Ace-Garageguy

Great looking model of a very special car. Lovin' that blown '57 GH too.

Though I have stuff I'll never get to if I live to build another 20 years, I'm still buying, but not at the rate I once was. A few recent acquisitions have replaced long-stalled projects in the "get back to it this year lineup", but juggling projects on the shelves has rekindled my interest in some of them, and solutions to problems have just seemed to materialize. My insistence that I see my oversize kit collection primarily as a resource for bits and pieces has been proven valid too. I just happened to have the really oddball-size racing tires needed for a resin Chevron B-16 project I just started, and enough 1/24 Chebby smallblock performance bits, like a Z-28-style cross-ram manifold and carbs (from a Monogram '57 I had little interest in...until now, envisioning a what-if road-racer carrying the guts from an Accurate Miniatures Corvette) to get going on the Gunze 250GTO hot-rod too. There are several kits on the shelf I wouldn't buy today, knowing now how bad they are...like the old Revell 356 Porsche Speedster...but I still think it might be fun to build some of them box-stock, just 'cause. I have friends who have an idea of the potential value of all the stuff, and who will make some kind of effort to see it goes to good homes if and when I shuffle off the mortal coil. At least that's good to know.

Hmmmmm...I didn't know that, just assumed all the tires included in the '32 kits had been shaved. I've got a couple unopened ones on the shelf. Time to have a peek. EDIT: Hot dog! Youse guys are great. Turns out one of my '32 3-windows was in fact the '96 release, and it had TWO sets of the Goodyear-lettered BlueStreaks in it. Man, I love this forum.

Stellar. Fantastic. Best weathering ever in the history of the universe...man, that's beautiful work, and you really have the eye of an artist. Your textures and colors are absolutely perfect. The mossy-green under the water-filled headlamp (and elsewhere on the model)...well, I've seen that more than a few times in reality. Even the texture of the plastic tarp over the window looks scale-perfect. And your heavy, perforated rust is coming from the BACK side, just exactly the way it happens. Seriously, I read your intro before I looked at any of the photos and didn't expect what I saw. Then I thought if they had been taken outside in natural light, the model would be indistinguishable from a real car. Scrolled down a little farther and there it was. Incredible. One of the very few models that deserves to be described with the "awe" word.

Great stuff. click here... http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/rooms.htm This 1/6 scale largely scratch-built model is just one example of the wonderful work showcased...

My comment is off-topic, but Fuller was an interesting fella. Had a particular type of carbon molecule named for him, too, C60, 'cause it looks like his geodesic dome design. Buckminsterfullerene

Hmmmmm...with the easing of travel restrictions to Cuba from the US, it might be time to start thinking of the island as a holiday destination again. I wonder how Cuban rum is these days. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/travel/frequently-asked-questions-how-to-travel-to-cuba.html?_r=0

Speaking of which...does the old Monogram GT350 have the tires in question, or only the GT350-R version? It appears the 350H version has Michelin-lettered sidewalls. And how are the proportions of the Mustang, anyway? I've kinda wanted to do a fastback, so I might be able to justify buying the whole kit if the body shapes look good.

And speaking of CYA, the whole blame-avoidance lexicon makes me cringe: officials scrambling to create "plausible deniability", or trying to "distance themselves" from a stink that would otherwise stick to their careers for life. Then there's "gifting". How, exactly, does "gifting" differ from giving? (This one ought to chap Harry's posterior too; "gift" is usually a noun, "give" is what one does with it...kinda reminiscent of the whole "build" controversy). And another trying-to-sound-smart noun-as-verb word..."tasked". Example: so-and-so was "tasked" with researching the effect on wool production of force-feeding BS to sheep. Nah, he was TOLD to do it, but it sounded so lame it had to be relabeled as "tasked". "Tasked", when used in a military or equally appropriate context doesn't bother me; it's a useful word. But when applied to the mundane or insignificant, I just think it sounds like trying too hard to sound important.

Once again, Google is your friend. For definitive answers, try searching "sprint car chassis kits". Several manufacturers supply chassis and body kits that meet the sanctioning body requirements, and there are specialized engine builders, component suppliers, etc. These are NOT junkyard cars...though there is nothing to stop a competent fabricator from building his own chassis, providing it meets the specific technical requirements of the relevant rulebook. Similarly, engines can still be based on junkyard-sourced major components. Some engine builders STILL prefer to start with "seasoned" blocks that have been run in extended passenger car service, citing post-machining dimensional stability.

Top left is from the Johan "Color Me Gone" kit. None of the ones you show come from the AMT '49 Merc. The manifold in the Merc kit has the carb bodies cast in.

Thanks espo, but I need the specific treaded tires, and the diameter stagger that's in the '32 Fords, which is apparently the same as in the earlier kits with the "Goodyear" marked sidewalls. They're going under a Gunze Ferrari 250 GTO with a smallblock Chebby, and the diameters of these tires are exactly right for the look I'm after. They also have a groove for the blue "streak", and that's part of the look I'm going for too.

Thanks, Snake. Seems as though they're also pretty definitely in the pro-modeler '48 Ford convert, along with another set I can use. I kinda hate to buy a Mustang or Cobra just to get the tires, but I can always use another '48 Ford.

