Ace-Garageguy

This has been answered and answered and answered. Over 400 posts on the paint-stripping topic alone, here... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=83153

Yeah, work it down carefully with a Dremel, probably a drum-sander tip, but NOT all the way to the surface. Finish taking it the rest of the way flush with a flat file.

Sorry to see you have difficulty, but glad you're not giving up, and that you're rising to the challenge of reworking it to get the results you want. All of us who develop skills have had similar stories, frustrations and moments of misery when we see a lot of good work ruined. Even those of us who've been building things for a very long time have the occasional very bad day. Hang in there. Remember the old saying that it's not the things that go wrong that matter, but how you recover from them.

I have no idea, but it sure is cool. The leaning overpass is a little jarring though. Makes it all look just slightly post-apocalyptic.

What a shame it is that if you tied the owner for a while where his dog is, just to teach him a little compassion, you'd probably end up in jail. Life's unfair for man and beast.

Great stuff. Lotsa jumping off points for further research.

Just about over the most horrible case of the flu I've ever had. 103 deg. fever lasted several days, and after it subsided all I could do was sleep 20 hours a day for several more. Got on the roof this AM and cleaned out the shop gutters, then made sure the project cars were still covered well enough, as we have lotsa rain headed this way soon. Going back to work tomorrow.

Yup. My cat companion of the past 12 or so years was just dumped in my old neighborhood. She was obviously someone's pet, as she wasn't full grown and had already been fixed (which was a good thing). Very intelligent, affectionate and good natured animal, no trouble whatsoever. Still hard for me to believe that someone could just throw her away like a beer can or a McDonald's wrapper as they drove by. One more reason I'm increasingly fed up with humans.

"Flying milk bottle" is the one I recall.. Probably "flying barrel" too.

I believe every version of the Gee Bee crashed at one time or another, often fatal for their pilots. High-speed wing flutter resulted in Lowell Bayles' wing coming off of the Z during a speed record attempt, slamming the aircraft into the ground. Another crash was attributed to an oil filler cap coming off in flight, and slamming into the canopy...and the pilot's face. Russel Boardman died in an R1 when the aircraft stalled during a race, shortly after refueling, and nosed over on takeoff (if I remember correctly). (An aircraft "stall" doesn't mean the engine quit, like a car "stalling". In an airplane, it occurs when the nose-up attitude of the airplane is too steep for it's speed. The upper surface of the wing is shrouded by the leading edge, and the wing stops "flying". The airplane falls out of the air, and if there is not enough altitude to recover, it crashes into the ground. Usually pilot error.) A stretched-fuselage rebuild of the R1 also crashed twice, the second time fatally after being modified in a way the factory had advised against. A "sport" (non-racing, longer-wing version) crashed fatally when a mechanic left a rag (that was later sucked into the air intake) inside the engine cowling. Though the crash of the Bayles' Z looks very much like massive structural failure, other crashes were due to pilot error or mechanical failures due to the mistakes of the mechanics working on the planes. It was a very hot airplane, with a huge engine and small control surfaces. In the hands of an exceptional pilot, it was fast and flyable. Jimmy Doolittle raced one and remarked that he thought it one of the "sweetest" airplanes he'd ever flown. PS. There's just as much just flat wrong info on the Gee Bees on the net as there is on everything else. My info comes from my own library, including copies of primary sources from the time the planes were flying, and interviews with surviving pilots.

Nice job on the Bonneville Studes, Ray. I'm kinda wishing that color, "stupid yellow" was labeled that way. Could be appropriate for a lot of things, you know?

After seeing the latest pics (and having been in the professional collision-repair industry for some time), I'd say the car is definitely rebuild-able. My guess is that it will be "fixed" and dumped on a market where its provenance isn't too terribly important, but where a cut-price 700HP American factory hot-rod would be a major status symbol. One body shop I ran did some work occasionally for a Bulgarian who routinely sold flood-damaged cars, rebuilt high-end totals and theft recoveries to Russia and South American clients. There's no shortage of buyers for stuff like this...if you know which rocks to look under.

