twisted continental kit on the rear, would fit along the theme it's taking...

It will be March 1st 2008. Email me at timkustom(at)aol(dot)com and I can send anyone a flyer.

Hey Jairus, Hope it works out for ya. If things get real bad, get this: http://salem.craigslist.org/rvs/428104045.html and go live down by the river! Just kidding, but I would like to add that one to our fleet though . Hope to see ya in Atlanta, and I'd paint that car for $150 to stay on topic...

The "quickbuild" is finished. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with it. I guess the final tally was less than 12 hrs in it over a month and a half. Still would like to do something like this over a weekend sometime. A bit of a recap: Kit is Model King 71 T-bird (duh) Wheels are from Revell 59 Corvette. Paint is Alclad "Burnt Exhaust" over Testors Black, Testors Clear Enamel. Interior is Testors "Light Ivory" with "Dark Red" trim. Don't ask what's under the hood...'cause nuthin's there . Overall a very fun build, Hope y'all like! On to the pics... Here's the WIP link... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6459

I got a new sheet of Bare Metal Foil, used a third of it last night Got a proportioning valve for the Transtar, now gotta bleed the brakes, and hope it stops.

Well folks, despite picking up crazy RV's from far away places and trying to fix the crazy RV's sitting in the yard, can you believe I've found time to work on a model? So finally the paint dried, and I had time to polish it out, and got the interior painted. Next up is foil, a bit more interior detailing, an easy final assembly and it's going on the shelf. I think I'm at only about 8hrs in it so far (over a month of elapsed time though.) Pretty pleased with it so far with it. The interior is Testors light ivory and dark red (the red is darker than the pic make it). I had the flocking leftover from the "PT Duo" project several years ago, so I used that. Gotta credit the wife for adding the red to the interior. She clipped a page out of a Crate & Barrel catalog that had a stack of towels in the same colors. When the interior was just the light ivory, it didn't really "pop" the red added a bit more personality. Hopefully will put the wraps on this before the weekend. Got one of the new Revell Mercs, might have to build that! Hope y'all like! TK

Hello all, My name is Tim Kolankiewicz, been building pretty much steady for over 25 yrs now, since I was 6 yrs old. In the last several years I've had to slow down a bit...marriage, home building, yard maintenance, vintage RV restorations, do take up some of my building time, but it's all fun though! I like building any style, mostly detailed, but will throw a simple build in every once in a while. Like going to the shows and seeing/meeting all the builders out there. Spends most of my days creating art behind silver mac for Luckie & Co. ad agency. Check it out at http://www.luckie.com/ Click "Place Order" to get the tour... No kids, too many cars to fix to feed any extra mouths, great wife that supports/contributes to the whole "car fetish" thing. And Tonio, I too play with BMX/freestyle bikes. You can see my old GT that's now going thru a minor restor now... http://public.fotki.com/timkustom/real_car...-gt-pro-freest/

Here's the follow-up of our trip to pick up the "Wooly Mammoth." You might have seen the first post about 2 weeks ago that we were going to Cheboygan, MI to pick up this "Rare & Unusual RV". Here's how we faired: The good. Even though it wasn't in a barn (it WAS in front of one), I'd call it a "barn find." The previous owners owned it since '03 and put a whopping 25 miles on it. It hadn't been tagged since '99. The interior is just mostly dusty and besides the headliner falling down and kinda old carpet (which we knew about) it is in real good shape. It has every book, receipt, and document from when it was first titled in '90. The "window" sticker was over $75K, we paid MUCH less than that! It drives great, considering...and got 10 mpg without any sort of a tuneup. Bed sleeps well, fridge works on AC so does the microwave. We got to see Mackinaw City during the 50th anniversary of the bridge and I got the shirt that says "Hell No, I didn't walk the bridge." Got to see many other sights on the 1100 mile journey home. The bad. When we pulled up and first saw it, it looked much better (and bigger) than we anticipated. But as soon as I got close, I smelled gasoline. A quick look under the hood showed the Holley carb leaking at the accelerator pump. "That MUST be fixed" went though my mind. Once the papers were signed he gave me a receipt for a battery he had bought the day before, "You might need this" he said, good sign eh? The day after the Labor Day bridge walk/sight see thing the auto parts stores were open, found an accelerator pump rebuild kit and installed that at the campsite (we brought tools) the battery receipt paid for itself as the alternator wasn't working, the rain was coming down and we found out there were sunny skies in Detroit. "I'll fix the alternator when I get to Detroit." We have family in Detroit, so we hung out with them for the day and got up early the next morning to extract the alternator. Just two plugs to disconnect and a couple of easy to access bolts and the alternator would be out "so I thought." Someone in Eldorado's design staff decided to locate the radiator about 1/4 of an inch closer to the engine than in the standard E-350 van. The long (it's about 6" long) pivot bolt could not be removed without taking out the radiator. OK, time for "plan B." Bought another battery at AutoZone, that should get us to our next stop south of Cincinatti. Once in and around Cinci, we started to see Wal-Mart. "Plan B" got in full affect, as we walked out of Wal-Mart with four new batteries. That should get us home. The ugly. Not too much to report here other than waking up Tuesday to the rain falling in Cheboygan, the previous owners were very adamant that it did not leak any water, well it does. Every cooler, bucket, and container we had on hand was used to catch it while I was rebuilding the carb. I believe they were somewhat right as it could have been how it was sitting in the campsite. We got more rain camping in Kentucky and only saw a few drips come in. It was real windy just north of Lexington, KY and while traveling on I-75 I hear a pretty loud "BANG". I look in the rear-view mirror to see if something fell over inside, then Shelley radios "the antennae is gone". The wind caught the boomerang style TV antennae and it disintegrated as it hit the side of the road. Shelley thought it was kinda funny, but was worried what could fly off it next, luckily that was it. Due to the questionable tires, brakes, belts, etc, I kept it at about 55mph just to be safe, it was good to have the "chase" vehicle behind with hazard lights on to warn the other drivers. We must have been passed over a thousand times. The "chase" vehicle was a rented Impala LTZ, we weren't really impressed with it, I think the Starfire handled better. Despite all the "issues" that came up along the way, we are real happy with it. Once fixed up (lots of nickle & dime things really) it's going to be something special. The kid at the gas station got it, some might not. But as he observed, it IS a Lincoln Coach. On to the pics... Leaving the "Tundra" of Cheboygan: Passing the old Ford Wixom plant (where the Lincolns were made that inspired the Stafire): The "Culprit" Needed this guy: Camping in Kentucky: A weary driver home: That brings a close to "Chapter 1" of this saga, I'm sure there will be many more. Hope you enjoy! TK

