Harry P.

That curved roof line is all your fault...

It's not so much the editorial, it's the New Products column. Gregg has the industry contacts, and he wants to be the one to personally review the products and not have anyone else do it. So that column gets done on Gregg's schedule... that being what his medical situation allows for on any given day. Plus Gregg handles the advertising and ad placement month to month. It's true that theoretically Gregg could delegate that to others, but that would take him out of the production process altogether, and he doesn't want to be a bystander on his own magazine. He wants to be an active part of the process. That being the case, as long as he has his medical issues, the magazine will be produced on a somewhat irregular basis. There's just no way around that. Ultimately it's Gregg's magazine, and he makes the final decisions.

They were still building Model T engines in the 1940s!

I explained why in post 12.

OK... so American Model T production ended on May 26, but not necessarily worldwide production. Makes sense.

After 12 Hudsons you must be really tired of foiling that side window trim...

This may be overkill, but because the upper corners of the doors have so little glue surface, I reinforced all of these joints with short lengths of sewing pins. I used pins instead of brass wire because the pins are much stiffer and stronger than brass wire of the same diameter would be. Here the doors and center post as just "posed" for the photo... nothing is actually hinged or connected yet. Just a sneak peek of how things will look...

According to official Ford information, Model T's last day of production was May 26, 1927. So who was building them through late June?

Nothing to apologize for... those all look pretty darn good to me! And welcome to our little family...

Moi???

Not always. Here, form follows function: But here, form has absolutely nothing to do with function, it's form for form's sake. In other words, "styling," whether or not you like it. There's no reason the headlights need to have this wacky shape, it's purely a styling thing:

Remember, don't post any hints or answers here. PM me with year, make, and model. The answer: 1920 Oldsmobile Series 37B

Did you glue the rear window to the outside of the top instead of the inside?

There's really not much going on inside. All black, with simple plain door panels. About the only interesting thing is the dash.

When you can create an attractive, cohesive design that doesn't rely on stereotypical or silly cliché design elements, that's talent.

That's just plain silly. Looks like a herd of 15-year olds were let loose in the studio...

I love the styling of the Tesla. Slick, clean, understated, elegant, not "in yer face," yet also not just another face in the crowd.

I agree with your previous observation about video games and such influencing today's stylists. And consumers are obviously also influenced by that, so my guess is the "agressive" styling trends we're seeing these days is what the auto makers assume the customers want and expect. Just as automotive styling reflected the "space age" and the public's fascination with space and rockets in the '50s, the trends today reflect the kind of stuff the general populace is exposed to today.

There's not much surface to see, but the windshield surround and the wipers are Spaz Stix.

Two points: 1. Styling is subjective. 2. Car stylists have to be constantly coming up with something "new" to keep consumers interested. Let's face it, styling fads will come and they will go. Right now we seem to be in the "giant headlights that extend practically to the cowl" and the "gaping abyss" phase. It's a phase, and will disappear once the next "new" styling trends come along. Today's designs are no more or less "right" or logical than the rocket/jet/fins craze of the '50s or the "opera windows and padded landau roof" fad that came along in the '70s. It's all ephemeral. It comes, it goes away, the next fad comes along, and so on...

I got the cowl/windshield/dash assembly finished. As with almost all cars from this era, the windshield is flat, and surrounded by very thin chrome trim. This leaves almost no gluing surface at all... same issue with gluing the chrome surround to the cowl. Very little surface for glue to adhere the pieces together. The best way I've found to do is is by just touching the tip of the liquid cement brush to one corner, and letting the cement just wick into the joint. Another dab on the opposite corner, etc. That way you get full glue coverage over the entire perimeter of the glass and the trim, yet no danger of smudging the glass or any "squeeze out" like you get with tube glue. Also, as I usually do, I replaced the scratched and crummy looking kit glass with Lexan, using the kit windshield as my template. The kit's dash gauge decals were missing, so I found a photo online, manipulated in Photoshop to get rid of the perspective and make the gauge faces round, sized it, and printed it out on plain paper. The gauge faces are "glued" in place with Future. I also added various switches and buttons using bits of aluminum and styrene tubing and sewing pins... Now that the cowl is glued into place, I can start on the front doors.

Spaz Stix is pretty tough. Doesn't rub off.

Ok, here's the straight story, no BS. You guys deserve to know the truth. I have been fighting Gregg on the "lateness" problem for literally years. It bugs me more than it bugs you guys that the magazine is always late, believe me. It's been a thorn in my side for years. Here's the reality of the situation: I can't upload the files for a given issue until I have laid out all the pages. Even one missing page or feature holds up the entire issue, because obviously we can't go to press if even one page is missing. And almost always, I'm waiting on one or two missing articles or features. So what's up with that? Why am I always waiting for missing pieces? Well, the fact is that almost always the things I'm waiting for are the parts of the magazine that Gregg writes, like the Resin feature... or the New Products feature... or the Editor's Column. And the reason those parts are late is that Gregg has some pretty severe and debilitating medical issues. It's no secret that he has had several surgeries on his back (even his avatar is an X-ray of his spine and all the screws in there!), and he is limited in what he can do physically. Even sitting up at the computer for any length of time is a challenge for him, and there are many days when he just can't work, period. It's not that he doesn't care about the production schedule... it's his physical limitations that are the problem. Gregg loves the magazine, it's his baby. And he is very grateful for the support you guys have shown, both for the magazine and for this forum. But things being what they are, Gregg will always have his medical issues to deal with, and they affect the production schedule of the magazine. Every subscriber is promised nine issues per year, and every subscriber will get nine issues per year. Maybe not by the date on the cover, but they will get nine issues as promised. So yeah, MCM won't appear in your mailbox on the same exact schedule that SA does. But if you're willing to be patient and wait for that next issue, you will get it. And when the year is over, you'll have all nine as promised. As far as the damage, that's something I can't explain. Obviously the magazines are in perfect condition when they leave the printer, so the damage occurs somewhere along the way to your house. How or why, I don't know.

I don't know about other sports, but in baseball there seems to be a lot higher percentage of lefties than in the general population. Is it because left-handed hitters and pitchers are desirable to have on a team, so more lefties make the big leagues than in other sports? In football there aren't very many left-handed QBs, but in baseball a lot of power hitters (and dominating pitchers) are lefties.

Actually it's 10-11%. Still a small minority, though. But what we lack in numbers we more than make up for in intelligence and good looks...