Tom Geiger

Agreed. In New Jersey there are state DMV agencies located all over the state. You can get everything done there instantly. Get a new drivers license, new plates, registration and title. It's all computerized, something that PA doesn't seem to understand! And PA unemployment office? Don't get me started. I've collected unemployment in New Jersey, New York and now Pennsylvania. I've never dealt with a more broken system in my entire life!

Maybe this one? I own this beauty but have never seen another. It looks like a car that Stuart Little would drive. This would represent something that's rare but has no value! And I do need those missing parts if anyone has them.

Yes we were into fire. My buddy Henry got a Cox airplane for a present. It lasted maybe a half hour. Then we decided to fill the broken fuselage with the remaining Cox airplane fuel. The resulting fireball was spectacular! Let's just say Henry didn't have eyebrows for weeks! And I did burn a Tom Daniel Tijuana Taxi. I spent years trying to replace it, finally piecing one together. And of course that's when it got reissued!

I went to the local hobby shop for two things. A few pieces of bass wood for my Doodle Bug build and a few small drill bits to replace ones I've broken. As usual, I went a bit overboard. I did get Model Cars issue 175, and the photo above represents the $45 or so of Evergreen and basswood. I got several sizes of half round, same of angle irons, a pack of large channel to try to make a street rod chassis, a sheet of ribbed siding for my VW camper project. It adds up quick! Now here's a good deal. Evergreen has a pack called 9002 Odds & Ends. It's 8 oz of misc sheets, strips, rounds, square hollow channel and all kinds of stuff that you wouldn't want to buy a full pack of, but will come in handy on a project. The entire pack was $7.85, which you can't beat since a single sheet of the V-Groove siding was $6.15 and there is half a sheet of it in this Odds & Ends pack. So I left the store and stopped at the Burger King in the same parking lot. While eating it dawned on me... I never even looked at the drill bits! So it was back to the hobby shop, where I got another set of bits and an extra pin vise. There went another $24! That's my big splurge on materials. It should keep me busy for a while! And now I'm watching a bid on eBay... nothing exciting. My pool cover pump died and I'm bidding on another one at less than half what the local pool supply store wants for it.

That's what happens when you soak an old promo in brake fluid

Dat's me! Someone took me by surprise at NNL East a few years ago. I ditched the gray mustache about a year ago though. So look me up at NNL East this year, stop me and say hello! I will be wearing the customary NNL Team Green!

I'm in Exton, Chester County. I'm about a half hour west of Philly. I know I bought here because I'm just outside what is considered "Main Line Philly", just where the housing and car insurance gets cheaper. I do have a small garage I trust. He still charges for the inspections, but I get no grief about repairs etc from him. My daughter just got a new car so I drove her old '99 Breeze back from NJ last night. I will register it in PA for my wife to use for work instead of driving the big Caravan everywhere. From the 2 hour drive, I know something is up in the front end or brakes. I'll actually ask him to check the car out when he inspects it.

New Jersey discovered that inspecting vehicles was a waste of time so they stopped doing everything but the emissions test, and that's only every two years. The sticker travels with the car, so can buy a car with a new sticker that you don't need to inspect for two years. A brand new car gets a seven year sticker, again which travels with the car. My daughter bought a used 2011 car today that has a 2018 sticker on it. While they don't check for equipment violations, a cop can ticket you for one. Then I moved to Pennsylvania! What a friggin backward state. You get your drivers license at a state license center, but your car titles, registrations and plates are bought a little private stores, that charge you for the privilege. They will give you plates and registrations on the spot, but to get a title, they HAND CARRY the applications to the state capital. You pay a courier fee for that one, like the darn pony express. Then a few weeks later you get your title in the mail from the state. When I moved here, I transferred 4 cars from New Jersey and paid $500. Then you have the annual inspection, which is done at private garages. They're all advertising "State Inspection $29" to suck you in. They make sure you know you are paying 'pass or fail'. So if you fail, you either pay that garage to do the repairs or pay someone else the inspection fee all over again. Then they have the state emissions check which is around $50. So you can pay $80-100 annually for inspection stickers. And when I moved to PA they told me it was cheaper here! And PA has some of the most backward liquor laws I've ever witnessed! Liquor and wine is sold in STATE STORES. It's like going to state motor vehicles in other states. Everyone in that store is a state employee on the state payroll! There is a move to change this and privatize it like in the real world.

