Tom Geiger

Aha! Proof that my advise works!

this week's spottings... Hey! That's my car! Yea, the transmission place kept the Caravan FIVE weeks... I had to send my wife to pick it up since they are only open 8-5 weekdays and I have been working in New Jersey lately. After she pays, the guy says, "By the way... we think your fuel pump is bad. We had to bang on the gas tank to get it started." So she drives it home and parks it dead center in the driveway. Of course it wouldn't start and no amount of banging helped. So off it went to my regular shop! AAA must really love me. Spotted this one on a local used car lot. Looks an awful lot like my Geo Tracker! Except it's a newer vehicle and that black front treatment is downright ugly. I was intrigued enough to call for more details... yea, $8999. I'm sure it will be there a long while. I posted this one on the Girls Car thread too. That's the final word on girls cars! Soooo ugly. And it's not like the place could rent it out for other purposes when they're not using it. Yea, I want to take that to a funeral! And this one was in the same lot as the pink Chrysler 300 limo! Parked outside the local pizza shop "Peace A Pizza". Actually a decent pizza place. Yea, that's grass on the roof. This one got me thinking if I was up to creating it in scale... hmmm.

Wow, out of all the silly words that the board blocks with blahblahblah I'm surprised that fart isn't one of them!

I taped a bunch of Adam 12 episodes just to do some car watching. I erased them all after watching two episodes. The show where a kid named "Benji" went from skipping school and pitching pennies with his friends, to killing a liquor store owner in a single episode got me! And of course it was the same two cops who told him to go back to school, who later took the call to the liquor store and cornered him in an alley.

Sad to say I don't have a musical bone in my body. I not only cannot carry a tune, I don't even own a bucket! I do have music in my soul, but just can't get it out! One of my big regrets in life.

A worse situation.. pull out an AMT '59 El Camino. There are prominent ejector pins right on the seat cushion design in the interior tub. And the ones on my kit have rotated slightly so the engraved seat pattern is screwed completely. My favorites... old built ups where the kid who originally built it has highlighted all the text on the chassis with silver paint. My very favorite? I had a Johan AMC Rebel that still had the stiffener piece between the fenders. You know the one you need to cut out so the hood will fit? Well this kid didn't understand that and even highlighted the word REMOVE in silver!

It happens! It's great to have a second kit for when this occurs. Otherwise, box up the kit and forget about it for now. A part is somewhere in your house. It will never ever reappear if you are looking for it. But when you stop looking, it will pop up out of no where! Good luck.

Dave- These were all over Europe when I was growing up there. Simple and cheap transportation, so there's a nostalgia factor there. A kit obviously not made for the US market although I'm sure at least a few guys are planning drag cars.

A man is on a desert island with only a doberman and a pig for company. After a while the pig is starting to look good to him. Smooth pink skin and curves... but everytime he goes near the pig, the dog starts growling. Then one day he sees a small row boat out in the water. He swims out to it and finds a beautiful woman laying in the bottom, near death. So he brings her ashore and nurses her back to health. She is so grateful she says to him, "You saved my life, I would do anything for you..." He responds, "Hmmm, could you take my dog for a walk?"

Hmmm... I want both versions, 4320 yen is around $36 US plus shipping. They are still scarce in the US and on eBay.

I can't address trade names, but I did like the era where they called out the names of the various parts. I learned all about cars that way when I was a kid. Back when I was maybe 12, there was a car in Model Car Science Magazine where the builder said he scratch built a master cylinder on a street rod. So I wanted to do that too. Only I had no idea what a master cylinder was. So I went to my Revell instruction sheets and learned.

From 2001 to 2010 I worked in Pearl River, New York, which is the border town with Montvale, New Jersey. Montvale is US headquarters for Mercedes, BMW, Mini and Saab. You never knew what you'd see on the roads locally with Manufacturer plates on them. Everything from test cars covered in black, Euro only cars like Smart Cars not available in the US to new Peugeots and some odd stuff that never made it to production. Stuff does hit the street.

