DustyMojave

A neighbor up the block from me shortly after I bought my '61 F100 bought a '62 long bed Custom Cab Integral Cab. '62 version of my '61. I bought the aftermarket side saddle auxiliary gas tanks from it and put them in mine. His had a grille different from all of those shown, but most like the '63 shown in the "Quick Guide" above. IIRC, small rectangles instead of the long bars. My long time best friend had a 63 Short Bed Styleside (like the green one shown above with the 57-60 style bed). It had the same grille as the '63 shown in the guide. But painted white with black accents instead of chrome. After some fool ran a red light and he rammed the side of the car, he replaced the whole front clip with pieces from a '64 Custom Cab. That grille was aluminum with the recessed areas painted black.. I've seen photos of the '62 grille shown in the guide with the slender horizontal bar, but I've never encountered one in person. Maybe Ford was still doing with pickup grilles what they did with sedan grilles in the late 30s. Differences in the grille to signify different sub models. It was quite common in Detroit in the 60s. I used to have a neighbor around the corner who had a '67 Dodge Coronet with mis-matched grille halves. Both halves were '67 Coronet, but different sub models.

Ain't it interesting and fun to find a picture of an LA area racer, in a San Fernando Valley built car, sponsored by a San Fernando Valley business, racing 2,100 miles away in Milwaukee Wisconsin? I have a vague memory of meeting Sam Hanks when I was a little kid in the company of my dad. IIRC, it was at an event for other than circle track racing. I think at a sports car race. Sam and my dad were old acquaintances/friends from racing midgets and such back in the day. As I said in the build thread, I love this model. It came out great and the graphics, in particular are impressive.

And responded to...?

Nice. I'm Xtra fond of these trucks. I bought my '61 F100 long bed Custom Cab in 1976. A couple years later I replaced the original 292 with a mighty 390 with a cam, Edelbrock manifold, Carter AFB carb, long tube headers and US Mag slots. Nearly 400,000 miles later, the 390 got replaced with a 428 Cobra Jet. Repainted in original color. Note that in the AMT 1962 F100 kit, and for that replacement grille you got, they used a 1961 grille. In spite of the 1962 license plates on the bumpers. The real 62 grille looks a lot like a 63 grille without the 2 heavy bars of the '61, but with a more complex grille.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. I was NOT saying that you should take your model apart and "FIX" the issue. Just pointing it out for you and others who may be wanting to build an even MORE accurate model in the future.

For color, I was going to suggest candy blue with white scallops, or vice-versa. That Duster has a great color to it though. My friend around the corner has a 72 Duster door slammer drag car painted Mopar Plum Crazy.

Ohh... I said above I had more to say about the sponsor of this car. I was born in Van Nuys, Center of the San Fernando Valley. which community is also the home of Muntz Stereos and TVs store. Where I bought my 1st car stereo. From "Madman" Muntz himself, no less. Next door is Galpin Ford, World's #1 Ford Dealer indicated in the Revell '57 Ford Gasser kits. Muntz was quite a character. Even had his own brand of cars. After I graduated from High school, I lived 1 mile from these 2 businesses. Last time I saw Muntz he was riding in his Cadillac on the 405 freeway with his wife driving with comedian Foster Brooks riding along and having an apparently quite amusing conversation. They were all quite elderly at the time, but quite lively and having lots of fun.

That yellow fiberglass body work car is one I worked on nearly 30 years ago. Note that Kurtis gave new midget buyers the option of body in fiberglass or handmade aluminum. This body came from a brand new set of molds taken from an original NOS Kurtis Body. Note the V8-60 engine. It's an interesting one, the sides of the block are thin galvanized sheet steel resistance welded to the cast iron main block instead of cast iron block sides. Thus a noticeable weight savings. The inner cowl structure consists of a 1" tube hoop, that is vertical and as you see, bends forward where it reaches toe straight line of the edge of the hood/cowl. That hoop supports the edge of the dash and the edge of the hood. The firewall is actually a motorplate that mounts the back of the block and the in and out box. The top of the motorplate is, as you see, about even with the top of the body side panels (less upholstery). From there, up to the dash panel is the upper firewall of aluminum sheet to the back of the dash at the steering support bar, that goes across the hoop just at the bottom of the dash panel at the knee cutouts. There are a pair of 1" vertical uprights that support the steering gear and meet the hoop just at the steering shaft support bar. There is a pillow block bearing attached to the cross bar to actually support the steering shaft. You can see that bearing just under the edge of the dash here. Before my career in race car fabricating, I spent more than a decade in Plastics R&D including at Mattel Toys when they owned Monogram Models. I made short run molds along with many other things I did in that line of work. So I understand what it takes to make model kit molds to produce a kit. Considering that, it seems easier to make that part of this kit right than to do it incorrect as it is. Perhaps somebody didn't get a good look inside so had to guess and go? Oh...And those block shapes at the frame ends of the radius rods are part of the frame, so should be painted the same as the frame itself. But overall...Damned nice!

