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I'm in for the 5 spokes and big and bigger tires as long as it's not much more than Pegasus prices.

Man I have been waiting for this model for a long time. Can't wait. Just one thing, and I don't want anyone thinking I'm looking for the fly s##t in the pepper , but the molding on the leading edge of the hood looks larger than I remembered. It maybe just the way it's foiled, but I remember this as a very thin molding. I can see that a great deal of work has gone into making this an exact kit.

Great job fitting the hood to the body. I think when I made a remark before about the hood to cowl fit, what I didn't realize was the wood door trim on the door and not the cowl.

Thank you for the info on the hood conversion. I was thinking of using Plastruct 1/8"/3.2 mm "L" stock to shape the curve in the fenders for the hood and then fill behind the "L" stock with putty. From the pictures it looks as thou the hood could even be to narrow.

That may depend on the size of your spark plug wires. There are many different ideas on this , but what I have done is using a prewired distributor I'll drill the head for the diameter wire supplied with the distributor. The Parts by Parks distributors that I usually use the wire is about 0.21 or a number 75 drill. I use the supplied tubing to cut what looks like a spark plug boot and slid over the end of the wire after cutting the wire to length before gluing the wire into the head. The detail is small enough that to my eye it looks like a spark plug covered by the boot. I'm sure there are others here that my have other options for you. I'll also save the spark plug wires that are cut shorter for other detailing as needed. Hope this helps.

Glad to see you are back on this project. I have also thought of the louvered hood on the woody for my next build. I would like to see what all it would take, have never figured out why it wouldn't just be a bolt on.

Love'n the picture of the Ranchero.

Your wife sound like my wife when it comes to Jeeps. She has gotten me into the whole off road thing now. We'll be at the Jeep Jamboree at Land between the Lakes in Kentucky next month. Great looking CJ, what engine are you going to use ?

Great looking build. A friend of mine had one of these in the mid 60's in black. As I recall Ford would mount the surge tank between the radiator and the air cleaner much as the Air Conditioning compressor is mounted. As I recall the surge tank had a tube running from the bottom of the tank to the intake manifold and contained the thermostat. The top radiator hose ran from the top of the radiator to the surge tank. This was done to make the surge tank higher than the radiator so that no air bubbles would be trapped in the cooling system.

Fantastic body work. What was your chrome question ?

I personally would be a buyer. I have owned two El Caminos in the past. A new '67 396/360 h.p. 4-speed. It even had to work for a living. At one time I had 4 - 55 gal. drums of anti freeze and several cases of one quart cans in the bed. Just put those air shocks up to 70 lbs. and that thing would stay level with no problem. Drove it over 100,ooo miles and sold it for half of what I paid for it new. Years later I picked up a well used '66 El Camino 283/225 h.p. with a P.G. No power house but it would keep up with traffic. Fast forward to just before G.M. tanked and they were talking about bringing the Holden Ute as a Pontiac to the U.S. , I was ready to trade my '05 GTO for a new what ever they were going to call it. Then we all know what happened to G.M. and our nations economy. I would very much like to be able to buy an El Camino.

I have used both the "coat hanger" method and the Tamiya stand. What I may be doing different is that I will tape the contact arms to the inside of the body. This way they will stay put and not fall off. Its worked for me anyway.

That's a nice little Chevy 6. The transmission doesn't look like a factory 3-speed manual, more like a "racing" type transmission with the tail housing missing. If you have another transmission you might want to use that. I also noticed it has a power steering pump, not something you often see on a six.

Thank you for sharing your photos. It looks like a great show.

It might cost a little more, but getting the wheel centered might be easier. Take some plastic, aluminum or brass tubing that will fit into the wheel and has an inside diameter that matches the spindle. It will give you a wheel that will not wobble.

Thank you for sharing your pictures. I always enjoy seeing what and how others are building. Great looking builds.

The chrome bumper looks really nice, did you have it redone ?

I also was a very Car Crazy teen in '59. The paint treatment in your picture I think is something done after they bought the car. The only tutone paint treatments that I recall had either the roof painted usually a lighter color than the body, or the roof and the area below the side moldings painted to match. I do remember seeing cars that had been painted with the area between the fins and the valley running down the hood to match. This was done by the owners and not from the factory.

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.