Joe Handley

Let me know what you guys think of the '63 Stingray tires and hubcaps on the T-Bird. The tire is about .01mm shorter than the box stock tires with the Vette hubcap being about 1mm or so larger than the T-Bird cap. Also noticed that there are pins molded into the backside of the front bumper, right now I have the front of the chassis plate on top of the pins that seem to be do a very slight channeling up front.........not totally sure if I like the extra drop on the front, too be honest.

That would work with Hill Street Blues and with the right kit stash, a Hazzard Co Sheriff's car.

What wagon would I like to see, that's easy................... Should have been done a long time ago! Now that's said, how about this since there is already a kit that exists in various forms, one of them already a half-_____ wagon.

Found the Revell/Lowrider Magazine '65 Impala kit yesterday! It looks like the tires might be 1-2mm taller than kit and the knock off Daytons look to be about 18"-20" in comparison, which is fine with me. Figure strip off the plating, spray them flat black, then brush paint them alumimum, they may not look too far off the factory wheels, just bigger. May have to see if the Stingray hubcaps will fit the T-Bird as an alternative for that too.

Same here, not just on one device either, been having this happen with the HP Laptop I bought 13 months ago using the Firefox browser (haven't tried the preinstalled Microsoft browser yet on this issue), my Galaxy S5 (almost 6 years old) using the Firefox Mobile app, as well as the brand new iPod I inherited from Mom (Dad just gave it to her for Christmas).

Could be NAPAs, those are made by Tenneco, which owns the Monroe name too.

Eh, my 200 is a 283hp front drive Mopar, I'll just blame the torque steer?

One big advantage the Pentastar and Coyote both have is that they're both VVT, so the computer can adjust cam timing as well as ignition. Dad is pretty sure the 200 retards at least ignition timing and may adjust the cams to leave the valves open a bit longer to drop the effective compression (iirc, they're 10:1, not sure in other flex fuel VVT engines) for 87, then gradually gets more aggressive as the fuel gets better. The Pentastars have a noticeable change in "attitude" when going between 87 octane E10 and summer blend E85 and just starting sound more aggressive, if not a bit angry when it gets more booze. When I first started running E85, I couldn't figure out why the exhaust had this strange, familiar smell to it during cold starts. After a couple of days it finally hit me! Mom andcI both used to work for the local Jewel/Osco Drug store and the exhaust smelled a lot like the breath of liquer department customers who didn't didn't really need any more of what they were buying that night......I'm pretty sure the car could spectacularly fail a breathalizer if taken off the tail pipes, maybe even register on a portable machine at 20 paces?

E85 is supposed to be 85% ethanol and 15 gasoline, but can range from 51/49 (which it would likely be closer to in our respective states right now) to 83/17 (usually a summer only blend for us) and can be upwards of 105 octane with the summer blends and probably closer to the 93-97 octane rating right now. While you would lose mileage, if you area is priced much like the my local stations are, you're looking at $1.00-$1.10 per gallon savings in cost without enough difference in mileage to make that up by the time you need to refill. You also have the same engine I do, but with the hotter factory tune (283hp vs 305hp), and if your computer is programed to run the stuff like mine is, you would see a further bump in performance on E85 over 93 as well.

My 200 is flex fuel and I’ve run it for nearly 100k on the stuff, pretty much ran it from the time it was over about 1k miles on the fuel. Not sure about the engines Ford had designated as flex fuel in 2010, but the Pentastar V-6 in my 200 as well as the new Coyote engines run better on E85 than they do on pump gas, which comes down to tuning, either from the manufacturer or if you can have a tune done for power. For the typical driving I do, there’s about a 2mpg difference in mileage between E85 and pump 93 octane, with a noticeable drop off in performance and considerable increase in cost to running 93 then with less difference in price vs 87, that can be a wash at times, though I do lose more performance on 87 vs E85 than I do running 93 vs E85. I’ve also read of the Coyote equipped F-Series trucks getting better mileage at elevated interstate speeds and happened to be talking with a Yukon owner one morning who found that it’s engine (one of the bigger truck LS engines) was supposed to be able to burn 87, but would knock under load, problem went away with E85 and 93, but she either lost a little mileage on E85 or spent way more for 93 than she did on E85 or 87, coming out behind on overall operating costs running 93. Another thing I’ve noticed over the past 8 years of ownership, the tailpipes stay cleaner, enough so that you can still see the welds from where the metal was welded into the final tube shape before being bent into the shape they’re currently in on the factory installed exhaust! When it comes to many of the “cost to make”, “fisability, or “only worth it because of subsidies” excuses, keep in mind some of what you guys are saying come from the petroleum industry’s lobbyist group. If you want to talk subsidies, oil is more heavily subsidized that wind, solar, and biofuel combined, especially when our military is used to protect oil supplies abroad.......don’t need to do that in Iowa. If you want to talk costs of production, there is no drilling in inhospitable areas to increase costs (both of the environmental AND geopolitical kind), conversion from plant to fuel isn’t much different than to cleaners, disinfectants, or alcoholic beverages, then what doesn’t get used there becomes livestock feed, both wet and dried plus is less toxic that refining oil.

