Skydime

I can't help but notice that one of the Vipers in the videos has the motor completely unbolted and just sitting under the hood. Eventually, it just ends up on the ground, next to the car MOSTLY in one piece. This makes me wander if the order was to completely obliterate these cars until nothing is left. If total annihilation is not the goal of Fiat Chrysler, some of these schools are going to have students that figure out Chrysler is producing parts cars for some sweet pro touring (just the example that came to mind) rides. I mean really think about this. A resourceful kid finds an old Mopar, grabs up the drivetrain and computer from the scraps, does a little side work for some parts, and he/she can get his entire class to chip in labor as a class project. They get to preserve part of the Viper and get an extremely nice car to boot! As a side note to all this, what's up with the bumper cover on the green and black Viper I was talking about above? That thing wouldn't give way for anything.

I am thinking that is correct. IIRC, there were white Monte Carlos used as Brickyard pace cars at one time. And if I am squinting correctly, those are Brickyard badges on the C-Pillars. Then again, I spend almost 18 hours a day staring at a computer screen and I think I may be on the verge of getting glasses.

Mike, I am thinking Dave Ambrose (SP?) may be the go to guy for this suggestion. There should be a way to use profile birthdates to generate an age under our avatar, name, etc. It really wouldn't be a bad idea. And it would certainly make people think twice about some posts. There is a bad apple in every bunch but, most people would make better word choices in their replies if they saw they were posting to a 15 year old. By the way, since you are sort of asking us anyway, I will contribute. I will be 38 next week.

Kerry, you've done an amazing job on this. It's kind of like GM and Nissan meant for this to happen. At least your skills seem to make it look that way.

Bill, I am going to have to agree to disagree on this one and hope that we remain on good terms. My rant last night was pretty fuelled with emotion. And I offer the following story to explain why: Greg's posts remind me of a guy I once met at a car show. A boy in our club had cut the air line to one of his front airbags and needed to get it swapped to a spare to make it home from the show we were attending. He had lost one of his wrenches necessary to pull the front end loose and access the airbag. Well, being the kind of guy that thinks car guys are car guys no matter what, I suggested that he go talk to the person in the blue Chevelle sitting across the field. I had seen him with a pack of wrenches rolled out, working under the hood, and figured he would be nice enough to help. The kid was a little shy, one of the reasons I got him involved in the club, so I walked over there with him. I set the situation up by talking to the owner about his car for a moment. And when he was talking to me, an adult and leader, he was fine. But just as soon as that boy mentioned trying to borrow a wrench, he got cussed all up one side and down the other for being a kid and for having a mini truck,. I had even made it a point to tell him the boy was a bit shy and needed a favor before leaving it up to him to ask. I looked the guy in the face and proceeded to tell my friend to get in my car and I'd take him and buy him a wrench myself. The kid was crushed and never came to another show and sold his truck shortly afterward. The point is Greg has been picking out features and pictures, most well known on mini trucks, for his bashing needs. There is a collective pattern. If you look at his profile, he claims to have previously been a teacher of automotives. What a terrible world we live in where a teacher would encourage his students to be so narrow minded. And what a terrible educator for not being able to understand that younger people, in general, are going to have wilder, more lavish tastes than those of us that are grown and are raising families. To a certain degree, our teachers are also guidance counselors...and, at times, the only parental figure some children have. Look at the titles of his posts. The first one is extremely vague asking for an explanation of nothing particular. Then he decides to post the name of a mod generally associated with trucks. Titles that gave no warning about how they were going to be about bashing mini trucks. As stated before, he used to be an educator. He knows how to correctly gather facts and do research instead of posting threads with enticing subjects designed to hook and anger a certain set of people. Mini truckers understand that some people aren't going to understand it. We also understand that some people are pure jerks and reject us. They treat us like we have no business owning a vehicle and they are better than us. But the bottom line is this. Our forum is ran by someone who lives in Hawaii...a place where people go to just be relaxed and have a good time with everyone else. Think about it, Gregg (again, three G Gregg) has created a forum for model car builders based on that same exact concept. So, when someone with a particular build style, or 1:1 style comes here, they shouldn't have to worry about someone starting threads to draw them in and get insulted. I will close in an educational note. And this may even open some eyes to change crooked tags and adjustable bodies/suspensions. The point is to showcase something here. Builders of adjustable suspensions push the limits every day on just how far they can be taken. Some have cutting edge technology and then have decorative structures incorporated to create and overall astetic pleasing to the eye as well as fully practical. Some people do mods like crooked license boxes mounted into rolling body lines to show off how well they can do seemless bodywork, But the bottom line is that the vehicle is something that someone, somewhere took the blood, money, sweat, and time to create in order to share with people open to the concepts and to people who can offer CONSTRUCTIVE criticism in a manner that would help them improve their building skills. "create in order to share with people open to the concepts and to people who can offer CONSTRUCTIVE criticism in a manner that would help them improve their building skills." What? That sounds like a certain forum I belong to.

