Ramfins59

Final actual 1:1 picture is a 1959 Dodge Coronet that I bought in Oct. 1996. I'd always wanted an "Old car" and at this time I was "into" modeling and old cars in a big way. I wanted to make the Dodge a mild Custom so I added some dress up chrome doodads in the engine bay, and added twin mirrors, twin dummy spots, twin swept back antennas, lake pipes, '59 Caddy taillights and chrome exhaust tips. I put on some pinstripe tape flames and was really lucky to get a OEM set of '59 Dodge Lancer spinner hubcaps from one of the guys in the LIARS Club for FREE...!!! He had them hanging on the wall in his garage... I sold the car in 1995. I stopped driving in 1992 after having a stroke and believe me I miss the hell out of this car. It was my baby... I was thrilled when I found an Excel '59 Dodge Promo and I started trying to make the model look like I eventually wanted the 1:1 car to look. Unfortunately that never happened but it was great working on this model. I got the resin interior and the hubcaps from the Modelhaus.

Next in line is a 1971 Plymouth Satellite. My brother-in-law gave us this car in 1983 when the engine in the '67 Galaxie blew. I loved this car. I affectionately called it "Monster Mouth". It had a 318 engine that just wouldn't quit. Didn't burn a drop of oil and mechanically was a beauty. The rest of the car was deteriorating around the engine & tranny. The windows leaked, the front pan was falling off, the trunk took in water and the drivers seat back was held up by a milk crate wedged behind it. I sold it in the late 80's to some guys from Brooklyn, NY for $150. They were thrilled that the car ran so great and the A/C and the stereo worked. Sorry for the chopped up pictures of the 1:1 car but I don't have a picture of the full car in one shot. The model is an MPC kit that I filled in the hood scoop on and painted it green with a flat black roof to look like the vinyl roof. Some day I will do this one again as It is not as good as it could have been. My skills were "not great" at the time that I built this.

Next up in this "thread" is a 1971 Mercury Comet that we owned for a few years, also while living on Long Island, NY. It was our 2nd car for my wife to drive while I drove the '67 Galaxie. The Comet lasted a few years but we eventually sold it. I bought a builtup '71 Comet also from a LIARS Club member and it has been on my "To Do" list for about 15 years now. I'll be getting around to it eventually...

For those who might wonder, I have searched for this particular topic before posting this, but nothing has shown up. Maybe some of you have posted build pics of some of your 1:1 cars but I guess it was not under a particular "thread" like this one. Believe it or not, I personally did not start driving until I was 27 years old. I lived in the Bronx, NY and in the city limits of N.Y. there was no need for me to have a car at that time because of all the local and convenient public transportation ( buses, subways, taxis...). I married in 1968 and my wife & I bought our first home on Long Island in 1975 which is when we bought our first car. It was a 1967 Ford Galaxie that I bought from my aunt for $300. It had a 289 engine which started smoking a lot several years later and a friend of mine installed a 302 from a wrecked car. The engine cost me $100, another $100 for parts for the friend to rebuild it, and $100 to the friend for his labor. The engine eventually blew in 1983 and I junked the car. I bought a '67 Galaxie Convertable kit from a guy in the LIARS Club back in 1994 and another club member helped in converting the 2 door convertable into a 4 door hardtop, using the top from a '65 Ford Galaxie kit. The paint was Model Master Champagne Gold if I remember correctly with a black top (all enamel spray cans at that time).

Jeez... Bill Geary should get together with this guy...!!! Imagine the works of art they would make. I just guess it all depends on just how crazy you want to get with detailing. To spend 10 years on a project seems like it would turn into more of a job than just a hobby. But, whatever floats your boat I guess. It is very impressive nonetheless.

I'll be there, hopefully with at least ONE newly finished car.... and of course a pocket full of cash for the vendor room... Like I really need more stuff... But I WANT more stuff.

May the next 50 be as much fun as the first 50. Make it a GREAT day.

Thanks for your input guys. My daughter lives in Fairfax, VA and I'm just slightly north of Pittsburgh so they are roughly a 4 hour drive away. I look forward to visiting them and hangin with my new littly buddy. I notice that car commercials on TV seem to catch his attention so I'm thinkin he may turn out to be a car guy. I finished up his Fury Slammer (and I have to say it was fun putting it together in all of about 20 minutes... I spent a few extra minutes on it by reinforcing all the contact points with CA glue so when he eventually bangs it around the parts won't come undone so quickly.) I'll be looking around for some of the other Snapfast Slammer kits now for him. Gotta get him into the hobby for sure so he can carry on with it down the road.

My first and only grandson (so far anyway) will be 1 year old on May 12th. I already gave him his first snap kit model at my daughter's baby shower last year but I know it will be a couple of years before I will get to work on it with him. I will be putting together a Snapfast Slammer (Street Fury) to give him for his Birthday and I also have a small Model T Tonka car for him. I feel that both of those should be sturdy enough for him to play with and bash around, with no parts to really come loose. (I'll be reinforcing the Slammer kit with CA glue.) My question for all you Grandpa's out there is... When & how did you turn your Grandchildren on to modeling...???

That is one beautiful model. You did a great job.

Those are definitely some wild looking vehicles. Defintely gets the imagination and the creative juices flowing... Hmmmmm...

I guess the clean restroom is the Ladies Room, and the raunchy one is the Men's Room....

