Ace-Garageguy

Everybody is right on the money do far. Home Depot sells JUST the motion-detector switch from an outdoor floodlight unit for about $25. (part # Defiant 745-407). It's a simple 4-wire hookup. They work great (but you have to be careful to not exceed the maximum-rated switching current). They can be series-wired with your existing switch, and have the ability to be turned "on" , bypassing the motion-detector function. They also cover 270 degrees in front of and to the sides of the unit. I've used several of these around the outside of my house, after having had some problems with intruders. The units are adjustable for sensitivity and give approach-warning even in full daylight (as long as the unit is shaded from direct sunlight).

This was at the old house. Similar setup now.

Nice. The interior and engine bay are particularly realistic looking.

Yup. And the '55 Olds grille bar is perfect in there too.

The first issue had only a stock flathead, and it's a good one. The first yellow-truck version that included the Ardun supposedly has a problem with the Ardun-head setup and headers, corrected in subsequent issues (though I've never come across one yet).

Funny you guys brought up the "reboot" idea. I've been looking over the stash for something relatively simple and straightforward to do an out-of-the-box build on...just to finish something. Most all my builds run into heavy mods and they regularly get bogged down by the engineering and research I like to put into them to make them as realistic and 1:1 feasible as possible. The result is, though I really enjoy the work, NOTHING ever gets finished. I'm getting a little frustrated from never ever completing anything, and I think a straight box-build ((just doing everything right, and adding a few necessary details...like plug wires, etc.) might be good for me to start enjoying this stuff a little more. Sure would be nice to be able to see one "under glass". Right now I'm leaning towards the Fiat dragster in the old AMT double kit. Cool little car, not a ton of work required to make it nice, and room for some simple detailing.

Wow. A 29 foot Ford thread. That's pretty big.

As always, thanks for everyone's interest and comments. The Dye car is said to have been channeled 7" by some sources, but I've decided to build it the way I'd do it if I were doing it now in 1:1, channeled just enough the allow clearance for the exhaust system to run under the floor, with the frame rails extending down to the level of the bottoms of the bellypan sides. This will allow much less channel depth, get the weight of the rails lower for better handling, and allow the floor to be dropped between the rails deeper for more comfortable seating (the real car is reputed to have been pretty uncomfortable due to the flat, thin seat cushions and limited leg room caused by the extreme channel job). The car will LOOK the same from outside, but would be much more pleasant to operate this way. I'm starting with an old blobular AMT '32 chassis that had the rear axle molded in originally. All the nasty stuff is cut off, and rough frame kickups made. One side of the kickup is further roughed in. The old K-member molding will be removed too. K-member removed, and temporary square-tube crossmembers (just wide enough to pinch the chassis enough to allow the body to slip down over it) installed to keep everything square and true. With one side of the kickup about done, a template is made to match the other rail to it. Both sides matching... ...and the body slipped down on the rails. This other-side shot shows the total channel on the rails will only be a couple of inches at most, rather than the full 7" the original is reputed to be. Once I determine how much space under the floor I'll need for exhausts, I can finalize the ride height of the frame, dial in the amount of channel required to get the stance of the original car, and get on with working up the suspension. sides matched, still square

Thanks to everyone for your interest and input on this one too. To answer the questions above, the old AMT chassis goes in pretty much like it's made for it. There's a little trimming required where the rear sides of the frame touch the insides of the rear quarters. That's it, though I think there may be a slight height issue somewhere in there too. The rear tires are narrow M&H piecrust slicks found in many vintage AMT kits.

My sincere thanks to everyone who's commented for your interest. I had a little bench time, and the next thing to address was the rear spring, a crossmember to accommodate it, and the placement of the crossmember to maintain the stance exactly. I'm getting a little low on model A chassis to rob rear crossmembers from (either an A or a T rear crossmember is usually necessary to swap in an A or T spring that has enough arch to clear a QC rear end in a '32 frame...of course depending on several factors, like how low you want to go). Rather than hacking one out of one of my dwindling supply, I decided to scratchbuild one, using the old and excellent Revell '30-'31 unit as a pattern. The rear crossmember on the chassis in the foreground is what we're after. I traced the shape on sheet stock first (also shown is the in-process filling of the mounting locations the Revell kit chassis provides for the crossmembers and bits)... ...cut the pieces out and assembled them (tacked with small drops of liquid cement) on a fixture to hold them steady for work... ...matched the pieces and glued a cap over the side webs... ...and after everything hardened up and got trimmed, we have a finished crossmember, ready to go in. Here it is in its rough position. The photo also shows a slightly dropped center crossmember I made from tube to support the rear of the trans, and the filled indentations the Revell frame comes with to mount the kit crossmembers. The next step is to tack the axle bells and QC housing together (notice the wishbone with the old mechanical brake backing plate removed) with the wishbones, and set up the rear ride height by positioning the new crossmember correctly relative to whatever spring will come closest to giving me the original stance. I have several to choose from at this point, thanks to the beautiful work provided by R&M.

