Ace-Garageguy

My cat has recovered enough from the massive infection and surgery to get up on her hind legs to beg for food samples again. Though she still looks like Frankencat and probably will for months to come, it's good to see my old friend having an interest in life.

Temps here haven't been that bad, considering what's been "normal" for most of my time in the swamp-east. Right now it's 65, with a high of about 85 expected later. Most summers we have extended periods where it "feels like" around 100 during the day, and the nights are a high-humidity high 70s. We've had a few of those this year, but overall it's been more comfortable than usual. I work in an un-heated-or-cooled environment, typically at least 5 degrees hotter inside than outside (black roof, no insulation), so a little relief from the usual summer weather helps considerably.

That's funny. Really really funny.

I vastly prefer the smells of a woodworking shop to anything in the mechanical or model shop. I think I'll retire, move to Maine, and build wooden boats. Then there were the long-ago days my significant other would would come in the shop to visit while I was working. I can still smell her just-showered-girl-with-an-over-layer-of-Chanel if I close my eyes...

Yeah Chuck, is it? Cool tool. I have absolutely no need for one, but I WANT ONE! Especially intriguing that it's OLD, and has been sitting unloved for 30 years and is back in operation. Too cool.

Mark, if what you're saying about switching suppliers frequently and planned-obsolescence on tool batteries, poor parts availability, etc. is all true (which I don't doubt) it sounds to me like Sears has fallen into the same moronic new-think business management trap that many companies have fallen for...focusing completely on short-term profits without understanding or giving a damm about long-term staying power, customer service, product quality, etc. etc. etc. I've been howling for decades about the necessity for a business to focus on its PRODUCT FIRST, and that if it does so effectively, profits will follow. When a business focuses on PROFIT FIRST, the product and service suffer, and the business isn't going to be viable for long. Of course, I'm not a well-known business "expert" who endlessly repeats the maximize-today's-income platitudes and "knowledge" that's all-pervasive these days, but I think the rash of failures and problems the primarily profit-driven businesses are having (including GM, whose primary business became making money, not cars, long ago) bears out my theories. Honda, one of the most respected car builders in the world, has never been a chaser of today's $$ at the expense of tomorrow's reputation, and has in many ways gone against the stream, finding its own product-quality-based way in a world that screams that's an obsolete notion. Nor does Honda stupidly waste energy trying to be "number one". Again, they focus on building really good cars, with engineers in positions of power rather than idiot marketers, and they're content to stay solidly in business making a good profit margin doing what they do WELL, rather than mindlessly striving for a larger piece of the car-market pie.

I always just boiled my head in Clorox when I got home.

A foam nerf wing is bad enough, but mounted backwards really makes a statement, doncha think?

Yes, and please don't get in the far left lane and appoint yourself "keeper of the speed limit". You're nothing but a rolling roadblock, a hazard to other drivers, and a royal pain.

" I MG" is what your old TD says on the day the machines wake up and revolt.

I agree, and frankly, with my time being so limited lately, most of my music listening is done online. I haven't had time to unpack my CDs and reload the players yet, and I like being able to get a specific track from a specific artist playing instantly with no prolonged searching (though the late-generation CD players I have are interfaced with the computer and are searchable, to some extent),

