Ace-Garageguy

Thanks Ray. I'm going to get the wheels done first, then fix whatever has the body sprung, and also fix the bent parts in the suspension. At least then she can sit on her feet and look like something. I'll see how much time that will leave for paint before November.

Still deciding on a width-of-frame channel job, in which case she'll get a 6-carb manifold, or a non-channeled car with a heavily zeed frame and a 4-71 blower (I want the induction system to fit under the hood, for a semi-practical "driver" look). Either way, the windshield will be chopped and raked, so outward visibility is already compromised. This is also probably going to be the dry run for my 1:1 rod. I've had a pair of American Stamping rails for several years, and lately a bunch of smallblock Chebby old-school goodies have been falling out of the sky. I recently also just found a rough fiberglass '32 roadster body for under 3 grand. The universe seems to be pushing me towards a 'glass '32 with a little Chebby in it...but I refuse to build a belly-button car. Anyway, soon as I decide and mock her up, I'll post some shots.

Yes, and the Prowler and the Viper, Countach, many others. What I was getting at though is this: this Rolls thing is supposed to be a 100-years-down-the-road concept, right? Look at the 50 or 60 year-old "cars of the future" that were projections of what we'd be driving NOW... Hmmmmm...doesn't look like much on the road today, eh?

BUT...you have to remember that there's now "number spoofing" where a little black box makes it look as though the originating number IS legitimate, and can even put a fake name in the caller ID window. YOU HAVE TO BE VERY WARY. One of the recent ones showed MY OWN NAME AND NUMBER in the ID window. Pretty damm unlikely I'm calling myself from an alternate reality, and they're banking on people picking up just to see what the frig is going on. Number and ID spoofing can put up a completely legitimate number and name you recognize or have done business with and trust...and before you know it, you've given out a SS# or a credit card number or a shipping address or some other bit of info that will ultimately be used to steal from you. BE VERY WARY of ANY CALLS NOW. And hey...ain't it great what our Federal Communications Commission and the FBI are doing to get rid of these scum?

Yup, and what's a hoot is to look at "concept" cars of just 50 years back and see how little they actually have in common with what we're seeing on the roads now. Concept cars usually get designed using the then-current aesthetic, and reality rarely evolves to match the 'advanced' vision of an earlier time.

Gee willikers...isn't it wonderful to be living in such a kind and gentle and enlightened age?

Yeah, pretty funny. Like the man said...the magic of mislabeling, advertising, marketing...we don't need no stinkin' facts or correct names for things. But choo know, I've seen plenty of people selling coupes call them roadsters too. Words don't matter. They're just noise and random letters that convey no real meaning. On another note, I'd like the see the original "Tudor" version brought back. I bought several of the other issues over the years, both decent kits and gluebombs, had an original when I was a kid.

I tend to agree. I bought it primarily as kitbash fodder. The ribbed bumpers look great on a '36 Ford, and the headlight pods came in handy. The old-school oval-case blower and blower chain-drive cover are useful too. Got it really cheap, so what can I say?

At that point I think my head would have exploded...especially since I probably would have had the hot coffee dump in my lap when the rental was hit.

The front fender headlight openings are closed up on the fender-unit, as are the rear wheel openings. I think it only comes with the big chrome wheels too...at least mine did. Pretty sure it has all of the old blown Buick nailhead in it still. But it's derived from the same tooling as the others and parts will swap around among all the AMT '40s.

Yes Joe, I agree with your reasoning there, completely. The problem comes in when you have to deal also with up-and-down movement of the whole thing during suspension travel. A Motorcycle front fender deals with a different set of issues, and it's mounting is very straightforward. I know this is just a "concept" but any speed bump currently known to man would shred the leading edges of those fender pontoons too.

I still have one of these. Tin, friction "motor", and sparks with something like lighter flints in those red jet exhausts. Pretty cool, but not in anywhere near this condition.

I love those old radial-engined Sikorskys. Quite an experience in multi-frequency vibration to fly one of those things, especially compared to a turbine-powered bird. You find yourself wondering how it avoids shaking itself to bits in the first few minutes of flight.

Here you go. $25 junker. http://www.ebay.com/itm/JUNKYARD-VINTAGE-AMT-MERCURY-CAPRI-T435-1-25-Model-Car-Mountain-/381670997863?hash=item58dd5d3f67:g:9T4AAOSwOVpXYVd~

The Ford V6 engines in question were of the 60-degree between banks variety, while V8 engines are built on a 90-degree angle. It all has to do with firing order and rocking couples and harmonics and balance...but a V8 just ain't gonna look right "chopped". Actually, the little V6 engines in the Pintos and Capris did bear some resemblance to the Ford smallblocks in the valve cover area...but it would take some pretty intense reworking of a 289 / 302 to have even a reasonably accurate 60-degree V6.

To the best of my knowledge, even "autonomous" vehicles will still be governed by the known laws of physics. Unless those known laws have been considerably expanded in 100 years and this thing levitates (and the "wheels" are just vestigial styling elements that have nothing to do with steering or suspending the vehicle) there's no room inside the front wheel fairings for them to turn for steering...though I suppose some kind of WAY overcomplicated monkey-motion linkage could be devised the allow the front wheels to steer AND bump / rebound as is generally understood to be necessary by today's primitive purveyors of vehicle dynamics. Those requisites haven't been dropped in the last 100 years of vehicle evolution. (The wheel pods on the Tasco move WITH the front wheels in steering AND suspension travel). Of course, a lot of model cars get built that couldn't possibly work in reality either.

