Ace-Garageguy

There's a whole bunch of Vern Tardel books 'bout working on ancient rod guts too.

Agreed, but scraping on the ground, or high-centering on a speed bump, or having the frame rails so low and so far forward as to be the first things to strike anything in the road kinda defeats the purpose. I know...he must be a MODEL car builder in real life.

They were also the featured rattlecan brand for CarQuest, but when CQ got taken over by Advance, Duplicolor came in to all the stores. Plastikote has been available on Amazon and other web sources, but there were also reported problems with an apparently cheapened and offshore-sourced product. It's a shame, really, as Plastikote primer was the #1 go-to product for a lot of better modelers for years.

Bingo. The voice of rationality. And pretty often, those TLDR folks go on to ask questions that were fully covered in the TL part.

How 'bout "Bob Grainger: Consultant to AMT."

You would be correct in that assumption. One of the popular web acronyms now is TLDR...too long, didn't read.

So now we have digression police? Usually, in the course of any human discourse that's not being conducted under formal rules...like a courtroom setting...there's a pretty fair amount of off-topic digression going on, as one idea triggers another. Often times, that also affords opportunities for inserting some humor. I wasn't aware that differences of opinion weren't tolerated here...only when behavior moved on to personal attacks did I think the moderators would step in. I guess it's just a sign of the times.

I've been informed repeatedly that "they're only models, and you can mount carburetors any way you want with no degradation in performance", so I respectfully suggest you mount your Holley and other downdraft 4-barrel (or 2-barrel) carbs upside down and call them updrafts. They'll be sure to be noticed as "something different" too.

Well, not really. And all it actually serves to do is make the car virtually useless in any real-world situation, other than a glass smooth parking lot. But if the primary reason for building a hot-rod is for "look at me", it succeeds admirably. Put that backwards ported smallblock Chebby in it, and the different-to-be-different (but doesn't work worth a damm) exercise is complete.

Hmmmmmm...all I see is Fords. Blue Fords and red Fords. What am I doing wrong?

Funny...I've been building fast cars all my life and I've never called a distributor a "dizzy". I guess I'm just never going to be cool.

Either carefully scraping with an X-Acto, or using small files. You want to get all the flash and out of register lines gone before using sandpaper. Otherwise, as you suspect, you WILL get scratches in lotsa places you don't want them. And try to not use anything coarser than 400 grit paper on plastic if you can help it. Anything much coarser is the very devil to fill with primer.

That is one of the coolest models I've ever seen.

I wouldn't sweat it. If there's no obvious checking or cracking on the sidewalls, you should be fine. I've run takeoff tires I had in cool dry basement storage for 10+ years with zero problems in normal daily use...though I might have second thoughts about running them at prolonged high speeds.

Chrome seats, huh? I wonder what wizard came up with that idea. Still, they might actually make a cool base to do some gaudy Kustom Kar metalflake upholstery...

Thanks Rob. Helpful info. Thanks to Mark and Art too.

Found this while looking for something else... Built by a dealership in Sao Paulo from the then-current F100. Grande revendedor Ford da capital paulista, a Itacolomy Automóveis S.A. projetou em 1963, a partir da picape F-100, uma cabine-dupla com quatro portas (as traseiras abrindo em sentido contrário) e caçamba fechada com tampa, transformando-a quase num sedã. À falta, na época, de automóveis Ford nacionais, a empresa buscou oferecer um sucedâneo com algum requinte, como estofamento especial, em gomos, pintura em duas cores, grade cromada, pneus banda branca e até um discreto “rabo-de-peixe”. Utilizando a cabine e as portas originais da picape, sem nenhuma alteração até a altura do para-brisa, a Itacolomy construiu em chapa de aço todo o restante da carroceria: teto, painel, portas e para-lamas traseiros e tampa do porta-malas. A despeito do estilo grosseiro da F-100, o resultado final foi bastante razoável.

When I was a boy, and I had to walk 12 miles to school and back, uphill, both ways, barefoot, in the snow, even in summer, that's all we had to make models out of.

Really nice stuff.

Yes...VERY nicely done.

Thank you, sir. PART 6 More bits and pieces. The right hand engine case / gearbox cover had the shifter and kick-start levers heavily glued on, and again, not exactly in the right places. It took careful effort with the tools shown to get them off with minimal damage to everything. The ribs on the cover are largely obliterated where the shifter lever glue was globbed on. The lore surrounding the actual bike says the sissy bar, one of the notable custom touches on the Bronson bike, was made from a Schwinn bicycle part. The sissy bar was also among the broken kit parts, and there wasn't enough left to tell exactly what it was supposed to look like. I decided to replace the outer tube with styrene rod stock, and transfer the ring to the new part. The rod stock was bent cold around an X-Acto handle, just to make sure that I could get a 180 degree bend without cracking it...but I didn't get the shape quite right on the first try. I also didn't make one of the legs long enough, having no pattern to work from...which I realized after looking more carefully at photos of the real bike. The second try was better, and after getting the shape right, I taped it in position and "tempered" it, so it would HOLD the shape, by dipping in boiling water for 30 seconds. Styrene rod will spring back otherwise, if bent cold. In this shot, we see the first batch of parts to go in the chrome stripper, and the partially completed sissy bar. The stripped parts, as well as the tank, will also be scrubbed with hot water, a toothbrush, and Comet. I've chased the ribs on the side cover using the tip of a razor saw blade, and we'll see better exactly what we have to work with after the chrome is removed. I also repaired the broken off corner of the front fender. The mufflers were heavily glued, but not actually stuck together very well, or in register. They'll be "milled" flat on the mating faces, and re-glued, lined up correctly. The rear fender has heavy-handed holes and slots for mounting it to the frame, and for attaching the sissy bar. I'm filling the holes with .040" styrene stock. The frame details at the lower cross-tube don't match any of the online photos I've found so far, so that will be addressed shortly. The location of the kick stand is determined by this...and on this particular model, it was just heavily glued on under the frame, in an apparently random location.

Looking good. One of the most memorable cars I've ever seen was one of these. Except for the 10" wide rear tires and stance, it was a total sleeper, but had one of the strongest Chevy 350 street engines I've ever encountered. Everything about the car was done to pro standards, and it was blazingly fast, and stone-axe reliable.

I mentioned it precisely ONCE. Any subsequent mention in THIS thread, by ME, was in response to argumentative responses. And Weber carbs, including those from R&M, have been discussed on the board previously.

So will a Holley mounted upside down. Who cares about accuracy or realism, right? You know...I don't understand why any of you guys getting in such a snit because I had the unmitigated audacity to mention one thing that's wrong from R&M...especially in light of the fact that I was the one to post the contact information for Norm, and otherwise, I HAVE NOTHING BUT THE HIGHEST PRAISE FOR EVERYTHING I'VE EVER BOUGHT FROM HIM.

I agree. Nothing looks worse than shiny orange-peel. Steve...my mistake. I picked the wrong example of your work...but do I not remember correctly that you buy your metallics from someone who mixes with very small flake to address the problem?