Fat Brian

The fenders physically interchange but I don't know if the 500/600 unit is longer or not. The silver F500 I posted had it's fenders replaced with F100 pieces and was put on a pickup frame.

No thanks, she's a bit rough lookin' and about 150 pounds too small for me. She looks like she needs a good scrubbin'.

It depends on what kind of custom you are doing, a mild custom with old school wheels like Cragars or baby moons is just right for the 458. A modern custom with big wheels and a flashy color needs the ZR1 motor.

Without having the mag in front of me I have a few questions, are there any pics of the car doing a burnout or taking a pass down a track? It could be that the car started out whistle clean and they got some shots of it, then they decided to get a few action shots which produced the leak, then the photographer decided he needed a few more stationary shots and they shot the car without doing 1000% reclean on it. Should they have rechecked it, of course, is it the worst thing on the cover of Hot Rod, not be a long shot. Remember the $500 Chevette with the 500 Caddy motor? And as for whether to fix leaks or not I guess it depends on what it is and how much it is to fix it. My Cadillac has a half case leak and to fix it requires complete removal of the engine then disassembly of the entire bottom end of the engine, you might as well change the crankshaft bearings while you're in there. The repair costs between $1500 and $2000 on a car with a total value of about $5000, as far as I'm concerned it can leak Jesus comes to get me because it just doesn't make sense to fix it.

The LS-1 came in 97 and up Vettes and 98 or 99 and up Camaros. The most recent kit is a Monogram issue of a Revell 1/25 2002 Camaro, it's plentiful and can be had for cheap.

To make a long hood in 1/24 you add 1/4" to the hood, I think the 1:1 measurement is either 6 or 7 inches. I'm not ready to do any kind of tutorial yet, I still need the sleeper from the long hauler kit before I'm ready to start mine. The grill mods aren't too bad though, the first thing you need to do is sand the top of the 378 grill until the radius of the corner of the top matches the radius of the sides and it's flat on top. Then you need to measure the new height and find out how much you need to add to make the final height 46 inches, it should be about 3/16 to 1/4 inch. I think the best place to cut the grill is below the first bolt head on the vertical portion of the grill sides, you will lose the center bars but you can make new ones or make a custom grill.

That should be right, the difference isn't much, it's barely noticeable unless a person knows what they are looking at.

The Heavy Metal van was built by Mike Trinagel who owned a body shop in the Bronx. It was finished first with 40+ inch tires in 1982 and was rebuilt on 66 inch tires in 83/84. Here is a video showing a few incarnations of it, skip past the first few minutes of car stuff

Thank you, that is great. I'm glad you got the height measurement too to, they looked a little taller but I couldn't tell how much.

It depends, usually you can get a few shows out of a model, especially since you didn't win 1st. Some clubs do have a no repeat rule where you car couldn't place in the Wing Nut show next year though.

A lot of guys here use two part auto body filler here. It doesn't shrink like some of the tube varieties do, just make sure what you use won't ruin your plastic by testing it on a scrap part first.

I was wondering about the scoop, I wouldn't think it's functional though is it?

You wouldn't have to go much higher to build this

It would be nice to know how much to widen the fenders for the 800, if not for me then for reference for anyone who might want to try.

Found this on ebay a while ago, added to a very long want list...

Cool, firsthand knowledge.

I saw that truck, very cool. I also liked the 57 F800 but there isn't a good starting place to build it.

The F500 doesn't have the widened fenders like the F800. Here is a pic of a 55 F500 And a stock 55 F100 And an F800 with the wide fenders The F500 is only a 5 ton truck, it may not really be worth it when I can also widen the fenders and have a much higher weight truck. I was thinking of making some kind of a medium duty wrecker, I have a couple of 53 Ford cabs laying around and was looking for a project that wouldn't need much body work.

I don't know that my SC300 is considered collectible since there are still so many out there but they are sought after in some circles due to the capacity for the stock engine to make insane amounts of power and the ease of swaping in hot motors from Japan. I bought it specifically for what is was and what it can do but I didn't get it new.

What kind of hot rod are you going for? That will dictate what engine you need as much as what fits will, a fifties and sixties rod used different engines than a nineties billet rod.

I'm looking at converting the AMT 53 F100 can into an F500. It looks like the only change is to open the front wheel wells a little more. Has anyone done this or does anyone have any info about what needs to be done to make the conversion correct?

I don't think so, I believe I heard that they messed up the molds to make the B model. It's a shame since the A model has that cool air ride rear.

There are different definitions of "pro" depending on what you mean. In the days before CAD and 3d animation a friend of mine worked on cooling systems for nuclear power plants and built models of the finished systems to illustrate how the system was layed out. He built these industrial models for a job, he was a professional model builder. He also built model kits in his off time as a hobby. While his hobby kits were nice the builds he was proudest of were all of the scratchbuilt power plants he built at work. On the hobby side "pro" usually means people pay you for your biulds. It is used very loosely, there is no application process to be allowed to use the term and no one checks behind you if you do.

I have used the Detail Master kit quite a few times. They are fiddly to build but look really nice when completed, they have been around for a long time and when they came out were probably the nicest piece out there but the MAD units look great and are super easy to use.

I did combine the 71 Road Runner/Superbird kit with the new 71 Charger, it fits like a glove. All you have to do is cut the inner fenders out of the Charger body and use some Evergreen to fit them to the Road Runner body. I'm not done but the conversion is pretty easy.