Tom Geiger

Gas is cheaper and more expensive state by state due to the taxes on it. Google 'state gas tax' and charts will come up. For instance New Jersey has some of the lowest taxes. Even with attendants pumping the gas for you, their gas is still the cheapest in the region. Back when I lived in NJ I worked in Pearl River, NY which is the border town with NJ. A favorite lunch time pastime for the New Yorkers was "Going to Jersey for gas... wanna come?" because the gas was literally 50-60 cents cheaper in NJ. And the funny part was that the gas in those NJ border towns was 10-20 cents more expensive than in my town, about 50 miles south. So I'd always fill up in my town, only up there when necessary. Now I live in PA and work in NJ. So I get my gas in NJ because again, it's 20-30 cents cheaper than PA. As far as collusion on gas prices in a specific area, it depends on if there are company owned stores, branded dealers or non-branded independents. They all get their gas through different channels. There are times that the companies are charging their branded dealers more than they have the gas for sale at their company stores just to stick it to them. The independents spot buy what ever gas is surplus in the area that week and can get a good deal. Other weeks when there is a tight supply, they don't do as well. Back when my family owned the Getty station there were a couple of other gas stations we watched. Every morning on his way in my brother in law passed those stations and noted the prices. Then he'd call the Getty rep and they'd price the gas for the day, usually a penny under the others. There wasn't any more science to it than that 15 years ago. BTW, in those days we had a choice with our Getty dealership. Getty owned the property and we owned the business. We had a choice of either buying the fuel and pricing it ourselves, or having them own the fuel and getting paid a nickel a gallon to sell it. The nickel was the better deal since prices swung wildly and sometimes you'd be selling gas at a loss if you owned it.

True. They also had side glass panels on them that got replaced with solid ones once here too. Now the funny thing... everyone has been up in arms waiting for vehicles from China and India... and one from Turkey snuck in and nobody noticed? It's on the window sticker and all, but I read new car reviews that didn't even mention it! I thought it would be big news. As far as from the Turkish side, I lived in Turkey in 1967 when they manufactured their very first car, the Anadol. That was a big deal to them back then. And I'm sure they're very proud to be exporting trucks to America!

You need a straight edge and a very sharp exacto. I've had painted decals chip before. But once you painted a sheet, the strips are so cheap that you can afford to mess up a few.

Cool. I'd like one with the hatchback please! Ever wonder why we don't see South American car imports here in the US? Figure it's not that far a trip.... lots of interesting variations of American cars. I'm wondering if there are import or export issues? Also- check for the current episodes of Wheeler Dealers. I watched the episode on a 1958 2CV resto last night! Really odd but ingenious braking and suspension system. That's what I like about that show, you see the car in great detail!

Note- Harry is currently out in his driveway sledge hammering his garage door opener!

My experience is that the passenger side rusts because roads are angled with a crest in the center, and low points at the curb to aid in rain runoff. That leaves the passenger side sitting lower, so water runs down the car on that side, dripping off the bottom.

I don't think so. It would be cool to have a Mercedes / Dodge Sprinter, Transit and Transit Connect as kits or diecast. I remember a while back someone in Europe said there was a toy of the Sprinter that was close enuf for 1/24. Diecast would be the most likely for these subjects.

So there I was, perfect paint job with decals all sealed in with clear.. just shining there on the stand. I decide that just one more little squeeze of clear, so I reach for the spray can... and spray FLAT BLACK on the body! Wrong can! Based on that one, I have trained myself that I place the can I'm working with in the spray booth with the subject. Interiors - note that my interiors are pretty multi media... flocking, cloth, paper, cardboard, acrylic and water color paint... knock over one beer bottle directly into the finished interior! Didn't notice it until it filled up too! And the mother of all model room disasters.... Exhibit A - My model room at my old house in New Jersey (Pre disaster) Exhibit B- Same shot post disaster. The shelves came down off the wall. Fortunately we were away for the weekend so I wasn't sitting there. My chair got flattened! Lessons learned... I did put the shelves back up again with much longer screws! I used to kid people that you could see the screws sticking through the outside siding! And I didn't put the heavy stuff... books, etc back up there. I have the same shelves at my current home, and just have my parts cabinets and all my unfinished projects on the shelves! My miracle picture. My 1950 Ford pickup was sitting at the back of the bench awaiting a minor repair. The bottom narrow shelf came directly down and got stopped on top of my eXacto blade boxes, leaving the pickup in a neat little safe garage. Only the front bumper got knocked off. Easy glue job!

That's me Dan, "Leading indecision for over a half century!"

