Harry P.

Or an evil genius example of the best kind of badge engineering? Take an everyday econobox, add on a few tacky geegaws that cost you pennies, double the MSRP, sell it as a "luxury car" to a gullible public, and laugh all the way to the bank.

I think you may just be on to something there. Zep songs are so iconic... we all hear them in our heads the way Plant used to sound. These days, he just can't hit those high notes anymore. It's normal and natural... the guy is in his 60s, he can't do what he did when he was in his 20s, but he doesn't want to admit it (or be seen in public trying to do it). Jimmy Page can still play guitar like he did 40 years ago... but a vocalist can't do what they could do 40 years ago. I think you may very well have come across the real reason Plant said no.

I think we all understand platform sharing. But taking a Cavalier and putting a "Cadillac" grille on it and then charging the morons thousands more and passing off a thinly-disguised Chevy econobox as a "Cadillac?" You have to give the evil masterminds in GM marketing credit... it took cojones to do that. But then again, never underestimate the American public. The public gets what it deserves.

Sure is. And as long as consumers keep falling for it, they'll keep on doing it.

Smart.

Not sure what you're referring to, but I have never moved anyone's large scale posts in "Under Glass" to another section. Edit: Roger... I was wrong in what I just said. Well, not technically wrong, but misleading. Casey moved things around based on what I told him to do... so blame me. He was only doing what I told him to do. He and I are going to try and figure out a better way to deal with the whole "large scale" issue.

It snowed the last two days. Nothing major, not even a "dusting," but you could see a bit of snow on rooftops.

I wonder how many people were actually suckered into paying a Cadillac price for a tarted-up Chevy.

I believe you have the words "lightning" and "lightening" confused...

Unlike the dash on the 1928 Mercedes I just finished, which has a ton of gauges, switches, buttons, and warning lights, the dash on this big Lincoln is Model T simple... just a small gauge cluster in the middle of an otherwise blank blank panel. No glove box, no nothing. The gauge cluster is a chromed piece that's supposed to be glued into the panel from behind. The problem is that the dash panel is so thick that when you glue the gauge cluster in place, the raised rim around the gauge cluster doesn't even make it to the surface of the dash panel. No good. So I used a grinding tip in my Dremel th thin down the dash panel from the back side, to allow the gauge cluster insert to "stick out" from the surface of the dash panel: Another problem is that the dash panel has molded-in woodgrain detail, but none of the photos I gathered up from the internet show the dash on this car to be wood... they all show a stamped steel panel. So I sanded off the wood grain and painted the dash panel black:

No way am I going to try and scratchbuild hinges for four doors and try to get the doors aligned. That's just asking for trouble! I had enough problems getting the doors to line up on the Mercedes, and that kit had opening doors engineered into the kit. This is going to be an open-top car, so opening doors would be overkill (and a lot of unnecessary work). The body side panels on this kit are really flimsy... without the doors in place, there's just not a whole lot of "sheet metal" there; the doors themselves make up most of the surface area. So by gluing the doors into the body sides and handling the sides as a unit, building (and painting) will be much easier than if it had opening doors.

Yes, a tiny drop. When the parts are dry I can just snap the "handles" off.

He's not exactly a lightning-fast builder.... Might be a while before the next update.

I love the floor mats! Too cool!

Amazing what the kit manufacturers got away with back in the day. Can you imagine the response if this kit was a new release in 2014?

Amazing work, John. Spectacular.

You almost never see this kit built factory stock. Looks great, very nice to see one not as the Little Red Wagon!

Looks good with the black fenders. Nice job...

Nobody does factory-stock MOPARS better. Beautiful work, just flawless.

Pat, the clamps were molded onto the kit pieces. The entire distributor/ignition wire shielding was molded as one chrome-plated part. After I cut it apart and added my drilled tubes, I glued everything back together and painted the assembly silver except for the distributor, which I painted black, and the clamps, which I left chrome-plated so they would stand out and look like separate pieces. A little painting trickery... With washes, the way I do it varies with the part I'm applying it to and the effect I want. In some cases (usually upholstery with separate lower and back cushions, for example), I will cover the whole piece and then wipe. In most cases I use a small brush and apply the wash specifically where I want it to go... like on the engine, for example. I dab the wash on and let it flow into the cracks and crevices on its own. It really depends on the specific situation and how best I think it'll work. Here's an example. I applied the wash overall to the seats and the top boot and wiped off the excess, but I used a small brush and applied it around the brass hardware on the wooden storage trunk. It all depends on the specific part, and how best to get the effect I want.

Beautiful car!

Not any comments, but I'm getting a lot of answers...

x2.

The doors in the kit are separate, but they aren't hinged and aren't meant to actually open (which makes me wonder why they were molded as separate pieces in the first place. Plus, there's no way to positively locate the doors... they fit into the cutouts, but just sort of float... there's no real way to align them flush. Anyway... the question was do I paint the body sides panels and doors separately, then glue the doors in place after everything has been painted, or do I glue the doors in first and paint everything as a unit? After weighing the pros and cons of each method, I decided it would be better to glue the doors in place, then paint. Trying to paint all the pieces while still separate, and then trying to glue the doors in place seems like asking for trouble as far as messing up the paint, getting glue smears on the paint, etc. At least this way, if I do get glue where there shouldn't be any, I can still sand smooth and fix it before I paint.