Tom Geiger

Thanks Rob I will have to look into his work. Blue Highways was recommended to me by Dean Milano. I believe he wrote a song about it. BTW- I've always wanted to write the great American novel. I'm about two chapters into an interesting tale. Don't know how this will work out, or if it will be another of my unfinished projects... like half my models!

Agreed! It's beyond me how folks can point a camera at something... and miss!

Cool responses. Tony, do you know the title of the book about the Chrysler Turbines? That sounds like a good read. And that was my intent of this thread, to share some book info in the hope of getting some good recommendations. My current read? River Horse - William Least Heat Moon. This is a follow up to the book in my first post, Blue HIghways, which was about his travels around the USA in an old Ford van. In River Horse, he is attempting to travel the length of the country, from New Jersey / New York Harbor across the entire country on inland water routes. I'm only a few chapters in so far, but it's his same eloquent writing style that kept me riveted to the last book!

Wow! That came out nice. I build pickups and haven't built that one yet. I guess I should!

There is an active modeling community in the Denver area so I'm sure someone will pipe in with info for you. Joining a club is great because you will learn a great deal and have friends with similar interests. I live in PA and NJ but used to work with a company in Thornton many years ago. I enjoyed my one week every quarter! Great area!

I have replaced the fabric belts with masking tape that you can cut the width to your needs. First take the tape and spray the sticky side with Testors Dullcote. That will neutralize the glue, then you just have nice material to work with. Then paint both sides the color you require. Tape the tape down and use a straight edge to cut it to the width you need. It's thinner than the material so it should fit through your photo etch fittings.

Nicely done!

A bit off topic but interesting. I was cleaning out my inlaws house that is sold. On the back of a closet shelf I found this box. Seems someone got this camera for a gift around 1976 (the date on the paperwork in the box) and never used it. So here it is mint in the box! It's still sitting on the display base in the box. I have a small collection of vintage cameras that my father left me that go back to the early 20th century. I've added a few of my own since, my first 1968 Polaroid Swinger and my Sony Mavica, first digital camera. So this one will look good on the shelf too!

Folks who know me know my Olde Kustom Kollection that preserves and restores old custom models done back in the day. They get put back to the way they were when new, never improved or changed. So here's the latest addition.... I have a bunch of old custom Rancheros done by modelers back in the day. I get offered more all the time, and I've sworn I won't add more to the collection unless there is something significant about them... then I saw this one on the 'bay and hit that "Buy It Now" button as a reflex action! This is just a neatly built custom from the way back machine. It uses the elements that were in the 1962 customizing kit. It's been well preserved and had all of the mountables that are usually missing. You know, the spots and mirrors. One mirror came off in transit, and it's already glued back on. Rear view shows the kit's custom tail lights, roll pan and bed rails. Some of the chrome pieces had worn chrome, so I hit them with a little Alclad on a brush just to give them back their color. Most interesting, the original bed cover was with the kit. I only see these when they're glued down. This one was never glued, but hung on for 50 years! Top view shows the mirror that was knocked off in transit. It's since been glued back, the only work that was needed to put this beauty on the shelf! Side view shows the kit's full skirts. No worries, I'm not planning on taking them off. Interior is all black fabric, possibly velvet. I can see it better in this photo than in person so it needs a bit of vacuuming. I'll have to see if it comes apart easily with the chassis screws. Note that our original builder did a neat job detailing out the dashboard. So why was this one attractive to me? Aside from the outstanding preservation and the right price ($19.95), it reminded me a whole lot of my recent total resto project Ranchero shown here with it. So I just needed to have it. Oh, there's always room for one more on the shelf!

I agree. I did the contest thing back in the 1990s and now I build what I want for my shelf without thinking about what anyone else thinks. I believe that the cutting edge of contest building as long passed me by, but I've gotten to a level of building that pleases me. And that's all that counts! In fact, I've taken a building detour towards restoring old customs built in the early 1960s. As I repair them, my only goal is to restore them back to what they were then, and not to improve them any. It's fun to bring these back, without the worries. If you follow along on the build threads, the tips and techniques, you will find yourself building better models.

