iamsuperdan

Was over at my parents' place this weekend, and found a box of my old kits. These dates back to the mid/late 80s and my junior high days. Going to be going through these and trying to rescue them. First one for a restoration, my Tamiya Countach. Other than painting the flares and some other trim flat black, and doing a little bit of detailing on the interior, this one is totally unpainted. The kit itself was originally designed for a motor and batteries, so there's no real engine detail. But I have some ideas for that. The kit is 100% complete, which is surprising considering that it has fallen apart over the years. Pics were taken right before it went into the purple bath. Here's a fun fact: the purple bath strips old Tamiya cxhrome from wheels and stuff in about an hour. I put everything in, came back out an hour later, and the chrome parts were completely stripped. Wish other kits stripped that easily! Not sure where I'm going with this for colours yet. So stay tuned.

A little background first. I run the leasing division for one of Canada's larger fleet companies.My department has around 3500 vehicles in it, and we have about 12,000 in our total fleet. Our fleet is everything from small cars to 5 ton Hinos, and everything in between. Before this, I spent a total of 13 years with Porsche (and to an extent VW) and three years with BMW. I've driven a lot of vehicles, and have been lucky enough to spend time with just about everything. Here's my least favourites: 1. Ford F150 - the most uncomfortable truck on the road today. For me anyway. I'm good for about 15 minutes, then I start getting a sore back. No other vehicles does this to me. As a result, I hate driving these things. Plus, the 2015 F150 Platinum I drove for three weeks last winter had three warranty claims in that three week period. 2. Ferrari - mainly because I'm 6'6" and these were designed for tiny little Italian men. Why is it I can fit in any Porsche, the Lambo Gallardo, Murcielago, and Aventador, and McLarens, but not one Ferrari? Awful. 3. Toyota Camry - might as well paint them all beige and include a free bed set from Sleep Country. What a boring, boring car. Does everything well, exceeds at nothing. Automotive NyQuil. 4. Honda Accord - same as the Camry 5. Most domestic cars from the late 80s, early 90s. Junk. Plastic interiors, rusty exteriors, overstyled, unreliable. Chrysler, Ford, and GM all deserved to go out of business because of the cars they built back then.Of course, there are going to be a ton of people defending them, but answer me this...how many cars from 1990 give or take do you still see on the road? Around here? Almost none. Now how many Japanese or European cars from the same era do you see? Around here, there's a lot of them. As for the perennial least favs, how many here have actually driven an Aztec? Yes, it's funny looking, but it was very typical 90s and drove like most 90s GMs. It wasn't bad at all. Had some need ideas, and I'm glad that GM had the nuts to try something different. Kind of like Chrysler and the Plymouth Prowler. What a piece of junk. Looks like a hotrod, interior is a plastic bonanza, drives like a crappy Chrysler Intrepid and shares the Intrepid's engine. But I love that that Chrysler built it. The Nissan Juke is goofy looking and cramped, but it actually drives okay, and is great for what it is.

Those cars that run the American LeMans series though are unserialized racecars. Not production cars that have been converted. Would that not mean they are exempt fro mthese proposed regulations?

Big difference though between guys like Edelbrock, who actually know what they're doing, and have experience and mechanical knowledge; and the guys who are hacking stuff together over beers on a weekend. The guys worth their salt, who know what they're doing should be able to ride out any regulatory storm that may appear. Bubba with his welder will hopefully give up and go back to making a still or something. I think you're right, in the whole scheme of things, racing represents a very small percentage of emissions or other things that concern the EPA. Doesn't mean racing should be exempt from the same rules. Spec-racing wouldn't suffer if cars were required to run a more emissions friendly exhaust system or whatever. As you said, level playing field and all that. As for something like a Trans Am series; every form of semi-pro or professional racing already has regulations about safety and horsepower and a myriad of other things. I hardly think telling teams to run cats on the cars will completely destroy the series or destroy the competition. I know in the spec-Boxster class in NASA, the only mention of emissions is in section 7.1C where it states: "The OEM exhaust manifold must be used. Any exhaust system aft of the stock manifold may be used. All emission related devices may be removed or disabled. Catalytic converters may be removed." So if you were to amend those sentences to read that exhaust systems must retain catalytic converters and meet stock emissions requirements, how would that negatively impact the series?

So to play devil's advocate, why would this be a bad thing? If all drivers/cars/race teams have to retain emissions equipment, then it's still a level playing field. Even though I have tracked my cars, and will continue to do so, I'm still concerned about the environment, and fuel economy. Why not try to maximize raceday fun, and be as responsible as possible to emissions and economy?

Awesome!

Love these buses. Looking forward to the finished product.

Have you got a pic of the car before you started? I too built this kit years ago. Not sure what happened to it though. I now have a replacement in my stash. Waiting.

The kids call that "stanced." It was a trend in the VW scene a few years ago. Almost as silly as donks. Personally, I think the entire aftermarket community needs a little more regulation. Prevents unsafe cars from staying on the road and puts the backyard shops out of business. Hopefully. Look to Germany for an example. Huge aftermarket scene, pretty much everything safe and clean.

