RSchnell

Hard to pin down just one, so I'll break it down first is prewar. -

Mine would be "build more than I buy" But I suspect we all have that issue!

I grew up right smack between Tampa & Orlando. They are just about connected to each other by development now. Moved to the east coast to fulfill one of my bucket list jobs(I can now say my paint work is going to space!), but now that I'm working remote I keep thinking the move is going to happen sooner than later. It's time to find a place where there's no snowbirds, tourists, etc. They get more rude & entitled every year.

As funny as it is true! My little 1.4 4cyl VW beat a friend's malaise era C3 not only off the line but on top end.

That's part of my retirement plan is to relocate like some of y'all have done. I'm 8th generation Florida native and this constant influx of people has ruined what used to make Florida so nice. You don't smell the orange blossoms in the summer & you don't smell the packing houses in the winter because there is no citrus left. My family owned numerous groves & as a kid we used to ride horses all day through the groves, even hog hunting on horseback(they will destroy a grove if you let them). Come back to the barn for a supper of smoked mullet. I felt lucky to have been part of "Old Florida". Everything is getting plowed over for subdivisions. The roads are crowded and the people have gotten more rude. Been looking at southern Georgia or Alabama. Some little small town where I can drive a Model A as a daily driver if I wanted to. Like I did down here 30 yrs ago before the place got to crowded!

I did that so it'd be easy to see what's there and makes things easy for everyone. Used to irritate me to no end when I'd go look at a car for either a job or for purchase and there'd be 20 years of junk on & around the car. Like I told one guy "10 grand to do XXXXX and $2500 to remove everything around & on the car. I can't give you a good estimate if I can't see what I'm looking at"

That was my bread & butter when I had the shop- guys that owned done cars but the only thing they did was put gas in it. Most tire shops around here wouldn't touch tubed tires like 20s & 30s cars because they couldn't throw the wheel on a tire machine. Clincher rims on brass era stuff got an equally blank look. I got real good at changing clincher tires but I also had the equipment to do it. Same with rim spreaders, etc. I'm at the point now that I won't work on other people's stuff, I turned down painting a '59 Corvette a few weeks ago just because I didn't want the hassle and he wouldn't let me do it my way. I've got a '32 Ford Cabriolet project that will probably be the last car I build & I may not even get that done being that's it's missing so many pieces. What's missing is unobtanium & I'm not setup yet to do any fabrication. Once I get my shop setup that may change.

I build pretty much only stock so I wind up with a lot of unused parts. I sorted everything by category, wheels in one bag tires in another etc. Had 3 shoeboxes of stuff that I traded to a guy that sells parts at the local shows for kits. Wound up with 3 kits I needed and we were both happy.

I have pictures to add once I find the right thumb drive they're on. But an incident last night reminded me of this thread. Coming back from the grocery store I saw one of those bedside medical crappers sitting on the sidewalk down the street from me. Nothing earth shattering about that as Cocoa Beach is a big retirement town and has a large elderly population. Fast forward 3 hours and I'm standing outside having a beer with my neighbor. She looks over towards the street & says "what is he carrying?" I see this dude carrying the medical crapper & running like he was in the Olympics. I'm not sure what was so urgent about running with a used bedside commode at 11.30pm, but there you go.

Since I now work remote, I converted the spare room into an office. I dug out some built kits and put them on display. Nothing fancy & no rhyme or reason- these were just in the first couple boxes I grabbed. LOL The unbuilt kits are on my "short list" not to be confused with the stash in another room. I also collect Ford memorabilia decided to display some of that too.

I've noticed that too. You'd think they'd have worked a deal with everyone's favorite bargain store to offload a bunch of dead stock. I know the last go round with the AMT & Monogram kits- they sat on the shelves for months compared to in the past where the scalpers would clean them out in 2 days. My personal opinion is they've saturated the market with kits that should have been retired not to mention you've got an ancient AMT kit priced at $35('65 Galaxie hardtop) sitting next to a new/newer tool Revell for $25('66 Impala hardtop) and is light years ahead of the AMT in terms of fit & finish.

Agree 100%. It's really interesting how Revell can put out new tool kits that are vastly superior to anything Round 2 has in their catalog and retail around $23-26. Round 2 is pumping out stuff that should've been retired or retooled with a selling price that far exceeds the quality. Aside from the '60 & '63 Ford pickups, I haven't bought anything put out by Round 2 in the past year or so. It's easier to go to a model show/swap and find an older issue of said kit for a third of the price & usually not as many problems with warpage, flash etc.

Nice variety! That '56 Merc Phaeton is seldom seen in the lower trim lines.

My Grandmother managed a large retirement home or as she called it "Social Security Condos" in the 80s. I remember a plain jane '60 Ford like the one in your video sitting in the parking lot. Really clean and well maintained. My dad tried several times to buy that car off the old lady that drove it but no sale. She died and the car went away. I did end up buying a nice original '70 Nova from another old lady in the same building about 10 yrs later. I traded it for a rough '65 Corvette that I ended up doing well on once I cleaned it up a bit. Amazing the things you forgot about until see something and it triggers a flashback. Thanks for posting this!

Here's a couple more shots. I wanted to get more but he was leaving as I got there. The Merc was one of my favorites too. I've been itching to own one. '55 & 6 Mercs are great looking cars.

Just up the road from Daytona Beach is a smaller more intimate car show. Ironically this show has been around longer than the Turkey Rod Run. They did not allow street rods & customs at this show so the rodders started their own show effectively killing the original show. Here's a few pics for those interested. The weather was great compared to my Friday at the Rod Run. Temp was in the high 50s with a breeze off the river and sunny. Perfect car show weather in Florida!

I'd be willing to bet that you won't see many kits other than Atlantis stuff this year. Seems Atlantis did a run of assorted kits just for Ollie's. It was on their Facebook page.

They've really loosened the rules at Turkey Run, now just about anything is a "show car", which means a lot of chaff to separate from the wheat. I've never been to a Goodguys show, I don't think they do much here in the South.

I like seeing those old rods unchanged from back when they were first built. There were also a few pastel & full billet with tweed interior cars that screamed early 90s. Some flashbacks are good! LOL

I'm a big '55-56 Ford guy having owned a bunch of them. I have to say that's one a few cars that made dealing with the crowd and the cool weather worth it! You never see those down here in FL unless a snowbird brings one down.