zenrat

I second that. Don't mark guidelines on the plastic with a red sharpie and think you can just paint over the top. Don't ask me how I know...

I leave gluing the rear axle in place until I have fitted the chassis, interior and body together for the last time (as IME that is when previously un-noticed twists appear). Then, with the front wheels in place and the rear wheels fitted to the axle I put 5 minute epoxy on the attachment points, put the rear end in place and sit the whole thing on its wheels on an old Microwave turntable I keep for just this purpose. Usually, if there a slight twist then one or other of the rear wheels will drop slightly (although sometimes it needs to be helped down). If this happens then the glue will bridge the gap (and the gap will usually be very hard to see). Sometimes I need to put a weight on the front of the car (usually a tin of paint) to stop it sitting back while the glue dries. If you've got leaf spring rear suspension a tricycling car can sometimes be levelled by popping off the glue at the back of the springs and removing the shocks before gently but firmly pushing down on the rear end. Then reglue. Again you may need to keep weight on the back while the glue dries.

Is that a surfboard? Just a thought, but surfers 1) tend to have weed and are thus a target for the cops and 2) might look out of place in, say Iowa. How about making it a plumbers or sparkies ute and putting some tubes on the roof rack? Golden Ginger gets my vote - just 'cause of the name. I've successfully filled and sanded and primed the big hole where my bulge was (ooh errr missus!). Then I cut off the entire front clip. I'm now thinking maybe i'll lengthen the body rather than shorten the chassis. After all who's going to notice unless I park next to a standard length Citation...

Mock up. That spoiler has to go. Wheels are (probably) AMT '76 Caprice I found in one of my "wheels" boxes. Tyres are (probably) AMT (probably '66 Ford Galaxie) Goodyear Blue Streak Stock Car specials. I like the way they have "for racing use only" moulded on the sidewalls. Fitting the Prowler chassis is going to take a bit of work. It needs to lose 5mm to match the wheelbase and if I mount the engine in the usual location i'll be driving it from the back seat. Especially given I plan to replace the stock V6 with a V8.

That'd be Charlie Watts not Bill. Bill Watts is a former professional wrestler. I'm going with shiny paint in a bland and boring colour. I've just goggled Chevy Citation and there were some wonderfully yawn inspiring 2 tone paint jobs.

We have been busy haven't we. Unusually for me i've made a start and we're not even out of January. As I love the PSR cycle so much I couldn't wait to get started so I hacked the bulge off the Citation hood and roughly glued a piece of styrene sheet into the resulting hole. Today I sanded it down flush and primed it. Putty will be applied tomorrow. Or maybe in April. I have found some promising tyres. A set of MPC cheater slicks which I forgot I had. I think a flip front might be required on this one.

Glad you liked it Pat. It's still one of my favourites. 200 (US) Gallons of gas and IIRC it didn't even make it out of New York.

The AMT '70 Super Bee Pro Street chassis fits pretty well under that luxo barge Jon. Just saying... And DaveM - you're right about the '77 Chevy Van having plenty of room for fuel None of you will be surprised to hear that i've done nothing so far.

Anyone wanting a turbine but baulking at kitbashing a Johan Turbine Car can get a powerplant from one of the current full detail Batmobiles (and you can still build one with the Lincoln donk). Note you need the deluxe kit with the photo etch. Anyhoo, here's my official entry photo. That bulge needs to be removed from the bonnet and I'm thinking vinyl roof and beige or mustard paint. That's a 440 Magnum from a Revell Charger in the bag. Not sure about induction yet...

They fit real nice under a '58 Chev... ...or with a bit of cutting, under a Nissan Cherry However, my original inspiration for the '58 was an early 50's Hudson on a late model NASCAR chassis which was featured in one of Hot Rod's Dare to be Different issues.