A man is walking down the street in New York and sees a rabid dog attacking a small boy. He springs into action, picks up a stick and kills the dog, saving the young boy's life. A newspaper reporter witnesses this and says to the man, "You are a hero, tomorrow's newspaper headline will read 'New York Man Saves Child's Life'." The man replies, "But I'm not a New Yorker." The reporter responds, "Then it will say "American Man Saves Young Boy's Life'." The man responds, "But I'm not American, I am Iranian." So the next day the headline read, "Islamic Extremist Beats American Dog To Death"

Maybe the final word on the subject? I see this one around town all the time. Finally saw it parked behind the business.

I got nothing! Yesterday afternoon I made a trip to Michaels with my 40% off coupon in hand. I was hoping to find another Fruit Wagon kit so I could spread two of them out and build a bunch of the different versions all at once. Michaels didn't have a big load of kits, but they had about an equal distribution of AMT and Revell kits, each on their own side of a toy display. None of the kits were on the shelves where they were marked, along with the prices. A fair showing of new releases like the Firestone 1979 Ford pickup, 1961 Rancheros, 1966 Nova and a bunch of other stuff I already have or don't need. So I saw a lady with a big box in her cart and gave her the coupon! At least I made someone's day.

With the movie licensing that Round 2 has been doing lately, a Wayne's World Pacer wouldn't be a big surprise. The Pacer kit was modified to the later hood, but the hood and grill are the only parts modified, so it wouldn't be a big deal to tool up those. Many years ago someone did a model of that car. I took photos of it at the Liars show, and one day I noticed my Fotki account counts were going wacky. Someone put a link to the page containing that photo to some Wayne's World fan site and they loved it. Some of them didn't understand that I just took a photo, and were emailing me asking to buy the model. Thus, Wayne's World being a cult movie with a lot of followers today, I'd be doing the kit if I was Round 2. Like many of the recent movie tie models they've done, most of these would get sold at TV/Movie Memorabilia shows and probably stay in shrink wrap!

People don't stop to think what a miracle it is that these 40-50 year old tools, that haven't seen the light of day since then, have survived! It's truly corporate incompetence, or at least how business was run during the second half of the last century. In today's Lean Manufacturing environment everything would be bar coded and inventoried. And anything that hadn't earned it's keep that year would be scrapped. Opening up that box of the Fruit Wagon, an AMT '62 Buick or other old 1960s kit is opening up a vault showing the state of manufacturing technology at that time. It's no different than putting a 1:1 1962 Buick next to a 2014 Buick and comparing the advances in 50 years of progress. Miles is a young guy and can be taught that this Fruit Wagon kit was how models were done back when his dad was a kid (maybe earlier!). And if you choose to not participate, so be it. Buy modern kits that have more parts and fit better... or maybe go to Walmart and buy puzzles instead.

Speed Racer's Mach Five... back in 1968 when I was a kid and the show was current, we would've killed for a kit or Matchbox car! The toy industry wasn't all that mature back then and they missed a lot of opportunities.. But there was a Revell Herbie the Love Bug kit out when the movie was still in the theaters. We saw that movie in 1968 at Radio City Music Hall, I believe that was the movie attached to their Easter show. And my father bought me the kit... I was 10 and goobed that one up!

I've posted in this thread before with my cars but I picked up this 2005 Buick LaCrosse for the wife last Saturday. 30,000 miles, one owner estate car. Son traded it in on an Acura SUV. It's like a new car for a fraction of the cost... paid cash, no payments.

Bill, they seem to leave us at bad times. The year my dog Sandy died was a tough one. Things had been stressful for me at work and two weeks before Christmas I was told to lay off my entire department. I asked my boss what I would do, and he responded that I was a smart fellow and I'd think of something. That left me believing that I would be let go as soon as I got the department out of there. So here was Christmas week, me being depressed and not wanting to spend much on Christmas, fearing I'd be out of work at the beginning of the year. So poor Sandy couldn't get out of bed two days after Christmas. We took him to the vet to be diagnosed as in the stages of dying, so we had him put down. It was like, what next? My entire world was in turmoil. The bright spot was that I didn't lose my job.. at least for another six years there!

Here in PA/NJ area it was near 70 degrees today. And snow is forecast for Wednesday. I had a colleague here from Puerto Rico the past two weeks and he couldn't get over the changes in temperature. While he was here it was mid 60s and shot down into the 30s. He didn't own a coat! Snow... Geo Tracker 4x4... little mountain goat! I've owned it 23 years and have found it impossible to get stuck!

