Tom Geiger

Yes, between Google Images and eBay Motors I find all the research material I need. It's kinda made my big literature collection obsolete! I haven't looked at it for years.

I've been told that the Moebius chassis fits under the Desoto like it was made for it.... hmmm

Cool build. I saw another one done by a friend who used the roof and bed from the '61 Ranchero.

Um no, The Tracker / Sidekick is a much larger and more refined vehicle than the Samurai. The world version of this one was called the Escudo / Vitara. I rented a Samurai in Aruba in 1991 and thought it was fun to drive on the beaches there. I test drove one in NJ and discovered I'd never want to drive one in American traffic. So I went a model up and got the Tracker, which I've owned since 1991. Bigger vehicle, bigger more powerful engine, better suspension and air conditioning.

Welcome! Love the Sportabouts!

Very cool build! Thanks to someone for bumping up this ancient thread. I hadn't seen it. But Richard... whatever did you do with that '53 Ford pickup body???

I don't mind the Juke, it was designed to be that odd kinda thing. In fact it wouldn't look bad as a 2 door convertible. I've held onto my Geo Tracker some 22 years because there's nothing new to replace it with. Now the Murano convertible... it looks like an after thought. Like they just tore the roof off an SUV. Not at all pleasing!

You bought that last weekend and it's finished? I wouldn't have wheels picked out yet. That's it, I'm outsourcing my building to AL! See you tomorrow! Bring your appetite!

LOL We all built those. I once built a drag car from a Thames Panel kit, all I had left of the body was the back end past the doors! the chassis was a rectangular piece of sprue. Driver sat centered in it and could only see forward. And yea, I set an original Tom Daniel Tijuana Taxi on fire!

I saw that list on AOL this morning and chose not to publicize it. Maybe it should have been titled, "Cars That Look Least Like Your Friggin Camry". Another one of those articles that looks like it was written by a female summer intern with a 1 hour deadline! I like the above three vehicles as well. I've nearly bought a PT a couple of times, may still wind up with one someday. I've rented them and they drive very nice, much like my old Plymouth Breeze. Awful looking vehicle and expensive. I don't think they've sold many, the only one I can think of is on TV. The husband on "Sister Wives" drives one. His choice of women isn't much better!

Jeff, are we casting the Falcon wagon? I know many folks would buy one!

There is a historic building site local to my NJ home in Holmdel, NJ. AT&T built and opened this facility in 1962 and suburbs sprang up around it. Eventually it became 2 million square feet of office and research space. My wife worked there for 14 years, I was a consultant there for a year. It's a truly magnificent building with four buildings set with a six story atrium between all of them, with roof sky lights. It was the last building designed by famous architect Eero Saarinen. Karl Guthe Jansky invented radio astronomy on this site prior to the construction. The transistor was invented here. Advances in radar and sonar were made here, as well as one Nobel Prize discovery, the laser cooling work of Steven Chu. The first US space shots and satellites were tracked from this site. In it's heyday it was home to over 6,000 employees and was the major employer in the area. Once Lucent was sold to French firm Alcatel, they dismantled the remainder of the AT&T / Lucent research organization and the site was abandoned in the late 1990s. It's just sat vacant ever since. It's fortunate that it's being somewhat maintained and has been the center of development bids since it's closure. Some of the bids wanted to knock it down and build high end houses (Holmdel housing is median $1 millon plus), while groups petition to maintain it as a historic structure. It's been proposed to be a medical center, a mixed use community of business and residential units and a mall. Time will tell. It's fortunate that it's in a desirable area and the property is worth money. It would be a loss to see it demolished.

For windows, don't use the same model glue you've used for everything else. That's just asking for trouble. Use a white glue which will wipe off with a wet Q-Tip even after it dries. Or... I bought some crafters 2 sided tape at Michaels that I've been using to keep glass in place. No chance of getting glue on anything at all. For small parts like mirrors, I usually fix them to the model with a small length of straight pin. Drill a small hole in the body where the mirror will go. Drill a hole in the mirror, insert the straight pin. Cut it to the length you will need once it's dry. Then you can just pin the mirror to the body, and put a dab of glue on the inside of the body so no glue would be visible from outside.

