Better late than never - Shoebox Ford

[MitchP]

Tucked in between the HOT ROD/Kalitta reissue builds is a ShoeBox Ford, now completed and as usual, waiting for either a paint booth or a break in the weather. #1 just happend a few days ago because #2 isn't doing well in Vegas.

I hope I can encapsulate everything major up to the final touch-ups. The battery cables, NOS lines and solenoids aren't show here but they're in place.

[stang_crazy]

The detail on that engine is fabulous!! Any close up shots of it? I look forward to seeing more updates.

[MitchP]

Mike: I'm a huge Mustang fan too. I had a '93 hatch that went 10.80 @ 128 with a Pdyne supercharger, SVO Y heads, X cam, shorties and an Edelbrock intake. Stock 5 speed too!

Anyway, I have a really junk camera and that's the best I can get right now. All my builds are waiting for me to practice on the new paint booth I just got, then I'll try to stay as close to 1:1 on the paint as possible. I have a friend who shot really good pics of my 1st build in 45 years, the Frank Iaconia t-bird pro stock. Let me see if I can load a couple here:

[MitchP]

Sorry Mike: I duped a couple pics. Let me pick one from inside the cockpit:

[am73grand]

That is coming along very nicely!!!

[cschick]

All killer

[stang_crazy]

Mitch those pics are perfect.

Sounds like a bad ass fox. Ive currently got 5 foxes my self

1989 2.3 daily driver

1991 LX vert 5.0 (hers)

1988 GT T-Top under restoration per say

1987 LX T-Top also under a resto/build

then my 89 hatch that's in my avatar pic. stock block and rotating assembly. B303 cam, 1.7 rockers, 93 cobra intake, BBK equal length shortys/mac off road hpipe, a/c & smog delete, bbk cold air intake, gt40 heads (not on car), 3:73 gears (not in car), tremec 3550 trans with pro 5.0 shifter, eibach sport lowering springs, and who knows what else lol

[slusher]

Looking great, nice detail..

[MitchP]

Thanks all! I still posed some crummy (blurry) pics of the interior on the 2nd post. I usually use SLIXX mini-sheets for tach & gauge faces, along with fire extinguisher pressure by rotating a decal so the needle looks full LOL. I use SMBC multi-use wire for the tach hookup and any MSD boxes or resin coil. That was my 1st attempt with braided line and there are many ways to hook-up a fuel feeds to a twin carb setup. I learned that although the distribution block feeding 4 braided lines (one to each carb) looks really awesome, if you don't use CA glue and an accellerator, the CA glue will get brittle and those artfully lines will come loose.

BTW, to save a few bucks, I buy Pro Tech fittings and RB Motion plain aluminum fittings (they do come pre-anodized) and I use Tamiya clear red and clear blue to paint the fuel fittings. They come out really well, but too much CA glue will dull the anodized shine. Although it was my 1st attempt with braided line and fittings, I owe a great deal to John Perry, Rob at RB Motion, Charlie at Pro Tech and Teds Modeling for the hardware, advice and examples in the gallery sections. If you don't like braided line, rubber line and aluminum line are also popular in modern drag racing and are easier to use than braided line. Sorry for the novel!

[brett]

its looking good Mitch !

[MitchP]

Oops... Did I leave you out Brett? Another source of great info, tips & tricks, and paying attention to detail. Not only that, like a lot of foks here, he'll give you a pat on the back if you get down 'cause of a stupid mistake and work with you to find a solution!

Ron: you don't happen be the blessed owner of that eye-popping Caddy P/M in your avatar pic, do ya? That's got NMCA pro class written all over it!

[MitchP]

Well, every body part except the body/major wing is complete and looking pretty good. I had the body taped and shot the underside nicely.using Model Master Burgundy Red. Waited 72 hours and the double checked it before setting up the top shoot using a coat hanger taped to the underside. I had the paint warmed in a cup of water, shaken and ready for the first mist coat.

Funny thing though - better to place the body shell much further away when shaking the can. I held the body and shot the first coat before realizing some water drops from preparation had landed on the mist coats Time to let it dry for a while and wet sand the trouble spots. Dang, so close. Well, re-painting is only week or so away....

[MitchP]

Goodbye shoebox, hello '55 Chevy door slammer. After fixing the clear spots and reshooting everyting to a beautiful 5 coats, along with a week's drying time, it was time for glass to go in and final details before decals to be attacked. The windshield was a little tight going in, so instead of sand paper, I took an xacto and gently scraped the paint on the inside of each a pillar.That's when the paint chipped; not only on the inside, but along the edge of the top fender next to the a-pillar. ON BOTH SIDES.

I've gone through 3 successul paint jobs with no problems and tossed a coin on this one. I've been fighting with the fitment, the rear wing, etc since I got it. If my brainstorn doesn't work, it's in the dumpster. Revell put out clone chassis for several cars and many years where cars like the Shoebox can fit Soff Seal, '55 Sportsman and prolly others right on the same chassis. I checked out my Soff Seal last night and it's a perfect fit. I'm going to remove all the wing junk from the original body and get a universal promod wing from Ted's or a simple one from Comp Resins. If neither one helps, they'll be handy for oher conversions. I've lost patience with the Shoebox and think it's jinxed. Look out world, here comes another '55!

Here's how close I got:

[MitchP]

Well, no mo shoebox. The chassis was a perfect build for me (top thumbnails), but the paint job suffered from a bad clear job and clean-up. I went instead with a '55 Chevy body and it worked out great. Here's hoping I can attach some thumbnails of the body...

When life gives you lemons, make a '55 Chevy...

[MitchP]

I hate posting pics sooooo bad... So much for the thumbnails I used to do so well. You get the idea anyway.

[MitchP]

O.K. one more time. I've registered to Fotki and here's the location of the '55 chevy pics. Pls. post if you can see them! Thanks.

http://public.fotki.com/Mitchp/chevy-drag-racing/

[Shardik]

You need to make the album 'public'. Right now it comes up "password required".

[MitchP]

O.K., for as much as I've learned about Fotki, the Chevy album should be public. I've got a bunch of Fords to load, but no time right now.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Nice looking work on this model, and too bad you had the paint problem so close to the end.

Maybe the paint demons crept in because they were offended by the car being referred to as a "shoebox". The actual "shoebox" Ford is this earlier 1949-1951 design...

[MitchP]

Ace: Nice photo & ride bro! Question: is your pic from Fotki or one of the other online pic storage places? If so, how did you get in in your post so big and clear without having to post the link to the data storage?

Tks.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Mitch, a lot of online photos can be copied here just by right-clicking on them to get the dialog box up, left-clicking "copy image", and then coming back to this site, positioning the cursor where you want the photo and doing Ctrl-v.

SOME photos won't copy, and you'll get a "that photo extension isn't allowed" or something like that. You can still get them to copy, usually, by copying on to your hard drive, and then re-copying on to Photobucket (and I assume Fotki). Then just copy the image link into your response window.

[am73grand]

Mitch, looks good so far man!!! I friended you on FOTKI

[MitchP]

Thanks Ace and ESPECIALLY am73grand! I was in a building funk until Ron graciously shared some of his many tricks to making the difficult achievable with practice (like his awesome cages and multiple uses for Revell chassis). Same with Brett. I've found a modeling home here where it's the "Wiki" of modeling!