Russell C

Yep - see my Oct 28 "irk" post about the model years exception, along with busting shifters. The way this county handles emissions testing, it makes me ever more want to get some kind of pre'67 classic just to avoid having that testing done.

Unending rain. Standing joke in this metro area is that this place is a desert, it never rains here. But in the last 3 days, the accumulation has been around an inch and three quarters according to my plastic rain gauge, and then today, add a bit over three quarters of an inch to that pile. More on the way for overnight ...

Saw that turquoise safari Mustang - anybody ambitious enough to replicate it or something basically close, there's 110 photos of it here: "351-Powered, Safari-Style 1973 Ford Mustang SportsRoof" https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1973-ford-mustang-mach-1-23/

How would you be drawing the artwork for the film you need to put over the photoreactive metal sheets? There's actually quite a bit to just that angle of the process. One of my previous jobs was in the graphics department of a nameplate manufacturer that did photo-etching of brass, stainless steel, magnesium, zinc, and aluminum, and the artwork setup for the films had to take into consideration what type of metal was to be used (each had different reaction times to the acid), what thickness the metal was and how 'aggressive' (or whatever that term was) the acid was. The outside perimeter of whatever shape was being etched had to be oversized by the right amount since the acid not only eats its way downward but also inward more at the top surface level, while any thru-holes in the shapes had to be undersized for the same reason. How many tabs were needed to hold the shape to the framework also needed to be considered so that the parts would not just fall away into the acid mix. Double-eched parts were another layer of complexity, say for example, logo letters at the original metal surface and a lower etched-away background area. Another example of that is panels with lines etched halfway into the metal, to create fold lines so that the panels can be turned into boxes, or folded into more complicated shapes. The photo below are some samples I saved from that job, all of 'em with the exception of the thin brass lizard at the bottom are double-eched. The "key tags" vintage race car sample at the upper right still has bits of the blue photoresist layer stuck to it which protects the metal from the acid, but it must be stripped off or sanded off later. The long thin rectangle is an aerospace-quality filter screen, while the "Karl Baisch" tag under it was an etched aluminum tag a guy wanted for replicas going onto his vintage Mercedes luggage. From that work experience, I've been able to spot the difference between photo-eched parts that were done with quality level artwork and fine control over handling the metal sheets and the acid, compared to parts that were close to being unusable.

Couldn't even begin to guess what they are trying to sell from just your screengrab image. Had to look it up. Unless there are more active duty cops / special ops guys building model cars here, I'd think this is one more instance of supposedly 'smart A.I. ad targeting efforts' that ain't actually smart at all. What I need to see is those Ginsu Hobby Knives ads which could sell me blades that can whack through quarter inch thick tree sprue with surgical precision, and then use the same blades to slice a tomato into hundreds of transparent thin wafers. With the LED light feature in the handles, too, of course. 😂

On 11/12/2025 at 3:21 PM, espo said: ...any thought of buying a new car in the coming years will be replaced with the purchase of an older unaffected vehicle ... 4 hours ago, Dragline said: Cars 20 years or older are what you hang onto... It's why my daily driver VW GTI, which will be 40 years old next year, is a keeper. Bit of an uphill struggle to stay ahead of the curve on locating obsolete parts, but this particular second generation was/is still popular enough that quality aftermarket parts supplies are filling in the need. But the other uphill struggle was finding a mechanic who specializes in these. I know enough to do some of my own work, but not enough on other things.

The indications today so far are that the irrationally-behaving house renter neighbor across the street that I've mentioned once or twice over in our "Irk" section … is moving out!

Ditto, it's what I used back in the late 1990s for the graphics on my top fuel 4x4, but at that time, I only had the resources of white peel & stick injet printer paper. What I should do one of these days is peel those off and get real decals printed for me, I still have the Corel file. But I also cheat here, in a way - back in graphic arts school, it took me months to learn how to draw in Adobe Illustrator, and later at my first graphics job how to switch over to Corel. I keep my hand in it occasionally, so as not let my skills get too rusty. So, while such vector art software is the ultimate for getting exactly what you want, the uphill struggle is learning how to use it. Once you do learn, the sky's the limit on what you can create.

Back in 1988 when I built my Mercedes 500 SEC NASCAR stock car as a lark, part of the assorted jokes in it was an exact replica (almost) of the engine in my 1:1 daily driver at the time, a '73 Chevy LUV. It was made of scrap parts, and if I remember right, what I used as the basis was a 1/35th scale Italieri Opel Blitz 6 cylinder block and transmission, but with quite a bit of extra work to make it resemble the Izuzu 4 cylinder. I had to settle for just decal letters to spell out the name instead of the raised letter on the valve cover.

Good idea. So many potential builds ideas out there, not enough time to get to them all. Gleaned this image from a Youtube link in another MCM thread, a neat potential build. A Ford Model T truck hauling a Fordson tractor:

Smaller variant on the theme happening in my overglorified trailerpark community (yeah, my neighbor's house really is that close to mine). Installation of plastic piping for fiberoptic internet / TV system, drilling through basically clay with little difficulty. Vermeer being the other brand of horizontal drilling machines. Not sure who did it or how, but one of the guys managed to pry up the last little concrete triangle of my driveway and crack it in the middle .... can't hire good help these days.

Might be just me, but I'd prefer if it was sectioned a bit and if the grille was opened up a bit ...

Not everyday a person sees a supercharger connected to an engine via a driveshaft with u-joints .... or a car with its own supersize welding torches .... 🤩

NOT rolling the clocks back…… Got up at my usual time of 7am, according to my cheap AA battery-powered clock, did a whole bunch of assorted pre-breakfast stuff, then flipped on my livingroom TV to see what the weather was going to be like, and noticed my plug-in clock (with its ability to get a signal to always be at the exact right time) said it was only 7:25. For a few moments, I was amazed at how much I accomplished in such a short amount of time. . . . . . until it dawned on me the thing did the "fall back" automatically, which we don't do in this area of Arizona.

Those are great! In my patio where I'd prefer them not to be underfoot or on my outdoors workbench, I coax them to jump onto my hand so I can give 'em a ride to one of the nearby plants or bushes so they can eat whatever vermin insects I'd rather not have in my patio area at all.