CorvairJim

Thanks for the compliment, Charlie. Coming from you, I take it as high praise indeed! I think it was the cross-brand/cross-type paint interaction too. I know better than to put a lacquer topcoat over an enamel base. A rookie mistake if I ever made one. Since I've never gotten around to investing in an airbrush and money is too tight at the moment to even consider it now, I'll have to go with the Glosscote. I've worked with it before. It's not my favorite stuff, but I generally don't get too much orange peel if I heat it before I spray the final wet coats until it's almost hot enough to burst the spray can! With the new, later deadline, I may just have to (re)build a couple more early Corvairs for this thing. Since the kits were all curbsides, there isn't all that much detail that I have to attend to other than the body and interior... unless I go slightly crazy and decide to cut the engine lid open and slip an engine into one of 'em, that is! I have a '64 Monza Spyder that some kid "Convertible-ized" back in the day that I've been planning to build as a replica of a friend's 1:1 car for a couple of years. Now may be the time. I might even post a couple of pictures of the actual car for comparison purposes

My thoughts exactly: Something vaguely menacing, very shiny, and VERY dark windows. If the builder wanted to update the theme, how about a Chrysler 300? My other thought would be the old AMT '70 Ford Custom 500, but fully blacked out, bootlegger-style. I have to agree with your basic premise though - Early to mid 1960's, and mid-to-high line.

Go for it, buddy! As far as I'm concerned, as long as you didn't buy the basic "kit" at the local used car dealership and have to sign the title, it qualifies!

Thanks for the compliment! I actually built this one probably about 15 years ago, and I still need to get the right size tires onto it. At least I put a decent looking license plate on it after this shot was taken - a computer-generated replica of the actual plate instead of my hand painted one. The roof was from the AMT '66 Mustang. I smoothed out the ridge around the rear window and narrowed it a couple of scale inches. Then it was just a fairly straightforward matter of blending the curvature of the Mustang roof to match the Corvair roof section that I had left up front just for that purpose, cutting in the right windowline for the door glass and adding the drip molding. The hard part was preserving the detail of the air intake at the base of the rear window, since I kept the entire perimeter of the rear window to preserve the reveal molding. Lots of patience with a rattail file and fine sandpaper around a metal axle shaft helped.I think I may have had nearly as much time in converting the dressy, bucket seat Monza interior to the bare-bones, bench seat 500 Series interior as I had in the body!

Darn it, you beat me to it! I checked the cars from the 1991 releases, figuring some of them might show a 1990 casting date and I came up with this image, also identified as the "Street Beast": http://images.wikia.com/hotwheels/images/4/40/Street_Beast_WhtTrq.JPG

Setback City! I had let the color coats on my '60 Corvair set up for a couple of weeks and shot the clearcoat this evening... and for the first time, the clear reacted with the color coat. Maybe it's because I generally use autpmptive touch-up spray cans instead of the Testor's I used on this one, but the Dupli-Color Ermine White roof still looks great while the Testor's Model Master Turquoise is, well, completely trashed. It looks like it was shot with crackle finish paint! Back to square one - Into the Simple Green "dunk tank" with it. I just hope it doesn't screw up the body repairs I had to do on it! (4/28, 5:20 PM - In an addendum to last night's post above, when I looked at it earlier today it didn't look as bad as it did at first. It's still bad, but I want to try to wet sand and polish out the damaged areas before I do anything drastic with it like completely stripping it and starting over on what was otherwise a pretty decent paint job.)

I don't listen to it at all myself, so I know nothing about it except that too many people in my area like to ride around with it blasting at full volume - sometimes in the middle of the night! Best of luck with your CBP, and I'll check in on it from time to time just ot see whatyou and the other guys can come up with.

Thanks for the props, Kevin! I just had to play with the ride height a little and slap on those Cragars, just to be different. I've never been one to leave well enough alone! I'm still thinking about making up a set of the world's longest Lakes Pipes for it...

Well Aaron, much as I'd like to return the favor and join in with your CBP, I'm just not into this type of music.

Kevin: You're in with the hearse... I gotta agree with Rob: That was one SERIOUSLY funny video! I built a similar model about 5 years ago because my younger brother is into hearses. Either version of the "Ecto 1" (AMT or Polar Lights) would be a great starting point. I found the P.L. to be kind of crude because 1) it's a curbside and 2), the grille detail isn't as good as I'd want for a show-quality build. Check out this photo of a 1:1 '59 Caddy Hearse, taken from the filming of the movie "Harold & Maude" This is the car I based my model on: I woluldn't be surprised if it was this car that the animators of the video used as well. This is how my model turned out. I call her "Elvira":

Fun way to kill a few minutes... It could have been tougher, though. I had to think about the various Mopars for a minute, but that's about it. 100%.

Very cool build, Chuck! You need to bring this one over to Motortopia and show it off there too.

Hey, I mostly build Corvairs, and they all came from the factory with 6-cylinder power. Here's a few of them... I'll start off with my "Phantom" 1967 Yenko Stinger Stage III convertible. Don Yenko only built Stinger coupes in '67, but he did build about 5 convertibles in 1966. Next is my replica of a 1966 Corvair 500 Series Sport Sedan that I owned back in the mid-1980's. I converted it from a 1969 Monza Sport Coupe. Finally, there's my "Junkyard Refugee", a 1966 annual that I got as a glue bomb. It would have taken a lot of work to restore this bad boy, but I like doing things differently. Besides, I'm a firm believer in the old Modeler's adage "Anyone can build a rare model, but it takes a real MAN to cut one up"! Anyhow, on to the happy snaps:

A good friend of mine has recently completed both the Trans Am and the Tractor/Trailer from the first "Smokey and The Bandit" film, and he's looking for the Pntiac LeMans Police car that Sheriff Buford T. Justice drove in the movie. Even the Bonneville from the second movie would be good. My question: Have either of these cars ever been done in resin? Decals would be a good thing too, of course. Bodies or transkits, either way...

