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Beautiful foiling. Nothing eats up foil like a '50s model car and especially a '59 - '60 Impala. Great color/interior color combo.

While I agree with you about Pres. Clinton signing the NAFTA agreement, you have to remember that NAFTA was created by Bush 1. We will never know what all went on behind closed doors, but I think it is wrong to blame Clinton for the NAFTA mess that was created before he ever ran for president. That said I think time has proven it was the wrong thing to sign the agreement.

I use Tamiya paints and very little else. My building area is in the basement and it stays in the low to mid 70's but it is somewhat humid. I have a ceiling fan going almost all the time, and I noticed that the paint will start to due just what you described if I don't turn off the fan. Your arid conditions along with the air conditioning or any fan you may be using may be your problem.

I did the Mazmanian '41 Willys and used a light coat of Tamiya clear Red, same as on the body. I have also used a very light coat of Tamiya TS-71 Smoke for others. I have seen other builders use Clear Blue and Green to look more OEM.

In the 60's I worked for Good Year in their retail stores in southern California. In addition to tires and the normal auto repairs you would expect they sold General Electric appliances, TVs and stereos. We also sold various after market wheels. They had Cragars, Keystones, ET, and Shelby wheels. The different companies all offered several different styles of wheels. The Cagars seemed to be bought by those wanting a more showy look. The Keystones were bought mostly by the cruisers. Shelby had the best looking "dish slot" wheel at the time. The ET's had both dish slots and painted spoke wheels looking much like an American wheel at a much lower price. The one draw back or advantage, depending on how you looked at it, with the ET was their "Unilug" mounting. The bolt area had a recessed oval area where you would put a "Unilug" depending on the bolt circle of the car. You could move a set of wheels from say a Ford to a Chevy by just changing the "Unilug" as that would change the bolt circle. Great from an inventory standing, but you better re torque those lugs after a very few miles and keep an eye on them. My '67 El Camino 396 4speed was just two years old when I went to work there and I put Shelby 14x7 and 14x9s on with Polyglass GT F60x14 and L60x14 tires on.

Pegasus has a set with the wheels with no centers and you could cut down some rally wheels or what ever you wanted for centers and you would have a polished outer with a low profile tire on it.

All very nice, even the early ones. You might take a moist Q-Tip and clean them a bit and then they would look great again.

Great build. I think the regular GTO's looked better than the Judge's with the circus stripes anyway.

Great build, very clean looking. A good pin vice is your best investment. I use a 026/71 drill bit for most under hood wiring.

Beautiful build with outstanding paint finish.

You have gotten a couple of very good ideas on lowering your Nova. The last '69 Nova I built I also wanted a lowered front suspension, but used a little different approach. If you study your picture for a moment you'll notice that the upper control arm has a curved surface to meet the wheel mounting hole which would be the spindle on a 1:1 car. What I did was to saw the circle from the lower control arm. You will not get the whole thing but will be left with a flat surface just below the opening for where the tire is mounted. Then do much the same thing with the upper control arm removing the part that the mounting ring would fit into. Then revers their positions between the upper and lower control arms. If you look at the picture and imagine the two upright mounting surfaces reversed it will work out to about 2" to 3" lower than stock. The part you removed from the upper control arm will have a flat surface to mount on the lower control arm. The part removed from the lower control arm will also have a flat surface to mount to the upper control arm.

Been watching this build and it just gets better and better as it goes along. If your hand wasn't in the picture it would be hard to tell if it was real or not.

I recently changed out the kitchen sink sponge and found that if you rub it a few times on a real banana it is almost the same as the banana Twinkie.

Perfect looking, really like the flames.

It looks like the seats and windshield will be the least of your problems. That tail panel and tail light are one now. If you haven't tried the freezer method yet that may be a good place to start.

O how I would so love to do just that. Thank you for the laugh I really needed that.

Great looking build very realistic. Does your wife know you were doing burn outs in the driveway ?

Looks like a fun build.

Great looking build. I also share the thoughts on the detailed chassis. As an aside on the Magnum wagon. Several years ago my wife and rented a car for a road trip rather than risk any damage to our cars. We got a rental Magnum with the 2.7 liter engine. We loved everything about the car except for the very sad engine. A couple of years later we were in the market for a new car and when looking for a Magnum in 2010. Now out of production and no used ones that fit we ordered a Charger RT with all wheel drive. If they where to put the Magnum back into production we would get one. The '10 has about 75k on it and the transmission is starting to shift funny.

Hard to imagine how much tedious work must have gone into creating this model. Very impressive build.

Beautiful build and very accurate to the subject. Only a Corvette could pull off that color combo and make it look good. .

Just got the Sept. issue of Hot Rod Deluxe. On page #72 there is an article written by Ed Zinke, he was asked to build model of a '32 Ford three window for the magazine. I was not aware of the supplied kit, but it looked like something that would interest others here. The kit is a 1:18 scale from The Genuine Hotrod Hardware company. Several good color pictures and good explanation on the build.

I have been there, but it has been many years ago and the track has received many upgrades since then. Some things are true of most racing venues when it comes to basics. The ear protection is a must for your children and yourself also. I would look for their web site and see what all they offer in your situation. If you have not visited the Monterey Peninsula before it is a very pretty area and usually some what cooler than SoCal. Enjoy your weekend.

I think if you would take some pictures of this model in some dried grass out side some one would never know it wasn't real.

I have the same two kits to try and do what you did just have to finish a couple of others to get there so when I saw this I was really happy to see how it turned out. The '57 Ford has a special meaning for me as I have owned two in the past and they were really great cars. I had both of them nosed and decked, they just look better that way.