I don't recall ever once taking the word of a "sales associate" ANYWHERE for anything other than where an item was located in the store. The tool department in the local Sears here used to be HUGE, so being pointed in the right direction was helpful there. The part I miss about shopping "in person" is being able to actually HOLD the product in my hand and make MY OWN judgement as to its quality. It's similar to what I miss about book and music stores. At BN, I can see and scan the covers and titles of MANY books in a particular genre pretty much instantly, and let MY OWN MIND zero in on the one I think most relevant. Then a quick flip through the pages, ALL the pages (not just the ones available online) and I KNOW if it's what I need or not. But the local BN has cut it's "transportation" section back so much that the only option I have searching for car-related technical books is online, and it does work well. With fiction, same thing, but reading a random passage or several pages can pretty much tell me if I like the author's style and rhythm. I haven't found a really good way to do that online yet, but I haven't tried very hard, because we still have a couple of book stores nearby. Far as music goes, the now-history Borders here had a CD section with headphones and an extensive library where you could browse and listen to an ENTIRE ALBUM before purchasing it, not just the 30-second clip-per-track you get on the net. Again, I could see a wide variety of music I'd never specifically SEARCH for, and I broadened my musical taste and appreciation considerably. When that was available I bought several hundred $$ worth of music monthly. Since they've been gone, my music purchases have dropped to almost nothing. The flip side, far as the "printed" word goes, is the expanded availability of material long out of print, of interest to such a limited audience that a re-print just isn't going to happen due to the cost of producing a physical "book". I've found some e-editions of some things I thought I'd never find, and I'm grateful that technology makes some little gems once again accessible. Still, to me, reading something on a glowing screen just doesn't have the same appeal as holding a book and turning pages. But then, I LIKE to read. I think that's a trait that's disappearing as rapidly as tool-users.

I love it when someone's model makes me stop and just say "wow". Wow !

Bill Geary (MrObsessive) is the MAN when it comes to doing this kind of work. Click on the link he provided above, and you'll know everything you need.

Slightly off topic, but relevant to remarks made in several posts above...I know online shopping is the coming thing, but in my experience as a KNOWLEDGEABLE consumer, most of the information available on websites is insufficient to make a truly informed purchase. The copy is almost invariably written by people who have ZERO actual knowledge of the product. It's dumbed-down marketing-speak, and almost NEVER gets into specific performance or material details. This sad phenomenon is just as prevalent in hard car-parts as it is in dishwashing soap, and the car-parts guys should really know better. My "employer" is an "ask somebody" or "go online" guy, but I refuse to buy anything for a project my ass will be on the line for without a hard-copy catalog in my hand. They're often not too much better, but in many cases, they are. I like buying online for the convenience of having things dropped at my door, but I'll only buy something I ALREADY KNOW is a decent product. I don't understand how folks can make buying decisions from the useless fluff that masquerades as "information" on most shopping websites.

Their big catalogs were among my favorite entertainment when I was MUCH younger, but that's another story entirely. Their tool catalogs were chock full of good stuff you could usually only get off of the tool truck if you were in a mechanical trade...micrometers, ring-compressors, valve-seat cutters...no more. I did notice recently that Ace Hardware is carrying Craftsman tools. Very odd, I thought to myself. Now I have absolutely no reason to go to Sears. There was a time when my local Sears tool department was staffed mostly with retired men who actually KNEW something about tools, and the tool quality was excellent. In-person, knowledgeable customer service is a thing of the past now, and the quality is slipping as production is moved offshore or cheapened to the max. Frankly, and we've visited this topic before here, the percentage of people in the population who know how to use ANY tools is dwindling, and the ones who know the difference between real forged-steel wrenches that actually fit fasteners and the crapp Chinese cast mystery-metal garbage is minuscule. Sears sees no reason to continue to support a market that's simply going away due to growing public disinterest in mechanical devices and using-your-hands hobbies like woodworking. In the same vein, Radio Shack has gone from being a source for switches, chips and semiconductors, and various other electronic components to a smart-phone and toy store. Useless to me, but I'm not their target market anymore.

Atr's right. The best source of flat polyethylene pieces is bondo spreaders. That's why they make bondo spreaders out of it...nothing readily adheres. Your CA MAY stick just slightly, but it will come loose VERY easily with no damage. Bondo spreaders are available in most auto-parts stores. They're flat, clean, cheap, and can be used over and over and over.

The best thing to do is look at photos of the real car you're trying to model, and make what you see. google "69 Dodge interior" or "69 Dodge door jamb" for a start...

Saw a mild custom Audi R8 in a neighborhood that isn't known for expensive cars. Very nicely done, entirely de-chromed, no badges, all-over silver pearl paint (very fine metallic flake) with smoked windows. Faired-in smaller mirrors mounted high on the A-pillars, and an old-school flip-top style fuel filler cap. Stunning car.

