Tom Geiger

I haven't watched it in a while, but saw the big news headlines on AOL this morning. Brian was the most intelligent family member and my favorite. They could have killed off the son or daughter and nobody would have noticed!

To support Joern's post, I Googled and I found. The car below is a '68 Euro car in Switzerland.... http://www.bugbus.net/en/classifieds.html?cmd=detail&id=9344 Personally, I'm happy that Revell decided to do USA releases of the Mini and the 2 Beetles. I want them all and it saves us a lot of money over acquiring the Euro releases. I do agree that the "California Wheels" logo isn't appropriate, it would have been better if they did a "Euro Wheels" series. Then they could have added their new Trabbie at some point!

My old '73 Scamp. Single tail light on each side.

Yes. Remember that most customers were kids back then. This was the era of Zingers, Deals Wheels and those Wild or Mild MPC kits with the huge accessories attached to their annuals.

I've done well on Craigs List. I bought our '95 Celica Convertible and 2000 Jaguar S Type from ads there. Both were local and of course, I bought them in person. The Celica was a private party, while the Jag was at a Rolls Royce dealer. Talk about different! I've also bought and sold antiques, car parts and old furniture. Never a problem in PA or NJ. Last summer I bought 4 small old chairs at a garage sale for $25. Got them home and decided I didn't want them so I took a few quick photos and posted them for $100. They were gone within hours. Someone in my neighborhood put 6 dining room chairs to the curb. I grabbed them and again got $100 for the set. One good use of Craigs List is to get rid of a junk item your trash company would charge to take away. Want to see your phone light up? Post a FREE ad! Man, you'll get 20 calls an hour. And it's a good thing to put stuff back to use than in the landfill. When we moved from NJ I gave away a 25 year old torn and stained couch and love seat set and a lawn mower that didn't run. At my PA house, there was a huge ancient wood swing set in the yard. I wanted it gone so I posted it for free, as long as you took it down and away. It was gone that day. The guy didn't want the two slides, so I posted them for $25 each and sold them!

Not so fast... I'm finishing up my 'traditional rod' Model A pickup this week.. I'm sure someone will dislike it!

Engine is blue... what little you can see of it! I did notice that the kit inner fenders aren't correct. The actual ones are shaped around things like the battery and coolant reservoir. They also have the shock towers visible. I think the ones in the MPC Cavalier may be a bit more convincing. It all depends on how far you want to go for this build. Oh, the car in the photos above has air conditioning. I don't think your Scooter would!

Yea, but how does it measure up to your place? Beats the tar outta mine!

They are indeed. I bought a pack at Radio Shack maybe 20 years ago and still have a bunch. I'm told they sell them in much smaller packs these days.

That is one of their ceramic pieces! The dude is attached to the car. As you can see, they're not known for scale. All their people scale out at around 1/25 scale, but the buildings are much smaller. Still my wife likes it. And I get to plant some cars in it occasionally.

That is very cool. Original Fiat 500s of any kind are rare in the USA. My daughter has a new one, which is much larger than the original.

So the prescriptions you wrote me are worthless???

I'm not Steve but here's where I cut the AMT '71 Duster chassis to use it on 60s A bodies... I think he did something similar, maybe not the same number of inches. I found the Duster chassis cut easy and went back well. There is no paint work done on this used sample chassis. I just pinned it back together inside the rails.

Great work Steve. That is the same spot that I shorten the AMT '71 Duster chassis to fit under early A bodies.

It keeps getting better! I love the Lego sign. It works perfectly in the space. What are you going to do for the signs on both the new Lego sign and the one mounted on the roof? It's time! I have an old Disney Village toy that my kids had when they were young. It's pretty much a diorama of the Disney Main Street but was disappointing because it was all printed cardboard that folded and assembled poorly with visible pins on the fronts. The kids never liked it. But I kept it all these years because all the doors, windows and architectural features are plastic and pretty close to our favorite scale. I'll have to dig it out and see what we've got! Hmmm... I feel a diorama coming on.

My wife was asking about dragging out the tree just this morning. So we'll put that up probably next weekend. She'll put her Christmas Village on the server in the dining room. Outside, we'll put a wreath on the front door, and my wife has electric Christmas candles that do in the front windows. Our house sits back maybe 200 feet from the road, so people see it from a distance as they drive by. Most people in our neighborhood decorate their mailbox, which sits on the road. I'll probably add a bow and garland or something out there. I have a solar deck light sitting on top of the post, so it's already lit up. Christmas Village file photos! From a few years ago.

