Ace-Garageguy

Looks like the last post on their FB page was Jan. 3, 2021. A dealer who handles the mag, Holohan's Hot Rod Shop, posted a blurb saying that the mag had moved its offices, and publication would resume in 2022 with issue #85. https://holohanshotrods.com/product/rodders-journal-85-available-soon/ In a quick search, that's all I turned up.

In a quick search I couldn't find any data on the tire sizes of the real cars, but today's Goodyear vintage racing tire reproductions for an appropriate 15 inch front tire show diameters of 24.47, 24.5, 26.5, and 26.7 The size ranges available in vintage tires made today are not as comprehensive as what was available in the period, but any of those numbers should reflect diameters that could have appeared on a real one.

Yup...but all those have poor wet strength. They'll hold headlight lenses in place wet, but windows need to fit well and often need to be jigged or taped in place while the glue dries. Some people prefer epoxy, but it can be messy, fingerprinty, and difficult to get a good accurate mix of the two parts in very small quantities.

The heartbreaker for me was seeing the Miura, the E-types, and the Aston Martin DB4 drophead...and of course the 3 little Minis pushed out of the bus...destroyed in the original "Italian Job". I've never researched whether they were real or not. The Miura looked like it might have been a f'glass fake with no guts, but the others looked really real-deal.

Somebody once said "no good deed ever goes unpunished". Seems to be the case a lot of times.

Always great to see something like this find a good home.

Looks good in red, stance is perfect, interior looks great. Nice work.

That's pretty cool. Really like the wheel choice too.

Just say it's a rare Lotus-Pontiac.

Yup. The aspect ratio of the tires is wrong, too tall sidewalls, particularly noticeable on the front. But what you've got going so far is looking better than I've ever seen this kit built (far as I recall).

Looking good.

I'm in awe of youse guys who can consistently do clean, crisp, straight, un-wrinkled BMF. So far, I've put off even trying, and usually build the kind of stuff where it's not necessary. But there are stock, or close-to-stock builds I'd really like to do, so eventually I'll have to bite the ol' bullet and pull the trigger (pardon the mixed whatever). Lotsa great helpful info's been posted on the forum. Just gonna hafta do it.

If that's the real story, all I can say is what a great dad. I always wanted to save rusty wrecks when I was a young kid, and didn't understand why something that had been a running car once couldn't be one again. Probably part of the reason I gravitated towards the restoration business, and eventually got burned out on it. Some things are just too far gone to even try to save...unless it's something like a GT40 with history in this condition.

If you think it through, I'm pretty sure you'll come to the realization it's never going to be a restored car. It's just a runner made from a sad mess that most people would crush, surely an attention-getter at shows, a conversation-starter, possibly a statement condemning mindless destruction, and arguably "art"...at least as artistically valid as some of the horrible cobbled-up bubble-gum-welded semi-operational and often undrivable rat-rods built by people who couldn't turn out a functional vehicle if their lives depended on it.

Where on Earth did you get that idea?

This is a typical built model. See any difference?

So?

No one's looking for any such excuses. But there's this pesky thing called "reality". Far as "tiresome" goes, the insistence that EVs are the solution to everything NOW by people who apparently know very little about much of anything...that's what's truly tiresome.

100% if the work is performed by a competent mechanic. Not so good if it's done by the average contemporary "tech".

Welcome to my world.

Nice work thinking through what it'll take so the model doesn't sit up like a 4X4. I started one of these some time back, and when I saw the mocked-up ride height, put it away until I had more time to re-engineer things. I'll stay tuned into this channel for breaking news. EDIT: One suggestion...look at the thickness of the lips of the fender flares on the real cars, as compared to the model. I believe you can pick up a little room for lowering the car, particularly in the front.

Exactly. And as we speak, the water level in Lake Mead (Hoover Dam is a hydro-generating facility that will shortly lose its ability to provide power because of low water levels) is being sacrificed to keep the hydro generators at Lake Powell online. Hoover Dam has recently been primarily generating during times of "peak demand"...just when electric vehicles will be plugged in to recharge. The Navajo coal-burning generating plant in northern Az. that supplied 2250 megawatts to the grid was shut down in 2019 because generating with natural gas was cheaper, and knee-jerk greenie whiners wanted it gone. The plant could have been cleaned up, the tech exists to burn coal we have cleanly...AND to produce bio-fuels using carbon captured from the stacks...but no. Now, with natural gas prices spiking, it doesn't look to have been such a smart move. A billion-dollar solar-concentrator project in Nevada called Crescent Dunes failed to deliver its projected power levels, went into bankruptcy, and shut down in 2019. Though generation was resumed in 2021, energy output is still well below projections, and energy cost from the facility is much higher than projections. California's Diablo Canyon nuclear plant is scheduled to close in 2025, and those behind the closure claim its capacity will be taken over by renewable generation. However, the reality will most likely have PG&E buying power generated in Wyoming from burning coal. https://www.ans.org/news/article-3835/four-clues-that-diablo-canyon-will-be-replaced-by-wyoming-coal/ These examples are only a small part of the realities of the stupidity of promising green everything and an electric vehicle fleet in the relatively near future. But the incessant bleating persists by those who remain willfully ignorant of the magnitude of the hurdles facing civilization as it transitions away from fossil fuels. https://www.power-technology.com/analysis/solar-failed-projects-struggling/

Nice. Too bad for the upcoming generations of puppies, because the way things are going with measurably...and rapidly...declining general intelligence levels, and the dearth of skilled techs to fix things even now, there won't be anybody around to keep the overly complex trash functional either. So there's that.