Mike_G

I wouldn't use it if it's yellowed.

My wife and I lived in Las Vegas when they were filming Crime Story and I heard on the radio that the cast of the show was going to be playing softball with the LV cops at a local park, so I went down there after the game with my state-of-the-art BETA camcorder and asked the stars of the show if they would say "hi" to my wife, who was a big fan but was at work so she couldn't be there. I approached Anthony Denison (who played Ray Luca) first, he was sitting up on some bleachers kicking back and drinking a beer and he asked me what my name was and my wife's name and said "let me know when you're ready", so I started recording and he said "Hi Joan, I'm here to report that your husband Mike here... what's that girl's name? Mary Lou? Well, there's a girl here named 'Mary Lou' and she's holding the porta-pack... but I wouldn't concern myself too much 'cause I'm sure she's not as pretty as you..." I said "Hey, thanks a lot" and he said "you're welcome" and gave me a big grin. Cool dude. Next I walked over to Dennis Farina, who was sitting down eating a hotdog and drinking a beer, he had a blue bandana around his head and his ballcap turned backwards and seemed a little tipsy. I told him my story and he said "Hi Joan, thanks for watching the show and bein' a fan." While I was recording Dennis Farina, a guy was kind of lurching around drunk in the background - when we watched the video later (my wife was thrilled btw) I recognized him as Ted Levine, who would later play the role of "Buffalo Bill" in the Silence of the Lambs. Sorry to hear of Dennis' passing, he seemed like a pretty regular guy, not given to the whole TV star thing.

Those lines are the speaker grille. The dash looks great shaved smooth like that- I'm gonna do that on my next Merc.

Very nice build. That's a '47 btw

When I first saw that I immediately thought Jerry Jones I have an Ibanez Talman with lipstick tubes My main guitar is an early '70s BC Rich Seagull Jr. that I bought in 1981 Before I bought the Ibanez on eBay ~6 years ago, it was the only electric guitar I had ever owned.

Thanks for the kind comments about my music. Sure, I've heard the Bambi Molesters- also the Bitch Boys from Slovenia. Here's another modern surf band I like- it's made up of former members of Violent Femmes and Midnight Oil

60 years old and have your first cavity? Wow, you must use floss or something.

I played guitar in my surf band The Surfonics for ~15 years, this has been my most successful song: Another one in a sort of Dick Dale vein: Now I'm playing drums and singing in a sort of surf/swampabilly trio called the Mudskippers- forgive the poor sound quality, this was recorded in my garage during a rehearsal http://www.reverbnation.com/mudskippers/song/14305740-gone-ridin Here are a few more freely downloadable MP3s from The Surfonics: www.thesurfonics.com/SecretSea1.mp3 www.thesurfonics.com/LongboardCowboy1.mp3 www.thesurfonics.com/BoogieBoard1.mp3 Hope you like 'em! -Mike "the infamous Captain Reverb" Graves

That type of switch contact is commonly used in full-logic (solenoid-operated) cassette decks and VCRs and the like- the main reason it has 4 legs is to provide a secure mounting to the PC board. If you're talking about extending the pushbutton, they do make those with a longer shaft, but you can certainly glue a piece of styrene on to accomplish the same thing. I'd use 5-minute epoxy for that.

The clear plastic lids from old cassette cases are useful for a lot of things.

I've been using an old 50W Radio Shack pencil with a fine tip to repair all kinds of electronic devices (primarily microcassette recorders) for ~15 years. The higher wattage makes it heat up faster and hold the heat better, and you want a nice hot iron so you don't have to hold the iron on the part so long that you end up burning the tin out of the solder, resulting in a "cold" joint, or lifting a pad off the PC board.

According to the Popular Science magazine I read in the '60s we should have been riding around in flying cars 13 years ago.

I used Duplicolor clear over Tamiya Coral Blue just recently and it reacted horribly I used Duplicolor clear over Tamiya Brilliant Blue, and Pactra R/C car paint with no problems whatsoever

600 between primer coats, 1,000 before color.

LOL Everyone always mentions the sock.

That looks great- I have that kit in my stash and will build it someday. I built the Ducati 900 NCR racer in 1986.

Cool build! Here's a little surf ditty I wrote, it's called "Boogie Board" http://thesurfonics.com/BoogieBoard1.mp3

I'm a closet modeler I also repair electronic devices and handload ammo in there. No distractions and everything is close at hand

I sold my '74 RX4 last year I still have a shed full of old-school rotary car parts

IPMS meetings are sometimes a good place to find bargains- airplane modelers almost always have a few car kits they've taken in trade, etc. that they aren't in love with and will sell for a reasonable price. Also, I go to yard sales and ask if they have any plastic model kits and sometimes people will go in the house and pull a nice kit out of the closet. Thrift stores sometimes have kits too, I just bought an airplane kit at St. Vinnies for .89

I built one of the Porsche 930 kits for a guy who owned the real car back in '87 It was a really detailed kit and turned out quite nice if I say so myself- I painted it Guard's Red and detailed the engine compartment with the aid of some Polaroid photos the guy took of his car. I think I charged him $65 + the price of the kit IIRC I currently have the LP400 and Lancia Stratos kits in my stash

Thickened CA works well. Use baking soda to fill any gaps first.

I use the tiniest bit of 5-minute epoxy.

LOL The color mixing instructions appear to be different in Japanese than in English. Japanese: 10 parts of color #12 mixed with 1 part of color #10 Engrish: 10 parts of color #12 mixed with 1 part of color #11 I don't know which one is correct- maybe try both and see which one seems proper.