Very nicely done, Steve. Teh markings hit close to home. More about that later. As I posted earlier today in the thread about converting the Monogram Midget into a vintage Sprint car... My avatar is an Offroad race buggy. I built that car in the 1970s and raced it to a Championship and have been involved in offroad racing for many decades. And I grew up around sports car racing. But my dad in the 1940s was a SoCal hotrodder and raced track roadsters and owned and raced his own Kurtis Offy midget. Then from the mid 1980s until I retired in 2015, much of the time I was a self employed race car fabricator. Many of my customer's projects were vintage midgets and sprint cars. So I can share a few photos of those cars for reference. The Revell kits build a beautiful models and there are just a couple of issues I'm unhappy with in them. While I find that the grilles of the 2 Revell Kurtis Midgets don't match any of those I worked on, the one item about the kits that bothers me the most is the inner cowl structure. Something that doesn't show in the assembled model sitting in the display case.

I'm loving this project. Sure my avatar is an offroad race buggy. And I won a championship with it many years ago. And grew up involved in sports car racing. But my dad was a hotrodder and racer in the late 40s. In fact, while he was still in high school, he not only drove Barney Navarro's track roadster, and raced his various hot rod roadsters and couples at the dry lakes, he also owned his own Kurtis-Offy midget that he raced all over SoCal. Then since the 1980s and until I retired in 2015, I made a living on and off as a self-employed race car fabricator. Many of my customer's projects were restorations of vintage midgets and sprint cars. Such as Eddie Meyer's (as in Meyer-Goosen-Drake, makers of Offenhauser engines and at the time of the restoration owned by famous collector Bruce Meyer [no relation to Eddie nor to the guy who made Manx buggies] ) '46 Kurtis-Offy midget. And the Lujie Lesofski built 255 Offy Indy car turned sprint car. And the also originally Indy car, turned sprinter Kurtis Offy. Far from the only such cars I've ever worked on, but prime examples of them. I worked on these cars while working with JT Ryals of Ryals Fabrication. The Monogram kit does make a pretty good beginning to build a sprint car in 1/25th scale. The Kurtis-Offy sprint car here shows the proportional difference from the midget. The tail is a little longer for larger tank for bigger thirstier engine. Slightly lower ride height and maybe slightly longer nose ahead of the engine. These Indy car were shortened in wheelbase by nearly a foot when the advent of roadsters at Indy caused them to be converted to sprint cars and the wheels and tires changed to the smaller diameter units used on short tracks. This is being done extremely well and if I were paying attention here at the time, I could have offered a little help in certain detail areas. Not that I'm saying this model is wrong in any way, nor that mine that's still in it's box is ever going to be as good, let alone better, but my familiarity with the full size cars might have provided slight help and provide some reference for future projects. The exhaust support is great. I've made a few of those in my time for full size cars. The hood straps really LOOK like leather straps. The plugs and plug wires are awesome! The water manifold is good. Great job on louvers and hood. I'm impressed with the louver press. And in spite of the slight proportion issues, overall this car is coming out great!

Those Toyotas were quite competitive in SCCA racing in '68. Drivers Scooter Patrick and Davey Jordan went on to grand things elsewhere. Scooter raced offroad with Jim Garner and also co-drove the AIR Lola T70 Coupe to 2nd at Daytona in '69. Dave went on to drive GTP cars. The SCCA competition for these cars included the Factory Porsche team lead by F1 Ace, Richie Ginther, with drivers Alan Johnson and Elliot Forbes-Robinson. EFR went on to drive the Nissan IMSA GTP cars with Jeff Brabham to dominate over Porsche 962s. Alan Johnson became a driving instructor and wrote and excellent book on driving race cars. Tough competition and we were proud to beat them all with our Tiger driven by Ron Dykes in the pouring rain at Riverside, in spite of the Tiger having been seriously de-fanged by SCCA for that year with the engine downgraded to a base model 260 2bbl with the small port heads, iron manifold, narrow 13" wheels, weight added in, and other downgrades. The Honda S800 pseudo Cobra is genius. I love it. Even if it would handle like a brick in reality.

