Freeman Cars

I will do it tonight sam

All my Fuel Altered bodies are made to work on the 1980's and newer FunnyCar frames. You could modify one to work on an earlier funnycar frame but as you can see from the picture that Jesse put up, the distance between the engine and firewall and where the roll cage is located and the size of the tires; you'd have to do a bit of work to modify it to fit on an early '70's style frame. All the fuel altered pictured in my post use a frame that was shortened 5/8".

Here's the '23 T Fuel Altered. Here's a photo album of some others: http://s941.photobucket.com/user/carfreaks_photos/library/Resin%20Altereds

I do. I also make a '32 AA/FA, a '29 Ford, Bantam, and a Fiat. All for the modern style funny car chassis. I'll post pictures tomorrow. Sam

It's in the works, as we speak. I'll have them available within the next 2-3 weeks.

PM sent

How does the Hobby Lobby differ from a Michaels as far as the kit selection? They're supposedly opening one down the road but it's taking a long time for some reason. Is it worth going to?

Living in California, I've seen all sorts of cool stuff on the road. But today, I made a conscience effort to remember what I saw on the road. I drive into Santa Barbara almost every day. When I first left the house this morning there was a 1969 Shelby Mustang Convertible (a local car I see a couple times a week). I passed a 1969 Charger R/T SE (I also see this car frequently). Then there was a Datsun 1600 Roadster, a '36 Chevy Coupe, and the same fleet of BMW I8s I've seen for the last 6 months (with manufacturer's plates and all sorts of instrumentation inside the cars). I find it strange the BMW is always testing cars on the back roads near my place. You'd think they would be doing this work in Germany. They do have a design center somewhere near here, but I don't know where it is. I also saw some unknown BMW slightly bigger than a SmartCar, again with manufacturer's plate on it. We have lots of Teslas, both the sportscar and the sedan. We also have a lot of rich tree hungers that thinks they are saving the world by owning one. When I got off the freeway after a 20 minute drive, I got cut off by an absolutely original Porsche 356 C: dirty faded white paint, original black plate, blowing blue smoke out of the exhaust. Then there was a '56 Chevy truck, a few '69-'71 El Caminos, a couple '69 Cameros. At lunch I went out and saw a really clean '48 Ford Sedan. We have lots of Ferraris and Lamborghinis but we have a lot of rich people that buy those cars. There were a few late '60s early '70s AMCs running around also. On the way home I saw a nice Model A street rod and a 1959 Buick (that might not count because it belongs to my client's grandson). Then there was the beater 1970 Challenger (I was driving that one). There are a lot of hidden car collections in the area where I live. Every once and awhile we have barn finds but they tend to be pretty big. A short time ago, another one of my clients wanted me to meet a friend of his to see what ite would take to get some of his cars running. The man owns 5 buildings full of cars. (Check out the photo.) On the back wall of that building it is not a mirror, that's another room full of cars. There are about 90 cars in this building. This local Santa Barbarab has been collecting cars for years.

Steve's one of the few genuinely nice people I've met. I've known him for over 20 years. We first met when we were both in the same model car club: the San Fernando Valley Auto Modellers. Right before he moved back to the East Coast, he was at our Gold Coast NNL with his car packed up ready to hit the road. I guess we were the last model/car event he went to in California before he left. (He glues models together without painting to see if there are any pitfalls in assembly before he actually builds the detailed model. He's actually a pretty good builder.) I remember he had a ratty but very rust free '64 Dodge Dart that he was going to drive back--packed full of all his stuff. The engine had a couple of freeze plugs that didn't look too healthy. I told him I didn't think it was such a good idea to drive that far with that car. He said he would just keep the radiator cap loose so that the pressure wouldn't blow the freeze plugs out. He's a really nice guy, if you have a chance to meet him. We miss seeing him around Southern California. I hope he makes it back some day.

