Tom Geiger

I remember seeing pictures of that dealership in the day. It needs to be put on tour! Bring it down to NNL East, either with cars or invite people to populate it.

And that's why I haven't bought one. Too big a learning curve. There was a guy in my club who got very proficient at making metal shavings, and that was as far as he got with it. If I wanted to be a machinist, I would have gone into the trade. I don't believe I'd enjoy it. I have found the limits of how far I want to go with the hobby.

Oh come on! Anyone who doesn't have tires and wheels in their parts box... There are a few other issues. The interior door panel detail is very light and will get lost under paint. I added all new to mine. Also the kit doesn't have pedals, again easy add from your parts box. The top of the firewall is blank, there should be vents there, again easy to add from a donor kit. One issue that is a pain is that the trans hump is very shallow, making it hard to change out the engine. I'm putting a slant six in mine. Also, as you said the first issue is the '77, that's the kit without a year on it but labeled "New Volare". The only issue that has the Roadrunner side window louvers and spoilers is the one specifically labeled Roadrunner. I have that New Volare kit, but it's sealed so I cannot see the decal sheet. All issues have that silly landau top thingie.

I can't afford to! LOL

Um, we're only gonna accept Paypal!

Very true. People use it as a library. Every time I go in there I see people sipping coffee and reading the magazines. I bought a Hemmings once that had a coffee stain in it.

You will find that girls come and go but modeling is forever!

A funny thing... my father was US Army so I lived in that shadow most of my childhood. He retired when I was 15. Having lived on military bases and having access to lots of inspiration, I never ever had an interest in military modeling at all. It was always cars for me!

Some very minor progress. I avoided scratch building a propane cylinder on the Dodge van camper by making it all electric. This time I figured I'd need to have one hanging off the back. I started working with small gasser fuel tanks, and that was going nowhere fast. They just didn't look like a propane cylinder. Then someone mentioned that Escort's Resin did one. Sure enough, they had a pair of two sizes, the one you see here and a taller one. So I ordered. Don was very attentive. He emailed several times as to the progress of the order and I had my cylinders in about 2 weeks. Quality wise, they're like R&R rough. The top portion didn't have the handle holes in it so I drilled and carved them out. The bottom ring was a short shot so I sanded it off and added a small plastic ring from my parts box. Once that all was done, I gave it a spray of Duplicolor white and it looked like a propane tank. I then took the label off my 1:1 tank and taped it to my house. A few photos later, I reduced it to size in Word and printed out a few. I'm not 100% happy with my printer's performance, but it's what I got for now. Important to note, the label is just paper glued on with Elmers glue. No need to make a decal for something easy like this. I still need to plumb the top with a hose and a valve. As I searched through my parts box for the bottom ring, I came across a beat up Ford pickup with a crushed cab. As many of my projects are born, I just started to fiddle with the parts. And here we have the start of a pickup based trailer like we've all seen on the road. I'm not sure if this will be towed by the traveler, or if it's a model all on it's own. The good part is it's already painted, kid applied paint jobs are a good start for my weathering work. I'm not sure where it's going, whether it will get an interesting topper, a ladder rack and a load of 'stuff' or... the voices in my head are fighting over it right now.

Okay I think you just scared off Bruce! As Joe said, you can build a model with a fingernail clipper and an emery board swiped from your mommy or wife. Heck, I remember brushing painting models with a Q-Tip when I was a kid. Honestly, I've been at this over 25 years as an adult. I'm pretty much a hand tool guy. I use spray cans, I don't need an air brush. I don't use a Dremel. I have a few different eXacto knives. I like the one with the cushioned handle. I have Flexi-files, about a $10 investment. A small file set from Home Depot may set you back another $10. I have a wire clipper from my garage tool box. I bought about 6 different grits of 3M sand paper from the auto parts store and cut them into small 2x2 squares for sanding. That $20 investment has lasted for years. I do have a spray booth. I built it from a plastic recycle bin and a used kitchen fan. It's worked for 20 years. I bought a small drill set for less than $15 and you can get a pin vise drill for less than $10. Here's the sand paper: Typical packs you can buy at any store. About $5 last time I looked. Cut into small squares. A pack of each grit will last you years. The small cabinet was $7 at Wallys. Hope this helps. You can spend a fortune on tools and equipment if you want but you can also build economically. But also remember any dollar spent on good tools will last you a life time.

As you said, not my style, but a very cool car indeed! And I love the interior work. It's one of those interiors that it's a shame to hide them inside a model!

Oh I tick people off, I just do it within the rules! I love those battles of wits with unarmed opponents!

