Ace-Garageguy

NICE !!! Congrats.

"Enjoy life" sounds great, but it becomes more difficult and ultimately unlikely with each passing day.

The 1949-1963 Olds 303/324/371/394 block, heads, and front cover, all look the same...especially in 1/25 scale. Engines in the first issue Revell SWC Willys (blown and injected), and the fuel injected engines in the Revell Thames and Anglias are the best 394 sources IMHO. The Revell Beatnik Bandit has a blown 303 with two carbs. Engines in the Revell '50 Olds kits also depict a 303, but other than valve covers and intake systems and exhaust manifolds, 303 Olds engines, again, are visually the same as a 324/371/394. The AMT '40 Ford Sedan has a somewhat blobular first gen Olds OHV V8 (1949-1963) as well. The 3X2 manifold can be used on the Revell engines with a little work. The Johan '63 Olds Starfire kits also have marginal 394s. Any of the engines above can be dressed up as a '62 394, depending on what role it has to play.

Ripped off for what exactly? How does the scammer GET anything if his buddy supposedly has something YOU want? I can't see how it could be anything more than a few bucks chump change for a part and maybe some shipping. Kind of a shame somebody would want to work so hard scamming for nickels and dimes. Nah, not a shame. The word I want is pathetic.

Priorities and responsibilities and obligations in the big grown up world have displaced almost all the enjoyment I derive from life other than the satisfaction I get from doing my work well, and that's no longer enough.

Never trust anyone 100%, and always cover your 6.

I have a 50-ish year old 14HP Sears riding mower my old man bought new when he had 4 acres. He used it a lot. My last house had a huge lawn where a riding mower was almost a necessity. Bearing (ball) housing went out on the belt idler (made of metal, as is the gearbox housing) and I was able to whip up an upgrade with a pair of Timken or SKF tapered roller bearings for a Triumph Spitfire.. Having a real mill and lathe and MIG/TIG in the home shop was really nice. And...that's is one part that will never break again.

If it's anything like most late-model vehicles, it's mostly labor, as the entire dash has to come out...and good luck ever having everything connected to the dash ever work again simultaneously. The OEM core itself for that vintage Frontier typically runs around $300.

Vividly experiencing enhanced reality is something I'd wager a fair few of us have done over the eons.

Contrast buttons on some devices and apps can get your display all fluorescent and trippy-looking.

"Futile, resistance is" said Borg Yoda.

Flaming frogs and exploding bluebirds falling from the sky, with a rain of smoking-hot oil. Otherwise quite a nice day.

Lights that flash and bells that ring and things that whistle for no useful reason are seen by idiots as being indicative of desirable high-value products.

Horsepower and torque and weight and speed are related, and in 1934 when this train made its debut it was capable of over 110 MPH (because of its light weight, low rolling resistance, and streamlining), but acceleration was relatively slow.

"Way of the Zephyrs" was an advertising slogan used by the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, and referred to America's first streamlined diesel trains.

Palm prints are not always on file at the NCIC.

A clean Blazer after I washed it first time since early autumn.

Not a lot in the irked realm...for the time being. It looked for a while that I had a pretty serious problem (not health) developing, but it seems to have cleared up as of an hour ago.

Beautiful sunny and low humidity here today and tomorrow, but rain forecast all weekend...so I need to get the lawn mowed tomorrow. Washed one of the trucks today and it wasn't too bad on the ribs, so I'm pretty sure pushing the mower otter be OK.

Kid gloves with string backs used to be de rigueur for sports-car-driving poseurs as well as real racers.

Useless offshore-made garbage seems to me to be most of what WalMart and Temu and Amazon sell.

Answer the question "what is the meaning of life?" and you win a rubber duck.

"Want to see Mick Jagger looking like he's wearing lipstick and makeup?" (above) is a question I never thought to ask.

And one more...1/24 Heller Jag e-type cabriolet. So far I think these Heller kits are the best proportioned of all the E-types out there in 1/24. Also IIRC, Revell (the recent release) molded the cam covers into the head, which makes it unnecessarily difficult to do them in the polished alloy finish that's a huge part of the visual appeal of the early Jag XK engines. I have two Heller coupes as well (one missing suspension parts) but this one is sealed in the original shrink wrap...which I'm about to open because it looks like another one that's had something heavy sitting on the box for some time... Yippee. No crush, no warp, complete and sealed inside.

1/24 2005ish Revell Ferrari Superamerica, 1/24 Italeri Lancia Stratos HF, and 1/25 Union/IMC Lola T-70 spyder. For starters, I didn't really want the Superamerica, but to get the deal I had to take all three. I've always thought the late model SA looked more like a $60,000 "personal luxury car" or a Ferrari-ish body kit for a Camaro or 300ZX than a $300,000 exotic. So it'll be a donor for something else...either a Ferrari-powered hot-rod or a full rebody that looks more Ferrari to me. I already had a couple each Italeri and Hasegawa Stratos kits, but none had a good decal sheet for the particular rally version I want to do with one of the Hasegawas. This one was fairly inexpensive, so I'll feel a little better about hacking it into something even more outrageous...with an LS sitting sideways, possibly AWD. I also have a couple of the Lolas in original IMC and Union repop boxings, and it's a pretty decent looking model with a few de-kluge mods and a stance adjustment. I LOVE early Can Am cars. But to the best of my knowledge, there's no static coupe version available in 1/24-1/25, so this one is slated to get a rebody based on a clear slot-car shell. I did rather a lot of work on a real T-70 (Chevy powered) coupe eons ago. This particular kit was also kinda "reasonably" priced, so it won't much bother me stretching the tub a little to accommodate the somewhat larger 1/24 bodywork.