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They do show up on eVilbay every once in a while. I found a Drag City Castings '50 Olds Tuck & Roll interior kit for reasonable price. It was right around the price Ed was selling them for, so don't count out eBay.

You might check Exact Match Car Paint Made Easy | AutomotiveTouchup I've used them before for full size projects, a 12 oz. spray can is $28.95, they also have compatible primer and clear coat. If I were spending that kind of money, for a single can of paint, I would go with all of the same product line, just to be on the safe side. You might be able to get pints mixed locally for less than Automotive Touchup wants for their pints then spray it through an airbrush. For models, I have got away with using the brush in bottle touch up kits sold in most good Auto Parts stores. Just drain out of the container and thin as needed. Nassau Blue and Daytona Blue are popular enough for muscle cars that you might find one or both in the Duplicolor line, or something for a late model with a different name but a close shade.

I have two shakers one is a small hobby shaker that works great for enamels, lacquers and anything oil based. The other is a Vortex Test Tube shaker which works really good with acrylics like the small Vallejo dropper bottles, it has enough oomph that it will stir up the big squeeze bottles of hobby acrylic paints, both are small enough that they don’t get in the way, that’s what matters!

I just watched the first JB Weld video Bill recommend about a month ago. I’ve used and been around epoxies in Engineering and prototyping (at Boeing’s Model Shop), where most of the time we used Devcon metalized to epoxy; but when they ran out we used JB Weld for tooling and prototyping, the tool rooms carried it for that reason. Biggest takeaway from that video (already knew it) is to roughen up the surfaces to be “glued” together to give the epoxy a tooth to bight into. This video includes recommended grits of sandpaper to give tooth to the surfaces, it’s worth the watch.

I thought the same thing; with the stitch and glue technique, the stress may be minimized by doing the stitching progressively. Place a stitch or two then glue…. Until the panel and contour you’re looking for is close enough to finish off with filler. This also might be an application where either medium Viscosity Super Glue and Baking Soda or Acrylic powder is mixed onto the body work then sanded in. Creates a harder than styrene filler which is less prone to cracking. I have also used the lightweight fiberglass cloth the kind for RC Aircraft modeling. The super glue as it is lighter than most of the common hobby shop and big box polyester resins, without going something specialized read that expensive resin. Work the superglue into the mat just like you do with resin, it will set much like resin as well. I was thinking this might be used to reinforce the inside of your bodywork and be thin enough to work around. idea #2. Create a lofted latticework which fits the contours of the interior, a contour gauge (pin gauge) would be useful here to get the outside contour minus the thickness of the body will give you the inside dimensions of a part or panel applied lofted section. Depending on how much the contour developers the contour splines (cross ways) could be spaced every 1/4 to 1/2 inch with 2 - 4 stringers to connect the contour splines. Which is exactly what you’re creating cross slices along the bodywork, you’ve likely seen this type of latticework lofting on shows featuring Foose and other custom bodywork shops. Ace has probably done this too in some of the plaster and plastics shops he’s worked at, with 3D printing I fear this old technique could be lost. In some of the more intricate contour development the splining may run lengthwise as well, normally in the aircraft tooling shop I worked the contour between splines would be filled in with either self curing modeling clay or just plain old plaster. Something like lofting might be way overkill just to develop a clamping point. Although it could work on a less developed lofted section too where you develop the contour over a shorter section to give a clamping point. You are only limited by what you can dream up, any tool you can get the job done and it works is the tool needed, who cares what it looks like it’s not the finished product anyway!

