StevenGuthmiller

I recently heard a story about a person who was the target of a carjacking. When the thief got behind the wheel and realized that the car was equipped with a manual transmission, he abandoned his theft and ran away. Even the thieves have become inept! ? Steve

I work as a valet at a local medical facility. the ability to drive a manual transmission is a requirement of employment here. No stick shift, no job. Steve

Thanks everyone! Never expected to see this 10 year old thread resurface! I appreciate it. Steve

I can guarantee you that they're not. The 2K craze has taken over the hobby, and all one has to do is spend a few moments on the Facebook groups to see that anyone who is not using it, is being encouraged to do so, with very little, to no discussion at all about the risks involved. It's a little scary! Personally, I'll stick with my clear lacquer and polishing regimen. Works just fine for me, and apparently the results speak for themselves. And I can do it without the potential for killing myself. Steve

Why not use a piece of foil? Cover the area, paint it with a thin coat of black, and then use whatever technique you prefer, (solvents or sanding) to remove the paint where you want it removed. Actual metal will always look more like metal than artificial metal paint. Another example of where BMF trumps Molotow. Steve

I've not built one myself, but then again, I'm not made out of money either! My personal opinion? I would much rather spend that money on a few old rare annuals that I can work some magic on rather than just assembling a very large and expensive jigsaw puzzle. Steve

I think I'm probably already half way to 25 by just responding to this pair of silly threads!! Steve

Yes, I've read that thread, but how is creating another going to help him reach his goal? If anybody really wants to reach a goal of 25 posts, (which is laughably easy, I might add) all that they have to do is spend a few minutes perusing the board, get in on a few conversations, and bingo!....full fledged member! If it's some sort of hardship for someone to reach 25 posts, they're not really serious about participating anyway. Steve

I really don’t understand the issue. seriously? 25 posts? That’s about a half an hour’s worth of posts if you put forth even a minimum of effort. Steve

I don’t get it. 25 posts to get off of moderation is something that you can do in a half an hour. It’s not hard. Steve

I routinely attend a larger IPMS sponsored show in the fall, and I have attended a fairly good sized one in the spring as well, and have always felt confident that the judges were competent. Of course, for both of these shows, a local model car club's members are employed to do the judging for the automotive categories, and I have complete confidence in them. This speaks to the integrity of the IPMS chapters that are organizing these shows, as it's clear to them that they are not experienced with model cars, so they're bringing in the "experts" to do the judging of those particular categories for them. Unfortunately, with a small local show such as this one, it becomes pretty obvious quite quickly that the judges have no expertise in anything per say and are just going off of pure emotion. I suppose that can probably only be expected for a small show in an area such as this, but it's become apparent to me that I no longer have any interest in participating in such endeavors. My suggestion to many of these small IPMS shows would be to drop the "contest" aspect, and operate it as something akin to an NNL type show where there are basically no judges. Create top 5 or 10 "people's choice" awards and allow the participants to make the decisions. I can't see how the adjudication would be any less reliable by having the people in attendance make the decisions rather than a few inadequate judges. Steve

Here are a few quick snaps as it sits in my garage today. As you can see, the paint did not fare as well as the interior after all of those years in a leaky out building, and there is some rust to repair, but I've seen worse. Steve

Brings back memories of a '73 Charger that my dad bought new in 1973. A triple black SE with the "opera windows" and a 318 auto. Kind of a funny story, but my parents went to a dealership one weekend in the summer of '73 with the intention of buying a new Dodge or Plymouth wagon for my mother. He saw the Charger sitting on the showroom floor and immediately fell in love with it, and to my absolute amazement, somehow talked my mother into going along with his delirium! Long story short, buy the spring of 1974, the Charger was gone, and my mother was driving a new Plymouth wagon! Steve

Me neither. My assumption is that Scale Finishes probably would rather not have to deal with that either, but there must be an issue with their formula if a separate hardener is necessary. Another reason why I stay away from enamels completely, for bodies at least. I can't think of any advantages when you have to be concerned with whether or not your paint is going to cure, and then have to deal with more steps and more products to ensure that it doesn't go south on you. Their lacquer base colors work perfectly. I can't think of a reason why anyone would need to use the enamels, especially if there is an unpredictability factor. Steve

I have heard of issues with drying with all of Scale Finishes spray enamel line. A few years ago, I had a well respected builder offer to give me all of his SF enamels because he had curing issues with it. Don't know if anything has changed since then, but it's something to consider. Steve

Okay. Well, I had thought about attending your show at some point in the future, as I'm not really all that far away, but it appears that there would be no point in it. I pretty much build nothing but factory stock, and almost none of my stuff would fit into any of the categories. C'est la vie. Steve

One week from today!! Get your s--- together! Steve

Apparently my mice were relatively courteous tenants. No apparent damage that I’ve been able to find in the wiring, and it appears as if the majority of the nest building material stuffed into the hood latch area of the hood, and behind the headliner has come from the headliner backing/insulation. The only real damage from the mice is the holes chewed in the headliner itself, giving it the appearance of a nice Swiss cheese, and the steady rain of chewed up headliner backing material and mouse turds falling from the roof! ? Steve

Pulled out the '69 Grand Prix this afternoon to clean a little of the dust off of it. It still amazes me how well the original interior on this car has survived after 12 years of use prior to me, 7 or 8 years of abuse by a hard living teenager, (that would be me ) and then 28 years of sitting in a dirty, damp, farm outbuilding, where it was subject to pillaging and damage after the meth heads moved into the farm house for the last few years of storage! This interior will be remaining original, except for a new headliner, (which the mice have eaten and turned into a condominium) new rear package shelf, (which the meth heads destroyed trying to get into the trunk through the interior) and probably sun visors, carpet, and possibly a few other little pieces here and there. I could never bring myself to re-upholster these "survivor" seats, even though there has been some discoloration. Steve

Dry is dry. doesn’t make a difference how, or how fast it gets there. Steve

I was only disagreeing with your statement that "handling did no harm". I suppose it may have looked that way from the beginning, but as the seat back exhibits no "chrome" characteristics whatsoever, as the photo appears to me, I assumed that the handling was the reason for that. In any event, yes, it appears that we agree on the overall performance of Molotow. In my estimation, almost any other chrome substitute will do an equal, or better job. Steve

I’m not trying to be difficult Bill. It was just a simple statement of fact. The photo you posted was a ‘60. My assumption was that you meant to post a photo of a ‘61. I just thought that you might like to have the opportunity to make that correction in lieu of the fact that the ‘60 does in fact have a molded in top. Steve

That’s a ‘60. I would certainly think that the promo would have been molded from the same molds as the kit with a stationary top. Steve

But that does little to explain the differences in the roof construction. My ‘60 Imperial was produced by SMP, as you say the ‘61 was, yet the SMP ‘60 shares the same construction as the AMT ‘62. Steve

I disagree. Looks pretty dull on my screen, and very little like chrome to me, especially the seat back. I’ll repeat what I’ve said before. In order for a chrome substitute to mimic actual chrome, it has to come as close as possible to exhibiting the main property of chrome......reflectivity. By that I mean that the finish should be absolutely smooth and mirror like. You should be able to see your reflection in the finish, and not just some blurry facsimile of your face, but every pimple and errant nose hair should be apparent. If not, it’s just another shiny silver paint. In all honesty, I often see more mirror like properties in well painted bodies than I do in most Molotow finishes. Of course, this is just my opinion. Likewise, I have used Molotow, and nobody is ever going to convince that it will be anything approaching “durable” over the long run. Steve