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In the April issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines there is an article written by Jim Donnelly about Willie Robinson. He has many pictures from the day from photographer Steve Reyes who spent some time with Willie in South Central Los Angeles. There are some great photos and some personal interaction between Willie and Steve Reyes.

I know that the "Orangutan" can be very belligerent, but from what I've seen this happens all to often with people who have been pampered far to much for far to long. Sometimes we all need to be struck by lightning just to bring us back to reality. All that said I hope that something can be worked out so that Top Gear can go on.

The colors you have picked look like some of the O.E.M. colors from '57 and '58 Pontiacs. Are you doing a Showroom, Day Two, or a Simi Custom ? Full wheel covers or "Dog Dishes" ? If you are going for a Factory look you might think about either black rims with wide whites or use one of the body colors. Look forward to seeing what you do with this.

I recently tried Empossing Powder based on the post you mentioned. I got a product called Zing from Joanns Fabrics. It is a very fine texture. What I did different is to glue down the powder and let dry. I then lightly spray painted it the color I wanted for the carpet, Testors Fiery Orange to match part of the exterior. Then sprayed it with a flat clear. It turned out very nice to my eye.

Beautiful build. The colors are period perfect.

Mad Max, no academy award just good excitement and entertainment. Top Gear had the young actor who will be the new Mad Max on, and in the interview he was telling how they all drove most of their own stunts. He is also a pretty good driver doing the "reasonable priced car" in 1:47.

I usually open the kit if its one I've not built before. I have only had two such experience and they were not bad ones. I bought the '50 Ford pick up, and when I went to build it later I found two complete chrome trees. I got an extra body in a '60 Chevrolet kit. Maybe I should start buying lottery tickets in stead.

I think they all look pretty neat. I like the radio controlled car, looks like a lot of fun. In the opening post of the 1:1 cars I think I saw the second one just a couple of weeks ago at the Autorarma at Bartel Hall in Kansas city. If its the one I'm thinking of it was built as a father son project, the father owning a custom body shop in the area. The workmanship is outstanding and has been shown in flat black for some time. At the show just a couple of weeks ago it is now the best looking gloss black with " true fire" type flames. The picture, as nice as it is, just can't do the car justice.

What seems to work best for me is the alligator clips mounted on the end of about 3" to 4" lengths of wire cut from an old hanger. Then get an old wood scrape and drill the proper sized holes for the hangers. I use a 8" long piece of 1" by 4" .

I like the trim you added. I built this same body last year and used the Revell Nomad as a donor. The only problem I had was where the body and the interior came together in the back. Just a little grinding on the body inside and then went together fine.

I agree that it is great that they are able to retire, they have done so very much for many of us. I also hope that they can find someone to takeover their business and continue supplying all of the itty bitty parts and conversions that has made them so resected in our hobby. Thru the years I have used so many of their products and they have always been of the best quality each and every time. I wish them well, and long life.

Another Tamiya option would be either TS-38 Gun Metal or TS-42 Light Gun Metal. The TS-38 is not as dark as the cap would lead you to believe. Either way you would want to cover with Simi Gloss. Flat clear may be a bit to flat. For the bumpers try TS-17 Gloss Aluminum with a Simi Gloss or flat finish depending on how it looks to you.

As suggested you could widen the rear fenders as needed, I did this on a '37 Ford PU build. The only real problem was where the fenders and the running boards meet up. If you are going super low on the rear suspension you could either notch the bed floor to clear or raise the bed floor as a unit. One idea if you should "tub" the rear tires into the bed, I've used old plastic pill bottles. They are very close to the diameter to cover larger rear tires, and are very easy to cut apart. One old pill container will give you several "tubs" and depending on the bottom surface you might even be able to use that as the inner wheel well.

Looks like a Tuner Type Buick, or some one very good at Photo Shop.

Joe. When I mentioned the spark plug wires and manifolds my mind was thinking of the early small blocks. I think it was around '64 or maybe sooner that Chevrolet redesigned their exhaust manifolds. In their later design the plug wires do in fact come over the valve covers and the exhaust manifolds make a 90 degree downward bend and then exist to the rear. I believe this started with '64 Chevelles, but that's only because that's the when I first saw this on the 1:1 cars. Your engine looks great, maybe a very light thinned flat black paint on the wires ? That may make them standout a little more if you like.

#4 Looks like a late '60s Dodge drag racing type hood. #5 Looks like a '68 to '70 Pontiac drag racing hood. #6 Is all Hemi bits. In line duel quad air cleaner, in line duel quad manifold, a NASCAR type manifold, and a cross ram manifold. I would bow to those with more knowledge on the Mopar parts.

In the 1:1 world the Mercury was built off of the base model Lincolns in the '49 and later models. Up till WWII Mercury's were slightly longer Fords. I believe there are resin body '49 thru '51 Ford Woody bodies available from several different casters.

You can bet that came from China.

You can spray without primer, but I think that you would be happier with the outcome if you used their primer. Their white primer is a little finer than the gray and works best if your going for a brighter finish color. Gray will sometimes make certain colors darker. Just depends on what you are looking for as an end color shade.

If you can, find a dehydrator with some type of temperature control and get a thermometer that you can drop down inside to keep an eye on the temperature. What can happen is the dehydrator can get to hot and start to warp what your drying. Its happen to me on a custom interior I had spent weeks on. This will expand your vocabulary.

One thing to think about on the spark plug wires is how they will get around the exhaust manifolds. Your newest engine looks like a small block Chevrolet, in which case the wiring may be ok if you use headers and the exhaust headers allow the plug wires can drop down between the header tubes. If you were to use the factory cast iron headers the plug wires would have to drop down on the rear of the head and travel forward tightly against the engine block and turn up to reach the spark plugs. On the 1:1 SBC there just is not enough room to come off of the valve covers and try to pass the plug wires between the stock manifolds and the heads. The exhaust manifolds would quickly burn thru the plug wires.

I also have a Charger RT, a track pack with AWD. The wheels in this kit are a match for the 225/60x18 on my Charger. I think what you will need is in one of the Challenger kits to make your car.

2X Tamiya putty.

Great looking old work horse.

Kind of a difficult kit to get to look right. You made it look really great.