Tom Geiger

And thus the reason why we know there will never be time travelers from the future... we would've bumped into them by now!

Yup, overall manufacturers have cut back on the factory warranty to save cost and that opens the opportunity for the store to sell you an extended warranty. When we renovated my NJ house for my daughters to live in, we gutted the kitchen and put in a complete appliance package from a major manufacturer. A month past the factory warranty expiring, the compressor in the refrigerator failed. The estimate to replace it was about the cost of buying a new one. And the response was, "Ooops! You should've bought the extended warranty!" Well, my daughter is hell on wheels and refuses to accept BS. She managed to call the office of the president of the company and got an assistant to speak to her. She basically told them it was bull for the major part of the appliance to fail in a year, and she wanted it fixed. They sent out a factory rep who did so at no charge. And they gave her a new one year warranty on the repaired fridge. Since then, in year four, their dishwasher is leaking from the front door seal when operating, and the stove turns on when it wants to. Great American quality from a major brand! Never mind that the ancient refrigerator that was in my inlaws house when they bought it in 1960 is still working!

My set of powders that I ordered from eBay came over the weekend. I'm not going to get a chance to build for a few weeks. I'm kinda busy with another project for the hobby! :-)

I got a call a few weeks ago telling me the warranty on my car was expiring and they needed me to renew it... my car is 10 years old and hasn't had a warranty for years!

Back when I lived in NJ there was a road that was 40mph and you went up a hill and right at the crest of the hill it turned slightly and immediately became a 25mph zone. And guess who was hiding right behind that sign? Pretty often as I was going 40mph there'd be some clown tail gating me. I could see him become enraged when Iet my foot off the gas and decelerated up the hill. And once we went around the curve he'd see why. Well, one time the guy behind me had enough near the top of the hill and decided to pass me right at that curve on the double yellow. And guess who was sitting there? Yea, he got pulled over immediately!

I'm pleased because I've been working from home since last Wednesday. My boss is traveling and if he's not in the office, there is no reason to be there. I just sit here in my home office in my on-line meetings and get other work done by phone and email. I think I've left the house once since Monday. A blast of wet snow predicted for tomorrow and guess what? I don't have to go anywhere!

I have an old Ron Cash resin version. I believe Jimmy Flintstone makes one now, maybe others. I have the Danbury MInt Borden's Divco, I think I'd rather find a broken one of those to build from. It's absolutely perfect!

I just saw an ad in my local Craigs List for wrapping. The premise of the ad was the same as mentioned above, that you could do your individual thing and remove it before turning the leased car in. They showed the matte black roof and hood treatments as one of their samples. And thinking about wraps... at work they have a make your own sandwich bar and they have the wrap shells. I usually make myself a wrap sub with all the Italian meats, shredded lettuce, hot peppers, onions and olives, finished off with creamy Italian dressing. One day the guy behind me was watching me make the sandwich and he exclaimed, "That looks sooo good! Wish I could make one like that!" so I gave it to him (he still had to weigh it and pay for it at the register) and made myself another one. Oh, my deli training has served me well in life. And I love the old Divcos too! Back many years ago there was a comedy called Medicine Ball, about young doctors at a hospital. One of them lived in a Divco camper in the hospital parking lot. That would make a good model!

Back when I lived in NJ and worked in NY state, I'd pass through Montvale, NJ every day. That's home to Mercedes, BMW, Mini and Volvo USA. We'd see masked cars all the time. Sometimes cars not imported to the USA and competitors like new Peugeots, all running NJ Manufacturers licenses plates. Montvale Police had at least two Mercedes patrol vehicles with "Courtesy of Mercedes Benz" lettered on the tail gates. Mercedes also had a lot of Smart cars tooling around, even before they were sold in the US, and including ones never sold here.... Target promotional vehicles Sports model, one of the Mercedes employees took this one home a lot! NYC Marathon official vehicles Smart 4 door This was in 2005 and none of these were US models, all Euro cars used for promotional purposes. All photos taken on the Mercedes headquarters parking lots. http://public.fotki.com/ModelCitizen/11_car_reference_library/smart_cars/

Very cool work on those headers!

