Ace-Garageguy

Mus hav sumpin ta doo wit da firs wun lookin lik id wa took pichur uf inna showroom n p-shopped in.

I've always liked the old flip-nose AMT Willys. Makes a clean little model, lots of opportunity to detail-up. I'm thinking it won't be that long before these are on the clearance table for cheap...I can see buying a few to hack up. chop, etc.

Looking forward to seeing your take on this old favorite.

Sweet looking 5-window, Jon. One of the best I've seen. Clean. Looks fast. No BS.

It's always been popular psychology to say that guys in Porsches and Corvettes were compensating for "shortcomings" in (ahem) other areas. I wonder what the deal is with these.

Yeah, the song doesn't say anything about a blower. I think about 220 HP normally-aspirated is about as much as you're going to get from a flathead and still be (just barely) streetable, but with modern internals it's entirely possible. Things like billet cranks, rods and bottom-end girdles COULD have been machined "back in the day", so it's not too much of a stretch. And 220 HP in a less-than-2000 pound car is still pretty stout. Your definition of long "lakes pipes" running down the rockers is probably in keeping with the theme here too. According to the Sept. '62 Motor Trend, a 4800 pound 1963 390 T-bird with 300 HP and an automatic would do a 19.2 second, 78 MPH quarter mile. A 200 HP "little deuce coupe" could easily eat its lunch.

Love the color and effect. I'm not usually a suede-paint fan, but this color is so good...I just bought one of the new issues to get a set of those chrome-reverse rims too. They really set off your color here. A clean, custom look, not too gaudy.

The classic S.C.o.T. blower will fit under the stock hood. A GMC blower is taller, but could be made to fit by shaving the intake manifold, using lower carb air-horns, or dropping the engine mounts slightly.

The exact configuration of the pipes used on the dry lakes is going to depend to a degree on the exact time period, venue, sanctioning body and vehicle class. Earlier cars (pre-war) tended to have longer pipes running up high, like G's photos. They got shorter. (Vic Edelbrock Special, post-war)

Youse guys call 'em what you remember 'em being called, I'll call 'em what I remember 'em bein' called, and everybody will know what everybody else is talking about anyway. I don't think there's an Oxford Standard English Dictionary entry for "lakes pipes".

Some folks probably call this a rabbit too. Don't necessarily make it so.

You can have an even better time arguing about the origin of the term "hot rod". People have fallible memories. You see the printed references in the period mags, it all makes sense. Lakes "plugs" are the caps on the end of the lakes "pipes". Kinda logical, ain't it?

"Lakes pipes" or "lake pipes" are OPEN pipes you run to make more power, short headers or long side pipes...which evolved into a fashion statement on customs. Lake-plugs are the caps on the ends. Don't take my word for it; get you a big stack of old Hot Rod mags, starting in '49, and an equal stack of Rod & Custom. You'll see. Love both of those cars, by the way.

Ain't buyin what, exactly? The shorty headers are "lakes pipes" because they ran 'em on the lakes. The longer side pipes got tagged with the same name.

You'll find that early on, these were "lakes pipes". Often, like the design in the new Revell '29, there was a muffled, non-race street exhaust teed off of the megaphone. The megs were uncapped for racing work on the "lakes", capped for the street. Perforated metal 'muffler' cores or glass-packed equivalents could also be inserted into the megs, taken out for lakes racing. The long side-pipes that later became known as "lake pipes" also usually had removable caps on the ends, if you look closely. They at least emulated the look of the real-racer ability to remove the caps to run open exhausts.

Wasn't the Borg Warner T-10 4-speed intro'd in the '57 Corvette? Easy to make an adapter and drill the flywheel for the Chevy clutch.

I always got the impression the car in the song was supposed to be something of a sleeper, being just a lowly 'old' flathead-powered car that would "walk a Thunderbird (new car?) like it's standing still". And I figured the "you don't know what I got" line referred to the obvious speed potential of a late-model OHV-powered production car, but the speed of the ol' deuce wasn't apparent 'til the light turned green. I thought the "there's one more thing...I got the pink slip, daddy" line is a jab at the financed newer cars, where bank had the pinks. Just one old fart's interpretation, that's all.

