Ramfins59

Welcome to our plastic playground Tim. You'll like it here.

I think something similar to a silicone caulking is used on the back side of the parts to mount them.

Thank you so very much for your very kind comments Bill, I really appreciate it. At first I thought that adding the washer fluid jar might be too much but I liked the looks of it in the picture I Googled. I didn't want to get too carried away with extra, useless details. As you said, what is in there is believable in a real car. Once everything is completely assembled the engine compartment is going to be pretty filled up. It still will get the wired 12 Volt battery on the passenger side and heater hoses will run to the 2 holes above the Beehive filter.

Rob, that really looks great.

Thanks for the responses guys. It seems that it was only a temporary problem earlier today because I was finally able to get everything to work out just fine. I don't use IE at all. I have Windows XP and Google as my browser.

Thanks Bruce. I can see how you might think that the bottom section of the hood's pinstripes might make an "M" but I don't see an "R" in them...... and in any case, in was not my intention to spell anything with the pinstriping. I just picked White ones that looked cool.

Thank you all again for your very kind comments. Here are some progress pics now that Photobucket is cooperating again. First up is a shot of the headlights and turn signals in place. The DeSoto grille teeth are just sitting in there for the picture. Next is a shot of the taillights in place. Here's what the chassis looks like, except for the wheels and tires. And here's a shot of the passenger side of the engine with the dipstick installed. Finally, here's a pic of the partial engine bay assembly. In addition to the master cylinder and booster, an Aahhooogah Horn was added and wired into the firewall. A picture I found on Google showed a car that had a Mason jar clamped to the inner fender with a piece of rubber hose and it was filled with washer fluid with a clear line to the firewall. I thought that looked cool so I cut and sanded a piece of clear sprue and drilled a hole in the top. I dipped it about halfway in my bottle of Tamiya clear Blue and carefully painted the top with Brass Metalizer. I wrapped some black wire around it and mounted the wire through a hole drilled above the horn on the inner fender. Then I attached a short piece of clear fishing line to the hole in the top and through a hole drilled in the firewall. It looks like a Mason Jar to me..!! An aluminum Beehive oil filter was attached to the passenger side of the firewall with a wire "clamp" through the firewall and flexible braided lines were attached to the filter. The other ends of the braided lines will be attached to the driver's side of the engine under the exhaust manifolds. (Thanks to AceGarageGuy for the info on where to hook up those lines to the engine.) Still lots more to do but it's getting there. Thanks for following along.

I tried downloading some pics from my PhotoBucket but when I click on "Get Links" nothing happens...!!! I tried "chatting" with a support tech but "everyone was busy at the moment"...!!! I don't know what the heck is going on with PhotoBucket lately. The pictures that I uploaded used to be shown in the order that I uploaded them, and the most recent uploads would be first. Now the pictures are scattered helter-skelter and to see the pics I just uploaded I have to click on "recent uploads" or else go searching through 20 pages of pictures. I'm also again getting the messages that I'm "approaching my bandwidth limit" so I deleted a couple of pages of old pictures...... I'm NOT paying for upgrades or increasing bandwidth space. Is anyone else having issues with them...?

Great job Douglas. The car looks great in those colors. Make sure those school kids do a good job.

Ira, you continue to amaze with your very fertile imagination. Do you take some unknown blend of vitamins (or whatever) to fuel the overflowing creativity that you have...???

Thanks a lot Bill. I was able to mount the complete dual exhausts with aluminum tips and then installed the rear end/springs piece, the driveshaft and rear shocks. Tomorrow I'll work on the wheels, tires and brakes. I'll try to post update pics when done. I ran some black Detailer in the door and trunk lines and that made things look a lot better. It seems that when I mounted the engine (as I stated above there did not appear to be a positive mounting point for the front of the engine, and the kit instructions were very vague in showing where to mount it) I mounted it about an eighth of an inch too far back... (sigh...). Of course now I have to judiciously trim both the floorpan and the firewall because of that. I am NOT disassembling the engine, exhaust and driveshaft to move the engine...!!! These little unexpected foibles I keep running into while approaching the end of this buildup are really starting to aggravate me. Usually when a project keeps bugging me like this one has been doing for the last several days, I'll just put it all back in the box for awhile and come back to it when I'm in a better frame of mind about it. However, so many things are looking so good that I'm determined to stick with it through to the end. After all...... it's only plastic, and I'm smarter... LOL.

That looks great Tom. Nice job.

Great to see Michael..!! I can't wait until my 3 year old grandson gets into building. Unfortunately he lives in VA, outside of DC, and I'm in western PA so we don't get together often, but I know he'll get into it because he loves cars (Thanks to me) and he's always asking "What did you build for me?" I bring him built snap kits whenever I get to see him, but he's still trashes everything with his rough play. I'm sure he'll outgrow that and start taking better care of his toys.

Great tip on pinning the trim pieces John although, as you say, VERY tedious work drilling all those little holes and cutting all those short lengths of guitar string. You'll never have to worry about the trim getting knocked off. BTW, your camera takes GREAT closeup Macro shots.