And we can't forget the GTO! I got to drive them at a GM drive event when they were new. They were amazing. The V8 had just the right amount of roar and the manual tranny was a lot of fun. I only got to drive it on their little course and would love to take one out on the open road. I notice that they're still holding their value.. darn!

My first recollection of models was at my father's youngest cousins' house. Dickie and Donny lived in a big upstairs bedroom that their father had built a shelf up high around the entire perimeter of the room that was just wide enough for a model car to sit sideways. I was maybe six and was very impressed that the 'big boys' invited me up to their room. I was mesmerized with the display of model cars parked end to end on that shelf! And the best part? They gave me one to take home with me! I don't remember what ever happened to that model, or even what it was, but it left a lasting impression on me! My dad was military so the next few years we lived in Turkey where there was nothing available to buy. My model building actually commenced in 1968 when we moved back to NJ. Between the debut of Hot Wheels and shelves full of model cars I was in Heaven! Every Saturday my grandfather and I would take a walk to Two Guys Department Store. We'd have a hot dog for lunch and I could pick out either a Hot Wheels car or a model kit. I hate to admit that the Hot Wheels won out more than not, but I got great kits like the original '69 Chevy and after seeing the movie, Herbie the Love Bug. A year later we moved to Germany and models became difficult to get once again. The German Mark went from four to a dollar to less than two inside of a year so local purchases had literally doubled in price. For instance when you all were paying $2 for a kit, a Revell of Germany kit was $10 in a local hobby shop. That left me to build the Airfix 1/32 scale cars, and models sent to me from the US by my grandparents. They seldom got my requests right, sending me funky Tom Daniel cars rather than the list of hot Mopars I had sent them. So I discovered the AutoWorld catalog. Back then it took something like 3 months to get an order, so I would place an order about once a month. It would be for a kit, some brush paints (they couldn't mail sprays) and if I had a few cents left over, I'd buy a decal sheet, the AW license plates or once time the AW Auto Cutter, which I still have. I kept track of how many orders I had stacked out there, and their anticipated delivery dates. And I lived for package days! My model building was more self directed than peer pressure. I don't remember building models with the neighborhood kids, it was just something I wanted to do, no doubt from the seed planted with that first kit from my cousin Dickie!

Maybe the whole system can be run on fines from infractions! That's how they run EZPASS! Amen! I don't have any warning points on any board! But some folks..

I'm planning on building all three. I checked the other evening and there are enough Google Images as research to build them nicely. Build assembly line style and three isn't three times the work of one!

How do you make a small fortune in the model car business? Invest a large fortune!

Plastic cladding? Try a Honda Element. Ugly as sin, sold well. And there's no excuse for the Nissan Cube or the Kia Soul but you see a bunch of them on the road and there's no big contingent against them like the Aztec. There is also a big Toyota 4X4 thingie that I think is particularly ugly, has the nose of a 1960s International truck, but again those sell well. Go figger!

I built this one but I'll never do the car in the tree thing, or the tree growing through the car thing... too clique and has been over done in scale!

Looks great. Nice save of a glue bomb!

I like Testors flat black, but I never buy the little bottles, only the spray can. It gives a good uniform covering for something like a chassis. For the small parts, you can mount them on tooth picks or even on masking tape, and stick it to Styrofoam blocks. Then spray for a perfect finish. You can also use the spray paint for detailing or brushing by spraying a bit into a small cup. I like the little Dixie brand bathroom cups. I keep a box in the hobby room. The spray paint has a better consistency than the bottle. Hope this helps.

In the NJ / NY / PA area swap meets the kits other than Nascar would sell at $10 each, or would fly off the table at $5 each. The Nascars are sales proof. A few years ago a dealer gave us a bunch of them to give away as door prizes at NNL East. At the end of the day, that's all that was left. We couldn't even give them away.

They pay a waaay below market rent and complain about it and how broke they are. But they seem to have plenty of money to buy dresses for their silly little dog. And they both have near new cars, much better than mine!

Okay, we're resurrecting ancient threads? Cool Pacer pickup, I especially like the unusual color on it. A guy in our model club owns a Pacer woody wagon. I had one that got away many years ago. Mid 1990s, there was a red wagon with a six and a four speed. It was a Pacer X and had mag wheels on it. 60,000 miles and $1500. I thought it would be a cool daily driver. I saw it at an Englishtown, NJ swap meet and the owner wasn't around so I wrote down the phone number. This was before cell phones so I took it home with me, and it went through the wash! Doh! I keep saying I'm gonna build a model of that Pacer!

Install PEX plastic pipe this time. No value to scrappers and much easier to install. That's what I used on my last renovation. I also have owned income property and had the same tenant for 25 years in one house. After she fell ill and her son moved her out I decided to gut the house and do a complete renovation. Now I have the worst tenants in the world... my daughters!