Tom Geiger

I love the idea of a Saab 95 or 96. I owned this 96 wagon, with the Taunus V4 for awhile. You know how you know someone with a cool car and you tell them "If you ever want to get rid of it, call me!" and they never do? I came home one day to find this one in my driveway. The guy actually just gave it to me! and why not one of these 1969 era Opel Kadetts? These sold like crazy in Europe.

And in Pennsylvania, I put the roof back on the Geo Tracker in late September. Leaves are coming down at a mad rate, it's been windy this weekend so tons have fallen. Last Sunday I was able to blow off the yard into the woods, I thought if I did this as often as I could I'd avoid having leaves a foot or two deep in the yard. By Friday there were as many leaves as I had cleaned up the week before. Yesterday alone, about an equal quantity fell. Yesterday it rained and today I'm headed to a wedding so the next time I get a chance will be next Sunday. Yea, they'll be pretty deep by then

James, thanks for checking in! We're all rooting for you in your recovery. I can see how your situation can bring on stress and depression. I would pull out a model and get to work. Having something that you can control, show progress and look forward to will help your situation and attitude greatly! And check into the board every day. If you are alone, you are no longer alone with this circle of friends!

It rained all day here near Philadelphia. Dreary, chilly day in the 40s. The part that ticks me off is that I had cleared the yard of leaves last Sunday, figuring that if I blew it all into the woods every chance I got, it would be easier. Today it was raining sand I couldn't do anything about the week's worth of leaves that have covered everything. I am going to a wedding tomorrow (plus the leaves are still wet) so I won't get a chance again until next Sunday. I'll probably have leaves a foot deep by then! And it absolutely sux when it snows before you get the leaves up!

Nothing like a sale! You could get five of those cats for the price of a kitten! And cheaper than a kit yet!

Good question Ray... Back when I was shopping for my Geo Tracker in 1991, I wanted a 5 speed. I found tons of automatics on the lots. I asked one frustrated salesman and he responded it was because they were a girls car! No way to win my business.. If it's a pink Barbie Corvette... now that's undeniably a girls car. Heck, I wouldn't even borrow that to pick up pizza!

For the rust on the hood, check my example above. I use weathering chalks. You don't need name brand model weathering kits, just the artist's chalks. They sell a set called earth tones and it has colors from yellow to browns and blacks. Most modelers sand the side of the chalk sticks and dry brush the dust onto their models. That gives certain effects but also easily wears off with handling. I use a wet method where I actually paint with the dust. It involves Testors Dullcote and two brushes that you consider expendable and will dedicate to weathering. After you use them this way you won't want to try fine detail with them again! I sand the side of the sticks to get the chalk dust. Then I spray a bit of Dullcote into a small paper cup. I then use one brush (call this the wet brush) to paint a small area I intend to rust, think of it like spreading a bit of glue where you want to put down tiles in your house. Only cover the small area you will work with before it can dry. Then take your second brush (call this the dry brush), and put it into the chalk dust. Then take that dry brush and DAB IT into the wet Dullcote on your model. You don't want to paint in strokes, they would be visible. Just dab it. You can go back for more dust, you can add some more Dullcote over what you are doing, and pretty much paint that way until you have the build up you desire. It will look much different dry than wet so you will need to practice a bit before attacking your pet project. You will also need to equate which of the dust colors turn into the rust colors you desire. Sometimes I will start with a darker brown, then add orange highlights on top. There are times I'll just pick up some dust and sift it onto the wet Dullcote to get some texture. It's a skill not unlike painting water colors.

Yes, the Testors Model Master enamel will yellow. I have a pink and white '57 Ford that I clear coated the body, but not the wheels. There is now a very noticeable difference.

as others said, use toothpicks to get all the old paint out of the body seams. Assume any paint left has brake fluid in it and will cause you issues. I would also scribe all the seams with the back of a number 11 blade just to make sure everything is out.

Dave, that's a ROG kit that they're having molded in Poland. Probably a different blend of plastic than we are used to using. I'm working on a Trabant right now and it's accepted my Duplicolor gray primer and I haven't had any issues with it. And fortunately I haven't had to strip anything.

As others said, you can paint outside in the cold if you work quick. Why not just paint in the garage without a booth? Still cold, but a bit more sheltered. You could do so when nobody is home if fumes from the garage would make it into the home.

