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That's to bad. In one picture it looks almost as if a hair is sitting in the center of the hood. It's a real pain when you have to redo all that work but I'm sure you'll make it look right.

I was checking this morning on the sell thru prices at Mecum Kissimmee. Some great buys and some stupid money on others. The thing I notice is the so so cars on EBay try to follow the auction prices. The problem is the cars the sellers are offering on EBay aren't even close to the quality of the Auction cars.

This may sound harsh, but this may be grounds for cleansing of the gene pool. If at this time in her education process she hasn't learned anything about currency exchanges I just don't hold much hope for her future.

I like your build and the Dog is cool also. Are the windows going to be mounted inside the moldings or on the outside ? As I recall the style of that time was to have the windows set back into the body work and very small trim around the glass.

Very nice paint job. Very clean build and I like the overall style. Unusual to see the exhaust routed under the differential.

Very nice looking builds. The Suburban paint scheme looks like a Cal. State Forestry Dept. I'll bet that Wrecker was a fun build. The '53 Ford looks perfect. The rebuild on your real Skylark is a big undertaking.

This build will give me nightmares for a week. I saw to many of these guys in my rear view mirror when I lived in SoCal. Seriously, I like the body and wonder where you got that ? The paint job looks correct. As a thought to verify the appearance you might want to look on You Tube at Jay Leno's Garage. He had an adventure where he profiled the Highway Patrol Cars and one of them is this same model restored and owned by the CHP, and a retired officer who drove these cars is interviewed. If nothing else it was very interesting. A lot of back information on the patrol cars thru the years.

The engine and interior both look great. I'm surprised by your paint issues, what brand did you use ?

I'd forgotten about this build I thought it had gone to Under Glass and I missed it. Glad to see you're getting back to it. Not sure of the hood problem you mentioned, it looks fine in the photos.

Amazing detail on your build. The Blue Dot tail lights are sort of a small custom touch that is not seen so much anymore and some states have even outlawed them because they can. If your wanting to stay close to stock I think your perfect as is.

All have offered good suggestions for an engine source. I think the now available reissued Mont Carlo would offer the easiest and most accurate 454 for your application. Depending on the accuracy you're going for there is some small differences between all of the mentioned engines. Any or all of these engines will "work" but there are small details that differentiate them from the OEM engine in your truck. The 454 in a truck application used the low profile intake manifold used in passenger cars such as the Mont Carlo and most other passenger cars equipped with the 454 engine. The exceptions would be high performance engines such as the Chevelles and Novas of that time. The H.O. engine could be used and a low profile intake substituted and a carb. that would look like a Quadrajet and use the standard cast iron exhaust manifolds. This all depends on what you have available as far as extra parts and if your truck was possibly modified in some way.

You should go into Mecum's Web site and see the different prices charged to have your car or truck hit the auction block on different days and hours. They usually start off lowest on the first day and it goes up later in the day toward TV time. Saturday or the last day is the most expensive especially toward the prime time on TV. They have a basic charge and a percentage of selling price charged to the seller and a percentage charged to the buyer. This is why you will sometimes see them offer a reduced percentage to the seller if they will remove the reserve on the price. This is usually done on higher priced cars since they are already getting a high base price from the seller and a couple of percent doesn't make that much difference in the overall transaction since the selling price and the buyers commission still gives them a good profit and they can brag about the sell thru rate to potential sellers.

I enjoy watching Mecum and often go into their web site to see what is being offered and what something has sold for. In the real world if someone including myself were looking for a late model German import this would be the place to go. I sold my '95 Chevy X-Cab 2wd pick up at the Kansas City Auction several years ago and even after commissions I walked away with a lot more than the dealer was going to give us in trade on the new Dodge we had ordered.

The engine looks very convincing to me.

Another beautiful build. I can see why Ford could charge extra for that Blue since it really shows the body lines well.

I followed your build on this and your 4 door conversion is perfect. The entire build is detailed and looks just like the 1:1 .

Great looking interior. I like all of the gauge and trim detailing. Others have suggested Pin Striping and that doesn't sound like something you are wanting to do, but should you change your mind you might look at the decals in the '50 Olds Custom kit. The decal sheet has several Pin Striping decals including some with a combination of the colors white and a color that would match well with the colors on your '55. I think it looks fine either way.

This sounds like a very ambitious project. While doable there are many easier was to get were you want to be. If it's a Customline two door your after the resin kit might be the best starting place. If you want a '56 Crown Victoria AMT offers a kit of that and you can make it a standard Victoria or a Crown and even has the forward glass roof panel. I don't think the 1:1 Drag car you're looking at was based on a real car, it was a fiberglass creation from the start.

Cool, I'm a happy camper now.

Looked at the thermometer this morning at 6 AM when I was making my coffee. 42 degrees and a gentle rain. Finish breakfast at about 7 AM it was 34 degrees. At 12;30 it is 17 degrees and light snow. Now many of you will think of me as being soft compared to your own weather but I think that is a little dramatic weather change. I guess it's just that time of year and we should be thankful that's all we have to worry about.

That would be nice to have out again. I don't care for the styling that they did on the car for the movie, but it would be nice to have the basic kit again and they may have the stock parts in it anyway.

Fried Green Tomato, that's what you might call it. I like the wheels and tires. That green is really bright.

Scale Motor Sports has just the decals you're looking for. Their part #SKU 1976 has the correct pattern for the '57 Bel Air. I have used these on a couple of '57 builds. I painted the seats in the main color like OEM. I created a templet for the seat patterns and the door panels. The decals are very thin and require you to take your time but the results are worth it. The appearance has just the right amount of the main color showing thru and the black pattern shows perfectly.

Very nice. You definitely captured the early '50's vibe. The top treatment is very original. The only thing I could think of would be a "black wash" on the grill to show it off better. I'd leave the paint wheels.

They are both great looking builds, but the Red one gets my vote. Like you I hardly ever do a Red car, but this is the correct car to paint Red.