As of now I just added Evergreen panels on the inside so my side panels are a bit more inset than the real vehicle. Now you have me looking at adding panels on top of those to make them flush! I think I'll just go with what I have in the end. I'm past the choice of paint, and I don't think I would have been able to source the paint from Europe. That is the exact vehicle I'm modeling, It's restored and in a museum, down to the serial number. I believe that guy in the photo is the guy who is helping me from the Trabant board. Tulio, I like your friend's Trabant. And that's the color I'm thinking of painting my sedan model.

Great Geoff! One of my favorite kits. You'll like it.

I got cut off by the photo limit police... so here's the rest of the post... And here's the entire chassis and interior set up together. Just mocked for this photo. My next trick will be figuring out how to get it all stuffed inside the body. The chassis by itself fits it like a glove, all the engine parts tuck in just fine. The interior by itself sits perfect too. Something about putting them together and it doesn't fit. Chassis wants to go forward, so I'm suspecting my bed floor needs trimming. The rest of the kit goes together so well, I'll suspect my work. And why not a shot with all the assemblies in it? Panel body is ready for paint. I bought half a dozen different paints to get the East German postal color. I even spray tested all my gray primers, and gloss coated over them. The winner was a Tamiya RC color. I had bought one can when I started the project, and it only lasted through painted the interior and other small parts. It was near impossible to find, nobody online had it, nor did two hobby shops I tried. One said the color wasn't even in his catalog. So last Saturday I drove the 20 miles to Morgantown, PA to the shop I had gotten the first can. They had two cans so I grabbed them. I should only need one, but I like to have a good variety of grays and blacks for future projects. And a parting shot of the rear compartment. Hopefully the next time I show this view, the spare tire will be mounted on the left and the bay will be full of mail and packages! My goal is to have this project completed for my club's December meeting on the 13th.

Per Andy's inquiry here it is next to a Model A pickup. This is when I discovered that everything in my finished model case is 1/25 scale, so I had to use the Model A, because it would have been dwarfed by my Dodge Ramcharger. My latest progress is getting the interior completed. Life has been a busy blur since my last progress report here, and I'm pleased it's calmed down enough to get to the bench. I have figured out and finished all the postal van issues, so I'm pretty pleased. I was fiddling with the decal master sheet yesterday as well, so those should just roll off my printer when I need them. Dashboard details out well with the kit supplied decals. The radio has relief detail so you'll have to sand it flat to accept the decal. Part of the kit construction is that the lower half of the dash (it's a storage shelf) is part of the interior, while the upper dash slides into a slot on the body, which traps the hood hinges. Pretty clever. I made all the van unique parts from Evergreen. The floor is a ribbed sheet that needed to be cut and shaped to fit. The ribs fought me every step of the way and this floor is something like Take 3. Still, the fit isn't perfect but any imperfections will be covered by strategic placement of mail! The divider panel is just Evergreen sheet with a scored line near the top to mimic the rib at the top of the real one. The spare tire in the wagon is under the floor behind the rear axle. Lord knows why they moved it into the cargo compartment on the panel van. It's in the way! But I had to duplicate it. And as what often happens between 1:1 and plastic, the tire is larger than the space it occupies. So mine will have to sit lower than in real life. There is no room for that saddle you see in the real (tiny) photo. But the spare will be there. Driving compartment went together well. There was a lot of taping for all the paint colors. There are three different paints on the door panels, not including the handles. And you won't even notice my floor mats made from 600 grit sandpaper once it's all together. And this kit has a lot of small parts that you won't even see in the finished model. Note the emergency brake between the seats. There's also a pod that has the seat belt receivers down in that groove. Neatly detailed, and buried between the seats. The one detail I do like a whole lot is the retractable seat belts. ROG also did these on the recent Beetle kit. If a resin caster copied these, I'd buy a dozen sets for future projects since these are missing on every other kit. I fiddled with the engine compartment a bit more. I fixed the seam on the coils that Mike pointed out and I found my red thin wire to add some of the wires seen in photos of the inner fenders. This time it's done. And I'm waiting for the first guy to ask where the oil dipstick is!