Russell C

Kept on searching, found whatever this sales site is later https://www.looknet.com/product/rare-classic-joma-straddler-rocket-fender-side-mirror with round mirrors attached. Could be the door or fender area has a shallow C-shape where the inner upper leg might be more vertical and the lower outer one is flatter? Or out farther on a fender, the inner bottom leg is flat horizontal while the lower outer one is over the edge and down more vertical? Beats me.

Guys selling vintage model kits/buildups on eBay sometimes list 1:1 parts, that's how I ran across this one today, where I thought at first if I popped in enough searches for '50s-era chrome monsters, then I could spot which car had such a two-post mirror bracket. No luck, so I added a ghost mirror to the eBay image below to see if any of you '50s (or early '60s?) experts might recognize it right off the bat. More pics at the seller's eBay auction if that helps. Or is it an aftermarket thing for rodders to add to their customs? Put in today's technology small twinkling LED orange lights in those 3 back openings and you have rocket power ready for takeoff!

This could've gone into three other MCM threads here, the "What'sUp with the Post Office" / "Daily Irk" ones, since the Post Office managed to lose the first trio or radiator hoses I ordered, but I could have mentioned yesterday in the "What Pleased You Today" thread that the second replacement trio arrived by UPS just fine. I'm technically stretching the boundaries of this thread because the title implies we'd have a daily driver non-project car and a 1:1 project car. I'm too poor to afford extra cars, this has been my daily driver since I bought it used in 1993, but ever since I was a car-guy 8 year-old, I wanted to own something spiffy that could be turned into a neat hot rod of some type or other. Years ago it got lowering springs, Jetta 4-into-2 ceramic coated exhaust manifold for a bit more horsepower, Passat dual fans setup, short shift linkages, improved suspension bushings ... but then it's been pure maintenance replacements to keep it mechanically sound. Factory plastic fuel pump swirl tank housing started leaking last fall but I ordered the wrong aftermarket all-aluminum one and had to accept a junkyard plastic one 'til now. A/C needs a recharge with vintage R12 freon cans. Prior plastic side tanks radiator lasted until 2003 then cracked big time and the current one is leaking at the same top area where the upper hose connects. Might as well catch the little belt connecting the two electric fans, Arizona heat kills rubber in the long term. Aesthetic appearance is a low priority beyond keeping it basically clean -- accepting donations for a total repaint! Just remember to make your checks out to "Cash." 🤣

Poetry in motion,

Yes, but FB is entirely its own unique system largely run by computer programming which automatically picks out what its programmers deemed to be 'against community policy,' whatever that was supposed to mean.This MCM forum is staffed by real-life moderators, and the rules are quite clear on what is worthy of reporting. Political content is not permitted here, no matter what end of the spectrum it comes from, so reporting it from either members or whatever stunts political advertisers might try to pull won't get anyone here a lifetime ban. FB, by contrast, is arbitrary on that kind of enforcement beyond description.

I see the dash difference better in this Bring a Trailer auction of a '93 cabriolet. That site is a valuable place for getting loads of 1:1 reference photos. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1993-volkswagen-cabriolet-27/

The odo gear broke on mine around a year after I got it used in '93, my guestimate is it has maybe 330k miles. It's an '86 Mk2 8 valve though. Wish I had a carport, the Arizona sun has been unkind to the clearcoat. Cardboard shades in the windows help preserve the interior.

I'd also recommend that. The Fujimi kit is for a Mk2 Golf? Still quite a popular 1:1 car, so if you do an internet search for either the whole dash or just the gauge cluster, you might be able to find a straight-on view you could get a screengrab of and then print out on glossy photopaper after you experiment on what size to scale it down to. My own 1:1 '86 GTI daily driver has its gauges behind a single angled clear plastic sheet, which would be easier to make than two small squares. Attached pic is from the HeritageVW Parts UK website, the buttons might be different for a Japanese market version.

Franklin - I'd been keeping an eye on those on eBay a while back since I had a sinister custom idea for one, but they always ended up way beyond my poor guy budget. Then there was the AMT acetate promo (or whatever incredible shrinking plastic those were made out of), where I got one for cheap years back thinking if I could cut apart all the panels and re-glued 'em back on straighter, then I could use that. This is an older photo composite when it arrived in the mail, it's probably gotten worse lately. Maybe if I leave it out in the sun, it'll turn into a curlycue work of art I can sell at an art gallery for 4 figures. 🤣

Ditto. A while back, I counted up around 18 projects where so far the fun involves gathering all the ingredients that the project needs, then I do random bits of work in each, a mockup of the customized body, or to see how the engine looks when I do my usual miscount of how many cylinders the engine is supposed to have. There is enjoyment in that. Plus I have my fun making up stories to go with the projects. (but I really should get crackin' and get one of these to the finish line, though. Did you guys know that to counter the Ford Thunderbird, Pontiac came up with their own 2-seater 't-bird' with a 511 c.u. engine in 1958? I didn't know that either, so I need to finish this particular project to prove they did. 🤣)

