62rebel

i love those custom tonneau covers; i used to lop off the roof on any (!) kind of car to put that "bonneville" look to it. love a bubbletop kit too; but usually section the bubble down to make a roadster out of it. man i need to get a digital camera... i have two different predicta models and club de mer restyled my way; i transplanted the custom grille and bumper from the AMT 56 victoria onto the predictas and smoothed over the club de mer adding rollbar/headrests from another kit. the predicta always looked mooshed down at the front; giving it a wide open grille mouth made it look more "sharkish". that custom grille must have been used on a real 1:1 car, but i've never seen it in any books or magazines. i wonder who built the real thing?

while Zeb's dialect may be .... eclectic.... it beats the heck out of urbanized text-english. i'm a born backwoods Va boy myself and was raised among well-educated although country folk, and reading Zeb's prose is almost like sitting in on a gathering of uncles from home (most of whom held doctorates in education) while they discussed their collective past. one uncle made it clear to me as a young fellow that you could have an education and still not be able to communicate.

using that door edge technique would have saved many a revell 55-57 chevy kit from frustration destruction back when they were the best detailed version available... and re-hinging the doors themselves. i feel motivated to dig up my 49 ford kit and finish it; the doors, hood, and trunk are hinged on it. thanks for sharing your progress, Bill, and i look forward to more.

ooooh... i had one of those cutlass tonneau covers..... used it on a GTO! it was in a huge box of junk kits a buddy gave me at "A" school in Great Lakes. loads of cool old stuff i worked through for literally years. might still have one or two bits and pieces... that fairlane is posing as a meteor by the way... punish him, errol.

what are your plans for the interior? i have a suggestion, if you have an AMT avanti kit in your parts stash: those little bucket seats and the rear seats, painted to simulate leather in your choice of color. i used them in my 28 sedan and think they look the part without looking all "puffy" like the stock seats do. i dig the SCOT too; finding something appropriate to build one into is my problem. also digging those wheels and tires. cool so far!

that's the one i wish they'd reissue; loads of extra parts and well detailed to boot. you have got a great build going, and i learned something about this type of kit from your photos; don't assemble the bed before painting! i've always stumbled through stepside builds with painting the bed! in the immortal words of homer; "D'oh!" i shoulda thought of that. again, love the concept and the execution!

c'mon, zeb! how often did AMT hit the "real world" mark? and i'm a BIG fan of theirs....LOL! lots of possibilities with this kit; maybe a replica East Africa Safari kit? there's a full copy of Hot Rod's three part article on the mercury comet rally cars on the web (heck; i forget where; but it's out there, trust me) with some grainy photos but lots of technical detail in the text.

aaaaaaah (as i remove foot from mouth...) POP! the LHS hasn't gotten any model king issues; i gotta travel for those or mailorder.

So it's not the old boondocker? dang; that was a great kit.

the original mpc kit can be upgraded using the newer AMT Charger kit; but there are some areas that need tweeking first. the windshield from the gtx needs to be trimmed down so that the built chassis platform will fit into the body and the rear bumper needs to be trimmed to clear the frame also. sorry no precise measurements; pretty much eyeball engineering on my part. the old kit platform and engine are pretty much ######; only good for starting a curbside IMHO. i built mine to replicate my uncle's last car as much as possible, considering his was a satellite sebring and not the gtx. the AMT Charger kit has loads of great detail parts in case the Charger itself isn't interesting to you (i don't like the design of it myself) so it is a gold mine for mopar builders looking for alternative parts.

I don't have the tech to scan/send pics but a lot of good reference material for you in Rod and Custom and Ol' Skool rodz; tex smith's book the history of hotrodding, and all over hot rod sites. the kit you have is a fiddly one; takes a lot of patience but is very rewarding. i have it chopped and channelled over stock frame with the lowered front axle and the steel wheels. i put the seats from a studebaker avanti in it, painted to resemble red leather, and a dash from an AMT 40 sedan delivery narrowed appropriately. it has an AMT cadillac v8 from the 49 ford coupe kit, with parts box extras. keeping the driveway build look, it is brush painted gloss black. i need a digital camera..... i built it alongside the reissued 29 pickup kit; the pickup got more conventional '60's custom/rod treatment. the sedan kit is really easy to chop and channel if you decide to go that route.

i think 200mph cars and teenagers are another type of Darwins' Law.... driver's licenses need badly to be graduated per German custom. it's just too easy to be granted a license to drive here; given the speed levels of most new cars and the abhorrent driving habits, it's a wonder our fatality level doesn't go through the roof. and if i could have seen the pics i'd probably have been very amused; my server still keeps them closed regardless of settings. mmmmmph.

