Ace-Garageguy

Single-curved windows are relatively easy to make up from clear styrene or acetate. Compound-curved glass is another entire level of complexity, but it can be done...even if you don't have a pattern. To make a pattern, you pretty well have to carve a 'plug' or 'buck' from bondo or some other similar material, making sure it fits your opening perfectly and has no waves on the surface. Once you have a perfect buck, follow this tutorial to make the actual "glass". http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/?showtopic=58564

Almost picked up several 1/35 armor kits at the thrift store very cheap...buncha figures too. Thought maybe a change of pace might help me to get some work done on something model-related, anyway. Went back after deciding to go ahead and get them, and they were gone. Oh well. Somebody got a really great deal on some WWII Russian and German tanks, artillery, figures and motorcycles.

I see you already know that that kit, though it's labeled as 1/32, is actually about 1/26 or so...if you measure the wingspan and divide it out. Only the little pilot figure is 1/32. If you're going for an accurate-appearing GeeBee, you'll need to sand the ribs on the wings flat. The model depicts the wings as being covered in fabric, stretched over ribs...a common enough way to build older, slower airplanes... The real GeeBee had wing skins made of plywood however. They were sanded very straight, and painted very slick.

Art touches on an excellent point I should elaborate on... Roof panels from one GM make in the time period you're interested in will interchange as they do in the real world IF AND ONLY IF the models are scaled correctly. For example, the '50s Olds and Chevy kits from AMT and Revell are scaled quite well actually, close enough so that it's not too difficult to swap roof sections and body panels from one to another...but it's not a drop-on, by any means.

In many cases, the roof panels and the underlying support structural parts will interchange...and that's why, in the real world, those of us who routinely try to restore older cars where there hasn't been factory parts support for years, come to rely on various "interchange manuals". One of the most well-known is the Hollander series. These are still in production, as things like Lexus structural bits can be sourced from Toyota, etc. The vehicle manufacturers also have supplied similar information over the years. Much of the vintage-car info is available online, if you put enough effort into the search. There's an old Pontiac site, for instance, that publishes scans of '40s-'70s interchange info.

Yes sir, looking good !

X3

Silver Aston Martin Vantage parked on the street, in front of the tattoo parlor next to the Celtic pub. Pretty good crowd around it, completely ignoring all the choppers.

Looks good. Removing the floors and blobular exhaust on these really improves them a lot. Another way to achieve a better frame is to use the Revell '40 ford unit. All Ford passenger cars from '35 through '40 were built on the same basic frame, and the Revell '40 unit actually fits under the AMT '36 kits quite well. You may already know, but the "ragtop" was not openable on the factory cars. It was built up over a wood frame, padded and skinned with a waterproof rubberized textured material. A popular custom treatment on these cars was to weld in a steel panel that closed the original opening entirely. Another sometimes-seen mod back in the '50s- '60s was to substitute a tinted clear acrylic plastic panel for the built-up top insert. I've seen both red and green. A fold-back fabric sunroof like you see on old VW Bugs has also been done on real '36 Ford customs. If I recall correctly, the optional engines in the AMT '36 kits were Pontiacs. A very well-detailed and accurate Pontiac V8 with 3 two-barrels is available in the old Revell engine PartsPak #85-7253. AMT also made a beautiful version of the same engine, but with 2 four-barrels, in the old Blueprinter 8158 kit (which has been repackaged and reissued a couple of times...and the engine is available again, now). Because both Revell and AMT did a good job of scaling these models, the engines built up from the parts pack kits fit well in the AMT '36 engine bay, and really enhance the detail.

Always love to see a resto job on an older model, especially with modifications. Nice work. Like your resto-shop dio to pose her in too.

Such a good looking old race car we rarely ever see built...should be another fine model from you.

Looks really good, Ray. Paint's super slick and the color is perfect for it. Any darker would have been too tame, and any more orange would have been too...orange. Fine looking model.

Love the Bug, Miles. Last time I used a VW engine even close to that hard (slalom car) I spun a main bearing (oil starvation, no deep sump, not enough pump). Do you know anything about the car and engine in the video? I'd like to know what he's running internally.

Wow. I got almost ten years on you, still build hot-rods 8 to 5 in an un-air-conditioned (and rarely heated) shop for a part of my living, sweat profusely in the process, drive too fast, and seem to think I'm going to live forever. I mow my own lawn (just got a push mower...no gas...to make it more of a workout), plus ALL the repairs and modifications during the ongoing renovation of my house. Then for fun when I have some daylight and the weather's nice, I work on my own automotive projects at home...and I have a machine shop in-house. Recently got a mountain bike too...hate the old-man-chicken-legs-in-Bermuda-shorts look, you know? Use it or lose it. If I die doing what I love, that's fine by me. What I don't want to do is live to be a slow old fart. Have to admit that aspirin has become my good and faithful buddy, and that it takes a little longer to get going in the mornings, but hey, life is good even when it sucks. Love it.

Sorry fellas, but I just have to laugh at all the concern over airbags, crash performance, and side-impact protection. This is my idea of a daily driver...(had one for years)... and this will be back on the road under my tired old butt shortly. What side-impact protection? Airbags? For windbags and old bags.

I don't know if you saw this period shot during your googling, but it clearly shows a hard spare-tire cover, when the car was new. A restored car with a similar cover... I don't know if it was a Ford option, an aftermarket part, or a trim-level inclusion (some '34 Deluxe models did apparently come with hard spare tire covers).

Some of us derive immense satisfaction from building and modifying our own stuff. Even if it takes forever. Different strokes, ya' know? Good frienda mine spent 5 years building a world-class chopped '36 Ford, only to sell it shortly after completion. He's just happier building them than driving them, and doesn't give a rat's backside about going to shows. Hope that's OK with you.

You'd think if it's truly 'interactive" like your heading states, it would send you an e-mail or text to let you know how to thin it. You might try to find a TDS online on the product (technical data sheet) rather than relying on info from people who have no idea what the product actually is. Good luck finding info. It's often helpful to understand the chemistry of a product before you buy it, in order to know what ELSE you're going to need to use it.

Looks OK, still Camaro-y in a fat, bloated Mustang-y kind of way, with a whole passel of unrelated lines, creases and details running every which way...which seems to be the case with most designs these days. Lost what purity there was in the original 'retro' design, obviously just changing stuff kinda randomly to make it seem "newer, better". Yawn.

Definitely capital-C cool. Only thing I'd consider changing is to pull the front wheels just a tad forward...put the front-axle centerline even with the grille shell. Neat little machine, either way.

I'm a home-owners-association nightmare. Have several inoperable cars on the property, actually WORK on them frequently, hang my laundry to dry in the sun and wind, and refuse to paint my mailbox the exact same shade of green as the neighbors. Nah, I'll continue to live in older homes on big lots, built when things were a little different.

Indeed.

Great idea. Everything Ford built from '35 through '40 (and the '41 pickup) is on basically the same frame. Good way to give longer legs to the very nice '40 kit tooling.

AMT was VERY far off concerning the cowl-height of the bodies of all their '32 kits. Never really understood why, as most of the rest of the kit is pretty well scaled. Anyway, the tire cover depicted in the kit was either aftermarket or optional.