Ace-Garageguy

You did see some fenderless metallic-painted cars in the '50s (metallic paints were available on high-end cars as far back as the 1930s) but as Snake says, the metalflake was a '60s look. Getting a scale-correct-appearing metallic particle in your paint can be tricky, as most of the metallics look like dune-buggy or bass-boat HUGE metalflake when applied to a model. You tended to see more solid colors on hot rods in the '50s because by far, most of them were built on a budget, and solid color paint was simply cheaper.

I've restored several real Panteras and heavily modified others, so maybe I can help some. As you probably know, the cars came stock in the '70s with the Ford 351 Cleveland engine, and a ZF gearbox. A 427 will be a little tight in the engine bay, but it will fit. I've seen real ones with big-block Chevy engines as well. An excellent engine source for the 427 is the old Revell Parts Pack version...cheap and readily available. I don't recall a source for a correct ZF transaxle right off hand, but a Porsche 911 gearbox mounted backwards can supply a looks-good-at-first-glance alternative if you're not too concerned with accuracy. The old AMT Hardcastle & McCormick Coyote could supply a decent starting point for front and rear suspension, though the gearbox in the kit looks nothing like the correct ZF. This is a ZF...doesn't look much like any of the available kit-sourced mid-engine transaxles. This Porsche gearbox is a fair approximation... If you're building close to stock, the headers are pretty mundane, like these, and tuck close to the sides of the block. Most of the images of "Pantera headers" on Google are wildly modified cars.

Good looking model. It's nice to see clean older builds restored, and I certainly understand your reluctance to disassemble a nicely-done one. I don't have a complete one of these, but the parts I have seem to be in an odd scale, somewhat larger than 1/24. Do you have any insight on that particular quirk?

Well sir, I've seen your work, so you're obviously a competent modeler. I haven't had any problems (so far) with Testors wet-look clear shot over Testors metallics or basecoats, or Duplicolor colors. I always use Duplicolor or Plasticoat primers. I HAVE had severe cracking issues on 1:1 cars when I shot urethane basecoat-clear over solid older paint (collision repair blends) that had previously been primered with a non-sanding enamel primer (which I didn't realize until I had to strip all the affected areas and start over from bare metal). Have you changed the primer you're using recently, or could the manufacturer have possibly changed the formula? What about the color coats you're shooting the Testors clear over? Same as always??

Next time, try acetone or brake cleaner spray. It's a new dimension in short-term pain.

My guess is that all the photos in the first post are digital mashups. Pretty nice work, especially the first one.

If I could go today, the screen door wouldn't hit me on the way out.

Fixed it...sorta.

Yeah...just mean fems and whiny, physically incompetent male-ish things.

Really? Honest? They have a name and everything? Wowee gee whiz. Just FYI...yeah, I know. But thanks. I'm not busting your chops. Guess I shoulda been more specific. I wasn't looking for the done-to-death Volksrods, but something a little more imaginative and challenging. You'll notice, please, the first 2 cars and the last one are front-engined. The one in post #2 has some skills in evidence on the unusual hard-top chop, too.

If the feminists have their way, there won't be any "men" in 30 years anyhow. It's getting harder and harder to find one even now.

Z28 was simply an option package code, and didn't "mean" anything. In 1967 when it was introduced, its intent was to make a factory-available Camaro legal to race in SCCA's "Trans Am" series, which had a maximum engine displacement of 5-liters. For homologation, a minimum of 1000 cars had to be built. The numbers were fudged a little, and Z28s went racing. The original Z28 had a special engine of 302 cu.in. displacement (just under 5 liters), arrived at by putting a 283 crank in a 327 block. Though I lost interest in Z28s after the 1969 cars (I discovered Porsches in '70) in later years it's my understanding that it became a separate Camaro model, more about stylin' than racing homologation.

I was looking around for some ideas for an upcoming 1:1 client build and stumbled across these. I like 'em.

Do you get brittle and crack?

Yup. I used their black wrinkle on the instrument panel of my hot-rod '62 Bug when I was 19.

Jason, nice going all around. I'd be really proud to have a son like you, and good luck in everything you do. As you've already realized, I'm sure, you make most of your own luck. A satisfying and productive life takes effort. You're already well on the way.

