Ace-Garageguy

Thanks for the link. Though i don't particularly care for the styling, the guy is very skilled and has a good technique. I've used the expanding foam myself for making quick armatures to sculpt aftermarket body parts over. It's a great way to build lightweight volume quickly.

Not exactly "sealed" though, was she? Musta gone with the lowest bidder on that project. Billy-Bobs Time Capsools, Inc. Woulda been kinda kool if she HAD been sealed, and had come out brandy-damm new, complete with the old Detroit "new-car-smell" intact. Oh well.

This has been discussed at length a hundred dozen times. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=79627 I prefer Tenax 7R when I can get it.

If I live to be 170 or so, I'll build every single one...except one original AMT Ala Kart / '29 Ford double kit. I just like to take all the parts out and look at them sometimes. And the smell really takes me back. Cheap and easy time travel, you know?

All that makes perfect sense and is entirely logical...but...even my aspirin bottles (and I take a LOT of aspirin) are now only about 2/3 filled. There used to be a wad of cotton in the top to avoid having the bottle rattle so obviously, but now they don't even bother with the cotton.

Like everyone else said, it looks great. Just right. And I agree, the PE grille is just enough to make it pop.

Yup.

I honestly used to think these things were hideous, but since I started doing a restomod on an old Johan annual a while back, they've really started to grow on me. I think this one looks great. Taken from internet sources under "fair use" definition in copyright law.

I found this while looking for something on TR6 bodywork, and it looks a lot better to me than most back-yard restyles. The only really dorky bits are the Ferrari badge and the T-handle shifter, though it might be nice to have the tach in the driver's line of sight. Running a little Chebby V8 and a Ford 9". Not bad...not bad at all... Taken from internet sources under "fair use" definition in copyright law

Stupid is everywhere. Long ago I sold a kinda nice Olds Cutlass for $350 to a young black guy. Good car, ran great, clean, good deal for everybody as I just didn't need it and I think I bought it for under $100 (those were the days). He had what I thought was a Jamaican accent, and seemed to be a nice young man. A week later he showed up...with a PREACHER...telling me very loudly I'd sold a terrible car to the kid for way too much money and that I should be ashamed of myself and that he was going to call the police. I should now mention that when the kid brought the car back, every corner was crushed and the rear bumper was almost in the back seat. The kid hadn't bothered to tell his preacher it was a nice car when he bought it, and hadn't bothered to tell me he was fresh off the boat from some African country and had never driven a car before. Lucky I had Polaroids of it before I sold it, and witnesses who saw the idiot drive it away. I refused to take it back, by the way.

I've got 23 keys on my chain, and a pill container. Never seems to bother either of two '90s GM trucks, either of two late '80s Toyotas, the '93 Geo or the '86 Jag. Apparently it IS possible to make a switch that isn't quite so sensitive. On the other hand, i worked at a dealership where we had a rather sporty middle-aged woman who bought a brand new Triumph TR6 and constantly complained about rough running and poor gas mileage. We checked the car many times and found everything in spec, and it ran fine on the road. Then one alert mechanic noticed its tail was a little sooty. (This wasn't all that obvious, as the TR6 had a black-painted rear-body panel). I thought maybe I should go for a drive with her so she could demonstrate under just what conditions the car acted up, and sure enough, she was pulling out the choke knob to hang her purse on it. Consumers do have a responsibility to read the manual and operate their vehicles properly, but how many do? Have you read YOUR manual? A vehicle manufacturer, unfortunately, has to design a vehicle to be almost idiot-proof these days, and there are plenty of lawyers standing around waiting for them to miss the objective. Better get it right, catch mistakes early, and tell the truth about them.

Yeah, and I bet they get enforced even less than the texting-while-driving laws do. You got it. -------------------------------------------------- A package I'd really love to see.... NEW LARGER PACKAGE !!! COSTS MORE !!! LESS IN IT !!!

GM's engineers, the best of them anyway, are the equal of anybody in the car biz. All you gotta do to prove it is to compare the performance of the current and recent Corvettes to the best of the supercars in the world, costing many times what the ol' Vette goes for. All that performance from a PUSHROD engine and a relatively primitive body-on-frame architecture. The problem is that the good engineers are NOT the ones driving the GM bus. It's the bean-counters and the corporate buck-passers and professional meeting-goers who make the decisions, and then give the same old knee-jerk responses when they get their hands slapped. Did anybody actually listen to the recent GM CEO's performance in front of Congress?

Looks to me like you've got them going in the right place. Engines running headers often run the plug wires over the valve covers, but with the cast iron manifolds, you've got it right.

