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Not that the Pinto and the Vegas didn't have their draw backs, but really for a small inexpensive economy car they were pretty good. No matter what kind of vehicle you're driving, if you get hit from behind by something almost twice your size there will be extensive damage, I think it's just simple Physics. When I first started working at a Chevrolet dealership I was given the usual tour of the dealership and the service area. I asked about the neatly stacked engines still in the create from Chevrolet. The stacks were at lease 6 wide and 5 or 6 high. The reply was that they were new warranty engines for the early Vegas. On the Pinto side of things, a funny story except for the morning motor mouth on the local radio station. This was during the era of histrionics over exploding Pintos and Firestone 500 tires blowing out at highway speed. The morning radio programing was sponsored by the local Ford dealer. This one morning Mr. Motor Mouth, thinking that he was entertaining, made some off hand remark about an actual accident in the middle of town that included a Pinto that didn't explode. He stated that the said Pinto had been running the Red Light when hit it burst into flames and the Firestone tire had exploded. Mr. Motor Mouth wasn't on the radio the next morning and no explanation about his leaving was never given.

Certain cities in this area have a fixation with metal plates to cover holes in the road. The addition of a little black top as a ramp up on too the 1/2" plate is only an option.

Now that's a great looking GTO. Very cleanly built and the colors look perfect together.

Great looking paint finishes and the engine detailing is outstanding.

Beautiful looking '32. You can see all of the reflections in the paint finish it's so smooth. I like the filled roof insert and the little Wink Mirrors are a touch I haven't seen before. The detailing of the engine and all of the little things that are so hard to do. The throttle linkage and springs, fuel lines and fittings.

Great looking build. You had mentioned the outside rear view mirrors. Most states didn't require them until well into the 1960's. Most buyers realized the importance of having them so they were pretty common on the driver's side if nothing else. Since the original intent for this car I think Dodge might be looking for ways to minimize wind drag any way they could. Your build is very realistic looking and as mentioned by others here you wouldn't realize it was a Slot Car.

Look forward to watching this come together. I had a new '66 SS in Danube Blue with Black interior. The body and roof line on the '65 & '66's have always been a favorite.

The term "Speed Bumps" are what is usually heard around here also. Something that is being tried now, I think was started in California. Instead of adding material to the roadway for a bump the road crews paint a pattern on the roadway with darker colored shadowing. This gives the drivers the appearance of a raised road surface. The pictures I have seen on TV look very real, and paint is much cheaper than adding black top and the snow plows don't have to slow down for them during snow storms.

The engine and chassis are very well done just like the body and paint.

Beautiful looking Chevelle. The paint color and finish really look great. I also like the deep offset rear wheels. What was the source for the front bench seat ? The pattern almost looks like a Pontiac or Oldsmobile seat. The original theme with the Heavy Chevy was to offer a lot of the SS features, Dash and Stripes, at an affordable price as well as a better Insurance rate for the buyer. The base engine was a 350 and the usual assortment of transmissions. Just about any engine could be ordered but most were the 350's.

Just a little food for thought. I just check the Mecum Auction sales for today here in Kansas City. They had a '73 Imperial 2 owner car with about 43k on it. Sold for $3300.00. Now if your just needing a go to work car what can you buy for that ? It is Beige in color but looks very nice and the pictures seem to show a very well cared for car.

That's the Lady. I miss seeing her builds here, maybe I should start looking at the Diorama section to see if she's still posting anything.

I think she posted that she had moved to Oregon. I remember the Dioramas she built. They would have to be seen to believe just how detailed they looked.

I remember when I was a child when one of the Weinermobiles came thru town they where actually cooking hot dogs and handing them out for free along with a weiner whistle. No health departments to worry about back then. Somewhere I think I still have that whistle, shaped like a miniature weiner.

That would put it right in that same time frame as the guy's '57 Chevy. At the time I thought it odd but a few of years latter I was buying the widest tires I could find for my car both front and back. This guy was just ahead of the times.

I have herd several people mention that Wal Mart had models again. This must be a regional sale item since I haven't seen any locally. Many years ago they used to offer the AMT kits with the brown and tan checkered boxes. Some had most of the extras removed from the tree, but many were as originally issued and only cost $9.99. I couldn't stop buying them.

I think we just like to talk to people with shared interest. Looking at this photo I can see why you would have to get a lot of information to build something like this. The first thing that catches my eye is the Coil Over Shock sitting up in the rear above the Bed level. You have to wonder what all the builder has going on there.

Great looking little Roadster. I wonder what the time frame for this build was. I notice he has Pie Crust Slicks on both the front and back. I remember a guy who had a '57 Chevy 210 around '62 or '63 and he had a set of Casler Slicks all the way around. They had just enough of a tread pattern that the Cops left him alone. He just couldn't drive it in the rain. Within a few years the major tire manufactures started offering 78 series tires followed by the 70 series. By the '70's we had 60 & 50 series tires. My be Joe was ahead of his time and going for the better handling from the wider tires. Back to the subject, this is exactly what I was thinking with the Imperial head lights.

Check out the After Market / Resin section on this forum. Look under Directory, there're many casters listed there. The above mentioned MCW has an excellent reputation. Unfortunately we no longer have The Modelhaus. I have built Resins from Jimmy Flintstone and Star Models with great results. They're all listed in that section.

With the engine being the focal point it would almost be a shame to put any more body work around it.

That would be nice. I like to see how different builders do their engines, chassis and interiors.

Those were the days. AMT especially offered many options in every kit. You didn't have to wait for a reissue of a kit to get some build options or better decals. The bodies had excellent trim and the interiors, while being the bucket style, were still well defined. The only draw back might be the chassis and engines that you weren't always sure they belonged to the model you were building. Some of the chassis issues probably were from being based on the basic dealer promos of the time.

Great job capturing the '50's look. Very nice paint work and with the White trim really stands out. I wouldn't be concerned about the rear slicks. You may have heard of the "Pie Crust" slicks of that era. Most of these street and many of the Drag Strip tires of that period were recapped tires. The recapper would add spacers with the tread pattern to the center of the mold in the tread area. They would use a wider section of rubber to add to the tread area of tire carcass before putting everything in the mold. There was a few different sidewall designs at the time but the "Pie Crust" design seemed to be the most popular.

I'd like to see more of this build. I like this paint color combination, not something you usually see.

Very clean looking stock Corvette. The paint finish looks great and this is a color not often seen which is also nice.