Other cities across American have urban blight as well. You can buy a house in Philadelphia or Newark, NJ for $500 at the city auction. And they go unsold. It's that bad. I saw this on another site and read the complete article since property development is an interest of mine. The whole thing is that Detroit has so much vacant property in distressed areas that are development ready, the Packard plant is untouchable. The cost of clean up and demo on the site is more costly than the property is worth. The only way it will get done is using tax payer monies, that's you and me! It's not a matter of a visionary developer coming in, no bank would finance it. And even if you were able to build a utopian development there, nobody would want to travel through the adjoining areas to get to it. Very sad.

Don't get too excited, the blue '66 is diecast!

There's an old joke... an engineer washes up on a desert island. He is approached by a beautiful woman who said she was marooned here earlier and asks him to join her. She takes him back to her hut where she has worked out running water and made all her own furniture. He's really impressed. Then she makes eyes at him motioning towards her bedroom. She purrs, "Do you want to see what's in here?" He jumps up excited and says, "Oh boy! You've got the Internet!"

You can get little photo etched keys if you want to try your hand at making a lock! No worries, you did good. Modeling is all about challenging yourself and winning. You did that well!

I believe the first response by Dale pretty much covers it. Of course, it varies by the subject matter and what you build. Me? I build odd little street rods and light commercial. Recently I've been building some odd trailers and campers. Sometimes I'll start out with a photo of something, or having seen a 1:1 I found interesting. I'll start to paw through my kits and parts to see what I can do. I start to amass parts and hold them up against one another. I may start to cut some stuff up just to see what it looks like. That's the point when I'm off and running. Once I've got the basic premise of what I want to build and have an image in my head, I'll go research things like engine detailing, interior colors etc to make it realistic. I'll then follow the voices in my head until the object in front of me is the image in my head in 3D. Sometimes I get side tracked, projects veer off course, but eventually I get something built. Some of my stuff just starts by fiddling with parts and stuff from my junk box. My Dodge van camper was one of those. The body had been used as a paint stand and pretty much spent the last few years in the bottom of my paint booth. One day I held it up to light and I saw a camper. I started to cut windows, and soon enough I had a project going. I don't even remember what I was working on before that, or if that one ever got done. It's a hobby so I'm I let the voices in my head guide me. They haven't let me down yet!

Many years ago at my old house, a recent divorcee moved back in with her parents across the street from me. She was snippy and had a problem with men at this point. I watched her pull a huge box from the hatch of her car that contained a brand new lawn mower. I asked if she needed help and got a snippy reply. I retreated back across the street thinking, "Okay you do it witch". I was quite impressed that she got it together in an hour or two. Then she started it up and began to mow the lawn. It was making a bit of a racket and I knew she didn't have any oil! My first thought was to sit and watch, but I jumped up and stopped her. She was decently appreciative at that point, and didn't ruin the motor. My wife asked why I helped and I replied that I was so impressed that she assembled the mower that I couldn't let her fail at that point! She was a bit nicer to me after that.

In conversation with the legendary Bob Paeth of Revell fame, Bob was absolutely humbled that people today remember and collect his work. He said back then, they were just making toys, and dealing with the present. They had no idea what the hobby would become!

Rich, I went hunting for a photo of your '59 Dodge, but only found this one instead!

I do have a bunch of promos that were part of a collection someone once gave me. I've kept them since they're cool and cost me nothing. I don't have an interest in collecting them, and really don't like the warped ones. As Rich said, the promos I've purchased have been beat up ones bought right for conversion to models that weren't tooled any other way. For instance Johan Ramblers of the sixties. Past the warp era, I have a '63 4 door sedan and wagon, and '66 4 door sedans and wagons. These are cool main streamers I want in my built model collection. I've bought these in the 'less than $25 category'.

I'm 54 and the car was before my time. I only know it because there was a model of it. I think the appeal of a new kit would be limited since it was built such a long time ago and a very small segment of the model community will remember the car. Nor is the builder a big name like Tom Daniel or Ed Roth that people will recognize. Steve Scott did this one car so very long ago. Indeed, if the kit was redone, I'd buy one since I think it's a cool version of a T. But I won't seek it out at big dollars.

I doubt we'll see a new kit. Steve's been trying to make a living off a car he built back when he was a kid. He doesn't want to deal with RM, and he's looking for a payday so he'd be difficult to deal with for licensing. A model company could go ahead and tool it anyway, he probably doesn't have the funding to sue them, but again that would just be unpleasant. The Tom Daniel designs were retooled because they have a much more recognition in the hobby and he's a gentleman to deal with!

When I was a kid in New Jersey, model kits were displayed across the top of the low freezer boxes at the local Acme supermarket. Of course I always tried to take one home with me!