That Colorite paint chip is NO indication of what the paint looks like when applied on a surface. Look at this Tamiya paint chart and tell me which of the paints are "metallic" There are SOME that the name says metallic. But some metallic colors are not labeled metallic. Such as "TS50 Mica Blue". Most of us on here have seen that color, if not on a model we've painted ourselves, then at model shows or even in magazines. To me, TS50 looks almost metalflake.Like ALL of the Tamiya paint chips, the metallic or pearl does NOT show any metallic or pearl or translucent quality. It's "ink on paper" type paint "chips", not actual paint chips. Look at this Tamiya paint chart from the Tamiya site. Now perhaps part of the issue here is individual definition of "metallic". I'm NOT talking "metal flake" here. I was "there" when the Shelby team was racing Cobras. Carroll Shelby took my dad for a ride around Riverside Raceway in Cobra #1 in 1962. It was painted a yellow gold metallic, almost metal flake at the time ( I learned later that that particular car got repainted many times in different colors to make it seem that they had built many Cobras to convince FIA and SCCA that Cobras were actually in production). I Tech Inspected Cobras at SCCA races many times over the years, including USRRC events. I GUARANTEE you that those Guardsman Blue Cobras were DEFINITELY metallic. Look at the sheen along the upper flank of the Cobra here: The increase in silvery quality of the paint shows that it IS metallic. Just as the Chevy behind it is metallic color, while the Porsche 356 Coupe is NOT metallic. You don't see that sort of sheen on this Mustang that is painted in a blue that is NOT metallic. Both in the sun, both blue, the Mustang is shiny and glossy, but it has has no sheen, the Cobra DOES have a sheen. I didn't start this thread to argue about what is a metallic color and what is not. I was asking for suggestions for the best choice in model paint to represent Guardsman Blue.

I've not tried those craft acrylic paints on styrene. * How well do they adhere? * Do they go on as thin as paint made for model cars? * It looks pretty good on the hood of that Cobra, (I presume it's an MPC 1/16 scale kit) * I also presume you will be adding clear over that to get a gloss finish. Is that correct? * Further, since we are in official panic mode, such stores are currently shut down in LA County where I live as well as all of California, both since yesterday evening. So I can't just run to the nearest store (about 24 miles). I'm not sure how the panic will affect buying online.

Cool JC. I would expect you to be the one who has the info on Cobra models as you have put so much effort into building models of them. I respect your knowledge of them. I would have contacted you on the road race site, but since offering someone advice based on personal knowledge of the subject of a model, then telling them that it's their model so they can build it however they choose, makes one non-PC over there and thus persona non grata, that option wasn't open to me. So which paint do you recommend JC?

Okay. How about if we disregard that GT500 above that MAY be 1967 Acapulco Blue and try this 1964 Mustang Convertible. This car is used widely as an example of Guardsman Blue paint. I've found pictures of this car in several locations, often the same pictures.

It looks sweet. And in general, it's true that race cars these days are far shinier than they were in the 60s. Not entirely the case, but generally yes. It's hard to get a model not so terribly shiny without it looking like something the dog left in the back yard. In the late 60s I was on the crew of a Tiger racing in SCCA. Built by Doane Spencer of Hollywood Sports Cars. Owner/driver was Ron Dykes. It's now restored to how it was when I was working on it. At the time, the other crew members (including Rick Titus, son of Jerry Titus, Shelby Team driver and creator of the Firebird Trans Am) and I would get frustrated when we would be doing something like re-installing the engine after freshening it up and Ron would tell us to stop and put another coat of wax on the body. ? Build a model of that car and it will need to be quite shiny. In those days, a race car was to be raced and was treated pretty hard. If it was taken to a car show, time would be spent on shining it up, but otherwise, they were pretty scruffy.

After researching that color for some time, that was the picture that I felt best represented the color. The Zero Paint Guardsman looks pretty fair in that pic. Not so very flaky as what I saw before. Unfortunately the Zero Paints is back-ordered. And so does the Arctic blue on Snake's Cobra look good. So maybe that's a good solution. This 67 GT350 is said by Mecum to be Acapulco Blue. Hard to tell the difference from Guardsman Blue that the GT500 is said to be painted. The Acapulco Blue is 1967 Shelby GT350/500 paint color. The Guardsman is not for 1967. Is it the same color under a different name? Maybe someone who can read paint formulas can tell us. Sorry to "borrow" your page image without prior written approval Mecum. I tell you what...You don't fuss about me sharing your page and I won't charge you for the advertising.

Having checked out MCW, I see that their prices are rather higher than last time I dealt with them. For a spray can the price+shipping+tax comes to nearly $30US. That is more than the cost of the model kit in the same terms. That kind of price ($30) for paint for a Model Factory Hiro 1/12 scale kit would be acceptable. But for a Revell 1/25 Cobra, not so much. I've seen a model painted with the Zero Colors, I agree it looks very flaky. So back to maybe Tamiya. ?

@ bigfatforty I was forgetting MCW. Maybe I'll try that. Thanks. @Snake45 Model Master Arctic Blue is pretty. But a little dark compared to the original as shown above. I agree with your comment in your signature though.

