Ace-Garageguy

Wow. Everything about it is beautifully done. Love the articulated rear suspension too.

Stunningly beautiful workmanship. Inspirational, as always.

Must kinda depend on who works on them. My '86 XJ-6 went over 25,000 trouble free miles after I put the 700R4 gearbox in it, for a total of about 125,000 now. Still have it, starts every time, only let me down on the road once.

I've come upon another little interesting glitch. Upon the site directing me to an "error 404" page and dumping my response, I logged out (yes, I HAD saved the response in MS Word before hitting the "submit post" button). When I logged back on later and tried to enter the saved response in the thread, when I clicked on "reply to this topic", my post that had been 'lost' came up in its entirety...leading me to believe this software DOES have the ability to save a post for editing or preview, if we just knew how to turn it on, or to access it intentionally. That said, when I tried to post the response, the site again took me to the "error 404" page without allowing the post to actually post.

As for me, I rent late-model vehicles frequently while I'm out of town. All the little toys are neato keen, but really pretty much useless from a mission standpoint...the mission being getting to my destination. I can read a map, so I don't need navigation. I rarely have to make or answer a call that can't wait til I'm stopped. I never need to look up something on the web while I'm in motion either. It can all wait. Unless you're law enforcement, actively working on a cancer cure, or are involved in some other critical science where every minute counts, I just don't get the perceived "need" for anything much beyond music playback...and hands-free phone capability for people who really NEED to be reachable every minute. I must just be too old to be cool, huh? And just for the record, I've had ONE minor collision that was my own fault in 50 years on the road (while momentarily distracted) and have avoided countless others because I was focused on the primary task of driving.

I've had "real" engine enamels badly craze some un-primered kit plastics. A barrier of Duplicolor primer has always worked for me so far. I also recently had a Pontiac blue engine paint give poor coverage on un-primed edges, trying to pull away and pool in flatter areas. Again, a properly scuffed primer coat solved the problem nicely. As always, TEST on the particular plastic in the kit you're working on before committing to painting (and possibly ruining) the model.

Both the '32 Ford Tudor and the 5-window are particularly easy ones to chop, as the B and C pillars come straight down. Many times, a chop on these in real-life, or in scale, involves lengthening the roof slightly between the A and B pillars, but this can be avoided by simply bending the lower A pillars back slightly, and the upper A pillars forward slightly, after the roof has been cut off. This has the effect of raking the windshield back more than stock, for a more streamlined look. Keep the B pillars in alignment when the roof is brought down, and lean the A pillars back as described above, and where you get a slight mismatch at the C pillars, lightly file and fill to shape. There's just no need to agonize over the 'step-chop' method on these body styles.

Yes, but truckers with hundreds of thousands or even millions of miles on the road aren't 30MPH mommies either. Highly skilled driving professionals are a far cry from the clueless dweebs I see with their little screens in front of their faces every time I'm on the interstate. And I'm sure there's been more than one car squashed by a trucker who was momentarily distracted by a CB channel change, etc.

60 years ago, some cars had record players..I'm sure the curmudgeons said the same thing then.. Think about this. Record players (which only worked when a car was immobile anyway) tapes, radio, CDs, any other stored music palyback system...no big deal. But there are TWO kinds of distractions available in a car. Music, radio, etc. doesn't require your PRIMARY attention to be diverted from the task of driving. On the other hand, texting or using any mobile device that's not voice-activated (or that requires looking at ANY kind of screen) DOES REQUIRE YOUR PRIMARY ATTENTION TO BE DIVERTED, at least momentarily. A 5-SECOND diversion at 55MPH is the length traveled of ONE FOOTBALL FIELD. A lot can happen in that span of distance and time that you might miss, fatally. Fitting cars out as mobile entertainment centers, and then expecting people to use the technology responsibly, is simply ignoring the facts of human nature. Law enforcement people need constant mobile communications, as do arguably medical professionals and some others. But what is really so important that Joe or Josephine average needs to risk his or her life...and MINE...by diverting attention from the task of driving? Research has proven conclusively that even having a conversation with someone else in the same car is a significant and dangerous distraction for most drivers. Can we get real, please?

Interesting new and very annoying glitch... I just wrote a long and thought out technical response to a question asked, hit "submit reply", and the site took me to a "404 error, the page you're looking for does not exist" screen and dumped my reply. Nice.

