StevenGuthmiller

I've had the television tuned exclusively to the Velocity channel since Tuesday. I figure that it beats the heck out of what's on every other channel. Hmmm, let's see. 10:00 PM, Barrett Jackson, Pawn Stars or the Golden Girls!! Not a difficult decision! Steve

I'm shouting it from the roof tops! I love my Hondas, & have for the last 30 years. Over that time, we have owned 14 Hondas & Acuras & have never had a major issue with a single one of them. Come to think of it, I can't remember any minor issues, though I'm almost sure that there had to have been a couple out of 14 vehicles. I've never even had to replace a bulb in any of them! In that same period of time, we owned a Buick, (turned out to have either a blown head gasket or cracked head when I found water in the oil), a Mercury, (fried computer, and leaking oil all over my garage floor before it reached 30,000 miles, not to mention the resale value was absolute BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH when we finally came to our senses & traded it in on the next Honda) and a Dodge truck, which I loved, but it also had bearings going out & a toasted power steering pump in less than 30,000 miles as well. I don't think that I could even remember where the power steering pump was in any of the Hondas! Never had to go near them! Steve

I wouldn't bother with the gloss base for the polished aluminum Alclad. Just a basic primer will give you a better aluminum finish. with a gloss base, it becomes too much like chrome. Steve

I guess that we all have our own experiences. My most recent Chevrolet experience did not impress me in the least, reinforcing the fact that I will probably never buy one. The last business that I worked at for 12 years running deliveries, purchased 2 brand new Chevy Uplanders right around 2013. When I left the company in 2017, both of these vans were sitting in the back lot not being used & basically ready for the junk man. Neither one of them had much more than 100,000 miles on them & they were completely shot. Granted, they had relatively rough usage in those 4 years, but both of them had major transmission problems by the time they reached 60 or 70,000 miles & I was particularly turned off by the fit & finish of these vehicles. You could have filled up an appliance box with the interior & exterior finish parts that had fallen off of them! Glove box doors duct taped shut, parts strapped on with bungy cords & electrical tape, it was a pathetic sight. Your experience may vary, but after driving these vehicles for several years & seeing the issues that popped up on a regular basis, I would never buy one for my own use. Steve

There is not a huge difference. But, the polished aluminum would most likely look better in this application. Steve

Ooooo! Yes, please don't do that! Steve

Nice job Emmanuel! You surely don't see a lot of these '58s around anymore. A nice addition to your collection. Steve

Superb! Very nice, crisp, clean work so far. The wood grain looks nice & the powder blue color is a fantastic choice for this car. Factory stock? Steve

In my new life as a Valet at a local medical facility, I have seen a couple of these on modern cars in the past few months. Used in "handicapped" applications. Personally, I don't like them. They just seem to be "in the way". Steve

I don't know a lot about these awards, but I always assumed that they were just a marketing ploy used by some auto makers. I find it amusing that Chevy touts these stupid awards in every single television commercial, trying to convince us that they make the most reliable cars on the planet, while the makes that are traditionally known to be exceptionally reliable almost never cite these awards. The funniest part of the latest Chevy commercial is when they assemble a bunch of dweebs, who probably wouldn't even be able to figure out where the hood release is, together in the middle of the Interstate. After they go through the whole spiel about how reliable they are, they move on to the final scene with 4 people sitting in a Chevy with some ditzy blonde behind the wheel who proudly proclaims, "I feel like I'm sitting in a reliable car right now"! Seriously? You got that feeling from sitting in a brand new car for 30 seconds? She should be pulled from the car & pitched over the side of the bridge! Well.....maybe that's a little extreme. Steve

Alclad Polished Aluminum. Steve

Alclad Polished Aluminum. Steve

I've heard that sprinkling packets of grape Koolaid on your lawn will keep away the geese. Coming from Rochester Minnesota where thousands of Canadian geese spend the entire winter, I heard this remedy from someone. If it works, your only decision will be, what's worse, the geese, or having my property smell like Jonestown! Steve

Tastes just like chicken! Steve

Agreed. When the critters are in the wild or even my yard, I'll tolerate them & even welcome them in some circumstances. But when they invade or damage my home, they are vermin & will be summarily executed! Steve

Thanks guys, but I built this kit probably 5 or 6 years ago when I was fresh off of my 10 year hiatus and I was still a little rusty. It's not my best effort & I'm sure I could do a better job today. Steve

The Revell '55 hardtop is basically the same kit as the '55 convertible. Both are pretty nice kits. Steve

A dove is nothing more than a glorified pigeon. Flying rats in my opinion! Steve

I know what you're saying. There should be room for every builder to build whatever their heart desires. In theory you're correct, but there's not always room for everybody depending on how successful a kit maker is. If this company fails on it's first attempt, the only "room" is for the hobbyists who wanted that particular kit & everything that could have come after it goes away, regardless of the subject matter that you, or I, or anyone else would like to see from them. When one of these companies fails, our choices become more limited & we all lose. I'm sure that your hope is that modern NASCAR subjects continue to sell so that you can look forward to new kits in the future, but if a manufacturer is not healthy & does not have the capital to take a chance on riskier subjects, they could very well go away altogether, & that's no good for any of us. That's why I get a little concerned when a brand new company comes out of the chute with a first offering that may not do well. Honestly, I had the same concern when Moebius came out with the Hudson kit. Let's hope that I am just as wrong this time as I was then. Steve

True. But as Casey stated in his post, if this first offering is not successful, the likelihood of a second one are slim. That's why we would all like to see a very strong first effort. Not to say that this one will not be, but I shudder to think of what would have happened if the Moebius '53 Hudson kit would have flopped. We would have missed out on a whole bunch of really great kits! Steve

I agree 100%! While I'm not much of a fan of NASCAR in general, I was a fan of stock car racing, back when it was actually "stock car racing". Today the cars are all exact copies of one another. While I don't want to disparage anyone for building modern NASCAR kits, I could never build the exact same kit over & over again with different decals. I doubt that I could maintain interest on one! That being said, I hope this new venture goes well for them. Eventually maybe they'll come to their senses and produce some stock kits! Steve

I use a combination of flat Testors enamels and Alclad paints for most of my small parts painting. I mix a lot of my own flat enamels for things like engines & then clear coat them with Testors clear lacquer. For exposed metal parts like transmissions, exhaust, etc, I use several different colors of Alclad lacquer. It looks much more realistic than the bottle paints. For black I generally use Duplicolor black primer straight out of the spray can & then clear coat as needed. For interiors, I generally mix all of my own colors from Testors flat enamels as well. Steve

Everything he said! Steve

The spray adhesive will work great for modern "platform" style interiors. Not so much for the older interior buckets. Unless you don't mind doing a lot of extra masking. Steve

You have more guts than I do! This is the only reason why I apply as much clear as I do. To be as certain as I can that I don't polish through the paint. But, I guess when you're building rare vintage kits & using hard to strip automotive lacquer, you do whatever is necessary to insure that you don't have to do any repeats! Steve