Fat Brian

Dang if that ain't weird looking.

We have to find the Martian Indians first.

I guess it depends on what mods you want to make, if you want to use a Revell kit the first two are the ones to use. The snap kit has a different cab that isn't correct. I believe that the 353 thats out now also has the 359 round fenders in it but you should try to find out for sure. You would still have to lengthen the hood a quarter of an inch and fix the aircleaner piping among other things.

But there are poor builders in every area of the car hobby not just rats. There are plenty of guys that "restore" there cars with incorrect engines and wheels and finish it off with a Maaco paint job but their poor effort don't detract from the actual concours correct cars out there. No one is claiming that all rats are the paragons of automotive perfection and safelty but don't judge them all by the bad ones.

There are other changes that make a 359 to 379 conversion a challenge, the firewall is wider on the 379 and I believe the doors are different not to mention aircleaner piping is routed through the cab instead of notching the rear of the hood like a Kenworth. I would start with an Italeri 378 and either buy a long hood 379 conversion or build it yourself. Since it looks like it will be a while before I post a how to on getting the hood right I will post the measurements here for you. I have always wanted to get the perfectly flat hood top as seen on most 379 Petes and no kit or conversion has gotten it completely right so I paid a visit to my local Peterbilt dealership. Cruising around the service center I found what I needed, a 359, a 378, and many 379s. First I measured the grill on the 359, it is 50 inches wide and 45 inches tall. Then the 379, it is 50 inches wide and 46 inches tall. And the 378, it was 50 inches wide and 41 inches tall. This is why using the 378 grill doesn't get you where you want to be, it's too short to make the hood flat. According to our resident Pete expert the 378 cab also sits 3 inches higher on the frame than a 379. What you need to do is make the 378 grill taller by a little more than an eighth of an inch then cut off the top of the hood and raise and rework it to fit. Ideally you would make the hood flat on top and then lower the cab and sleeper to make it match the new hood since it's too high to be correct for a 379 anyway. The Italeri 378 cab sits on small raised tabs that are about 3/16 tall so you have some room to bring it down a bit. It will take some test fitting but the results should be worth it if you are as insane about getting the correct hood pitch that I am.

The General Lee was a 69 with the split front grill opening. I believe that they did use some 68s but changed the front and rear ends to 69 parts, they went through so many cars they kind of took what they could get after a while.

See, I like rat rods but have to agree with you about these two. But I also believe you shouldn't judge a whole class of cars solely by the poorly done examples. Back in the eighties when prostreet was the craze the purists where screaming about how the tub guys were destroying the hobby and hacking up valuable cars, the song remains the same today. There are works of art in every niche of the hobby but there are twice as many cars that miss the mark, some due to poor styling and others due poor construction. In a hobby where anyone with some tools and place to work can build a car the results are always going to be hit or miss.

I don't think so, is the song you are asking about a Cake song? If so try Rock n Roll Lifestyle, that may be it.

When done correctly rat rods are rolling art, almost caricatures of real automobiles with outlandish proportions and piles of creativity. But with any trend you get the copy cats who want to be with the in crowd but don't quite get it. There are tons of poorly done and downright dangerous "rat rods" out there that are more rolling piles of junk that anything else. There are also people who have plenty of money but no sense of style who build cars that just miss the mark. Here are some of my favorite inspiration pics.

I'll see your stick shifts and raise you some safety belts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3i7EFYk-_c

I would advise against the nontoxic tube glue, it tends to not ever fully dry and the parts get gummy and weird.

The Revell 69 Shelby has a 428 SCJ motor in it, you could also use the 390 out of the AMT 67 Comet. The 390 and 428 shared the same block so externally look almost identical. It looks like the valve covers should be the stock stamped steel painted ones with Powered by Ford scripting and I'm not exactly sure where to find them. I'm having trouble finding any pics of the correct valve covers but check out this 67 Ford Custom 4 door to get an idea. The problem you get in to searching for Interceptor stuff is that just because a motor came out of a police car doesn't make it an Interceptor motor and most of the stuff out there is just a regular engine pulled from a cop car that people call and Interceptor but it isn't. http://www.streetlegaltv.com/news/to-catch-a-muscle-car-1967-ford-police-interceptor/

For 1970 the inteceptor motor was still a 428SCJ variant. The 429 was available in regular Thunderjet form in non chase police vehicles. From 71 on the interceptor otor was 429 or 460 based. On a side note, my dad had a 68 LTD with a 428 PI motor and a C6 in it. He said that car would pass everything but a gas station, the only thing around here he couldn't hang with was an L88 Vette. I imagine the extra thousand pounds of LTD had a good bit to do with that.

That is the Monogram 70 Chevelle engine.

I believe I've seen all three front ends under 250s and I'm not sure what you do to get any specific front end on a particular truck. A guy at work had a 92-96 250 with a Powerstroke that had the leaf style TTB but another guy had the same body style with a 460 and a straight axle.

Yes you can, the parts aren't a perfect fit but it can be done. The TTB front end is correct for an F-250.

You will have to do some mods to the hood since the 378 has a sloped nose, you can either buy a resin 379 long nose conversion or do the mods yourself. The truck pictured on the long hauler box is a 379 but the kit has the 378 nose with a bigger sleeper, it will get you close but it still needs some work. I took some measurements from a 359, a 378, and a 379 and I've been meaning to do a post about making a correct 379 hood but just haven't got around to it yet.

The headers on the box lid look different but the piece in the first post is whats in the box. Here is a pic from ebay of a built Thunderwagon, click on it for a larger version.

You can buff it out, depending on how bad it is start with an appropriate polishing medium and finish with some Novus 2 or Scratch X.

