Russell C

Less frog-eyed Thames Panel dragster Sacrilege to Thames Panel Purists, of course. Unlike some of my other 'redesign' ideas involving mostly unobtainium-priced kits (at least for my thin budget), this is just a single affordable kit. However, I lack the time to do such a project in the face of so many other projects I should get to first. Same basic idea for the Anglia Gasser kit, although it could use a mildly chopped top and fatter back fenders ...

No offense to Revell, but these tires are quite an improvement - at least for my own personal tastes - to the basic look of that kit.

'Fraid so, although my encounter with such modelers was more than two decades back. But I don't doubt for a minute that the deadlines still apply today. I applied for a job at a couple of places like that in the mid '90s thinking it would be right up my alley. One guy told me straight out he needed either a guy who could slice out window walls from thick cardboard with an Xacto blade as fast and accurate as he could, or he was going to have to invest in a laser cutter to bash those out. Man, my fingers hurt after the test run he gave me, but the thing that prompted me not to pursue working with him was his attitude - all work and no joy. At least the second place had a manager who expressed some joy in doing what he did, but the deadlines he spoke of were the deal killer for me. Some guys thrive on that, but I sure don't.

Ya learn something every day. Never heard of Morley before.

Heavy sigh. My daily driver MkII GTI is pretty much right in the same weight range .... and down more than 250 hp. If only I could afford to experience that fun there. Scenic roads, too.

The blue & white is what I favored for my late '80s phantom Mercedes NASCAR build. I figured if the car make and engine could not be correct along with the car number, then the main sponsor ought to be a bankrupt-by-then railroad. Fits the "technically correct" overall theme, but the one liberty I took was with the lettering on the hood spelling out the whole name in case some folks had no idea what "The Rock" was.

Yesterday, I was standing out in the gravel backyard, trying to hang a wet rug up to dry on the edge of my shed roof, while standing on a tippy block. Block tipped over when I hoped it wouldn't, and down I went. Nobody is pleased about having a sprained wrist or a jagged bleeding rock cut. What pleased me today is that the pain was way less than yesterday, plus I'm even more glad I hadn't broken anything, and the cut shows no sign of infection. This could have been much worse.

The fun I sometimes have (doesn't always work easily) is digital color manipulation of color in photos, using my iMac's simple "Preview" program. Personally, I think I like the bluer tone more.

I run my daily driver VW hatchback into the gas gauge red zone under a quarter tank all the time, and have done so basically every time with only summer vacation exceptions since 1993. During my summer Colorado vacations, I could actually drive from Phoenix across the mostly empty Navajo Nation to arrive in Durango on fumes, but I refill in Holbrook a half a tank down to be on the safe side. No way an EV can touch that range and wouldn't want be caught dead in that open empty country.

Eek. Dec 1979 would have been halfway through my second year of high school.

https://www.slixx.com/ Main page opens up, but when I click on anything, same blank page result: Service Unavailable HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.

Got a large metal file? Try sharpening the edges.

Who can forget where the outlaw widebody supecar craze started? "Koenig Specials Ferrari BB: Remembering the 650-HP Tuning Legend From the 1980s" https://www.autoevolution.com/news/koenig-specials-ferrari-bb-remembering-the-650-hp-tuning-legend-from-the-1980s-212589.html

Sorta. But what's driving the prices up really boils down to a dozen or so guys over the last 5-6 years who have oodles of dollars and no sense to inquire deep into the sales history of the rigs they are buying or question the sellers assertions of them. I'm the current caretaker of the ancient blazerchalet.com website (it was given to me back when I owned Chalet #1747, I've never had the time or cash to update the site), and I've been tracking the sales of these since 2005. When guys don't do background research on these, they fall for lines like the one seen in the current eBay auction of Chalet #1683 who claims much of the rig is original when in fact it had significant (and incorrectly done) restoration back in 2009-'10. Many, including that particular one, just shift from one classic car dealer/flipper to the next, with jacked up prices each time, often with unsubstantiated assertions made about the rigs. Guy last summer claimed my former rig was a "barn find" when it absolutely was not, going clean back through at least 7 owners back to when I sold it in 2010.

