Building a Wagon Queen Family Truckster.

That's later in the diorama....

 

Sqlartist--what exact scale ratios are you doing the wagons in?

 

I just read this whole thread! What a terrific story (except for the crash and troubles that ensued) but I loved the rest! I hope you’ve mad progress on your project. I did like the sidebar about rescuing that chevette. I’ve had several of them throughout my life so I know them pretty well. The link to the 427 powered chevette is cool. I’ve actually seen that car in person several years ago at englishtown swap meet. It is absolutely un belevable the detail on it. Many V8 powered chevettes are butchered up hacks but that one is perfect. Couple things I noticed were that although it was originally a factory air car the builder retained that look but it obviously doesn’t work. He went as far as putting a small piece if original tail pipe sticking out past the bumper to give the allusion of a stock 4 cyl....but once under the car i noticed the exhaust ended under the front seats! If you close the hood it looks completely stock.

 

The OP's last post on this thread was not quite 2 months short of 2 years ago, and hasn't been on here since a month after that. I feel pretty confident that this thread is dead.

But since people like pics, and I don't really think this will be hijacking the thread, this is the car I was trying to sell him. It never happened, so I decided something needed to be done with it....

 

love your car. Its the best one I've seen. My diorama has taken shape and is progressing nicely. i even have the soundtrack from the film embedded in the base.

@Silvertwinkiehobo Im not sure what scale I have made it to, The car is about 3 inches so I am guessing its close to 1/48? I have versions in all sizes but this one felt comfortable to achieve and actually finish rather than talk about it

 

Well, 1/4"=1 foot in 1/48th, so a three-inch car is twelve scale feet...not quite big enough. A 1/48th scale wagon would need to be 4 1/2" So, if it's 3", perhaps it's around 1/60th scale? 1/64th scale is 3/16"=1 foot, which would make a 3" car 16 feet. But, I really like how you're doing this, the jump, the 'dust,', the busted-assed car, it's really gonna be great when you finish it.

 

the car shown is 8.3cm so 3.2 inches and one other version I have is exactly 10cm or 3.9inches.

I also have one version that is 11mm or 0.43 inches that I want to make into a matchbox diorama. Thanks for saying that it really is good knowing people like it

 

It reminds me of a diorama a friend had done back in the mid-80s, of a Messerschmitt Me163 Komet rocket interceptor, as it was taking off and had already ejected the bogey off the plane. He had made a rocket plume, and had hidden the holding wires inside it. Looked very cool!

 

That turned out great!......I'm guessing this thread is completely dead since it's now a year since the last post that wasn't even the OP post. I'm in the process of building a QFT also. This thread has been a great inspiration.

 

This is one of the only threads I’ve ever read from start to finish, and I enjoyed every sentence of it.

maybe one of the mods could send the OP an email seeing if he is ok…

 

awsome.....

 

Thanks for the concern! I'm ok, not dead, let me give an update and why I have not been here.....And where this project is going.

First, we left off with the last Truckster being totaled and waiting on the insurance company to rectify the situation so I could replace the car. My back reminds me of the crash on occasion but health wise I'm good. The insurance company's check covered the medical bills and little else. I got a few hundred for the car and bought the car back. It was parted out and it is in car heaven. I had acquired an 83 and a rough 82 and 86. I still have them but nothing was done to them.

I was offered a screaming deal on a real nice 79 squire by Eric (U-Want1). That's the one I planned to use but I was never able to pull the funds together. My wife insisted it come from the settlement not our monthly income or savings. I got hammered with some financial stuff and the settlement never materialized so neither did the funds to buy such a nice car. My wife's decision saved us. Not long after the crash our shop lease expired, the rent went up, way up. That killed any fun with old cars for a while. I took a step back from cars..

