Dave Ambrose

.....And a nice MGB under your seat.

All Gregg on this one. Yes, we do. Please, please, please, keep it civil. We had problems with people getting into flamewars on the last one. If you find yourself getting angry, just leave. I will be keeping an eye on it, and will ban recalcitrant people from the chat room.

The problem's at our end. We're working on it.

The problem's at out end. We're working on it.

Len, I'm right below you. Believe me, I feel your pain. Our problem is that some providers demand that the return address for the email be the same as the domain for the outgoing mail server. Our outgoing server belongs to our hosting company, not us. They did this in an effort to block spam. Unfortunately, it also blocks a lot of useful content. So far, my rogues gallery includes AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, and (I think) GMail. Unfortunately, getting this fixed isn't simple, but we're working on it. Thanks, Dave Ambrose Update: You turn your back and boom, something different is broken. I'll look into it.

Randy, this is a tour de force of my favorite car. Thank you so much for sharing your progress.

The problem is internal stress in the plastic from the molding process. Best thing to do is to liberally paint the topside of the groove with solvent glue, then let it dry. The plastic will then bulge where it's stressed and you can sand it flat. This process also works for when you shave door handles, emblems, and the like.

My son and I were coming back home from lunch when we saw an early '60s Jaguar sedan on the road, and a '34 Chevy on an auto transporter on the same road within 2 minutes of each other. We decided today was cool car Friday.

You know, I'd settle for either one.

This may be a bit far afield, but there's also the San Diego Model Car Club. We meet on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park. You can check out our web site at http://www.sdmodelcarclub.org and our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SanDiegoModelCarClub

You need 10-4 mm Hg pressure to coat aluminum. That's a long way from 2mm Hg. Vacuum leaks are a constant problem at these pressures (or lack thereof).

It's probably way simpler to send your parts out for plating. What kind of vacuum system do you have? You'll need more than a mechanical pump to vapor deposit aluminum. You should at least have a diffusion(?) pump to get the vacuum low enough. You'll also have to accept that it's going to get dirty enough that you won't be able to do other kinds of vacuum deposition with it.

I'm so sorry. Moms are special. There's never a good time to lose them.

I've been using Testors wet-look clear from the can. I like it a lot. I've also used Future through an airbrush with good results.

46 for me. Apparently, I'm well-balanced. They clearly don't know me very well.

Probably the best way is to find a local model show/swap meet and buy a table. I don't know how many kits you have for sale, but if they're priced right, you'll move a lot of them and net about what you'd get on ebay for a lot less hassle.

I feel your pain. I have a lot of want-to-do projects where I currently lack the talent to complete them, But the wonderful part is that you can set stretch goals for yourself, and have fun while you're improving your skills. Willingness to re-do things helps a lot.

What is the color? I'm thinking it would be a great color for a couple of projects in my queue.

Enamel needs a different painting proceedure than lacquer. Put down a very light mist coat before you get serious about putting down color. The mist coat will look terrible and very transparent. Let it dry, give it an extremely light sanding with the finest sandpaper you can find, then lay down color coats. Keep the coats light, and let them dry for 15 minutes before you put down the next coat.

Here's something I learned from a guy who painted spacecraft for a living: Paint the hard to cover areas first. He would get into the nooks and crannies and hit them with paint. Then, he'd go back over the entire whatever, and paint it. When he was done, he'd have perfect coverage. It is a principle that's worked will for me on my models In your case, hit the areas giving you trouble. Leave the rest of the model alone. When it's dry, lightly sand the paint with über fine sandpaper. Then paint normally.

Congratulations! Remember this day, my friend. It will be one of your best days ever. I still smile when I think of my children's births.

Let's just say that if his IQ was a price you would have gotten change from a dollar bill. I once had to swim 17lb of dive weights back to shore. It was tough. At least I had fins and wetsuit. Somebody with no wetsuit or fins and a 10lb rock is doomed.But, why didn't he just let go of the rock?

These days, I hear the Taj Mahal version of Take a Giant Step far more than I hear the original version by the Monkees.

My first airbrush was Paasche VL set. It was great. You could tackle just about anything with it. We were doing model railroad and the occasional aircraft. When the friend who loaned it to me needed it back, I replaced it with an Iwata Eclipse BC. It worked, but I could never get a nozzle large enough to work well with hobby paint. It was awesome for ink tho. When I got back into cars, I got another VL and have been using it ever since. I mostly use enamels and lacquers.

A right-hand drive MG-TC. That made my day.