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I always enjoy watching your builds. I like how you strive for accuracy on everything.

The dash and steering wheel color look almost like a dark Candy Apple Red.

This should be fun to watch. I remember when a lot of magazines were doing write ups and printing pictures of this car. The fact that it was not the normal mainstream body style of the time made it that much more interesting. The name and the body color also made it really stand out.

Nice save on the interior. You mention the shifter, and it does look a little agricultural in nature, but if you ever see the factory "Spaghetti" shifter you might like this one better. The base interior in the kit may just be more accurate than you think. I have no knowledge of the El Camino being factory built as an Impala. May have happened, but I have just never seen one back then. The only ones I have seen were modified by adding the exterior and of course the Impala interior. I like how you did the fabric portions of the seat. The body colored dash gives a custom look to the interior as well.

You make a very good point about the early CJ's. After WW II many returning GIs had first hand knowledge of the capabilities of these vehicles that were created going into WW II. The manufactures and Willys in particular had capacity to build these vehicles but the original market was all but gone. They started advertising the utilitarian uses such as what you experienced growing up on a farm. I think if a vehicle could ever be referred to as a "Swiss Army Knife" it would have to be the old flat fender Jeeps and their later versions as well.

I have also experienced this mystery battery draining issue. I had to replace the battery in our '09 Wrangler. This worked fine for a couple of months and then the battery was dead one day. Went back to the auto ;arts store and they checked the battery and said it was fine. Drove and recharged the battery and it was dead again in a week. Back to the parts store and it tested good again. I should mention that in both instances I had charged the battery with a trickle charger for a few hours and then drove about 20 miles to the parts store to get it checked. The resident expert at the parts store said that sometimes the computer would drain a battery while sitting. The car isn't driven on a daily bases, so maybe. I even took it to the dealer and they were no help either. Surprise Surprise. Batteries today are not cheap so I started using a trickle charger once or twice a week in hopes that would keep it going well enough to have enough charge when I did use the Jeep. I guess I got lazy or forgot and didn't use the charger for a couple of weeks when I started wanting to drive the Jeep. Now it started fine and has not given me any problems for several months. No one can explain how or why this has happened. I'm very carful about doors being fully closed and not doing anything that would cause electrical draining of the battery. I question the theory that the on board computer would be the cause, but it has seemed to stop. If anyone her ever finds out just what was causing their problems I hope they will share how what and why for those of use still chasing problem.

Are you going to make it a Crown Victoria ?? With or without the glass roof ??

Eight line from bottom and 18 across. Man my eyes hurt now.

Before I would discount one of these I'd be looking underneath to see how scraped up the skid plates are. If you spend anytime off road you will have a new found respect for this rig. He has the right tires and ground clearance, now how scraped are the skid plates and only then will you know if this guy is a poser or is serious.

With that much money you could hire a little boy for your dog to play with. I would take que from Jay Leno and have a large garage with living quarters attached. I think a few nice speed boats could be fun.

Very interesting concept. I like the way you detailed the engine.

I had followed your build on this and it turned out great. Beautiful paint, proper stance, good looking wheels and tires, I even like the Sun Visor.

Great looking build. I also like the color. It's fun to build a model of previously owned cars. I have also done a few. I'll bet you wish you had this Chevelle back in your garage.

Well the mower fiasco is in the rear view mirror now. I got the Air Filter that I needed at Home Depot as well as the Fuel Filter. Sears sent an acknowledgment that they received the returned over price Fuel Filter and they were crediting our credit card. Well we all now know that Sears is filling for Bankruptcy so getting any refund will be doubtful at best. This whole mess started because I couldn't find the belts locally. I saved the belt packaging since it had Suzuki part numbers and I recorded those numbers in my owners manual for the future. Since these were the original belts from 2002 I have my doubts that it will still be in service in 2030. I do know it will not be under my butt for sure.

I was only sharing what the writer put forward in his article. That is really all the more I know about this vehicle. The writer mentioned the fact that the vehicle his was driving was rear wheel drive only and that's all I know on that subject. The Roxor you mention as being a 4 wheel drive makes sense to me but I really don't know .

These Cougars were very nice cars in 1:1 and this model shows that well. Interesting color combination that really looks good on this model. Nicely detailed engine also.

Great looking paint work and the chassis and engine are cleanly detailed.

I was going to suggest a NASCAR chassis since the body seemed to be heading that way. I like how you changed to look of the body with just a few cuts.

One of the best feel good stories in a long time. A note on the cars colors. If someone described the Yellow with Green hood I would have said it would look hideous. After looking at the way that Ford did it I think it looks far better than if they had painted it Black the way it would have been done here.

We live near a small body of water, and the bug spray guy says that promotes the growth of Spyder's. Now that the weather is starting to cool off from summer the Spyder's are coming inside. I have sprayed but that hasn't seemed to slow them down much. They seem to like door ways and corners. I'm about ready to carry a brume with me when I go from room to room.

I think it was Motor Trend or Auto Week magazine had an article on this very car in the last month. In the article the author drove one in a river crossing and back and was very impressed with its performance especially since it is a 2 wheel drive only. Other than its general appearance it shares nothing with the Wrangler as the author points out. The rig has been a very big seller in India, but with a limited top speed I think the idea for the US is to offer something along the lines of the popular side by sides that people use off road now.

I was in fact talking about the rollers. As for the haul, in my opinion anyway, the bow portion running too about the seating area is more Tug Boat than Flat Bottom. Based on the boats that I have been around that were owned by friends that had Flat Bottoms this area was much narrower and sleeker looking. This may have to do with the hauls manufacture as much as anything. It would impossible to say really without knowing which manufacture the haul is based upon. This is still a great kit and I have a few others that I have picked up thru the years for future builds. The trailer thing can be fixed. One change I did on my build was to cover the step plates on the side of the trailer with some scale diamond plate much like you see on many boat trailers. The rear lighting and license plate mounting is another area that you will need to get creative with, but isn't that half the fun of building a model in the first place.

Another superb Ford. Always enjoy looking at your builds.

You're right about the Tail Lights, decals are present for a custom version but the stock tail lights are still on the chrome tree. They are very small and easily overlooked. The only other difference, if it really makes a difference, has to do with the Hood. The stock version has the holes for the Hood Rocket predrilled and the Custom has pilot holes on the underside that can be opened if the Hood Rocket is going to be used. Again you can't go wrong with either kit.

I have built both and enjoyed them. The main differences that I noticed was that the first issue, the one with the green car on the box, is stock as stock can be. Nothing wrong with that as it's a very nice kit. The Custom kit, with the maroon car, offers some options for the engine. Besides the duel exhaust there is a 3 x 2 carb set up, finned valve covers, headers, and the '55 Olds style Fiesta hub caps all on a chrome tree. The Transmission is a Hydromatic in the Custom and a Manuel in the stock. A set of pad printed white walls are also included. There quality may very as my first kit's tires had to be striped and I made my own white walls. the second Custom Kit the white walls were fine, so that part may just be the luck of the draw. The Decal sheet is smaller and the focus is on pinstriping and some car club plaques. The original has the decals Mexican Pan-American race from 1950. The city of Portland sponsored such a car at that time and it carried "City of Roses" livery and some sponsors names plus a set of white wall decals. I would highly recommend either kit as they are easily built and the proportions seem correct to me. I think the biggest difference depends on what type of build you have in mind. For me it's the Custom because that is what I usually build, but I grab either one since the stock one can be easily modified.