Tom Geiger

Interesting about screen size. I remember when I bought my first 32" screen. We thought that was huge! Last time around we were looking for our first flat screen. A friend told me to get the biggest one we could afford, and it would seem huge at first, but soon enough it would look normal. Got a 55" and he was absolutely right!

Lookin' good Rich! I agree with you on side glass. Not only so you can see better but because you can get inside to reattach any part that comes loose. Yea, I've done repairs through side windows. A different version of the 'ship in a bottle' game! Your photos reminded me... Johan interiors often didn't have the floor center hump. Bummer on that!

The big problem with doing anything wrong now a days is that there are cameras everywhere. Yesterday in Philadelphia a Mitsubishi Outlander did a hit and run. The guy behind him got him fleeing on his cell phone video. Film made the news

My beef of the day... My schedule was to work from home today. Boss emailed me yesterday that he wanted to meet. My Caravan is in the shop so I drive ancient Geo Tracker all the way to NJ. I get here and find out he called in sick! So I drove three hr round trip for nothing!

I did mine with wood grain on the glove box door and instrument panel. I believe I did this because I thought it added interest to an otherwise red interior. I know the instrument panel was metal color on my 1:1, and I had the Vanity option so my glove box was huge in this view as well as red. The steering wheel was exactly like this one.

I'm with ya! Most of what I build has patina. Both 1:1 and model cars! I just don't identify with mile deep paint and unrealistic shine!

I've been married to the same woman for 33 years. I don't know why she gets upset when I introduce her as "my first wife". It's true!

Back when we were researching new venues for NNL East we scanned the entire state of New Jersey... Atlantic City Convention Center got crossed off for extreme unionism... they wanted me to hire their company to draw our floor plans. And none of our vendors would be able to unload / load their own vehicles!

A few weeks ago we were eating at Sonic and I kept seeing cool cars drive by. I was thinking it was really nice weather and everyone and their brother had their cars out! We finished eating and go to leave and discovered that while we were there an entire cruise night had assembled on the other side of the building! Pretty darn cool!

The museum should have examples of all the different spray cans of that era. Even if someone has a dead can that the paint can be decanted from... that shouldn't be too tall a request. Anyone? Dave when you said ONE custom tail light, this comes to mind: I know this kind of rear treatment was common on old Corvettes, that's why I did it. Unfortunately, this one was the custom tail light from the 1970 Chevy Impala... A little late for your project. Are there any other ones, but from that era?

I have ones molded in black and blue. I haven't seen other colors. This one started out as black. It is one of my early models so I didn't prime it. I don't know how I got a nice finish with hardware store antique white spray paint right on that black plastic! I built it before I knew about BMF, but later on redid the side bright work.

My wife's brothers! Three brothers, zero hobbies. We had her youngest brother and his family over for dinner. I showed him my model room. He looked at the display case full of finished models, and then the closet full of unbuilt kits in their boxes. He smiled and asked, "Maybe we could build one before dinner?" Dinner was in maybe 15 minutes to a half hour. The kit he pulled out was the Monogram 1959 Chevy convertible. So I pulled my finished one (all weathered and I opened the doors and trunk) and then showed him what it looked like in the box. He was floored. He had no idea that all those parts weren't prefinished in the box and all we would have to do was screw a few things together.

Back when I worked pizza delivery all the delivery cars (our own cars) were lined up out back usually with keys in them. Every so often the guys would take and hide a car, funny joke. I hadn't worked there in a while, but I stopped in one night to say hello to everyone. I parked my '56 Chevy in a space out front. One of the guys asked me to go for a delivery ride with him, and when I got back, my car was missing. Yea, funny joke guys. It took them a while to convince me that they hadn't touched my car... it actually had been stolen! Years ago at work I was on a team that investigated accidents on the company property. Here's two that I remember that involved stupidity... Guy used a ladder to go up on a one story roof. Two idiots thought it funny to remove the ladder. Guy on roof got upset and tried to jump down, breaking a leg. The famous fork lift race... two idiots were racing back from lunch on fork lifts. One is watching the other one instead of in front of himself, and hits a metal post, which bends forward making a perfect launch device. The fork lift went up in the air and came down on it's side. Operator wasn't belted in as per SOP and decides to jump! Forklift comes down where he jumped and the safety cage top bar lands right across his legs. Two broken legs.

Oh crud, I can't seem to post anything right these days.... my mind is going.

A 1964 movie that was actually about the car. It tells the tale of the car's life from new in 1932 to 1964 and it's many owners. One of those "if this car could talk..." tales. Like many movies of this era it has a huge list of stars from Ingrid Bergman to Omar Sharif to Wally Cox to Shirley MacLaine. Somehow the movie wound up out of circulation and never got released on tape. I dug deep and found someone on a Bergman fan site that had a copy and was doing DVDs. I saw this once when I was a kid and was enthralled with the car story. All of my cars... drawings, models and Matchbox cars got painted yellow and black (the actual scheme on the car) for years. So the movie went on my bucket list until I was able to score my copy... and as life usually goes, the memories were better than the actual movie! Still I drag it out about once a year and watch it again!

A bit of trivia that Americans may not know... First off, they are actually called GUMMI BEARS, the Americans changed it for import (don't we always Americanize everything?) Gummi means rubber in German... Next, Lick the back of a Gummi Bear and toss it straight up at the ceiling. It should stick! We did that as kids in Germany and the ceilings at school were covered with them... and occasionally one would fall down during class to a burst of laughter. So go have some fun!

