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Maybe the best at their discipline as other drivers are at their own. It is truly mixing apples and oranges so to speak, they all race under and in differing conditions. I've heard the same gripe for years, the Drag Racers only go straight, NASCAR and Oval Racers only turn left... For early every form of racing there's always someone who pipes up with a yes but argument that one form does more and better than the other. Yes but how fast have you gone and not crashed. Yes but how fast can you go and turn left. Yes but how fast can you go on dirt and turn left. Yes but how fast can you go and turn right and left. How fast can you go throughout the desert flying through the air half the time. Yes. But how fast can you go on two wheels. What about ice racers. Formula One. Kart. Go Karts. Funny Cars. Sprint Cars..... Salt Flats.... Pinewood Derby...Blah.... Blah..... They all have some sort of talent or they wouldn't be there.

Carl, Sorry to hear this. I sort of understand what you're going through. I'm sort of a gimp too. Over thirty years ago I had a severe bruise and a cut to my right ulnar nerve (that's your Funny Bone on the elbow) it affects half my middle, ring and little fingers with both numbness and dexterity issues as well as part of my arm elbow down, I'm right handed for the most part. I know it is not the same issue as what you are going through right now; you learn to cope, you learn to do things differently, you learn to work with what you've got. Hopefully you learn to accept what you've been dealt with grace and humor; I know I laugh at some of the goofy stuff that've happened or happen to me as a result of my weird sense of feeling. My fingers want to draw up towards the palm and my wrist wants to curl under slightly when tired; I was at work doing something with a contractor who asked if I was trying to throw gang signs or something! I guess to someone who didn't know it does look something weird like that. I've learned to laugh about goofy stuff like that. What else can you do! About the foil. I remember seeing a guy cutting vinyl for a sign using an xacto knife that had a spacer between two blades in one handle, the strips were about 1/16 +\- wide. I will assume that he had to widen the slot in the collet that holds the blade into the handle to get the blades and spacer into it. Ok now that we've got the set up; here's the application. Use the thicker adhesive backed metal tape, I think it's sold as muffler repair tape. Next use a metal ruler which is either held by hand or by clamp to a thin board, sand which the metal tape between and cut the strips. Could also be done with a single blade too, more consistent with two blades. You could use this method to cut the adhesive backed Mylar as well. Both products are more forgiving than the BMF, both give a chrome like result. Edited for spelling issue not caught by iPad.

We have purchased the last five vehicles for cash, three were new. In all cases the dealer knocked a significant amount of money off of the purchase price for cash in hand. You have to go in armed to the teeth with as much information if not more than the salesperson. We normally tag team them to death, we've walked out and had them call us at home agreeing to our terms more than once. One time we did this and went to another dealer the same day, getting a better price, the first dealer called and hung up rather disappointed. We've also sold what would be our trade in on our own a couple of times getting even better deals, when you take the trade in out of the picture you take away a lot of the dealer's power over the deal. They can't underpay you for what's not on sale which is one of their favorite tricks. Another thing to consider is the cheapest car is the one you already own, maybe fixing up the car already in your driveway might make a whole lot more sense than going into hock for a new one. Anyone can get themselves into the pay cash mode of buying vehicles. The way we have done it is first you hang onto your paid for car. Next set a dollar amount you are willing to part with for your next car. Get yourself an interest payment book and pay your car savings account that payment every month as you would the bank or finance company. Once you purchase your vehicle start replenishing the fund again. It's not easy, and it takes dedication to not paying someone else interest on your hard earned cash. Once you start doing deals this way you will never want to go back. We've started doing all our bigger purchases this way

Why is is that some people feel the need to post topics that they know from the start are going to be incendiary? Recent one started just this morning. One a week or two ago... Sort of like loaded car names like Edsel, Corvair, Pinto (that one was literally incendiary), Yugo... everyone has some sort of negative comment about each, plus those who just love them. Don't understand it sometimes when people in general start a conversation they already know the answer to just to get a rise out of the other(s). Always thought that this was a forum of individuals brought together by the love of building and enjoying our model cars versus lengthy discussions of lexicology. Then again maybe I'm just wrong again. I am not attacking any individual(s), just saying these discussions are very counter productive. We are all for the most part adults here. This topic was not brought up to start a wizzing match so don't make it one. Note: I posted this in general because most of the time these discussions are posted in general, not the "Off Topic Lounge".

