Rodent

He had end stage COPD. I had no idea he was sick.

Yeah. It's the reissued Firestone truck with the Model King Open Road Camper on Modelhaus dually wheels. I spent a bunch of time on the internet looking at period photos of the 4x4 trucks to figure out if they had manual locking hubs in '79 or were still using the old 203 full-time transfer case. AMT didn't include a transfer case lever in the kit, so I am going to have to fabricate something there too.

A member that has some on Shapeways PMed me and I ordered some from him. I will review them when I receive them. I have one of the old MPC Dodge trucks and could have copied its hubs in resin or epoxy, but I was looking for a DIFM solution this time. I am doing enough scratch building and "Imagineering" on this build anyway. Thanks for the responses. I will probably pick up one of the Blazers eventually. I have never had one.

As far as the cap color goes, the "white" is a bright refrigerator white, and the racing white is warmer looking. I haven't actually sprayed any out yet, but I expect it to be more like Ford Wimbledon White.

Search for "AMT 64 Ford" on eBay. Among the Mustangs and Thunderbirds, there is a built convertible, an incomplete but unbuilt convertible, and several of the curbside hardtops. If your friend's car is a 500, the interior is quite different from the kit's 500XL interior. The wheelcovers are somewhat different too. The XL has three "wings". Missing Link casts a sedan trans kit. I have seen that they offer the 500 wheelcover (not on their site). Maybe they would sell you just the sedan interior? It would still need to be modified and the rear seat narrowed, but it would be a better starting point for a bench seat interior than the one that comes with the hardtop.

I have seen them on "The Bay" for over $100, but sometimes less. If a curbside is OK, you could get one of the re-popped hardtops and cut the roof off. Modelhaus makes the top boot and you could scratchbuild sunvisors.

Yeah, there was an annual kit made by AMT. It was a 500XL and had working headlights. It would take a little scratchbuilding to "downgrade" it to a 500.

Does anyone make just the Warn-style locking hub that can be added to the wheel of my choice? I could swear that I have seen them somewhere. I checked "the usual suspects" and looked on the Bay, but no joy. TIA

Chris, I would like to see the Marti report too. My last Mustang was also one of a very few cars because not many dealers ordered Diamond Blue 68 coupes with 302-4v,4-speed Manuals, disc brakes, AM-FM stereo, light group, and visibility group.

Very nice Pat!

I will keep looking. I built two of these "back in the day", so the stock wheels should be in the parts box(es) somewhere. At least I found an air cleaner right where I thought it would be. Probably have 3-4 more of those too.

Jesse, IIRC, the 71 and 72 promos had the cap and trim ring wheels that you are looking for. Modelhaus has them for $8.50.

Scott, I *should* have eight of the wheels in my parts box. I just found one of them, plus the air cleaner from a '72. If I can find at least 3 more, they are yours.

I am not familiar with the '66 W-30 cars, but it is possible that power brakes weren't even available. If a cam has a lot of overlap, the engine doesn't produce enough vacuum for power brakes to work like they are supposed to. IIRC, the 1970 W-30 4-speed cars had manual brakes for that very reason.

You guys can bang the drums and wave the 'murican flag all you want, but the 2014 Focus we just bought was assembled in Wayne Michigan by UAW peeps. It has only 45% US parts. The Kentucky Toyota and Indiana Subaru have a much higher US content. Question for the economists out there: Which car supported more US jobs? What really constitutes an American car?

You mean 1988 Daytona?

Thanks for the heads-up on this. I received mine in the mail yesterday, along with some Ford brake booster/master cylinder combos. Excellent parts and excellent service! Steve

Jeremy, My LHS has a large selection of piano wire of different diameters. I you have something like that near you, just take a wheel back with you and get the correct diameter. Easier than waiting for Round2 INHO.

The 79-80 Fox Mustangs had a smaller fuel tank that was offset to the side like the one the MPC kit has. The 81s got the full-width 15.4 gallon tank, and MPC never updated the chassis to reflect it.

Not really on the road. More like rotting next to a repair shop.

One bulb in the front, in the middle of the transfer bar. Same in the rear. The battery box (on the sprue with the stock seats) went in the trunk. the lever-looking thing next to it stuck down between the chassis plate and the 1/4 panel and turned the lights on. I have never seen the Impala, but had the Galaxie convertible back in the day.

I am more of a '68 guy, but IIRC the '67 decor seats had a hard plastic back and more chrome trim. The AMT kit definitely has the deluxe / decor interior.

Pat, looks like it only has the dash. Decor seats were different too. Is the car an "A" or "B" body type? No matter, I am looking forward to this build!

White with blue stripes Ford GT. In heavy traffic. In the rain.

Not to thread crash Tulio's injury, I have my own Stephen King story. It is about plastic wrap. My mother in law had some medical issues around Thanksgiving 2011 and decided that she needed to move out of her home in Arizona and up to NorCal to be closer to us. In February 2012, I drove back down to start cleaning out her home and meet with the movers who would be bringing some of her stuff to the assisted living place she was moving to. One of the items I bought to our house was a roll of plastic wrap from Costco. It is now November 2014, and we are still using it. I swear that the wrap regenerates itself at night much like Christine healed herself. We have both cut ourselves severely on the box, and we have each broken the little toe on the right foot by dropping the box. Joan passed away in December 2012 and we are both convinced that her ghost inhabits the plastic wrap.