Then I apologize too! When I saw the post it looked like you were mocking me, asking if I hung out with a man who has been dead for a long time and would be 99 years old today! Guess the Internet does that to us,

Nothing like a bit of sarcasm? But since you asked.. my grandfather grew up in Hoboken and knew Frank when he sang in local bars, way before he was famous. My grandfather would be over 100 today. Living in Monmouth County NJ, which is the epicenter of the Asbury Park music scene we had access to a lot of icons back when they were up and coming. The guy I rented from was hooked into the music scene and knew a lot of people. So it wasn't unusual to come home and find interesting folks at his house. When Melanie was playing the Garden State Arts Center, I met her at the house. In fact the previous occupant of my apartment left to tour with the Ian Hunter Band in 1979 when they hit with "You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic". He left behind a huge bookcase full of band photo albums and other interesting stuff that I would go through. We would bump into people locally too. Bruce Springsteen lived in Holmdel before he moved to Rumson. I did deliveries for Luigi's Pizza and we'd get that order on a regular basis. Before Bon Jovi hit he and his band members would hang out at a bar in Sayreville called "The Tunnel". We had no idea who they were back then, we just knew the guys were in a band. I only put it together that we were drinking alongside him when I heard him on Howard Stern talking about the bar much later in life. We'd go to the Stone Pony and saw Southside Johnny, Little Steven's Underground Garage and a lot of other bands of that era. My wife went to school with Stevie Van Zandt's brother Billy, who was a struggling actor we would go root for in the local Dam Site dinner theater. He later married Adrian Barbeau. Bruce moved to Rumson, which was across the river from Sea Bright and we hung in the old Tradewinds Lounge where he'd show up and do a few songs with the band on occasion. I was lucky enough to be there one slow Sunday evening when he got on stage with Sam The Band. Absolutely amazing! Living in Monmouth County you never knew when Bruce would show up at a local venue and jam with the band. Part of the magic of living there in that era. Movie director Kevin Smith grew up in my wife's neighborhood. His first movie "Clerks" was shot in a convenience store in Leonardo that I had once worked in a few years prior. We follow Patty Scalfa's brother's band locally. Last time we saw him about a year ago at Woody's Roadside Tavern, in Farmingdale, NJ the place was so jammed we could hardly get inside. I asked what the buzz was and they said that Bruce and Patty had been there the previous time they played and did a few songs. Missed that by a week! So the magic is still alive in Central NJ.

Sightings at Point Pleasant, NJ on Saturday. Super nice day out, people on the beach. We were there to participate in the Alzheimer's Walk. Spotted in one of the lots, this 1969 Ford Ranch Wagon. Patina galore but actually pretty solid. Here's a funny one. Brand new Mclaren sitting outside an oceanfront home that faces the boardwalk. Car is in the first space on what should have been a quiet little alley like street dead ending into the boardwalk. Guy was quietly wiping down his car... and the entire 2000 plus person Altzheimer's Walk turns off the boardwalk and down his street. The guy was standing in protect mode as people streamed by on all sides of it! I waited a bit to get this photo. You can still see some folks in the purple shirts walking past.

And Ray, once I hit the post button, I got to thinking that these kits weren't even taken seriously back in the day. I don't think I ever remember them being mentioned in the model magazines back then. I remember these second tier models being sold in smaller places like luncheonettes, no doubt placed there by jobbers.

Some Palmer boxes... the kits are pretty much turds with multi piece bodies that sorta look like the car. Box art can be cool, some of the subjects can be unique, but remember - the parts are merely designed to rattle when you shake the box! Nothing more.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure! Here's a Premier 1961 Falcon kit. I actually buy and collect Palmer and Premier kits because the box art is nostalgic and cool. I don't spend any real money on them, but if I see one I don't have at a show for $10, I'll grab it. Let us not confuse these with the modern kits that people on this board regularly have hissy fits over. I mean models that are 99% right and we'll have some 50 page thread about some tiny little details that 90% of modelers will never notice. Here we have the kits of no return. There's nothing you could do to this one to make a perfect replica of a Falcon. It's too tall, too narrow for starters.. Thought you may enjoy their Corvair... at least they were consistent!

I think we all knew enough not to expect anything from a Palmer or Premier kit. It was obvious at first glance. I think this thread is about the kits that look good but fail I. The build mode. Mine would be the Revell 57 Nomad. That cool box art sucked me in every time as a kid. Never got one finished !

Speaking of sealed kits. A few years back at NNL East I picked out a sealed kit to buy and the vendor got an uneasy look on his face. He tells me that he thinks that one kit 'May have' been resealed. He doesn't want to tick me off since I send out the show' vendor invites. I buy the kit anyway and when I later opened it, sure enough there are parts off trees and optional tires are missing. Yea I knew this clown was wrapping kits! Another buyer may have never been told and could've kept it in his mint sealed kit collection. I can imagine some sealed kits are just boxes of spruce!

Yes the original Italian Job! I need three of the recent Revell kits, I wonder why? Did anyone mention It's A Mad Mad MadWorld? A classic car movie. Another ancient favorite... The Yellow Rolls Royce. Never released on tape. I have a bootleg DVD