Ace-Garageguy

Marriage was something I really believed would last my lifetime, but reality had other plans.

Yup yup yup. And unfortunately, most of what comes up in an eBay search is the body below, one of which I bought anyway to use as the basis for a bubble-top custom Cheetah-esque thingy, but it is entirely different from the Jeffries design, obviously.

In-a-gadda-da-vida, bay-beee...don't cha know that I love yooooo.

Nice one. Much better proportioned than most, fer shur. I really like it. Good color too. With enough rear brakes you could actually drive them, kinda like driving an altered on the street, but going around corners quick was one thing they just could not do.

It can be a PITA, but so far, they've never let me down.

Well yeah...once I got some miles on me and realized the world was full of dishonest buttwipes, I started checking everything that looked even slightly like it might have been opened or tampered with. But still, I've received sealed packages where somebody went to the trouble of getting a roll of identical tape, or on one occasion, apparently removed the security seal with solvent to dissolve the glue, and then glued it back on...very carefully. EDIT: Come to think of it, I once bough a supposedly new Maserati Biturbo fender, only to find it was used, had been bead blasted, primered with the right color stuff, and labeled with a fake sticker that even had the right part number. The initial giveaway was that the sticker was made on an inkjet, and the colors ran when I spilled my Coke on it. Then I started looking close, and found minor rust pitting that hadn't been entirely removed, very minor indentations around the fastener holes, etc. I probably paid as much for that fender as the junkyard paid for the whole car, so there's no question as to why they pulled that stuff. Anyway, there's no shortage of reasons I'm a grumpy old SOB.

Thanks. Every now and again when I think of it, I'll do an eBay search for one. They're out there, 'cause I missed one not too insanely expensive, not too long ago.

Log in to your PP account. Click on "Help" at the top of the screen. Go to the bottom of the page you get sent to and click "Resolution Center". You'll get a page that says "Report a Problem". Write it up and follow the prompts.

They bought fans, some cheaper than others. They took them home and switched contents. Then they returned the cheap fans in the expensive boxes. Happens all the time, everywhere. Over the past 5.5 decades, I'm sure I've got home to find either switched, used, or broken crapp in boxes I've purchased in good faith, at least 20 times, and had to go back to the store and try to convince them it wasn't me who was the crook.

What's a bugger is that though I've found all the vintage Amal and SU carb refs I could possibly need, I've apparently misfiled the Riley 4-port head shots Dennis sent me back in 2012. I know I still have 'em, but I don't know how I labeled them, and I don't have time to go through tens of thousands of pix right now.

You really have to wonder about the lengths some people who have zero sense of decency will go to to save a few bucks. Something like that isn't the same as stealing a loaf of bread to feed your starving child. It's just stealing, period...and if I ran HD, I'd put the cops on 'em.

There's no reason the engine can't accurately represent a 409, as the 348 3X2 manifold can be run on a 409 IF the 348 heads are used...which will bolt to a 409. The dipstick location is determined by the oil pan, a bolt-on part which fits either engine, so you can fudge that too. And of course there's always the aftermarket and custom fabrication, so you can pretty much say your model engine is a 409 and dare anyone to prove otherwise, as long as you've done your homework and have a plausible scenario.

EXCELLENT advice. I'd forgotten entirely that that sprue includes a pair EDIT: appears to include a pair of identical leaf springs, far left, in the middle, that should allow either the straight or dropped axle to be used with parallel leaves. Another option using that parts pack is to set up the front axle using a single transverse leaf spring, and use the hairpins for fore-and-aft location.

Spread the word...wait...never mind.

"Plausible" definitely works for me too. There are as many different ways to do something that will work as there are car builders, but some solutions work better than others, and I just kinda try to find the one that looks cleanest and best thought-out to draw my own inspiration from. I figure everything anyone makes is built on what his forbears did, so I might as well try to choose the best that's out there to copy, or at best, to improve on. The only reason I finally became a reasonably decent fabricator in real life is because I've been looking at what other people have done for decades, and learned from their sometimes ugly work as well as their sometimes brilliance. And thanks for the kind words. I'm really happy if something I show here provides inspiration to someone else, 'cause other guys' work has certainly inspired me.

Thanks for your interest. I got looking for real car reference photos showing the quite long '40 Ford rear radius rods, split like on the model, and found examples. Then I started trying to nail down period photos of a front quarter-elliptic spring setup (which I already knew to have been used), with appropriate lateral location of the axle. The springs aren't sufficient, so something like a Panhard bar would be necessary. And that's where the build stalled. I know how I'd do it today...but I wanted to find a similar in-period example. As stated, I know similar setups were tried, I've seen period shots, but hadn't found quite what I was looking for. Without correct location, a solid-front-axle car can develop the dreaded "death wobble", and it's a serious consideration on a car built for top speed runs. I try to keep my models real, and represent the way things should be done in full scale.

GREAT resource indeed.

Hey Ray...it's really not that hard to scratch build exactly what you need. Page three of the thread below shows a straight axle with leaf springs built from styrene stock, and the tips-n-tricks thread on steerable straight axles I recently bumped goes into more spindle detail.

Problem I'm having with the Maser 250F reference is that the front suspension and brake details of the Mantaray and every 250F photo I've looked at so far are entirely different. I'm sure I've seen the front end that's under the Mantaray, and at some point, as time permits, I'll find it.

"Sheesh" pretty much says it all.

Glad you found it helpful, and thanks to those who have said "thanks".

Visit people you care about often, 'cause you may never see them alive again.

"Work" means very different things to different people.

Course corrections in nose-heavy cars can be imprecise...known as "understeer".