JMChladek

Well, when I was going through a NASCAR modeling phase back in the early 90s, I swiped this bolt of silver fabric tassle edge material from my mom's sewing room because it had the right look for braided line on a stock car motor (and it was cheaper than getting the braided line from the hobby shop). As for you Fastback, didn't I see footage of you in concert once with Dee Snider of Twisted Sister?

So I've got my 69 Nova COPO kit sitting in front of me. I've got pretty good research as to what color I can use on the exterior to keep it factory sleeper in appearance (as opposed to Yenko or show car looks), but are there ANY other interior color options for the seats and the padding than just black? I'm thinking of a plane jane tan shade to match the sleeper looks of the exterior, but I do want to keep it close to factory whenever possible of course. Or is it best to just go with the black vinyl look?

My name is my first initial, middle initial and last name. I never could come up with a decent online name and my last name isn't exactly common anyway, so it fits. As for my avatar, it is a photoshopped image of myself (back when I used to fly a private plane) into a scene from Space 1999 (since SF is something else I do). Why did I load it here, because I didn't really have a decent car centric photo (yet) and well, seeing as how these helmets were converted 1970s motorcycle helmets, it kind of works. Besides, I am "driving" in the picture (and I shot the face shot when I was cruising over central Illinois at 10,500 feet at the time).

And I thought Space Shuttle External Tank orange shades were tough to pin down (or the gray shade on the TOS Starship Enterprise for that matter). Seriously, because of the wide array of colors (and considering Orange is a very tough color to match unless you have a specific paint chip from say a diecast) I would just get something that is close and works well. The lacquer sprays from Testors and Tamiya would be my prime choices if you go spray can as Tamiya's gloss orange shade looks pretty good, probably sprayed over an oxide red primer or a flat red to dull it down a little. Otherwise, its a Dodge, so I say Hemi Orange.

So who found his locker? (Sorry, bad joke). Well, we're all getting old it seems. Death is part of the picture. It is sad when somebody goes quick, but at least Davy touched so many lives for good over the years and didn't seem to do what so many other "celebrities" do these days to get famous.

Of course Metzner also worked for Polar Lights before Tom Lowe sold it to RC Ertl.

That is a well stocked model section. I've got two HTs nearby and one is admittedly better stocked with the plastics than the other (they just expanded the model shelf space), but even the second one (which is more an RC shop) has a good selection of the current stuff. The paint racks at both stores are very well stocked also.

Okay, is that a gloss black bug that got all rusty, or did somebody airbrush some rust onto it? That is one of the more bizarre paintjobs I have ever seen (and how do you go over speed bumps with something that low?).

What would I LIKE to show up in? How about this: But if it must be a car, how about this? Just think of the glass that could be shattered if somebody revs up the Pagani Zonda R to full power and activates launch control.

I don't know if I would go that far. The 1/16 General Lees have been big time shelf sitters around my neck of the woods, probably because the thing isn't exactly a General Lee. It is sort of a race car, sort of a street car. Sure, in the show the General Lee was that, but except for the welded doors, it was a lot closer to a stock charger than what you get in the General Lee offering. Personally, I think a Charger Daytona or Superbird body would be a pretty cool addition to that kit myself. I've also been considering what it might take to turn my General Lee kit into Jim Vandiver's #3 Charger (not a Daytona) from the 1969 Talladega 500. It was a pretty slick looking machine in Nascar warpaint.

NASCAR versions or street ones?

Reminds me of a joke I heard once. What is the difference between a porcupine and a Porsche? A porcupine has its pricks on the outside. Change the name of the car to anything from BMW to an exotic and you can sum up things perfectly.

It is not surprising, considering it was the railroad industry that lead to the creation of the time zones in the continental US. So having a good set of timetables and a watch were considered two very important things to have if you operated trains back in the day.

I guess if the 911 was all wheel drive, he must have thought he could go off road with it too.

Another product I've found that is EXCELLENT for pinstriping is a brand of tape called Aizu tape. It is the same "kabuki" tape as Tamiya, which is VERY resistant to bleed under in my experience (it is the only tape I ever use now). I believe it is made in 2.5mm, 1.5mm 1mm and .4mm widths (and perhaps a couple others as I only have the first three sizes). Hobbylink Japan (hlj.com) has it and so does Starshipmodeler.com. http://starshipmodeler.biz/shop/index.cfm/product/1706/micron-masking-tape-25mm-x-5m.cfm Even though Starship Modeler doesn't cater to car guys, they have some very cool items and tools from Japan that can be used to work wonders on car models. And they ship VERY quick as well. I've used them for years and they are first rate. The reason why these yellow tapes work so well is they are rice paper based and very fine. The problem with most bigger tapes is they are pretty rough and thick, leading to bleed under in spots. Burnish the yellow Tamiya based tapes down and you get nice and crisp edges. I used the three sizes on this project I did over the past two years (it isn't a car, but it gets the point across): Those orange and gray stripes (and the black rudder stripes on the tail), they are not decals. I had to mask and paint all that and the tape worked like a charm with no bleed under or jagged edges.