Probably this one, re-released many times in various packaging. For good info on Allison transmissions, ask over on the big-truck forum.

Yes, it's been almost unbelievable. Yesterday a good friend came over for dinner...first time I haven't cooked for Thanksgiving in about 40 years (I did a roast-duck last year on top of a single-burner propane heater)...she brought everything from her restaurant. Mighty tasty too. We went for a long walk, and within a couple of miles of my house we saw a coyote (limping off to hide as we approached), a good-sized flock of very tame Canada geese that apparently overwinters at a nearby lake, a solitary blue heron that also seems to be a permanent resident there, some wild roses that smelled fantastic, and walked through a field of freshly-mown grass that had to have the best fresh-cut smell I've ever experienced. After dinner we sat outside by my kerosene heater, watched the stars come out, and had coffee, 3 kinds of pie, and ice-cream. Then we watched the 1944 black-and-white film "Laura", with David Raksin's beautiful music and the beyond-beautiful Gene Tierney. All in all, not a bad day.

My mother and one of her her sisters were driving to Texas from Nova Scotia in about 1938. Their father had bought them a used '32 Auburn convertible, which my idiot aunt somehow managed to put in a ditch. They left the car, took the train, and the Auburn was never seen again. When my father was about 18, he and some buddies pooled their resources to buy a clapped-out Bantam coupe, took it out joyriding and totaled it, almost killing the lot of them.

Welcome. I'm in the same area. Check out the ACME club who put on the show, if you haven't already. http://www.acme-ipms.com/?s=forum

For some odd reason, it never occurred to me to build a model of it until just this moment...same car, same year, same color (but with a black top, and not new at the time). First one i actually remember was a '51 Studebaker Starlight Coupe, my father's first new car. Just like this... ...which he traded for a '55 Olds 88 convertible... ...after having returned a "Loewy coupe" for being "too low"...

If you prefer a slightly more offbeat and eclectic selection of streaming music, I'd recommend Soma FM. Multiple genres, free, listener-supported (voluntarily...if you like it, send money). https://somafm.com/ You can, of course, stream SiriusXM to your computer also...lots of available genres and a custom mix option too (though I don't like the merged product as much as I liked the old XM).

What I'm still REALLY curious about is that I have used the same identical method to post photos here since I joined this site in 2012. 3 different computers, three different browsers, same procedure works for me every single time...and is blazingly fast with Chrome and my current hot-rod computer. Hmmmmm....

Bill, I've been thinking one reason the photo-hosting sites may be charging now, or charging a little more, is that people (like me) who run ad-blockers seriously interfere with the advertising revenue stream that is generated by the crapp that I used to have to sit through as my photos loaded. If the ads are blocked, they aren't getting watched, and the pay-per-view income streams to the photo-hosts that many advertising schemes work on dry up. There's no free anything. If photo-hosting sites are going to survive, they HAVE to generate income somehow...and I think some people forget this particular economic necessity.

VERY nice, big improvement. Saw her over on the build-thread and came here for a better look. That rear 3/4 shot is bad-to-the-bone.

ONE thing that MAY be happening to Photobucket users...and Bill Geary's comment above made me think of it... IF YOU EXCEED YOUR MONTHLY FREE "BANDWIDTH" ALLOTMENT, YOUR PHOTOS WILL DISAPPEAR UNTIL P'BUCKET RESETS FOR THE NEXT MONTH. "Bandwidth" and "storage space" are TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THINGS. "Storage space" is about how many photos you can park digital copies of on the photo-hosting server's memory. "Bandwidth", as used here, means how much TRAFFIC there is between those photos and people on the web looking at them. It's kinda like your bank charging you extra if you write a lot of checks every month. You can be well under your maximum free "storage space" on Photobucket and STILL run out of "bandwidth" every month IF you post on multiple sites and / or a lot of people are looking at your photos. This is the reason that I signed up for the minimum paid account on P'bucket a while back. I had nowhere near my free storage full, but I was posting a lot and getting a lot of views. My photos started disappearing mysteriously, only to pop up again later. Then I figured out what was happening.

Oh yes, liking this a lot. Great colors for it too. And thanks for all the parts-source info.

A good day to think about giving a helping hand to someone who's not quite as safe and warm as you are. Happy Thanksgiving.