Nice model! Great paint. Job well done! That style of top is called a "Carson Top" they became so popular and copied that they were known in generic terms by (I think) a shortened version of the shop's name who first made them. They were a fixed top which did no longer operated as a convertible top. Like most all great Custom Trends they originated in Southern California.

rat rod, how about a junk yard on wheels. I wouldn't put their owners / drivers in with Hot Rodders, they are more like wanna be's without the patience to save a few bucks to get into something that could be assembled with time, talent, patience and know how into a nice starter Hot Rod. I have seen some pretty nice safe starter Hot Rods owned and built by some young guys and gals. For the most part all one has to do is befriend one or two of those Old Farts and actually listen to some of their knowledge gained for the most part by doing it. Lots of the Old Guys are really happy to teach a Young Guy how to do things right, a lot of them have learned by their own failures how to do it right. I would also bunch all of those who drive and enjoy their Hopped Up Old Cars whether they be a shiny billet laden jewel or a a sweet traditional Hot Rod as Hot Rodders. They are all joined by the love and appreciation of their old cars, lots of the Old Guys with the high dollar cars appreciate the Traditional Hot Rods...

Correct, as measured from the stock location. Any setback up to the 10% of wheelbase would increase the height! simple Trig proves that true. Just a peruse through the NGRA website is what I remember seeing at the Drags here in western Washington as a kid, (I started going to the Drags with my uncles at about 7 or 8 in '63) there were all kinds of Gassers. '49 - 54, 55 - '57+ Chevs and Fords, Willys, Henry J's, '32 - '40 Cevs, Fords, an occasional Mopar, Anglias and Austins and even VW's showed up soon after. The Big Name guys made their way through Seattle/Kent/Pacific Raceway, occasionally Puyallup and Bremerton Raceways. Lots of cool cars! Suggest anyone remotely interested in building Gassers pick up a copy of "Gasser Wars" Drag Racing's Street Classes: 1955 - 1968. By Larry Davis, Car Tech Books it is well worth the money.

Love those wheels! The first "Cal Look" edition of Hot VW's shows up on eBay every once in a while, great reference material. Never found or could afford a set of BRMs for my oval window Cal Look Bug. I settled for chrome steel wheels 15 X4-1/2 & 5-1/2 running topper with genuine 356 hubcaps running on Perelli 135's front and 185's rear. Lots of guys ran that same combination which looked clean and cool. Fun little car got lots of complements.

Ooh, how Ed Roth-esk can you get! I like the Merc' a lot too!!

Looks like gold leaf on the R.F. letters, not hard to do uses "sizing" to adhere the gold leaf to the surface. There are white gold, silver and German silver (which is like stainless steel, not silver at all) Been wondering where the Ed Roth and Weird-Ohs and other sorta car related stuff go too. Wouldn't want it to get mooooved!

