Ace-Garageguy

It's a simple fact that people who don't make things, and make things WELL, have zero understanding of what it takes to do highly-skilled and intricate work (like model building, for instance). If you have the patience, try to enlighten the un-initiated into some of what we do. If you don't, just smile and walk away when someone "offers to let you build something for them".

It's back. This is the first progress I've made on any model work since November, having been tied up with moving my home of 17 years (as well as my office, studio and 1:1 shop), health issues, and a host of other almost unbelievable problems. I've put this one at the head of the list, because I owe a member here copies of 2 of the interim hoods I've made to get a "shaker" setup for this late-model Challenger (he graciously supplied styrene parts for me to work from, and has been very patient with all of my ongoing delays). The pix speak for themselves. The donor for the roof, back glass and upper tailgate is the Revell Dodge Magnum kit, in case I failed to mention that before.

Kinda like my girl who thought everything in the malls "was just there". How could she know??

I've encountered similar cluelessness in a variety of areas...people saying to me "since you're so good at (fill in the blank), you can do this for me... Lucky me. Never a realization that maybe the reason I'm good at something is because I MADE THE EFFORT to GET GOOD AT IT.

So how does it work? "I'm offended, so EVERYONE has to compensate for my wimpy lack of ability to deal with the real-life speech of the occasional idiot, ignorant jerk" ??

I agree entirely. Words not used in a way that are INTENDED TO HURT another's feelings are simply words. Even when the intent IS to hurt, they're still JUST WORDS. Whatever happened to the little children's very wise saying that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me"? There was a time when children were taught to take a little personal responsibility for their own feelings, and to shrug off offensive remarks made by jerks. And when the "Redskins" were named, they were named...think about it...for the bravery, tenacity and courage of "Indians", not anything disrespectful. Also, maybe if more fat people (me among them) looked in the mirror and said to themselves "hey, I'm fat" (rather than "I'm big and beautiful"), America would be able to do something about the 60% of the population that's overweight to the point it's effecting health.

You can usually find sets of 4 thin whitewall, old AMT tires on ebay for $10 to $15. A dark red magic marker converts them to redlines nicely.

I'll photocopy mine and send them to you if you want.

Still working on it, Ray. Thanks for remembering. Finished the body for the NNL South meet back in November, and that was the last model work I've done until this past week. The move and getting up and running again, plus other real-life obligations, have taken just about every waking moment. I need reference pix of the Challenger I engines and guts in the original configuration. I'd honestly planned to contact Danny Thompson to see if he had anything floating around, but I figure he's probably kinda busy right now.

A few days ago, Danny Thompson, son of racing legend Mickey Thompson (who went 406.6 MPH to become the "fastest man on wheels" in his 4-engined, Pontiac-powered Challenger I in 1960) ran 317MPH in the Challenger 2 at Bonneville, to top off 2 back to back successful days of high-speed testing. Originally built by Mickey back in 1968 as the "Autolite Special" running two 427 Ford SOHC engines, the now twin-dry-block, nitro-burning car (sometimes laughingly called Challenger 2.5 because of the extent of the modifications since then) was back on the salt for the first time in 46 years. Mickey's son Danny has completely rebuilt it using updated technology and engines, and is going to be shooting for a 400MPH pass in August. Danny Thompson's ultimate goal is to surpass 500MPH, but at least to break the current wheel-driven Land Speed Record of 439MPH, set in 2012 by George Poteet. If you have a love of racing anything, and understand the amount of work, sweat and tears that go into trying something like this, here's a link to the Thompson LSR site. Be sure to watch the in-car and engine-test videos with commentary by Danny Thompson. These guys are real American heroes, and I wish them the best of all possible luck. http://thompsonlsr.com/news

And it's not just corporate. I'm always hearing the latest-and-greatest new medical or health study that re-examines and treats as "new" things that were common knowledge when I was a kid.

Exactly. Being exposed to different genres allows a young person to realize there's a whole wide world full of music beyond the packaged commercial swill-du-jour. Only being exposed to what his immediate peer group listens to is...probably mind numbing. I'm gonna go put on some Miles. PS. I didn't really discover jazz until I was in my late 20s, though I do recall being drawn to TV and movie themes with a jazz feel when I was much younger.

Clean, understated, just exactly right. Your work is always an inspiration.

Perfect color for this, and certainly worth the effort. Fine work putting it on, too.

3 beauties in a row. I'm still really impressed by how that chassis POPS with your masterful paint-detailing. Very nice.

WOW. It's hard to believe that old kit can look so GOOD. That has to be the best build of that one I've ever seen. An inspiration. What IS the color? it's exactly what I've been looking for, for a long-term stalled project.

Man that is REALLY pretty. Outstanding work on the foil, paint, and on bringing that old blob of a chassis to life. Very fine indeed.

Salaried people who are too lazy, too stupid, or too distracted texting, f-booking and twitting to do their jobs. I filed a manual change-of-address form at the local PO, thinking mistakenly that there would be less chance for error rather than doing it online. The new address is 1860, and I've not been getting much mail...so I looked at the envelopes and it is a wonder ANYTHING was coming through. The PO forwarded everything to 1060 !!! So, I KNOW this isn't my fault, as I triple checked the address when I filled out the form, and I was trained early on as a draftsman...point being that when I write an eight, it looks like 8 and not 0. Whoever transcribed the number didn't think it was sufficiently important to get the number in my little ol' address actually CORRECT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While we're on the subject of distracted workers...one of my co-workers, an all around nice guy for the most part, must spend twice as much time on his "mobile device" each day as he spends actually working. I, on the other hand, bust my hump and tell everyone I know to leave me alone at work unless it's literally life-and-death. I guess I'm just a past-it grumpy old fossil, expecting people to do their jobs correctly and completely. But I understand what's been happening at GM entirely.

What would have irked me if I'd let it is that the super-babe short-haired brunette with the killer legs in the Hobby Lobby yesterday was probably smiling at me because I reminded her of her grandfather. Being old bites, sometimes.

Times are hard. Sometimes you gotta get your outing wherever you can. And as an English-German-Scottish American, I resemble your "ethnic" slur.

A newish Bentley convertible parked in front of the restaurant in Buckhead where a friend works. Also a Bentley Continental coupe being accelerated hard (!!), on the way back from Buckhead. New Jag XJ (and I had absolutely no clue as to what it was, assumed it was a Maserati until I saw the kitty on the boot), and a Maserati Quattroporte.

Well sir, I've been in a variety of businesses over the span of my life, and that's by far the most common thing I've encountered. When I HAVE had the occasional employee or co-worker who actually was GOOD at what they were paid to do, it was always a pleasant deviation from the norm, and I always went out of my way to offer praise. I've heard many many teachers say more or less the same thing...most kinds don't seem to care or really want to learn, and when a teacher comes across the rare student who DOES care, and who is in fact hungry for knowledge and capable of retaining it, they're overjoyed.

Nice job integrating the 2 kits. Very nice.

Everything based on old Fords can be built from readily available kits and parts, should the desire be strong enough. The Cheetah resin kits can be built full detail with some scratch-bashing. A great opportunity to develop new skills. The Manta Ray? 'Twas done as a slot car by 2 companies, so there's a start... or for the really ambitious, how about scratchbuilding?

My cat rather seems to appreciate having a clean, stink-free home as much as I do, and routinely goes outside to let off various cat by-products. Lucky me.