This kind of idiot destruction of beautiful machines by skill-free but monied drivers is nothing new, and will continue as long as there are fast cars for sale to big-headed morons. It used to be a regular occurrence each year at track days nearby for at least one doctor / lawyer / stockbroker to stuff his shiny new 911 backwards into the Armco, because he hadn't bothered to learn a rear-engined car's handling quirks. One day in late '86. a fool in a brand new Jag XJ passed me on the outside of a decreasing-radius exit ramp, only to let the rear end come around on him and slide it sideways into a light pole as I motored on by. Horseshoed it. Pretty impressive, dude. Guess you showed me in my old car, huh? And I've seen fools try to make panic-stops in ABS equipped BMWs, Mercs and Ferraris, thinking the brakes would save them when the laws of physics said there was simply no way to stop the car in the space they left themselves. I don't have a clue as to how stupid douche-sacks can make enough money to buy these cars, but as long as bozos think the skill to drive the things is automatically conferred on the guy who signs the check, the incidents will continue.

In theory, a "global economy" and a "global currency" make a lot of sense. In theory, communism also makes sense. As does capitalism. The problems with all of them arise when the innate dark side of human nature (greed and lust for power) turns an idealistic dream into an unsustainable reality.

I think you'd have enough left over after "incidentals" like those, out of the $50 million or so gross profit.

I just put it up in keeping with the black /flamed '34 theme of the winner. I think a fenderless car is more pure "hot-rod" and the flame treatment is quite different from what we've seen done over and over and over. A well-proportioned Carson top could give it even more individuality, and add some classic lakes-style touches like a heavily louvered rolled rear pan. Put a 3-carb '57 Olds J3 under the hood (or maybe a non-polished 4-71 blower on the Olds) and you'd be getting far away from just another cookie-cutter expensive car. It would also be fast, drivable, and reliable as a brick.

I think this Tom Sapp design, done as a roadster, would have been WAY cooler. Maybe with a chopped Carson top.

Numbers are hard. So is cheese.

Most any automotive touchup paint labeled "metallic" is going to have flakes in it that are really too large for scale work, unless you're trying to replicate dune buggy / bass boat / kustom kar or wild race car finishes. In general, Testors "one coat" metallics have flakes that are ridiculously huge in most cases as well. As mentioned above however, touchup paints labeled "pearl" or "mica" often have finer flakes. BUT unfortunately, there are never going to be two versions of exactly the same color in both "metallic" and "pearl". These touchup colors are mixed to match specific car-manufacturer color numbers, and it just doesn't give you 2 versions of the same color with different sized metallic particles. Never. Ever. Duplicolor is pretty good about getting accurate renditions of the color that's in the can on the cap, but you have to look very carefully at the cap to determine flake size. This Olds hood was shot with a Duplicolor green with "pearl" in the name.

I've got an old plastic X-acto vise with a vacuum base. You put a little water on the foot, press it down and flip the handle, and it will stick firmly to any very smooth surface. If necessary, i'll pad the jaws with tape, or EPDM self-adhesive weatherstrip. You can add additional clamps to hold oddly shaped parts.

Probably better than super-gluing it to your thumb.

Very nice work. Love he Bluenose especially.

Welcome to the forum, Dave. Lot's of good info available here to get you over the rough spots. Be sure to post some pix of your maritime models in the "All the Rest" area. We're always interested in seeing what people are building in other fields. I have a fairly large-scale wooden Skipjack I'm looking forward to getting to, maybe in the summer.

The First AMBR winner from 1950 was Bill Niekamp's blue track-nose roadster. This is it restored. And this is it as it appeared on the dry lakes shortly after it was built. Not a trailer-queen, but a real, go-fast hot-rod. Dick Williams won with this little T in '53...with an early use of "chrome reverse" wheels... George Barris' Ala Kart won in both '58 and '59. A full-on showcar, it had heavy detailing even underneath. The 1963 winner was Tex Smith's XR6, built as a Hot Rod Magazine project car to explore new ideas on the traditional proportions. Powered by a Chrysler slant-6 with Weber carbs, with VW Bug independent front suspension and an early 4-link rear end setup, it had an all hand-formed body too. It was also driven extensively.

Back in the late '70s, I was holding a piece of plastic cupped in the palm of my hand while drilling a 1/8" hole (with an air-drill). The drill broke through the plastic, and of course my reaction time wasn't quick enough to stop it before it bit dead-center into my palm. The drill bit stopped when it hit the bones. I had to back it out, taking a nice deep plug of meat with some white / yellow bone on the tip. Hurt and bled like the devil, but I had to wrap it up and finish the job. Still have the scar. Not so stupid afterwards, either.