I don't think it could be any later than a '53 because the 331 Hemi Lee gave me has an extended bell housing cast into the block. I think they had separate bell housing from '54 on. See you at Larry's. I got your parts for you. Sam

Do you have any pics of the 1951 Chrysler lee had?

is esco under the danaher tools brand? about 12 years ago at the apex show esco was showing craftman sockets as one of there products. Do you know if sears will still warrantee power tools with polished aluminum housings? s-k is owned by facom. i think thay still sell s-k /facom tools in the sears tool catalog. maybe danaher owns facom? sam

Oh boy, tools. My favorite subject. I could go on for hours, but I'll keep this short. Sears, Craftsman tools used to be made by 3 companies up until about 8-10 yrs ago. KD and Esco and S-K. If you remember when Sears first came out with their line of polished wrenches those were S-K. As a matter of fact, in the first sets out, they all said Craftsman except for the 9/16 which said S-K. They are now some cheep Chinese wrenches that spred and bend easily. Esco made (and may still make some of) their sockets and man were they tough! I'd use them with air tools all the time and never broke one once. I'm talking about the chrome ones, not the black impact sockets. You could pound them over mag wheels locks to get them off and never have them crack, and still use them repeatedly. In the early '80's Craftsman did a run of special priced Craftsman wrenches from a company in Japan called KAL tools. I'm mainly an S-K and SnapOn user myself. My brother-in-law works in the SnapOn main warehouse in Carson City but I don't get any good deals. Family, go figure. Harbor Freight corporate offices are about 45 minutes south of where I live. A good friend of mine in our local model club used to work there. He said lawsuits come in daily from people getting hurt from the cheap tools. American Racing Products had a special day for customers to bring in their torque wrenches to be tested for accuracy. A friend of mine who is another tool junkie and I took our stuff to have them checked out. All 5 of my SnapOn torque wrenches checked out perfectly. For what they cost; they should. What was really amazing though is my friend brought in an old Craftsman beam bar torque wrench. The kind that has a rod that moves when you use it to see how many foot pounds are being applied. The pride of workmanship was evident from the fact that it had it serial number on it. It was very old. It's accuracy was within 2%! It cost $5 at the local swap meet. On the other end of the spectrum was a cheap Chinese torque wrench my friend's son bought new. It's accuracy was off by over 20%! Don't use cheap Chinese torques wrenches. S-K tools are still made in USA. They are owned by a French comapny called Facom . At one time Facom made all of Ferrari's factory tools. Armstrong tools is another made in USA tool company. They supply the US military. I have had issues with SnapOn sockets cracking on me, but they are so thin to get into such tight place I am not surprised. If you want absolute, bullet proof sockets that won't crack get Hazet. They are German tools. Not very pretty but Godzilla couldn't even break them. I could go on a lot longer but I'm going to leave now. Good night, Sam

Never. no joke sam

I have never seen snow. i wonder sometimes if i have missed out. sam

You obviously have no idea what it's really like in California. I've seen people shot for a lot less than car tipping. Oh yeah, do that to my car and I'll do a lot worse than shoot you. California born and raised. Sam

Thank you for your help. Sam

Does anybody know if the Round 2 AMT '60 Ford Ranchero comes with the camper shell? I believe this was part of the original issue kit. I haven't been able to get my hands on one of the kits to see if it's in there. Thanks for your help, Sam

looks real good to me i like it

He was actually a much nicer guy than most people realize. He and I both moved to the Santa Barbara area in 1991. Coming from Los Angeles, I got to meet lots of what are considered to be "famous" car people. It never really phased me at all, but when I walked into the home improvement center in dowtown Santa Barbara I was shocked to turn around and see Andy Granatelli looking at closet organizers. I mean this is like seeing the Godfather or something. I'm not sure, I think I just expected to see his pit crew doing a menial task like this for him. I didn't know what to say so I said, "You're Andy Granatelli" and he said, "Yes I know I have been my whole life." We ended up talking about cars and Indy for about 45 minutes. He was a really nice guy...a lot more approachable than people would ever guess.

that is car is killer. are you going to post a pic when done?

Andy granatelli died today in santa barbra ca he had been the grand marshal at the local car show for years.

Yes, I have test fit the hood on the new Revell kit. It's not exactly where I want it yet, but it's getting close. Also, making 8 3/4" rear spoiler and a 340 6-pack engine with both manual and automatic transmissions. Essentially, a complete AAR conversion kit for the new Cuda. I do need to find somebody who does decals.

man that turned out great

Yep, I saw that in the full size hood over 25 years ago. I have been a mopar e body freak since the age of 10. So that's why I included that odd shape. Don't know why they have it, but it's probably the same reason chrysler k car trunk lids boat up on one side and never fit flush. They just didn't care about the tooling I guess. Thanks for noticing. Yes, I am.