Im not very good on wiring home appliances despite being pretty good on home electronics(media). Heck, I'll be 38 this month and just wired my first ceiling fan last year. But I can tell you any respectable Radio Shack representative should be able to hook you up with the parts if you bring in the dehydrator. And they should be able to help you with the general wiring layout. But only proceed with this if you have a basic understanding of household appliances and just need some specialized assistance. If you are completely out on the woods on this, seek a professional...but preferrably one you know. That way they won't charge more than it would take to replace the entire dehydrator.

Oh man. That's already got me thinkin' bout where you're going with that one!

Cool Rambler. The Centerline solids look right at home on it too.

Wait, they actually work? I thought you were just pressing o-rings flat with your fingers. Dude, you have gots (yes, I said gotS) to start building 1:1s! That is, unless you do and we just don't get to see em here.

Never actually clicked on one of these built before. It's quite nice, if I must say so, myself.

Cory, really sorry to hear about the neighbor but, glad to see his spouse understands what it means to get his kits out to people with the same mindset and at a decent price.

See the crease near the top of the tailgate...that's a light bar that only shows up when the lights are on. my stock and third brake lights are shaved. I currently have the same light setup between my tailgate and rollpan waiting until I get my new roll pan with Skyline lights mounted to the truck. Is it illegal?...no, not in my state and I trailer it when I go out of state. But of coarse, I have learned that the legal interpretation of MOST law enforcement agents is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As far as my license plate is concerned, it's currently in the stock roll pan. But I plan on moving it to the back window for a while...which is also legal in my state. Oh yeah BTW, this light you see in the picture, and that I have, is called a "line of fire". It's the same light strip you see between the tailgate and bumper of a lot of full size four wheel drives now. The whole thing lights up as brake lights and each individual half can flash as signal lights. They also function as park lights as well at night. What's up with all the mini truck and lowrider bashing anyway? If I didn't know better, I'd swear a couple people were trying to drive some of us off. (Yes, Gary isn't the only one. And I am not afraid to call it out publicly so everyone can see. User Platerpants has been known to bash mini/sport trucks as well.) Austin was right on the money and Casey is correct in seeing this POV on the matter. Greg is trolling talking trash about all us that drive modern custom vehicles. Sorry we can't all go buy the latest Ferrari or afford a new classic muscle car whenever we take a notion. If you don't like our vehicles, keep your narrow minded opinion to yourself. I don't like four wheel drives or Fords myself. But I can sure as heck respect someone that put their hard earned money into something they love. Greg, don't HIDE behind the constitution and pull the same stunt again. Politics aren't allowed here. A gentleman I knew until he passed away a few years ago told me the truest thing I have ever heard. "Your freedom and liberties end at my nose." I won't tell you to build a mini truck and you don't tell me what I can build. I hate drama but, I sure ain't gonna stand here as a member of this forum where mini truck scale and 1:1 modelers hangout and let someone dance around talking trash about us because they don't have the guts to do REAL research and find out what really goes into what we do. (Or someone that won't get in a mini trucker's face and just come right out and say what they mean.) Mods, sorry I'm going off in one of these trolling flame threads. I respect all of you. Heck, I would have quit building a year of so if it hadn't been for Harry and Gregg. (Notice the Gregg with three G's.) But, something has to be done. If it's going to be allowed to continue, then you might has well search all the threads started about mini/sport trucks and sport compact cars and ban all of us that start them or comment positively on them block our IPs and delete our accounts permanently. Leave the forum to those narrow minded people who discriminate against any other style than their own. I want to conclude my rant by telling anyone who just doesn't get the whole mini truck culture but, doesn't put it down a great big thank you. We all aren't going to agree with everything. Different strokes for different strokes. It's what makes the world go round and it is why every single one of us is not doing the same exact job, eating the same exact food, and driving the exact same vehicle. So, saying you think it is silly or not your style or something little out of the way when presented with the material isn't offensive. But when someone intentionally brings the subject matter up so they can have an excuse to put it down is completely uncalled for. Threads like this and people who look at a thread with a lowered truck kit build thread just to say 'thats not a real truck, real trucks are up in the air' are what I am talking about. (Noticed I used single quotation marks as I am paraphrasing. Imagine that, I, a mini trucker, actually know how to do that.)