Jack, that Chevrolet Stocker looks great with those tires! Carl, If I remember right, this series of Modified Stockers go back the Model Car & Science days. The tips that I seem to remember seeing was that they sanded the tar out of the tires to get shape, any of the asphalt and dirt tires back then were miniature compared to the AMT Slicks the Stockers came with. Their next trick was to take metal window screen, (which is probably next to impossible to find now) which they laid across a hot clothes iron and rolled the tires ending up with a decent waffle design on a forty-five-degree angle across the "tread" of the slick. Now if I were doing this kit today, I would first take those tires and mount them on a tire truing lathe made out of a nut, bolt and a couple of washers and spin and shape those tires as much as the thickness of the carcass would take and not blow through (they are hollow), plus enough to get a tread siped into the tread of the slick. Probably would use an Xacto saw to do the siping, you might be able to use an Xacto knife to lightly carve the sipes into the tread. I'm sure somebody on this board has crossed that creek a time or two and has some better ideas fresh on their mind to add. Or else you could just do what Jack did on his sweet little Chevrolet Modified stocker and get some of those Plastic Performance Tires as well. Looking at those AMT Slicks today, I think they are a bit on the squared off side of things to make a good dirt or asphalt tire where the edges of the tread round out and blend into the sidewalls. Another resource that just came to mind would be to check out Clay Kemp's YouTube videos he's starting to amass quite a few these days, they are all pretty interesting as well as informative. He might just have some tire mangling treatments for asphalt stockers. The Fourth tire, inside Driver's front tire which I don't believe these kits ever included should be slightly smaller to set the stagger as the chassis on asphalt modifieds of this era were set up stiff enough that the cars tricycled through the corners lifting the inside drivers front tire halfway down the stretch, maybe never touching down on a really short track.

Yep, Thanks Bill that was the one that I mentioned I had and lost. It may be in the Del Rio boxes where I originally stored it but who knows, stuff gets moved and moved to other boxes... life goes on!! LoL!

Carl, you're right they are called "Lay Film" I think, though I have no real idea that they are supposed to cover light sources to give colored illumination effects. (Makes sense, I think I looked it up once because I had no clue what it was for, that's how I have a slight clue now!) LoL! The Lay film that I have from Hobby Lobby comes in all the Popular 60's-Gasser window colors and clear I'm not digging them out right now, but they are like 0.005 and 0.008" thickness and can be used to do side and back glass pretty easy.

Does anyone have a copy of the Engine Assembly Instructions for the Revell Fireball Roberts 1957 Ford that they could scan a picture and post. I had them at one time and can't seem to locate them, using the supercharger on another 312 C.I. engine so need a copy. Please.... Thanks ahead of time I'm sure someone has a copy somewhere!

That is correct, Banned by both Pre-1972 NHRA and AHRA Rulebooks. What makes the windshield look tinted is the windshield looks tinted in comparison to the other tinted windows.

Opinion: The cheaper compressors are usually just plain loud! That's been my experience with them. I've got two loud ones out in the garage right now, one relegated to pumping up tires and the other to outside projects, nothing inside! Both were supposed to be quiet when I got them. So, when I came across the California Air Tools compressor, I was pretty skeptical, until a couple of my airbrushing buddies who had them recommended the CAT compressors. So, I pulled the trigger on a dual compressor 5-gallon tank compressor, it fits the bill its everything I needed for in the house air compressing, whether it be spraying through any one of the multitude of airbrushes or running nail or staple guns, it works amazingly well and quietly too! A vacuum cleaner is way louder than this compressor at full tilt! From what I have seen and also heard, Harbor Freight has come out with their own brand of quiet air compressors, for anyone on a budget, they are probably worth a real tryout. The issues with "jurry-rigging" refrigerant compressors for use as a "quieter" air compressor are many. In most cases, you don't get all the safety switching and built in safeguarding, the compressor is rarely properly paired (too large or too small volume) to the tank as is provided by a well-engineered, commercially available air compressor. So, even if you're a Mechanical Engineer, the money saved is not going to outweigh both safety and liability factors. Before the "Quiet Compressors" were readily available and the prices were still way up there, it might have been a viable solution to noise reduction, that time is relatively "long ago" in comparison. CFM Volume Requirements: A good rule of thumb for air supply is to multiply the CFM requirement of the air tool that uses the most CFM that you'll be using by 1.5 to get a realistic CFM requirement rating, then base your compressor search on that number, not the size of the tank, it's the CFM the compressor is capable of delivering to the tool being used. You'll be happier with more compressor than is required than kicking yourself for buying a smaller one purpose compressor. Noise Related Stuff: For me it usually isn't the volume of air that the compressor supplies (if I used the 1.5 CFM multiplier), it is by far the noise. After years of working in industrial and construction noise my ears are now both sensitive to loud noise, I wear hearing aids to boot. With a normal air compressor, I'd have to turn off my hearing aids and swap to hearing protection, which are now a custom vented ear plug. With the CAT compressors, I can leave my hearing aids on or turn them off as a passive plug and not be bothered by excessive noise. Just a subdued thrum as the compressor does its job. For anyone else in the same situation, I wholeheartedly would recommend the quiet type compressors. For those not in this situation, I also recommend the quiet type compressors so in the end you don't end up with hearing loss from years of accumulated noisy tools. Hearing aids really don't restore your lost hearing, they just amplify sound. Like the sounds you want to hear and all those noises you could care less about. Unapologetic Reasoning Regarding the Loud Noise: *** Sorry, this wasn't an infomercial against loud compressors. Our hobbies shouldn't end up hurting us in the end. I now feel pretty strongly about helping others not to lose their hearing through their hobbies and work-related noise. Believe me, when you young guys get to be a grandpa and can hear your small grandkiddo's voice clearly or even hearing that soft sexy female voice and not having to ask them to repeat it constantly - you're going to thank yourself for it! ***

