OneTrickPony

One of the things I miss most is Options! Most new vehicles have packages that include different stuff but you can't pick and choose. If you want navigation, you have to buy the high end package with Bose sound, heated power seats, sun roof, etc. Individual options are rare. The other thing I miss is interior colors. When I ordered a new Camaro in 1975, I had the choice of at least 6 interior colors (white, tan, black, blue, red, green) and you could actually get those with any combo exterior color. If you wanted a black car with red interior, no problem. Now your interior is tied to the exterior color and if you have any choice at all, it is beige or gray.

Those old custom were changed over years as the tastes and judging rules changed. One issue was the way points were given out in the contests. Each change from stock added points to the score. The top scorer won, many times at the cost of appearance. That is how the Kookie Kar went from an awesome T bucket to a god-awful mess.

Amazing collection. Thanks for the link!

Respray was too soon. Enamels can take days to fully cure. Any top coat applied before then will cause the older coat to wrinkle. A dehydrator can help reduce the cure time.

The alternator on the vast majority of cars and trucks is belt driven and is often moved to a custom location depending on the car, frame, accessories, etc. The starter on a classic small block Chevy with very few exceptions is mounted low on the passenger side. It has to engage the flywheel inside the bell housing area. A very few modern engines mount the starter under the intake manifold where it would not be seen on a model.

One noisy compressor you may want to stay away from is the Harbor Freight pancake model that goes on sale for $39.99 every few months. I have one and it works well, driving my brad nailers with no issue, but that sucker will run you out of a small room with all the racket it makes.

Yeah, but does it have it's own song? "Oh I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeFCZ8n6MVU

Imho, the styling was part of it but another part was timing. It is hard to bring out a new, more expensive model when the economy is taking a downturn. Ford just blew it all around.

I grew up in the automotive repair industry and I can tell you for a fact that it does not just happen at dealerships. I have seen it all over the years from charging for repairs not done to doing repairs not needed. Charging premium prices for substandard replacement parts was common. Most shops were honest but even the best shop foreman cannot keep track of everything going on in his bays. Playing CYA also happened many times. A tech would break something because he did not know what he was doing or he was trying to take a shortcut to beat the book and the shop would charge the car owner for their misdeed. I could write a book....

I build a bogus Boss 302 back in the 80's for my 65 Mustang. Regular 302 block with 351C-4V heads, stock Boss 302 intake. I had to do lots of tweaking to get it all to work together and fit into the smaller engine bay but it was worth it. There were no good aftermarket 302 W heads back then so the C heads were a huge improvement. I used headers for a 70 351C Mustang and was able to get everything to fit but it was all tight.

I noticed someone in a Yugo broken down near my house. I stopped to see if I could help (I couldn't, broken throttle cable) and was talking to the guy as he waited on a tow. At one point he said "I don't know why people talk bad about these Yugos. They are great little cars."

Two quick stories: 1. In the late 70's, a co-worker bought a new Fiat Spyder. It was a cute little car, cream yellow with a black top. We were looking through the owners manual when I happened to spotted that the total carrying capacity was 450 pounds. My co-worker was a big lady. If she missed 300 pounds it wasn't by much and her husband was even bigger. Together they had to exceed the load capacity by 200 pounds. They looked like something from a comic strip going down the road. Her husband could not even ride in the car with the top up. She kept it for about a year before the unibody/subframe cracked right under the seats. 2. One of my brother-in-laws started a company in the natural gas field about 10 years ago. Being a big Chevy guy, he only bought Chevy and GMC trucks for his field techs. After 5 years or so, he was so disgusted with the break downs he began to buy Fords and Dodges. His fleet is now over 100 trucks, mostly Rams but supervisors get the option of buying Fords (more expensive but nicer ride). Not a single Chevy left in the fleet after 10 years. My B-I-L, however, still drives a GMC.

I like it! This would also be a good place for some cotton ball smoke behind the tires.

If the spots disappear when wet, maybe a light coat of Future would hide them.

Back when I mixed automotive paint for a living, the brightest white to my eyes was GM Frost White, used on lots mid-70s Chevy trucks. The base white paint was a yellowish color out of the can. To turn it into Frost White, a bit of blue toner was added.

I built a 75 Pinto with the drive train from a wrecked Maverick. 302, C4 trans, 8" rear, and 100HP shot of NOS. It was tons of fun and mostly a bolt-in job except for welding up a set of adapters to connect the Maverick engine mounts to the Pinto frame rails.

I like the colors, too. My GM had a 58 Impala with a similar two tone job.

I owned Centerlines, Super Tricks, and Street Tricks back in the early 80's. The Super Tricks were the bolt together wheels, Centerlines were riveted. The Street Tricks sort of looked like chromed Super Tricks if you squinted just right ;-) The Centerlines and Super Tricks were the drag racing versions. The Super Tricks were recommended to only be used with tubes because they did not have the safety bead to hold a tubeless tire. The Centerlines had the safety beads. I wrecked the car with the Street Tricks and 3 of the 4 wheels broke the center section out from the rim. They were cast aluminum centers welded to steel rims and all three broke at the welds from sliding sideways. I decided at that time that I would never own any wheels built like that ever again, and I haven't.

Or a small cannon!

My crystal ball is broken, but having a few years behind me in the technology industry, let me just say that what you are asking about will be available in the future. How far in the future is the only question. If someone can imagine it, it will inspire someone to build it. It may not work quite the way we imagine it, but the end result will be the same.

I like it. (but turn the valve covers over, they are upside down. Wide edge to the outside of the engine.)

Dunk it in the purple pond and start over. Attempts to fix or patch it are not going to work out well in my experience.

Whatever you think you did wrong on the radiator, it came out looking like aged brass. I like it a lot.

Amazing! The first pic, I thought you were showing us the real thing for comparison. I was totally fooled. After staring at the pictures for several minutes, I was able to pick out a few things that said "model" but they were very subtle. There just are not enough superlatives...

The color options also used to include the interior. I knew an old guy who had a Pontiac dealership in Louisiana right after WW2. Cars were on strict allocation (the car companies were still converting back from war production to making cars) and he was livid when a transporter pulled up. One of the few cars he was scheduled to get that month was a 4 door Pontiac that he had ordered green with a green interior. The car came in and it was green outside but the interior was red! He immediately called he Pontiac rep and screamed at him for sending him a car he would never be able to sell and he wanted them to take it back. The rep compromised with him and told him if he would accept the car, he would see that it was not counted against his allotment. The car's wheels had hardly hit the ground when a little Cajun man came up saying "Mais, cher! I been looking everywhere for one jus' like dat!" The deal was done within the hour! ;-)