Ace-Garageguy

Air immediately in front of the hood ornament was the 'target zone'.

So far no real irks, but the Blazer is trying to run a little hot. I knew I'd have to replace the radiator and water pump, but thought I'd be able to get her through the winter at least. It's always something.

More "antique mall" scores, including a NOS HO McKeen double 45-foot trailer kit in Burlington Northern colors, usually between $25 and $35 online & delivered, for $4. These are too long for the period I'll be modeling, but the chassis and wheels will work just fine under older, shorter shells fabbed from styrene stock. And several NOS HO Athearn 34-foot open top hopper kits in random liveries and no repeating road numbers, for $5 each. These go for anywhere from $17 to about $30 online, delivered. I'll need a lot of coal hoppers to service the Hulett unloaders and the steel mill coke and municipal power plants, and I usually buy cheapo or broken RTRs that need weathering or parts like wheels, trucks, and Kadees to make them presentable...often for just a buck or two each...but when these nicely detailed kits come up cheap, it's hard to resist them for foreground placement. My planned layout (a dream at this point, because I have no room now or in the foreseeable future EDIT: though I think I'll at least be able to build a module or two) is intended to celebrate the peak of America's heavy industrial period. Photo below shows hoppers lined up waiting for loading under massive Huletts.

When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

"Favourite" has an unnecessary extra 'U' in it from my south-of-the-border, Noah Webster-influenced viewpoint.

That bites. It's common knowledge (at least within the AI community) that AI lies and makes things up (which they oh-so-cutely call "hallucinating"), and that because as yet most AI models have little comprehension of context, it's prone to scrambling information and producing worthless incorrect results...but seeming very confident about it. Anyone who's even remotely aware knows that every time a piece of software is rolled out, it's continually updated and patched due to undiscovered bugs that were in it when it shipped. But selling flawed, sometimes deeply flawed, product is SOP for the "information technology" marketplace and others, including a similarly disturbing tendency in the pharmaceutical and automotive industries. They all blame each other essentially, on "market pressure", which actually means that "if we don't get our poorly functioning garbage to market quick, some other bunch of clowns will get their poorly functioning garbage to market before we do, and we'll lose sales from the gullible rubes who bought the other junk product instead of ours...so we don't have time to get it right; we'll just fix things on the fly as they come up, and hope for the best". It amazes me that embracing early, widespread implementation of any technology that has the potential to do as much harm as AI would be the action of anyone with a brain, but one of the flaws in human nature is getting in an anxiety-driven rush, when proceeding slowly and cautiously would be the much more prudent course. AI has fantastic potential, but it's a work in progress at best, and relying on it for anything critical at this point in time is simply foolish. It's a whole lot HARDER to save little Timmy AFTER he's fallen through the ice, and is being swept away underneath it by a strong current.

Thanks for your interest and comment. Much appreciated.

Very pleasant ACME meeting today, as they get geared for the upcoming October 25 show. I say "they" because even though I'm a member, I lapsed attending meetings until the past few months. A really nice group of people, especially notable for the effort and expense they put into doing the "Make-and-Take" events for kids. Some of the best modelers around too, including Bob Downey, Bill Cunningham, Pico Elgin, and "Kit Karson" whose real name escapes me at the moment...among many more.

PM'd

This is one of those niggly engineering buggers that works both ways. On the one hand, the big fat mounting flange on the case as delivered by GMC, with big fat bolts holding it down, was undoubtedly 'stronger' than a bunch of smaller studs and nuts installed around the perimeter of the mating surface between case and manifold after the big ol' mounting flange and stiffening ribs were machined off. On the other hand, as I mentioned above, sealing of the mating surfaces was said to be an issue on the OEM cases, as the mating surface on the case was essentially unsupported, so the perimeter fasteners, smaller but closer together and right on the face, installed out of necessity on the 'pruned' cases, would provide better clamping of the mating surfaces to each other. When Ohio George and Sneaky Pete tooled up to cast their pre-'pruned' cases, they would have most likely heavily reinforced the mating area by using thicker material in both depth and width, so the flange itself would be stronger, and could accommodate larger fasteners as well. The photo below illustrates the non-'pruned' configuration, with the big mounting flange made to take heavy hardware. The photo below shows the underside of a case in the 'pruned' configuration, with studs installed around the perimeter of the mounting face (and also appears to be oriented upside-down compared to the one above...which you can do).

