Ace-Garageguy

Here are two sites that agree about the venting to accommodate changes in atmospheric pressure idea... https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/why-spray-can-lids-have-a-small-hole-on-top.html http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/science-questions/question107.htm ...and a site that sells the caps with what they call "vent holes"... http://mckernan.com/store/Aerosol-Caps

I know a fella who buys-and-sells vintage speed equipment, and if someone else owns anything, according to him it's junk and practically worthless...but as soon as HE owns it, it's solid gold, "rare", and worth a mint. I've never been able to understand that particular logical disconnect in any context other than blind greed on his part, and a total lack of introspection OR any operational "golden rule" philosophy (though he talks a good game). It really used to chap my hindquarters to see someone operating so entirely, hypocritically without conscience, but now I just laugh and walk away.

It really depends on which particular kit it is and exactly what styrene composition was used to mold it, and how it's been stored, for how long. I have a Revell "Mother's Cherry Pie" '31 Ford kit that crumbles to dust if you try to work it. I have other, earlier versions of the same basic Revell tooling that are just like new. I also have a Johan Dodge Phoenix that broke every time I handled it, and I had to reinforce the entire inside of the body with light fiberglass cloth and epoxy to be able to work it. Far as prices go, there's no shortage of pig-greedy folks asking stupid money for just about everything, and there's no shortage of stupid or ignorant or just-in-a-hurry folks who will pay them.

Neat little project car, Niko. Converting that to a 2-door will be some serious work. Do you have a donor for the right structure and sheetmetal, or are you planning to fabricate everything? On the Chebby-parts front, I just got a pair of old smallblock double-hump 2.02 / 1.94 heads...for free...that came off of a running, not-overheating engine with a bad bottom end. Odds are they're not cracked, but I need to look up the casting numbers and have them magnafluxed before going any farther, and they'll need hardened exhaust seats at some point.

I would tend to say that engine is a mashup of parts from several different kits. The intake manifold doesn't even come close to fitting the heads right, the timing cover doesn't look (to me) as though it belongs on that block, the Ford-ish valve covers are too long for the heads, and the left one is on upside-down anyway. With all the glue residue, I can't make out enough of the exhaust-port spacing to have any good idea of what the basic engine started out as...though the oil pan shape, and the side-cover on the molded-on trans should be enough clues.

I think the rim diameter is fine...and these wheels look good under this car...but the rear tire sidewalls appear to be shorter than the fronts...never a good look on just about anything. Either the same sidewall height all around, or slightly taller in the rear usually looks best.

Open the message you want to delete. Click on "message" on the upper right, then click "leave conversation". This will delete only that particular message string.

Just tuned in to this one, love the scale-engineering-to-427-spec updating you're doing. The first Cobra I ever drove was a 427 sitting on a long-gone used-sportscar lot...Grand Prix Motors...not far from Ga.Tech where I was in school. I had a Porsche-engined VW bug, and stopped in to look at the Cobra...they wanted $6500 for the Cobra and offered me $1500 trade for the bug. And...they let me drive the Cobra. I recall going down the 14th street entrance ramp to I-75, accelerating pretty hard, and thinking that every time I shifted gears was rather kike getting hit in the back with a 40-pound sack of potatoes. Years later, I had the opportunity to drive a restored 289 FIA car, and it made the old stock 427 seem tame.

X2.

Very creative, interesting and unusual work. Definitely let us see more.

Very nice. I've never seen the kit actually built with the included custom bits. Most attractive.

Love the green. Is the paint really as green as it looks in some of the shots, or more dark silver like the hood shot? Or is the hood just the Duplicolor "magnesium pearl' before the topcoat of Spaz Stix green?

Really like your custom color, and that continental kit makes it look a lot longer...but not quite 62 feet.

He's been on under another name fairly recently (at least one, maybe more, but one that I'm certain of)...and may have been booted, as that is considered to be a rule violation.

Yeah boy... I like it !! "Business" has devolved into "get as much as you can for as little as possible (ignore quality, but pay a lot for marketing and the appearance of quality), hire the lowest-paid workers whether they're competent or not, and screw everyone out of as much as you possibly can". Between the unmitigated greed and the rampant outright stupidity, business managers are pushing what's left of this country's economic power right down the toilet. Greedy idiots run everything now. It's time.

Tasty trick with the spoons.

Your buddy may want to try a remedial micrometer reading class. .125" is one EIGHTH of an inch. That's 1/8". I've never EVER seen a model car body that thick.

X2. Just looking in her mirror must take more guts than I've ever had to muster up on my worst nightmare day. Incredible little kid. Damm. Sure makes me wish I had Bill Gates' money (to get her the best surgical reconstruction available). Hmmmm...maybe we should start a fund to help get her on her way...of if it's already been started, look into donating. No child should have to go through life like that.

Exactly. I was once driven to having to file for bankruptcy because 3 clients were slow-pays, back to back to back, and I was already overextended. I'd completed all their work in good faith, had contracts...but no money. Until you've been there, you don't know what it's like to have your calls never returned, or to have to listen to interminable lies and excuses, and to have to continually make excuses and beg for extensions from your own creditors. There's a lot to be said for having a "job", no matter how nasty the work is.

Beautiful model. I'm in love with wooden ships and boats (as well as many other things) and your scratchbuilding here is first rate.. I've been working on and off on a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack for years, probably my favorite working boat next to the Grand Banks Schooners. I have an antique (older than I am) solid-hull wooden model of the original Bluenose, actually built in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia by someone who'd worked on the original, and supposedly her hull is carved from a piece of scrap from the real Bluenose I keel. Thanks for putting up these shots of your fine looking ship. She's a sweetheart for sure, and an inspiration to get back to building with wood.

You will find that in Duplicolor, many times colors called "mica" or "pearl" will have significantly smaller flakes than colors called "metallic". This green is a Duplicolor "mica". Compare it to the testors "One Coat" metallic on the orange car above.

Yup...been there several times in different industries, and there right now. Though I work "with" a pretty well-known shop, I'm in a subcontractor "consultant" relationship, the big job I'm on is coming to an end, and there's not a whole jell of a lot on the horizon....though somehow, something always seems to fall out of the sky, at least enough to keep me going...just barely.

Agreed 100%. Unless you want the bass-boat, dune-buggy or KustomKar look, forget the "One Coat" metallics.

The dropped I-beam front axle and split wishbones in the '29 kit are perfectly acceptable for a period build, as are the '40 Ford hydraulic-brake backing plates, and I believe the finned Buick brake drums would be '58 and later. As Casey suggests, a good source for a rear crossmember, buggy spring and a banjo rear end with wishbones is one of many versions of Revell's previous Model A. You might also get some ideas from this thread of mine... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/66934-new-revell-29-old-amt-29-mashup-nov28-buggy-spring-mods/?page=1

The fact that Rob is in the computer industry did remind me of something that's not particularly relevant but interesting nonetheless. To have a computer with only a small fraction of the power of my already obsolete desktop in the mid 1970s would have cost millions of dollars. Today's "mobile device" costing $400 or so in today's money would have been science fiction material, and unavailable for any price. Point being...the disposable technology we take for granted now is really incredibly cheap compared to anything else.