Some interesting statistics to back this opinion are quoted below... The LAST thing we need in cars is more options for distraction. Many drivers are barely competent to handle a 3500 pound projectile, carrying 20 gallons of highly flammable fuel, travelling at 60MPH with NO distractions. So give 'em more, right? Yeah, that's a good idea. Far as the old 45rpm record players in cars went, they wouldn't track when the vehicle was moving anyway. General Cell Phone StatisticsNote: These are the most recent statistics available The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year.Nearly 330,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving.1 out of every 4 car accidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving.Texting while driving is 6x more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk.Answering a text takes away your attention for about five seconds. Traveling at 55 mph, that's enough time to travel the length of a football field.Texting while driving causes a 400% increase in time spent with eyes off the road.Of all cell phone related tasks, texting is by far the most dangerous activity.94% of drivers support a ban on texting while driving.74% of drivers support a ban on hand-held cell phone use.

There's an IMC / Union T-70 full detail kit in 1/25. For the T-222 chassis, I'd think the Accurate Miniatures 1/24 McLarens would be a good start.

I assume you're wanting to avoid lengthening the roof, as is necessary using some chopping techniques. I've done several tutorials on various forums. What do you want to chop, and how much? The methodology is different depending on the era you're working in.

Firefox was my browser of choice for years on my old XP machine, but since I got this rebuilt 7 machine, I've been running Chrome. Always works everywhere with zero issues. It has useful add-ons like ad-block and "please don't track me" too. Fast, reliable, free. What's not to love? It's also easy to import your favorite website lists from other browsers.

Funny you mention that. The fridge was bought in 2001, so it's pretty old as far as kitchen appliance lifespans go. But this was the first time it ever had any problems in all those years, so I figure I've gotten my money's worth out of it. The repair guy said the average age of a refrigerator that needs repair is four years old! So I lucked out big time, going more than three times that long before needing repairs. We'll see how it goes. I may be good to go for another 14 years. Or it may break down again in a month. It's a Kitchen-Aid, which is supposedly a good brand. We'll see... Yep. But one of those things you don't think sbout until you wish you had it! Funny how everybody is always harping on how much better cars, appliances and every other piece of carp under the sun is today. We have a vintage fridge in the shop been running since 1955. Never repaired, just engineered and designed with top-quality parts and materials to operate well, and not cost-engineered into trash. Of course, it doesn't have any iPhone apps, and it doesn't connect to the internet to remind you when your box of wine is getting low...it just keeps food cold. What a concept.

There are several ways but this one always works. You'll have to have p-bucket AND the MCM forum thread you want to put the photo in open in two browser windows simultaneously. 1) Bring up p-bucket and open the photo you want to load into your thread on the MCM forum. 2) On the right side there's a menu called "share links". Left-click on the "IMG" one. It will momentarily turn yellow, to let you know it's been copied. (Sometimes depending on your browser, who's been diddling with the p-bucket functionality, or the phase of the moon, you won't get the yellow flash. In that case you MAY have to right-click on the "IMG" address and copy it). 3) Go back to your thread page. Position the cursor where you want the photo to appear, and press "Ctrl-v" ("paste"). The photo address will come up in the thread window. 4) When you hit "post", the photo will appear. OR.... If you're looking at thumbnails in a particular album, hover your cursor over the photo you want to put on MCM. 3 little white bars come up in the lower left corner of the thumbnail. Hover over the bars and another menu opens above them in the thumb. Left-click "share links" A big white box will drop down with another menu on the right. Left-click the "IMG" choice, which will flash yellow as above. Same steps 3 and 4 as described above.

Looks like Plastruct has T-section styrene in 1.6mm, part #TFS-2, and 2.4mm , part #TFS-3. Do you need 2mm exactly?

Beautiful sunny day, humidity only 58%, down from close to 100 for weeks. Got out of the shop early. Simple pleasures for simple minds.

Got the rest of the AN fittings in today to finish the plumbing on the '47 Caddy, and did it all before lunch. Also got the little part that broke, making my expensive flaring tool a useless piece of scrap. $8 part, $12 shipping. They could have put it in an envelope (which they did) and sent it USPS for less than a buck, instead of UPS for $12. Oh well...at least I'm up and running with that tool again. Grainger wanted $31 for the thing.

Welcome back from lost in beyond-the-site-barrier.

I've got some vintage Revell and AMT slicks i'll measure, if you're interested in old stuff. It IS nice to know the outside diameter and rim diameter if you're trying to hit a particular look.

I do. Doesn't everyone? Dial calipers are available under $30, and are an indispensable modeling tool. Hmmm... Does your caliper show for instance what 1 1/32" equals to? Not exactly, but sorta. All my digital calipers have a button that switches the readout from decimal inches to metric and back. Very handy, as you can also use it as a simple conversion tool. And the prices can be as low as $15 here.

Yes. Click here. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/

Ebay, unbuilt mint in box, right now, bid at $65, probably go for less than $100. I see them every few months or so.

If you're running Chrome as your browser, just enable adblock plus. It blocks ads here, there and everywhere. Quite nice, actually. And free. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-plus/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb?hl=en-US