As soon as I read Mike Sullivan, the Flag Fiat came to mind as did the Blue & White Fiat Topolino! I had forgot that Mike ran a Dragster before the Altered...

I've used the same method for as long as I can remember, like I first saw something like it in Model Car Science when I first started building model cars. Their tip, I think it was from Don Emmons was to use fine steel wool to buff the tires and take the shine off. A long time ago I switched to a well-used Green Scotchbrite pad to buff the tires, a new pad is too aggressive for my likes. Has anyone tried an Air Eraser and Baking Soda to de-shine the tread and sidewall areas?

I remember seeing an Engineering write up about Cyanoacrylate bonding agents (CA Glue) used in industrial and Civil Engineering applications. The takeaway was that CA bonding agents start out as what would be called thin, then bulking agents are added to thicken the respective formulas. (Think bulking epoxy resins with micro-balloons.) Your lofted framing should be sufficient to hold the exterior skin in place. There may be a couple of methods to Engineer you out of this predicament. First, I think when you bent and formed the skin you created a good deal of stress throughout the skin especially in the tighter radius. Next, as Cyanoacrylates cure they off-gas which seems to attack styrene. Case in point - evidenced by all those of us who have ruined clear styrene and acetate windows using Cyanoacrylate where the gasses settled on fingerprints and smudges becoming impossible to polish out. As the Cyanoacrylate gasses harden it greatly reduces any flexibility in the styrene sheet, which may show up in cracking. Ulf also makes a good point above, regarding UV light breakdown of the styrene sheet, this is another logical avenue to pursue. Most of the manufacturers of styrene sheet, Evergreen Plastics, Plastruct, etc. utilize a specific cement formulation chemically engineered for their product, that’s the first place I would start; use their cement. Just make sure it sets and off-gasses completely before closing the skin completely. OK, so how do we work around the issue of stress? If we did some gentle pre-forming around a similar radius and burnished the material slowly with a smooth/polished material around the preform until it is close to the finished overall radius. The way it was bent probably exceeded the minimum bend radius of the material. Especially if you attempted to chip-form the skin, that is doing a whole bunch of smaller bends to get the overall shape, then bonded the skin starting at one end working to the opposite. Start in the middle of the skin working from one side of the first bond line then the other until you have to close it from one side. Method two, would be to split the skin into halves, thirds or quarters bonding it to the lofted framework, reducing the overall stress. Likely this a good part of the reason the kit tankers are molded in multiple sections, plus to ease the manufacturing process. Third method already mentioned is *heat forming the skin using hot water, flame, heat gun, etc. bending it either directly to the lofted frame or onto a similar radius or create a buck from harder material to preform the material, bonding to the lofted frame as above. Working slowly and allowing the cement to off-gas so it isn’t trapped inside the cavity, you may even need some tiny vent holes to allow the gasses to escape. You can either use a drop of CA cement or styrene rod cemented in to close the vents. *Mr. Obsessive, Bill Geary (forgive me Bill if I misspelled your name), has described a great method of heat forming that he uses to form clear sheet for glass, which looks better than the kit stuff! I know there are a couple of other Engineers who frequent this board feel free to add from your experience to help solve Rob’s dilemma. Sorry for writing a book, but I tried to be as thorough as possible to help solve the issue.

