Mark

I bought signs and put them up earlier this summer. Nobody has rung the bell since then, but I'm waiting for someone to say "but this is important" when I ask them to read the sign. Most municipalities actually have an ordinance on the books prohibiting anyone from ringing the bell or knocking on the door when such a sign is posted. They cannot enforce an across-the-board ban; those have been fought and defeated because they curtail free speech. But the court decisions that stopped the across-the-board actions have allowed for individual households or complexes to "ban" solicitors. They are obligated to move on when "no soliciting" signs are posted.

The New York State Department of Taxation was doing that in the early Nineties. They'd send out thousands of "notices of sales tax delinquency" on a regular basis, hoping to rope in businesses that didn't keep copies of their returns (which, of course, you should do anyway). When I had my business, I got those several quarters in a row. I'd have to spend time and money getting copies of returns and bank statements (to show that they cashed the checks prior to the due date, which was the case every time), then spend more money on registered/return receipt mail (which absolutely NOBODY there signed for, ever). For a while, I tried to have some fun with it, pasting together my own official-looking "Notice of Receipt of Bull---- Delinquency Notice" to use for the reply, things like that. After a while I got my local State legislator involved, and they gave up trying to collect from me. I guess other people were writing them nasty notes in reply to their notices...they eventually passed a law against writing remarks on the tax forms or the checks used to pay taxes. Talk about thin-skinned...

The Scamp/Dart/Dart Sport/Duster had lengthwise torsion bars up front, the Aspen/Volare/Diplomat/Gran Fury had a transverse torsion bar setup. The platforms were different. The rear end might have bolted into the earlier car, but I wouldn't even bet on that. The later transverse torsion bar front suspension unbolted from the car as a self-contained unit, steering box and engine mounts included. Those were popular swap material for a brief period. My older brother swapped one of those into a late Fifties Chevy pickup about twenty years ago. The guy wanted the truck really low in front. The frame rails got notched pretty deeply so as to get that unit as high up as possible relative to the frame. If you fabricated the mounts, you could bolt that unit in with insulators as on the donor car, but for most swaps (including the Chevy) the unit got welded to the frame. That truck (I think it was a '58) got the Gran Fury front suspension, a later Chevy rear axle, a big-block Chevy engine, and a tilt steering column (without the ignition lock; might have been out of a van). It rolled out under its own power (certainly didn't come in that way), but I don't think the guy did anything with it after that. Probably still sitting in his yard...

There seemed to be a lot of them around here, too...a number of police agencies used them. Some got pressed into taxi service, but not many. The "downsized full size" Chevy was the taxi of choice around here, especially the pre-1991 "box". The hack companies around here were slow to switch to the '91-up "bubble" body style because the earlier ones were so numerous, and parts so cheap. Parts for the cop car Diplomat/Gran Fury always seemed to be hard to find. I wanted a set of the six-slot cop car wheels for the early Dakota I had back then, never could find any...the Mopar guys were snatching them up. Trivia: the last couple of years of production, the Diplomat/Gran Fury was assembled in Kenosha by AMC. Chrysler needed production capacity to keep building the cop cars, AMC had facilities that were way underutilized. They'd dropped their own rear-drive cars after '83, and switched over to the Renault-based front-drive stuff that stopped selling after the first couple of years.

I don't know where that online store got that description...the kit builds only one way, as the U.N.C.L.E. version with all of the spy gear. As I understand it, the "stock" version had a shorter body (less overhang behind the rear wheels). It's an interesting kit, I picked one up with the thought of building it without the spy stuff.

I like the decals...

A few years ago, one guy was in the "15 items or less" line with a cart full of one-gallon jugs of water. His logic was, "it's only one item, she only has to scan one of them and count the ones in the cart". I always thought it was the number of individual items, but hey, maybe that's just me. I look for the shortest line anyway, regardless of whether it's fifteen items, seven items, whatever. Another time, I had two or three items that I was carrying. In one line was an unattended cart with a couple of items in it. The person in front of it was paying the cashier; that other cart wasn't hers. I yanked the cart out of the way, and set my stuff on the conveyor. Right then, this guy walks up with an armload of stuff yelling that he was in line ahead of me. My reply was, "you weren't in line, you left a cart in the line and went off to do your shopping..." Usually, I'm the one in line behind someone with three maxed-out credit cards that can't pay for all of the stuff they want, or are trying to use a benefits card to buy stuff that isn't allowed.

They're very well done, but the market was very small. How many people were interested in doing (and had the ability to do) the assembly of the model, the assembly and painting of the figures, and the assembly and finishing of the wood shadow box? That said, I've got one of them (the Auto Crossing with the Winton). The original idea was to keep the car and set aside the rest, but the thing is so interesting that I'm leaving it alone until I decide to either build it or sell it to someone else who might build it. A guy I know got one of the Model T kits in a peculiar way: he first found the car by itself, then years later found another kit that someone had swiped the car from!

The rear bumper in my kit has no guards.