In the long run all this is good news.. We made the decision to build a shop instead of renting another. We put all car stuff on hold, sold what we could and borrowed from the 401k to buy some propery. We then got a construction loan. There was no way to predict we could not have picked a harder time to build. The construction loan was based on 2019 prices. Materials cost doubled during the pandemic, contractors had more work than they could handle so they often didn't show up, we ran out of loan money but we still had to finish, or default. We scrimped, saved, scrapped and made deals with the devil to pull it off. We now have a massive building that I have been moving stuff into for the last couple months. So the future is very bright. I have not touched a project car in a few years but I can soon.

I have not been here in part because there was no progress to report. I have not had two nickels to rub together for a long time. Constructing the building ate everything.

Also there was a sick feeling in my gut when I thought about losing the first car. Trucksters are bringing real money at auctions, I wondered if I could have sold the first one to cover the extra building cost and built a 2nd with ease after the building was done. That would have saved so much stress and worry. It was depressing and I didn't need to think about "what if's" and focus on the task at hand. I avoided stuff that reminded me of the ordeal.

Also I felt bad. I told Eric I was buying his car and never could. I only had 2 choices - give excuses or man up and admit it was not going to happen. To man up I first had to admit to myself the whole project might be dead. I was holding out something would fall in my lap so I could buy the car, it didn't. By the time I called no joy, it had been too long not to explain it. I felt like crap and that I went back on my word. I do apologize, I'm sorry man. Your car looks utterly AMAZING. Nice work!

Enough doom and gloom, On to a wagon progress report!

I would come across local cars on occasion cheap enough to aquire them. I sold a lot of stuff, but as they left I managed to gain a few Panthers.

Side note: I realized how backwards my collecting is when trying to liquidate cars. I'm the guy that goes to the junkyard and yells " Hey, get that car out of the crusher, I'm taking it home!" Don't be that guy, it's hard to sell that stuff.

I just grabbed an 88 which hit both a tree and a Peterbuilt for the sum of "get that off my property and its yours". The interior is very nice and going in the 80 hearse. The springs are going in the green 80. It currently holds the world record for most wasp nest in a single car.

I scored an 80 Ford hearse a year ago off a farm in South GA for scrap price. It was made by Thacker. They traditionally built off Mercury's and I was told they only converted 5 Fords to hearses in 1980. The roof is very crunchy under the vinyl but I did make it run. I am going to save it as best I can. It's far too rare not too fix, might be the only one left. It's also a fleet car some very cool stuff where they cut corners to save cost over regular passenger models.

I found a single headlight 79 in light blue which is very pretty but she is a bondo bucket. The original owners son practically gave it to me if I was willing to preserve it. The trans is bad and it doesn't fire up.. but it is a time capsule complete with 80's cb radio. I honestly love it as is. My plan is to look at it as garage jewelry.

I have a real nice 80 Ford in pine green that a buddy of mine acquired. Other than torched springs it is a really nice survivor. It is original paint, the body is perfect, the interior is perfect and it is very low mileage. We worked out a trade for it. He drove it down from one of the Virginia's three years ago then let it rot in a field because they wouldn't title it. I got him to bring it down about 6 months ago. I couldn't get it to fire up but it's probably something simple. The car is too nice to convert but that's not why I'm not doing it. One I love it as is but picture this one next to a completed Truckster. Other than not being white/sand it's exactly what the studio started with. Even better is this was the factory green so you can see the difference between Metallic Pine and Metallic Pea. This one will stay as is.

I just got an 80 Ford coupe for $200 delivered. He kept the chassis. This car has a lot of parts I need to backdate a wagon to the correct year.

We can call this thread "ressurected". I can breath, I definitely see a light at the end of the tunnel. Tonight, I was sorting parts off of who knows how many wagons tonight. I don't know how long it will take me to start back on a car but it will be weeks or months. Not years. I think the next one will be from scratch, I should have everything to build the car.

 

Nice! Glad to see you are back at it.

 

Glad to see you're back at it as well. Sorry to hear about your misfortunes, but I'm glad to hear that you are back on track.