peteski
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Posts posted by peteski
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4 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:
The Vert-a-pac was a seriously failed experiment. All the gory details are described in https://www.motortrend.com/features/chevrolet-vega-vert-a-pac/
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Yes, automobiles (completed vehicles and parts) have been shipped by railroad since the first cars were produced. Originally standard boxcars were used, then they used double-door boxcars for easier loading. Then some automobile carrying boxcars had end doors added, so cars could be easier driven in and out.
Here is a car with end doors.
Many of the photos came from https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2016/03/carrying-automobiles-in-boxcars.html
Later, dedicated end-loaded multi-level auto racks were used. Originally they were open, but due to the vandalism, they were eventually fully enclosed. Those are still used today.
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3 minutes ago, Tabbysdaddy said:
That looks so wrong.
But that makes them legal in Australia
Unless Australia has some sort of exceptions for antique American cars.
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13 minutes ago, Brian Austin said:
Actually those little trunk lights are kinda cute.
How well did the bumper-mounted tail lights in the '70s hold up?
Here is some info and context relating to those Kia/Chevy Bolt lights you guys don't like. ? https://www.thedrive.com/news/41945/why-some-cars-have-silly-bumper-mounted-brake-lights-and-turn-signals
There is some very good information on that site. Like a link to https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2004-title49-vol5/xml/CFR-2004-title49-vol5-sec571-108.xml
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26 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:
If a school bus is stopped by the side of the road and its lights are flashing red , what should you do ?
1.) Come to a complete stop and wait for the lights to stop flashingThat was a very poorly phrased question (ambiguous). One (you) could interpret it as directionals, or the school bus warning lights ( I don't know what is the official name for those).
Phrased this way would have been not ambiguous:
1.) Come to a complete stop and wait for the school bus' flashing red warning lights to stop flashing
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59 minutes ago, Brian Austin said:
When white tail light lenses came into fashion I thought they looked odd. I thought tail light lenses in the US were supposed to reflect red.
No, only the reflectors on the rear end have to be red (when illuminated with external light reflect red). The reflectors can be part of of the taillight lens (when the rest of the lens is either red or clear), or they can be totally separate from the taillight. For example my '85 Caddy has red lens taillights with no rear facing reflectors. The red reflectors are actually thin rectangles mounted in the rear bumper. But just to confuse things even further, those red taillights which have no reflectors facing rear of the car have small reflective areas on the sides to act like side markers. Many cars which have clear taillight lenses, have separate red reflectors mounted elsewhere. Manufacturers use many different combinations to be compliant with the laws.
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4 minutes ago, stitchdup said:
in the uk its only the colour the lights shine that matters.
Same is true in America. There are cars here with clear front and taillight lenses but the bulbs (usually LEDs) light up the appropriate color (red or amber).
The only exception are the reflectors. In the rear of the car, reflectors have to be red. Then the side-marker reflectors have to be amber on the front side and red on the rear side. That's because reflectors are illuminated by external light source, so they have to have appropriate color lenses to reflect the correct color light.
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On 8/7/2024 at 11:52 AM, Fat Brian said:
Here's a video that goes into more detail about America's bad turn signals.
Man, that guy loves to rant about all sorts of things. I couldn't watch all of the video. Geez!
Nowadays with many cars using LEDs in the taillights the non-functioning lamp is very rare. I grew up in Poland with amber directionals in taillights, but it doesn't really bother me *THAT* much that in America they are red and shared with brake light. Especially since 1986, with the CHMSL being required in all passenger cars (and most larger vehicles have them too). The extra bright LED headlights bother me much more than this.
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Should be interesting. is this a just-released kit or an older kit from the original release?
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34 minutes ago, Dave Ambrose said:
I'm 90% certain that the first problem was someone using this site to train a large language model AI. I don't know about this second one, but it came from within our hosting company. I've already talked to them, and the problem is being referred to their senior level techs.
LOL, basing my opinion on some really poor spelling, punctuation, and grammar I see here (including myself), this site would be a very poor choice for this. Unless of course the training is about showing bad examples of English writing.
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57 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:
Thank God the Europeans came along and straightened us out on that.
Nor sure if Europeans "straightened" American out or not, but probably as long (or longer) as the all-red taillight in US, Europeans uses amber directional at the front and rear of their vehicles. I think what happened was that as cars started getting imported from Europe/Japan to US, they all came with amber rear directionals. Then as American cars started getting exported to other parts of the world, the manufacturers had to comply with their laws, so they started producing custom taillights with amber inserts for export. Then things started getting all mixed together.
I suspect that if one was to dig up the specific information about laws defining US taillights, it will likely state that either amber or red directionals are allowed, unlike with other parts of the world where directionals have to be amber.
Lets face it, all-red taillights where the brake lights share the same circuit with directionals is cheaper than one with them separate.
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3 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:
I'll see if I can find an image of the lamps I'd mentioned - they're definitely red, except for the back-up (reverse) portion.
Shining amber color bulb or amber color LED through a red lens will result in red light. Maybe there are small clear or amber color portions in the red lens which allow the amber color to show through. I would be interested to see the lights in question, although in my experience bright lights do not show up well in photographs or videos. Their bright light overloads the image sensor. Human eye is much better in capturing the actual colors. Might be more useful to take a closeup of the lens itself with the lights off.
