Ace-Garageguy

The adhesion promoters I was referring to are this sort of thing from 3M, designed for TPO-type plastics. 3M™ Polyolefin Adhesion Promoter is a specially formulated adhesion promoter for use when repairing low surface energy plastics such as thermopolyolefin (TPO). Use the adhesion promoter with 3M brand adhesives. 3M™ Polyolefin Adhesion Promoter is designed specifically for polyolefin and ethylene propylene plastic identified by the marks PP, EP, TPO or EPDM on the back of the part. NOTE: These adhesion promoters will work differently on specific PE and PP blends, and may not do much at all on some...like the garden-variety yellow bondo spreaders. They are a totally different product than what's marketed for urethane-based plastics. TPO-type plastics are defined as: TPO compounds are resin blends of polypropylene (PP) and un-crosslinked EPDM rubber and polyethylene. They are characterised by high impact resistance, low density and good chemical resistance. They are used in applications where there is a requirement for increased toughness and durability over the conventional PP copolymers, such as automotive bumpers and dashboards. The properties are restricted to the high end of the hardness scale, typically >80 Shore A and with limited elastomeric properties.

Absolutely gorgeous, and certainly worth the wait. You'll never have reason to doubt your skills in the future.

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” took root in the American consciousness on its release in 1968 and went on to enjoy an afterlife that spanned rock, disco and hip-hop.

I'm leapin', Boss. I'm leapin'.

True, but there are adhesion promoters and special adhesives made for use in the autobody industry that will do an OK job on many "difficult to bond" plastics. However, they're not cheap, and rarely come in modeler-friendly packaging. In general, epoxy does stick reasonably well to everything but PP and PE and their derivatives, but the 5-minute stuff is a complete waste of time. The rule-of-thumb is that the longer an epoxy takes to reach "full cure", the stronger the bond will be. Roughing the surfaces to be bonded is also very necessary to get decent bonds with non-solvent gloos.

Movies showing little 90-pound females stomping 250-pound bikers don't strike me as being very realistic somehow.

Cab companies and car thieves everywhere rejoice.

When you care enough to use the very best...

Good info, definitely of potential use to modelers. I was talking about 1:1 though, where patterns were traditionally carved from wood, and from which the production sand-molds were produced. There are still "art" foundries that can make sand molds from wooden or polyester or wax patterns, and there are still a few industrial foundries capable of doing an entire project, but nothing like the numbers back in the post-war era when Hilborn and Halibrand and Edelbrock et al were getting started.

Ah yes...but the advance curve wasn't computer-controlled. The early HEI distributors (through '80 or so) still had flyweight-and-springs advance-plates and vacuum-cans just like point-types. 1981 saw the switch to Electronic Spark Timing (EST) controlled by the first generation of GM ECMs, capable of responding to a variety of input conditions from engine sensors. No disagreement about HEI being a great leap forward in ignition tech, however. My older vehicles that retain OEM distributors always get retrofitted with HEI-type guts. The system has proven to be simple and robust and very reliable over the years. Too bad that's not the case with a lot of electronic wizardry.

"Anymore" is impossible to use correctly as the first word of a sentence, except one like this.

Land sharks will sometimes masquerade as pizza delivery persons.

Not even in a cardboard box under a bridge.

Shouting at clouds.

About half is about 50%, but a surprising number of folks don't grasp that simple idea.

I once had a dog did that allatime when it had worms.

"More more more" he screamed as greed inflamed his soul.

Stupid would be the word, and just as detrimental to vehicle handling. For what it's worth, tail-dragger customs with transverse rear springs (think '35-'48 Fords) were routinely lowered back at the dawn of time by using extremely long shackles. This resulted in some fatalities after the rear ends swayed uncontrollably from side-to-side while negotiating turns, sending the vehicles into oncoming traffic or off the side of the road and down into ravines. "Torching" springs (local heating with an oxy-acetylene flame to get them to sag from the vehicle weight) was idiot SOP to lower cars at times too, destroying the temper of the steel, often resulting in broken springs at inopportune times, again causing "accidents". Nobody ever said that ignorant fools doing stupid things to cars was a new phenomenon. Rodders who had a clue about vehicle dynamics called these clowns "squirrels". EDIT: Interestingly, the mis-used term "sway bar" derives from Panhard bars added to these moron-built transverse-sprung contraptions to somewhat control their tail-wagging tendencies.

I could be wrong, but I think '86 was the last year for a non-EFI GM V8 pickup. Throttle-body injection with computer engine management, even on the "basic work truck" like my '89 GMC.

That must be why you can pretty much name your price for a clean OBS GM pickup, especially if it has a manual gearbox...'cause nobody wants anything that crude.

Ummm...my '92 Silverado came OEM with AC, power steering (tilt wheel), and brakes, fuel-injected 350 V8, 4-speed auto trans with lockup converter, power windows, locks, and mirrors, nice comfy reclining separate seats with folding armrests like what comes in new ones, soft fuzzy upholstery, cut-pile carpeting...it rides like a car with slightly firm suspension. And a killer sound system/GPS/Bluetooth (even magic touchscreen if you're too strength-challenged to use knobs) is a relatively cheap upgrade. Pretty much a cowboy-Cadillac when new. And pretty much the same truck was available from '88 on (not extended cab that far back, IIRC) 2WD 1992 Extended cabs started at right around 14 grand. So...a hundred grand now for essentially the same thing, but with a slew of relatively useless bells-and-whistles added on for marketing sizzle? What a deal.

I'll get in touch with our glass guy. I've been watching him work over at least 10 years, and he knows his stuff. He cuts and fits laminated glass for top-chops, does a lot of classics, rods, and customs, and is often called in to re-do late-model jobs the chain glass shops have bodged. If anyone can get the straight info on availability of a windshield for your car, he can. PS: After driving my '89 GMC for years with a broken windshield because all I saw in the glass business were hacker chimps, I had Mark put a new tinted/shaded one in it 3 years back. Perfect fit, no leaks, no damage to anything else.

TinyLimp is the object of my wrath today. Last 10 times it updated, it saved all the open tabs in both browsers I was running, so going back to work was relatively seamless. It changed a few settings, but no biggie to change them all back. This time it dumped every single open tab. I guess the people who write the update protocols don't ever actually USE the silly pilly willy stupid, third-rate, exercise-in-mediocrity product. It's not a big deal, as I'd saved all the addresses of everything I really needed easy access to, but in general, it's a sloppy way to do business. Yes, I know...use another operating system bla bla bla. But that's NOT the point.

Beautiful big smile-maker. Always among my favorite classes of drag cars.

The move to column-shifters for manual gearboxes was a marketing thing more than anything else. "Newer more modren" and all that. And a floor-shift retrofit WAS a definite functional improvement when it came to spirited driving. You ever tried to speed-shift or road-race with a 3-on-the-tree?