I never figured that Revell would tool another engine for the gasser version, but I was thinking they'd go a bit wilder with the engine setup, like injectors. I was disappointed that the headers are one-piece units, though they do look pretty good. The Edelbrock script valve covers are also new, and unlike anything in any other kit with a Y-block. Too, I'd have thought they would have tooled another hood, even for this kit, which out of the box is more a modern "street freak" interpretation of a gasser than it is a drag car. The wheels/tires are so-so; the "street freak" gassers often use "piecrust" slicks (they weren't called that back then), sometimes with wide whitewalls. Mine's going to get all the cliches: Mickey Thompson/Rader wheels and slicks from the Thunderbolt kit, a teardrop blister on the hood, and big Metalflake paint. It shouldn't be too tough to tie the headers in to the stock dual exhaust system. By adding some material to the sides of the kit firewall (to fill the space between the firewall and the forward edge of the doors), it looks like a tilt front end might be within reach. One other thing: there's nothing to tie the gasser front axle to the stock steering box.

I remember picking up a couple of promos, in boxes, for $2 apiece. Still have them. Got a couple of the kits (store returns, damaged) for a buck apiece, and parted them out. The engine is pretty similar to the one in the MPC Duster and Dart Sport kits, only with a Torqueflite instead of a four-speed...

MPC '72 Chevelle. I believe the very last issue of that kit had the dual turbocharger setup in it.

Most times, I see officers paying just like everyone else. I'm not sure what the rules are around here, or how rigid the enforcement is. At the McDonald's up the street from me, I did see a handwritten sign taped up at the drive-through: "no free meals for cops!". Maybe the manager got a ticket, or one of her relatives got arrested...

The steering box is molded as part of the underbody, in both the 1/24 and 1/16 scale kits.

There's usually a cop at every Timmie's at any given time. I've never heard or read about any of them ever getting robbed...

If it's Lindberg and it's a 2015 manufacture kit, then it's Round 2. They're doing some stuff here, and some in China. Where probably depends on a number of factors: where the tool is now, how many they expect to sell, among other things.

Casinos are a gamble only for the schmucks who walk through the front door...for the people who run them or regulate them, they're a sure thing.

Lottery: a tax on the inability to comprehend odds. Over the years, a lot of the people I have worked with who were (self-described) "poor" or "broke" usually blew a ton of money on the lottery, or were frequent visitors to the casinos. A few others I worked with cashed their paychecks at the bar or got smoked up over the weekend, and would be trying to borrow money on the following Monday. When the boss wasn't in a mood to give them an advance (he usually did, he was a soft touch) they'd make the stupid mistake of approaching me. The gamblers in particular would be the first ones griping about someone else having a newer car than they had. Priorities, folks, priorities....

If you don't like the fact that the store wants you to get a card or supply an e-mail address to get a discount, get another e-mail address and use it as the garbage collector. I have all the krap sent to an AOL account (that's about all they are good for anyway), and my normal mailbox stays clutter-free.

Early General Lee kits also have the gutted interior bucket from the first NASCAR Daytona kit (the #71 Isaac/K&K Insurance one). The #22 Brooks kit used the two-piece generic chassis with no interior bucket. Someone with cheap builtups might just have a 500, in which case you'd be golden. I bought an unbuilt 500 a couple of years ago for cheap, because the windows were missing.

Having had a peek at the shelf stickers at HL a couple of weeks ago (before they were put up), the Stooges' T was not among the kits that they will be carrying after the reset that is taking place now.

If you are considering getting another one, think about making that one the "primary" one. Build that one using the lessons learned from the first one. The parts will probably be identical in the amount and type of work needed. You already have extensive experience with the problems that will be encountered in building another one.

What you want is a General Lee kit body made after the 500 was first issued (late Eighties), but before Round 2 took over. Earlier MPC General Lee kits were minimally converted from the early Seventies Daytona NASCAR body. For the stock 500 and Daytona, Ertl added stock details to the body (windshield wipers, "Hemi" emblems on the doors). Round 2 General Lee kit bodies have the recessed rear window that was tooled for the Fast & Furious version. As for the hood, you'll have to compare the hood you have to the one you get with the body. I've heard that the hoods included in the 500, stock Daytona, and General Lee vary even between different issues of the same version. The hood might be problematic.

Not to stray too far here, but the Datsun pickup gasser kits use the stock Datsun frame, stock front suspension included. The first issue Revell '57 Chevy ('63-'67) didn't have the straight axle. Around 1968, Revell made a number of changes to that kit, one of which was to add that axle. The MPC '57 Chevy shown above is a very nice build. I've been wanting to whip one of those together, also one of the '53 Ford flipnose pickups. I've got a pickup in primer, should get that one done.

The Revell Nomad (the everything-opening, nothing-fitting one) has a parallel-leaf setup, as do more recent issues of the opening-doors hardtop and also the 1/25 scale '53-'54 Chevies (sedan delivery and two-door sedan). Those setups are all pretty similar, but not really that good. The axle is on the heavy side, springs are molded as a unit with the axle...looks more like a trailer axle IMHO. The MPC '57 (and '53 Ford pickup; same chassis in both!) has what looks like a stretched Willys frame. The axle is on the weak side, a bit thin, and again has the springs molded as a unit.