Ace-Garageguy

In many cases, if you don't show up, you lose by default. That means you're screwed, as there's no going back and undoing it. For your own peace of mind, and not having to wonder if you're going to be arrested some time in the future (or if you happen to get pulled over for a burned out light in Tennessee) , you probably ought to go to court. If you have solid evidence to back up what you say, you'll be OK.

Anybody old enough to remember Dick Tracy's "two-way wrist TV", circa 1964?

Beautiful red Porsche 356 A sunroof coupe, slightly lowered like an enthusiast would have done. Looked arrow-straight, sounded spot on. Period-correct aftermarket luggage racks, mirrors, etc.

My suggestion for the FRONT of any car is the functional equivalent of putting "dropped spindles" on a real one. A 2" dropped spindle on a real car simply relocates the stub axle UPWARDS on the spindle by 2". Raising the stub axle (and brakes, obviously) relative to the spindle on a model by the amount you want to lower the car strikes me as being pretty realistic.

There's a whole Community Build topic. Scroll down, or click here... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showforum=39

She "pops" pretty good as is. A lot of the "chrome" on these cars was actually stainless, and many barn-finds have excellent trim once the bat and bird droppings, and 40 years worth of dust, are hosed off. You'll usually get peeling chrome plating and rust spots on bumpers, and dull and pitting chrome on cast-potmetal parts like door handles and hood ornaments.

No fun at all when relatives' heads explode and they file with the courts. Good luck with it all. Just stay calm and make SURE you have irrefutible documentation to back up EVERYTHING you say is true

An interesting thing about model cars is that the lowering process is identical in concept to doing it on a real vehicle. As Snake says, we need to know what kind of car you want to lower, and how much, etc. Then we can give you detailed info for doing it right. One general truth, though, is that you can lower just about every FRONT end pretty much correctly if you: 1) block up the model at the stock ride height, using the kit wheels to get a good approximation 2) measure how much clearance you have between the lowest part of the car and the work surface 3) block up the car at the height you want it to be AFTER it's lowered 4) measure the clearance with the work surface in the lowered position 5) determine the difference between the two measurements 6) cut the stub axles off of the spindles and move them UP (drill, reglue, etc.) the exact distance you got in step 5.

Car Fax is no different than any other online-accessible data base, in that the information on a vehicle isn't compiled automatically. Rather, it has to be entered into the system by fallible humans. If information seems sketchy, caveat emptor. CarFax only has available information that is reported to them, and doesn't do diligent searches to ferret out the truth on any vehicle. Essentially, what Danno said. PS. I'd sure like to have a low-mileage police-package Crown Vic. I've driven a couple, and they're very competent cars. I had a wrecked donor, slated to give its engine and gearbox for a swap into my old Jag XJ-6. The donor got away when the owner of the storage lot died, somewhat inconsiderately, and his moron manager had everything ratty looking towed to the crusher (without contacting the vehicle owners).

Must have been extra-terrestrial giant snails beamed it in there, eh? Only possible explanation.

I believe a race of intelligent snails created the universe in 13.5 days, that the universe is only about 100 years old (I mean, before TV, how could you possibly KNOW what happened before anyway??), and that the snails are secretly scheming to come out one day and eat us all. And as of this instant, it's on the internets, so it has to be true.

Sooper Kewl. As soon as I read "self made tires" and looked at the treads, it hit me that you'd knurled them on a lathe. Very creative use of the process. Just a knockout build. Thanks for sharing the idea.

Yo, that's NICE. A real little sweetheart of a truck.

Probably not restorable.

Spectacular, among the best of the best. The '60 Ford is one of my favorites, too.

Slightly off topic...does the Raiders Coach kit have that interesting mix of tires? PS. Played all the clips up above. Man, that takes me back. Wow. Really wanna go dance the Jerk with some go-go girls now.

Looks like a good, clean build that fits together well.

The channeled and sectioned '32 truck could make a knockout model on a decent chassis. Draggon's looks great as-is, though. Very nice. The roadster-pickup is shaping up nicely, too. 'Course, the Tall-T isn't an "A" either, being a "T". Here's one from "rocketwheels" on the Coffin Corner 2 site... And this "1929 T Rod" isn't a '29, because in 1929 Ford was building the model A.

Ron...isn't that top one the old old Monogram 2-piece body '32? I've got a few of those too. Terrific looking models, by the way.

Yes, as Snake said, enamels are usually fine over lacquers, but not the other way around. Far as the spitting goes, sometimes it's more involved than just cleaning the nozzle. There's an internal valve and a pickup tube inside the can that goes down into the paint. When these cans sit for a long time, the pigments settle to the bottom. Solid pigment can get up into the tube, and clog it, or the valve, inside the can. It may spray fine for a minute or 2, but the solids can clump together as paint moves up the tube and cause a partial or complete clog. A partial clog internally can cause spitting. (Image taken from open internet source under "fair-use" definition in copyright law) I've been able to rescue quite a few cans by smacking the bottoms smartly on a hard surface (while holding the can upright). Smack, shake, smack, shake, smack, shake as necessary. The sharpish "smack" tends to knock the clog back down the tube, and shaking gets more of the solvent back up the tube to help dissolve the rest of the clog. Patience is king. Out of probably 50 cans with internal clogs, I've been able to save all but a couple. Mineral spirits or Testors enamel thinner will work to clean your enamel nozzles. Lacquer thinner, acetone or MEK will be necessary to clean lacquer nozzles (as well as enamel). If you CAN'T get the can to spray properly, you can always decant the paint for airbrush use.

>>>>Steve: I had the opportunity to see the MCW metallics on a couple of models today at the ACME meeting. Really good looking paint, right-appearing metallic texture, etc. The one guy I talked to extensively also says that the MCW metallics are PPG lacquer-based, and for some reason, they are much less sensitive to getting blotchy when polished (without being cleared first) than other metallics. Is this consistent with your experience? Speaking of ghost lines, I've found that a heavy wet coat of primer over bare plastic does pull them up, but also tends to hold them down if it's allowed to dry completely, sanded flat, and re-shot with lighter coats. Sometimes multiple coats and sanding are required (I recall the Revell '50 Olds hood I de-peaked took 3 or 4 primer-sand-primer-sand-primer-sand cycles to kill the line), and to avoid filling fine details that may be adjacent to mold-line or other work, a "soft" masking technique needs to be used to protect them from primer buildup.

The ancient AMT '29 Ford kit continues to inspire more and more builds too. This is a 4-banger powered lakes car, circa November 1941. A traditional "A-V8", flathead powered full-fendered model A roadster... And a nailhead-powered '29 roadster on '32 rails. There's also an early lakes streamliner based on this kit just starting, and another lowboy-style hot rod.

Another one I do multiples of is the Monogram '34 Ford 3-window snapper. These are the only 2 that I have pix of, but there are more...a radically chopped lakes car, an altered drag car, a highboy-style hot-rod, and a full-fendered street-rod.

What the parts inside your engine would like to do to you when you run it low on oil, coolant, or just generally abuse it.