Yes, you will need legal representation. I know you're broke, but most places do have some sort of legal-aid for people with no money. Try looking up "legal aid" in your particular area, or contact the local bar association. Free representation is rarely as good as the paid-for variety, but you have to get somebody in your court who knows the ropes.

Or, you could get really radical and just look at the headlights.

The McLaren MP4 already uses a carbon composite "tub" monocoque passenger cell. As does the Lambo Aventador... ...and BMW's little i3 From EV WORLD.COM: "BMW i3 Reportedly Will Be Built in Half the Time of Conventional Steel Car In addition to fewer parts, the carbon fiber and aluminum chassis electric car will be 250 to 350 kg (551 to 771 lb) lighter than a comparable electric car. Published: 01-May-2013 The BMW Group (Munich, Germany) revealed more details about its forthcoming all-electric, composites-intensive i3 passenger vehicle in its annual report, issued on March 19. Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, says the first preseries BMW i3 rolled off the production line in January. Designed specifically to run with zero emissions in an urban environment, the commuter car will come onto the market by the end of the year. “Several hundred advance orders have already been received for the BMW i3,” adds Reithofer. The BMW i3 sports a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) passenger cell and an aluminum chassis and, says BMW, the vehicle sets new standards in the field of lightweight construction. BMW also reports the production times are reduced significantly by employing unique manufacturing methods and significantly fewer parts, simplifying assembly. The BMW i3 reportedly will require only half the time necessary to produce a conventional automobile." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carbon fiber is only ONE OF MANY composite material choices and fabrication techniques available to automobile designers...if they choose to look forward. The current Cirrus SR22 G3 /5 uses a carbon wing spar, and carbon reinforcements at critical locations. The Lancair Legacy kitplane is mostly carbon fiber... ...but Cirrus has been able to substitute cheaper foam-core fiberglass in their own design for much of the carbon in the Lancair, a result of experience and learning what works well in other composite aircraft. It's only a matter of time before composite materials see widespread use in surface-vehicles, but it's going to be later rather than sooner. Unfortunately. The Lotus Elite had an ALL-COMPOSITE fiberglass-stressed-skin-monocoque structure in 1957. It weighed 1100 pounds and could easily give 35 mpg. The rest of world is just now beginning to catch up.

I knew somebody would say that. When introduced, the aircraft was in the $200,000 range. Lotsa upgrades and redesigns have pumped the price WAY up over the past few years, BUT...THE TECHNOLOGY IS ADAPTABLE TO MASS-PRODUCED CARS, and COULD BE COST-COMPETITIVE. Economics of scale, ya know? And just like the oil-companies, most car companies persist in living in the past, doing business-as-usual with grossly heavy vehicles that incorporate silly bells and whistles in a vacuous nod to "progress". And the whole "even though we have solutions to ALL the world's problems staring us in the face, we're going to drag our feet and go forward as slowly as humanly possible, because we're either too stupid to recognize the future when it's knocking on the door, or we're just too afraid to make BIG changes" mentality IRKS THE LIVING SNOT OUT OF ME.

I love what you're doing here. Very nice work, all the way.

In actual fact, there is no "frame" in a Cirrus. Since 1995, one of my specialties has been the structural repair and reconstruction of these aircraft after severe damage, and I've become intimately familiar with their engineering. I also worked extensively on composite sailplanes with similar construction back in the '80s The fuselage is a monocoque design, which simply means the skin is "stressed" and carries the structural loads. It's made very much like a plastic model airplane, The fuselage is made in two halves in molds, and literally "glued" together. This is 1/2 of the fuselage skin, in the mold. The fuselage shell itself is a foam-core composite sandwich. The foam core is roughly 1/4" to 1/2" thick, and the fiberglass skins average about .050" thick. My avatar is a single-passenger, single-seat vehicle using the same technology. The design weight is around 600 pounds (MUCH heavier than necessary if it didn't have to incorporate crash-protection for operation in a world full of heavy vehicles).