I completely forgot about the Rescue 911 version (and I do indeed remember it). It means AMT/Ertl at least still had and used the molds after many of the other tools got retired. The Ironside van is indeed an interesting one as I believe it is the ONLY model kit van done with a handicapped conversion, at least that I have heard of anyway. 1/20 is a bit of an odd scale, although I see some 1/20 Revell snap vans from circa 1979-82 popping up on eBay semi frequently as well. Now if Revell were to also find and dust off the 1/32 van molds (the Emergency Van, the Vanana Split and some others) that would also be nice to see. Having the Vandal come back for another run would be cool too, although that is more of a custom than a van (albeit a cool looking custom).

I thought the 1/24 vans were done originally by Monogram (Revell's pre-merger 1975 G-20 Chevy Van as I recall was 1/25 scale). As for the Dodge van, last time I remember it being done was as the Cannonball Run Ambulance Van (and yes it would be cool to see it come out again).

I would also be careful to soak ANYTHING in mineral spirits if the clear parts can't be removed easily as that stuff will etch clear plastic (assuming the clear plastic is salvageable in the first place).

Depends on what glue was used. Super glue is pretty brittle when its old, so those are easy enough to clean up. For some kits glued together with tube glue, you can sometimes get the bonds to break by sticking them in the freezer for a few hours and then attacking with chisel blades and some quick taps with a hammer. I've also heard that paint strippers can sometimes help loosen glue joints (especially if the glue was used over a painted surface as the bond is never quite as good). But you may have to break out the knife blades and Dremel once in awhile anyway depending on how well (or poorly) built the model is.

Clutch and brake pedals, interesting (I suppose necessary to keep the engine from dying if the student driver doesn't hit the clutch when he stops).

True, but a couple of the kits have been offered before (the 69 Charger RT for one thing). The receipt might be a deal to verify that a kit was likely built within the time window to try and limit somebody from dusting off a model they built before and entering it in this contest (although there is nothing to stop them from buying a new unbuilt kit and claiming it was the "new" kit they built either). In my own case I was thinking of the 68 Mustang GT and doing it as the Bullit car, but the grills look a little different between the Bullit and the 2 in 1 version. In any event the COPO Nova will suit me just fine for my silly little project.

That many kits, if whomever did this tried to unload them at once, it is going to show up. At the very least it wouldn't be a bad idea to get in touch with shops in the Fort Wayne Indiana area and ask them to keep an eye out to see if anyone might be trying to unload a large grouping of car kits (saying they belonged to a relative who died recently). As small as your town seams to be, I don't think the person would be dumb enough to try and unload them there necessarily. But I don't live in your town either, so I don't know the local dynamics of it. Keep your head up. A bad incident doesn't have to kill your hobby. But, it is certainly not a bad idea to get the locks changed because if it happened once, it can happen again. And the apartment manager should at least owe you that.

Well, so when in doubt, don't trash the receipt.

A buddy of mine told me about that video scene, but I have never seen it until now. That would be so fun to try in the UK where it isn't entirely uncommon to see cars with steering wheels on the left and the right side. Keep it coming guys, SOMEBODY out there has to have seen such a creation as a Driving School car with two steering wheels. I don't get why parents would complain about kids driving a stick shift. Granted I first learned on automatics, but my dad taught me the early finesse of stick driving on his Subaru GL wagon. I much prefer stick driving to autos as three of my last four cars were sticks and I LOVE driving my 2001 Ford Focus ZX-3 with its 5 speed manual. It is also nice to know that dumb criminals are less likely to get that far in a stick as many are too dumb to drive them.

Web searches don't seem to come up with anything, so maybe someone here knows. I am trying to find information about Drivers Education cars from the 1970s for a possible model project. When I went through Drivers Ed in High School in the 1980s, we just had cars with the extra brake pedal on the passenger side, but I understand in the 1970s, they had some cars with two steering wheels. I haven't seen anything like that outside of an episode of CHiPs. My question is, are there any reference pictures out there showing those types of cars? Was it a common sight to see or just a fad that died out quick? How did that second steering wheel get attached to the rack anyway? Chain drive? Thanks.