Maindrian Pace

A good running 170 was sort of spunky in it's day when everything was slow, especially compared to a 144. My wagon had one of those in it when I bought it, the 0-60 and the 1/4 mile were both the same numbers.

There's a lot going on in that grille, lots of scratch building with strips of styrene, or 3D printing could be the simpler approach with a better outcome if you're not into involved carving and filing away at fussy little bits.

Chris, Yes, the Comet roof was trimmed to fit up to the Ranchero bed trim at the rear of the roof. The Ranchero doors are the same and they would have worked, I used the Comet doors to get the door trim like on the real one. It was an accident that it came out to be the same basic colors as the real trucklet. I used super glue to join the two plastics.

Very clever body mods. I drove a '61 Ranchero with a '61 Comet front clip, doors, dash, and drivetrain in high school back in the '80s that I built from mostly free cast-off junk. I didn't realize at the time that I was building a ute! I built a model of it around the same time. The car is long gone, but I still have the model. It looks like you are getting the proportions just right, though it looks like you may have taken just a tiny bit too much rear overhang off, maybe 1mm. You will have to scratch build the grille and single headlights, and I think your front bumper has a wider license plate recess.

Grill sunk in to a more stock position, bottom of original Aurora oil pan cut off and glued to the Monogram pan, firewall final fitted. Still have to turn down the wheels to fit the tires, then it will come together quickly.

Super sano!

Mike, I will do something with the headlights and the taillights, which are just as bad. I doubt I'll resin cast any of this stuff, though Greg did ask me if I wanted to. I think we'd sell, what, two? I am going to push the grille in a bit, but I'm not getting too carried away with accurizing this car - it's got a lot of problems character; the doors are too long and the C pillars are too thick, which makes the 1/4 windows too small, the rear COMET pontoons on the 1/4 panels go down hill when they should go straight back, and fixing that would mean raising the rear bumper/grille to match the new location, it has no cowl air vent detail, etc, and this is really just a quickie slump buster so I don't want to get too carried away - though I'm already doing more than I planned, so so much for that. Thanks Nigel. I haven't tried a 1:43 kit yet, but I do like to punish myself sometimes so a 1:72 is on the bench for when I feel like going blind. Funny you should mention that. I remember you telling me a few years back that there are no 1:32 scale small block Ford V8s out there, which was kind of a bummer. But maybe there are? 1:32 is a great way to use up all those comically underscale bits and pieces that have been included in various 1:25 kits over the decades, and I'm sure we can all name a few. Above we have a pair of the weird little Cobra valve covers from the Munsters Coach, with a normal sized 1:25 Ford Windsor valve cover for scale, an undersize parts box hypo air cleaner from some sort of Mustang kit, and the tiny little under dash A/C unit from the MPC '65-'69 Mustang kits. Way too small for 1:25, but look how nice it looks under the 1:32 dash. The firewall is a cut down 1:25 parts box piece, and the interior tub was shortened up front to accommodate it. As for the engine, I cut it out of the original chassis, cut the trans off, cut the oil pan off, and shortened the block because it was a little too long for the Munsters valve covers. I cut down a parts box intake, spaced the valve covers up a few thousandths with some Evergreen sheet, and voilà, a 1:32-ish small block Ford. 3d printing may be a better way to get an accurate engine, which I'll look into in the future. I'll add some shock towers and braces, radiator, and a battery - all available in unintentional 1:32 scale. I think the problem solving is my favorite aspect of working in this scale.

Bodywork almost completed, nasty primer bleed through on that red plastic. Interior patched back together, windows test fitted. Still undecided on the color combo. Aurora molded the optional vinyl top trim below the rear window, so it may get a vinyl top but not sure if that will clash with the scooped hood or the American wheels.

Flattened the hood, start of the scoops.

Superior in every way, one of my favorite '60s cars, bar none. The color is a convincing stand-in for Rangoon Red.

Much modified Aurora/Monogram Mustang chassis that Casey sent me, rear end narrowed a bit to make room for the widened rear tires. More body repairs, re-shaped front and rear wheel openings, adjusted wheelbase, stance almost finalized.

Very interesting, these may be right for future projects.

That looks so cool, it makes me want to build the Thomas Crown Affair '68 Shelby convertible.

I just received many 1:32 parts from Casey, so now the rescue attempt of this mini-glue bomb can continue. Big thanks to Casey for the gift. The front fenders on this car have a weird upsweep at the front edge, and the right side was made worse by a huge glue glob underneath done by the original builder in the '60s which warped it up some more. To correct this, I cut slits in the fenders, dipped them in simmering water, bent them down to a straight position, and added shims to the slices. Then I did some repair to the hood where it was glued shut, and filled the blower hole. I plan to make this into the twin scooped Cyclone street hood.

Thanks for the suggestions, Daniel. I actually have used the Monogram Charger Magnum 500 wheels on a Lindberg Granada a few years back. Those are very nice, and I thought about them for the Comet. I'll have to look at the Revell T-Bird.

Casey, I can certainly use most of it on this Comet and a couple of other cars, I have an Aurora '65 Mustang that needs some work, and the Comet has one race bucket seat so it can use the Mustang seats for sure. Do you want to part with all of it? If so, that's a very generous offer. I'll try to PM you, not sure why I can't receive messages.

Very cool!

1:32 scale Aurora '64 Comet Cyclone "Exterminator" kit. I had one of these about a decade ago mint in the box, but it was too nice to build/modify, so I let it get absorbed in the ebay feeding frenzy, where it was snapped up and sent to Brazil. This glue bomb recently came up in Canada, and I won the auction. It's rather rough, so no problem rebuilding it and improving it a bit. The first thing to go will be the terrible wheels. Any suggestions? Chrome open steelies would be nice, as the Cyclone came with stainless wheel covers that simulate open wheels, but a set of American mags and tires would be nice in the 15" - 18" range. Looking, but not finding much in the way of wheel/tire sets for this scale.

That is super nice, and it doesn't look to have far to go to be a contest standout.

Sports Coupes are very nice indeed, and somewhat pricey in the market. Ford also produced a hardtop coupe that was just a Fairlane 500, and these are more common and affordable but have the same sporty roofline as the Sports Coupe. Modifying the roof of the 2 door sedan to hardtop specs would be a neat project, and a take on this kit not seen before. The roof from the AMT '65 Fairlane modified stocker kit would be a natural swap, as the '63-'65 HT Fairlanes used the same roof.

Very nice job, and quite the little hot rod there too.

You got it Ken, Pyro '32 Lincoln. I found a picture of a tree in a kit for sale on eBay.

That's one of the nicest weathering jobs I've ever seen, very realistic and nothing over the top. Great proportions and stance too, great build all around.

Came with another kit from eBay purchase, anyone know what it is from?