regular guy

Ken Thanks! About the only thing else we are going to get is the STP Turbine car. AMT version. No name on car. Guy that built STP car pitched the idea to Carrol Shelby who said 'Bunch of nonsense!'. Then Shelby built one. Go figure! Will keep our eyes open for the other AMT and MPC kits. If it's a good deal maybe grab one. Took a look inside Hill and Vaughn's restoration shop in Santa Monica one time. At the time did not know to talk to him about road racing. They were restoring serious classics there. Cars were in bays in various stages of completion. All you had to do was bring it in with a whole lot of money and it came back all restored. Cars were interesting.

Hi Ken 'Have you had any luck in tracking down the three IMC Indy car kits?' What kits are those? Although these will keep us busy for awhile. We use them for ideas building real race cars. Good to have something you can hold and look at. Fun vintage type ones not cutting edge obviously.

Ken Do you mean you have the AMT "Indy 500 Combo"? Just happens to be one up for sale on Ebay. I had to tear myself away from looking at the box art. Yes.I would say when there are flames coming out of the exhaust and top of engine a pit stop is in order. That box cover was made to fire kid's imagination (no pun intended.) Dug up two more kits. AMT Aggajanians Willard Battery Special. Aggajanian ran Ascot Raceway in Gardena. It let you know racing was king in Southern California. Then MPC Rislone Special. Think Rislone was an oil additive. That brings up the STP Turbine car. Not really on my list. Kind of an oddball. I worked for Andy Granatelli's tuneup centers for a short bit. Got a pep talk from Andy Granatelli and he shook our hands. Maybe I will buy one.

Mr Bartrop Already covered that. If they can't take a hit on two or three kits per year the methods need to change. Maybe they already are with their 'Exclusive' kits. The 'Exclusives' might be their Flagship productions. Probably are. Think they only make 500 of them. If so they get an 'Atta' boy!' from me. Thanks for the tip about the 'Talbot-Lango'.

Tom I have built real cars but never driven in a race. 'A man has to know his limits.'- Dirty Harry American made racing cars are sort of my thing. I appreciate what McLaren, Cooper and Lotus guy (Colin Chapman I think) for sure. I follow in the footsteps of Kurtis and Watson and the engine builder before Offenhauser. Anyhow. These kits are pretty neat. There's craftsmanship even in the rims!

Mr Bartrop Slim pickens indeed! AMT needs to get with it and rerelease these kits. Let me remind them of what they would do in Hollywood. They would make 'Flagship' pictures. Pictures that may not be expected to make money but showed what Hollywood could do if they wanted to. Same thing in auto industry. 1956 Lincoln Continental. Ford lost a good little piece of change on every one they made but they made them! AMT needs to leave the 'excuse bag' at home and put out these three kits.

Tom You have that picture just to irk me don't you? I blew the deal on a bugeye Sprite in the 90's. This will make you sick. It had the fiberglass kit on it! Regarding the kit. These are milestone cars. Watson dominated Indy for a couple years. He was from Southern California. Wife has relatives in Signal Mountain near you.

Picked one up off of Ebay. It's a tough go in the model car scene if you are into open wheel racing 1950 to 1975. I think what is left to get is an Eagle Ford and a Lotus Ford and that's about it. Will report on kits when they get here.

Getting the tools and supplies together to do this. Fiberglass cloth and resin. Plastic cups for mixing. Wooden tongue depressors to mix it up with. Wax paper to do it on. Flux brush to paint resin onto cloth. Think it's all set.

You got me there.I never did the sitting at the counter talking airplanes or train thing. Kevin did offer to match prices with online discounters for me.You could tell he was not thrilled with it but he did it. I never held him to it. He did a good job of keeping the hobby store going. It's a real loss for the valley.

' He was the train specialist at the hobby shop' We bought a Great Plains locomotive set from him and a Bachmann De Witt Clinton set. The supplies were pretty complete. They had balsa by the piece.That comes in real handy. The R/C planes hanging from the ceiling were probably from way back. Uncle Don's had been in business since 1955 or something like that. They knew their R/C planes. Kevin provided a real service to the Coachella Valley. He's in heaven now with a big train layout.

This seems to be a nest of resistors here. It's like 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. Let go.Give in.Become a slave to that celphone. 'Join us.You'll be happy.' That'll be the day!

http://www.autoworldstore.com/product_p/scm038.htm Everybody can read it themselves to see the interesting points in it. The big thing is it's a new series called 'Kat's Kollection'. They say it's in the tradition of the existing Retro Deluxe. Another big feature it is molded in pearl yellow. Sort of good and bad there. The advanced modeler might want to paint it himself. Guess they are figuring you can just paint over it. Nice kit.Like the sand dragster they came out with awhile ago. Happy Holidays!:)

Thanks! Looking for a chart was a can of worms but it made me think to look around for info. https://www.hobbico.com/shop/accys/hcar5000.php That's from Hobbico website.Maker of cloth for Hobbylinc. Apparently we have the 3/4 ounce.You don't want my memory! It says 5 ounce is for making parts.It's probably the thickness of this Bondo cloth. Happy Holidays!

Ace Thanks Do you have some 2 ounce or 5 ounce in the shop? How thick is it please? I think the two of them from Hobbylinc will get me in the ballpark.Just the 1/4 ounce was a bad move. You do good work.If I had a budget I would send you plans and let you build it. That's what I did in the 80's. The guy built racing catamarans. These part just need to hold their shape for now.