Before- My friend Howard Cohen handed me this one at NNL East one year. An old custom of the Falcon Ranchero. It was pretty busted up. See the crack on the quarter panel and the roof was smashed. Still it had some very interesting custom work that deserved to be restored.... And he she is all finished! Lots of work in this puppy since I couldn't strip the paint for fear of undoing all the custom work. Car has some odd proportions but that was the original builder's dream so I didn't dare try to change them! Here's a dusty old glue bomb I got at a club meeting for $5 including the box and all the parts. I don't believe it was ever finished. There was something about that flat green paint that got me interested... And here we are finished.... I could've easily started with a new kit since they are cheap and plentiful, but there is something to making something from nothing!

Cool model Rich! First I saw it today.

Very nice build! I have the sedan version and was hoping someone would do the right hand drive version!

Very nice work, I've been watching! I have this kit and am thinking, since it's a low end Euro model, to build a German Post Office vehicle. I have some reference photos of same in bright yellow. It will go well with my current project, the East German Trabant postal vehicle!

Dan, nice work so far. Good move transplanting the plastic nose onto the body. I've transplanted plastic roofs onto resin bodies so that I could get the glass to fit flush. Resin can be uneven. A question... did Motor City scribe this interior? The lines are no where near straight.

I think that one's nice enough to keep intact. Nice old custom work and pleasing paint job.

I don't know if the world would've been ready for the Fox Mustang back then! Even when it came out in 1979 I remember looking at the first ones and they were rather futuristic looking back then. We immediately bought a brand new Capri RS V8, which again was the wrong car for the times. We picked it up on a Friday night right in the middle of a gas crisis. NJ was on odd / even gas rationing and stations were only open for a few hours on week days. We got into the Capri and the tank was on empty. In the past dealers always gave you a full tank with a new car. The salespeople wandered around in the service area and couldn't come up with any gas at all. So we drove it home and parked it! It had an "even" plate, so we couldn't use it until Tuesday. Quite a let down for getting a new car!

and that's the kind of car I hope to buy used from one of you guys when you upgrade to the 2015! I can't help myself, my strict German upbringing won't let me pull the trigger on a brand new one. I can hear my father's voice!

Borrowed your photo... I had a 1956 Chevy and the down side of this was that sloppy attendants would get gas all over the tail lights, and as cars got older and seals shrunk gas would wind up inside the lenses. I had my car in the late 1970s and had to replace both lenses because the fuel over the years had ruined them. I believe these had cork gaskets on them too, I also remember those fillers behind the license plates... and how the spring holding the plate in place would eventually break. How many cars did we see on the road with these broken and the plates hanging down backwards? My only problem today is remembering which side my filler is on when I drive my different cars. Both my Caravan and Breeze have left side fillers and my Jaguar and Geo Tracker have right side fillers (cars designed in RHD countries)!

I don't understand the interest in these ancient paints. I admit a fascination with all things old and have a few very old cans / bottles of paint in my model display case. I believe the spray cans have long gone flat and dry, but they look cool on my shelf with my Old Kustom Kollection. I've never had an interest in trying to use any on a model today. I can see if we are trying to restore an old model for the museum and need to match the original paint, but beyond that there are so many better options today than old hobby paints.

Agreed Scott. That was part of Ford's marketing strategy all along... one of the best product placements was the Mustang on the Mary Tyler Moore show. She was the earliest career girl role model on TV and the fact she drove a new Mustang was no coincidence!

I don't believe anything is planned right now, but as the manufacturers keep surprising us with new product aimed at us baby boomers, anything is possible! It does have Revell all over it since it would fit right into their line, and onto an existing tool. But I wouldn't be surprised if Moebius swooped in with one. Ya never know! In the meantime, I understand that original kits are pricey, but maybe you could find a rebuildable car that could be combined with the Revell chassis and fitting for a car with the detail we demand today. Also check into resin bodies. Anyone doing a 1970 conversion for that Revell chassis?

I never had a problem with Mustang IIs. In fact they are the original retro car, way before retro came into style. Just look at the 1965 Mustang styling cues... instantly recognizable as a Mustang. And by the way, the original Mustang was marketed as a girls car! When I met my wife in 1978 she had a Mustang II coupe pretty much the same as the one in the above photo from Charlies Angels. Same color and vinyl top, only hers had hubcaps and a V6 automatic. It was a nice car to drive, and we took it on a few long trips. In 1979 it was traded in on a new Fox Capri with a V8. That car was a never ending problem from the day it came off the showroom floor. I would've liked to keep the Mustang II but we couldn't afford to keep it and get the new car. To add insult to injury the dealer sold it to someone who lived a few blocks from my in laws house, so we'd see it parked there every time we drove by! The first year Fox Capri was eventually traded in on a Nissan Stanza (needed our first family car) in 1982 with 34,000 troubled miles on it. For a new car we never had any confidence in driving it anywhere since it was nothing but trouble.

Like most bad jokes, modify the participants to match your situation!