Boy howdy, do I have some questions!

[Volzfan59]

I'm a long time lurker at FRW and here. First, I want to compliment each and everyone of you on the quality and beauty of your builds. Like many, I built models from childhood, up until my mid 30's, I'm 62 now so it's been a bit. I quit building when I started racing stock cars in the middle TN, southern KY and north AL area. Then I picked up competitive bass fishing. I have retired from my law enforcement career, but still fish. Just not as much and not competitively.

Any way, my mother in law got me a 65 Fairlane modified stocker and the Wild one modified for Christmas. $47.00 in paint and glue, I'm ready to start on the Fairlane. I guess my first question is when did everything get so expensive? No, seriously, has anyone came up with a way to drop the ride height? Just dry fitting everything, it sits up like a 4 X 4! I'm sure they'll be more questions to come.

Thank you for any help/ advice.

[Duane Garner]

Simply stated: everything costs more!! Especially if there's  petroleum in it, which plastic has.. My first recommendation is to get your feet wet again by building the Wild One modified before tackling the 65 Fairlane! You'll have an enjoyable building experience right out of the box. For the Fairlane, which suffers the same ride height issue as the rest of the kits in that series.. The easiest and least labor intensive method for ride height adjustment is to raise the mounting points (axles) for the wheels.  For solid metal axles, re-drill the chassis holes higher. Hope this helps. Good luck and welcome back!

[Volzfan59]

Duane, Thank you for the fast reply! My expense question was pretty much tongue in cheek although I was shocked at the $47.00 for paint and glue! You're right though, if it has petroleum in it, it will cost more now. But, I've got numerous Japanese crankbaits that I paid a lot for.

I'm really looking forward to getting started.

[Duane Garner]

Keep us posted on how you're doing. Spreading the knowledge is the quickest way to keep our hobby growing.

[Brian Conn]

....First off welcome
   No comment on the price increases in everything we purchase other than we where warned that this was going to happen back in 2020.....I've stock piled quite a bit of model building material since then due to ,for the most part, it originates out of china.

  Now on the '65 Fairlane Modified Stocker and its inherit woes.....
  My first build out of the gate when I got back into model building in 2007 was the '65 Ford Fairlane Modified Stocker.  Used the body was pretty much it, everything else came from the AMT/ERTL '66 Ford Fairlane or was scratch built since the Modified Stocker would not be able to be built the way I wanted it to look.  The build is here in forums under the cars with fenders section if your interested.

  There has been some success, here on the forums, with this particular kit out of the box.......

http://www.shorttrackmodels.com/index.php?topic=923.0
this is a link to a '65 Ford Fairlane Modified Stocker build that David Bogard did....lowering the body and use of after market tires and wheels really made a difference.
  Here's the link to Davids Fotki page showing the the process for the above build....very useful information
https://public.fotki.com/DKBogard/65-ford-fairlane-mo/

http://www.shorttrackmodels.com/index.php?topic=1829.0
in this link it looks like all Gary did was to lower the ride height using the kit tires and wheels.....improves the over all looks greatly.

  To lower the ride height of the '65 Ford Fairlane frame you will need to drill holes above the original holes....this lowers the frame ride height and moves the tires up into the wheel well as with Gary's build using the kit tires.
  To lower the rear portion of the body of the '65 Ford Fairlane to get rid of the "jacked up" appearance, remove the rear post on the frame/chassis and adjust the height using the real most post on the body....remove small increments until you get the height your after.
       
 
 

[Volzfan59]

Thank you Brian! I'll check those links. I thought that I would build these two "box stock" to get my feet wet so to speak. However, I didn't like the 4 X 4 look of the dry fit. I'm not to sure if I'll ever super detail them like I used to, but then again I know me really well. I probably will