futurattraction

I think I've run out of adjectives... Wow!

Thanks Tony... I appreciate it! SP

Absolutely! As the others have said, there can't really be too many door hinge how-tos.

Nice build, as usual, Tyrone... What have you got up your sleeve for new projects? Scott

Thanks guys. I'll keep plugging away!

Hey guys. I made some progress on the front frame rail section of the Fairmont today. I hadn’t spent much time on it recently for a number of reasons. I included Scale Hardware .8mm threaded brass bolts, nuts and washers on all the mounting points. I’ll be holding my breath when it comes to molding it because the lower A-arms aren’t parallel to the frame rails, so will have to be clayed up. I don’t like claying b/c I’m no good at it… The engine isn’t setting down in the chassis where it should b/c I’ve got a reinforcing bar that runs between the A-arm mounts, but the ride height is where I think it should be, the spindles are parallel to the ground. Everything looks square and level as best I can determine.

This is just really looking fantastic, Jeff. I was sort of shocked when I saw you chopping this up when you changed horsepower in the middle of the stream, but the transformation your body has undergone is nothing short of amazing. It really has the lines of a current pro mod car, but you're successfully carrying off the underlying '69 Chevelle theme/appearance. I'm super-impressed!

I can't get over how great your build looks so far, Jeff. Keep up the great work! If I might ask, how are you going to "snap" your tubs in place. Curiosity's got the best of me on that one! Scott

That looks super, Chris, in every sense of the word. Its simplicity, detail, attitude, paint color and application, decals have all been executed flawlessly. It's got the whole nine yards. I don't know how you could make it any nicer!

All of your body mods are looking really, really great. The stretch job both in front of and behind the front wheel openings gives it an entirely new feel to it. It's coming along fantastic! Love it. Something too, I just noticed, your wheel change in the last pic really accentuates the body mods to me.

Here's a few updated mockup pics of progress I made on the 4-link bracket install in the chassis.

Beautiful work, Eric. You can be really proud of how that project turned out... Oops! I meant Tony!!! Scott

Thanks for your suggestions and replies, guys. I appreciate your help. I've contacted a couple of those folks, so now I'll see what I hear back from them... Thanks for your compliment/encouragement re my Fairmont, LDO. Scott

Hi, I'd like to get get a handful of parts machined out of aluminum that will ultimately be use as masters for resin pieces. Does anybody have any suggestions as to who some good candidates might be? Please let me know if you do. Thanks. Scott

That's a very clean body. What color of blue is that? Nice job!!!

How about Comet-ose (comatose), w/ or w/out the hyphen...

Our kitty doesn't spend lots of time in my model room, but she occasionally comes down and spends some time on my lap while I'm working on something. Her name is Isabel (Izzy). She's been known to get into trouble on occasion, mostly by jumping up on cabinets or shelving units where I'd just as soon that she not be. In her defense, I don't think she's ever broken anything. She's going on 17 years old and her kidneys are failing, so I wanted to post this pic of her while we still have her around. We don't have any "natural" children, so she's been our baby since we adopted her 16+ years ago. It's gonna be really, really tough when we lose her... Scott

Bradley, I've had you on my list for a long, long time. Eric and Jeff, I've added you to it... Scott

I'd be okay with an open-ended date, though the concern over people never finishing projects is a valid point. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, there'll be a few more 'Monts out there for guys to work with...

Wow! What work, Brad. That will look great when you're all finished with it. I was meaning to post a comment about some of your work, way early in the thread. I really loved what you were doing with your revised K-member work that one of your kitties ended up getting ahold of. That was really wonderful attention to detail that I would have totally overlooked if I were building it myself. But your work inspired me to keep that sort of factory stock detail in mind when working on the not-so-visible parts... Great job! Scott

Hey Brad, When I designed my PE parts, I had/have the intention of marketing them, hopefully sooner rather than later. The 4-link stuff, I actually drew up so there are simulated rod ends and spacers as part of the kit. Three spacers sandwiched either side of the "rod end" are intended to "widen" the rod ends so they're more to scale (.040" thickness) and to space the brackets apart the same amount. I haven't fitted a whole set together yet, but IF my plan works, a guy might be able to get by without having to purchase as much RBM stuff. Not saying it's as nice as Robert's - it isn't, just saying it would make the PE setup more affordable (still need nuts/bolt pins)... Scott