Agreed. I do like the look and idea behind the cars, but I don't want to die in one. For me, having a 'traditional rod' is freedom to drive it around without fear of getting it dirty or wet. And not having to clean and polish it all the time. I hate doing that! I want something that will start every time, and cruise around comfortably without incident. A few years ago I found a Shay Model A convertible pickup for sale in NJ. It had been sitting outside and had it's own patina going, as best it could for a fiberglass car. It only had 10,000 miles on it, and ran well. I would have bought it if the owner wasn't hell bent on getting full eBay mint truck value out of it. That would have been cool to cruise around in, with modern drivetrain. The truth is that we are all taking a bit of a risk driving any collector car. There was a video that the insurance institute did for their 50th anniversary of a new 1999 Malibu doing a head on crash with a 1959 full size Chevy. In short, the dummies inside the Malibu survived and the ones in the '59 didn't. None of the old cars we love will protect us in a crash like a modern car. And the cars of the 1920s and 1930s were built before today's highways and speeds were even conceived! The old wood framed bodies will just disintegrate upon impact, whether it's mechanical failure from a crummy weld or some mindless person in a modern car hitting them. Be careful out there!

Been a workin' on the truck! I originally said I wasn't going to do any engine details, but went overboard anyway. I made the air cleaners from a few old parts and some plastic tube. A bit tough to detail out since it's an old built up part. Here it is with the belt drives pinned in place. You can also see the dip stick in this shot. I fitted out an exhaust system to fit under the truck and exit right in front of the rear tires. It's pieced together from odd parts cut to the proper lengths and pinned together. And here's the exploded view. Once the engine is in place, I'll connect up through the hole in the spash apron. Then the pieces can be rotated etc until I am happy with the fit and position, just like installing a 1:1 exhaust. Once happy with the install, all I need to do is add a few drops of glue at the joints. I'll start weathering things in the morning.

Some of the old resin companies folded into other companies so their molds and such went there. I can say that any mold over maybe 10 years old has deteriorated to the point of not being usable any more. As you are looking at these in old magazines, note that things always look better in photos. Resin casting has progressed a great deal in the past 25 years I've been watching. Things like slush casting are no longer acceptable. And if you had some of the early work in your hand you would see the crudeness of the conversions, which we all thought were brilliant at the time. Buyers today demand much more.

That does look like a hearse from Argentina...

People were conditioned early on that everything on the Internet and all software is free. That was the tactic of many web sites, that is until they got to a certain level of volume, and then came subscriptions and fees. That early stuff was financed by venture capital pre dot com bubble burst! Now a days, somebody has to pay for the service to exist!

Ha! I knew they were off a diecast just from the construction of them. They had no wheel back and several strengthening ribs inside. I had to carve those out to get proper wheel back / drum brakes on them. And thanks for validating the splash aprons! Ya know someone will say I left part of the fender. The bottom edge of them will be rough and rusty and you will be able to see the exhaust peaking out from below.

I sat on a jury for a trial of a young girl who was busted for an open bag of ahem, white powder, on the console of the car. The cop saw it as he spoke to her, so he didn't need a search warrant, it was in plain sight. Her defense in court was that it was a rental car. As if Avis rents cars with open bags on the console... you know where the verdict was!

Absolutely! It's the one place where you only have to have that one item to sell, and you stand a real chance of selling it for a retail price. Let's say you have a $100 kit. On eBay after all is said and done, you may pay $10 in fees, netting you $90. Sell that same kit to a dealer and he'll offer you $50 because he needs to be able to make a profit on it. I think we all know that this will eventually get passed in some form. Right now you pay sales tax for mail orders within a state (I recently paid sales tax on an eBay purchase from another guy in PA) or where a large company has a presence in your state (I paid sales tax on a book from Amazon when I lived in NJ because their fulfillment center was also there). The big issue will be what state gets the revenue? Will it be the seller's state? The buyer's state? Or half to both? That's more the issue that's being fought, rather than IF there will be taxes! One of the issues was, how would a small seller keep track of taxes and remittances to 50 states? The market will develop a solution that will be automated. Probably part of the Paypal services, and yea they'll add a fee on top of it! And it's not so foreign... most states have what they call "USE TAX". You are supposed to report any out of state or untaxed purchases you have made and pay the sales tax as part of your state income tax return! So it's already there, just widely uncollected. And some states are already chasing down their taxes. I know that NY state tax authorities were putting flyers on NY licensed cars parked in NJ shopping malls. (NJ doesn't tax clothing and necessities, NY does) And I know someone who got a $700 bill from the State of NJ for on-line cigarette purchases.

I think we are over reacting... The really over the top rat rods are nothing more than rolling sculpture. Note that some of them have chops so severe that you couldn't sit up in them to drive. Some of them have been built by big shops. They aren't intended to be somebody's ride, they are just show cars. Not unlike the radical cars from the early 1960s. Some of them didn't even run.. and there was a certain Roth car that the chassis broke upon unloading and was masked with tin foil! So enjoy looking at them or walk on by...