Yeah Dave, I get it. I wasn’t so much promoting One Shot as much as saying that I have used it over the Walmart HOK paints without a glitch. If I were to promote an enamel clear it would be the MCW Clear and hardener I think someone else thought One Shot would be the answer to all their ills. Likely forgetting that enamel paints and clears can sag well after the airbrush is cleaned and put away. I’ve had a few “how did that get there” runs with enamel myself!

https://mcwfinishes.com/shop/ols/products/1017-clear-enamel https://mcwfinishes.com/shop/ols/products/1003-enamel-hardener If it were me, I think the MCW Finishes and their Hardener would probably work better for a model car as should any enamel that can be catalyzed as you want the quicker flash and setting time the hardener is going to give the enamel. If you’re going to polish, the hardener going to help out there too, or at least allow you to polish sooner. MCW will give you a straight answer whether his clear will work over the HOK paint, but it’s going to be up to you to test it out on a spoon or spare body to see if it works in practice. If that doesn’t work, do as Bob suggest, toss the stuff and write it off as a real bad experience! Another thought on the Walmart HOK paints, from what I understand when Walmart specs out any product, they tell the manufacturer what they want or they aren’t purchasing the product. So, it’s quite possible that’s what happened with the Walmart acrylic enamel HOK paint sets being wonky! I know that they were only on the shelf a short time and never got restocked. That part is all pretty much speculation, so it may be close or miles off!

Bob is correct, the HOK Acrylic Enamels should only be covered with (preferably) HOK Acrylic Enamel Clear or acrylic enamel compatible clear. Along with using a Lacquer based clear over an enamel, you may also be encountering a reaction between the primers as well, especially if they were not allowed to off gas completely. It is not a good idea to mix and match different manufacturers paints, they have already spent a ton of time and money on product Engineering, R & D, they know their system works. Automotive Primer is about the only thing that can be mixed and matched, even then it’s problematic as some manufacturers color coats are hotter than others Doing sign work and automotive graphic work, I’ve used those same Wal Mart HOK acrylic enamels I have covered them successfully with One Shot Enamel Clear, both flat and gloss, I always use a few drops of One Shot hardener both to speed things up and so I don’t encounter any reaction between the two different formulas. I also test my paint method, over the same substrate that will go on the finished (sign) work, so I am aware of what will or will not work before clearing a piece.

The last Austin Healey Sprite we restored used the recommended Med-Gray primer under 2 coats of BRG color coat. Most BRG covers really well, that is if it’s a high solids pigment paint, if not it will take a few coats to cover the primer. I would recommend gray primer, black is almost too dark, red oxide might try to do something weird, white is too bright under a darker green it would lighten things up reflecting off of the BRG paint.

Depends if you are talking 70’s and older NHRA & AHRA Foreign Car Gas Classes, which were Anglias , Poplars, Prefects (English Ford), Jaguar XKE, Volkswagen Type I (Bugs) ran F/G through I/G classes, toss in a few other mostly English like the Lloyd. Trouble with most Foreign Cars in the true Gas Classes we’re their short wheelbases of Less than 100 inches, many of them had way less than the minimum wheel base. If memory serves me correct, Anglias were allowed in under a NHRA Rule change, one reason there were tons of them. Now, if you’re talking, the (Neo-)Gassers like they are running now, I’m not 100% sure what they are allowing for manufacturers body’s. Pretty sure a quick peruse through their rules will tell us that. Street Gassers, Street Freaks, we’ll that’s pretty much up to the builder, because there are no rules other than state and fed motor vehicle laws.

