Ace-Garageguy

Yeah, I'm getting back into trains and there's a pretty huge gap where Floquil and Polly-S used to be. I'm also wondering how much of the problem is attributable to the hazardous-material-panic crowd. Non-solvent-based materials simply lack the performance of their smelly, scary predecessors, and not a few self-stripping real cars on the road today can testify to the veracity of that statement. It's a pity that what were once cottage-industry model paint manufacturers got swallowed up by corporations that can't afford (or just don't want to be bothered) to produce products for a small market.

Dat beez baaaaaaaad.

Depending on the colors you need, SEM may have alternative for you...these are non-gloss interior colors: https://www.cardetailsupplies.com/shop-all/paint-touch-up/

Well that sucks. Far as I know, there's nothing else on the market that works exactly like their buffing Metalizers.

Well...yes and no. During the editing process, I found that some of the photos I had were a lot fuzzier than what I like to post, apparently from trying to rush it and taking them without the tripod I normally use, which I'd left at the big-car shop. I'm cleaning up the model area now (to re-shoot the pix) and getting another installment out on this one is a priority.

Well no, actually. While the '53 Stude does have a Chrysler Firepower 392 hemi, the optional engine in the AMT '53 Ford pickup is a DeSoto Firedome. A completely different engine from the Chrysler hemi, the DeSoto Firedome hemi came in 276, 291 and 361 cubic inch displacements. Far as the "big Lincoln" goes, the only thing correct in the double-T kit for a Y-block Lincoln mill is the MkII alloy valve covers. We've been through this multiple times, but you're new, so you're forgiven. The rest of the engine is a kind of mashup of several Fords, and is not accurate for any of them. And by the way, the Ala Kart double kit (and all the '28 Ford roadster kits derived from the original...NOT the under-scale joke from the re-tooled version), came with another completely different Chrysler Corporation hemi engine, the Dodge Red Ram.

That is very sad. Having lost one car to fire, I can identify...but only on a very small scale. If you have the bucks to afford this kind of collection, a good lesson from this sort of tragedy includes 1) don't store cars indoors with fuel in the tanks, and 2) spend a little less money on cars, and more on a state-of-the-art fire suppressor system. Sprinklers won't do much of diddly once the tanks start to go.

Well, yeah, but only if this is your definition of "push"...

Yup...and a few were even kinda famous...

It's been, frankly, too big for a while. It's doubtful I'll get to all of what I want to build, but while I still have some discretionary income, I'm trying to get the kits I have ideas for while I can. They're surely not getting cheaper. This site is certainly responsible for exposing me to a lot of kits I would have never known about otherwise...and making me want them. Seeing other people's work is tremendously inspiring too, and not a day passes when I don't learn something new here. Now, to find the time to get back at the bench regularly again...

Glad you found it helpful. Chassis mods are coming up, so stay tuned.

ABOVE: I use fine-line masking tape as a guide to mark the first cut with a fine Sharpie. This helps insure your cuts will all be parallel, and it's important to get the work symmetrical. Nothing looks worse than a sloppy chop. ABOVE: Get all the edges square and straight. You.ll notice the pillars no longer line up. On this chop, we're going to stretch the roof to fix it. A stretched-roof chop changes the proportions of the car, so be sure you know whether you like this look BEFORE you do all the work. We use fine-line tape again to mark the cut lines. We want to cut just forward and behind the B-pillar, and stay out of the curves at the tops of the window frames. The '36 5-window in the background is getting the same treatment. ABOVE: Align the pillars and determine how much filler material you'll need to get the roof solid again. This is another reason why you want to make clean, parallel cuts in the beginning. Once it's all square and righteous, stick everything together with plenty of liquid cement liberally flowed into the joints. Set it aside at least overnight to dry. ABOVE: After the joints are dry and hard, fill the edges with short sections of the same material you used for the center of the stretch. Again, let it dry thoroughly. Then, file to rough shape and finish shaping and body-work as usual.

Jack Chrisman's Big Red (a Comet, but you could certainly do a Falcon)...