I try not to think about my models as an investment. True, many of them are worth many times what I paid for them, but I still won't hesitate to build one if I have the urge. Also, with all the reissues of ancient tools, and the likelihood that more will surface, I don't want to be 'invested' in kits. Sealed or unsealed doesn't matter to me. Frankly I'd rather have unsealed because sealed kits can be incomplete, be warped or have other imperfections like tires that have melted bodies, glass or decals. Also, I like to see and touch the kit contents! For built models... I'd rather have a model I built myself on my shelf as first choice. If I see a model that I think is very cool, I will buy it if it's reasonable. I also have a few models built by friends and some that have passed on. I treasure those. I also have The Olde Kustom Kollection, of old customs built in the early 1960s. I collect and restore these as the folk art of our youth!

Sorry to hear about your mom Terry! You've had your share of crud for this year. I think 2013 has been bad overall. We lost my father in law, put my mother in law in the nursing home and have been dealing with selling their house. It would be closed by now, but the VA mortgage has been delayed by the darn government shut down. I haven't worked at all this year either, and the job market stinks due to the economy and unsettled economy. I sure hope things get better for everyone!

I had a stock 1973 Barracuda with a 318 that was lousy in snow. I think that was just a characteristic of that body style.

Welcome Milt! Keep reading and you will soon discover that a lot of the things we do don't require a bunch of artistic talent, but are just things you hadn't thought of on your own. Your models will improve 100x with the help of this group, so if you have questions, ask away!

my glass is a leaky paper cup!

And what size a truck is that? Is it based on the full size Ram or the smaller Dakota?

And I love the tail light treatment! LOL I like things I haven't seen done a million times before.

He says that right after he's baited people into near killing one another on stage!

No words for those! And both from the same owner.

Just reminded myself of a story... back in the day a buddy-o-mine bought a '67 Lemans 4 door sedan with a six at a used car dealer. Someone had brush painted the whole car black with white accents, including hand painted landau bars. We soon noticed that it had different wheel covers on each side. But the most endearing feature of this car was that it was jacked up severely in the back, by method of putting 2x4s inside the coil springs! That was changed very quickly because the car bounced like a basket ball. We soon found that the black paint was brushed right over the factory burgundy paint with no prep and we could easily scrape it off using our college IDs. So every time he was parked somewhere we'd pass the time scraping paint. Eventually we got it all off, and since he had spent a summer doing dealer prep, he knew how to give it a good wax job. It looked great after that.

Sorry to hear, but that happens. Nearly every year at NNL East we have a model or two left behind. Sometimes we know who owns it, other times we just wait for the frantic call that evening! All have gotten back to their owners. One year Jim from Scale Auto wanted to take a photo of the two models left behind that year as a parting shot for his show coverage. I told him no, because if they got in the magazine, we'd have dozens of models left behind the next year!

Cool! Here's my Surfite. I think I had more fun building and shading the Tiki Hut! I believe Revell did the Surfite in 1/25 because that was the scale of the series, and the scale they worked in. I sort of remember that they had a five kit deal with Roth and this was the last one to fulfill that contract. There was also some Roth controversy on a custom model contest (I believe it was a Revell contest) where the first place was that Roth would build you a full size replica of your model. It was won by a fellow named Chuck (his last name eludes me at the moment) that I got to meet at GSL a few years ago. Roth never delivered the car, so Chuck got involved in some litigation where the promotion company agreed to give him a new Corvette in lieu of the Roth car. This whole ordeal took so long that Chuck barely had some time with the Corvette when he got drafted and sent to Viet Nam.

I've never seen one parked, but I once saw one driving the other way on the NJ Turnpike. I've heard that they are manned with summer interns and hand out coupons and little Weinermobile replicas.

I agree Casey. I liked the styling of the Mustang II from the beginning. My wife had a '74 Coupe when I met her. Funny thing, I didn't like the 1979 Fox Mustang when I first saw it. Took some time to warm up to... maybe because I liked the Mustang II it replaced.

As Dale said, my bench is a hollow core door and it's sitting on two old night stands. I wrapped my door in brown paper. I have done my work on that old board on top for over 25 years! It even has some drilled holes to let things with a protrusion lay flat. And my current practice is to work on the glass you see on top of the above mentioned board. This glass was originally the top of a Xerox machine that my hoarder father had saved. But when I need to drill through something etc, I'll slide it aside and work on the board. The glass is nice because every so often I take it outside and just scrape it clean with a razor blade.. like new again,