Video sound of course never does these things justice compared to when you are there in person. The “Sentimental Journey” B-17 is based at the little airport about 4 miles north of me, I've turned in there on random drive-bys when I see or hear them starting it up, plus more often than not I zip outside to watch it when I hear it flying overhead. Fantasy thought I have - likely not possible to happen for some or other regulations - is for a major commercial airport and one of its airlines permitting a dual purpose gate where the usual 737s park, but that also has a provision for a Constellation or Super Constellation. Imagine the reaction of regular airport folks who never expect to see such a thing either get to watch it pull in or start up and leave.

I'd say fake artificial un-intelligence, where it looks like a computer program trying to cobble together what it guesses a '40 Ford looks like. The headlights / bezels don't look right in shape or in perspective, and the fingers the guy has on the axe handle don't look right at all. The two guys also look like twins of President Lyndon Johnson.

Was looking for a different old Luv thread, no idea how I missed this one 4 years back. A great mashup!

Any time I can survive my 4 mile round trip to & from the grocery store on Sundays is something to be pleased about. This morning, a person in a new big Chevy pickup barreled across the 4 lane street and really wanted to be in the curb lane where I already was traveling - could've taken off my plastic front fender flare or worse, so I'm pleased the gap between us got no narrower than around 4 inches.

Way better!

I htae it that wehn hpepans.

If I was to shell out the cash to get one of the buy-it-nows off eBay to put on my 39 year-old daily driver VW, I could potentially double my car's value ......🤣

Yep, but patience can pay off. I had an idea around 6+ years back for a non-DTM car done up as a DTM car (ironically in the similar vein as my Mercedes NASCAR build), but in searching on eBay for these, I was immediately disappointed to see them routinely going for close to 3 figures if not more. I'm too poor for that. Kept an eye out nevertheless and one day spotted one partly built with trashed decals (was planning different livery anyway), where the seller mislabeled it and I ended up as the single bid winner at 15 bucks. Now, if I only had time to get working on the whole project ……

More or less that same one, actually. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/tamiya-24143-amg-mercedes--122891

Pretty much explains why the images of classic A.I.-generated '50s cars have three headlights and bizarrely connected chrome trim, and why A.I.-generated steam locomotives have melded-together mechanisms that defy physics. The other way to tell how A.I. is actually as dumb as a box of rocks is to ask one of those essay generator bots a question where you absolutely know the answer, and then watch just how wrong their answer ends up being. The A.I. bots do nothing more than regurgitate urban legends as though the info is cast in concrete fact. Garbage in, garbage out. When the young 'uns out there don't recognize that for what it is, that's when the ease of generating garbage faster starts to scare me.

I do, actually. Got used to it after moving here from 4 seasons NM. These days, anything above 108°F is what I'd call annoying. Anything below 55°F to me has become intolerably irritating. In NM in the 1980s, I thought 91°F was too irritating, but any longterm resident of the Valley of the Fierce Sun would tell you that a 91°F in the middle of summer is a pleasant cooldown. But that's always with something in the range of high teens or less in humidity Speaking of which, minutes before midnight here after a more or less constant heavy drizzle since 8:30pm-ish, 74°F with 86% humidity. Wow!

Yesterday I thought if I doused this pot with water, the last sprig of the flowering plant might stay alive. No dice, too hot. Today, the cactus wren thanked me for a nice damp bowl of dirt to cool off in. Was around 113°F when I took this pic. Handy birds, native to southern Arizona here, they keep the excess spiders down to a dull roar. Scorpions keep the cricket population in check.

At least you got something in the sky up there. Down here in this side of the city, 116°F, but with the humidity up a tic to maybe 12%-ish. Sorta was a thundercloud way off to the east, entertaining idea if it headed this direction and remained intact, but now we're just getting wind gusts .....

Seen images of those for eons .. or, well, maybe since the 1970s. Didn't think to look up how they worked until tonight.

Got assorted folders on my computer of spiffy pics I've saved for potential model projects. Example is my "Finvettes" folder - in one eBay auction I saw where a modeler was headed with what looked like a Plymouth Fury fins appearance. Meanwhile, stealing one of the above pics (A.I.-generated, most likely) to put in my folder, but trained graphic artist that I am, I did some subtle alterations to it. '59 De Soto fins 'hoods' in the A.I. image with perhaps '58 Impala front turn signals with swapped in red flatter lenses? Might be doable. The '50s Mercedes wheel opening eyebrow is an interesting idea, I added one over the front.