Fat Brian

Continuing on my VW theme I'll be building Revells California Roller VW van. This kit seems to be dripping with classic Revell fiddliness with all the opening doors and multi piece body. I've got a resin Porsche engine on the way which may require a mid engine conversion, I'll know more once it gets here. You can't get these vans very low due to the tires being under the door so I'll most likely end up keeping the high riding 70's stance to avoid major surgery. One thing I'd love to find is a normal VW emblem for the front, if anyone has the Tamiya or Revell van kits and can tell me if it has a separate emblem I would appreciate it.

Yes, Vans are the theme of the 2019 Cannonball group build. Rob will be posting the official start thread soon.

Yep, my first work truck was a 96 F250 with a 300 in it. Yep, the Moebius motor is the big block six and is accurate up to the 300. The Moebius motor is wonky though and needs some work to correct. The bottom of the block angles toward the front a good bit and the transmission angles down from the bellhousing. Its almost like the crank centerline drops an inch or two from the #1 journal to the #7 journal and the transmission just follows along.

Every issue of the kit has the same 390 FE style motor even though that is incorrect for the later model trucks. The engine labeled a 460 in the posted picture is the same 390 that every version has. But blue is the correct color.

Congratulations, if I hadn't had an entry this year I totally would have voted for you. Your Sivlia is super clean and I hope to build one as good one day.

Thanks for posting the Pete, I had been wondering about a snorkel or even just some extra filtration for my bug. Definitely gives me something to think about.

You guys me itching to start so I got the basic bodywork done on the beetle. I radiused the fenders a bit for tire clearance and trimmed the corners. The rear tires are bigger than I wanted but they were in the parts bin so they're going on. They also matched the fronts which worked out pretty good. I'm going for a baja beetle look bit with all the stock panels instead of fiberglass replacements.

The AMT 41 woody custom has two small cone style air cleaners for the fuel injection intake.

You can go ahead and buy it and start test fitting any other parts you might want to use, you just can't start putting parts together yet.

Me too, I've got the kit picked out and the motor on the way and I'm dying to start.

Just be sure not to start until the official start date, I've made that mistake before.

Well, it's going to LOOK like it's made of metal.

You're in a bit of uncharted territory since they didn't really make racks for Mustangs. The rails are fine but if you want something with a bit more carrying capacity this is style of rack available at the time and you adapted it to your car. I'm going to be building something similar to this for the Beetle but from metal to meet the rules.

Okay, I finally got some marginally acceptable pics of the Mustang taken. Copy pasta from the other thread describing the build: " Just for a brief review I started with the AMT 77 Mustang II kit. It's got the chassis out of a Revell kit of the same car. The engine is from the Moebius 69 F100, it's a 240 straight six that is accurate up to the 300 ci version. In my build it's a 300 with a custom cross flow head made from two 4.6 modular heads shortened and turned end to end. I made the intake and exhaust manifolds from Evergreen and used an Ebay turbo. I stretched the wheelbase about one inch and added the wheelwells from a 2005 Mustang that also donated it's front suspension and headlights to the cause. The rear suspension is from the AMT 350Z kit along with the side mirrors and spoiler. The seats and steering wheels are from the AMT Supra. The wheels are Factory81 20" BBS with tires from Ebay. I made the body kit from Evergreen and putty. " I want to add I used the fuel cell and battery box out of the Phantom Vickie kit to relocate the fuel tank under the back hatch and put the battery behind the drivers seat. And two from the other thread because I forgot to shoot this stuff while I was outside.

If it's the current Dodge engine it's a Cummins 6.7 common rail motor. They stopped using the 5.9 Cummins several years ago. There are two different varieties of the 5.9, the original 12 valve and a more modern 24 valve and there are differences mainly in the head and valve covers between the two.

When I made mud flaps for a semi truck build I took blue painters tape and folded back on itself with the two sticky sides together and painted it black. It was the right amount of rigidity and flexibility and had a nice scale thickness.

Yeah, I dont know that the front is narrowed as much as it is stretched. It looks like the front wheels are moved forward about a quarter inch then the front is at least a half inch to an inch longer than the stock one. If you do decide to narrow it I'd make the cuts right along the lower edge of the hood bulge.

There isn't a rule against it so go ahead.

Thank you, there were a few days where I thought I had ruined a couple of kits so I'm glad it turned out as good as it did.

Thanks Rob, I'm just glad I was able to get it done in time. The wheels are from BNA Model World out of Australia.

The Mustang is done. I'm going to try to take some better pics for the vote thread but I wanted to get something up tonight. Just for a brief review I started with the AMT 77 Mustang II kit. It's got the chassis out of a Revell kit of the same car. The engine is from the Moebius 69 F100, it's a 240 straight six that is accurate up to the 300 ci version. In my build it's a 300 with a custom cross flow head made from two 4.6 modular heads shortened and turned end to end. I made the intake and exhaust manifolds from Evergreen and used an Ebay turbo. I stretched the wheelbase about one inch and added the wheelwells from a 2005 Mustang that also donated it's front suspension and headlights to the cause. The rear suspension is from the AMT 350Z kit along with the side mirrors and spoiler. The seats and steering wheels are from the AMT Supra. The wheels are Factory81 20" BBS with tires from Ebay. I made the body kit from Evergreen and putty. Here is a pic of the car that became the design theme of this build. I want going in quite this direction until I saw this car, it's not an exact replica but I drew pretty heavily on some elements.

I ordered something from them recently and had the same experience, my stuff came after about 8 or 9 weeks but I couldn't get any communication.

The Supra setup is a strut type but has upper and lower control arms. The 350Z has lower arms and coil springs. If your looking for trendy mods anything from a 240SX would be ideal. I put the Z setup in a Mustang II and had to back halve the chassis because there wasn't enough room for the new suspension and the fuel tank/spare tire.

The AMT and Tamiya MkIV Supra kits have IRS as does the AMT Fast and Furious 350Z. Mustangs didn't get IRS until 2015 so kit options are very limited. C4 Vette kits are a dime a dozen and the rear end is pretty easy to transplant into a different chassis.

The Mustang is on her feet permanently now, just a few more parts and a final touch up and polish to go. I should have completed pics in a day or two.