Hokay, the general consensus is that the big-n-littles in the Revell '32 Ford 3-window kit, and some others, are Goodyear BlueStreak Sports Car Specials, with the Goodyear and other sidewall lettering removed. So far, so good. I have ONE PAIR of the old Goodyears, and other than the sidewall detail, they seem to be the same animals as the Revell '32 kit tires. So...what kits did the ORIGINALS, the ones WITH the Goodyear BlueStreak sidewall details, come in? I've already dug through all my old Revell kits and came up empty. I'm digging online now. So far, it looks like they MAY be in this and a Revell 1/24 Cobra. Anything else? And are the tires staggered sizes in the Mustang and / or Cobra? EDIT: Found this on another thread. "The Monogram 1/24 Shelby GT350-R, the Monogram 1/25 Owens-Corning Corvette, and R-M 1/25 Pro Modeler '48 Ford Convertible kits included the same tires with the raised letters still present", post by Casey. Can anyone confirm they're in the pro-modeler '48 Ford?

Part two of your question...just google "2015 sprint car action" and you'll see these cars are still racing, in pretty much the same configuration. This is a shot from 2014. The old Monogram kit, one of several iterations... The Revell / Monogram version of the Kinser kit... Same basic tooling, some car-specific mods. Again, same basic tooling...

One of the "you might also like" videos shown at the end of Joe's example above. This girl is fun to watch, and she seems to have a pretty good handle on some of the regional accent stereotypes. It doesn't hurt that she's a cute, smiling, blue-eyed redhead, either.

That must be why I'm going to try to use Cobra-style Halibrand wheels and side pipes on this thing.

Just got a Gunze 250 GTO, the non-full-detail version. Bought it specifically to build a bastardized American V8-powered hot-rod with a Ford 9" rear end, a what-if kinda thing that could have been put together in the late 1960s or early 1970s. It's not really so far fetched, because I put a DeSoto hemi in a Lusso back in about 1972. The Ferrari engine had a softball-sized hole in the block, and a badly damaged crank and one head. Much cheaper at the time to just swap in an American lump, and set it as far back in the chassis as possible to avoid ruining the handling. Internet photo The overall shape of the Gunze body looks pretty good, and as no two of these cars are really identical, it's close enough for me, especially for a hot-rod build. One thing that WILL need correcting to my taste is the rear wheel openings, which I find to be too large, and shaped somewhat wrong.

There was some info on this kit in the "reviews" section, but I can't seem to find it. It's basically a rehash of this old-tool Lindberg "Drag Rag", a very simple kit. Pretty much nothing about it has anything whatsoever to do with any real vehicle...especially not the "1934 Ford Roadster" it says on the box. It DOES look like it could be a good jumping-of point for a custom or radical hot-rod build. (NOT MY MODEL)

I forgot all about the Gurney / Weslake Eagle. A beautiful car, somewhat similar to the Lotus 38 and by the same designer...Len Terry. It's a huge accomplishment to even qualify for an F1 race, and to win one is truly outstanding. I wish the US-based Haas team all the possible good luck during their development and racing seasons, and certainly hope they DO attract more interest among Americans in this part of the sport. What I'd REALLY like to see happen in F1 is a simplification of the formula though, removing the driver-assist electronics, the aerodynamic whiffle-splitters, and requiring the engines to be stock-block production-car-based.

Those steel lines are roughly 3/8" in diameter. Stiff steel wire works well to represent them. 3/8 of an inch is .375". Divide by 25 for 1/25 scale, you get .015". There are lots of sources for wire that's silver-colored like this, and plenty stiff enough to hold its shape just like the real tube does. You can also use brass wire and color it. I've got lots of stuff like this in various diameters I've acquired over the years, like stainless safety-wire, picture-hanging wire from the hardware store, and things you can find at craft stores.

Back in the '50s and '60s, it WASN'T all about money...yet. It was definitely a rich-man's sport, but the cars and technology were still relatively accessible, and it was still possible for a privateer to build a winning car from the ground up. There is the story of the '59 Cooper F1 car's frame design...incidentally the first mid-engined F1 championship winner... being laid out on the garage floor. This particular car (below), F1 world-championship-winner in '67, the Repco / Brabham BT 24, even had an engine based on an American production-car bottom-end. The 3-litre SOHC Repco powerplant used in this car was built on a development of the 215 Oldsmobile aluminum V8 block. I could get fired up about cars like this. They weren't rolling billboards where running in front is more about getting screen-time for the advertising of the sponsors than anything else. Though today's cars are still technically interesting, the complexity and the necessity for boxcars full of cash to participate leave me kinda cold.

Hmmm...hasn't shown up in the message box yet. Hmmmm...

I think Steve Guthmiller, the OP and a frequent poster on the forum, is easily the equal of Mr. Hettick for showroom-stock or mildly modified cars. If you haven't seen Steve's models, you really owe it to yourself to have a look at some of them. I was going to post some links to his work, but a lot of his photos seem to have disappeared.

Sorry...box got filled up with answers. I deleted some old ones, should be fine now.