62rebel

replica stock would be white with red interior. kinda boring for an icon.... of all the '53 vette's i'v built i've NEVER been able to do one as STOCK!

thanks for the quick replies; very helpful info, as i saw the kits on the shelves a long time ago and never thought i'd have a use for one. a couple of current builds require some specialized trim and i'm of the opinion that decal film, even thick film is the best way to portray it.

is the Testors decal software/kit still available, and was /is it easy to use and accurate? is the decal printing paper still available? thanks in advance for what might be silly questions.

awww man, i thought you were going to leave the interior WHITE; white POPS on a big 'un like this. very slick after all!

the tread is supposed to be chunky; those are snow tires. they were last seen in the Cooter's Tow Truck from MPC and were MPC's tool, not AMT's. i have a couple pair of these stashed away... tip: shorten the deuce grille shell to match the cowl height, and narrow the front tires/wheels. otherwise LOOKING GOOD! i have a similar build with opened trunk and added interior panels, but it's buried in a box in the spare room..... with others very much like it, i love that theme, but am never satisfied with my finished product.

when i build "rods" i do them in late 40's to early early '60's style, which requires that i retain as much original design as i can. what i've done on a lot of transverse spring models is file the notch deeper into the respective crossmember and slic a little off the very top of the spring where it fits into that space. since both the notch and the spring are then unseen, it makes for a quick and simple old school lowering. my quick and dirty method! keep in mind the style of the era you're portraying and the limitations rodders had to deal with. this in no way limits your expression in your models, just helps to define it! my rather arbitrary cutoff date (mid '60's) for rods is due to what i call "show car" influence on rods at the time; lots of sano rods became gook wagons in response to trophy winning car show rods, as they "morphed" into "street rods". just my taste... no call for anyone else to follow!

dropping a straight axle was accomplished in stages, depending on how low you wanted to go, and what you could afford. some companies were selling dropped axles in the old days but they weren't cheap! what most guys had to do was drop them themselves, which meant heating the axle to a certain temperature, bending it to the new configuration, and clamping it there until it cooled. this was not a foolproof job, many axles were ruined by this method. the main spring leaf could be rearched or the spring "eyes" reversed by a spring shop. this was commonly done. the fastest, cheapest way to get the front axle low was to put the whole assembly on a "suicide" perch in front of the front crossmember. ("suicide" because if it broke while you were driving.....) IIRC, Bell Speed equipment sold the first commercially successful dropped axles and they had them in several sizes of drop. the axle itself couldn't rest directly on the frame; without a spring it would bend, or more likely, break from impacts. Allards used Ford transverse axles and springs but cut the axle in two and mounted it solidly to the frame at the inner ends. coupled with a "solid" spring, these cars had EVIL handling characteristics.... the AMT 27 t kit had a hot rod frame in it with a Bell dropped axle on a suicide perch. perhaps the recent Revell 40 fords have dropped axles?

cool; neat to see functioning models.

my second favorite kit of all time! i must have a dozen built in various styles, even one on a '57 Ford chassis. IMHO this one is SO much better than the POS flip front MPC kit, although i like the chrome bumpers and grille from the MPC kit better on my AMT 53. the MPC also has minitubs already molded on. the flathead from the truck is one of the best made, but unfortunately AMT didn't add hopup parts for it. i believe the kit was once labeled as "Goldenrod" and loosely copies a famous real-life custom.

the hardtop and sedan bodies were NOT identical at all; the roof was higher and shorter on sedans than on hardtops, and the trunks were different. it might be tough to see from pics but they are very different.

remember; a highly trained and skilled team of engineers built the Titanic, while an old man with no education built the Ark. anybody got a set of plans for that one they could spare? the Ark, not the Titanic. i'm working up drawings for a 1:1 replica of the Earth.....suggestions?

i'm no Chevy guru but they look like they could be Biscayne coupes by the length of the door, but i could be wrong. the pic looks like the dept's finest were to get the new patrol cars that year.... only three? i don't think the big Chevy ws very popular with PD's because of the severe change in handling from the previous models. then again, PD's used whatever the budget allowed for. sometimes an officer had to provide his OWN car!

