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Seeing this proud car in this state makes me sad. Someone should have rebuilt this or had the decency to give it a proper crushing.

Great looking build. I like the power upgrade. This reminds me of so many Firebirds running around on the street back then, except for the engine.

Beautiful looking build. The way you blended the different body parts it looks as if it was cast this way. The way the body side moldings are inset and then wrap around the back and include the tail lights is very cool looking. The front end work looks perfect.

Vary nice looking build. I also like the color.

Great looking build, and I liked the story behind it. I also built this kit years ago, it looked good but not this good.

Great looking cars. Bill Jenkins brought a lot of engineering to Drag Racing and had some of the finest looking race cars.

Great looking interior inserts. The one little spot might be the perfect place for either a pillow or one of those stuffed toys they used to have in some kits.

I like how you blended the two bodies together. Very accurate looking Lincoln.

Love the Low Ridder paint work. I have seen You Tube coverage of the Hopper competition. After watching some of these cars I have to wonder if they would ever be useable for anything else after that. They are bound to have some rattles and squeaks after that.

Funny looking at the AMC Javelin now as being very desirable but at the time they really didn't sell that well. The original design and prototype AMC had at all the car shows was based on the American body style. I have to agree with the '61's being great looking cars. I wanted a Catalina in the worst way. The first Impala I saw I really didn't like at the time, bit that changed in a couple of years and I would love to have one and have built several models of the '61 Impala.

Looking at the problems you're having with this engine and the exhaust manifolds you mention reminds me of a project I'm working on. At first I couldn't remember where they engine came from, but the hole in the engine and the plastic color made me think it was either an AMT '63 Impala SS 409 or the '57 Chevy "Salt Shaker". I'm putting this same engine in the '60 Chevy kit that Round 2 just reissued. The exhaust manifolds want to run into the oil filter housing on the driver's side and the starter on the passenger side. I using a little heat, additional plastic tubing and some well chosen words. Just an idea on the exhaust manifolds as you get there.

I don't really know how the Wrangler models are selling in other parts of the country, but they are extremely popular in the Kansas City Metro area. When they introduced the Unlimited 4 door Wrangler their sales took off like a shot and understandably so. The reality is that less than 50 % of Wrangler buyers wound go "Wheeling" as we call it on a regular basis. Most were used for their ability to get around regardless of weather conditions. In this area the 4 door version of anything with 4WD was almost the default family vehicle. While the Wrangler has always had a unique appeal to many the lack of 4 doors kept the demand far lower than what we see today. When they started production of the Unlimited it gave Fiat/Chrysler the license to print money. With the new truck model they will even sell more. Now people can haul the family and make Home Depot/Lowes and COSTCO runs. The cost has reached a point that many people will have to lease since buying may be beyond their means. While I wish the Wrangler line all the success that I feel that it deserves I hope they don't stray away from the beloved 2 door Wranglers that we so enjoy.

I also followed your build on this. I like the color scheme and it looks like it just needs some sponsor's decals and a name painted on the sides. Great detail on the trunk and engine areas.

The one thing I have noticed with this question, every ones opinion is largely based on personal experiences early in life when we are most impressionable.

In the past I did devote more time to the headliner if it was going to be easily seen. The way I did it would require that all of the interior painting of window frames and such was completed. With the area for the headliner masked off and being sure none of the over spray would escape on to the body I would spray one of the Fabric colors from Model Master. I have used their Gray and the Tan and both give a very nice finish. You just have to remember that this paint can't be masked off in a later stage or you will lose the texture of the headliner.

I usually paint them a flat or semi gloss color to match the interior. The thing with headliners is that they are often not seen or even noticed.

The Gladiator looks cool and if you're only going off road and far into rough country it should do everything people would want of it. The only thing that I can see that would be a problem off road is the departure angels aren't as great as the normal Wrangler or even the Unlimited. They will sell all of them they can build. We looked at one on display at the Costco this weekend and thought that if it was offered as a 2 door that the wheelbase would be such that it would go some of the places that our JK 2 door will go. But it is a handsome looking vehicle.

We stopped using the plastic bags from the market or anywhere else a few years ago. The main reason was as mentioned they will crash and burn if more than two items are placed in them and the first corner on the way home the contents scatters all over the inside of the trunk. But a couple of years ago I was reading some issues of National Geographic and they were covering the floating islands of trash in the oceans made up mostly of plastic waste. The local markets started selling the canvas bags cheep and we bought some. They were also offering .05 off your bill for every canvas bag you used. As an aside, I remember when I was very young I would be embarrassed going shopping with my grandmother because she always used canvas bags at the market. This was when everything was put in brown paper bags. You must remember she was a young women during the depression and knew hardships we can only imagine. As it turns out granny was ahead of the times when it came to shopping.

Please post any pictures here for those of use that can't make it.

I have a question about the convertible top. I have this kit but haven't looked at it in some time. Is this a top from the kit or from something else ? The top looks like it might be a little wide where it meets the tulip panel.

Even as a Belvedere II and maybe a 273 v8 it is still a good looking car and if someone wanted to make it into a big block or even a Hemi it would be a great car to have.

I'm enjoying watching this come together. I never realized that the early AMT NASCAR kits had such a simplified chassis and no engine.

Great fabrication work here.

My apologies for some of my reparks to others and taking this in another direction. Please continue with any updates on your build and I promise I'll contain myself.

First off you have a great looking Javelin and you should be proud of it. I agree the 6+ inches seems a little much, but if you do it right it isn't supposed to be noticeable. Looking at the side view of your car, ands it may just be the angle, but the front tire looks almost as if it is set to far back in the fender flair. Looking under the hood on the Ring car you can see how much additional space there is between the engine and the grill area. These guys have built several amazing cars and they really know what they're doing so I'd have to take their word for the wheel base changes.