Tom Geiger

Yeah! I'm off the hook for spreading rumors!

Modelhaus did resin copies of these. Put an eBay search out for that and you'll get an email whenever you get a hit! Although Modelhaus kits have been offered for big dollars, these pickups might be flying under the radar. When Modelhaus offered everyone one last chance to order, I got the '58 cab... my birthyear.

Shocking! I know he sold AITM to Doug Warner as of January 1. Another good guy gone! RIP and condolences to his friends and family.

Nothing like coaxing a car all week so you can get to work and home again, until you could fix it on the weekend! Back in the early 1980s when I was a new homeowner, with a stay at home wife and a new baby, I was working second shift CAD for Exxon R&D. I had an hour drive each way, coming home at 12:30am. I bought a 1967 Valiant with 25,000 miles on it for $450. It was the bare essentials... 170 slant six (the little one) with a 3 on the tree, manual everything! I had patched the holes in the floor, under the rubber floor mats.. no carpet! It had that awful silver blue paint that peeled. Someone had Earl spray blue over that, and it all peeled. It was the ultimate rat pile of junk. When I did battle on the Garden State Parkway, the other cars would back down because they knew I had absolutely nothing to lose! I had a friend who would stand next to it and scrape my peeling paint off with his laminated drivers license! But it was very reliable! It started every time. It got decent gas mileage. When the awful little Carter carb flooded and stalled at a light, I could move it to safety by cranking the starter. Working second shift, I kept a tool box, floor jack and a selection of parts like a spare starter, alternator, battery and solenoid.. I actually had a second coil mounted on the inner fender. And I had a trunk full of tires. One time I came out of work and someone had flattened both tires on the drivers side. No problem! Jacked it up and changed them! And the car being so basic, I once changed the starter with a good shirt on. The worst breakdown was when the water pump went. I didn't have one at 1am. I called my father and woke him up. I had a water pump in my garage. He went to my house, got it and brought it to me. I'm in a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway and a State Trooper decided to mess with me. He wanted to have me towed as a non-opp vehicle. He gave me a 1/2 hour to get it moved. I already had the radiator out and the old pump off. My father pulled up and I quickly installed a new pump, and was topping off the coolant in the radiator-- with the car running-- when the trooper came back! The car had one quirk. The drivers window was held to the assembly with plastic grommets. They'd fail and the glass would fall inside the door. I got really good at getting the door panel off quick and putting the window back in place. This was when the state troopers had a crackdown on drunk drivers. They would stand on the toll booths and talk to every driver. I was pulling through the toll at 1am one morning, and the trooper spied the Playmate cooler on my passenger seat.. my lunch or dinner bucket! It was empty. As I tossed my coins, he reached in and grabbed the steering wheel... YOU OFF TO THE SIDE! As he did this, his arm hit the top of the glass and the glass fell into the door. I started yelling, "You broke my window!" and he told me to get out of there! I did drive that pig over 75,000 miles. One day I saw it listing to the right and realized the torsion bar was ready to let go due to rust. So I parked it and managed to sell the motor and trans for more than I initially bought it for 3 years earlier!

And not to forget that Fotki is in Estonia, a country with a similar history as Ukraine. They are part of the European Union and use the Euro currency. It is a NATO member.

Just piping in.... Back when this series was just a Dave Burket pipe dream, he had visions of creating the entire series. Dave is a Ford guy so this was his focus, not the other deserving brands. He pitched the idea to Moebius and even self funded the versions you see as Model King releases. If it was up to Dave, he would have done each and every year. In fact the work box that just came out first started with my model Pyrite's Paddler 53 Ford pickup. Of course business happens and times change. Moebius changed hands and there were some growing pains there. We didn't know the mindset of the new owners. At least Dave Metzner is still involved and the trucks keep coming. For the Chevy guys, Round 2 has the 55 & 57 pickups. Popping out a 56 would be nothing more than adding the different emblems from the 55. The 58-59 trucks used the same chassis, and the interiors are even close enough. With tooling of new bodies etc. these could be brought to market fairly easy!

How about a good laugh? We thought the model car guys were nutz on Facebook? Well the vintage stereo guys had a meltdown over Equalizers! ?

“Just bought a glue bomb “ without identifying it doesn’t give us enough to go on for good advice. Pictures even better. Many old kits are being repopped. With annuals if you have a kit that’s long obsolete, often the last version that used that tool is still current or at least cheap, and may give you the entire chassis, engine, glass etc. so you’re not having to deal with gluey mess parts

I just saw a new Bronco on the road. I did a double take because it looked to be a convertible. I wasn't sure if it was, or one of those faux convertible tops, so I stopped in the local Ford store on my way to get groceries. They had a few across their front line, one being a red Bronco with the same convertible top. What got me was this sticker! OMG, I've bought houses cheaper than this! Do we have any car sales folk who can tell us the demographic that pays this and up into the $80s for a frickin truck? I hear of people with over $1000 a month payments on the 8 year plan. I can also imagine these get leased to people who make less than this sticker in a year.