The technology to do it would be relatively simple in new cars and phones. Include a pre-loaded standardized app in the phone that talks to a standardized ignition-interrupt circuit in the car that will only allow the car to start if the phone is off, and refuses to activate the phone if the engine is running. Basically similar to reverse-Bluetooth with some little mods, as Bill suggests. Include a 911 override. Just a further thought...some insurance companies are already giving discounts to drivers of later OBD 2-equipped vehicles who allow their driving habits to be monitored by a module that interfaces with OBD. Develop a phone-off interface and offer discounts to drivers who agree to use it. Multiple studies conducted since the mid 2000s have concluded that texting and other forms of electronic-device-distracted-driving are at least as dangerous as drunk driving. Here's a recent one discussed... An excerpt: "When we compared states where there are no laws in effect [barring texting while operating a moving vehicle] and states where there are laws on the books, we found there was no difference in their responses," Adesman said. "Clearly, the laws are not effective." http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/study-texting-while-driving-now-leading-cause-of-death-for-teen-drivers-1.5226036

As I'm a frequent critic of model companies and the same old excuses trotted out for getting things wrong based on cost and communication problems with Chinese partners, one of my goals this year is to get fully up to speed as far as the current state of injection molding is concerned, and what's possible at what cost. I'm planning to attend this conference / seminar tomorrow in my capacity as "engineering consultant" (part of my work in the real world) to start getting a handle on what's currently what, real-deal. FREE SEMINAR Hyatt Place Atlanta/ Cobb Galleria 2876 Spring Hill Parkway Smyrna, GA 30080 770-384-0060 Thursday, April 24, 2014 8:30 to 12:00 PM Local TimeInjection Molded Plastic Part Design Presented by: American Plastic Molding, Scottsburg, IN Free seminar includes 352-page Design Manual! Appointments for professional consultations are available after the Seminar. Seminar topics include: • Polymer basics • Physical properties • Material selection • Part design • Mold design • Part defect analysis • Cost analysis

As I a ham-handed moron, I need the strongest tools I can get to make up for my total lack of finesse, intelligence, knowledge and technique while working on anything. I routinely use a 12 pound hammer on my Chinese-copy Bridgeport mill, too. Do you think that could have anything to do with its accuracy?

It's always interesting to me when safety issues make folks immediately aware of the poor management in much of the auto industry, but what is also appalling is the continuous idiotic decision-making by management that doesn't directly affect safety and gets little press. Bill's (Mr.Obsessive) wiper drive scenario (though it too is a potential safety issue) is a perfect example of the kind of mis-guided stupidity having to do with material choices and part design that is rampant throughout. Examples: Plastic intake manifolds that crack up and leak because the accelerated testing cycles do NOT accurately depict what happens in the real world. Brake rotors that have hard facings that cannot be re-surfaced, but are so poorly designed that they warp very early in service and must be replaced. The elimination of grease fittings on suspension and driveline parts, making it impossible to effectively prolong the life of components that would function virtually forever (I have 270,000 miles on one of my Chevy trucks, and the chassis is just fine...regular greasings over its 22 year life). The industry-wide replacement of timing chains by belts. Again, my 270,000 mile Chevy is on the original chain, with no particular signs of stretch. By contrast, a friends PT Cruiser is now on its 4th timing belt at 160,000...at no small cost to replace them all. Hundreds of application-specific threaded fasteners and electrical connectors currently in use, when a vastly simplified set of standardized parts could lower costs across the board... The list goes on and on and on, but with the apparent total and complete lack of anyone who ever actually WORKED on a car (or worked with their HANDS on anything) doing the design and engineering on this stuff, it's only getting worse and worse and worse.

Or how about a Pinto with a 427, and call it a Fireball (Fireball Roberts signature edition) ? Spin all that negative press into free advertising.

Just remember, it's all done in the name of profit. This is just an unfortunate example of capitalism's ugly underbelly. GM doesn't have a lock on behavior like this.

Generally I'm opposed to more laws and more government meddling, but I think this is a GREAT idea.

Texting was banned here in 2010, but it's not being enforced very vigorously. Just look around at any traffic light, or next to you in moving traffic. Hand-held phone-while-driving-use legislation has been repeatedly defeated.

For the past several months, I've been driving an old friend back and forth to work. This adds about 350 miles of interstate travel to my week, both in the afternoon and late at night. I've noticed a LOT of folks weaving all over the road like they're drunk, and almost invariably, when I pull past them, if it's dark, I can see there's a little glowing screen held up in front of their faces. I'm surprised the State Patrol hasn't stepped on this yet...hard..., as the corridor this occurs in is one of the most heavily enforced speed zones in the metro area. I guess it's okay to not bother looking at the road, so long as you're under 70mph.