Ace-Garageguy

It is hard to improve on a car that's so right the way it came (as most people who've customized first-gen T-birds have amply demonstrated), but your proportions look good so far. This will definitely be one worth watching.

Yes, true now. But it didn't used to be that way. Getting a new car was a big deal. People would get excited to see the new models when they were introduced each year, often going around to different showrooms just to gawk. Getting a license used to be a big deal too. It meant freedom. Now we have a couple generations to whom driving is largely a bother, who'd rather use Uber than deal with car ownership, prefer to get their food delivered rather than actually going somewhere, and who have zero interest in anything mechanical. Times, as I'm so often lectured, have changed.

Andromeda Strain was a 1969 Michael Crichton book and then a '71 movie about an alien disease that lands on Earth with a returning satellite.

I've always been fascinated by the visual complexity and multitude of cars and equipment in railroad yards. When I lived in downtown Atlanta, I sometimes used to watch the action from the Marietta Street bridge over Inman Yard (above), until the bridge was demolished in 1978. I've wanted to incorporate a good sized yard in my next layout, and have been buying broken, bodged, and parts-missing freight cars for pennies for some years...mostly to fill the yards with interesting rolling stock from the late '30s and '40s to early '60s era. Most of them had missing wheelsets or trucks, and though I've swapped some around, I still ended up with a lot of cars with no wheels at all. Recently I found a sweet deal on enough Bettendorf trucks (by Tichy) for 40 cars and another group of earlier archbar trucks (also Tichy) to equip 10 more. Around the same time, I found an even sweeter deal on 12, late '40s era Pennsy 40' boxcar kits, all with different numbers. I ended up paying almost exactly what they sold for new in 1987. To sweeten the deal even more, when I opened the boxcar kits, I found each one had an extra pair of rigid Bettendorf truck frames in addition to the high-quality fully-sprung trucks (including nice wheels) the kits normally include. That's enough extra truck frames for 12 more freight cars...but they had no wheels. China and eBay to the rescue, with a bag of 48 wheelsets, enough for all the extra truck frames, brandy new, made to the RP25 standard (supposedly)...cheap. So cheap I bought 48 more, so I think I'm covered as far as getting all my sad little freight cars at least to the point where they'll roll. As most of the cars in the freight yard won't ever move much, if at all...other than getting switched around at very low speeds...high-quality metal wheelsets won't be necessary. I also snagged a pair of vintage, NIB Campbell Howe truss bridge kits, for considerably under current retail market price. These are intended to go in the mountainous part of the layout, supporting shortline trackage that will serve several mining operations. These are all wood "craftsman" kits, with steel wire tension rods and plastic molded boltheads and other detail parts. Finally, I got a really cheap powered frame intended for a '50s or so EMD SD diesel locomotive, "broken". Already fixed it, and it's a perfect fit under an SD shell I bought a while back at a flea market for $1. Now I have a heavy diesel road-switcher with a lot of pulling power for less than $15. With a little more work, she'll look like this. I'm happy.

Another great project. I also have one of these built-up, in need of restoration. What you've done so far is exemplary.

Sarthe is the region of France where the race that many motoring competition enthusiasts refer to simply as Le Mans is located.

It doesn't have to be an either/or situation, as robdebie explains below. And if you're not in a club, surely you know someone who you would like to leave your modeling stuff to en masse. For that matter, people on this very board have distributed everything model-related they had to other members here when they decided to leave the hobby permanently...a much better solution for all parties involved than just dumping your possibly loved, lifetime hobby in the trash.

Purty kewl.

Otis made elevators when he wasn't singing, believed no one ever.

First new Ferrari I've really lusted after in a very long time.

Said Yoda "do or do not, there is no try".

As a fella named Ford once said "you can have any color as long as it's black". https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/how-cars-went-from-any-color-as-long-as-its-black-to-a-rainbow-of-hues/

Aren't you glad she's found your purpose in life?

Say duh huh?

Kewl. One of THE most gorgeous cars on the planet, and topless to boot.

Offhand, all I can think that rhymes with "also" is "wall so", as in "you need to stop hitting the wall so".

Rhyme is what slime, thyme, and climb do also.

Much cool project, missed it before. Looking good.

Retired years ago I did, but that hasn't stopped me from working like a fool pretty much full-time ever since.

There was a very attractive woman I was getting involved with a couple decades back, but when she asked why I had "so many cars", and I explained that restoring, modifying, and driving interesting stuff was one of my hobbies, it became pretty obvious she'd be putting a stop to that particular bit of man-foolishness as soon as she got the keys to the kingdom. Needless to say, she never did, as when I made it clear just exactly what "love me, love my dog" means to a hardcore car guy, she moved on to become somebody else's boss.

And people wonder why I've been single for the last 24 years...

What always intrigues me is the guys who brag on how much stuff they've got but never ever post a build. Yeah, it's a free country, but come on, man.

"Frustrating" doesn't come close to describing the reality of dealing with some clients.

Apparently it's not all that hard.

I might be able to help you out. Stand by, but don't hold your breath.