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45 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:
I'm glad I don't have an Aunt Matilda.
In today's world I'm sure their are lots of "aunt Matildas", and just as many males as there are females. Even many car mechanics (excuse me: "powertrain technicians") are "aunt Matildas". Scary!
Don't believe me? Just ask Ace!
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10 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:
I have seen some rather trick looking tail lamps on the new(er) Ram (Dodge, et alia) trucks : the brake light illuminates red, but when the directional signals are activated, amber illuminates from the same provision. With the advent of LED's, this should be more common ; a no-brainer.
Sure, with LED taillights this can easily e accomplished. But in that example I suspect the taillight lens itself is clear (not red or amber).
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27 minutes ago, stavanzer said:
As others have said, it really depends on the kit and the car. Model A , and Model T. Engine of Course.
Anything from the 21st Century, forget it. Somebody Mentioned the New 2021 Bronco. I've seen under the hood of one. Round2, could not easily recreate the engine compartment in that car. There is really no empty space under that hood, and too much plumbing and wiring to make it work. A "pancake style" insert as used in some Diecast Cars might be the best compromise for modern car kits. I have no problem gluing the hood shut now. It would have been a deal-breaker 20 years ago, but now, it is subject matter dependant.
That rat's nest of wires and hoses was true in the fairly recent past, but today's engine compartments are so simple that there is nothing really visible. No reason to even model that.
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41 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:
Here's another thought.
If a model has no engine, I can't really justify going "vroom vroom".
It may as well be a Tesla.
Teslas have
enginesmotors too. And a frunk.
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So it probably depicts European Burger King. The windows on the drive-through wall do look European.
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The subject line is very vague. A more descriptive subject line might attract the appropriate audience to answer the specific 3-D related questions.
Then there is also a sticky thread here where this type of stuff is discussed:
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4 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:
Porsche did something similar on the 968. The tail lights appeared all red, but the turn signals flashed orange and the reverse lights were mostly clear. Coloured bulbs? Or German magic? Hmmm...
I've seen something similar on certain year and model of a Mercedes. IIRC, it was several years ago. Looking at the taillight, they looked all red. But the yet directionals showed amber and backup lights white. If one looked closely at the lens, there are small slits in the red lens where the directional and backup reflectors are. There is opaque (reflective) material under the red part of those slits but clear transparent in the actual slits. Think Venetian blinds where the blinds are the red colored plastic. When the amber directional or clear backup bulbs are lit, all the light passes through the clear areas of the backup lens.
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I'm in USA and have never heard or seen about the green inserts used to make the directional look orange/amber through the red lens. Things I learn in the online forums. I would think it would look more brown than orange.
Government regulations specify minimum brightness level for the vehicle lights, but any additional color filter will filter out some light, reducing the brightness. Since light bulbs have standard brightness (wattage), I'm not sure how that works as far as keeping the brightness of directional to the minimum acceptable level.
As for John's comment, my '85 Cadillac has all-red taillight lenses and there is no separate directional bulb. The brake and directional is on the same circuit. I don't remember if stepping on the brake while hazards are on will stop the flashing or not. I'll have to check that next time I take that car out for a ride.
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29 minutes ago, rattle can man said:
If those bright headlights are properly aimed, they are not a problem. It is when people change the settings, raise or lower the vehicle without correcting the aim, or repairs are not done properly that they become a problem
Not in my experience. Majority of those new LED headlights are blinding to me. I can't balieve that such a high percentage of new cars have misaligned headlights. Yes, several years ago when many people were retrofitting aftermarket LEDs for their sealed beam headlights, they were very problematic and often misaligned, but most of today's cars have factory installed LED headlights.
But we have strayed from the original subject. My fault - I just felt like ranting a bit on a semi-related subject.
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Excellent lunar lander model, diorama, and superb Lunar-flavor photography.
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Allison,
It would be helpful to know more about the model. Looks to me like a kit. Might be H0 scale? What company made it?
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Interesting question. Someone working at NHTSA would likely have some info, or know where the documentation is which dictates the colors.
As you mentioned, many imported cars do have amber directional lenses in the taillights. But I have also seen cars such as Mercedes with all-red taillights (so they must have made those specifically for the US market).
This particularly doesn't bother me as much as all those cars with all those aftermarket red, blue, purple, green lights (like halos around the headlights) at the front of the car. Some of those are fairly bright. That to me is much worse than red rear directionals, and cops don't seem to care. Back in the day, even the subtle "blue dots" in the taillights could get you stopped by cops. Not anymore.
Also very bothersome are those those new blinding LED headlights. Sure, they illuminate the driver's road very well, but at the cost of blinding all the incoming drivers. It is just not cool! Again it seems that the NHTSA did not consider the incoming drivers when they made those headlights legal. Yes I know all about the very sharp beam cutoff, but that doesn't seem to help in real-world application,
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Tire color
in Model Building Questions and Answers
Posted
Yes, that is basically a shade of dark gray. As the name implies it is a good tire color and has the right amount of sheen (not just dead flat).