I guess one of the things around that is taking up all of my time is my latest obsession with "classic" motorhomes. The wife and I have had so much fun with our '82 Transtar. Here I am looking like a dork at the FL state line... Since getting it, I've been trying to gather as much info as possible about our "Rig" and any other similar units. Then I stumbled across an Eldorado Starfire. I sent the pics of one to my wife who is a Linclon Nut, and she pretty much said "we must have one." Most people have never heard of these so here's a little info about them: They are fairly rare as only 300 were made from '86-'88 by Eldorado Motor Coach and they came in two lengths 27ft & 31ft-that has a tag rear axle (rumor has it only 117 were the 27ft models). Several floorplans were offered in each. It is unique due to what they call "solid fiberglass unibody" construction, meaning the roof, sides and floor are all one piece. I'm not aware of any other motorhome that has been constructed this way. This is then mounted to Ford E-350 chassis with a 460 engine and C6 transmission. The styling was some joint venture with Ford as the grille and headlights are from a Lincoln Mark 7, complete with the "continental" on the rear. What does all this mean? Well, we had this 27ft version practically fall in our laps. I love the above pic as it sorta has the sad "rescue me" look to it. This one looks a bit better.. As you can see it needs a little TLC but the current owners say it is fit to drive and they haven't given me any reason to doubt them. So we are beginning a 1000 mile trek up to Cheboygan, MI this coming weekend to retrieve what we are calling the "Woolly Mammoth." Wish us luck...Shoot me an email at timkustom(at)aol.com if you wish if you're around our expected route (I-75 S to Cincinnati, I-71 to Louisville, I-65 back to Bham) I'm sure I'll have a good story about this one once we get back...

Thanks for all the comments folks! Just a small update. I have stayed true to the KISS method for this build. I've gotten it painted/cleared and I'm really impressed. After smoothing over the primer, it got shot with Testors flat black. Once that was set up a bit, I airbrused on 2 coats of Alclad "Jet Exhaust." It turned out to be a blackish/brownish color with a weird gold/purple pearl to it. The Alclad crazed just a touch, but it really isn't evident after I got the clear on. It's drying now so no pics yet. I wanna get it polished out and foiled first...Which I hope to do on my upcoming "recovery" mission. The interior is painted with a butterish tannish color. Considering adding another "bold" color to spice it up, still thinking on that... As it stands (painted) I've only got 4 and half hours in it, which was the total point of this build.

Yeah! Tombobo's in da house! He could get a picture of his workbench with 3,126.25 projects on it, only thing is my racetrack & some yahoo's Harley is in the way. Welcome aboard!

Great job so far, steller pics too! can't wait to see it finished.