True, Tacking was a term used by painters primarily shooting enamel paints, it would be a misty coat 60 - 80% coverage which was allowed to flash off then the heavier color coats applied. If you go back and read some of the Model Car Science, Car Model articles where they were shooting Enamel Paints, they did call for the "Tack Coat" or "Mist Coat" which was not full coverage at all, it just gave the subsequent coats something to both mechanically and chemically bond to. I have worked with Painters on bridge projects and such who were applying Epoxy-Paints, they referred to the first of a three-coat system - as the "Tack Coat" - second "Mid-Coat" - third "Color Coat" all three coats the being same color. Referring to the first Primer Coat as a "Tack Coat" - second the "Primer Coat". So, it's probably an older painter's term that with both the passing of time and improved materials isn't being used as widely as it used to be. Not to mention with newer spray methods, HVLP and others the term just isn't used as much. Enamels by themselves tend to run long after the brushes, spray can, or spray gear gets cleaned and put away. Which is why the old Sign Painters and Pin Stripers cut their enamels with Lacquer thinner. Recently, Don Yost was another proponent who got it! If you're going to paint with Enamels cut them with Lacquer Thinner, they flash off quicker, less prone to the running after you walk away, lay down smoother, just makes them easier to shoot. I mostly use Lacquers as well, but if there is a color that I'm going to use that's an enamel, it always gets cut with whatever lacquer thinner/reducer that I have close at hand. A reminder on Safety: Enamels are probably a "safer" paint to use than Lacquers, Acrylic Lacquers or Urethane based paints, you'd have to huff a lot of enamel paint to get a buzz if that were at all possible. LoL! (Don't know, never purposely huffed anything! I've got plenty buzzed a few times spraying lacquers without the right mask! That's another story.) Mitigate the health risks with whatever PPE the paint manufacturer recommends, even for the small stuff I'm wearing the proper mask and Nitril gloves! Acrylic's being probably the absolute safest hobby paints out there, you can protect yourself from the finely ground pigments with a dust mask or better yet and N-95 mask. These days, in my "Old Fart years" (like a whole lot of us are), I'm worrying more about what I am ingesting through fumes, skin exposure and or other exposures than I used to be when I was say in my teens and twenties... Interestingly enough, I read an article on painter safety in the now belly up - Bob Bond's "Auto Art Magazine". The gist of the article was they were talking about how many of the painters from the 1950's and earlier consumed so much alcohol after working with paints. (Not to promote its consumption in large quantities as lots of them did.) Alcohol was found to flush many of the toxins picked up during the painting process. Primarily targeted to the liver, only to replace them with the "toxins" from the alcohol. The end of the story talked about how many of the old painters probably had no idea they were "cleansing", they were just relaxing and knocking back a few cold ones after a hard day on the job!

Don't let Steve fool you, however he does it his paintwork always looks great. I have been modeling and painting since I was 8 or 9 years old, I've got the gray whiskers to prove that I've been at it a while, but my paint never looks as good as Steve's does, I'm impressed with the way he does things! I for one would like to see Steve do an article in said magazine with a rough detail sketch of how he does his paint from first scuff of the body, bodywork primer, color coats and clearcoat. I know he has sort of detailed his painting method on here a few times but to have something in print would be really nice to refer back to.

I have been using the flat plastic "Jewelry Parts" boxes from Hobby Lobby for all of my small parts, if they don't fit in there they go into a plastic shoe box. I think I have 8 of the flat jewelry parts boxes and 2 of the shoe boxes full of bigger parts. The small parts take up one shelf in my upper cabinets in the hobby room and are getting ready to start on another shelf as I add additional boxes. The Jewelry Parts boxes work well for engines, small parts, tires, wheels, extra kit parts, resin and 3D goodies, there is even a long compartment that will take grills, front and rear axles... I think they are $3 or 4 apiece and keep my stuff organized enough to keep me from digging through boxes and scuffing off any useable chrome there was on parts. It's cut down on the chrome repairing normal to the big box storage I used to have.

I use a toothpick and a little dot of 3-M poster tack, the stuff you put posters on the wall without tacks. It sticks to the part, releases it easy enough that I've never had a problem. Been using this stuff for years now, tried the wife's glue dots, they are too sticky and don't let go as easy as the poster tack does.

I use something similar to this, uses a couple of tapered plastic plumbing washers about the size if the hole in the tire, once they pass through the 1/8" Screw and Nut they center inside the tire with little if any runout issues.

Mask it off. Use a Q-Tip and paste cleaner car wax and buff it away. I've done this on a larger scale on full sized vehicle paint oopses it works.