By the EPA's description, my old autocross VW Passat would become illegal. Coilover suspension, Eibach swaybars, Borla exhaust including high flow catalytic convertors, removed AC, added large turbocharger, Porsche brakes & wheels. Even though I retained all emissions equipment (on purpose, hence the high flow cats) and tightened up the handling and improved the braking system, this car would still be deemed unsafe. As required by our insurance industry, the car passed all government mechanical and safety inspections before it could be insured or registered. But EPA would say illegal. The only thing I might consider unsafe or potentially illegal would be bumper height. I dialled the coilovers almost as low as I could, but in about 10 minutes could have the car at stock height or taller. If I wanted. Would 6 inches of added height make a huge difference anyway? Look at these trucks I'm parked between. Six inches of height would still casue major problems if I was t-boned. Or if I rear-ended one. What could be interesting is seeing how this affects amatuer racing in Canada. EPA regulations do not apply in Canada, therefore, if this bill passes, I could see a lot of race shops move into southern Canada, and I could see a lot more racing going on here. Race series moving out of the Pacific northwest, crosssing the border, and seeing racing in lower mainland BC or in southern Ontario really pick up.

As i understand it, in most cases the airbag just replaces the coil spring. I'm sure it can get far more complex than that, but on most of the bagged cars you see, that's what's been done. I think a bigger issue than donks are the guys improperly lifting the 4X4 trucks. I don't know how many lifted Rams and Fords and GMs I see around here with massive lift blocks and nothing else done. Huge tires and or wheels and stock brakes. Dangerous. Would love to see some regulations similar to those in Europe. Would put these hack shops out of business, and would help to solve the problem of the backyard bozo.

Have a look at this pic. Can you show me on this modern air bag suspension, how the suspension isn't actually connected to the car? You may be just as out of date with your knowledge of air ride. Lowering a car, improving suspension geometry, an adding larger brakes will most often make the car handle better and stop better. No matter how a donk is built, the larger wheels are raising the center of gravity. Regardless of how the suspension is built, the car sits higher than intended. And rarely have I seen a donk with upgraded brakes. The massive 26" and larger wheels/tires are a lot heavier than stock wheels, and by keeping the stock brake systems, you now have tiny brake pads and rotors trying to slow the rotation of something significantly heavier than they were intended to stop. Braking distances increase significantly, thus...not as safe. I'm all for aftermarket, as long as it's done correctly. I don't particularly like donks, or the japanese import scene, but if the cars are built right, then I can respect and appreciate the work and craftsmanship. If a car is built with a half-assed effort, then I can't get behind it, even if it looks awesome.

I'm just going to leave the pan as per the kit instructions. Wrong or right, I'm not that OCD about it. Took a small roadtrip for work yesterday, and spend most of the time thinking about the trailer and how I'm going to open the rear doors and fabricate hinges for it.

A bone stock passenger van is kind of weird. Definitely not a "cool" subject. But that's why I dig it. I don't want to build the same old same old. No disrespect to the muscle car fans, as I appreciate those as well, but I don't want to build the millionth version of a Charger or a Mustang. I like the stuff that stands out, that you don't see every day. I look at the build threads here, and I want to do something you just don't see everyday. I just hope my skills do some of my oddball stuff justice!

I don't know if I have anything weird per se, but I have some kits that aren't common. Heller 1/43 scale Leyland Princess 2000. Esci 1/24 Ford Transit - not particularly weird, but people find it strange that I want to build models of a pretty normal cargo van. Fujimi 1/24 Chev Astro van - as above.

I do as much detailing as my skills will allow. Still working on weathering ans scratchbuilding skills. I'm pretty confident with my flocking and interiors, but always trying to get better. For me, trying to hyper-detail is part of the fun. How close can I get it to looking accurate?

Dave Mirra was a little after my time. I was a BMX kid when guys like Eddie Fiola were still riding. Still, I knew who Dave was. Surprised me, he seemed to be pretty well rounded.

So didn't get much done on this over the weekend. Weather was too nice and we needed to take advantage! I did however get the body primed using the Tamiya white primer. Some quick sanding and filling if neccessary, and I may be able to get the body parts painted this week, which would be great. I painted the frame and axles using a semi-gloss engine paint, always had nice results with this stuff. And I got the second coat of blue down on the engine block. Here's a pic of it, with some VW Rabbit engines as a size comparison. I won't be stretching the frame on this one, as I kind of dig the stubby look. But I do have a second Prostar kit, so might try a stretch on that one. Or on the Lonestar kit.

Simply wow.

I need to remember your hinge design!

If I didn't know better, I'd swear that engine has real aluminum on it. The weathering is pretty much perfect.

Love that you went with the man pedal! That colour is so awesome in person. Sucks you guys require the front plate though.

I'm not sure if this will work, but I've attached the launch brochure here if anyone is interested. My International contact sent me a bunch of info yesterday. We'll probably end up with a couple of these. 18042 HX-DeckBuild-12pg.pdf

Although the import/tuners aren't my taste, your builds are fantastic! Love the garage diorama.

Wait, wait, wait...are you NOT painting it red?! I love that!