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Tom Geiger

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Everything posted by Tom Geiger

  1. I need to find one of those Welly Capris! I lived in Germany then and they were a sensation, known as a mini Mustang. The US Army officer who lived across the hall from us bought one so I got to see it up close and an occasional ride.
  2. Great work and thanks for taking the time to document and explain! The downside is that you are pointing out kit shortcomings that we hadn’t noticed and now will stand out to us on our finished models!
  3. Very nice Rich! I'll be thinking of you next Wednesday! I wish you the very best with the surgery and recovery. Please do post again as soon as you can to let us know things went well, as they will!
  4. I don't believe they ate the plastic, but they ate the boxes, instruction sheets etc. That left a brown slime on everything inside the boxes so my father just tossed everything that was infiltrated. He did save a few kits that were not affected inside, I have a Porsche 914 kit that they ate part of the box side panel.
  5. Last evening I noticed that my finished 24 Hour Build Falcon Modified Stocker was sitting crooked on the shelf. I hadn't glued the chassis in place, as it was a tight press fit. And now I noticed it was too tight a fit and had popped out of the body. So up to the bench we went. I measured this chassis, which I had taken from a Monogram '66 Mustang Shelby, against the kit chassis and determined it was about 1/8 or more of an inch too wide. So I carved and sanded it down on each side edge, less than an hour's work. And now the chassis sits fine up in the body. It felt good to solve a problem.
  6. My model room is a bedroom with a hard wood floor. Same result! Often I will sweep the area under the bench with the edge of a piece of cardboard. All kinds of bits of plastic scrap and stuff wind up in that pile. And I've found photo etch parts, doll house nails and other things I've lost. Some of which I haven't missed yet! But seldom the part I'm actually looking for. That will show up another day.
  7. This is why I like to have at least two of the kit I am building. First, I can pick the best parts from the two kits, and second, if I lose or break a part I can grab one from the second kit. Especially important in the 24 Hour Build! Right now I'm trying to finish up my Trabant van project. I was missing some parts, some of which I found in a small basket I keep unknown parts I find on my bench in. Still I needed a few bits that I grabbed from a second kit. And when the original bits show up again, I'll put them in the new kit.
  8. Very neat conversion! And great photo documentation too! I am also watching!
  9. I can drop a part off the bench and here it bounce on the floor. Then when I go looking it's nowhere to be found. But then I find a part I lost previously! I've had entire boxes go missing for years. Once I had a shoebox full of 1960-61 Falcon and Rancheros. It was a running joke at my club, my "Elusive Falcon Box". Then one time I pulled all the shoe boxes out of my closet and felt that one that was marked "Matchbox Cars" was way too light. I flipped it around and the other end was labeled "Falcons". Ha! I also have a Renault Dauphene body that's been missing for some 20 years! And occasionally while hunting through the hoard, I find things I swear I've never seen before!
  10. Here's a pair of cans I did on my camper for inspiration. Note that both of them started as the same can. I reshaped and added different handles. The one in the back has a standard cap. I thought it would be interesting to have the nozzle on the front one.
  11. a kinda funny aside... Note that Vac-U-Form, along with the other Mattel toys (Thing Maker etc) that came with a hot plate. It was very primitive and had absolutely no safety features like a level switch, over heating protection etc. I know many of us burned ourselves on these, I know I did. I wonder how many kids started fires or burned down their homes with these? I remember being like 6 years old and my sister and I playing with the Thing Maker on a bed, an accident waiting to happen! Back when I started back with models around 1990, I saw a Mattel Vac-U-Form in a second hand store. It was a 1980s model and was sealed up with tape so I bought it for $10. When I got it home I just had to laugh out loud. It was completely safety'ed up! The heating unit was a 60 watt light bulb. The frame that heated the sheet of plastic had to be inserted into the machine so you couldn't see or touch it. And of course it didn't really work! I quickly put it on eBay and resold it!
  12. That worked!
  13. Very cool! All's well that ends well! I'm glad she was pleased.
  14. Very nice work! I like it a whole lot! Maybe find a couple of gas cans and suit cases for the rack!
  15. Frank, I love the Ranchero! I probably have more than a half dozen of these as old customs! I'm happy you are preserving it. The best I do to these is to replace missing parts like mirrors, spot lights and wheel spinners and clean them up. I love to keep them as the builder meant it to be!
  16. Roadster: How, And Especially Why, A Mechanical Novice Built A Car From A Kit - Chris Goodrich Interesting read, he built a Lotus 7, and a lot of interesting asides and philosophy... Blue Highways, A Journey Into America - William Least Heat Moon Recommended to me by Dean Milano, he wrote a song about this. A story about a journey across America in an old Ford Van. The Critical Path: Inventing An Automobile and Reinventing A Corporation, Brock Yates An inside view of the development of the third generation (1996) Chrysler Minivan.
  17. I own an original Mattel Vac-U-Form unit. As you can see, the largest item you can copy is a convertible boot, or maybe a hood. Here's my attempt at forming a windshield. I found I'd have to make 3-4 copies to get one that was usable. This is / was a company that made the perforated sheets used on the Vac-U-Form. I did get an order of sheets from them years ago. I don't know if they are still in business.
  18. I think it’s a compound problem. First there’s a very good chance that the rest of the kit got trashed when the molds were modified into the funny car. Second, todays buyers are looking for much more detail in a “new” release. If indeed there was a need to have an early Nova wagon, they’d be better off starting from scratch
  19. Here’s the one I built back when the kit was introduced. It went together well and was fun to build.
  20. Nice work! I have a couple of that kit. I need to build one!
  21. Okay.. Valentines Day has passed.. what was her reaction ? Inquiring minds wanna know!
  22. Opels were sold at Buick dealers. In the early 1970s the dollar sank against the German Mark.. when I lived in Germany back in 1969-72 it went from 4 marks to a dollar to less than 2! So that killed the salability of Euro cars in the USA and that was the end of Opel. GM substituted in Isuzu built cars as “Opel by Isuzu”. That didn’t last but a few years.
  23. here’s mine ( an old built up I got in a collection) with the stock kit roof for comparison. I’d love to have a 4 door sedan because my father had a 71 Belair sedan.
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