DR JAY

I spent 25 years repairing cars for a living...my list is quite long. BUT- I have also seen Chevettes and K-Cars with over 200 000 of pure abuse still running reliably. (Luck perhaps?) Styling is subjective...what's ugly to some is beauty to others.I personally like the 61 Dart and the 62 Fury while most avert their eyes to avoid blindness. I based my choice on vehicles I have repaired in the past. (...sadly.) Two vehicles that have always been at the top of my list were both Renaults...The Fuego and Le Car. To call them manure spreaders would be doing a disservice to farm machinery everywhere...even the finest of Russian tractors. Their styling was abysmal ,at best, but it was the mechanical aspects of these disasters that stuck in my mind. I could go on forever about them, but that would be wasting time on the same scale as actually attempting repairs on them. Anyone remember the Chevette Diesel?

Also, Fireball became his nickname during his baseball playing days before he joined up with NASCAR. His crash was so horrific because following the drubbing Ford took at Daytona, Ford supplied their factory teams with body panels as thin as tinfoil (Including quarters) that would fold if you even looked at them wrong. He backed into the wall and split the car open before ending up on the roof. The fuel TANK ruptured and the rest is history...or nightmare if you are Ned Jarrett. As a side note...Smokey had been lobbying Big Bill for a while about allowing fuel cells- too bad it took such a tragedy for them to allow safety to overrule stubbornness in the following season...

I'm now selling everything.

Don't feel bad about the cost of insurance...I'm 41 and have a commendable driving record, but here we have ONE government insurance corporation with no other options. My motorcycle alone costs $2346 a year, and here in Manitoba our riding weather lasts from late May to late September if we have a good year. (Figure out THAT cost per month !) As far as age discrimination goes- hang on to your youth and all that goes with it. Before too long the reverse will take over and you will soon be tired of the younger people calling you the "Old Guy". Just be yourself and be happy doing your honest best despite the others in your way...age doesn't make the man, character does--if you can display character despite obstacles, I think you're well on your way! I felt your pain once, but believe me when I say that it gets better eventually. (PS- I'm a huge fan of The Who, but Daltrey was wrong when he said "I hope I die before I get old.")

Wile E. Coyote is my favorite actor. I'll be watching this one for sure!

Here's a link to a 63 Galaxie I built a while back using the same conversion...hope it helps! Jay http://s1177.photobucket.com/albums/x357/drjay2/Galaxie/

The contingency decals were the 1st things I noticed- I really like the clean look.

As promised- new pictures on the above link...

Now that's the ticket! Thanks for posting....

Shift/on-call work is cutting into my building time. I've done some painting and decaling as well as the tedious work of making all of the fuel and oil lines (I use hex rod) and will post some pictures right after I take them!

I stumbled upon this picture and due to my job I found it hilarious...

If you could post a picture of those belts I would appreciate it...I'm still looking for something a little more accurate.

Fantastic Job! Great job on the fabrication. You are to be commended, sir.

You're not kidding...when I used to be a career technician there was an occasion when a customer brought in a car for me to "restore" for him...a complete delete 1966 427-4speed Vette that was converted to a drag car by a rich oil magnate in Texas when it was brand new. All of the street-legal stuff (E-brakes, exhaust lights, etc.) was missing or disabled and the car was a mess. Even though he supplied the matching #'s parts and pieces like carb, intake heads& exhaust, ALL new brake system(Complete) and other stuff....I still billed out less time for the job than I had invested in some of my models. It takes way less time to bolt stuff together than it does to DESIGN and MAKE the parts before bolting them together... ...as an aside, when I was finished the car went to the Vette show in Bloomington where it won some awards before he traded it on the spot for a freshly restored 69 427-4 speed convertible AND a massive stack of cash. I guess I did OK!

I was saddened this morning to find out that Everett "Cotton" Owens has succumbed to the results of a recent stroke.Another legend has passed and the racing world is poorer from the loss. He was s true gentleman of the sport and hopefully NA$CAR will realize that the true legends are leaving us and maybe start inducting more of the true legends into the Hall Of Fame before they're all gone.I believe that folks like Rex White, Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, etc should be honored while they're still with us and that guys like Waltrip and Rusty Wallace (Rusty Wallace? Seriously...?) can wait their turn. Through one of his good friends, Mr Owens provided me with a wealth of photos and reference for Grand National Mopar stock cars and I beieive that information as well as his answers to my seemingly endless and obscure questions have hepled me to build the most accurate 1960's Dodge stock cars that I can. Well, at least Cotton is back together with his late wife Dot, who passed away herself a mere few weeks ago. Godspeed, Cotton.

Thanks for the tip, Ted. I checked your site and at this time it appears you are out of stock...

I realize I should have posted a pic to show my own ground zero, but I have none to show....kinda like hiding the evidence! I have a day off work- i can shoot some metallizers and Alclad right now or spend that time cleaning Manland...Easy Choice. Later, boys- I'm going to fire up the airbrush!

