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Some very interesting choices made by others, but some of us are very limited on what we could pick. In 1944 it would of been Olive Drab or Battle Ship Gray in color and would have had an equipment number stenciled on the hood. I would have a Jeep. At the time there was very little that would stop it and this was before high performance vehicles were very common. We have a JK now that is modified for better off road fun and we're less than a month away from the Jeep Jamboree at SMORR in southern Missouri. They may not be fast, but they are fun. If I was born say even ten years latter it would be something with the lightest body and biggest engine in it that you could get.

Like the chrome wheels either way, white walls or black walls. I noticed a lot of work done on the inside of the bed and what looks like you have shortened and or lengthened the bed.

Beautiful looking Torino. I like the extra details with different shades of paint and the plug wire boots.

Nice build so far. I really enjoyed building one of these almost box stock and with just a few little personal touches they really are great.

In the 60's I had a friend that had a '65 Plymouth hardtop. I don't think it was the very top line model only because the interior was not anything special. I only rode in it once for a short ride to the coffee shop and back and it just didn't seem as well put together as my '66 Impala SS was. His was a 318 or 273 with an automatic and was his wife's driver. It was a silver color that he said he couldn't keep from oxidizing. In all fairness this was in San Bernardino California and as anyone that has lived there can tell you the summers there can be brutal on paint. It had a red and white cloth interior, but other than that it was not a very impressive car. Sorry to all of you MoPar enthusiast.

On the subject of most often towed: This usually has to do with the number of those models sold. Reliability: As others have stated most vehicles today have a good reliability record but as they age they usually are not maintained as often as they should be. I found it interesting that others have found out that they do not have a transmission dip stick. I thought it was just a Chrysler thing but it seems others are finding the same problem. We have a '10 Charger RT AWD that I had to go buy a universal dip stick for. The dip stick comes with a chart to tell you how much oil is in the transmission depending on the reading. There are several vehicles listed with most being imports. The transmission in the Charger is of a design from when Mercedes owned Chrysler and I thought that might have something to do with it. This my now enable me to convince my wife that we should really buy something from the '60's just so I can keep it going. You know like a Corvette or something like that.

Outstanding ride !! I guess you will be buying a few of Revell's forth coming '48 Ford coupes.

Almost looks like small block heads on a big block. Is there an optional engine in this kit ? Is it possible that the heads have two different part numbers listed in the instructions ? While this is not common since in the 1:1 the heads can go on either side. Some times the under side of the head will have a different aligning slots from one side to the other and some times they can even just be mounted up side down. Hope this gives you a place to start looking.

Thank you for the great pictures. I'm not a low rider builder but the paint jobs and the level of detail is always impressive. To bad about all of the girls that kept getting in the way of your photo shots.

Not sure how you would feel about this, but in that era a lot of manufactures had the dash and window moldings painted to look like a wood grain pattern. Just a thought if you wanted it to look a little different.

I wasn't that sure about the new trunk treatment until now. It definitely is sleeker looking now. I like the tutone paint also.

The idea of building your own model would be the most economical if you have any experience at all building models, plus you have the reference subject in the driveway when needed. Plan B would be to approach some local modeling club to see if of the members would want to help you. On your 1:1 truck if you can't afford to rebuild the engine then maybe a good used engine might be an answer for that problem. If it is otherwise as good as it is good looking as the body in the picture and you seem to have enjoyed it I think it might be worth saving.

While I still purchase most of my supplies and models from a local hobby shop, Hobby Lobby locally offers a wide verity of tools and paint as well as a good selection of models. Depending on what I need I'll purchase some items there, with the 40 % off it's hard to go wrong.

Hugh, I can see that you have gotten many good ideas from your request including some I had never thought of that I will be trying in the future. I never asked, but it sounds as if your are using an after market prewired distributer. The ones that I have used come with a short piece of tubing that you can use to make spark plug boots. This would help the appearance and also help hide what ever glue you should to use. I would like to see how this turns out for you.

I have used Zap-A-Gap and Model Master liquid cement (the black triangle). Both have worked well. The issue of the glue showing may be solved by a little touch of flat or semi gloss black around the area where the plug wire inters the valve cover. On a 1:1 there is a black rubber boot on the plug wire in that area and you could use that to cover any glue there.

Great looking Low Rider. Looks like something out of Low Rider Magazine.

Great looking build. My two Plymouth bodies set on the bench like a rocking horse.

The Chris Craft engine I believe was a flat head six. In the late '40's and '50's I believe that Chris Craft used an engine supplied by Gray Marine, and it was an adaptation of a Chrysler six cylinder. I'm sure there were other engines also and I think this would have been their standard engine.

I watched the this episode only because of it being set on the Rubicon. I have just never gotten that excited about the US version. I wanted to see just how rough the Rubicon was. While difficult it didn't seem as terrifying as they made it out to be.

While I shared my personal experience with the engine color thing, it may well have to do with what plant and when the engine was built. My experiences are while living in southern California and most of the vehicles were either built in South Gate, Van Neys, San Jose and Arlington Texas. While not a small block , I remember a friend that had a '58 Impala with the 348 engine and it was the red color from the '50's small blocks. I was working at a Chevrolet dealership in '74 in Santa Maria Ca. when first '75 Nova's arrived and they had the blue 350 4bl carb. motors at that time. I think the whole deal with the Corporate Blue engines came about because GM had put Chevrolet engines in some Oldsmobile and Buick vehicles so that they could meet government smog standards. The owners raised a stink and sued GM. The sticking point was that GM had not disclosed the Chevrolet engine and the attorneys took it from there. If any of you have been in or around the car business then you know nothing is set in stone as they say.

How and where are you going to put the radiator ? or are you going to stay with the stock engine ?

Your wagon looks dead on, gold inset aside. I have owned two different '57 Fords years ago and the were every bit as nice as the '57 Chevrolet that I also had.

This looks like a really great build. A real shame about the first paint job. You mentioned that you changed the front end and in one picture you can see just the edge of the front, so what have you done there ?

Thank you for the information, will have to check this out.

I believe the color transition came about with the '58 model year products. My reasoning comes from ( yes I'm old enough) looking under the hoods of brand new '57 Chevrolets before they were delivered to customers. I owned a '57 Chevrolet when it was considered a late model car and was purchased from the original owner. The engine was the darker red color and had never been touched. About this same time a very good friend of mine received his parents '58 Chevrolet Impala as they were buying a new car. He had the 283 engine and it was the red/orange color and had also never been changed in anyway before he got it. This leads me to believe that that is the time of the color change. While it was at a later time I purchased a new '66 Impala SS with a 396 and 4-speed and the engine was the same color as my friends '58 Impala. All of the engines in Chevrolets that I bought new after that time were the same color until the last being a '74 Chevrolet 1/2 ton with a 454 engine. Some time around '75 Chevrolet went to the GM Corporate Blue color and then all engines were painted black after a time. I hope this helps.