Currently own, Paasche, Badger, Iwata and a couple Harbor Freight DeLuxe Airbrushes (all Dual Action) which have all been used extensively. With proper care and cleaning even the cheap airbrushes should last a whole lot of paint jobs. There are a couple of good YouTube videos on airbrush maintenance that I highly recommend watching. Even the most seasoned airbrush artist should pick up an idea or two after watching them, I know I did. While you're at it watch some of the videos on how to use an airbrush, it's free and if you don't like it you can move on until you find what you do. You will also see different airbrushes in use. Best advice that I would give anyone (after almost 40 years of fiddling with airbrushes) is to first figure out what you will be using the airbrush for. Will you be doing fine line detail work? Then choose something that has a fine tip or extra tips readily available and gravity feed cup. Painting small parts, get the a medium sized tip, gravity feed or siphon feed if spraying a lot of parts. Paint jobs, choose something that has a wide or fan tip and siphon feed, maybe even a small sized automotive detail gun for shooting metal flake or clear coats. Don't pigeonhole yourself into an airbrush that everyone says is the best, it probably is for what they use it for; but does it fit your specific needs, the one that does is the best for you. The other thing is price is not always an indicator of how the airbrush will perform for you, if the cheap one fits your budget and needs that one might be better for you than the higher priced one. Do your homework before you spend a dime on an airbrush you'll thank yourself for it. Don't get me wrong, after you learn to use one properly nearly any airbrush will outperform the best rattlecan paint job! The first airbrush I ever owned was the blue plastic Badger siphon feed with the propellant can which I quickly learned to get an air tank and fill up at the corner gas station, I painted a whole lot of stuff with that state of the art set up! The results for me were a world of difference.

Having been a Seattle Seahawks fan since year one, I'd have to partially agree with Pete, we have had more than our share of inept coaching and moronic owners. Even though Seattle won, it was difficult to even watch! I actually felt sorry for Payton Manning, to have fought your way through the season to get to the Superbowl then have your butt handed to you like that had to have been one of the most difficult games in his career. Finally glad to see these kind of results from a team I've watched for so long. Have to wonder if the talking morons are right about Seattle being the next powerhouse dynasty? They point out that there is that one team every decade that it just might be the Seahawks decade.

Nice, '55 &'56 Victorias are one of my favorite Fords of the '50's. Just wish that there was a better version of the Crown Vic' the body isn't bad but the upper chrome is in need of a lot of fine tuning to get it to look right; maybe now that Alclad is here it might be doable. I'm tempted to pick up another '56 Victoria now that it's been reissued,,, I've got a huge backlog waiting to be built as is, maybe later. You make that top chop look easy, I'll bet it wasn't either. Sometimes the things that look like they would be simple to pull off turn out to be one huge headache. Really like what you are doing with this one, looks like a bunch of us saw that one over at the H.A.M.B., good stuff doesn't remain a secret too long!

Not a rat rod or neo-traditional rat (shiny rat rod) fan per se, but your work is out of the ballpark! Impressive details and techniques used to attain them, I'll be watching this one for sure. Thanks for sharing.

Actually, any Mini should be able to swap from RHD to LHD and back again, especially the Mk I and II Mini. The "Full Size" or Actual Size" was manufactured with that in mind. They were exported to lots of countries that drive on either side of the road.

Replicas and Miniatures has them. You are looking for 48 IDA's right?

Like the redirection that you're going with, that first trailer was a lota trailer for the "Loner's" dragster. Even the local guys had fairly nice trailers for dragsters starting about the mid-sixties most of them were enclosed small and form fitting to the car. There should be a few examples out there on the web, if not I've seen one or two in the pages of Hot Rod DeLuxe. The trailers that I remember the fuel dragster teams towing were enclosed, narrow only slightly wider than the dragster. The front was low and kicked up just ahead of the engine, most were fairly aerodynamic. The big trailer you started with sort of looks like the one that T.V. Tommy Ivo towed around the country on his match racing tour; his looked like it was a double decker the top had the car "showcased" with plexiglass windows. Ivo's trailer was in Hot Rod DeLuxe a while back. Your Belvedere wagon is spot on for a '60's tow an push car, though lots of them wore mag or chrome reverse wheels Crager SS were big favorites. Should be a really sweet race team when you get things sorted and finished.

