Ace-Garageguy

That does indeed look like a very nice rig. And I like that the mill column looks like it has its own motor, so you don't have to swap stuff around like on the Unimat and some Sherlines. Today's typical Japanese quality is very good, but though I'd love to have it, my little Unimat and Sherline will have to suffice.

1) I'd suggest reading all the info available on this site about correct stripping techniques. 2) I'd also suggest reading up on correct prep for paint, including removing mold seams, scuffing, primering, etc. 3) Yes, Tamiya colors will cover primer. That's what they're designed to do. Their primers and paints are a system that work together....but it will take multiple coats of paint, applied correctly, to get a consistent finish. 4) Strip that thing right and then prep it right...you should have no need to buy another kit to get a body. 5)

Country road trips used to be one of my favorite ways to unwind, but now I have to drive 50 miles in traffic just to get out of it.

Mediocre seems to be the new awesome, so don't worry about it.

Looking good, worthwhile improvements on the engine. Just looking at that orange 1:1 engine bay reminds me vividly how sweet these cars are to drive. Everything good about the 914, light, nimble, responsive, perfect brakes, but with a little more power...and it sounds like a 911.

Model Railroader, Popular Science, Hot Rod and Rod & Custom magazines, model and electronics stuff...mostly...not that there was all that much to spend, but I did make a little money mowing lawns.

Very short fuzz, used to be pretty much impossible to restore, but I imagine that's been addressed by now.

Yup, that's similar and I acquired the kit a while back. I believe there were two built like that, but I may be mistaken. But the subject of this post has a differently shaped Targa bar, and a 2-part removable roof section...and I think it has a hard rear window. The film car is on the same 5-spoke alloys as the model illustration shows, but is on wires now.

"Made in Japan" was synonymous with cheap junk decades ago, but pretty much denotes very good quality today.

This one-of-one Ferrari 365 GTS4 Daytona with a "Targa" roof is apparently the car David Janssen drives in The Swiss Conspiracy, free on YT now. EDIT: I saw the car in the film and researched it, having never seen one like it, and sure enough, this is THE car. https://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/ferrari/365/1971/959798 I didn't know of it until this evening...

Side-sway from too-long shackles used to lower a car with a transverse rear spring is where we got the term "swaybar", which mitigated sway but was actually a Panhard bar, and the commonly used term "swaybar" today actually means "anti-roll bar", an entirely different concept.

You beat me to it.

If you've already tried to fix it yourself, or had it in a chimp shop.....$200/hr. If you tell me there's nothing wrong with it because another shop fixed everything but it just won't run now....$1500 for a priest to drive the demons out, then $400/hr after they're gone.

Apparently the local NWS guys left after the "purge" have decided to slow-work or "quiet quit" or whatever, as our once-hourly time-temp-baro-humidity-forecast updates are now every 2 or 3 hours or whenever they get around to it. Thankfully the radar still works, so I can see for myself if there's any precip in the vicinity or fronts moving in...

Yes sir. When you know, you know.

Better not mention anything too specific though, or risk eternal banishment.

Noting looks more like wrinkle paint than wrinkle paint...

Cheap (in my case found) magnifying glasses. Brilliant indeed. And more light...

Thanks. It'll all look better later on. But I wasn't referring to the Chevelle guy. He's the best client I've ever worked with, a very successful and ethical self-made business owner. He had a metallic blue SS 396 when he was a kid and can afford to have this one built to his wants...computer everything and a leather 2016 Caddy interior, for example...but he leaves me the freedom to do the implementation as I see fit. I save him money wherever I can by not doing unnecessary non-functional "look at me" stuff, and I build everything to be serviceable because he wants to drive it, hard...and that's just the way I do things. Still, we're going for a standard of visual excellence few non-Ridler-bound cars can match. Unfortunately there were cobbled up monkey messes made before I was brought in, and it would be WAY beyond budget to fix all of them...like junking the $30K "custom" chassis (that's not square or symmetrical and weighs as much as a bridge) and driving an Art Morrison under it. For what he's going to end up with, the cost won't really be that bad...but it'll be well beyond a typical pro-touring '66 Chevelle. The guy who's going to paint it is THE best painter I've ever known personally, and can match any showcar work I've ever even seen. His dad was building full customs for the showcar circuit in the wayback, and it's apparently in the genes. Anyway, everything will look better as she comes all the way together...and it's annoying there too how much I've been criticized by "experts" because I don't "finish one thing at a time and move on". Really? Build a lot of cars, do ya sporty? One such "expert" right here on this very forum thought an asbestos/fiberglass welding blanket was plaster or sheetrock mud or something equally ridiculous. Okayyyyyyyyyy...

Yeah, there's a few versions of that parable going around, one having to do with smacking something with a hammer, and when the outraged client screamed "ALL YOU DID WAS HIT IT WITH A HAMMER!!!!! I DEMAND AN ITEMIZED INVOICE !!!!!!" The invoice stated "Smacking the whatzit with a hammer, $1. "Knowing where to smack it, $9999".

Now though, tattoos aren't edgy enough, so implanted transdermal horns are a thing.

That would be telling.

Great kit. Looks like you're doing it justice.

Person or persons unknown snagged a complete and rebuildable Chevy 283 Power Pack engine (with the correct forged crankshaft) from a shop scrapmetal bin before I had a chance to snag it myself.