I get pretty jealous of the guys that can crank out awesome models in such a short period of time. Often it can take me weeks even months just to "concept" out a build. I really wasn't in the mood to "Donk" this weekend so I came up with new challenge for myself: Build a cool, well built model in as little time as possible. The 1971 T-Bird kit was one of my grails for LONG time and thanks to Model King, I finally have my grubby hands on it and don't have to worry about super detailing it as it's sort of a curbside kit anyway. I didn't like how the lower bumper was molded to the chassis plate, so it needed to be cut off and molded to the body. Same thing with the rear valance pan (the rear bumper "tabs" had to be glued to the posts to make sure the chassis still fit where it should): Next these blocks had to be removed to allow it to "sit in the weeds" After adding a rod for a "quick" front axle, the wheels and tires from the Revell custom 58 Corvette fit just right... After a bit of sanding to smooth the front bumper lines and remove some emblems and side markers a quick shot of primer revealed a bit more sanding to do, but it's got the look I'm going for. Not bad for only 2 hours... After a bit more smoothing, I should be ready for some paint, thinking about experimenting with some strange Alclad finsh. Please Model Car Gods: do not make me have to scratchbuild a custom V12 SOHC motor for this... Stay tuned, Tim Kolankiewicz

Thanks Bill, Now I've heard of some alcohol being used to strip paint, but I wonder if that would work to get epoxy off of painted items. It's a pain in the butt when your doing final assembly and get some stringy epoxy all over a freshly polished model... When that does occur, I've used the "spit method". If the epoxy hasn't set yet, spit on it and rub like crazy (insert joke here), generally gets most of it. Any dullness leftover will come out with a bit of Novus...

Bill, I've was looking thru this build and it really looks great. Something you did just blew me away that I feel I need a bit more explanation about. How did you get all the epoxy of that windshield?!? You mentioned alcohol and wax, seems like to me some forms of alcohol could fog the glass. Seems like a good how-to to me, being one that uses alot of epoxy...

Sure do, here are a couple I did for the Corvair wheelstander I finished a couple of months ago. I've done this with the last two cars I built, and if you have the ability (and time) to do it, I really recommend it!

I'll play, we kinda have a fleet at the Kolankiewicz farm... My daily driver is a Black '99 Monte Carlo Z34. But I don't really have a good pic of it.. My wife's car is a Black '00 Cougar v6 with a 5 speed. Then we have the "Yellow Sub" '68 Impala (pictured with my Mom's '07 Corvette in the background). Then we have the latest aquisition "Harvey" the RV. A 1982 Champion TranStar Motorhome. We just did 4 days at the Gulf Coast in it, ran flawlessly. Then we have "Chuck" the truck. 1979 Chevy Silverado LWB. Good to have when you need to haul stuff around. (this one has Harvey in it to compare size) And we'll include this one too...my Dad doesn't want to be left out, here's his '05 GTO (from the dealership). It's tough to get them all together, would like a "true" group shot. This one's close... I guess you can say we're "Car Crazy"

Yep, seems like a "safe" combination to me...

Here is the start of my new project. As you can see, it's a pretty rough AMT '71 Pinto. At least it came with a cool box. So what's up my sleeve for this one? Next years theme for the Birmingham Classic is "Mercs & Donks" celebrating the new kit coming and this "trend" that Revell decided to tool up 7 cars for. Obviously it's not a Merc, so it's gonna be a Donk! Why a Pinto? From all the "definitions" of this style of car I've found two that stand out. First a "Donk" refers to any mid-'70s ride with a sloping tail. Think the Pinto has that covered. Next the term "Donk" refers to the Impala emblem, some say it resembles a donkey. As an Impala owner I kinda take offense to that. To me, the Pinto emblem looks more like a donkey anyway. It seems that this style of car is quite controversial. Those that like 'em REALLY like 'em, and those that despise 'em REALLY despise 'em. Well, after getting the "Custom Cadillac" Donk kit, I noticed that the wheels had the size and width that looked right and the caddie grille matched up well with the drag version hood, so this one's off and running. Guess the next step is a trip to the purple pond and get the WELL glued broken glass out of it. I'm thinking a tunnel rammed small block ford with some big velocity stacks, detailed suspension, gaudy interior with some form of "entertainment" system in it and of course a crazy paintjob. Got several themes bouncing around in my head right now, but I wanna see how this one evolves. Just so ya know, I'm a real slow builder. But I promise it will be worth the wait...8) All comments, ideas, medications welcome.

Followed this one from the beginning. Love it! Great job!

There are some jewels in here! Can I play? Big Drag with parts from the Big Rod. Y'all might have seen 'em before... Lotsa Testor's candy green and some chrome from the reissue other replating done by Little Motor Kar Co. ] And Pre-paint/chrome

Like I really need more model cars....:oops: As far a "grails" go, I've been real fortunate to get just about any of them I've "needed". The best one was a mint MPC 1968 Impala that a buddy GAVE me. He said I needed it. I just got this pair at the B-ham show. Built a '68 a long time ago, always wanted another. The '68 was sealed inside, the '69 has a slight fracture in the A piller. Got a great deal on the pair. Another recent addition that I looked about 6 yrs for is a Palmer '68 Impala. The real grail though is a Bandai 1/16th scale GT40. I have one that my Dad built BITD, I pretty much trashed it as a kid, still have all the big parts minus one wheel/tire. It would take alot of work to bring it back though. P.S. Ken, one of my grails was a AMT '28 Ford Tudor. Got a nice built up on the 'bay a couple months ago for $15. It had a typo in the title listing "28 Model A Frod"