Ace-Garageguy

Bootlegs are where we find calves.

Bentley S3, circa 1964

These are very nice. Meant to comment earlier. People who handle watercolor well have my deepest respect.

All my life I've wanted a streeterized '60s prototype car, but real ones are unobtainable now, and every one of the kit-built offerings I've been able to drive, though beautiful, fast, and tons of fun, have come up short one way or another. But I think I may have finally found the one. Time to start saving my lunch money again...

Operation Crossroads made two big booms.

Futurama sold me on the idea that a cyclops babe could be hot.

Sidewalk games like hopscotch don't seem to be played much in these days of everything-anyone-could-possibly-want-to-do right there in the devices clutched in all the little fingers.

One doesn't have to look far to find equally absurd beliefs and lack of understanding of physical reality.

"Jul 12, 2023 — State air regulators recently banned a toxic chemical commonly used to produce a shiny metal finish on classic car parts." https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/business/2023/07/12/california-bans-chrome-plating--impacting-decorative-platers-and-metal-finishers The world won't be safe until humans do nothing but sit in the dark, eating their fungus (or Soylent Green) raw, while trying not to exert themselves, so as to limit breathing and exhaling deadly carbon dioxide.

I like heem. Never heard it or of Moe before, so thanx for broadening my horizons.

"Round" was probably a pretty big deal when the shape was applied to make the first wheel, but lotsa antediluvian pre-Luddites probably screamed "if Gowom had wanted things to roll, he would have put ball bearings on trees" or some such idiocy.

Seat-of-the pants navigation might get you to your desired destination, or you might wind up over the Paducah ocean.

Ideas are dangerous, and independent thinking should be abolished, or at least heavily penalized.

Pository on the upholstery in gassers, minimum two seats and door panels, but lightweight f'glass buckets could be substituted. Far as engine setback goes, IIRC it was 10% of wheelbase allowed on gassers, 20% on altereds, measured at the front spark plug hole...at least I'm sure it was 20% on M/SP cars, which were eventually absorbed into altered classes. Links to actual period rules are posted at the top of this very forum heading.

Again and again, there are things...well, I'm forbidden to say what I'm thinking.

I enjoy it, though all I do lately is add to the stock and take something out to look at occasionally. Now what I need is the free time to build a model...but gainful employment is good too. And they pay me to do stuff that's just as much fun as building models...but the results run.

Two inline desiccant air driers for my big-boy primer gun, and several graduated mixing cups. I've finally finished all the custom metal work and fabrication of the engine management and trans computer-interface bay, and the access door for same, on the '66 Chevelle dash. Tomorrow AM I'm shooting it in the booth, in Medallion dark gray DTAM primer/surfacer...which I bought Tuesday.

Counter service for lunch, shakes, and sodas used to be available in many drug stores, but with the advent of fast food, it went the way of the dodo.

What a shame that's even a thought that has to occur to anyone now. Anybody who insists things in the past weren't better, more civilized...just think about this.

Honestly, my best bet is that everything got painted body color, as that was kinda standard on Euro cars of the period...trunk, engine bay, everything, and whatever black there is was applied after the car left the factory. Most of the resto "before" shots have pretty obvious undercoating that was most likely sprayed on to hide rust and dodgy repairs. I've also seen more than one resto on these cars where the black undercoat was scraped away, leaving the car's original color underneath. Some Euro cars of the period also got sprayed with a texturized "body schutz" in critical rust or noise areas prior to being painted...but in that case, obviously, the texture coat is body color too...and they usually were higher-end cars than a low-line Fiat.

That's what I thought when I saw the amount of effort and thought you'd put in so far, and that's why I offered some more information....and your approach is much like mine. I find that getting the technical details right, so the model would function for its intended purpose if it were scaled up to 1:1, is a large part of my "fun".

"Period-correct" features and technical details on model cars are often ignored in the name of "having fun".

Nice people often get blindsided by thieving cheats and scammers.

"Vessel empty make most noise", to paraphrase an old saying about dumb being loud.