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One thought in my mind would have to do with the cost of production. The inside or mounting side can be used for many different applications. The outer half of the wheel can be tailored to the specific kit. There are many different outer designs and sometimes this may include different width tires also and this would be an easy way to make the outer half fit the wider tire. Just a theory on my part.

I use and would suggest Yahshu's method on the White Wall Decals. I might mention that when you're applying the decals and they don't want to lay down a little Solvaset can help. You mention the way that you have to man handle installing the tires on the wheels. This is a very valid concern. I'm at that stage on a build I'm working on of a Revell '50 Olds. Fortunately for me the build is being done with Black Wall Tires. I have my doubts if even their Pad Printed White Walls would survive my installation techniques.

Back in the "Hobby Stock" days in the mid '60's we would put the main leaf spring from an old car behind each rear quarter panel. The normal leaning into each other was fine, but if someone was trying to take you out they were in fore a rude awakening.

Are you going to leave it that way or modify them ?

I had a '56 Ford F100 in the mid '60's that was used by a land scaping company. The wood was gone and they didn't have the wood bed kits we have today back then. I got a couple of sheets of Marine grade Plywood and made a bed floor with one seam running down the middle.

Beautiful looking build and I really like the colors. I remember when those hub caps were popular on the 1:1's. They weighed about 25 lbs. each, try and balance that wheel and tire. Do you have any pictures of the engine and interior ?

I like the way you "aged" this and the setting for the pictures is perfect.

Great looking conversion. Looks like something you would expect for a dealership to use. Many of these were converted to commercial use during hard times.

I like the Diamond Plate flooring. This would make since even in the 1:1 since there would be moisture build up over time and a wood floor would rot out over time.

Great looking wheels, and the Brake Calipers look perfect.

Great looking color combination. Good looking engine with the injector stacks. The gauges look nice, but you might consider locating the Speedometer closer to the driver's position for ease of reading the speedo. Just put the three gauges to the right and the two gauges to the left of the Speedo.

Look forward to watching this build, especially with your personal background this should be interesting. The rear wheel openings seem almost to large at this point, but I'm sure you know the way they should be done.

You are definitely getting the '50's show car vibe. with the chopped steering wheel and the TV in the back seat.

I like the looks of the flares and the wheel and tire package.

I welcome the addition of the boat. The two go together naturally anyway. I did something on a much less ambitious scale with the Revell '66 Chevelle Wagon and a Hemi Hydro. I like how you're doing the deck on the boat. I'll have to try that when I build the next boat.

Begs the question of changing the hood out at the end of the lease.

I used to use a bent up coat hanger to mount the body on for painting. For a few years now I have been using the Tamiya paint turn table, to me it was money well spent. While the stand offeres some different types of clips to hold parts to be painted I have been using something different for that. I use a wood scrap about 3/4 inch thick and mine is about 5" by 8". I cut lengths of coat hanger and drilled matching holes in the board, 3 rows of six holes, so that the lengths would stand upright and I On the end of the lengths I attached some alligator clips that will hold a part or a spruce to be painted.

The masking is always the issue, especially with the Corvette style striping you're wanting to do. My suggestion would be to paint the lightest color first. Since part of this or another color will also show above the lower area you could overlap the lighter color further up the side of the body since the lower color will appear above the body line also. You mentioned having some real fine tape from Tamiya and that is what I would recommend also. Masking the portion of the light colored lower body is pretty straight forward. The next row of tape I would try and use some tape that is 3 mm or narrower. We'll call this row #1. Next you'll run another row of tape, row #2, that is as narrow as you can get. The next row #3 would also be as narrow as you can find as this will be the area that is going to be the top edge of the lower body color. Before painting you will remove the #1 row of tape all the way around. This is the area just above the break of the lower body color and this will allow that area to be painted the same color as the upper body. Row #2 stays and masks the lower body color that was painted earlier. Should you want a third contrasting color you would mask everything except row #1 as this will become the area of your third color.

Please share any pictures you get from the show.

You might try outlining the area you're wanting to paint with a #11 blade. This forms a microscopic BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH to keep the wet paint where you want it and gives you a sharp edge between the colors.

Some builders say you shouldn't use any clear over Decals. Some like to use a coat of clear to seal the decals, and that would be me. Some will clear the body ones and then install the Decals and then coat with clear again. There are many ways to do this and sometimes you just have to figure out what works for you. You mention that you have sanded the finish and that is still somewhat dull. My thought is that you want the surface below the decals to be as smooth as possible. At this point if you applied the decals it would be like putting them on a flat non gloss finish. This would show the complete outline of the decal plus a milky look surrounding the image and the edge of the decal. At the very least I would polish the body to a very high sheen before applying the decals and then clear over them. I would prefer to apply a light coat of clear, and polish it. Then apply your decals and seal with another clear coat as you suggested. Now this is just my opinion and I'm sure some others will offer theirs. As I mentioned there many different ways to do this, and I would be interested also in seeing what others have found works for them.

I use mine continuously. There are many on the market, mine just happens to be made for Testors by Xuron Corp. As GMan pointed out the ease of removing parts from the spruce is one of the primary reasons, but they are designed to get into very tight places to remove a part with no damage to the part.

Beautiful looking T-Bird. The Wheels and White Walls look like the perfect combination on this cruiser.

I like the paint and the finish. Again you got the stance look'n good. That is a good looking casting with nicely shaped windows.

Beautiful looking build, I like the color and the stance. The wheels really make it look aggressive. I don't know what all you had to do with the casting to make it look this good but it was worth it.