My Verizon Fios DVR... anyone have one and see this issue? When I'm watching a taped show and I fast forward through commercials, if there's less than 5 minutes left on the show, it will just end the show, instead of stopping where I've hit stop. Then I have to start the show over again, and fast forward through the whole thing to get to where I was. Is this an inherent flaw with Fios? Specific to their software? Or a function of my model DVR? Anyone experiencing this? Does it happen on other service providers... it bothers me enough to switch!

I kinda like the idea of being chauffeured to work! I used to drive the Garden State Parkway to work every day. A very busy road where it would go from cars traveling at 70mph bumper to bumper to stopped dead in a second! And a few minutes later you'd be going 70 again. While the daily drivers were pretty skilled at it, still every friggin day you'd see accidents. The classic rear ender, over and over. Even with skilled drivers, you look away or daydream for one second and bam! So now traffic would stink for the next hour as everyone cranes their necks to see the accident. Some new cars have braking systems that won't allow you to hit the car in front of you. That should be standard on all cars. It certainly would help the Parkway. Driverless cars never blink or daydream, don't have blind spots and make human errors. And we no doubt will be seeing it in the future.

Ah, the quandary... it does look better without the chrome, but you are building a replica and the real car has the strip! If you entered this otherwise perfect model in a Replica Stock class, they'd mark you down for the missing chrome strip. Personally I don't think it interferes much on the left side. It's a matter of looking at the right side to see how that looks. I'd probably include it for accuracy's sake.

Yea I hate remakes. It's like they ran out of good ideas for movies years ago and had to dig back into the past to ruin good memories! Funny thing, most folks don't know that there was an original The Fast & The Furious, circa 1955. I have it on CD, found it in Walmart years ago for a dollar! http://youtu.be/gpn93DocVhk

When I bought the house in PA, I had already picked out the tractor I was going to buy. We closed on the house and I didn't move in right away so I called up the previous owners lawn guy to see if he could do it a few weeks... when he said $30 to mow my acre, it was a done deal!

A sore back! This was a busy three day weekend. Saturday we participated in the whole neighborhood garage sale. It was busy but everyone wanted to spend a dollar. Only made a hundred bucks. Used to make a bundle when we had sales in New Jersey! So on Sunday we headed to Jersey to have dinner with friends and spend our garage sale winnings. That left today to get some work done around the yard as spring rapidly overtakes me! I started today by cutting up a huge pile of old wood with my chop saw to go in the paper bags the town will take on Friday for the last brush pickup of the season. Then I blew off the entire back yard of the fresh leaves that fell during last week's major hail storm. Then I got up near the pool and attacked all the leaves that landed since my last run through there! Pool gets opened on June 2nd so I have a bunch of stuff to do there before that! Next up is a truckload of mulch, power washing the deck and giving it another coat of paint... it never ends!

Yea, consulted with my two engineer friends over dinner yesterday. They both concur that the replacement of the main board is needed.

NIce work Jules! I do random things on my models like one visor up / one visor down, two bucket seats at different positions, passenger all the way back, driver up a bit for a shorter driver. And with adjustable headrests I will do them at different heights too. It adds a little bit of realism. And per the selfie, I'm on board. It's good to see who we are.. I guess you just didn't want to get glue on a good shirt. Good move, I got black Sharpie on one of my favorite shirts last week!

I'm bummed. My wife's 93 year old aunt died this weekend. Nice lady, sharp as a tack and on Facebook! She led a good long life and suffered little at the end. Now the secondary bummer part. This coming weekend is our 33rd anniversary. We haven't had a vacation or break since we got into this Pennsylvania move. Seriously last time was a week in Sanibel in 2009! So we had a reservation at a very old and interesting hotel in the Baltimore Harbor Fells Point area for 2 nights this coming weekend. And guess when the wake / funeral is? This kinda stuff happens every time we try to take a break!

Welcome! Let us know what you like to build, and please do post some photos of your work!

Or the other way... there's long lines at all the checkouts except the Express - 15 items or less, which has no one. An employee expediter directs me to the Express.. then walks away. That's when someone with 3 items walks up and glares at me as if I'm 'one of those people'.

Very nice work on an old favorite car! I love the way you did the two tone paint!

Nice trucks! I'm more of a Coke Zero or Diet Dr Pepper kinda guy! Whenever I fill my two huge coolers with soda for our club, I have to be sure to put a 12 pack of Dew in there... otherwise I hear whining! Has anyone taken the cab from the Beer Wagon to use on either stock light commercial or rat rod / street rod applications? I have a box I got at a show that has the tortured remains of several of these. Ah,,, so many ideas, so little time!

Ah the quandary! Cars in Europe and Australia that nobody gives a hoot about there, but I'd love to have one in the USA! I'd love to have a CV, an old Mini or an Aussie Valiant for fun. Rare here in US, and would be costly to ship here!

or worse... we'll rip the shrink wrap off all his mint kits!