espo

It has been a few years since I have had a chance to visit our good neighbors to the north. About 10 years ago my wife and I where vacationing in Washington. I wanted to show my wife the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula as she had never been there. We had gotten as far north as Port Angeles Wa. and I remembered a customer of mine telling me about an attraction in British Colombia. The next day we took the ferry to British Colombia . Any picture you have ever seen will not prepare you for the beauty of entering the port. We had to go to the Gray Hound Bus station to get tickets to go to Butchart Gardens. The station is or was very small and we both needed to use the restrooms. These rest rooms where cleaner than some of the restaurants around here. We got to Butchart Gardens and I have to say if anyone is within 10000 miles of this place you have to go and see it. We had lunch in there restaurant and it was the same thing. On our short visit we never saw a paper or any type of trash anywhere we went. The whole area was like it was ready to stand a White Glove inspection, those of you with any military background know what I'm talking about. Everyone was so nice and polite to each other and us that by the time we got back on the ferry I was feeling a little ashamed of myself. I have always tried to be nice toward others, but I'm an ##@@**^ compared to these people.

How comfortable are you with masking and painting your own ?? My experience with decal stripes has been pretty disappointing also. If they even hold together being that long they still show the body color through.

Looks great and the wheel base is even right. Years ago I lived at Pismo Beach Calif. and a few of the guys that rolled their 4x4's in the sand dunes would sometimes pick up a regular full size what ever and mount that on their 4x4 chassis. Used to see some very interesting rigs sometimes. Look forward to seeing how this goes. Do you have any chassis pictures yet??

The paint finish is outstanding. What brand of paint did you use ?? That dark red with black trim makes a very nice contrast. I like how you detailed the dash board, a shame some of those things are hard to see on a finished model, but you know its done.

Thank you very much Ray. I never considered the welting, might be a little beyond my skill set. Thank you Dan I'm glad you liked it. I did think of a 312 but I didn't want to strip any of my '57's right now. I do like a Ford in a Ford. Thank you Andy. I was looking for a '60's type Hot Rod. Those are the kit wheels and tires. Thank you David. This is Tamiya TS-86 Pure Red over gray primer and Tamiya clear. I think it looks correct for this era of car. Glad you enjoyed it Dale Thank you Derick. .

These are beautiful looking Drag Racers. Look forward to seeing more.

This turned out really nice. That could be a good idea if you just don't want to get bogged down in a build.

One way around the front bumper thing is to work on the Splash apron or gravel pan what ever you want to call it. What I did was to keep removing material from the surface where it meets the radiator support. I just kept going until it looked correct. The front bumper of course comes along with it and where it wraps around under the front fender will start getting into the wheel well opening. After you have the front apron where you want it you can remove what you need to from the bumper that is to far into the opening. This will require a little shaping of the bumper ends but it is pretty easy. For engine headers a couple of nice choices can be found in the small block Nova kit, and the '57 step side pick-up kit has some very nice headers. A set of Pegasus Chrome rims would look good with a little black wash to bring out the detail of the wheels and not make them look like kit chrome. If you can find a set of the Dog Dish hub caps from the '56 210 kit might also add to the look.

Thank for the heads up. I'll have to check and see if I need anything of his.

On the missing parts, sometimes the interior folded walls of the box will catch very small parts. If you haven't already checked that might be possible. I'll have to check out that Clear paint, your paint finishes are very nice and shinny.

That is quite an ambitious change to the chassis. The Black Mustang transmission tunnel looks narrower than the White Comet chassis ? This may not be a problem with the drive train you're using. Is the front suspension on the Mustang that much better looking than the Comet ?? The Toe Board to the Firewall might be the biggest problem with this conversion . This is a model that I intend to build this year so I'll be watching to see how you overcome any problems in your build.

I like the engine detail work. Just enough grime on it .

Beautiful finish on the paint. I agree the interior is really nice. Hard to beat a bright Red Muscle car.

I like your concept. I personally like the '56 Chevys, and my father had one when I was young. This kit has a disproportionately large over hang on the front bumper and gravel shield. Just something to consider. Making it into a Sedan Delivery type body is a great idea . I built a custom Nomad and removed the chrome strips on the tail gate. If you go that way, it is a lot of work and you will need to dedicate at least one sanding stick alone for that move. Wheel choice is always personal, but those 5 spokes would be my first choice. I have used a Chevy big block from various Revell kits and only had to fabricate basic motor mounts, If you stay with the small block it could be any displacement you want it to be. Use the duel Quads off of the '57 or even the Fuel Injection. I would check for headers in your stash or use the "Rams Horn" exhaust manifolds from the '57 kits. Didn't mean to tell you how to build your kit, just sharing some ideas.

You might want to double check what type of hydraulic lines are used on the 1:1. Copper it's self is a rather weak metal and doesn't like high hydraulic pressures. Copper will often be used in fittings, but the line it's self is usually a stronger steel component. This would include the clutch line also since there is also a great deal of line pressure there also.

X2

Sorry about that, I knew you might not like that part. I'm more of a Street Rod type builder. I do enjoy looking at your Showroom builds.

Thank you Kyle Thank you Steve Thank you Charles Thank you Donald Thank you Carl Thank you Steve Thank you Marty Thank you Dave Thank you Jim and thank you Bruce

I like the way you blended the two bodies and made it look like that is the way it should be. Very imaginative power concept.

This is really turning out nice. It might even look good without the bumpers.

I have seen your idea on the down turn exhaust and it is used a lot on 1:1 cars with the same suspension challenges. If your rear differential sits that high up in the frame you could run the exhaust straight back between the diff. and the "road". If you use a late model V-8 the exhaust manifolds are going to interfere with the steering box. I put a small block Chevy. in my build and had a real fight clearing the steering box.

I think this whole Ground Hog Day thing is just another way to deal with winter Cabin Fever. Has he never not seen his shadow ??

Very nice looking Cutlass, you would never know it was built with "left overs".

Considering all the problems you had with the kit the final product looks very nice. This looks like one of the old screw on chassis from years ago.

I don't know what you have in mind for the exhaust system, but once the frame is glued together it may be difficult to run the exhaust. I just finished the '48 Police version and made my own exhaust. There is very little room to work with. Since you're thinking about a different rear differential maybe a change to parallel leaf springs with say a differential from the '57 Ford kit or something like that.