That's because we are still waiting for the Testors silver paint to dry!

All the time! I believe we get a lot of exposure to different style vehicles from our involvement in clubs, shows and the boards. Most of what I build, and have built in the past 30 years, has been due to seeing something new and wanting to try it out for myself. As a result, my automotive horizons have really expanded. I know a lot more than when I started modeling. I have a greater appreciation for vehicles I never would have thought of otherwise. And that's a good thing.

The Hooser Model Car Association is a very active club with knowledgeable members in the Indianapolis area. They sponsor a show each year so I'm sure they'd be more than qualified and probably happy to judge your event. Contact Jim Cassassa at JCasassa@wolftechnical.com,

I've got the Alclad II chrome spray can and it works great.

Come to think of it, that was the other board. But it applies here too! And especially to my dungeon of unfinished projects. Six years old is like a new kit to me... I've got projects over 20 years in the making! And I plan on getting some more of them done this year.

Here's one in primer from my bench. I found a photo on the net of a Honda missing the body parts and wanted to see if I could duplicate it.

My younger daughter wanted to have our 1:1 Celica convertible painted pink. She wouldn't hear anything about how horrible it would look. Her mind was made up. I was fortunate that she never raised enough money to actually make it happen

I don't care if we have 30 years experience at model building, some of the world's greatest experts cannot break their knowledge down to the understanding of the common person, never mind that of a child. Just read any computer manual for an example! The original poster should be commended for asking for input from the team. And with the wide variety of responses, I think maybe we all learned something?

I've been going through mine lately. I'm finding models that are 75% or better done. Some that I gave up on back then, but now easily see the solution to the problem that perplexed me when I had less experience. I have a 14 year old Doodlebug on the bench right now. It probably has less than a week's worth of work to put it in the display case! Remember, we did say this is the year of unfinished projects!

Very cool! Nice Mopars. When I moved to PA, I sold off most of my cars including my '65 Barracuda and both '66 Valiants. I swore that once I got my stuff together here, I would buy myself one good collector car that didn't need a ton of work. Still waiting!

I've had glass shelves made locally. We have two cabinets in our wall unit in our den that had lights in the top but solid wood shelves. I went to the local glass shop and paid something like $5 a shelf to have them cut in glass.

Ha! We all wind up back at our rusty roots! Looks great in the last pictures! My kind of truck.

Yea that rock yard thing with the cactus thingies doesn't look bad at all. Except for the times of year in the 100+ Range I have an acre to mow here in Pennsylvania. When I bought the house I was going to buy a ride on mower, but when I heard that I could get it mowed for $35, it suddenly wasn't worth my trouble. This year there are so many lawn services battling, that a few have left notes in my mail box for $30. Better them than my Saturday!

I believe that folder was retail to the general public since I remember having it too. That ad from Okey listing the promo kits was early on, and we believe that Excel had tons of parts ready to paint and assemble as promos in stock at the time of the sale. We don't think that Okey had the molds for those, except for the Rambler wagon. It's also been rumored that Okey had the '59 Dodge tool. He had said at one point he was ready to have it pressed but lacked the capital to do so. Those big cars would be candidates for the legendary employee thefts. I understand that the tooling was done in expensive high quality steel called berillium and was valuable as scrap. The body slugs would have been big and heavy, but small enough to conceal and get out of the factory. So I doubt those tools exist today.

Nice! I have most generation Celica models tucked away for future builds. I have a 1:1 '95 Celica GT convertible. The last generation of convertible. My first encounter with a Celica was around 1973 or so in high school. My German teacher had one of those first generation cars and saw me walking home from school. He offered me a ride and floored it. He worked his way through the gears, no doubt to impress me. He did since i still remember that short ride!

You didn't mention which kit, but as long as the glass isn't an unusual shape, you are probably better off replacing it with thin clear plastic. You can get it in sheets at the hobby shop or off any product packaging. People even cut up plastic coke bottles. To avoid the same glue issue, use either a white glue for windows or double sided tape to install your windows.

Guys we forgot one! I found this on the back of the Renault Daulphene instruction sheet yesterday. Doesn't look like a lot of value for your 1960 50 cents.