Never heard of it. Quick search in Youtube turned up this account which has collected many episodes, this one will show the list off to the side when you click on the "Watch on Youtube" option:

There actually is the 3D print file out there https://hum3d.com/3d-models/chevy-blazer-chalet-1976/ , but whoever drew it made the mistake of placing it on a shortbed Chevy pickup rather than the unibody Blazer, and had to stretch the camper unit improperly through the window area to make it fit. Correcting the 3D print file would be the first hurdle, but the next one would be to figure out which of the three kit versions is the most accurate starting point for a buildup.

Counter opposite of my "irk" over in the other thread on vehicle obsolescence / unavailable OEM parts for 37 year old cars - rather than put in a potentially dicey used fuel supply line in my 1:1 daily driver, I had it rebuilt at an industrial hose service with a new central flexible section that could handle the pressure of my car's fuel injection system. It actually re-installed easier than when it came out today, and now my car starts and runs fine again, no gasoline leaks. Feels great to have a fully functional vehicle.

All true, the fierce AZ heat not helping things one bit. Valiantly on the search** to see what guys who rebuild these are using for new fuel supply lines .... ** new development edit: local AZ VW scrapyard guy / MkII enthusiast referred me to an expert shop specializing in rebuilding A/C, hydraulic & high pressure fuel line hoses. Score!

"Irk continued" on the increasing rarity of of decades old watercooled VDub parts, but your reply here qualifies as a "what pleased you" thing I should post when I have time at the other thread. Thanks!!! Irk today will be the removal of the line, although it is not in a difficult spot on the engine to reach. Will email the Orchid Euro place minutes from now, found heritagepartscentre yesterday, but a zip through their web pages turned up no results. Will try emailing them, though. Final irk might be the love that these vintages of VWs demand, but they give plenty of driving fun even in their advanced ages when kept maintained. (FYI, been meaning to join this VW owners site, emergency mandated it, Intro post here / part plea here, for additional networking opportunities.)

Vehicle obsolesce, Part II. There's been a trace of a gasoline smell underhood of my '86 VW GTI for a while, exponentially worse today, where I could finally clearly see it. The forward flexible section of the "fuel supply line" that is grafted onto the hard line going into the fuel distributor has a crack that now leaks under pressure. I assume it is a somewhat flexible inner plastic tube protected by an outer rubber covering, because back closer to the firewall, I see a crack in the rubber cover and a shinier bit below in the crack. Clamping the forward section's cracked leaking area where it goes into the hard line doesn't stop the leak one bit. Problem is, I've searched for a couple of hours far and wide across the internet and haven't found anyone selling a used one. Left a message with one of the south Phoenix VW junkyards that's been good to me over the last decade, will have to try again tomorrow to catch a live person there. Really shouldn't drive it with it leaking that much, but it may be an uphill struggle trying to locate a fuel line. CIS-e fuel injection, in case any of you have one laying around or know someone who does ....

Vehicle obsolesce, combined with wacko inflationary prices. Took my daily driver 300k+ miles '86 VW GTI to the same mechanics' place I've been going to since '97-ish, my CV boots on one axle split from old age, and I don't like fixing that sort of thing myself. The longtime employee I've known there since 2002 bought the shop from his boss, and told me the basic reality today was that from jacked up building rental and other rising costs, he was going to have drop most of the time-consuming, barely profitable work on old VWs (taking no new customers of old ones, but courteously doing work for legacy customers like me). To keep viable, he can only take work on newer technowonder VWs. My bill was $309 parts & labor for a new axle with new boots on either end, cheaper than replacing only the grease-spitting outer boot and cracking apart inner boot. Other car there was an '09 2009 diesel Jetta Wagon with a blown turbo and other decaying bits, looking at a $4 grand repair estimate .....

Always wondered what was in the pointy end of an old CRT television set. Now I know. And since I've been kicking around the idea of doing a jet car / hover car sorta like our MCM forum man Daxman has built, I have another victim right at hand for a second turbine-like engine to go in one of the currently unloved glue bomb bodies I acquired several years back ….

Nice! Got that same kit many years back. The weakness I have for these is my current daily driver '86 GTI with its 300k+ miles. I was thinking I'd one day do a replica of it, but with my preferences of upgrades such as the larger side windows / mirrors placed further forward on '87s & up. Also 5-spoke aftermarket wheels. And maybe syncro AWD. (would do the same on my 1:1 if I could afford it - taking donations, just be sure to make the checks out to "Cash" ?)

I resemble that remark!!