On my work bench these days, I have a couple of Cobras and a GT350. The intended color is Ford 1964 Guardsman Blue, as used by Shelby for the stripes on the white GT350s and the main body color on the 427 Cobras. Been shopping for paint, and searching the model forums for suggestions as to which is the best/closest model spray paint. Trying to judge from online paint color chips or pictures of other people's models is more frustrating than productive. I've searched this and other online forums for info, but amazingly, considering the many model kits of Cobras and such...I'm not finding any info. There is a current thread in under glass about a '67 GT350 and a guy posted pics of his friend's full scale 67 GT500 that is the exact color. I know the paint code Ditzler/PPG 12832. I could in theory go to an automotive paint shop and order a small amount of paint to that code. But metallics for full scale cars used on a 1/25 scale model winds up looking like coarse metalflake. more appropriate fora 60s Kustom or a Meyer's Manx fiberglass buggy. So does anyone have suggestions which spray paint would be best for a Cobra?

For a 68 GT500 with a proper chassis, I used an AMT 67 GT350 chassis with the front inner fender wells and firewall cut out of the body and installed inside the '68 body shell. Used the engine from the '68. Some years back I worked on the crew of a 67 GT350 vintage race car. We won an enduro (day into night) at Willow Springs Raceway. Unfortunately, the pics of the car itself were stolen/wiped by Microsoft a few years ago. So all I have now is the t-shirt.

Wow Spike. That's right by where I was born! Aetna St in these photos of that GT500 is 4 blocks from Emelita. I found this looking for the best spray paint to use for a couple of Cobras and a GT350 I'm building. The world can be so small.

I know the Revell AG kit that is currently out in the market is a 1968 Euro spec Deluxe Bug. And as such, it should be swingaxle. But Revell US did a 1968 Bug kit (yeah, in 1/25 scale) in 1968. Several versions of that kit and all the dune buggy kits were spinoffs from that original kit. All swingaxle. That's fine. But I repeat... Would it be SO difficult for SOME model company to do a kit of an IRS Bug? There are kits of Porsches that have pretty good representations of that rear suspension which is designed from the basic VW design. Not so easy to make the kit parts into VW parts though. And would it be so difficult for them to build the kit as the real car was built? I spent several years in Manufacturing Engineering at Mattel Toys, who at the time owned Monogram Models and a friend of mine (we worked in another plastics firm before) was in Engineering at Revell US in Venice California ( I drove past there on my way to and from work every day). Before that, I was in R&D for another plastics firm where among other things, I designed and made molds myself. I've been building model cars since 1960. I've made many molds for model parts I wanted for another model. I've also been around VW Bugs and dune buggies all of my life. I'm well respected in the world's largest forum for VW Bug aficionados (the Samba), People ask me for my advice on their VW issues from all over the world. I have a VW Baja Bug that has been around my family since the day it was bought new, was my 1st car to drive in 1971, I built into a Baja Bug for my dad in the mid 1970s, and it now has well over 900,000 documented miles on it. I've had EVERY piece of the VW Bug apart and back together. I KNOW Bugs. I KNOW that it would be easier to make a kit that goes together much like the real full size VW Bug than to make a kit that is as wrong as all of the kits that have ever been produced. Why does a VW Bug need 2 floor panels? Why does the inner body structure need to be so wrong? Why does the suspension have to be so wrong? Probable answer is that most of the people designing the kits have never been inside of a Bug and only look at it from the outside and don't understand the car mechanically. The body shell and exterior on this model kit is pretty good. Under the skin is quite a disappointment. If you look at kits such as Revell's Stone Woods and Cook '41 Willys or Orange Crate '32 Ford done in the early 1960s, then look at the newest VW Bug kit. The people running the corporate entity known as Revell these days should be ashamed of themselves.

The Hardcastle & McCormick Coyote TV car was a Manta kit car. The Manta body was based on the McLaren M6GT body design, but had a number of differences. Including the headlights. Most of the cars used for the show had VW chassis and engine. The Manta kit was available with a steel tube chassis for a small block V8 also. The MPC model kit uses the Ford GT MkIV chassis. Putting the Coyote body on an Accurate Miniatures McLaren Mk8 chassis is a great idea. Although the M8 has a wider tub than an M6 and the sides of the tub are flat with small radius bends at the bottom, while the M6 tub has rounded sides with a full radius from the top edge of the tub down to the bottom. The M6GT should probably have a small block Chevy engine instead of a big block too. I really find the M6GT to be a gorgeous car. The bodywork is far more like a McLaren M12, which was a customer car which was an M6 chassis with updated M8-like bodywork. Some M12s were surprisingly close to the works M8b in racing, although the works M8Bs absolutely DOMINATED Can Am racing. I wanted to see an M8 GT (that McLaren never created) back in those days. The death of Bruce McLaren in 1970 probably was what brought an end to such programs.