I thank you very much for those very kind words Jonathan. It's coming along nicely and I'm taking my time, trying to be neat, clean and careful as I go along. I too can't wait to see the finished product but I'm trying not to rush it. I solved the engine mounting issue by gluing a small rectangular piece of plastic to the top of the tie rod center piece and glued the front of the oil pan to that. I also drilled a hole through the center of the transmission crossmember and the spot where the tranny sits on the crossmember and pinned it there with CA glue. One exhaust pipe with a "Cherrybomb" glasspack muffler is attached. I'll attach the other one tomorrow and also add aluminum exhaust tips to both of them. Once the exhaust is completely installed I can then assemble the rest of the chassis components. I got adventurous and also added a dipstick tube to the engine between the distributor and the starter using a short length of stainless surgical tubing which I painted semi-gloss black and inserted a very short piece of a high E guitar string painted yellow for the dipstick. The headlights by Bob Dudek are in along with the amber MV lens front turn signals. I gave the teardrop ('39 Ford style) aluminum taillight bezels (also by Bob Dudek) several coats of Tamiya clear Red. They'll get installed tomorrow. I still have more work to do on the front seat that I got from Tom Geiger. Once that is done I can start assembling the interior. Still plenty to do but it's looking good for completion maybe by this coming weekend.

Never mind. I solved the problem by adding a small piece of sheet plastic to the top side of the tie rod center piece, glued the front of the oil pan to that, and drilled a hole in the center of the transmission crossmember and into the spot where the tranny sits on it and pinned it in place.

That looks excellent Tulio. Great job.

Can anyone who has built this kit please tell me how and where they attached the front of the engine to the chassis..?? The instructions are very vague in showing this, and there does not appear to be any positive attachment point. I know that the transmission tailshaft attaches to the tranny crossmember, but I can't see where the front of the engine or the oil pan would attach to the chassis. Would pinning it somehow, somewhere make a more secure bond..?? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

OK...... I need some help here from anyone who has built this kit. Not much if any progress made today as we had a family function that I forgot about which ate up most of the day. I'm not an idiot, but I find the kit instructions to be very vague about where and how to install the engine onto the chassis. Obviously the end of the tranny locates to the tranny crossmember, but, I can't see where or how the front of the engine attaches solidly to the chassis. I would appreciate some help on this from anyone who has built this kit. It appears that pinning the engine in place would make a more solid connection but I can't figure out where for the front of the engine. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. The grille surround/rolled pan piece from the '50 Ford convertible kit sticks into the engine compartment just enough that it was necessary to trim about an eighth of an inch from the forward edges of the inner fenders in order to get them to fit in properly on a test fit. It also appears that fitting the assembled chassis and interior into the body is going to be a bit of a chore involving trying to gently spread the body sides apart to squeeze it in, hopefully without chipping the paint. Fun...fun...fun... And...... Because of the distributor wires and the vacuum advance piece and line that I added, I'll have to install the inner fenders, firewall and radiator separately as gluing them together as a unit wouldn't allow the engine to fit up into the engine bay as the opening was too narrow...!!! That's what I get for waiting almost until the end of the buildup to do all of the test fitting...... I never learn...!!! I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who has built this kit regarding mounting the engine. Thanks very much in advance for any help on this.

I'll be there for sure.

Go John Go...

Thank you very much Martin, I appreciate your encouraging comments.

Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate your encouraging words. Dave, I use slightly watered down Elmer's Glue. I brush a fairly wet coat on the parts and then sprinkle on the flocking through a small strainer. Usually I'll paint the areas to be flocked with a color as close to the color of the flocking as possible before I apply the flocking. That way if the flocking comes out a bit thin in spots the lighter color of the plastic part won't show through.

Progress reports for today. I got a lot done between yesterday and today. The BMF work on the body is finished and the glass is installed. I added some BMF to the molded underhood bracing and also applied some Gray flocking to simulate underhood insulation. The interior side panels are finished. First I sprayed the top edge with the body color of Duplicolor Royal Blue. I masked that off and sprayed the molded tuck 'n roll area with Model Master Wimbledon White. Then came the BMF trim work on the molded raised areas and the cranks and handles. Finally the rest of the panels were flocked in matching Royal Blue flocking. The dashboard was first sprayed with the Royal Blue body color, and a small White pinstripe decal was applied to the glove box to match the exterior pinstriping. Then BMF trim was applied. 2 PE pieces were added for ignition and glove box keyholes and the buttons were hit with some chrome silver paint using a sharpened toothpick. Finally BestModelCarParts gauges, clock and radio face were attached with clear enamel and were then covered with clear epoxy for lenses. The steering wheel and column were painted Wimbledon White and the horn ring painted chrome silver. I added a Blue painted round pin head for a necker knob. I was finally able to use one of the Blue & White teardrop shaped shifters that Joker sent to me (Thanks James) and it really looks great. . Finally, the rear seat is finished. First I added a bunch of Evergreen half round strips for a tuck 'n roll pattern, sanded everything even and smooth, then sprayed it with Wimbledon White. Once that dried I applied Royal Blue flocking around all the edges. Once that dried I added some Blue wire around the edges of the tuck 'n roll for piping. There's still plenty left to do on this car. I'm waiting for the flocking to dry on the front seat so I can attach the piping. Then the interior can be assembled. Now that the engine is done it can be attached to the chassis and then the rest of the chassis can be assembled. I can install the headlight assemblies and add red lenses to the taillight bezels. I can't wait to get back to working on a couple of 50's promos...... there's a LOT less work involved on those. Thanks for checking out the progress here. All comments are welcomed as usual.

Thank you Ira. I'm sure it will look a lot better once the distributor and wires are in place.