Harry P.

How in the world do you find the time to design stuff when you're so busy weaving your own cloth and churning your own butter?

Amen.

I've been hearing reports the last day or two that the level of Patriots, um... "creative interpretation" of the rules is far more widespread than everyone ever thought (and let's be honest, everyone knows the Pats cheat)... apparently they somehow filmed other teams and stole signals in at least 40 games in the early 2000s.

My Rolls woody chassis sits pretty level. The problem is the body... it's not exactly identical left to right. Not Pocher's fault, though...

It's just somebody having some Photoshop phun...

Nice idea with the leveling blocks.

Well, it's already been said, but that's a super nice pair of RRs. That's a pretty dramatic styling change in just three years, but I like them both. If I could have one in real life, I'd probably go with the '71... I really like the styling, especially the wraparound front bumper. But there's something just so tough looking with the older one.

Why the white areas around the edges of the hood opening?

Thank you, sir! Yep, Groucho was a real American treasure.

So far about 95% of everything has fit together pretty well. What? Is this a Pocher? But there have been small "Pocherisms" along the way. Example: the plated brass outer sleeve that slides over the inner brass steering column is a bit too long, and when you slip it over the threaded brass inner column, there isn't enough thread showing on the inner shaft to attach the wheel. Simple solution: use my razor saw to shorten the outer shaft about 1/8". No problemo...

Not a problem. While the valves do actually open and close when you manually turn the cam gears up front, it's all just for show. There is no mechanical connection between the camshafts and the crankshaft. And once the front cover is in place the cam gears are covered up and there's no way to rotate the camshafts anyway. All sizzle, no steak!

Calling Dr. Howard... Dr. Fine... Dr. Howard...

I didn't know what the two large knobs on either side of the dash were for. Obviously they were for making some sort of adjustment to something... but what? The lettering on them says DUFFAUT REPUSSEAU. I googled that, and found out that Duffaut Repusseau was the name of a French company that manufactured auto components, including friction shocks (the type used on many 1930s-era cars before hydraulic shocks became common and made friction shocks obsolete). The knobs are to allow adjustment of the friction shocks' stiffness while driving, via a hydraulic system that either inflated or deflated a rubber bladder that pressed against the shock's friction disks, thereby changing the amount of resistance the shock arms had to movement (and thereby controlling the hardness or softness of the ride). Geez, model building can be educational! The two control levers on the right side of the dash are plated brass (good)... but flat (not 3-dimensional)... bad! The round ball on the end was a flat circle, which didn't look good. So i clipped off the circle part and created round 3-D knobs using small blobs of 5-minute epoxy. Once the epoxy set up. I sprayed the control arms "chrome" and installed them...

I stained the wood, "varnished" it with several coats of Future brushed on, and opened up all the holes and cutouts...

I've been working on the firewall/dashboard assembly. I wanted to go with a real wooden dash, so the first step was cutting a piece of basswood to cover the dash. At this point the upper edge was cut precisely; the cutouts had to fit around the small "boxes" at the top of the dash (where the cranking mechanisms for the swing-out windshield will eventually go), but the bottom edge was intentionally left to overlap the kit dash. I will shape the dash's lower edge once it's glued to the kit dash, when I will use the kit dash's edge as the template to shape the wood... The wood was glued to the kit dash using contact cement... I also covered the small triangular sides of the dash to get a "wraparound" look and sanded the corners rounded per reference photos...

Of course it was more intelligent. Rocky and Bullwinkle was adult satire disguised as a kid's cartoon show. The Stooges never aspired to be anything more than what they were–pure slapstick; no thinking needed (or expected). You either thought poking a guy's eyes was funny... or you didn't. There wasn't a whole lot of nuance in a Stooge's short.

The kit exhaust system is a combination of aluminum (pipes and muffler) and plastic (muffler caps and transition fittings between exhaust manifolds and pipe). The plastic transition fittings are supposed to be slipped onto the aluminum exhaust pipe and be held in correct alignment by friction. But as always, Pocher's friction fits are always way too tight. There was no way the plastic pieces were going to slide onto the aluminum tube. Step 1 was reaming out the transition fittings... The transition fittings, the exhaust manifolds, the exhaust pipe, and the muffler all depend on each other as far as correct positioning of all components. If any one of them is off, the whole assembly won't fit. And there are no positive locators on the parts... you're supposed to slip the fittings onto the exhaust pipe and adjust everything until it all fits correctly. Since the one component of the system that was already glued in final position was the exhaust manifolds, the rest of the system had to be adjusted to fit them. The easiest way to do this was to ream out the fittings enough so that they slid very easily on the exhaust pipe. Then, instead of trying to get the two fittings in perfect position by friction fit and then attaching the assembly to the exhaust manifolds, it was much easier to keep all the components' fit loose, slip the fittings onto the pipe, then glue the fittings onto the exhaust manifolds, allowing the manifolds to "decide" exactly where the fitting needed to be, and in what position relative to the exhaust pipe. Here are a couple shots of the finished system... you'll get what I mean when you see the photos...

It's "nyuk, nyuk"... not "nuck nuck."

Yeah, that was a classic performance! Even though I'm a bigger fan of the movies he directs vs. the ones he acts in and are directed by others, I really like Escape From Alcatraz, directed by Don Siegel. In case you don't know, it's based on the true story of three guys (one of them played by Clint Eastwood, obviously) who successfully escaped from Alcatraz in the early 1960s. Alcatraz was generally believed to be totally "escape proof" since it was situated on an island off San Francisco Bay and was the only thing on that island... so even if you somehow got out of your cell and out into the open, you had no pace to go. Their successful escape was one of the factors that contributed to Alcatraz being shut down. Nobody knows if they actually made it to the mainland (San Francisco), but their bodies were never found, so there are still theories around today that they made it safely to SF and managed to merge into regular society somehow. The movie is terrific... the ingenious way the three guys made their escape is pretty amazing, and if it wasn't a true story you'd never believe it was possible for them to do what they did. If you have never seen this movie, it's definitely a must-see if you are an Eastwood fan. Even if you're not, it's a great movie on it's own.

It is a little...uh...odd. I think that's what they call an "allegory."

Can you do a cover version of your own song? Bob Welch had a huge hit with his song "Sentimental Lady" in 1977... But his hit version of that song was actually a cover of his own song, released by Fleetwood Mac in 1972 on the Bare Trees album, when he was still a member of the group! The FM original version has very conspicuous backing vocals by Christine McVie, which the cover version does not...

I'm a huge Clint Eastwood fan... that is, Clint Eastwood the director. Not so much as an actor (although he's a perfectly capable actor). But the movies that he has directed (and sometimes also starred in, sometimes not) are the ones I really like. In fact, IMO Clint Eastwood is one of the top 5 directors currently active, and again IMO in the future will be remembered as one of the great directors of all time. Just a few of my favorite Eastwood films... Mystic River, American Sniper, Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven... I could list a dozen easy. Anyway, among the many films he has directed, some of my favorites are the westerns... Pale Rider, Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales, etc. So I finally saw High Plains Drifter the other night on Sundance Channel. I can't believe that after all these years, I had never seen that movie! Another Eastwood film I can now take off my list of "must see some day"...

All I can say is you're a true craftsman in the best sense of the word. Super clean, super sharp, super sanitary building style.

Looks good! I like that side view. And a nice job on the grille.

That is a good-looking car.