the quarters were either fixed-in-place or flipout, weren't they... i should have remembered that from uncle George's car. one other thing i noticed about this kit is the thickness of the bodyshell; it seems app. 1/3 thicker than "normal" kits. this is not a gripe, however; the added material seems to strengthen the "A" pillars greatly and keep warpage down. i've often bemoaned weak "A" pillars on kits; especially older issue AMT/MPC annual kits like camaros and mustangs. i'm still working through my duster yet; scrounged the 426 hemi from AMT 68 roadrunner reissue, and haven't decided what wheels to use yet; the interior is done in white simu-vinyl with black "carpet" a la pure '70's, so a set of cragar S/S mags may get the nod.

actually, Bill; i'm relieved that the new minibus didn't make it; we have enough on our plates with existing teething problems. another new line would simply exponentialize it. i DO believe corporate messed up very badly when discontinuing all production of the aircooled beetle. the transporter is still being made, although watercooled, and is a stalwart fixture in south america. i'm hardcore on aircooled VW; the best we ever did IMHO; everything else is runner up. non-syncro 1st? sure. seeing your breath freeze on the windshield on cold days? sure. being reasonably sure that nothing (NOTHING) would stop one from running like a bad O2 sensor or such... priceless. how about being able not only to carry all the tools you need to repair it, but a good portion of spare parts and tune-up needs under the rear seat driver's side? you'd need a 48' fruehauf to support a new car like that! what kills them? lack of cruising speed; stock top speed about 65, and that's pushing it hard. they always needed a 5th gear but never got it.

Gosh; Bill; i WORK for VW and hadn't heard about this!? gee.... but it still won't be a return of der boxermotor with frequent valve adjustments and leaky pushrod tubes!

could you post some more pics of that custom? looks very interesting in the one shot you sent. welcome aboard!

I think i have those fender fillers in one of my parts stash boxes; along with the grille filler piece. if you need them to build your 37 let me know; i'll dig 'em up for you.

WELL; IT WAS NICE WHILE IT LASTED. ONE, TWO, THREE! EVERYBODY SHIFT RIGHT ONE SPACE! BLOODY WELL DONE. CARRY ON.

you need to find article on the rod and custom dream truck; i think mark gustavson was the mastermind on that model. i may of course be wrong and plenty of folks here would know who did it. the 50 chevy is a great starting point for a custom because nothing looks right on it stock! anything you do is an improvement. getting the front down and slimming the profile help a lot; losing the running boards and lowering the nose by taking a pie cut will bring it into line too. the bed is the falling down point on any pickup; some are terribly difficult to work with unless you go for full custom non-functional design. the '60 frame is inspired thinking; it had not occurred to me to use it under the 50 cab. keep us posted!

Yeah, finding out about that "border crossing fee" kinda blew what little mind i have left. i'm just hoping the timely delivery of the mail isn't deterrred by sleet snow dark of night etc!

IIRC; the AMT 53 ford flipnose f100 has M/T valve covers on a blown 427.

what kind of racing car are you building, Z? perhaps Jaffa's suggestion is workable; all you need then is a representation of a caliper, and you could laminate them from styrene, carve to profile, and paint. two thin plain washers, one flattened star washer to go between them to simulate cooling fins, you might drill cooling holes too; how's that?

we've accumulated quite a collection of Canadians! which leads me to another question; sending parts to and from the great white north! i sent a set of tires to a member in Nova Scotia by the Mail 1st class postage because i priced UPS to do it and they wanted 16 dollars! Is this something we deal with everyday? perhaps someone who lives close enough to the border could act as a blind box and carry these items to a Canadian Post Office? it would be a matter of that person trusting us to send only model car parts, and i could see some hesitation given these days and times. hmmf; 16 bucks to send 4 little vinyl tires.... yeeeeesh.

i pondered on this a little, and wondered about drilling the holes on the heads before assembling them to the block; feeding the wire through two holes at a time in a loop, and putting a drop of CA glue on to hold it in place. my thinking being twofold; one being to get the wire end at the correct angle, and two to have it securely bonded in place. it would make it somewhat more difficult to paint and final assemble the distributor but i haven't actually tried it yet. just an idea. has it's one pro and several cons, but next time i do wires i'm trying it.

that was a good point to bring up! a lot of unneccessarily ill feeling comes up due to increased expectations from the inexperienced. we might be a little jaded and don't mind waiting for stuff to arrive but new builders who've not had knowledge of the operating situations of some vendors may find it difficult to wait weeks for a part. i feel it is better to direct them to the tips and tricks forum for the wide array of great ideas shared there.