Pete J.

I will take it a step further. When I was in school, engineering students spent two semesters in the university machine shop leaning how to use real tools to build stuff. Once CAD and CAM became part of the curriculum, engineering schools lost interest in manual machines. At that point the complaints about engineers designing stuff that couldn't be built went way up! Everyone who designs stuff should be required to spend time actually building stuff with manual tools. It changes ones perspective.

Ok, I've been at the bench again after some frustrating time off for health issues. Got these done for our local club auction(all proceeds to the club). The rims are machined on my Sherline mill and lathe. They are each made of three pieces of 7075 aluminum. The lugs are machined by RB motion. The tires are parts from the scrap box. The Goodyears were painted on with a stencil that I bought many years ago in Japan. The axles were machined to the type that Tamiya uses. It feels good to be back at the bench.

Not going to pm 'cause I cheated. Google lens is wonderful. I thought I had seen this little abomination. I lived nearby the "Factory". It was so ugly I choose to forget about it!

That looks like all the horrible styling cues for the 70's all crammed onto one small ugly car!

Glad I am not the only one who has hit a rough patch. I am 74 and had open heart surgery almost a year ago. Implanted a battery operated pump to assist my failing heart. Now I wear 4 lbs. of batteries and controller to keep me going. When I first got out of the hospital after 4 week, I had very shaky hands from the meds. Over the last year, I was weaned off most of the drugs and my hands became much steadier. My children kept me going buy buying me complex Lego kits to build. That scratched the modeling itch a bit. My hands are now good enough that I have gotten back out to my workbench. I am currently working on finishing several projects I started years ago and just never got back to. I have promised myself that I won't start a new kit till the started ones are on the shelf. I hope I have many more years of building left in me. Of course, I now look at my stash and realize that I need to downsize it. I have put that off long enough. Time to sell some kits.

I switched over to GoogleFi(I have google phones) about a year ago. So far I am pleased with the service and my bill is exactly half of what I was paying Verizion!

This is a photo of the work I have done over the last 5 days on U Gears Aeroclock. Don't let anyone tell you this is an easy build. No glue, but a ton of sanding(each tooth on each gear needs touching up). Complicated piece of work!

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pm'd

Been using ALSA for a long time now. Their latest iteration is Easy Chrome. I have found that for it to work right, you must use there clear base coat. It seems that some chemical reaction occurs between the base coat and the chrome. When done right. it is extremely durable. You don't need the top coat unless you are going to try to bury decals. Per ounce cost is not really that expensive. 6 oz. will give you a lot of coverage!

Now that it is done, I can see the family resemblance to to Ace/Cobra.

Love your work. Beautiful finish. Always preferred the Spyder. Hiding all that great interior work just seemed wrong to me.

I haven't seen this thread in a while. Amazing as always! Just stunned by your work!

I agree with you. One other thing that I discovered several years ago is that the rims are slightly conical. I discovered this when I chucked one up in my lathe to trim the lip. That slight cone shape can make the tires not fit flat on the ground. The tires are snug enough fit to work well with the rims squared up.

Just a personal preference. I don't like paying Amazon a cut. For many years now(at least 15) I have dealt directly with the manufacture, Micro Surface. They have a very comprehensive catalogue and will sell directly to anyone. I buy their sanding sticks in packs of 50 but you can buy just a few. I just buy a lot just to reduce the shipping cost. They have a huge variety of products from cloth to sponges in abrasives down to 12000. Get what you want, not what someone packaged for you. By the way, they started out selling abrasives to polish aircraft canopies. Here's the direct link. https://micro-surface.com/