highway

DING DING DING!! We have a winner! Eric, you win, well nothing! Mark, you are quite right in your description, and Sterling Marlin went through a lot because he was the unfortunate bystander in everything. He received death threats because of that wreck, and they were completely unfounded! I, the diehard Earnhardt fan that I am, felt that way, too, at first. After rewatching the many replays of that wreck over the days after, though, it was clear that Dale was protecting the cars he owned, and Sterling was not at fault. The helmet and lack of the HANS was the biggest factors, and it's been said he preferred not using the full face helmet or HANS because it limited his view and head movement. Also, the ironic fact to all this, and to tie back in to the main reason of this thread, the M&M's car shown in all the pics just after the crash in the right door of Earnhardt's car was driven at that time by none other than Elliott Sadler!

Welcome aboard, Keith! You'll find our little group of diesel junkies very helpful, as I have been finding out. You'll also find many of us are also drivers or former drivers, or in a few cases, mechanics. I myself drove for 12 years, both over the road and local, and have drove just about everything, including heavy wreckers for a few years. We can all sit around the internet truck stop counter and drink some coffee and tell scale trucker stories!

Thanks, Mark, and BOY, do I feel stupid, now! After looking at your latest pics, I realized what I was seeing off the center padding of the wheel between the right side and bottom wheel spokes in the dash pic was the steering column! The very bad part of all this, I've built many a NASCAR model! I was thinking the steering column was something attached to the center padding, that's why I wondered what it was.

Looking very nice, Jim. I REALLY need to pick one or two of these up!

Me too, Joe, that's why I said I thought my opinions differ with the poster of that link!

Thanks, Harry, you just had me lost with the "kitbashing" part. I get what you mean, now, it would be like me saying this beast was scratchbuilt! It clearly isn't scratchbuilt, but it's the perfect example of kitbashing at it's best, a Revell 34 Ford with an AMT Hemi from the 70 Coronet Super Bee Pro Street! Mark, I kinda like Jeff's description, too. That's the first time I've ever heard of it!

I'm not sure, but I think the Revell "California Wheels" 56 Chevy Nomad had custom wheels very similar to those. I know this is not the greatest of pics, they were in the plastic and it was before I learned how to use the Macro on my camera, but these are the ones I think came from that kit. The bad news is I have already traded them. Sorry! Hopefully you might find someone who might have a set.

Ok, Harry, you got me confused, and believe me, that's not hard to do! I'm sure you remember seeing a pic or two around the forum of the custom Ford LTL 9000 truck I'm currently working on, and to help jog your memory, it's this one. Now, obviously, the sleeper and frame both have been heavily modified. I used the kit's front and back walls, as well as the roof panel, but have added both structural and sheet plastic (and a lot of Bondo ) to achieve the finished product, as seen in these rough in progress pics. I have also used structural stock in the lengthening of the kit's original frame. Would this not be scratchbuilding, especially since parts from other kits never were used? I can see my also heavily modified front bumper being considered mostly kitbashed with a little scratchbuilding for shaping, because the stock Ford bumper was used along with a roo bar from an Australian truck kit, with a little plastic strip added to box the bumper some. I'm only asking your opinion because, especially in the case of the sleeper, I have been saying it is scratchbuilt.

I found this while looking for pics, too. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/403720-top-10-nascar-crashes There are a few of the wrecks mentioned here, and a few I'm surprised not to see on the list, but I guess the poster thought these were his top 10. Some, if not all, also include YouTube clips of the wrecks.

Mark, obviously you must either not be much of a NASCAR fan, or maybe just not following for many years, but don't feel bad! I'm surprised no one else has mentioned one of the worst crashes in NASCAR history where the driver survived, but is one of the first ones that came to mind when I seen that wreck today. Michael Waltrip demolished his car in Bristol in 1989 or 1990, (and I say that because the pics I found, some say 89 and some say 90) and, even though I can't remember how badly he was injured in the crash, anyone who follows NASCAR knows Michael is still quite alive and kicking. Many may not remember his win in the 2001 Daytona 500 because of Dale Sr.'s crash, but as a diehard Dale Sr. fan, I remember not only Dale's tragic death, which still gets me misty eyed thinking about it, but I remember Michael driving his Dale Earnhardt Inc. Monte Carlo to victory. By the way, a little trivia, who came in second in that race? Anyway, enough rambling, here's some pics I found online of Michael's crash at Bristol. Oh, and these look to have been shot as it was happening. These are a couple pics I found of the car afterward. Please don't take it the wrong way, Elliott's crash today was horrifying to see, and I'm very happy he walked away, but there have been worse! There was also a crash at Daytona, I think, where Richard Petty also tore up a car as badly as the pics of Michael Waltrip's car here, and ironicly, Elliott Sadler's car from today is owned by Richard Petty!

First, no wonder my better half doesn't want me to find a job at a hobby shop! Second, no wonder I couldn't find an Ala Kart for a friend I used to work with, you bought them all!!

As, everyone else has already said, the smaller cans are on the way out. If you have an Advance Auto near you, though, check their Clearance shelf out. I found 3 cans on clearance at one of my local stores, and couldn't beat the price, $1.25 a can!

That's my excuse, well, that and I'm stocking up for 2012!!

I'm a perfect example of that, Rodney had parts I needed!

Bryan, the common size lug nuts on trucks are the 33mm, but they are the flanged style lug nuts. The style on the KFS wheels aren't flange style, and the common size for the non flanged lug nuts is usually 1 1/2 inches.

I don't know about him, but you got my attention! We just might have to talk, Jim!

Nice setup, Brian! Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is that a U.S. Mail truck with custom wheels!?!? I like your instruction stand, I've been looking for something like that for my desk. Where did you find yours?

I'm not really sure what you want either, custom tow trucks covers a lot of ground! Revell made this kit in the late 70s or early 80s. You might get some ideas here: http://www.wreckerdriver.net/photos/ And maybe here: http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/trucks.htm

Mark, that is looking very nice, I've been watching for the start. I wanted to ask, though, what is the blue thing on the steering wheel? I've not seen anything like that before.

Another beautiful piece of art, John.

They do have that, Dave! I TRIED to race one of the GTS coupes (in my younger and dumber days ) on the interstate with my 1988 Trans Am GTA that had a 305 TPI under the hood. That was when the GTS coupe was the new kid on the block in the late 90's, and I seen the massive bulge of that beautiful blue and white striped machine in the rear view mirror. The guy driving it pulled up beside me, looked at me while I was looking at him, and gave me the "let's run" look, and of course I couldn't pass that up! The interstate was clear in front of us, and we dropped the hammers. That old TA kept up fairly well until the (BLEEPING) computer started shutting me down at 125 MPH! After that, all I seen was the back of that GTS, that is until he went completely out of sight.

Yeah, I'm still watching, I need to get up of my rear and get back to my build for this!!! Nice work on the Stang so far, Bradley!

Boy, did you guys get fooled, or he looks darn good for his age!! I seen his birthday notification last night, and, if the pic in his profile is anything to go by, he looks like a thirtysomething to me!!

Looking good, Brian.

Thanks Colby, it's stalled right now for a few minor issues, but I'll be getting back to it and posting updates in my thread soon.