Here is some police interceptor specific info. It seems the kit should have a 428 in it for 70, the 429/460 PI motor didn't start until 71. From somewhere in the 1960's and up to/including the 1970 model year, the FoMoCo PI engines were FE's, typically the 428PI (which is of the FE Family, not to be confused with the 429PI, which is of the 385 Series Family). In 1971, the 429PI debuted. It was basically a 429SCJ engine with D0OE-R heads, 4-bolt D0VE-A block and forged flat top pistons, etc. The SCJ intake may have had the spreadbore carb pad, though (I'm not sure) In 1972, the dedicated 429PI engine was released. This engine had the 4-bolt D0VE-A block, D2OE-AB Police Interceptor heads, flat top forged pistons, and an SCJ-style intake with a spreadbore carb pad. 1973 brought the 460PI. (Maybe there were still some 429PI's?) It had TRW "D"-shaped dish pistons and (I think) the D2OE-AB PI heads. Not sure what it had for a block and intake. 1974 was the 460PI. Here is where I don't know what's going on. Somewhere around this time or perhaps in 1975, they went to the D3VE-A2A passenger car head. Here is some more: There were 2 versions of the 460 for police use. People get these confused and thus the bad wrap on these motors. There is the 460 Police motor (basically a reg 460) and the 460 Police Interceptor motor. (performance goodies) Both sound the same but are differant. main differance is that the Interceptor uses an in-tank electric pump and alot of head work. (casting #'s wont disclose anything) Forget whatever the books say. Ford did a number on these motors.. seems like every year they changed something. You honestly dont know what you have till you take it apart. I have a 77 460 Police Interceptor. From what i read it is just a basic 460. When I went to rebuild it the shop called me and said it has huge valves (2.19/1.76), High performance cam and huge ports on the heads. Compression was low at around 8.5-9 to 1. Motor was built to pass air freely. Once rebuilt and installed in my truck, I was pulling off 14 sec 1/4 mile times, on street tires, with the 460 Police Interceptor. my head #'s were D3VE a2a. and not even close to stock heads with the same casting number. Thanx to a guy I met on Ebay with a 1976 Interceptor, Ive since learned alot. Take it apart and youll find out if its a Interceptor or just a reg police. these motors with the 3-1 gears topped out at 130+ mph. More: The 429 PI's would generally be a 1972 engine with an intake manifold identical to a 429 CJ except it had an odd spreadbore pattern for a ford carb that was not a quadrajet. The heads are D2OE-AB and have ports halway between CJ and standard size, with 2.19" and 1.725" valves. They also have guide plates, hardened pushrods, and CJ style rockers. The pistons are forged TRW flat tops with a large eyebrow. Basically same pistons and rods as a SCJ. The exhaust manifolds are similar to CJ/SCJ but with D2 part numbers. They have aluminum finned valve covers similar to a CJ/SCJ. The blocks could be 2 bolt or 4 bolt main with a part number of D0VE or D1VE. Just judging from what I've seen your chances are about 50/50 of getting a 4 bolt. You don't know until you pull the pan. The oil pan is also similar to CJ/SCJ being slightly deeper and baffled. They also came with an oil cooler adapter similar to that of a 71 429 SCJ mustang. The good 460 PI's were in 73-74. They didn't have as much good stuff but still pretty nice. Pretty much all of the same information applies that I mentioned on the 429 but they had steel valve covers and a small port intake instead of the CJ sized intake. Also the pistons were TRW forged on the 460 but they had a very slight dish similar to the JE dished pistons.

What happened to that Charger kit?!? It starts out sort of okay but then it's like they realized it was going to be too long for the box or something so they just squinched up the back end.

How did you pay, paypal might refund your money even if the seller is being a problem.

Here is some info on the different levels of 429 goodness available from Ford. Sean Stacey is casting the 429CJ from Revells 70 Torino kit so you could update the kit to a more modern engine mold. 429 CJ/SCJ Blocks The Four Types of 429s (Thanks to Dan Davis) First was the base 429, known as the Thunder Jet (TJ). It came in T-birds and full size Fords in the late 60's and early 70's. Typically 360 horsepower. By far and away the most common -- they made 100,000+ of these. Can be ID'd be block casting numbers of C8SE, C9VE, D0VE, D1VE among others and head casting numbers of C8SE, C9VE, D0VE among others. Then there was the 429 Cobra Jet (CJ). It was built only in 1970-71. It was only installed in mid-size (1970-71) and pony cars (1971 only). 370 HP (likely underrated), thick strong blocks and massive ports int he heads. ID'd by D0VE-A and D1VE-AA casting numbers on the block and D0OE-R on the heads. No other numbers are CJ. Not too common, maybe a total production of 15,000. The 429 SCJ was a stronger version on the CJ. The difference was forged pistons, solid lifter cam and four bolt mains*. The rest of the info is the same. Even less common with a production of maybe 3,000. The baddest of them all is the Boss 429. It was rated at 375HP (grossly underrated). It came in special Mustangs (and 2 Cougars) in 1969-70. It had four bolt mains, aluminum hemi-style heads and looked like no other engine. ID by casting number on the block of C9AE. The heads ID themselves. Very rare and very expensive as only about 1,200 were made. (* Correct for 429 SCJ Torino. On 71 429 SCJ Mustang, both 2 and 4 bolt mains were possible - JB)

I'm about a cheeseburger shy of 400lbs, you don't get this big without being able to cook. I like it but my wife complains about the mess. I try to tell her she can't have it both ways, either she cooks or she cleans because I won't do both. It's nothing fancy, just good home style food.

I'm going to try to remember everyone I had in the other thread, let's see how I do. sstacey47 edrothooo Scuderia doogie7046 rel14 lvnlwd plowboy route66modeler derby1018 outragis Bartster Missing in Action kataranga