Tom Geiger

Very cool model! I have a built '62 convertible and I do own a resin copy of the hardtop. As you mentioned I have owned a Studebaker, mine was a '63 4 door sedan, which I bought to replicate my dad's '62 4 door sedan. Unfortunately the '63 was soooo rusty, only fully understood after I stripped it down for resto, that I parted it out.

Mark, do you have a collection of models that you have already restored for your family? I understand the sentimental value since some of these were your father's. I have my collection of built models on display in my model space. My low budget display cabinet is an old china cabinet I got for free.

Cars with a story... Try something along these lines. This is a Ranchero that it's owner is driving as they restore it.

I like it the way it looks now!

What pleased me? I got a lot done around the yard and house this weekend. Yesterday I pulled a friend out of storage... My 2000 Jaguar S Type. Looked pretty good after a quick cleaning. the corner where my wife "tapped" it. Needs a left fender and bumper. Everything else is okay. And the best part! Funny thing... I pulled it out with the thought of cleaning it up to sell since it hasn't been out in a few years. Once I got into it... well, you know how that goes!

just makin' noise!

Mine came out a little different!

Wow! Somebody under 10 was given some paint and a Q-tip! Maybe it'll polish out ??

Very cool story Bill. I've been involved in eBay transactions where sellers inadvertently sent two buyers the wrong package. I remember mailing it back in one case, and mailing it to the other buyer (who mailed me mine) in the other case. The seller paid the postage. I wouldn't dream of giving a seller like that bad feedback. Stuff happens, and it's all about how they recovered. All's well that ends well. I especially like the Danbury pickups, since the vehicles are not available in scale otherwise. When Avenel Hobbies in NJ closed down, he had a few in his display case. I believe I gave him $50 each for them, perfect with boxes. 1929 Dodge, 1931 Chevrolet and 1942 Ford. I'm not thinking these will be coming out as kits anytime soon!

Very cool indeed. I like to see different ideas on tried and true classic cars. There is nothing that would keep anyone from building it in 1:1, and it would drop jaws at any car show!

The eternal advise with resin is, if you see it now and you want it, buy it now! You never know how long it will be available.

human body parts?

Those 70s and 80s kits were engineered well and went together pretty good! They had full detail engines and chassis, under hood details like washer and radiator overflow bottles, anything under the hood was in the kit! Add in kits like the Daytona, Fiero and the mini pickups too! Here's a few we did as a club challenge many years ago...

Modern TVs are sooo cheap today. They could even get a larger TV for little money. It would be worth it for them just for the improvement in the picture!

Remove that one piece of trim hanging off the front fender. Add door handle and some cool wheels. Maybe a grille... it'll probably start! LOL Great patina!

Very cool! Nice concept and clean work! I know RHD versions were sold in Australia and England. I still own a 1996 Grand Caravan with over 200,000 miles on it. The third Caravan we owned. I also have built a few of that kit in commercial trim. That kit has become rather scarce. It came out in 1996 by Lindberg. It was in a deep red plastic. The story is that they were asked by Chrysler to do a promo, note that this was the first year for this new body style, then Chrysler changed their minds leaving Lindberg holding the bag! So they issued it as a kit. And they were surprised at how well it sold. I even got a few for guys I worked with who owned them as family haulers. It was last issued by Round 2... or was it the first time they owned the molds... in white as a police vehicle. Wonder if they'll ever put it out again? It is a 23 year old car now! Even though Caravans are still sold today that pretty much reflect that style.

And I know better! I had just finished the Ardun flathead 1950 pickup! Just working too fast and not thinking. The hole at the back of the engine that was so inviting was for the fuel pump! Duh! David, I did look at photos and schemed how to do exactly what you suggested. I do have several of that kit in a plastic parts bin so I simply started a fresh engine. I will keep this one just for giggles!

Things were going so well until yesterday! I work out of my house and sometimes do a few things over the lunch hour. Yesterday I ran up to the model room and decided to wire the engine. I had a poorly done prewired distributor I figured I'd use on this project. The holes for the wires had already been drilled. The distributor had a long metal tube on the bottom. So with little thought I poked it through a hole at the back of the engine, glued it in place and positioned the wires. I felt good that I got something done. Last night I went back to the model room. I thought I could finish the engine and grabbed my instruction sheet..... do you know what I discovered? Groan! Stupid, stupid, stupid! And I do know better! Turn out the lights, walk away for the evening!

Wow! That is cool! Your car matches NNL East Staff shirts! Good luck with the new ride...

Mike, you are correct for large companies who import a lot of product. I'm sure Walmart home office is in a tizzy. In fact, back in the last century, I managed office space for Nabisco... I used find it interesting how Planters division monitored nut prices in real time. They had a situation room where they analyzed what they were paying for each type of nut that day, and the mix they would put in the cans of mixed nuts as a result. Get a jar with a lot of Brazil nuts? They were cheap that day! My point is about the model car companies... these are very small entities, handful of people. In fact I've met most of them. They don't have the resources to know much more than we do.

Many years ago when I built this one, both of the VW tail lights were formed badly, sunken in the centers. I fixed one with model putty and glued a tooth pick to the back of it. I used regular modeling clay and stamped about ten of the impressions in it. I took some clear 2 part epoxy kit (non-hobby kit) and sprayed Testors clear red into it. I then poured it into this impromptu mold and forgot about it for a week. When I returned I had about 4 copies good enough to use here!

I resize mine in Irfanview so that they are 800 pixels across. I resize after I crop the photo down to just be the subject, rather than a lot of excess space around it. That also drops the file size down tremendously. I cringe when people are sending out 3meg photos. I don't know if the photo intake on the board shrinks them down upon receipt.

In this case I kept that fur interior intact and actually cleaned and restored it. And the seat belts were period appropriate so they stayed too! It's in this old Ranchero that I restored. The body was in several pieces when a friend handed it to me in a paper lunch sack!

Brian, as I get a chance in the next few days, I will do a tutorial for you! Here's a photo showing the depth I created for the buckle end using scrap Evergreen plastic. These are in my Dodge A100 pickup. But in the meantime, here's a few other ideas.. This is the interior of my Jimmy Flintstone Dodge A100 van. I was intent on getting this one done quickly, so I used photo etched female ends, along with the ribbon I showed above. For the male end, those were cut off plastic seat belts that were in an older kit. So those buckles can be saved by simply cutting the seat belt away. Interior of my 1930 Ford pickup street rod. Another example of cutting both ends off kit seat belts. Again using the ribbon. Note that I purchased the 1/16" wide ribbon on eBay because I couldn't find it locally. Seems most places have 1/8" and wider. If indeed you wish to narrow ribbon you have, it will fray like crazy... unless... the trick is to coat the back with white glue and let it dry. Then it will cut clean with scissors. Here's an example of those old plastic seat belts that came in early kits. Today we curse them because they are the source of glue marks on seats we are trying to restore. But why not save the buckles? An early interior... 1977 Plymouth Volare front seat These were done with narrowed ribbon (using the white glue technique) and I made those buckles from scrap plastic. I have also created seat belts from masking tape. The trick is to neutralize the sticky side by spraying it with Testors Dullcote. Then you can cut the tape to the necessary width and paint it any color you wish. I hope this has helped someone!

Very cool and a great tribute to your friend. I like the first gen Fox Mustangs... we had a 1979 Capri RS with V8 and TRX suspension. It was a very cool car but Ford quality control caused us enough issues that we got rid of it after three years.