Joe Handley

Outside of powertrain and special bumpers and wheels, the 500e is a 500 Abarth made into an EV by FCA. Luckily, electrics aren’t as maintenance heavy as something with a combustion engine would be.

Yup, 2012-2014 RAV-4 EV, it's a California Compliance Car and they built less than 2500 over those 3 years. It's kinda like the Fiat 500e and Toyota Mirai H2 car, only sold in CA, but now are finding their way into the rest of the lower 48 as used cars. At least it and the 500e aren't a hydrogen car like the Mirai is thought, lot easier to find an outlet or charging station vs a hydrogen station!

Picked up some fine line 1/16” vinyl masking tape and Wizard automotive liquid wax yesterday then some Duplicolor White sandable primer and GM Olympic White spray paint today.

I’m assuming it was resold out here or was shipped here for a move. It had Illinois’ EV specific plates on it and no HOV lane sticker on it.

I saw one of these today, and in this same color! Now I’m not sure why it was around the Chicago area, as these were California only and a total production run of just under 2500 over 3 years.

I heard about that late last night or early this morning, was shocked and saddened by the news. Thought I’d post 2 favorites of the band’s on YouTube, performing with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones at Wembley Stadium some years back.

I've got to fill up tonight, looks like the local Thornton's is going to be $3.94/gal for E-85 with a $.10/gal disc I have through the customer card, which beats $4.29 for 87 or $4.99 for 92!

That has crossed my mind for years now, then the XL ones DYC sell might fit over an R/C chassis too? I may have to try and get one of those, but they’re way more expensive than the little ones are.

Well, the reshoot of the speed shape that I had paint issues with turned out pretty decent, not perfect, but decent.

I agree with David, there's also something out there called "Speed Shapes" that are relatively cheap and made to do things like this too.

Didn’t post this hear last night, wet sanded the speed form that had the paint issue last night as well as wet sanded and polished one I shot in Duplicolor primer, one of their glitter effect clears then their regular clear a few years back. Just need wax to finish the work!

Well, I think I might be able to respray that speed shape, wet sanded it tonight with a 1500 grit, 2” square sanding pad and cut through the pain and primer way quicker than expected! I also used my lexan scissors to cut the flanges where a lot of the paint pooled and bubbled off the bottom and wet sanded those up too.

That is a sibling of that 6000LE Dad had, I think that is the only car that any of us had that isn’t missed!

Did a little spray out work on some spoons today. Laid the Duplicolor sealer-primer a few days ago then shot some more of the Testors black paints from the speed shapes as well as a little Diamond Dust. Didn’t have the bubble issues again with the Blazing Black, though it did happen with one of the spoons I shot in the silver. I’m planning on using some of the Testors color flip top coats to see how they work over colors other than gloss black as well as with a matte top coat.

That's why I included that info, I remember you mentioning living around her before moving to Florida!

Can’t believe I never posted this, fantastic cover with a thumbs up post right at the top of the comments from Elliot Lurie himself!

From here, https://www.restopaint.com/ , Owner's name is Miguel and his shop is on the NE corner of Rt. 59 and Rt. 64 here in West Chicago (next to where the Subway used to be), he ordered these for me in '19 and I still had a some on hand. You can get them more locally to you through Dip Your Car, that company also sells them on line in the small size like I have and an XL that's close in size to at least a 1/16 model if not closer to a 1/10 on road R/C car. https://www.dipyourcar.com/collections/speed-shapes They're great for showing what paint, plasti-dip, and vinyl wrap looks like on an automotive surface, especially when you're looking at showing off metallics, pearls, and color flip paints and work well as a practice surface if you want to scale up from spoons before applying to a model you've been spending months on!

This? I went to shoot some Speedforms with Model Masters Flat Black lacquer and Testors Blazing Black Lacquer over Duplicolor Sealer Primer from the same can and laid down at the same time last night. As you can see, the flat black went down fine while the Blazing Black started to bubble almost instantly.

Those used S-10 chassis under that Grumman bodywork, so at lease a chassis source would be easy to find, just need an Iron Duke to put under the hood!

If that was a 4.0l in that '00 Grand you had, that should have been the 1st place to look, that sensor has always been an issue with that engine, going all the way back to the Renix EFI days on the XJ and MJ.

Yup, Every so often it does!? Checked with a couple other guys from my club, they suggested Black Magic/Westley’s Bleche-Wite, so I need to try and score some of that this week to try out now.

I think the rocker cladding started with the Jeep Grand Cherokee with the ZJ body style, though the CJs, YJ Wranglers, and MJ Comanche and XJ Cherokee had them at times, usually on the cheaper models.

I’ve heard of lightly, and I mean LIGHTLY, hitting them with a propane torch to get back that matte black finish as it oxydizes, but I think when it comes to wax, the truck is to not get it on there in the first place.

Agreed, I may need to investigate that with the kits I have too!

Never let a crisis, real or made up, go to waste, seems about normal for petroleum.