Like some other people here, sometimes yes, sometimes no. I think the last time i REALLY paid attention to the instructions was when I built the Galaxie 48 Chevy... LOTS of parts in that one that I wasn't really all that familiar with.

After finishing a model, if it came out REALLY good I'll take it to NNL East and maybe a contest or 2. I used to go to a lot of contests when I lived on Long Island in NY, but I haven't been to many in the last 10 to 12 years. I had a stroke in 2000 and don't drive anymore. My finished cars sit in glass display cabinets in my basement model area.

I am reasonably "savvy" with some new technology. I obviously DO have and use a PC. I don't have, nor do I want a cell phone. Everyone else I know has one, but I personally don't feel the need to have one. I use a Digital Camera. My daughter just got me a 44" LED flat screen HD TV for Christmas and I have to admit I love it. It is a lot clearer and BIGGER than the 21" CRT TV we had previously. I have to admit that when I look under the hood of new cars today I'm kinda puzzled... The engine compartment of the '59 Dodge that I sold 7 years ago was a lot more "user friendly". I still get annoyed with commercials on Cable TV... remember when cable started there weren't supposed to be any commercials because the cable subscription fees were gonna cover everything... yeah right. Now you get 12 commercials every 7 minutes on every station and you can't flip to another station to escape them because they ALL go to commercials at the same time. Thankfully there is a MUTE button on the remote.

I love your work on this. I've wanted to build a Christine model for years. It is hands down, my very favorite "car movie". I have a body painted and the kit is in the line to be built. I always thought it would be totally cool to build a bunch of Christine's.... First as it looked when Arnie first found it in the yard... Then when he got it all fixed up... Then when Buddy and his pals beat it to hell in Darnells garage... Then being rolled on by the Caterpillar... Finally after it came out of the crusher in a cube... (this would really be a challenge) Doing all of those would be some loooooonnngggg hours of work. Nice to dream though.

From my limited experience, I don't think any other glue will work this way. 5 minute epoxy will kind of magnify the gauge, making it very clear. To avoid air bubbles, mix the 2 parts together slowly with a toothpick in a circular motion. Then you can pick up a "glob" of it on the end of the toothpick and let it flow onto the face of the gauge. Try practicing on a spare gauge cluster... you should get the technique down pretty quickly.

That is way cool. How did you make the Pink wall insulation?

I've had good luck using acetate from the tops of greeting card boxes, although it usually only works for flat glass. I use either Elmer's glue, epoxy, or clear enamel applied with a toothpick to glue it in. Hope this helps.

Thanks for sharing this tip Art. I hope you are well. I've used this method for a few years and yes, it does work very well, and yes, the epoxy does yellow over time, but I find that on most older cars it looks "aged" just like the car.

OK... Sorry to beat a dead horse... If this has been done before, please accept my apology and don't bother responding. Thanks, and apologies again.

OK... The last time I actually counted all the unbuilt kits I have stockpiled, the total was 152. I've since added four with my Christmas purchases, making it 156. I know that this is probably going to be a fairly "small" total in comparison with a LOT of people. (For instance... I once asked Lyle Willets at a MAMA's NNL in Maryland how many unbuilt kits he thought he had, and his answer was...... about 7,000......!!!!!!) I only buy kits of cars from the 20's through the very early 60's because those are the cars that I like... they have style and tons of chrome... I'm not into Big Rigs or any type of race cars. That's probably why my stash is so small. Right now I have about 65 built kits. When I started back into the hobby in 1992, I built at least one or two cars a month, but as my skills improved it took longer and longer to finish a model and my build totals slipped to maybe 4 per year. For the last couple of years I've only built about 2 per year and it's bothering me that I don't have the urge to build more. I guess as I get older my patience level has shrunk and when things don't go right during a build, I get annoyed and frustrated and I wind up just putting everything back in the box to hopefully come back to it at a later date. Even with my relatively small unbuilt stash, I know that at the rate that I build, I won't live long enough to build everything... But I, like everyone else, just keep on buying all the new, cool kits that come out of the cars that I like. So...... at the risk of giving away any of your "secrets"...... How many unbuilt kits do you have stockpiled...... and how many built kits do you have......??????

This is my only real attempt at building a weathered vehicle. It's a '34 Ford Pickup converted to a flatbed. I had a ball doing this as I didn't have to worry about making it look "pretty"...

Fortunately my wife totally supports my modeling hobby, and usually whatever other interests I might indulge in (legal interests of course). She is usually one of my best critics when I'm either working on a model or have just finished one. She critiques the colors, the neatness, etc., and I value her opinion "most of the time". I had a friend years ago (he passed away about 10 years ago from cancer) who would have to wait until his wife went to sleep to sneak down to his basement to work on his models at midnight. His wife thought it was ridiculous for a grown man to be playing with little toy cars...!!!!!! When he passed, all the guys in the LIARS Club (in NY) went to the funeral en masse, wearing the Club colors... His wife was blown away at all the people who showed up at the funeral home...

This is my '58 Impala, using the Revell kit (love all that separate chrome trim). I built it as I remember the car that first lit the car loving fire in me when I was 13. At that time (1960) a guy who lived in the same apartment bldg. as I did, (in The Bronx, NY) would park this car at the curb in front of the house every day... and I drooled over it every day too.