Ace-Garageguy

Eleven days for a small envelope of documents to go from AZ to GA. Really glad I had the sender get a tracking #.

"Reality Bites" should be the name of little psychotropic candies that impart common sense and respect for objective truth to anyone who eats them.

"Chaos" describes a lot of things happening over the last few years, but I'd best not elaborate.

I agree with you about those old Monogram kits. Their first-gen '34, before the de-contenting and top-chopping etc., is absolutely THE best '34 Ford ever done in scale, by a wide margin.

"Opinion" and "feelings" are often seen to be superior to verifiable facts in today's "information-centric" society.

Dead picture link, can't edit that far back, so here:

Yup, that is mo' debinately some pretty work by somebody. Those billet-look wide-5 rims are pretty trick too.

Indeed. But hey...EVERYTHING now is WAY better than it used to be, or haven't you heard?

Yup, "Slim Jim". I'd had a problem with it once before it got away (it was my mother's car, but I drove it occasionally), probably because I was running it a little too hard...manual shifting it. But I got it sorted way back then and she drove it for several years afterwards. It's not running now so I have no idea how the gearbox is, but I bought the GM factory book on it. I understand parts are hard to get these days, and I really want a 5-speed in it anyway (which requires an adaptor and substantial tunnel rework), so we'll see. Fatman had dropped spindles for it too, but they appear to have been discontinued...and I haven't checked for any other sources yet. But no worries. I'll get it lowered with front discs somehow. Pretty cool you got your prom car back too. Looks like she's coming along very nicely.

You can have all the bugs you pick off me, 'cause I'm nothing if not generous.

Thanks Casey. I have one coming. If it's as nice as the rest of his stuff I have, it otter be pretty nice indeed.

https://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/amt-instructions/big-rigs-trailers--/amt-canepa-kenworth/

Wow. Nine inches in N'awlins. That's some cool jazz, man.

"Idea", as in "the central theme" of a sentence, a paragraph, or a book is frequently missed by readers (and listeners) who have not been taught to fully comprehend what they read (and hear) by applying critical-thinking as they go, with the result often being words or phrases taken out of context and used as the basis for straw-man attacks on the writer (or speaker).

I learned to drive at 14 in a full-sized '63 Olds (which I tracked down in Texas, brought back here and still have, slated for resto-touring rebuild). Next thing I drove was the Old Man's '65 Mustang, then learned to drive a stick in a friend's VW van (practicing starting on hills), and I've driven most everything you're likely to encounter on a road since then...even a semi with a trailer when a situation made it necessary. Frankly, I never really noticed any difficulty in maneuvering big cars as opposed to little ones. As the man above said, it's all about spacial awareness, some people have it, some people don't. Parallel-parking land yachts can require more conscious thought, as can getting into narrow garages or trailers built for smaller cars. From my perspective, that's about it.

Off a cliff I will not jump just because everyone else does.

We got nothin'. 11F last night though, 20F now...42F in here when I got up. But my outdoor cats all checked in for breakfast, the water pipes under the house didn't freeze, and both trucks started, so all is well.

Some of us are at least as harsh judges of our own work as contest judges would be, however. I'll never denigrate a man for deciding how well he wants to do something, and then performing to that level. But what I can't understand is celebrating mediocrity. It's the "participation-trophy" mentality. I'll never be better than a 4th rate skier, golfer, guitarist, trumpeter, or chess-player. Nobody is ever going to praise my efforts. And that's OK because I lack either the talent or the willingness to develop the skill to excel. I also fully acknowledge I would have NOTHING to teach anyone in those fields, so producing yootoob videos showcasing my poor levels of accomplishment would just waste MY time and everyone's who watched them.

That's purty.

Very nice indeed. Biggest smile I've had all week.

Peanamennenned.

Kids are born with varying degrees of innate intelligence (which, according to innumerable studies is roughly 65% heritable...which means genetic...just as they're born with musical or mathematical talent), and though this is an actual fact, and though education and experience do also have measurable effects on the development and expression of innate intelligence, it's not a particularly popular "opinion".

Which, sadly, brings up the problem of finding anyone working on cars today (other than some of us old geezers) who has any clue about how a carburettor works, or how to even begin to diagnose a problem if there's nowhere to plug in a scan tool.

Probably a little gray wash? Maybe thinned flat-black acrylic, allowed to collect in the folds and mostly wiped off everywhere else?

Probably the best solution by far (or some other means of shadowing)...unless you have micro tools, extremely steady hands, and excellent magnification. As far as I can recall, I don't remember ever seeing louvers opened up in 1/24-1/25 that looked really good. But I could be mistaken. EDIT: Even the much larger factory-molded open-louvers on some kits, like one of the Lancia Stratos kits for example, take extreme care to open further so they look "right".