I lived in Germany in that era and was a consumer of those Airfix 1/32 cars. Many of them had opening hood and full chassis detail, think like a 1/25 scale model shrunk down. As a kid some of them were beyond my skills to finish, like the 1910s Bus and Fire engine. Early in my modeling as an adult, around 1990 I'd find the bagged kits for $5 or $10 at swap meets, but since eBay went International they all bring big money. I guess these are to Europeans what old AMT/MPC original kits are to Americans!

I loved the 2005 Mustang when I first saw it, love at first sight. I haven't been keen on the changes through the years past that design. Kinda messing with perfection in my mind. Today I saw a 2001 Mustang convertible, V6 auto in the brightest red you can imagine. Very clean and shiny all the way around, no issues with the interior either. 96,000 miles Dealer asking $4495. Only issue is that it will need a new top. Anyone know what a brown convertible top would cost to have installed on that one? This is the car I'm trying not to buy today!

The list actually goes.... Chevrolet NOVA Oldsmobile OMEGA Pontiac VENTURA Buick APOLLO And what's that spell???!

Niko, just be careful with the Trabbie firewall you are cutting. The dashboard slides down like a snap fit into that to trap the hood hinges. I'd put that together inside the body to make sure it will still operate. I'm nearly finished with a stock Trabant build

Cool John! I'm looking foreward to seeing it and meeting you at GSL! I have a whole collection of old customs that I've cleaned up, rebuilt or outright redone just for the history of the hobby. I have a lot of fun at it since I am restoring them to the build quality they were originally done in back in the day. Such as: Before (body was broken in half, see crack above rear wheel) This was a gift from Howard Cohen to after! Complete with the velvet interior cleaned. I even left the faded chrome on the wheels.

A few weeks ago I witnessed something interesting on the PA Turnpike. I was far enough behind in the left lane to see the whole thing.. I heard this pow and suddenly a rear tire (dual rear wheels) shredded on a truck with a beverage body. Part of the tread landed right across the windshield of the car following him (bits of shrapnel pelted my car as well), literally shattering the windshield in the middle. The guy in the car sped up and waved the truck over, last I saw was the two of them pulling into the shoulder. I'll bet that beverage company paid for that one.

Very cool, I love the idea of a replica! Are you going to make the white grille guard? And the mirrors, I saw that there's one large mirror on the left side, but two small ones on the right side. I've made those from wire and plastic before.

Same stuff. We used an ID card laminator to melt it, that's one of my concerns for long term stability, bot I ordered the set and will try it.

Great work John. My only concern is that it will be way better than the model its replicating

Saw a full trailer load of new lime green Toyota minivans, complete with taxi logos. It was on the NJ Tpike headed towards the PA border. I was headed the opposite direction but all that color got my attention

An apples and oranges comparison... with US manufacturer model car kits, there is a very finite market. I doubt they will sell 25,000 units of a new kit, so the design and production has to fit into that budget. Your Barbie car on the other hand will probably sell a million units around the world as a Barbie brand toy. The development budget for that product is no doubt huge next to the model car business. Another thing is that you glanced at that Barbie Fiat quickly and it "looked good". You didn't get out the photos and engineering scale to pick it apart. Most new release model kits "look good", it's when the engineering tools come out that there are issues. And we did get a Barbie Fiat 500 for our girls... and Ted

I started this one a while back. Still looks just like the picture!

What irked me is that I got excited to get a clean built up, and then I didn't get it. Now I have to start my search all over again.

I hate that. A few months ago I bought a model on eBay, on the Buy It Now and paid immediately via Paypal. The next day I got an eBay message that I got a refund. Guy sent me a note that he couldn't find the model so it must've been sold. Okay, now I have $75 taken from my bank account, and now sitting in Paypal until I need something.