Ace-Garageguy

Getting the wheels in the dead center of the openings is something modelers often fail at, and few things jump out at me in a negative way like poorly-centered wheels. It takes a little effort to ensure wheels are centered in custom openings for drag cars, but to me it's entirely worth it. Most plastic molded axle housings you'll use on a drag car can accommodate the "wire" axles common in older kits...which means they'll also accommodate 1/16" brass or aluminum tube or brass or steel rod stock that's a little longer. If you carefully mock up the chassis with the rear suspension in place, and assemble it to the body being careful to get it in exactly the right position, then you can use the longer metal axle protruding from the axle past the body side to center the wheel/tire you want to use, and carefully trace around it on the body with a fine Sharpie or #2 pencil. Presto-chango, you now know that when you're done, your tire will be correctly centered in the wheel opening. I usually use a Dremel with a barrel-sander to rough-cut the marked wheel openings, then finish up with sandpaper wrapped around something of the correct diameter for the final opening I want, as described by several guys above. NOTE: It's considerably easier and more accurate in the long run to center the body cutouts to the rear axle, than to try fiddling with the rear axle later to center the wheels in the cutouts. The model below was heavily modified with all custom rear suspension, but even so, I was able to center the wheels in the openings by using the method above. NOTE 2: Though the tires may not appear to be dead-center because of the angle the photo was taken from, I assure you that, when viewed from the side, they are dead-on. NOTE 3: IF your tires protrude past the body sides like on this model (allowed in some classes, so do your research), for a realistic appearance, be sure to make your openings large enough and with enough clearance on top, so that your suspension could move sufficiently when the car "squats" under hard acceleration. Otherwise the body cutouts would cut right into the tires, and the car would have a very short and probably disastrous trip.

Late is better than never, or so I'm told frequently.

I've been kinda working on that since somewhere around the turn of the century, starting with what was back then open source code for an award-winning chatbot, and a mannequin rescued from a dumpster. Unfortunately, not something I've had enough time to devote to.

Exhaust gasses from burning coal for generating electricity in a power plant have been successfully cleaned of CO2, with the "greenhouse gas" used as a food source for algae that produce a green goo that can be further converted to diesel fuel, all yielding carbon-neutral energy sources.

Miles Davis is one of my all time favorite musicians.

Behavior is often interpreted differently by different observers.

I scramble chunked 1/3 lower sodium Spam with eggs and serve it on toasted everything-bagels smeared with cream cheese. Pretty tasty.

Just opened a jar of nuclear tuong ot toi Vietnamese chili-garlic sauce that's well past its use-by date. So far it hasn't killed me, but the stuff is so hot it practically glows in the dark, and I doubt any Earth bacteria could live in it.

Now would be a good time to learn to cook, do laundry, and mow your own lawn.

Ugly cars need love too, and this one needs a lot.

Anything I find interesting, and if I don't know anything about something, I'll know a fair bit by the time I've done enough research to decide whether or not I want to model it. I find the opportunity to learn new stuff as rewarding as the building, and sometimes more so. For instance, last couple of years I've read a lot about the German rocket program and its direct effect on the US space program because of a 1/24-scale static V2 model I came across, and the history of steel-making because of an HO-scale blast furnace kit.

Having blown almost the entire day at the DMV today cleaning up way overdue paperwork, I quit for the afternoon and finally took the time to look at the rest of the kits I dragged home from the late October ACME meet. Only thing I'm a little disappointed by is the skinnyish tires on the 4X4. I wasn't expecting big ol' mudders, but something that looked more like what's on the box art would have been nice. The as-built ride height doesn't look like it's going to be close to the box-art either, but the art is probably considerably higher than stock anyway, so a little liftin' will be in order.

I prefer this version.

SEE ABOVE. THIS IS SERIOUS. GET IT LOOKED AT IMMEDIATELY. AND CHECK AND FILL THE BRAKE FLUID LEVEL BEFORE YOU DRIVE IT ANYWHERE.

That's not "brake fade". Brake fade happens from repeated stops or stopping from high speed...overheating the drums/rotors/shoes/pads...resulting in the coefficient of friction of the brake shoe or pad material decreasing, to the point that no matter how "hard" the brakes feel, the car won't stop. What you experienced...with the pedal going slowly to the floor...is something entirely different, and is caused by fluid leaking out of the system while it's pressurized by your foot on it. You SAW a leak. GET IT CHECKED IMMEDIATELY FOR FLUID LEAKS. ONCE THE FLUID IS ALL GONE, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO STOP AT ALL. IT CAN BE FATAL.

Humans can be unpredictable, dishonest, spiteful, irrational, illogical, vengeful, duplicitous, and just downright unpleasant.

I am, but if I said why, ya'll'd have to time-out me again. PS: I also had a remarkably easy time at the DMV, getting two vehicles that have been off the road for years...one for just shy of two decades...back in the system and all tagged and spiffy and legal. Not so much that I wanted to, but had to, to be in "compliance" with county regs concerning vehicles on my property. Still, as the state I'm moving to requires clean paperwork on vehicles transferring into their system (no matter the age) it's a good thing.

Doing absolutely nothing is sometimes really good for you.

If you think you know everything, you'll never learn anything.

FWIW, WW II vintage CCKWs were set up as "gun trucks" as well, but as mobile AA platforms with quad .50s, but no armor. This is not Vietnam, obviously.

The ultimate "hot rod".

Works for me.

Ivan Torrent: Immortalys (full album playlist)

I hafta say that what with lotsa EVs being scrapped for relatively minor damage, and the lack of knowledge about them in the majority of shops so far, I'm beginning to wonder about the prices of salvageable donor vehicles like this guy started with. One-offs could be built significantly lighter than their OEM source vehicles, giving even higher acceleration and charge range. In jurisdictions that are less mommy-state and restrictive relative to owner-built vehicles, there's a lot of fun out there to be had. I know a guy () who has an in-progress ultralight (600 lb. or less) single seat commuter vehicle that was originally intended to be IC powered (motorcycle donor), but adaptable to other power sources. It might be time to start looking at this again, as it was about 30% completed when it was shelved. Hmmmmmmm...

And of course in a VW Bug or early Porsche and even 911s the fuel tank is directly over your feet.