Thanks for your responses Brad and Jeff. A couple more pics I can share of mockups of parts and pieces. It's taken me a whole lot longer to get the rearend molding done than I'd planned, but that's par for the course... I originally built a brass forward frame rail section for this as a master because of its less flexible nature for molding. Unfortunately, my plan to build to scale sort of backfired this time because the RB Motion rod end shafts were flimsy enough when cast in resin I think I'd be asking for trouble trying to reproduce them, sooo I'm building a new front frame rail using a combo of .080 styrene, PE chassis/suspension tabs I made made up and some heavier RBM rod ends, among other things. I've just gotten started on cutting the lower control arm mounts into the styrene, but you can see what I'm doing. To make the styrene frame for stable, I'm going to incorporate one or two cast-in-place removable structural ties. I think that'll do the trick. Another recipient of some PE pieces I had made up was for a strut front end I'm working on and hoping to eventually sell when I get my website up. The strut consists of a resin strut housing with aluminum tube liner, PE caliper bracket and hardware and resin pistons housings. This isn't a great shot but at least shows the direction I'm hoping to go with it. The strut also incorporates PE lower spring adjusters, SS piston shaft and PE upper spring retainer. Jumping to the rear of the car, this is what a partial mockup of the braced 9-inch will look like with PE caliper brackets and rotors and resin calipers. This shot shows the PE 4-link brackets I've gotten produced and will be using on this build. They're designed to work on the Revell rearend housing, but I'm going to use them on my home-grown housing because I want the extra brake detail. Coil-over shocks will also be in the works eventually.

Thanks for the welcome, Brad. When I look back on how long this project has taken, I wonder why/how it could have taken so long. There are reasons, and they all make sense to me, even if not to anyone else. Someday I may try to recount it all somewhere so folks have an idea of what has gone into this project besides what's been seen on the forums where I've shared pics of it. The explanations I can readily give, at this moment, are that I do have a life outside of modeling, I have a regular 40-hour/wk job, and a verse in the Bible says, "whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not to man", which to me means, if I'm gonna do this, I want to do it right - so, yes, I've been caught up in the many details of this body, especially since I own a 1:1 Fairmont with a Cleveland in it. In the meantime, I'm just glad that it feels like things are really moving along. Scott

Since I had to start from scratch on the other forum, I couldn't use this engine, but it’is representative of what I'll be building. The block has lots of extra detail that are unique to the 351 Cleveland. I added separate exhaust port plates, reworked the Dominators from a set that came out of the Johan Maverick, Moroso valve covers were scratch built, including getting the Moroso script photo etched so I'd have something uniform to work with. Cylinder heads have been detailed on their end surfaces. The tunnel ram began life as a FireFighter intake, but there’is literally nothing of that intake that remains. The end rails were reshaped, the runners built up and widened considerably, plenum totally rebuilt. The pan was scratch built. The headers started life on the Larry Morgan Olds and were a perfect fit for my Cleveland, but the center primaries didn't contact the heads, so I'm in the process of reworking them. The Lenco started life in a Glidden kit, and was modified to incorporate shifter towers where the detent levers locate. I’ve also gotten a bunch of PE pieces made up to use with this trans, i.e., hand levers and detent and reverser levers and mount. The activation rods are SS tubing. I don’t have a rear end housing actually read to put in the car, but am in the process of modifying the one I have built, by adding a heavier back brace on it. I’m molding it now, so hopefully it won’t be too long before I’ll have one more piece of the puzzle. In the meantime, these PE rotors and caliper brackets and resin hats and calipers will go on it when all is said and done. More later.

Mind if I play? I’ve made significant progress on my Fairmont pro stocker after considerable time and effort. I’m to the point I can finally get down to building one, as envisioned over the past 2-3 years. I don’t have all of the pieces done, but the significant ones are shaping up nicely. Anyway I began this build for another forum competition the middle of January. The rules there were to start fresh. I’m gonna have to play catch up, so here goes… The body I’m using has a few minor blemishes. Shawn, who is the guy I’m working with and is doing the actual molding and casting of the body, is reworking those few things, but I got three bodies to play around with. Here are a couple pics of the body, as received I got the window bracing and blanks removed and the openings cleaned up, then proceeded to remove most of the engine compartment blank. I decided to leave the edges next to the fenders to provide a ledge for the hood to rest on, and I’ve at least temporarily retained the core support blank, in case I decide to add tin work up in the nose. More to come…