egad that is cool. i remember somebody building a car from scratch to match the firestone tires from promo ashtrays! how "functional" is the trailer? working parts?

i do know that metal casters use centrifugal force to get the metal into the entire mold; this also ensures plenty of flash because molten metal will follow every path of least resistance it can find. i think that the quality of resin materials and the learning curve for finding the right mix is what makes modern resin less prone to pinholes. and over the literally hundreds of injected kits i've built, i've only encountered two that had incomplete shots in them, and luckily this was back when AMT had a parts-replacement program in place. i once used it to replace a badly warped Impala body that simply would NOT straighten. the resin casters wouldn't send you a part unless it was either the only thing they had, or couldn't do any better. my .02...

this is the first i've seen of this build and i AM impressed. keep going by all means!

i may sacrifice the two lindberg polaras i have now.... i always had a thing for concept cars! break out the styrene and the MEK..... dig up a good Hemi from the parts box... and some Halibrands... mmmmm... must... finish.. other builds... FIRST...

click your heels together and repeat three times: "At least it's not a Hawk or Palmer..." apply directly to the forehead. all kidding aside, that is great work; i love XK Jags. try making a go at the Minicraft TR3 now....

but it will probably not only have a full interior but driveline as well! gotta love that front; half the kit will be clear parts! but... what is a Cityliner and who makes the 1:1? what power unit does it really have, and where else could it be used? (talk about some expensive kitbashing)

so they eliminated the stock intake, heads, and exhaust from this issue? that's a shame, they were well done. i welcome the new Ardun heads, but realistically, not a lot of Arduns were made and of those i'd guess none went into pickups! i do remember the last issue of the kit and other than mold lines it was a rewarding and enjoyable kit to build. a new set of wheels is a welcome addition, as well as lowered suspension without having to cut things up!

you'd shudder at how many models i trashed as a kid from ruining the glass; before i learned that even tube glue spots aren't necessarily a disaster. the trick is to not panic. let the offending material dry thoroughly, so as not to smear it, and then see if it can be sanded away in progressively finer grades of paper and then polished. even bad, deep etching sometimes responds to this technique. if all else fails, try to fabricate replacement glass from acetate or clear styrene sheet. many experienced builder here do that exclusively, instead of using kit glass. as i said before, just don't panic if something goes wrong. consider every obstacle as a learning experience!

at one time there were two different sizes of caps on the quarter ounce Testors bottles... i find that Gloss paints dry out faster in my supplies; red, orange, black go quickly. it doesn't help that even when i'm not working on a particular KIT i spend time working on engines, seats, suspension parts for future projects and my paint supplies dwindle quickly then.....

i tried a pair of polar lights slicks just to see, and they were too small. i then turned the Revell slicks inside out and trimmed off the edge, then turned them right side out again. i may have trimmed a smidge too much, but at least they dont sit up on edge now. the wheel/tire design works great for the stock wheels but IMHO the slicks are a problem younger guys might not overcome happily.

of the pair of kits my wife gave me, one was the firebird from Revell; i'm very pleased with the fit of the parts and clarity of the instructions EXCEPT... which way around are the slicks supposed to go on the rear mags? so far i've tried them from both sides and there's still a pronounced difference in tread height on one side. the fronts are perfect, fit like gloves, BTW. the rest of the kit is going together well, although i get the impression that Polar Lights' engineers may have moonlighted on this one! IMHO; i may just trim the tires inside edge to make them fit better but i thought i'd ask first!

a present from me, that i don't remember buying! cool concept, and currently to satiate my plastic lust i've been working on a lindberg 53 victoria that i must have had for 5-6 years! i found it while rummaging and it wasn't halfway done, so i picked up from there in a custom vein, converting it to a 2dr sedan sort of, i know the victoria roof is WAY different, but it's just a model.

i snagged some Revell Parts Pac engines when a local hobby shop sold out, i wasn't really very happy with them due to difficulty i getting the parts to fit together well. i never had an opportunity to use AMT's versions, and look forward to getting a couple of each! i, for one, don't mind the fully chromed parts (belts aside!) because chromed engines were very popular in 50's and '60's show cars. (many show cars had "shell" engines; no working parts inside at all!)