Hello all.Over the years I have seen many posts on many forums regarding "Show Us Pics Of Your Hobby Room" and was inundated with pictures showing immaculate work spaces without the slightest hint of use...kinda like cleaning the house before the cleaning lady shows up so she won't think we're pigs. I get it: who wants to show off a messy work space, but the dust and shaving-free desktops with strategically placed tools anda single model body in the centre of the cutting mat seems a little too contrived. Don't get me wrong: I always clean my room between projects to hospital standards, but for the most part I have 3 separate office size desks which provide roughly an area of 12 square inces of unobstructed work space on each one during builds.I am by no means a dirty or unorganized person and the rest of my house is nothing like the state of Manland most times. Even when I used to be an Automotive Tech for nearly 25 years I always laid my disassembled parts and components on paper floor mats taped to my bench top to keep them clean and in order and the tools in my cart were spread out on clean rags like the surgical tray in an operating theatre. But that was at work where a professional appearance was required at all times and efficiency was key in making money and avoiding comebacks. (ZERO comebacks in the last 8 years!) My point is: I CAN'T be the only one who builds models like this.... Am I?

By the time the smoke cleared this one was almost 400 bucks- but that includes a handsome wood and glass display case, a photo-narrative spiral bound book documenting the build, around 25 donor kits and all of the supplies required to complete the project (Which were bought specifically for this build). It was a 65th birtday present for dad from the family, so price was not a factor.If I kept track of the cost of everything I enjoy I would have to sell my motorcycle and pare down my single malt on the rocks to just the rocks. That's no fun. By the way- I don't build FOR contests; however I do build as though it would be viewed at one. By that I mean that I attempt to complete every one of my builds as though it were to be judged by others in order to keep my standards up and not slack off on stuff I'm not fond of doing...like foiling and detail painting.I feel that as soon as my hobby involves competition for prizes it takes the fun out of it for me. Just my 2 cents...

slicks had been around for a while by that time, but weren't used as the norm until the mid 70's. You can use those tires, but the kit-supplied rims are way too deep. I would modify a Monogram Hutcherson-Pagan chassis for that particular project as the Model King 2 piece chassis is kinda wrong, and the front suspension is decidedly Ford-like in its appearance. Also, those cars would have used the truck arms for the rear suspension, not the leaf springs supplied in the MK kit. The Monogram kit will also get you Goodyear slicks and the correct wheels. The difference in scale (Model king= 1/25, Monogram= 1/24) won't be noticeable and will end up with better results. Don't forget to correct the wheel openings as they are a bit too large for a NA$CAR stocker-perfect for a Saturday night dirt car...those wheels and tires look better tucked up inside the fenders for a snake's belly-low stance.

This is on my to do list- and now I know where I'm ordering the decals from! Great job on the championship ride of my childhood hero and a true racing genius. I like to think of how well he COULD have done if he wouldn't have been so stubborn in his ways and would have stuck it out a little longer with some of the teams he raced for... like Junior johnson for example. Imagine if he and Smokey had set up a team together...( Actually- conflicting personalities in that particular case may have ended up with a fist fight or worse...)

Great build! Old Wally Parks and his bunch cringed every time one of these weapons skated down an NHRA track, fearing insurance claims or worse. The Awful/Awful Fuel Altereds were eventually phased out, but the Marcellus and Borsch AA F/A remains one of the icons of drag racings early days when 354/392's and Muffler-Moly chassis were the norm. The nostalgia thing is kinda cool, but the sight of yellow-lettered slicks and supercharger retention straps, along with NHRA approved cages sure waters it down for those of us who prefer the good old days of pie-crust slicks and exhaust tube chassis.

Boy, AMT sure blew it when they did their Roadrunner body when you compare it to the Jo Han unit! Great job, and the Mickey Thompson Indy SS tires on the back belong there.

The engine block, heads and trans came from the AMT 1940 Willys coupe/pickup kit.The Amt 66 Olds 442 supplied the timing cover, the valve covers came from the cadillac engine in the AMT 59 El Camino, the oil filter/ adapter came from a Boss 429 Drag engine, the intake from the spare parts box, the exhaust manifolds from a garage sale glue bomb 64 GTO, the carb from the Revell 56 Chevrolet and the belt driven accessories were combined from the Revell 59 Cadillac and Impala. All parts were heavily modified to resemble Olds Rocket parts...even the copper AC lines were replicated. I used to fix cars professionally for almost 25 years, so if I knew it should be there, I built or modified it to be there. There's even a HVAC plenum under the dash, but you can't see it ! (I know it's there) Thank you very much for the kind words--this one burned me out and I didn't even set foot in my hobby cave for the post-build clean up for nearly a year. It has been to an IPMS contest just for giggles and it won a Gold Class award that's displayed prominently alongside Dad's Rocket atop their fireplace mantel in the living room flanked by family pictures and antiques. I'm proud of that one for sure!

Excellent work so far...you have shamed me into retiring the dirty pinecone I used to use for painting bodies and have forced me to look for one that might be a little cleaner--or perhaps even something different; like a hardly-used meat tenderizing hammer! Hilarious!