My Sister and I have been talking about getting one of these since with around Thanksgiving, may look into it around Mother's Day and Dad and I may go halves on one for her and I to share.

I read that a few hours ago and only more recently has found out that his daughter and the parent and child from the basketball team she was on had been among those killed in this crash with Kobe and the pilot.

Had those tires on my 200 and my Sister has them on her Challenger R/T Classic, other than tire wear issues I had, those are great tires!

Thanks Ron, it's appreciated. There may be quite a bit of wrenching and styrene therapy involved for both Dad and myself, plus some more "Iron" related therapy (i.e. the gym) for me as well. Dad decided he wants to go to his HS reunion and well be taking my 200, which means the planned plug swap, MSD coil packs, performance intake tube, newer factory "upgrade" lower intake manifold (which stock flows more air than older lowers that have been ported!), new pads and rotors (including switching to the 13.4" SRT4 Caliber front rotors and 2 piston calipers from the stock 11.6" rotors and single piston calipers), AND figuring out what happened to my Cherokee's brakes last winter to cause a complete failure (had to use my handbrake to stop on my way home, my blood pressure hasn't been the same since) need to be done by early June since the reunion is mid-month and the plates expire on the XJ at the end of June, but it needs to pass it's emissions test before I can renew them.......it'll likely pass, but driving there to the facility and back just using the hand brake is a bad, baad idea.

Thanks again everybody, even if I'm sounding like a broken record! One thing odd that has happened, just about every time I've gotten in the 200 and had the Elvis channel from Sirius on when started, there's an Elvis Gospel or Inspirational song playing, or is the next song in their rotation.....this has been happening every time I've started the car since I left the hospital just after midnight Monday morning, between when made the decision we did and when she had passed. Doesn't matter if Dad is with me or if I'm running somewhere on my own, kinda weirding me out a bit at this point too

Thanks again though!

I appreciate the offer, but let me look in my XJ for mine first, oddly that happens to be the same Impala kit that I have too! Mine is missing the Stock tires and maybe hubcaps, but I'm going to use something from Pegasus for that kit once I get around to it.

Thanks, and oddly, I was kinda thinking that! I was going to try the Lowrider rolling stock from a '65 Impala kit I have somewhere around here (might be in my Jeep, need to look in there, I guess) since some of the Dayton style wheels when shrunk down look kinda like the factory knock offs.......or I could just make it look like a Lowrider with bigger rims as well. Dad and I are going to be babysitting my Niece this morning, so maybe I can ask my Sister if she and her Husband can keep an eye out for some sort of toy car that might be around that same size that can be parted out, already mentioned it to Dad last night.

Round 2 from old AMT molds, bought at the Hobby Lobby not far from here as well as one of the '63 Stingray kits from the same series, although I don't like that one as much.

Thank you Espo. Mom's obituary is now online as of this morning. https://www.norriswalensegertfh.com/notices/Dixie-Handley

I was looking for inspiration on Mom's brand new iPad while wating to go get dinner (Dad was talking to a the Daughter of one of Mom's childhood friends) and found that car, he and I both were digging it, but want to do something a bit more of my own. Noticed there were a lot of Larry Watson inspired cars out there, including the Blackbird.

Thanks guys! Have you ever run across suitable replacement wheels and tires for these kits? I'm digging the stock hub caps that came with this kit, but also have the '63 Stingray from this series that has the 6 bar hubcaps vs the knock-offs represented in those kits and I'm not a fan of them. I was wondering if there's any appropriately scaled rolling stock on either the aftermarket, in other kits (even if I have to mix scales), or even can be used from 1/32 slot cars that would look right on it?! Not sure if that one would be another Custom like this T-Bird, a Lowrider like I have planned for the 1/25 kit, maybe a period correct corner burner (not sure which period yet though), or something like the red Stingray road racer that Letty drove F&F8, I'm not sure yet and what I can find would likely determine the direction I'd go.

Bought this right after Christmas at Hobby Lobby, finally broke it out today for some needed mental therapy. From the first time I saw it months ago, I wanted to do a Custom with it and eventually bought one and set it to the side until today. I started by figuring out how much I could raise the wheel pegs on the chassis then moved on to sanding off the emblems, and fake quarter panel vents. After Dad and I got some dinner and watching some videos on YouTube when we got home, put things together enough to see how it looks. Think it's low enough? I haven't tried to clean up any of the mold lines and I'm hoping I got all of the trim sanded off, but need to prime it to know if I got everything I wanted cleared and where the mold lines are, seems that they're pretty faint and the white plastic hides things a little too well.

Thank you everybody, it's appreciated.

That's very.........Cobra like in appearance.