Ace-Garageguy

He thanks you for your concern...

Beautiful work, sir.

Rattlesnakes pose no danger to humans unless they feel threatened. Anyone who's in the snake's environment should be aware of the possibility of encountering one, and take reasonable precautions...like paying attention. Rattlesnakes don't deserve to die just because they're armed with venom, a weapon they use to hunt, to feed themselves.

I saved one of those huge ants that was caught in a spider web. You know, the ants that are so big you could almost make them pets? Generally I have no use for ants, having an intense dislike of their mindless group-think behavior, but the big ones get my sympathy for some strange reason...probably because I seem to see them mostly foraging on their own, rather than in endless lines marching back and forth to and from the cat food bowl. Anyway, this little creature was struggling mightily trying to get free, and Mr. Spider was closing in. First I got the ant, web fragment and all, away from the spider (he can find plenty of other bugs out there, don't worry). Then I was able to gently tease the web filaments off of the ant without ripping any legs out. They're really built like tanks. Ms. Ant (workers are all female) walked away apparently unscathed...without so much as a "thank you". How typical.

Best line I've heard all week. And true.

Interesting. I always thought the Concorde was a remarkable piece of styling. If it hadn't been mass-produced, and if some design details were cleaned up, it could have been a big 4-door exotic...Ferrari maybe. Good luck with that paint. You'll get it.

I guess you haven't heard. Anything remotely aggressive or...gasp..."masculine"...has been identified as toxic. Can't have fun-to-drive 2-door "sport" vehicles that might upset some delicate sensibilities. Gone going the way of the dodo, along with the manual gearbox. Get with the program, man. It's a brave new world.

Nah. But there will most certainly be an Urban Adventurer version with special compartments for all the necessary gear; just think of it as a big shiny 4-door purse with plenty of room to haul bales of organic kale.

Frankly, I'm surprised this concept has been so long in coming for US manufacturers. Honda's been building the transverse-engined front-wheel-drive Ridgeline since 2004, and VW was making Rabbit pickups way back in what...'78 or '79? The packaging makes lotsa sense for a light-duty "truck". Ford's pretty late to the me too!!! me too!!! game.

Much better. Looks good. Didja use ol' magic Por-15 on that?

You mean something like this?

Hit my marks today on the DeLorean project a little faster than I'd expected, so now I have time to mow the lawn before it starts raining again. I'm such a party animal.

And now everyone can get a trophy.

Gee willikers. They re-invented this. How clever.

It depends entirely on the company and the circumstances. Years ago (mid 1980s) I owned a full-service garage that worked with some of them. One replaced the gearbox in a Porsche 924 for a pretty hefty price (back then) with zero squawk. Same company bought a clutch in a Ferrari 328 a few years later. But they refused a claim on a Mondial after the owner, drunk, backed it...hard...into a parking-lot sleeper and cracked the transaxle housing. As with many things, doing reasonable due-diligence research will sort out the scams.

100% correct...mostly. But...I often see relatively new vehicles from snow-belt environments (read: salted roads) badly rusted structurally. There is sometimes quite obviously zero rustproofing factory-applied. And engines like the venerable small- and big-block Chevy, Ford, and Chryslers, transmissions like the GM 350, 400, Ford C5 and C6, Chrysler 727, and rear-axles from the era were virtually indestructible with any kind of reasonable use and care. Most of today's tiny-internaled, overstressed 6, 8, and more-speed automatics are essentially non-repairable, and hideously expensive to replace. 60,000 mile lifespans are commonplace. Little highly-stressed engines likewise. Out of warranty? Too bad, sucker. EDIT: And more frequently every week, I encounter vehicle structures assembled using a combination of adhesives, spot-welding, and application-specific rivets. There is NO rational engineering necessity for putting anything together that way. All it does is vastly complicate collision repair.

Delete. Duh.

Call me old-fashioned (that's a joke folks...) but I have zero interest in a big self-propelled electronics-laden murse, with the engineering philosophy behind it of an appliance...when it's broke, throw it out and buy a new one. And cars have been entirely capable of going 200,000 miles with minimal maintenance for many decades. My #2 '86 Jag has 225,000 on the clock. My '89 #2 truck is pushing 300,000 now (I rebuilt the heads and did a timing chain at around 200K). My '92 #1 truck had no significant issues until just at 200,000 (a new trans for $2100), and a roller-lifter failure at 225,000. And the '01 PT cruiser I inherited also has about 225K, and nothing significant has ever failed...though I maintained it from almost new, and did things like timing belts as required. EDIT: Heck...even my mother's '63 Olds had 165,000 entirely uneventful miles on it when she died. Regular oil changes and relatively inexpensive competent general maintenance, watching fluids, and not driving like a moron are the only things most cars have ever really required to give long and faithful service.

Not even that far back. Look at car and racing pix (or just crowd scenes in general) from the '60s and '70s. It's like a humans were a different species.

Nice hack-job on that old Anglia kit. High inspiration.

Nice score. Fascinating material.

Interesting. All the Series III cars I've driven have had very communicative steering feel...one of the things I particularly like about them. The rack bushings are notorious for going to poo fairly rapidly, however, and that can be the cause of a vague, imprecise feel.

Those are 90 degree boots. These are 45.

CA and microballoon, most likely. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/revellations/fix-kit-repair-powder-t4967.html

Beautiful clean build. Those little buggers were among my favorites back in the glory days of the NHRA. Your model is a good representation of the cars of the era.