samdiego

early 20's Mercedes, maybe a K Cabriolet Touring

oops

eggsperts rock! What the hell are those other two?

That's a screamin deal, what version and I'm guessing you got the books. They tell you everything you need to know. Have fun.

Not to start a debate, but I've always considered The Flying Scotsman the greatest of all time. Unbelievable car control. Women or cars, Women or cars, . . . hmmm . . . I filled the gas tank today, I don't have a coin left to flip!

Have you dealt with this stuff before? I'd offer my assistance if you need any, but if Harry got you into this, I guess we should make him get you out. They have a good photo program too. Did you buy the whole thing or "borrow" it?

Hairy's a Corel guy??!! Holy smokes I thought all the high-falootin grafix guys were all about Ill on a mac. I was using CorelDraw before it had numbers behind it. I started in the '80s, doing layout for printshops. I've got X3 now and X4 is out. Corel is powerful stuff alright. And it's so much more intuitive than Adobe. I've used about half a dozen other programs over the years and Illustrator is my least favorite. And don't start with a PC/ vs Fisher-Pri . . . I mean Mac debate. I'm brimming with newfound respect for Harry!

One thing I think needs to be said. It's insanely expensive to operate a small business. I think it costs an employer about double what he pays an employee to have an employee. Rent here is off the scale. Insurance, I don't want to know. Kit prices are high, everything is high. I think that the Walmart thing, obviously, will send more people to the LHS. A good thing. I would just hate to lose these guys. Does anybody know what happened to Mike's in Tucson? I've heard that it sold. It was a small shop, but it was jammed with nothin' but 1/24 and 1/25 cars with a healthy selection of OOP. He'd advertised the shop for sale in the mags for a few years.

referring to Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" Great they are, but if you get a chance, check out the soundtrack from the movie "The Commitments". A primer on progression that builds like a freight train! Motown, done by Irish teens. The most amazing thing, to me, was that the actor/ singer was 16 when this was done. My vote for best fake bar band and my favorite soundtrack.

Biscuitbuilders Airflow . . . is it a Fiat? It looks European. Cal, yours looks Russian. What side of the road do they drive on? That's all I got

Mustang Sally, My favorite version is from the Commitments Soundtrack; Highway Star, Deep Purple; Trans Am, Sammy Hagar, OK to segue this into Bad Motor Scooter technically a bike song but the car people dig it. You may as well throw in the anthem I Can't Drive 55 (or 65, depends on the decade); Baby's got a Brand New Cadillac and Drive Like Lightning, Crash Like Thunder, The Brian Setzer Orchestra; Pink Cadillac, Bruce Springsteen You may be lynched if you don't have a bunch of Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, just pick by title.

I found a SmartForTwo in the dualie tread of my 350 Stake today. Does that mean I could have taken 351 of my friends with me?

We gots Phillip's Hobby Headquarters in El Cajon (ca-hone), a Hobby People a few blocks away from that and a Hobby Central north of Mission Valley. If you want to hang out and talk plastic, go to Phil's, that's all he sells, even though he keeps threatening to stop carrying cars. He's also the only place I know of to grab an MCM in SD County. Whenever I want to be ignored because I don't speak RC, I go to the other two. Yeah, Phil is higher than Walmart but I'm glad he's there and will patronize his place to help keep him there and because I know that he cares.

maybe an Infinity

and the preformed lower rad hose

I think the similarities stem from the quest for thousandths. There are probably a limited number of ways to be the fastest and as the qualities that enable this become more common knowledge they become the norm. And fast is where the money is.

I paint outside and noticed the benefits of El Sol years ago, especially when I lived in Tucson. I could polish the standard enamels (Testors, Pactra . . .) after a day of letting them sit on the porch. I'd set everything out in the sun for about 15 min to warm and warm the can in hot water. This stuff would flash in about five minutes but still flow out really well.

This particular thread seems to be biased toward cars that turn. Grass roots parks right next to NASA at drag strips every weekend. From 18 second rental cars to 4 second money burners. When I was a kid, you could stand almost close enough to touch these cars as they went by. There are very few things that can rival the attack on the senses that standing in the starter's island between two launching fuelers belts you with. Or hanging at the big end as they blast by at 330+. It's even better than parking off the end of a runway waiting for jetliners to take off. (you can't do that anymore either)

Is it an Osh Kosh Fly-In?

Is it a Continental converted to an Agricultural pump?

What LSM said. Any vinyl shop should be able to help you out. It probably won't be cheap unless you get lucky. Expect a minimum of 45-50 bucks as a general customer. Do as much design work as you can, at least a clean scanable rendering. The less work for the sign guy, the cheaper. The major sign and design programs can import the common drawing file types if you have access to such. The other factor is output. The paint mask vinyl is a little thick, not good for tiny model car compound shapes. They may have low grade vinyl with a less agressive adhesive or you might try to talk them into transferring their large masking tape onto the vinyl liner and cutting that, it can be done. The thinner, more expensive film tends to stick harder and could pull up your basecoat (been there), the vinyl coated for "temporary use" may not stick well enough. What are you looking for, specifically?

Yeah, you could cut the roof off and make a hot tub out of it.

is it a boxy four door Ford that looked like it wouldn't pull the skin off of pudding?

Dead Musclecars? I'm seein' HP figures that I would have thought impossible 10 years ago, from both an engineering and a sensibility standpoint. They have eclipsed the 1 pony per cube standard that used to be hard to achieve. We have cars with AC, full power and cats that, driven with one hand could put a Yenko on the trailer. Not to mention stopping and turning, two of my favorites. 500 horse Cads, 600 horse Mustangs, Vettes that can Autobahn with the best of them. I can't afford any of them, I couldn't in '69 either, but they are out there.

I would guess it's mostly insurance, the unyielding need to eek the most profit from any venture and common sense that has changed motorsports (the entire free world). Like the Daytona footage with car after car careening towards the observer tower. You could never get away with fun stuff like that. You have to go find the racers now. They are still out there. Check the bottom five classes of the SCCA. Low bucks, high determination, racing action at it's best.