I feel that way sometimes when trying to explain my truck.

It's a mini truck, lowrider, bed dancer, and full dancer all in one. So, take a 64 Impala full custom out of lowrider magazine and throw a mini truck body and more hydraulics on it and that's what you get. Nothing more, nothing less. Just something someone built to challenge themselves and have fun. I'm surprised someone hasn't chimed it with "that's a waste of a good work truck." But to be honest, you would be surprised on how many vehicles are driven daily with similar mods and little maintenance...of coarse most of them are air or static drops. Greg, I hope the first paragraph I wrote didn't sound harsh. I just wanted to give a straight answer from that side of the fence. Now I am not 100% sure of what you meant by "rat rods "in the weeds" look is all about getting ridiculously low to the point where they are unroad worthy.( without some kind of air lift system)." But I will shoot straight. Do some people do stupid things like completely remove coil springs with no bags or run no shocks at all and bounce down the road. Of coarse they do. But like you pointed out, trucks like this didn't start it. Us mini truckers get the wrap for that because some of us are younger people who are just trying to have something custom with what little money they have earned at their part time jobs. It's simply the matter of being over zealous and I am sure we have all been guilty of that at one point or another. But the point is, a lot of people look down on mini truckers because a lot of us don't have the money to go buy a car or truck that will hold classic monetary value in 50 years. They seem to think we are inferior and unworthy of parking next to their #1 of 300 1922 asdfghjkl d series type 9 L body Pwing custom whatevertheheckeveritis (you get the point). They don't stop to realize just how much we borrow and pay homage to those older styles of builds...and honestly...I have one thing to tell those people...don't copy our mods that contributed to protouring. Those who respect us as equals...proceed. And to those with questions like Greg, please ask. We won't bite. You might actually find that most of us are the guys that will pick you up on the side of the road and take you to the gas station when you run out of gas because the gas hand broke on that wicked Chevelle or 32 highboy. We know what it's like to break down and have the world just pass you and say "Meh, oh well."

That's why I worry when I am at work and my wife and little girl go out together in the evenings.

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I somehow missed this one until it was too late but, that thing looks like a Toyota Echo with 08 Malibu headlights and a Lincoln LS grille.

With the last two pics, I can almost hear the "psssssst". I really like how you used those pins to hold the spindle to the ball joints. I've lost my ever loving mind...I just made a statement about actual ball joints on a 1:25 scale model. Ben, I don't know what you have planned to put in those wheel sleeves. But it would be so cool if you found or made some of those old cheap "wagon wheels" American Racing used to make, color match or black them, and slide them in those sleeves.

That's sure a unique way of building this kit. It took quite an imagination to come up with that out of an Aluma-Coupe. I would have never imagined I'd have ever seen this. Now it makes me wander about other Boyd's kits as public service vehicles. Chezoom would sure make a quick taxi!

Hmm, if a ragged hot rod is a rat rod, does that make this a rat rider? I really like this. It looks like a kid found an old beat up car and is doing modifcations to it as he can afford them. Joe, I truely respect the work you put into this. It is representative of something we really might see out and about some average Saturday.

You did a great job replicating your 1:1 and an excellent build of that kit. I had it when it first came out and almost cut my thumb off trying to turn it into a convertible. Glad to see yours didn't get slammed against a wall like mine did.

Paint looks real slick. I know it's just a reflection but, the pic with the checkerboard down the driver side sure looks great.

Well, if it says Round 2, it must be a recent release. I'll certainly be watching your build up. It's funny though cause this could have been re-released with a different set of wheels when they did all the Fast and Furious cars.

If it's a new kit, I wonder why it's not on Round 2's website.

Pardon my stupidity but, is this a new kit? This is the first time I have seen it and the ONLY time I have ever seen the grille done properly with paint through the middle surrounded in chrome. I know that if it's new, it's probably a re-release but, I don't know if the recent Jack Reacher is a remake. Also, I cannot find it on the Round 2 site.