StevenGuthmiller

Good old fashioned pot roast on a cold February day. Steve

I’ve had it happen just shaking by hand. It’s a great way to ruin a good shirt, a pair of jeans, or lot of other things. Now multiply that times 10 with a mechanical shaker! Steve

I can't imagine what "mess" you're talking about. Unscrew the cap, insert the stir stick of your choice, give it a stir, and wipe the stir stick clean with a paper towel. No mess. A stir stick will get the settled pigments out of the corners of the bottle much quicker, and then after a few stirs, replace the lid and give it a few shakes by hand to finish the process. The only thing that might create a mess is if your paint bottle is full all of the way to the top, in which case shaking isn't going to get a lot done either. Far be it from me to tell you what you can or can't do, but it just seems to me that another piece of equipment using up space in the shop when a simple stir stick will do the same thing in a fraction of the time, is unnecessary. Should you end up with a leak of some sort while mechanically shaking, then you'll find out what a "real" mess is. But hey, we all have our own thing. You do you. Steve

I always just use thin evergreen rod. Drill holes of a corresponding size and glue in short pieces of rod. Once dry, trim the rods and sand down to the length needed. I've never used this method for a truck tonneau, but I use it frequently to add convertible top boot snap moldings. Steve

Unscrew the cap. Steve

More from Cancun. Shrimp with Vegetables, and Shrimp Fajitas. Caribbean Surf and Turf. Coconut and Bacon Wrapped Shrimp. Tequila Chicken by the pool. 😉 Steve

Some more Mexico meals. Pasta Puttanesca and Linguine with Clams at an Iconic Cancun Italian spot. Chicken Fingers and Club Sandwiches on the beach. 😊 No trip to Mexico would be complete without Fish Tacos! 😛 Steve

A few meals from our trip to Cancun. Nachos Grande and Chicken Enchiladas with Red Mole. More Nachos, and Pastor Tacos. Coconut Shrimp and a Pork, Chicken and Chorizo Molcajete Steve

Why bother shaking paint bottles? Seems to me that it’s a LOT easier to stir. I just use the handle of an old Testors plastic paint brush that I’ve had for 3 or 4 decades. Open the jar, give it a stir, and you’re done in a few seconds. I could maybe understand a shaker for larger containers or spray cans, but I certainly wouldn’t waste shop space on a machine for shaking 1/4 oz to 2oz. jars. Could be just me, but I don’t get it. Steve

Same 1965 Elcamino kit that has been being re-popped over and over again since I was a kid. The latest incarnation is I believe this version which highlights the included camper. Steve

Thanks everyone!! Steve

You can use the Revell ‘68 Charger dash if you want better detail, but you will have to modify the dash pad to be accurate. The leading edge of the dash pad on the Charger had a heavy pad and was pretty much straight. The Coronet pad was thinner and more “V” shaped. This photo shows the beginnings of the dash pad mods, with the original unchanged Charger pad on the right half, and the thinned and reshaped Coronet pad on the left. Another consideration is the dash itself. The Coronet dash depicts an air conditioning equipped car. The Charger dash does not. Vents on the Coronet dash, and none on the Charger’s. When I was in the process of building this model originally, the interior parts were replicated and offered in resin by Ed Fluck Jr, but I think that they are unavailable at this time. A couple more dash photos. Steve

Looks like a heck of a lot less work than I had to do! Looking good! Don’t forget the torque boxes and skid plate. My guess is that you might have been the one to suggest them to me on my project! 😉 Steve

Thank you!!! Steve

Certainly. The more you bang something around, the more likely it is to come apart on you. That’s just natural. In all honesty, that would be my first suspicion of the culprit in your situation rather than an actual problem with glue. Steve

Ha! Try asking a question on one of the Facebook modeling groups! You might get a little disagreement here, but at least the information you do get won’t be a mixture of a couple dozen useful nuggets wrapped up among 150 completely idiotic fantasies! 😁 Here, we don’t all agree on everything, but we’re not morons! 😉 Steve

Sorry I hadn’t responded to our PM thread Bill. I had been trying to figure out how to link you to my ‘68 Coronet project thread from a few years back, but I’m out of the country on vacation, and not very good with this stupid phone! 😖 If it will be of help to you, if you can wait until I get back in a week, it would be a lot easier for my to post up the link from my desktop. For some reason, I haven’t even been able to access any of my own content that’s that old from my phone, thus the problem with sharing a link. In any event, looks like you’re on the right track. If I can help with anything, don’t hesitate to ask. Steve