I dunno. Guy was all over the board, saying my truck looked like carp anyway and a few dents didn't matter. Like THAT was supposed to excuse it somehow. Then started in telling me his vehicle couldn't possibly have broken my mirror because there was no black paint from mine on his. The collision is one thing. Behaving like a 5-year-old and trying to dodge responsibility is something else entirely. This was a professional adult male, well over 50. What a "man".

And no provision for steering or suspension movement either. Oh wait...we're overpaid industrial designers. We don't need to even be aware of greasy mechanical things that have to actually function.

Some damm numbnuts drove into the side of my old truck earlier this PM. Guy was in the center lane, simply turned right smack into me...I was in the right lane. I saw him coming, tried to avoid a hard collision and pulled the truck farther right, ran over a curb and bent my own front suspension. Fool still hit me, broke my mirror and did a little sheetmetal damage to the LH front fender and door. Ten more feet down the road and I would have run head-on into a phone pole. Twenty feet farther down the road I would have rolled the truck over a 4-foot retaining wall, totaled it for sure. Moron. And the first thing the little POS said when he got to my window was "you hit my car!" I got a little angry (understatement) because avoiding adult responsibility REALLY gets my back up. Chickenexcrement cretin got on his phone calling his lawyer telling him I was threatening him with bodily harm, then kept on telling me I hit HIM and getting in my face, trying to goad me into taking a poke at him. Cheez. Police were called, gave the other guy the citation for "improper lane change". This is only the second "accident" I've ever been involved in. I've NEVER had an insurance claim...EVER. Both times the other idiot drove into me for no particular reason other than being stupid and not paying attention.

THIS NUMBER (972) 497-1400 shows up on caller ID as "American Voice". it appears as though it may be a spoofed number that the real SSA uses to remind clients of interviews. They purport to be calling from the SSA, and even go so far as to leave the REAL 1-800 SSA number for callback. Many people are being fooled into believing it really IS the SSA because they leave a real SSA callback number. All they're doing is covering their tracks and making the thing seem believable. HOWEVER...it's phony, and if you actually ANSWER the call from (972) 497-1400 they'll pump you for identity theft information. Don't be stupid. If you get a call from "Social Security" and they ask you for ANY INFORMATION, hang up. Call THEM on their REAL number to verify anything you need to, or do it online.

With their unusual port spacing and siamesed center ports, there's nothing much in the kit world that will work right out of the box. A few flathead sets of headers have 3 primaries, but they're not spaced correctly. There are cast iron OEM-style manifolds in the production-car Caddy kits, but to the best of my knowledge that's about it. And as a side note, the "354" on these kits is a mistake. The Revell parts-pack engine represents the first generation OHV Cadillac V8 that came in 331-365-390 cubic inch displacements from the factory. I suppose you could get a "354" by boring or stroking the 331, but you couldn't tell from the outside.

Thanks Harry. That was part of the reason, as they look kinda cheesy and flat pieces couldn't really work well in reality. I'd like to do them correctly at some point, but as I'm kinda trying to have her ready for the November ACME-sponsored NNL event here, eliminating things I need to work on will be helpful in hitting the deadline. The steering is bound up, but it's only bent linkage from apparently having been dropped on the RH front wheel at some point. One piece of brake linkage is broken, but I can probably silver-solder it back together and sand / polish it to look like the other one. I've found a wheel jig and a bunch of other loose parts she needs, plus a pair of virgin headlight lenses...all for not too much money. Having the right wheel jig will save me at least a couple of hours of figgerin' and machine work. It's a shame about the runs and trash in the paint. It has a nice patina that would be quite in keeping with an older race car that's deteriorated a little over the years. Maybe I'll see if there's any hope of sanding and polishing just the problem areas. Hard to keep the finish uniform though. This thing is so much more like working on a little real car, maybe it will spur me on to building my long-planned next real hot-rod too.

That's cool. Catching trout in the park. Man. Damm.

Seller had a $150 buy-it-now price, plus $20 shipping. I didn't hesitate. After the partial refund I'm into her for a little less than $150 total. There seems to be WAY more damage now than shows in the seller's photo above, but it's still a pretty good deal even if i were to only look at her as a parts car. Having to do extra work will only make me appreciate the thing more, and after seeing Harry's job on his, I think this kit is my favorite of all the Pochers. Like I said, she has that old-time Euro hot-rod look that really appeals to me. I think having to rebuild the wheels will make it easier for me to jump into lacing some custom wires for the smaller scales too. I know it's an entirely different procedure, but that's OK. Part of my brain will see more similarities than differences. I'm also leaning towards re-building her stripped for racing too, as it's even more of the look I particularly love.

I believe you're right. I was a little concerned about the depth of the center relative to the rim, but from the wheels I have that are relatively intact, I should be able to figure an average dimension that should work well enough.