Oldie Goldie Builds from the '66 Pactra Contest

[FloridaBoy]

As I am speeding toward my latest fleet of new builds, I thought I would share with you two cars that I displayed at our latest contest to rekindle memories of several of us old guys that built back then. Both of these cars were built in 1962 - 1963 and haven't been touched since, and have been carefully kept in storage, as they are now.

The first one is a Lime Green Metalflake '40 Ford Sedan, which has been sectioned, channeled, gull-wing doors opened with working hinges, molded in fenders, quad lights, reformed grille. The 'flake effect was created by using Pactra Candy Lime Green then hitting it with very light silver, gold, and black overspray. The paint has kept its lustre, and the body putty hasn't acted since I built the car.

The second car is a Candy Sapphire Blue '40 Ford Coupe, with essentially the same body treatment, only different headlights made from fuel tanks from the '36 Ford. Again, the paint has kept its lustre, and no body putty has shrunk or any glue surfaced.

Both cars have the curduroy and naugahyde interiors, thread for spark plug lines, etc, which were the state of the art back then. As long as the paint lasts, I do not plan to re-do these and will continue to display them when I enter my other cars in contests in the coming year.

I hope you enjoy a trip back to way back then. Another interesting note is that these models were produced in 1960 and 1961 by AMT, and the plastic is the same today as was back then. I thought it would get brittle, but I am working now on another car I had back then and the properties of that plastic are no different than a modern model.

Although I don't want to date myself, I was 13 - 15 years old when these cars were built, and I am 60 years old now. The third car winning my other Pegasus trophy has been donated to the National Model Car Museum, and is on display there today.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[outlaw035]

hey ken would luv to see them did u forget to attach the pic...neal

[FloridaBoy]

Sorry, guys, I tried to upload the photos I have of the cars, but the host did not accept them. I would appreciate some help, as I am probably some kind of klutz and maybe I just forgot to hit the right prompt.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

I could email them to someone and maybe they could post it for me, or give me some instructions as to how to get my photos on this forum.

You heard of trial and error, this trial and resulting error.

Ken "FloridaBoyt" Willaman

[MrObsessive]

Ken, you'll need to have your pics hosted somewhere on the 'net. Places like Photobucket are good.......I believe it's a free service. Personally I like Fotki, since I've had good service from them for the past 3 years I've been using 'em. You'll need to pay for the premium service to post pics on forums however.

When you get the pics on the 'net, copy the URL (of the full size pic, NOT the thumbnail)...........and then you want to click the picture icon which is above the message box where you're typing. Paste the URL in the text field and then hit OK------the pic should show up in your message box.

Repeat and do the same for subsequent pics. When you post your message, the board's software will automatically resize the pics so the board isn't shifted too far out of whack. It'll be a good idea to preview your message to see if the pics will take.

HTH!

Edited August 10, 2007 by MrObsessive

[Harry P.]

Although I don't want to date myself, I was 13 - 15 years old when these cars were built, and I am 60 years old now.

Ooooops...

[FloridaBoy]

Mr. O,

Thanks for the tip. The error read I got when I posted my photos as attachment were that the attachments exceeded the 500K limit. So, I will follow your lead, register for the service, and start to post the pictures. I also have all of the 20 cars I have underway photographed, as I work on them concurrently. When the putty, paint, glue is drying on one, I go to the other. They all have progressed about the same, and the body work is done, mock ups (I started doing that recently) are almost done, and painting is about half done. I devote one complete day to a finish paint job, then another day to wet sand the first clear coat, then apply another clear coat and polish it with my kit. I hope these come out.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[FloridaBoy]

Hang in there guys,

I signed up for photobucket.com, took more pictures of the Pactra cars and work in progress and now working on uploading the jpg files to photobucket, then will transfer to this forum.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[novadose71]

Hang in there guys,

I signed up for photobucket.com, took more pictures of the Pactra cars and work in progress and now working on uploading the jpg files to photobucket, then will transfer to this forum.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

I just did that a few days ago. It takes awhile to load into photobucket but from there to the site it's a cakewalk. good luck

[FloridaBoy]

I got everything down, including joining photobucket, but I need to reduce my photos, like you all have done to get them posted. I have a Nikon KoolPix camera and software, but no where on my software can I find any function to reduce the photo pixels.

I looked at all of my photos I took with my camera, and the size is 2560 x 1920, and the error read I get when I try to post the photos are that the file is too large.

What am I doing wrong? I have all of my photos of old work and new work to share with you guys.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[MonoPed]

You should be able to go into the camera settings and drop the pic resolution to something smaller.

[MrObsessive]

I got everything down, including joining photobucket, but I need to reduce my photos, like you all have done to get them posted. I have a Nikon KoolPix camera and software, but no where on my software can I find any function to reduce the photo pixels.

I looked at all of my photos I took with my camera, and the size is 2560 x 1920, and the error read I get when I try to post the photos are that the file is too large.

What am I doing wrong? I have all of my photos of old work and new work to share with you guys.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

Ken, if there's difficulty in changing your camera's settings.........(some models are a pain), if you have photo editing software in your OS, you can reduce the pixel size of the pic before uploading them into Photobucket.

I usually take mine at a large resolution (Big=Good), but then resize them for the 'net so the server doesn't go bonkers!

[FloridaBoy]

Mr. O,

Again, thanks for your continued assistance. I owe you one, buddy. I tried to reduce my existing photos on photobucket.com, but couldn't. So I tried to reduce the image on my camera settings, and again, and even though I found it in the instruction book, it just didn't take. So, a half hour ago, in a massive tropical thunderstorm, I went to the camera store who sold me 4 digital cameras so far, and the new manager walked me through it right there. I just got back and took some photos on the new settings so here goes.............

[Peter Lombardo]

Finally got to see them. They are a little out of focus, next time, you may want to move the camera back a little. If you notice, the bottles behind the car, on the desk, are in focus but the car is "kind'a fuzzy". But thats ok, I wanted to see them. Very nice Ken, they sure have that "look" of the 1960's. I am 59 and started modeling in the same time frame as you, so I can certainly relate to the era that they come from. Everyone I knew modeling back then built a channeled, sectioned, 1940 Ford with quad headlights. I seriously doubt that many of them have survived the turn of the century as well as yours. I know mine, and all of my childhood builds did not servive my mothers desire to clear out all of my "stuff" when I left for school and then the navy. Anyway, nice builds and nice bit of nostalgic memory for us old timers.