It's basically the same as the Duplicolor and Plasticoat sandable primers (I have some of each in stock). As noted several times before, whether it will craze the plastic depends entirely on the particular plastic. It will ruin some, and not hurt others. TEST ON THE ACTUAL PLASTIC FROM THE KIT YOU WANT TO PAINT...FIRST.

Only one I've ever had get brittle in brake fluid was an old AMT '63 Watson Indy roadster I bought as a gluebomb. It survived some pretty rough handling during disassembly, but after a couple of days in DOT 3 brake fluid, it simply disintegrated into little pieces almost every time I touched it.

There's photo-etched lettering available for some kits. I've also seen some guys who'll put down BMF on the lettering BEFORE painting, then sand the paint off the raised portions and polish afterwards. Sounds like magic, but I've seen some pretty fine results.

Kool. The SBC made a great swap in the big Healeys. I remember several, well.

You should get that checked. It can cause a rash. Interesting concept, but to my eye, the roof on your mockup looks a little tall, and the windshield pillars a little too upright at this point.

Kerosene or J2 always gives marshmallows a certain je ne sais quoi.

FYI: The blurb on the car states it has a 1939 Ford trans, and then later that "these were non-synchro transmissions". Wrong, and typical of the constant regurgitation of mis-information distributed as fact. The '39 Ford gearbox was synchronized on 2nd and 3rd gears, just not on first. So, if it's hard to make the 1-2 shift, and the 2-3 shift...and back down...either it isn't a '39 box, or the synchros are worn out, or the clutch isn't dis-engaging completely. How much of the rest of it is mistaken or just plain BS? EDIT: Geez, I'm sorry. There's another one. The blurb states the "hood appears to have been manufactured in a aircraft manufacturing plant, indicative of its flush-rivet hinges". Huh? (I won't even mention the fractured English) Any competent aircraft sheetmetal guy working anywhere can do flush-riveting. It doesn't take a "manufacturing plant". Small things? Yeah, but I just get so entirely tired of people running on about things they know nothing about, spreading wrong information while posing as experts.

Last time I looked, we still lived in the first-world. The way it's going though, we'll be third-world in my lifetime.

Gee Tom, this is pretty typical these days for just about anything. "Customer service" is usually confused and gives out incorrect information, the store inventory computer shows parts or products in-stock that aren't, and the product is usually second-or-third-rate-junk when you get it anyway. This is the new-improved America that all the idiot MBAs and bean-counting "managers" have built. Experts, one and all, and it just gets worse. I deal with THINGS on a daily basis, tools, parts (aftermarket and OEM), and technical services from a variety of vendors. Adventures like made you unhappy today are so common in my life, every day, that I don't whine about it any more. But since you brought it up, let me tell you. I get expensive hot-rod and aftermarket-for-OE-application parts that have to be re-engineered to actually work and fit the supposed application. I get mis-labled parts. I get bolts and fasteners that were apparently made to some odd Chinese measuring system and don't screw into anything, US OR metric. I get double-charged for shipping that's supposed to be free. I get sub-contracted machine work where nobody bothered to follow the scale drawings I supplied. I get body shops that take over a year to do a job they quoted 3 months for. I get rebuilt radiators back that look like they were done by blind 5-year-olds in Guiana. I get powder-coated parts where the coating is 1/8 inch thick on the parts that were supposed to be masked, and so thin you can see through it in other areas. I get bodies painted by "professionals" that are 3 different colors under bright light. I get pot-metal special-application tools that break the first time they're used. I get chrome plated parts where the surface details have either been entirely ground off, or the plating peels when the tape is removed from the wrapping (that's when they don't just lose the parts, period). I get engines assembled by "experts" that are so tight even a compound gear-drive starter won't turn them over. I get wheels from "name" manufacturers that aren't the backspacing and offset I ordered. I get cars coming in from other shops that "just need to be finished", where every bubble-gum snot-weld looks like it was done by a one-eyed drunk with the shakes using coat-hangers for welding rod. I could go on for pages and pages. Most people do their jobs poorly. Most products are second-rate at best. And most folks neither know the difference between quality and crapp, or care about it. And they all tell you "we're committed to quality". Yeah. Have a nice day.