Ace-Garageguy

If you've already tried to fix it yourself, or had it in a chimp shop.....$200/hr. If you tell me there's nothing wrong with it because another shop fixed everything but it just won't run now....$1500 for a priest to drive the demons out, then $400/hr after they're gone.

Apparently the local NWS guys left after the "purge" have decided to slow-work or "quiet quit" or whatever, as our once-hourly time-temp-baro-humidity-forecast updates are now every 2 or 3 hours or whenever they get around to it. Thankfully the radar still works, so I can see for myself if there's any precip in the vicinity or fronts moving in...

Yes sir. When you know, you know.

Better not mention anything too specific though, or risk eternal banishment.

Noting looks more like wrinkle paint than wrinkle paint...

Cheap (in my case found) magnifying glasses. Brilliant indeed. And more light...

Thanks. It'll all look better later on. But I wasn't referring to the Chevelle guy. He's the best client I've ever worked with, a very successful and ethical self-made business owner. He had a metallic blue SS 396 when he was a kid and can afford to have this one built to his wants...computer everything and a leather 2016 Caddy interior, for example...but he leaves me the freedom to do the implementation as I see fit. I save him money wherever I can by not doing unnecessary non-functional "look at me" stuff, and I build everything to be serviceable because he wants to drive it, hard...and that's just the way I do things. Still, we're going for a standard of visual excellence few non-Ridler-bound cars can match. Unfortunately there were cobbled up monkey messes made before I was brought in, and it would be WAY beyond budget to fix all of them...like junking the $30K "custom" chassis (that's not square or symmetrical and weighs as much as a bridge) and driving an Art Morrison under it. For what he's going to end up with, the cost won't really be that bad...but it'll be well beyond a typical pro-touring '66 Chevelle. The guy who's going to paint it is THE best painter I've ever known personally, and can match any showcar work I've ever even seen. His dad was building full customs for the showcar circuit in the wayback, and it's apparently in the genes. Anyway, everything will look better as she comes all the way together...and it's annoying there too how much I've been criticized by "experts" because I don't "finish one thing at a time and move on". Really? Build a lot of cars, do ya sporty? One such "expert" right here on this very forum thought an asbestos/fiberglass welding blanket was plaster or sheetrock mud or something equally ridiculous. Okayyyyyyyyyy...

Yeah, there's a few versions of that parable going around, one having to do with smacking something with a hammer, and when the outraged client screamed "ALL YOU DID WAS HIT IT WITH A HAMMER!!!!! I DEMAND AN ITEMIZED INVOICE !!!!!!" The invoice stated "Smacking the whatzit with a hammer, $1. "Knowing where to smack it, $9999".

Now though, tattoos aren't edgy enough, so implanted transdermal horns are a thing.

That would be telling.

Great kit. Looks like you're doing it justice.

Person or persons unknown snagged a complete and rebuildable Chevy 283 Power Pack engine (with the correct forged crankshaft) from a shop scrapmetal bin before I had a chance to snag it myself.

Many people who can't make anything think that people who can make anything should do it for the same wages as a Walmart greeter.

Funny how so many people who can't make anything think that people who can make anything should do it for the same wages as a Walmart greeter.

Overcast and coolish...75F...so the house isn't picking up any solar gain. Good weather to sit at a keyboard for hours justifying my exorbitant charges...if there is any such thing. EDIT: I'd sure rather be hiking or go for a drive in the country, but I have zero admin support in either shop...as an autonomous subcontractor...so I gotta do what I gotta do.

Last 3-on-the-tree I had was a '66 Dodge pickup I bought for $50 because it was "stuck in gear and needed a transmission". Nah. Chimps had been at it, and the gearbox was bolted to the bellhousing with huge lag screws that had backed out enough to let the box hang at an angle, and the linkage jammed. Drilling / tapping the ruined holes and putting in proper fasteners fixed it permanently.

If you build "traditional" rods, real or model, Tardel's books are a great resource, if a little light on hard info.

You have a PM.

"Enough!!" I cried, as the one person I'd trusted for decades kept jabbing me in the eye with a pointed stick, while laughing maniacally.

Expired "best before" dates are on every woman who'd have anything to do with me now, which is only fair because I'm well past mine too.

Being nice is getting harder every day.

IIRC...

There is a beautiful diecast in 1/24...either Danbury or Franklin Mint.

Cool. A long-gone friend of mine (he drove an Alfa Romeo) had been an F-86 pilot in Korea and was a Connie captain as they were being phased out of major airline service. The engines were getting tired, oil pressure was very low on some, and the company just didn't want to put any money into planes that were about to be retired. The "fix" was to put black tape over the oil pressure gauges so as not to worry the pilots (the flight engineers' gauges were left visible) and hope for the best, as a Connie could maintain altitude on 2 engines and the likelihood of losing three at the same time was remote. True story.

But wait...there's more...