I had a 1977 Monarch with a V8. It had the Mustang bucket seats and console shifter, which was an unusual feature on a US car of that era. It was fine as cars go. I don't remember any issues, other than it was that Granada Silver.. notorious for flaking off the car. I was told I couldn't just sand and get it painted, it needed to come off! So I spent a summer with stripper and sander, got it all into primer. Then our fortunes went well so we bought a brand new 1981 Nissan Stanza hatchback with a 5 speed. Now that was a fun and reliable car! Funny story... the third car of the Granada - Monarch line was the Lincoln Versailles. Back in the 1978 era I worked for a large construction company that was doing very well so they bought all the executives cars. I was in charge of this fleet.. the buying, leasing and eventual sale of vehicles. The main attorney wanted a Lincoln, but not as big as a Continental. We had a relationship with the local Ford - Lincoln - Mercury dealer, so I picked up a new Versailles, might have been the first one they got. I presented this to the lawyer for a test drive. He went nutz that he wasn't driving THAT. I asked him to humor me and drive it a few days. Two days later he came sheepishly to my office and told me to lease it! I chuckled every time I saw Charlie drive by me in that car. It was short lived though. Maybe six months old, he got hit hard right below the A-Pillar totaling out the poor car. I don't remember what we got to replace it.

Thank you all for your concern! I'm alive and well. Just busy! I did do the 24 Hour Build (I didn't finish-- I was exhausted when I started!), but haven't been involved in the hobby lately. I started a new job in January that's been taking up all of my time!

Thank you Kevin, I did find some ramps!

So sorry to hear of Chuck's passing. He was a good guy! If you got Mark's Museum newsletter, Phil Gladstone recently passed away! Another good guy!

Very cool Chuck! My kind of truck! I used the engine chrome on mine too!

pulverized mouse heads

Last week I got mixed results..I had to mail a 1994 Celica tail light from Pennsylvania to Oregon. I pass two post offices on my way to work. I go to the Phoenixville, PA office on Monday.. 8:15 and the post office that is supposed to open at 8:00 is dark with no signs of life except the line of a half dozen people in the lobby. I wasn’t going to be late for work so I left. Tuesday I mailed it from Chester Springs, PA with no problems. It was delivered in Oregon on Thursday. 2 days coast to coast. Wednesday I go to Chester Springs and there’s a sign on the door “system down” and it’s closed. I figured that might be regional, but I go to Phoenixville anyway since I pass it, and it’s open so I mail a model kit. It was delivered today! Hit or miss!

Amen! When people complain about a 50-60 year old tool, I tell them that it's just amazing that it still exists. Every change in ownership or facility/country/continent(!) was an opportunity for it to go AWOL. And we know sometimes they get lost in the shuffle... for instance in one Revell change they forgot that the 34 Ford pickup tooling was at a repair shop. It later surfaced with Lindberg, after being missing for many years. I don't remember well, but I think it was ERTL that shipped the tooling to Mexico, then when that didn't work well, off to China. I believe Tom Lowe came in as Polar Lights / Playing Mantis and bought it from ERTL. He later sold it to TOMY / Learning Curve and bought it back as Round 2 -- thus the significance of the name!

I have an eBay Store. I was surprised when I got "hate mail" from some clown that I had some nerve listing something for $199. I was puzzled so I took a look.. I was listing something for $1.99 and I must've missed the decimal point! Funny thing, I had a lot of views! But ya never know... I had a similar piece sell for $55 this week!

Rapidly boiling water

Yes! My Covid project, logo is a local restaurant that did a lot for the community during shutdown. The Chevy pickup is in their dining room I gave them two and kept one for myself. Below is one of them doing front desk duty.

Oh what the heck..

There's an old story.... Here's my grandfather's axe. We've replaced the head 3 times and the handle 4 times!

Nice work Jim! I especially like the license plate wired on through the rust hole! Classic! Kurt brings up an interesting topic... "Regional Rust". I come from the New Jersey rust belt so we had the salt rust through. Kurt is from a dry area so he's more surface rust. I've consciously built both ways, depending on the theme of my model and the plate I'm putting on it! It's been said Jersey cars rust from the bottom up, but Arizona cars rust from the top down!

Great tool! For thicker plastic.. the Evergreen we score and break, the grid on the bed will come in handy. True up the plastic against the top, and mark both edges at the cut mark using the increments engraved into the bed. Then cut the piece with your eXacto against your metal ruler. These were actually banned at one large pharma I worked at! We used the ones with the roller blade. They were tossing one out one time and I grabbed it. I had to do a minor repair but it's served me well for many years.. I cut mostly 60lb paper stock for my stamp collecting needs.

Another issue of having the kits produced by a third party in China. No face to face oversight. Things like the mix in the plastic... we've all noticed varying degrees of workability with the different model issues. Tires would fall into that same crevice!