Wow, you guys with all the paint, do you realize the incendiary capabilities of all that paint if there were a fire? They don't call those things spray bombs for nothing! If you were a business OSHA, Fire Marshall and all the other regulatory agencies would make you get a fire safe cabinet for all that volatile material. I have one for all my sign / striping paint, all my spray model paint goes in there too. I know a lot of Fire Departments that if you have exploding stuff in a structure fire such as ammunition, spray cans or other explosives going off they move from a put the fire out mode to a stand back and keep it from burning other nearby structures. The other major issue is homeowner's insurance, if they find out ahead of time they can cancel your policy; if they find out after the fact... Well let's say one of two options for them reduce the payout or not payout because you had a whole bunch of paint cans exploding! Do yourself a favor, talk to your insurance agent about what you are storing and how to mitigate the liability. (Ours is a good friend, I came right out and asked.) Things like fire safe paint storage. Disposal of rags with enamel, lacquer or even oily rags mix the three together and you've got the recipe for fire, containment in this case is as easy as keeping the air out. A one gallon glass jar with a tight fitting lid works great and costs nothing. Not sure how or what cheap storage methods there might be for spray bombs, there are enough smart people here on this board to come up with something. Sorry to be a downer, when I saw how much paint some people are storing things sorta clicked, it stinks to hear somebody had a fire.

When brushing multiple coats of acrylic paint it's nice to have a hair dryer to dry the coat, it also appears to help the paint adhere to the nooks and crannies. Just make sure to use the hair dryer on low temperature, it will help you lay down those thin washes on seats that give things an aged look. This works with the craft paints on up to Createx and Vallejo acrylics. The other tip when it comes to acrylic paint is you get what you pay for, those really cheap craft paints don't have nearly as much pigment in them and or have more fillers than do the better branded acrylic craft paints. The cheap craft paints are great for washes where you thin the paint to almost a transparent coat, they take more coats than do the better craft paint. Artist type acrylics (in the tube) are another great alternative they normally have the greatest amount of pigments than do craft paints. With artist paints there are two categories, Artist and Academy the Academy is the cheaper of the two and has more fillers and the pigments may not be as good as the Artist variety. Tube paints can be used for those applications where you would like a high build coat of paint, like for rubber parts, undercoating and anything else you want to appear to be thick. Nearly all types of acrylics will need some sort of clear coat whether it be gloss or clear to bring out washes.

That's too bad Casey, been around the block enough that what comes around usually goes around. Small enough community that once word gets around that anyone who leeches off others good faith won't be given the opportunity to do so again and again...I also appreciate you saying what you did about this individual, especially as a Moderator. We need to hear more of these type of comments from you guys. (Don't even know what and how this person burned someone on this board or anywhere else for that matter, others need to hear about bad trades and traders. Within reason.) Edited because I tried to quote Casey and only his quote showed up, not my comments. Odd.

JB, Did you "enhance" the welds on the cowl bars. Looks like the joints on the cowl bars where they meet the top rails have the weld quality of the early '60's before MIG and TIG were really common. They would have either been GMAW or GTAW for chrome molly tubing so the weld beads would be pretty noticeable. (Sorry if I got a bit technical,,, AWS Level 3 certified weld inspector pops out every once in a while.) Hmm, maybe some of our glue joints on our old dragster frames are just a bit too clean? Just leaving a really thin CA glue fillet might just look like the real thing, especially if it was tooled a little bit with a sharp dental pick or needle just before it set up.

Absolutely neat stuff. I remember the explosion that took part of Garlits' foo (from magazine coverage), how it was widely believed he would never race again. Then the rear engine dragster which was an oddity at first, then everyone else followed suit once he proved it could and did work. Garlits was an innovator almost from the start. Have to say I am really impressed with Don's wife Pat that's one strong lady, a lot of women would have walked away from it or told their guy enough!!

Try brake fluid on a Q-Tip, lightly rub the stripes. With the Q-Tip just dampened with the brake fluid. If the brake fluid stays on the paint it will soften the paint. You might try Purple Power on a Q-Tip too, it might work too.

Looks like you've put a whole lot of work into the interior and chassis that's looks like "fresh" Custom; sort of doesn't fit with the rat look. Iconic model years like the '32 Ford and Merc's (in my opinion) don't look plausible as a rat rod, most people who get one know their worth and heritage within the Rod & Custom community. It's your model so do it the way you like best.

Yes, right near the door so it could be reached either in retreat of going in with another already in hand.