Ummmm...I'm not getting what's wrong with it. By '63, flatheads were getting a little long in the tooth, but a 140mph flathead-powered deuce (light car...could be built right around 2000 pounds...couple hundred HP) was STILL a potent machine. 10 pounds per HP...pretty quick indeed. Anyway, this one does it for me.

I'm kinda leaning that way myself. Lift the front of the side-pipe just a bit, and go to through-the-cowl steering, and it's just about perfect for that style. It could be built with pretty much all Revell parts, too ('cept for the body, of course). Some vintage, some recent. And not a lot of custom, time-consuming bodywork. I like that idea.

The new Revell '29 Ford kit has got me more fired up about building models than any new release in years. Maybe it's because 'traditional' early-Ford cars have so much appeal to me now, and the great parts in the box can be the basis for so many different builds, all done right.. There's been a fair bit of talking lately about "wouldn't it be nice if we had a '26-'27 Ford rod kit available?" With the release of the new Revell '29, and the other offerings from Revell in recent years, you have just about everything you need now...except a body (plenty in resin)...to get a '26-'27 in your collection. Model T frames are, in general, too light for any heavy-engine, big horsepower work, but the 'boxed' model A frame in the new Revell kit is perfect for a hot flathead, or a warmish OHV V8 engine. The new '29 Revell frame is already nicely zeed in the rear, and with just a little narrowing, it'll fit under this vintage Herb Deeks '26-'27 resin body (sent to me by Casey some time ago). This basic combo can be the basis for any of these, and plenty more. Guess which one I'm doing first.

When I get to points where I don't like how something is looking, or where I don't know exactly how to proceed, I put the build away until the muse returns. This is one very nice thing (to me) about building models, as opposed to building real cars. No pressure, no deadlines, only my own vision to answer to. I didn't like the profile look of the hard tonneau for the race-version of this one, and just recently figured out how to get it looking like what I had in mind. Some harking and sanding, close fitting, and I'll have it shortly. Got it down a couple scale inches in front, and flatter overall. If I can squeeze out another inch, I'm golden. And...since I opened the rear deck and made trunk hinges, I wasn't happy about the detail-free inner deck. I got some shots at the shop of what it was supposed to look like, and made up a quickie cardstock mockup just to get a general impression, and to fit the correct outline of the part. With about a 1mm standoff from the deck, a styrene part with the correct diameter and placement of holes will give me enough of what I'm looking for. Just gotta get the right size hole-punch. What it's supposed to look like...

I love the 92F. Nothing about it I don't like.

Just the tip of the iceberg...Mickey Thompson was in at the beginning of the whole A/FX thing with a Tempest. So were the Dragmaster team with the Golden Lancer. In 1960, Nascar created the Compact Sedan Class, with Valiants, Falcons and Corvairs as seen below being the contenders... Marvin Panch running a Valiant on a road-course... Though the A/FX cars were re-engined and the Tempest in particular heavily re-engineered, the potential for racing issues is strong (EDIT: IF any company ever thought the market would support a first-release stocker). I've been working on-and-off on both the Thompson Tempest and the Golden Lancer for several years, but my interest is primarily historical. Lots of mods to do the the Tempest, and all you end up with is a model that most people see as a stock Tempest with some decals and no hubcaps. I've also started a 'phantom' A/FX Oldsmobile F-85 (Johan-based) built along the lines of Mickey Thompson's Tempest, but running an Oldsmobile 394 engine. To the best of my knowledge, no such car was ever campaigned, but it could have been.

Never had any of them, but the Pinto looks like it could be a great basis for a period funny car, and the Vega would be a good start on a trick lifted 4X4. I can also see the Vega as a wild custom gasser, or dropped into the weeds as a low-riding custom.