Project Idea! What do you think?

mitchum wrote:

 Wow, outstanding work. Both on the model and the photography.  Had me fooled.

I have a car in my garage that I am working on that was apparantly used for a short while to run 'shine from West Virginia to Maryland. It is a 1968 Ford Thunderbird with a 429 ci.

I doubt that they did any large quantities, as the car is completely unmodified and original. Also, I know that it wasn't used for long, seeing as the mileage is rather low (just over 50,000). I am the third owner of the car, and was able to meet and talk with the original owner.

By the way, is anyone familiar with a Kit of this car? I have only found one on Ebay, and I paid through the nose!

Thanks for the extremely gracious words on my models and photography. That '64 is my real ride before I painted it white and the '57 is a model of my real ride in high school. Mine was a two door sedan but in that year Ford had a "Town Sedan" that was identical to the hardtop body but with the thin chrome pillar. Finding a set of those four bar Lancer wheelcovers was the hardest part of that build though.  As for the Talladega hiding in the darkness, there's no sharper eyes in the hills than a treasury agent. Them ol' boys could read a newspaper at twenty paces on a foggy night in Piccadilly Circus in London! LOL

I wouldn't say Catherine Bach was the only reason, but she sure was the best reason(next to the General Lee, although I think I prefer Cathrine and ALWAYS have, but not by alot).

The lbackout would be done to look like someone just bought a can of flat black spray and hit the chrome. 

Granted the Talladega wouldn't be the most inconspicuous car, and it would be a bit of a high dollar roller for old hillbillies, it is a midnight runner to run at night, and some of them old codgers made a fair bit of money from that shine.  Might stand to reason one of the more uh oh I don't know, one of them with a bit of a sense of humor and a bit of audacity, might pick up one of these.If yer ognna break the law like that might as well do it in style.  I would.

As for the spoof or not, I will say this, it's his best effort to date, but it's a spoofer.  Only reason I can tell is I do ALOT of photo manipulation and graphic work in photoshop, so I know what to look for, to the point of I generally don't look for anything anymore, I can just tell.  This one if this was a few years ago, I would have guessed the real deal.  I have to say it's a spoof though.  A REALLY REALLY good one, the matching of the lighting, color balance, and color tones, is EXTREMELY well done.  As is the photomatching and masking.  Bar none I think it's his best work to date.  Not just the photoshopping but the car is very well done.

I saw another one once it was a question of is it real or is it a model.  It only had one giveaway.  It was a Corvette with a rusted out body.  Corvettes have fiberglass bodies.  Like this one, an amazing job, but this one doesn't have any telltale signs like that one.

Dang it, Mitch, there you go again, poppin' in with some more great pics and a yarn to go with them.  Is that '57 one of your real rides or another "spoofer?"

Good to hear from you again. "Thunder Road" is one of my all-time favorites also.

Carl

That low production number body style would be a bit conspicuous for a tanker

I think it would take quite the observant gearhead to tell a Taledaga from a plain old Torino if it had a good "tone down" treatment.

 Now as far as Dukes of Hazzard, Catherine Bach was the only thing worth watching there (don't even get me started on that show for trashing so many restorable Chargers). 

 Cool post though mitchum. I love the pics!

 

 

Well, back when I ra.......er.....ah.....I mean, from what I've read......yeah, that's it, from what I've read the General Lee was a bit gaudy for a tanker. Most of them were black or another dark color to help blend in with the surroundings just in case the law got a little too close and I ha.......I mean, they had to "go to ground" so to speak and make a quick turn off or pull behind some bushes. 

 

That low production number body style would be a bit conspicuous for a tanker but would make a mighty sharp stock car racer, what they were built for in the first place. Like this one I built from a Monogram Talladega and some aftermarket decals to represent Donnie Allison's Banjo Matthews ride.

BTW Thunder Road is one of my very favorite movies and was filmed not far from my mother's place near Asheville NC. But not a lot of the whiskey cars were "tankers" though, at least that's what I heard. They were filled with smaller containers from quart Mason jars in the beginning to big plastic jugs from a gallon on up that didn't break or clank as easily in the later days. Take it all with a grain of salt because, like I said, that's just what I've always heard.

 

 

Nobody replied to this.. so I'll kick in my two cents...

 

Moonshine runners either ran showroom stock looking cars, or something close to the General Lee...

Big rear springs, and an extra tank in the trunk...

If you want inspiration, Go rent "Thunder Road" with Robert Mitchum....

( after you've watched it a bunch of times come back and tell us what kinda mufflers were on the 49 Ford ;-)  )