I have to agree. I just bought a couple clean early Pinto kits...think I need to get a recent MPC wagon repop and build one.

Hmmmmm. The little Pinto looks pretty stable compared to these turkeys.

Monkey see, monkey want... Ever since I saw what a great looking model Tyler62990 made with this kit, I've had to have one. Found a decent deal on a sealed virgin, and it arrived today. Anybody who likes trucks and hasn't seen this one, well, you need to. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/126881-the-road-weary-roadway-ford-ok-its-actually-done-this-time-i-swear/

I've always had a soft spot for racing Pintos for some odd reason...both drag cars and road racers. Set up for SCCA, they are remarkably nimble, willing and reliable, and handle a lot better than some of their "sports car" rivals. And of course, as you guys say, more than a few were campaigned as straight-liners back in the dim recesses of time... I just haven't seen one lately, and the little guy in the video just sounds so good...

This is another one that, to the best of my recollectory, I've never shown in its entirety here. The inspiration... It's to be a mid-to late 50s lakes / drag car on a tube frame. Powered by a DeSoto hemi with a LaSalle gearbox, junkyard rear on semi-elliptics, dropped tube front axle on transverse leaf. Tube frames were getting common by then, the old LaSalle gearbox was still pretty much in demand because of its strength, and the Pontiac and Olds rear ends were tough, cheaper than a quick change, and had several available ratios. The rear I'm using looks to be maybe Chevy truck. The really stout Olds and Pontiac rears and Ford 9" hit the market in '57, and took some time to filter through to junkyards and competition. First mockup...

I think you just solved the color dilemma...an old Mercedes medium-dark brown called "Tobacco".

Here's one for you...back in the '80s I had a VW Rabbit or Sirocco come in on the hook. Guy ran through a deep puddle, going pretty fast, and the engine quit and wouldn't even crank afterwards. Seems the air intake was pretty low on the car, and it sucked in enough water to hydraulic-lock one cylinder. Bent the con rod.

Here's a few more pix for the click-challenged. This thing is REALLY good looking...and even more impressive as it's owner-built.

Just the avatar on the second post over there is worth the click.

Once again, thanks for the interest and comments. The more I look at this thing on the big screen, the more I like the traditional style. AND...I WAS going to post the chop sequence as a part of this build thread, but it's all explained in a tutorial I did on this very forum back in January 2013...on this car. Rather than wasting bandwidth by posting everything again, I'll just give anyone who's interested this link...

In general, that is indeed the way it is...but it's not the way it has to be, and I kinda know what I'm talking about. The car shown below was built by a shop I worked with for several years (though I did exactly nothing on this particular build). It's obviously an AMBR contender, and the rather substantial cost was paid by James Hetfield. HOWEVER, the POINT I want to make is that the car in the photo below is nothing but a VERY carefully built and detailed traditional hot-rod. There is nothing on this car that couldn't be duplicated by a skilled and motivated amateur in his own garage. Though the builder, Josh Mills, is well known internationally for building some of the best period-correct cars and bikes on the planet, he's not a magician, and he puts his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of the "car guys" out there. And Mr. Foose, another man I admire very much, is also only human (though admittedly he has more talent than most of us were blessed with). But he took his talent, and with a lot of hard work, turned it into a set of skills that make his cars, and the big money he can command to build them, possible. There was a time when top-tier hot-rods and customs were built by ordinary people, and some of them were truly outstanding. But these days, where very few people want to take the time or invest the effort to develop the skills to do something at this level for themselves, damm right it's only the tiny minority with money to burn who can pay a "professional" to do the work for them. So remember that all professionals started out as ignorant beginners, and it's only the drive to become truly proficient (and some God-given talent that you either have or you don't) that sets the naysayers and whiners apart from the guys who say "hell...I can do that"...whether they go on to build cars for rich guys or do it in seclusion, simply for the love of mechanical creation. Anybody with above-average mechanical aptitude and a pretty good brain can build a world-class car if he wants to badly enough.