Well, if you’re models have been jostled around considerably as of late, that’s a lot more likely to be the cause of parts coming off than anything that was done incorrectly with the gluing process or the materials themselves. I seem to recall you saying that the failures were mainly suspension failures, which makes absolute sense considering that not only has the weight of the model been putting stress on a few spindly plastic parts for decades, but add on top of that a lot of bouncing around, and yeah, there are very likely going to be some failures regardless of the materials or processes used. That’s just common sense. Steve

Apparently, I’ve been breaking virtually every epoxy rule that there is, yet I can’t seem to manage to get it to fail. I have to be doing something wrong! 😊 Here’s another practice that I’m confident has to be a big no-no. For most assemblies I’m doing, as soon as the epoxy is mixed, I apply it to one, or both of the surfaces to be joined, depending on the circumstance. Then I walk away for somewhere between 8 to 15 minutes. (The product I use is a 5 minute epoxy, but it takes much longer than that before beginning to harden) I then return and check the remaining mixture on the card to check progress, and once the glue has reached a tacky, but no longer soupy consistency, then I join the parts together. This accomplishes a couple of different tasks. A, It eliminates, or at a minimum, greatly reduces, any possibility of glue “squeeze out”, which can be a huge deal, especially when dealing with installing glass or anything that needs to be cleanly glued to a surface that will be exposed. B, It’s a huge benefit for positioning parts. There is enough viscosity left in the glue to be able to make positioning adjustments, but it’s tacky enough to hold the parts where you put them so they’re not sliding all over the place. I use the example of positioning a rear view mirror inside of a hardtop body, because who hasn’t had a mirror go wonky on you as you tried to install it, leading to glue all over the glass, or other surfaces where you don’t want it. With this method, I put a small dab of epoxy exactly where I want the mirror placed with a tooth pick, let it tack up for 10 minutes, and then using a tweezers, simply place the base of the mirror on the dab of epoxy, and lightly press in place. It can still be moved around a little here and there without making a glue mess, but it’s gonna stay where you put it when you back away from it. I’m sure some of these suggestions are utterly horrifying to some, but I have yet to see any evidence at all of any failure or weakness in any joint that I’ve used this product and these techniques on over the past decade or more. Does that mean that there will never be a failure?......absolutely not. But then again, glue joint failure is always going to be a possibility, or even a probability, with a lot of different products. That’s just the way it is. Just as a side note, I’ve seen people on numerous occasions having to repair models at a show after parts have shaken loose during travel. Pretty much every show I’ve ever attended was at the end of as much as a 300 mile or more trip on some pretty awful Minnesota roads, and most of my models have made numerous trips of the same caliber, and never once have I ever had to glue a single part back on once I arrived at the show. Now, you can possibly attribute some of that to how the model is packed, but I’m confident that a large portion of that is due to how the model was assembled, and you guys know me. Most of my builds have no shortage of intricate assemblies and tiny parts. Steve

I guess I need to completely reconsider my techniques for using epoxy. I don’t “key” anything. I use it on paint, chrome, kit glass, different metals......heck, I’ve even used it on tires! When I mix it, I do it on a piece of cardboard. Now I’m just going to be sitting in front of my display cabinets just watching, and waiting for parts to begin falling off! 😁 I’m closer to an illiterate when it comes to epoxy than I am to an expert, but I get this feeling that just as is the case with various paints, the particular one you’re using will determine more than anything else your ratio of success. Just as procedures and techniques for applying varying paints can differ, I have to believe that the same must be said for epoxies. As a matter of fact, even speaking as a relative laymen, I can almost guarantee it. Steve

Thanks fellas! Steve

Dinner last night at a prominent and very well liked Italian restaurant in Cancun by the name of “La Dolce Vita”. Been a staple as long as I can remember. I’m generally not the type to seek out an Italian restaurant in Mexico, but this is one of the exceptions that I’ll make while here. Started with a complimentary appetizer of toasted baguette with quail’s liver pâté. Spaghetti Puttanesca for the wife, and Linguine with Clams for me. Ended with a complimentary digestif, and chocolate dipped candied orange peel. Steve

C’mon Peter. I think we all know each other pretty well. You’re just mad because you didn’t get to compete in that contest earlier on! 😉 Steve

Once they’re in someone else’s hands, they’re their problem! 😊 Steve

I got all night. 😉 Steve