espo

I really like the red color. The extra detail painting on the top really makes it standout.

They have an expression in Kansas, "If you don't like the weather wait a day or two". Just since New Years we have had over night temps from at or below 0 with highs in the teens. The weather geeks on TV are saying that by Wednesday we'll have highs above 55 before we dive back into the deep freeze. One minute you're enjoying a glass of wine on the deck in the evening and the next you're throwing seed out the back door for the poor birds. Well we're just a few months away from complaining about the hot summer so there's that to look forward to.

While having nothing to do with models, but everything to do about Disabled Vets, there is an off road park here in Kansas that has a fund raiser every year for the Wounded Vets. The Kansas Rocks Off Road Park has a fund raiser in February called Frost Bite. The funds are used for a summer time event where Wounded Vets get to ride along with people with off road vehicles thru the park. My wife and I intend to participate this February and also the weekend of the ride along with our Jeep Wrangler. These men and women have represented our country with Valor thru out the world, so this is the very least we can do. If this is of interest to anyone I would suggest going to their web site Kansas Rocks. Com for any further information. I'm not affiliated with them in any way except that I pay to go off road there several times a year.

Floyd. Andy H. has pointed out some very good info on the Continental Kit. All of the ones I remember seeing the bottom edge of the tire was well below the rear bumper and stood more upright. Two reasons I can think of are the view to the rear for the driver wouldn't be obstructed and the tire could be tilted to the rear to access the trunk. The picture of the Quarter Panel seems just wrong to myself. I looked back at pictures of the two '57 Fords that I owned and the molding from above the rear wheel opening does in fact extend all the way to the bottom of the body. I think if you look at maybe restored 1:1 cars on line you'll see what I mean about this body feature. It does get very faint toward the bottom of the body feature but looking at my shelf model it is almost identical to the pictures of my old cars. The picture that Andy shared with you is a perfect prototype to work off of.

I was thinking they might be the rear wheel option on the old AMT '49 Ford. They had an optional deep set rear wheels and slicks. I just don't think they ever issued the get in green though. Could those wheels have been painted ?

I did the convertible conversion several years ago. I was replicating a '57 Ford convertible I had owned years ago. These are really good kits especially considering the age of the kit. Are you going to use the custom interior or stay close to stock?

The thing with banks and lenders of any type, you're just a number and the personal banker thing has been gone for years.

I don't have their E-Mail address but you could google them. Just put in Gofer Racing Decals. I'm sure something will turn up.

Thank you for looking. I'm glad you enjoyed them.

Great looking builds. The exotics look nice but I really like the muscle cars best.

That top looks really nice. I think it looks like someone could even drive this if they were 1/25 our size. A thought on the engine mount. You might create an engine mount that drops down from the frame then curves to meet the side of the engine in the normal manor. Or if you want to use a mount like many race cars use, an engine plate that mount to the front of the engine and to the chassis. This way you could set the front of the engine at a height that would keep it level and the drive shaft would clear your floor boards. One problem you may run into is that now that the frame is Z'd the oil pan may be on the ground. Of course if you have an old NASCAR engine laying around you could always go with a dry sump oiling system. The old rule of thumb was that no part of the chassis or drive line could hang any lower than the outer edge of your wheel rims. The reasoning was that if you got a flat then nothing from under the car would strike the ground. The other alternative on the drive line is to run it level thru the cab and just make a very tall drive tunnel thru the interior, and that may be the easy way to do it.

That is a great kit with a lot of extra parts and build options.

I just use Tamiya primers on everything. I know it mat cost more but I just don't have any problems so that's what I do.

Great looking weathering. Poor Ford has had a hard life.

Beautiful build. A lot of fine detail work. The Japanese cars look great also, but I'll take the Nova any day.

I was going to ask about the hood when I saw the first photo. One of the features that I think would look good is to have the rounded corners where the hood drops down in front. The louvered hood looks perfect with this body style.

What a great collection of photos. I enjoyed looking at the and identifying all the cars that I could. Remember a few from childhood as older members of my family owned some of these. The '49 Ford reminds me of the time I went with my father to take delivery of our brand new black '49 Ford four door.

Are you selling of some of your stash or are you moving ?

As you have seen many have had similar paint issues. My suggestion would be to try to keep all of the paint you are using be from the same "family". I have had the same thing when painting lacquers over enamel. The difference in drying time seems to be the biggest problem. Some times when the colors you want to use are not available from one paint maker it can get real messy as you found out. You may have to strip the whole thing and start over. Hopefully it didn't effect the plastic.

The surf board mounting is very creative. It looks perfect and in scale. That's another one of your ideas that I'm stealing.

I don't want to get away from your build, but another thought on the smashed headers. Kurt's provided link reminds me of a personal experience with headers. When I was young and thick of hair and thin of waist unlike now, The first thing we did was put headers on our cars even if they were stock otherwise. This was the first step to upping the horse power and they sounded good. I happened to be living in southern California at the time and would attend the Saturday night Drags at Orange County Raceway. Hooker Headers would sometimes wonder thru the parking lot looking of engine and chassis combos that they would use to test fit and build prototype headers off of. One night I found a request on my car to see if I wanted to let them use my car. You of course know the answer to that. They eventually used my El Camino 396/350 4-spd, '68 Bel Air 427/385 4-spd and my '72 Nova SS 350 4-spd for prototyping. In return I got a free set of headers installed by their shop at no cost. It was like winning the lottery. Where I went wrong was on the Bel Air. When I was given the option on the header size I always thought bigger was better , so I requested the largest primary tubes I could get. They warned my that I would lose low end torque if I didn't further modify the engine. This was the wife's driver and she wasn't to keen on the idea that I further modified the engine. They were right because it felt like I dropped at least 50 HP with the headers until I replaced the Quadrajet with a Holly. The thought is that you might not have lost that much power after all.

The basic Comet kit has a set of smooth valve covers that you could paint or in the case of the K engine they were chromed. In the past I have used Alclad spray chrome and have used Bare-Metal foil that worked just as well. I think just about any of the optional air cleaners from any other kit would work. As I recall the open air cleaner was very slim because of the low hood. I think you could just trim the bottom of the open air cleaner until it looks correct, and clears the hood.

The tail lights where purchased from Honest Charlie Garage thru there mail catalog when the were still based in Chicago Il. They offered several different styles. I had used both their flat lenses on one car and they also had a style where the center came to a soft point on a different '57 Ford. Not a common sight today.

Because of your location it may be a little difficult, but check the After Market/Resin section of the forum. There are many who have what you're looking for, it just might get expensive with shipping.

I usually leave the old paint bits to settle on the bottom. Then use an inexpensive colander to strain the fluid as I pour it back into the container.