New build '86 Bob Glidden/Motorcraft T-Bird!

Skip: people continue to amaze me here! I thought I was prolly like the oldest oldster on the block and everyone else was a young'ish hot shot cranking out these amazing works of art (you included!). That's pretty funny about the celebration but if it gets everyone together for a community event, it's pretty awesome. We have a nearby Winchester apple celebration every spring and it's always got a parade marshall like Pat Boone, William Shatner, etc. I have no idea what the attraction is, but it clogs up every major artery in and out of Winchester for two days!

I had no idea what the flag name was, but I love the coiled snake design! Yeah, it's just the better of the two evils anymore and here in VA, we almost won for whatever that was worth. We won the governor's race a year or so ago and the first thing that happened was that the guy's daughter got married and every mother's son who'd illegally contributed to his campaign showed up providing free everything, including a two-week Ferrari ride for the couple. It was a major news story and just showed how much we're all alike.

Don't know if I sent you this: it's literally a blueprint for my "Kalitta" HOT ROD magazine build coming up. Check out the pics:

protechmodelparts.com/protechgallery.htm

I have the raw Evergreen strips to build the fuel blocks on the back of the block/supercharger and enough black wire/rubber hose to fake the fuel injector lines (best view of that is the 1/16th Hemi from the side). Very little braided line involved. I can just glue the lines, use a few fittings when necessary and use gold paint on the fuel line at the ends! No fancy throttle spring, throttle line though for me. Just a distributor and perhaps one of my SLIXX blower belt decals for appearance.

I've got Mr. Remington with 8 in the magazine and a nice double OO at the ready. Won't go far with an 18" barrel, but it'll do the trick.

Skip: can you fill me in a bit on your Sharknado or is it a secret? I've been looking at those blown engines and seeing where I could cut corners even more (money wise). Teds is the #1 place I've seen for selection of rubber hose, either solid or hollow. It was then I found protech has a nice kit with 3 ribbed cogs and a belt for the blower. But the belt isn't rubber. CM has a hookup for that on Ebay. It all adds up!

I'll use my HOT ROD Mustang for improvising and testing my detailing theories before I attempt using them on the Candies & Hughes or Chi-Town Hustler funny cars. I want them to come out as nice as possible, even if I have to tone down detailing. I've never tried heavy duty work on a flopper before!

Have a great evening Skip and let me know if you can reveal anything about the secret Shark!

Skip: There was a topless (I think) 'vette in the late 60's -70's which was the "Mako Shark". You should look it up on google. It had a shark fin formed forward of the blower on the hood and the paint was similar to a great white - greyish blue on top fading down to white on the bottom! You could score on that easy! Does the entire have to be resin or just the body? The resin I've worked with is simply 2 days of soaking in Bleche white, wash with soap & water really good, air dry 2-3 hours. If the body has deformed in any way, just heat it up with hot water and reform it to it's original shape.

You prolly know all this already, so I'm just blathering on. You can fill the pinholes and sand them fine, same as any other molding imperfections. Priming and painting is the same as styrene or so I've been told, just use a good CA glue; CA if it's thick can also be used as a filler and sanded, painted, etc. I'm excited to see your work Skip.

I guess I didn't send you the link to Pro Tech's gallery of cars? Near the bottom they have 1/25 and 1/16 blown engines with detailed pics and what Pro Tech pieces were utilized in the building. I can tell you I love Pro Tech stuff; I get all of it from Teds so I don't have to write a check or use Paypal on the Pro Tech website. Here's the link: protechmodelparts.com/gallery.htm Click on "Our own builds - Protech" and scan towards the bottom for the 2 blown engine pics; if you don't select Pro Tech's gallery, you can pick any of the other builds and you'll see some amazing stuff. The best Christine pro mod you'll EVER see, pro stocks, NASCARs, just amazing!!! You're on top of this Skip; take a look at the 1/25 blown engine and you'll see how they didn't even get fancy with the fuel lines and linkage they way they did on the 1/16 scale. My head (and low rent parts bin already have just about everything I need to mimic the smaller version. And they don't charge much for P/E parts to use as butterfly linkage.

Whatever you do, do it for you. That's what counts!!!

CM - Jeff Sauber. From my memories of the Super Circuit days of top sportsman which I have on tape, it's pretty dang close to 1:1. It's gotta be 1/16 to get the level of detail on the engine/chassis, etc. Man, it kicks my butt... Peace out bro!

I don't have any updates other than I got a fire extinguisher finished and mounted to the passenger side floor to replace the passenger seat. SLIXX decals came to the rescue with a decal that when turned upside down, looks like an extinguisher fully charged! I also added Goodyear decals to the slicks and the front tires.

The best news is that not only have I test fit the primed body and hood, but our friends came by and visited this afternoon and the wife brought her camera. She took the finished chassis build outside in the sunlight and shot a bunch of great close-up and overall photos. I mean the lens was just inches from the chassis it was so close. The carbs, manifold and valve covers looked like they were cast or machined. No model can look as good just holding it as it looks on a hi-res monitor close up. It looked real life!!!

I've decided that no matter what, God willing next years tax return will contain enough to get the same camera kit she had. No special extra lenses, just the basic kit - around $250.

Awesome work so far, looking forward to more progress!

Yeah guys, her work blew me away. One the other hand, it shows every minute detail of improvement I need to make! The Evergreen bores in the carbs were cut sloppily and dried a little crooked. I think I like the decal on the fire extinguisher the best LOL!

awesome pic's, this is coming along great. all the little details are really making this a fantastic build!

I don't think the expense of the camera was a killer. I've looked at these: shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/cameras/powershot-sx-series-digital-cameras/powershot-sx510-hs
www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-Digital-Camera-2-8-Inch/dp/B009B0MZ1M/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
The 2nd one is $329 with no mem card (I think) or camera bag/goodies. I'll try to find out exactly the make/model number than Rene has but her's really rocks! Thanks everyone. It's so good to have a community of friends who like what I do and share what we know and learn. If it weren't for models, I'd be going stir crazy right now!

schweck - if we were closer geographically, either you or skip would be commissioned to finish up the body and do the decals. Today is NOT a good day LOL. I need to go get milk & kitty food in about an hour and I hope I can get there and back. You know it's a bad day when you can't even walk a set of stairs to do some engine work.

But hey, the sky is blue, the sun is out, God is good and CM has lots more bad days than me. I hope he doesn't mind me saying that, but there's a guy I really feel for and we all need to support each other; not just with words of praise for builds but with real fellowship. This site is so different from others I've visited words don't describe it. If you've got cable, take a break and watch some football today if that's your thing. I miss it and at least I can check scores through ESPN!!!

O.K. here we go. I didn't get the push pins cut and CA'd into the center of the carbs (fitment with the hoodscoop), but here are some more decals, a shift light I cobbled up and I'll toss in a few DZUS stickers when it's painted. Enjoy!

Yo Mitch !! Looks great man very clean ! Well done bro...Hey on the padding I've used like black thread and tied them off on ends a little tight and looks kinda like zip ties. play around with one and see watcha think. Man you have really grown A LOT with this one bro. Awesome !

Lookin super sweet Mitch! The detailing is really incredible!

I've seen PE ones believe it or not just can't remember who makes them detail master maybe ? not sure