What we're doing is laying a piece of cloth on waxpaper. Then saturating it with resin and letting it dry overnight. That's to see what it is like by itself. The 1/4 ounce is very thin. I will check package to see if it is 1/4 or 1/2 ounce.Think it's 1/4 ounce. Think it's for covering model airplanes.Give them a little strength without adding too much weight. This new cloth is about as thick as jeans fabric. Maybe a tad thinner.

What ounce cloth is this .20 millimeter cloth equal to please? This newcomer would like to know.Started doing this in the 60's I guess my next stop is the retirement homes in the area to find more experienced people to answer this question. Let me get back to making my inferior parts here.

Going to test the Bondo fiberglass cloth and resin. See if it is the right thickness of cloth for scale bodies. 1/16 1/8 1/4 and 1/2 scale. Cloth says .20 millimeters. What is that equivalent to in ounce cloth? Hobbylinc has 2oz and 5oz. I started at the bottom and ordered 1/2oz from them and it is too thin.

His name was Kevin Koch. He was a great guy.Always looked like he was going to smile. Here's a little news article on it. http://www.kesq.com/news/coroner-ids-body-found-in-thousand-palms/605968209 I heard he had died but just now read the article. No use getting angry about it. I guess the thing to do is learn from it. Anybody that has a small business or can be some kind target for robbery or other crime needs to stay alert. Rest in peace. Kevin Koch.

Whether there were any left over Polyglas tires or that they were still available in the 80's was not on my scope. Reproduction redlines were everywhere on the cars at get togethers. They gave me sticker shock so I got the Pep Boys raised white letter ones instead. Anyhow. Here's a good kit to make a 'topless' dragstrip car from. http://www.hobbylinc.com/mpc-1967-charger-great-street-machines-plastic-model-car-kit-1:25-scale-829-12 I think there is a GTX kit that would be a little better. One of the Melrose Missiles might have been 'topless'. One of my buddies worked at 5 Points Chrysler in LA and they battled with the Melrose Missiles with their cars. This fits in with the Fireball 500 kit. They got the idea for it from seeing the 'topless' dragsters.

Okay. Here's some baby boomer stuff. About the Pontiac Polyglas Gasser kit. I think there is another Polyglas kit too. While I do believe that Polyglas had a racing team. By the 80's in Southern California I never heard much talk about them. The thing to have was 'raised white letter' tires.I put a set of them on a '69 Roadrunner. They were from Pep Boys. Coronet 500's. I think you had to paint the numbers with a little wax pen. Roadrunner had the Coyote Duster aircleaner option. Little red anodizded handle under the dash to open it up to fresh air. Anyhow Pontiac kit is a good one. I don't know if it is worth getting if you already have 'Passionate Pancho' version.

I called Tower Hobbies about something. They seem like a real good bunch there. If I was into R/C planes Tower would be a good choice. Unless I'm missing something their prices onplastic model kits aren't very good. My system is this. It comes out on Hobbylinc and then it drops in price. When it drops to right point I buy. If it goes 'bye-bye' before I can pull the trigger then it wasn't meant to be. Like right now the Studebaker Avanti is in that category. At $12.47 they are giving that kit away. They have a bunch of interesting kits around the $15 mark that are pretty cool. Some of them came out fairly recently. Guess the building population has shrunk a little. Just waiting to get my paint order together first.

' claiming that Mercurys were power by 430s into the mid-60's. ' Could you get your facts straight. This is what I wrote. '' If that kit has the 3 two barrel 430 with special aircleaner THAT is a rare engine! ' See the 'if'? My writing style is 'run and gun'.If it needs a little cleaning up. Oh well! Could not find any info on Pontiac Polyglas Gasser on Autoworld or Round2. So we learned something today. Hobbylinc 'No picture' and 'Pre-order' is good way to see what kits are coming out. Lot of interesting kits from AMT lately. This last batch is a little more off the beaten track than usual. Fireball 500 is not a bad kit. They lifted that idea from the short lived trend of 'topless' funny cars. It made sense.'Hey! Let's just cut the roof off and down the track we go!' See Flying Dutchman's Mopar funny cars from mid 60's. Unfortunately people saw the safety problems of just a small loop rollbar for the driver's head. Hence going back to full roll cage. So Fireball 500 is a cool kit if you see the racing aspect of it.

' What the f**k is this "regular guy" talking about? Each post get weirder and more disjointed. Were is this going? ' Pontiac was heavy into high performance in the early 60's. So the new 1962 Pontiac Catalina Polyglas Gasser I looks more worthwhile to pick up. The '62 Buick Electra was shown on one reissue as a lowered showcar. It can be bought too as part of GM's performance movement in the early 60's. Buick Electra's had a really interesting 215 cubic inch all aluminum V8. That was thinking way outside the box for that era. That is why it is called the 'Go-Go' late 50's and early 60's. '65 Pontiac Gran Prix kit is towards the end of that but not a bad choice. The earlier Gran Prix's were smaller and lighter.

My bad. Pontiac they stuffed the 421 into and went drag racing with was the Tempest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Tempest Here's the part about the tranny. Developed specifically for the Super Duty, this was essentially two Powerglide automatics in a single four-speed unit, allowing clutchless shifting in much the same manner as modern drag racing transmissions. Anyhow. If you get the Electra and the Catalina you get the feel for that era. Sort of a carry over from World War II. 'Can do!'