"I don't think" you want to chance it. Why give them any reason to look twice at your car? You just want their eyes to wash over it as you roll past on a closed throttle praying it doesn't pop, crackle or spit back too loudly and that they don't notice that behind the cable tied hub caps you've got matt black 12" mags with speedway tyres... Not to mention the fun of trying to overtake slower traffic when you can't see round it and have to rely on the navigators expression to judge when to pull out - if he's not actually screaming then it must be clear yes? But of course everyone can do what they want. I just like to think through all the options before I start to build. Which is probably why I won't actually start for 9 to 10 months...

You might want to consider doing a LHD conversion. Remember that the race takes place across the USA and anything which attracts the attention of the cops is a bad thing. Particularly this year given that we are running sleepers. This is one of the reasons I enjoy the Cannonball build - because for once I don't have to do the extra work involved in converting an american kit to RHD to portray a local car. I recommend you find LHD dashes from other kits and keep the RHD ones from the Toyota & the Datto to drop into something you build later on Vic plates.

No.

I'm in. Chevrolet Citation with Plymouth Prowler running gear.

Perhaps Aoshima's Australian distributor could have a word with them. I hear he posts on here. Seriously, if there was a chance of anyone making $$$ producing kits of these don't you think they'd be doing so? The local market is too small and while there are a few enlightened overseas viewers of the races I doubt there are enough who would buy model kits you have to put effort into (and have some skill to build) when they can buy a die cast .

There are no "accidents".

Of course that's another look to aim for - base model the 18 year old owner has "tuned" by blowing all his cash on wheels and stick on cr@p.

This one. or the Street Machine version with fuel injection and billet rims. I could build these all day. They date from that brief period when AMT released such well thought out, detailed, but usually flawed in some way kits such as the '71 Charger, '41 Woody and '66 Olds 442 W30. One day i'll build one stock. The only problem is that they are like hens teeth down here.

Oooh that's nice. Needs lowering, a roof rack, boards and surfing decals on the windows though...

Well down Erik. You were ahead before the voting started in my book because I love Rivieras. However, you did a great job. And well done everyone else whether you made it to the start line or not. It's not the competing that matters here, it's the taking part. All the finished pictures of my Buick vanished into the haze when they decided to change servers without checking they had a viable up to date back-up. However, it can be seen here. http://ozautobuilders.forum-motion.com/t8055-1975-buick-skyhawk So, onto next year. I have to get some kits out and try parts to check fits but i'm 75% sure I know what i'll be building. One issue will be with the hood which has a bulge moulded in which will have to be removed to be a true sleeper. When is the official start of the build off?

In your example Tom the other guys top bid was $120. He was just kidding himself it was $100. My method makes me susceptible to sellers shill bidding by increment to find out my top bid and then withdrawing the last bid so I pay top dollar. However I think this has maybe happened once in the 10 plus years i've been doing this. Sniping would stop that but I am not telling a sniping service my password. What do they charge you? I'm surprised Evil-Bay themselves haven't developed their own sniping service - for a premium fee of course. As a (not very regular) seller I really hate snipers. I like people to bid as early as possible so I can relax and know the item has sold. It would be nice, once an auction has ended, to know what the "winning" bidders bid was in order to get an idea of what they would have gone to. I wonder if either of the wagons featured above will be appearing in any competitions?

The amount of the highest bid is not on display. All that is on display is the fact that someone has bid more than the second highest bid. That's what people don't seem to understand about Evil-Bay - items don't sell for the highest bid, they sell for one increment more than the second highest bid. Which is why complaining "man, they only beat me by 50 cents" is pointless, wrong and falling into their trap. You see you were second highest and you think "just another dollar and it would have been mine. Next time i'll bid just that bit higher" and you do, but you still don't "win" because unknown to you in reality the "winner" bid $50 more than you did. And I can't see the point in sniping. Decide the maximum you want to pay, bid that amount and then wait and see if you were highest. If you are, you'll "win" whether you bid 5 seconds after the auction starts or 5 seconds before it finishes. I find it very satisfying when I "win" an auction for which I placed a bid "early" to look at the bid history and find that I beat one or more snipers.

It's summer. Test cricket makes the perfect soundtrack.

I got mine a couple of months ago in my LHS so I suspect they are one of Italeris current releases. Donate the gun to someone on the zombie apocalypse community build.