Yup...looks like it. Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the uploader, so I don't know if an edited version has replaced it, or if it's just gone - both common occurrences on YT.

"Authentic" Mexican in my neighborhood is now actually a little cheaper than the same amount of food from TB, but whatever addictive substance TB uses keeps me going back---occasionally.

Man...I thought I knew some stuff, but I have NO IDEA what those wheels are. Time for a deep internet rabbit-hole dive I guess...

"Worthwhile" and "burgers" and "White Castle" make me think of Krystal, and as I'll be fairly near one later this PM, I think I'll treat myself to a sack...and some chili-cheese fries.

Wick: You have a PM In my mind, the most famous of all the trimmed-case cars was the 1966 iteration of Ohio George's Ford SOHC-powered '33 Willys. Its engine is shown below with one of his (and Robinson's) magnesium 6-71 housings, cast in the "trimmed" or "pruned" configuration. EDIT: Good color reference for Dow 7 too. It is NOT sparkly metallic as is often portrayed by modelers.

Hurt can make you stronger if you choose to confront and rise above it.

Yeah. I know exactly what you mean.

Looks pretty tasty to me. Nice work.

Looking better and better.

Rides in a hay wagon and picking apples with a pretty girl back in the 1950s sounds like a version of the Matrix I'd gladly plug myself into right about now.

Thank you sir. I really appreciate your interest and comment. I'm kinda thinking of dragging this one out, dusting it off, and showing it on the "primer" table at the upcoming ACME show at the end of October. Maybe get me motivated again...

Well...a lot of guys call them "pruned", and I'm pretty sure there were some cases that were cast in that configuration, probably aftermarket as far as I've been able to find. "Sneaky Pete" Robinson comes to mind as one of the suppliers, cast in magnesium. EDIT: Though I could have sworn there were OEM "oval case" GMC blower housings...because some that I've seen appear to be cast that way with no evidence of machine work or grinding marks, just areas that appeared to be as-cast...I haven't found any photos, and most people say "no, they all had the big lower mounting flange". There ARE, however, non-GMC Roots style blowers that came looking much like "pruned" GMCs. Anyway, "pruned" blowers were on everything from drag cars to rods, and were almost always used on the Potvin-style front-blown setups. Most frequent reasons cited for using them on a top-blown setup were for ease of valve cover clearance, especially on SBC engines, and superior manifold-to-blower sealing. An engine used in competition with a solid-lifter cam will require frequent valve-lash adjustments, so anything that cuts the time down to do that is a plus. And keep in mind that the OEM GMC blower was designed to scavenge the block of a two-stroke diesel, not to provide many extra PSI of supercharging pressure, so the revised mounting required with a "pruned" case, that moved the mount bolts inboard to surround the gasket flange, could be a huge improvement. I also seem to remember that some excessively weight-conscious drag racers who were looking for every ounce they could save would run "pruned" blower housings for that reason, so cast-that-way magnesium cases would be a natural. EDIT 2: Below is a magnesium 6-71 case cast pre-"pruned" in magnesium, by George Montgomery and Pete Robinson, probably used a "pruned" aluminum OEM GMC as a pattern, reputed to be one of about 200 made. More info here, including a copy of a contemporary Car Craft article that specifically states these things were indeed cast without the big OEM mounting flange. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/how-is-a-pruned-blower-case-mounted.999144/page-3. I KNEW I'd seen 'em cast that way somewhere...

Surgery on yourself with a dull, rusty knife really separates the men from the wannabois

Egg salad is much more filling than word salad, and it won't lower your IQ while you listen to it.