Two things tell me that it's a model: 1) The unevenly scuffed tire treads, particularly in front 2) The thickness of the sun visor's "metal" as seen in the holes - it looks too thick for a real steel visor to me. (But I could be wrong... )

Something you'll want to look into - The 1:1 1970 Impala convertible used the nearly flat Sport Coupe trunk lid, not the one from the Custom Coupe. Check out the images on these web pages: http://mecum.com/auc...od=051608123500 http://image.nettiauto.com/extra/carimg/3475601_3475700/chevrolet-impala-3475607_b_52d3c27ebd1e065a.jpg No criticism intended, I just thought you'd want to know before you shot the color on it!

While I'm not an expert on Hot Wheels cars, I do know that they generally have the car's name on the chassis plate. If it's based on a real car, it will tell you (or some variation on the theme; for instance, their recent mid-engine V-8-powered Corvair that they called the "Vairy 8"). Therefore, see what it says on the chassis. If it's some off-the-wall name, the car is just the figment of some Hot Wheels designer's imagination... with lots of 1950's show car styling cues.

Oops... Sorry, buddy!

Sean: Dale would certainly approve of your memorial display... and so do I.

Good questions, Niko, and I'll do my best to answer them. The 1966 Yenko Stinger Corvair was based on the Corsa version of the car, while the subsequent 1967 and '69 models were Monza-based due to the discontinuation of the Corsa following the 1966 model year. These cars were meant as all-out sports cars, as opposed to the later Yenko cars being straight-line oriented. The Stinger engine was a modified Corvair air-cooled, horizontally-opposed 6-cylinder, producing 160, 190, 220, 240, or 250 h.p., depending on state of tune. (The highest-performance model, "Stage V", was too heavily modified for SCCA competition). My model represents the 240 h.p. "Stage IV", the model of Stinger constructed for D-production racing. In all but the "Stage I" Stinger, the suspension was heavily modified for all-out handling, being lowered about 1 1/2 inches all around and riding on firmer springs and shocks. The factory 13" steel wheels were widened from 5" to 7", and the car rode on wider tires. All Stingers had dual master cylinders, the first such use on any GM product from the factory. The cars were lightened by removing the back seat and covering the area with a thin sheet of black-painted plywood. The bumpers and all exterior trim (with the exception of window reveals and drip rail moldings) were removed too, and no Stingers left Yenko's shop with radios. All 1966 Stingers left Yenko's Cannonsburg dealership painted white with blue stripes, although the pattern varied slightly from car to car due to the limited timeframe Yenko had to work with. The boys in the paint shop just weren't all that particular when they had to get three or four cars out the door per day! The SCCA mandated that all cars eligible for competition for the 1966 season had to be homologated (at least 100 examples built) by January 31, 1966, and Yenko had only taken delivery of the first dozen cars from Chevrolet by the end of 1965! White with blue stripes were the official American racing colors as set forth by the FIA, the world racing sanctioning organization, back in the 1920's. In 1967, Yenko reversed the colors, painting the cars blue with white stripes, with the exception of two examples that were red with white stripes. I'll see if I can hunt down some photos of the 1:1 cars in each color scheme and post them here to show what they looked like. I already have some pics of my phantom 1967 Stinger convertible model posted in an album on here, but I can post some shots of it in this forum too to make it easier for you to see them if you like. I'm far from being an authority on Yenko Sportscars in general, but I'm not familiar with a mid-1970's Monza-based Yenko product. Subsequent to the Stinger, all I can think of offhand are the 1968 and '69 sYc Camaros, the 1969 sYc Chevelles and Novas, the 1970 small block-powered Yenko Deuce Nova the small block-powered Stinger II Vega, and the 1980 "Yenko Turbo Z" Camaro.

This is my Polar Lights Ecto 1-based 1959 Caddy Fleetwood/S&S Hearse, based loosely on the car in the movie "Harold & Maude". I lowered the front suspension, swapped the rolling stock for different gangster whites that would fit parts box Cragar S/S wheels, and chromed the taillight pods as used on the '59 Eldorado.

I'll join in with a few of mine. First is my take on the Alternomad: AMT '65 Chevelle Malibu, with Monogram Z-16 driverrain, wheels/tires, and interior. Notice 3rd seat, which Chevy didn't offer!: Polar Lights Ecto 1 '59 Cadillac Ambulance/S&S Hearse (From the movie "Harold & Maude", but with a lowered suspension, Cragar S/S wheels, and Eldorado taillight pods): I've always been a fan of wagons, and I have several more in the works!

First off, Thanks for the props! It always feels great when my work is appreciated (I'm a Postal Worker, so I never get any appreciation at work!). AMT reissued the 1969 annual a few years ago with some missing stock parts returned to the kit (even a convertible top boot!) - I think it was about 2004 or so - and I bought several cases of them then. I eventually want to have one of each year and body style of Yenko Stinger on my shelf, each based on a rebuilt annual model. Don Yenko built approx. 105 of them in 1966 (100 coupes and 5 convertibles), another 10 coupes in 1967, and one coupe as a special order from Goodyear Tire and Rubber for tire testing purposes in 1969. The first one I built was a phantom 1967 convertible! The colors on this model are as close as possible to what were on the real 1966 Stingers but I decided to make the stripe about twice the width as on the actual car because I wanted a bolder look for it. Many of these cars were modified both mechanically and cosmetically from what Yenko produced before they ever turned a wheel on the racetrack. If you decide you can't live without a Corvair kit to bulid, let me know and I might be persuaded to let one go. However, they do show up pretty frequently on eBay at reasonable prices.