Ace-Garageguy

Mmmmm...toast.

Friendamine went outta town a while back, rented a car, went to a mall to get something, left his phone in the car while he ran inside "real quick". Came back out, the central locking system wouldn't respond to the fob, and naturally this oh-so-mo'-better POS had no keyholes in either door. All kindsa grief getting somebody out to rescue him when he didn't know where he was and couldn't phone from beside the car. When the the driver from the rental company finally got there hours later, after my guy had missed his meeting, the rental guy had to smash the window to get in the damm thing. Man oh man. How about those wonders of modern technology, huh?

OMG !!! I only hope there's a phone app for it !!!

That's not really the subject of this thread though, is it? There's no argument that modern vehicles, by virtue of electronic engine management and improved understanding of the combustion process enabled by computer modeling, run cleaner, more efficiently, and have higher relative power outputs than their predecessors. Nor is there any argument that modern automated machining processes result in engines built to tighter initial tolerances, and the good ones will run for 200K miles with reasonable care (but so would cars from the 1950s, and well beyond with competent maintenance...which some folks seem to want to deny for some reason). However, as good as newer vehicles might be when they're new, when they break, they can be maddeningly difficult to diagnose and repair, and as they age and are inevitably no longer supported by their manufacturers, they can be quite literally impossible to repair given the financial circumstances of their second or third owners. What's the primary STUPID contributing factor here is the insane unnecessary complication every designer seems to think is the right way to do things now (every damm one of them apparently being ignorant of the KISS principle)...and what's DOUBLY STUPID is running non-drivetrain functions like brakes, window lifts, door locks, alternator voltage regulation, lights, signals, wipers, AC, heat, seats, and communications et al through centralized and INTERCONNECTED ECMs. All these accessory systems can be discrete, work perfectly and indefinitely with dumb switches and relays (or simple stand-alone ECMs that perform only one function and don't adversely affect ANYTHING ELSE when they fail), and be segregated from the mission-critical functions involved in making the car GO. Main systems would be vastly simplified. Diagnosis and repairs would be vastly simplified, and having the comm systems isolated from engine-management and safety systems just makes logical sense.

Here's another thought. The stock up-top in the AMT '36 Ford is MUCH closer in profile to what you want, but it's wider. It should be easier to take a slice out of the middle of one, to narrow it to the width of a '32. I have a few of these I'll never use, but they're 2000 miles away at the moment; surely somebody else here has one.

Well sir, it's what has been very successfully marketed to them over decades, not what they actually need...as you well know. I've taken some adults for rides in my 1989 stripper fleet GMC pickup, with a manual gearbox, rollup windows, and no heat or AC (which was the way base models came when I was a kid), and they're mostly horrified that someone can actually use something so primitive on a daily basis. Funny thing is that a few of them think it's really cool...lotsa times kids. And of course...I love it. God I'm glad I'm not a coddled wimp.

The rear panel on your Thunderbolt reference shot doesn't lean anywhere near as far forward as your Bop Top shots. I'd suggest the same top as Mark mentions as a starting point. It's this kit: Below is a built version copied from this very site. Not too terrible much work to get from here to where you want to be. Create a more wrapped-around side panel, lower the center bow a little, lean the rear panel back a tick at the bottom, and you're there.

I've encountered that with some CAD programs that, even though I thought I owned the copy of the dammed thing, it had to have a separate license to run on every single workstation...even if I was the only actual user. I thought it was bulldump then, I think it's bulldump now...one of the major reasons I haven't "purchased" the CAD thingy I really want. And I've read all the "thou shalt not copy, reverse-engineer, bla bla bla...", which I always just kinda assumed was their legal department giving fair warning to potential patent infringers. Guess I'll need to read all the small print in future. Still, I can see buying or leasing a "license" to use a very powerful computational and design tool much easier than I can get my head around not owning an integral part of what makes a purchased vehicle function, and is indispensable for it to function...thereby giving said vehicle value as a functional vehicle.

Try TS-50. I started shooting a Ferrari hot rod with it, and it wasn't what I wanted at all...but I was struck by how much it looked like the blue on Attempt. EDIT: This renders exactly as the actual color on my screen, for whatever that's worth.

This time, sunset looking out the back door of the new shop out West...

Every time I see great looking aftermarket parts like this, I think I really need to start building big trucks.

Couple weeks back, we had a fairly late-model something upmarket in one shop, a Lexus I think, and you had to pull the intake manifold to get to the plugs on the driver's side. Of course you have to replace all the manifold the gaskets too, or the thing will have vacuum leaks out the yinyang. You just have to wonder what kind of clean-hands little dwerps thought THAT was a good way to design something. Again, of course, since plug replacement now is at around 100K mile intervals, it's another out-of-warranty, who cares? situation.

2CELLOS do AC/DC's THUNDERSTRUCK

Just passing the time while the OP cleans up Revell's little messes.

I'm havin' almost as much fun watching this go together as if I was doing it myself. Loved the reference to stone-age CAD too. One of my favorite techniques on the real ones as well.

That actually looks like you spent considerable effort making the major contours and shapes conform pretty well to the OEM design. That's so far beyond most of what I see having been done by "professionals", it's not even in the same star system.

And that, boys and girls, is what happens when people who don't know diddly about diddly run the world...and businesses roll over without a fight and let 'em.

I did a good friendamine's '09 Corolla front brakes at 65K, not because she really needed 'em, but because I wouldn't be in town to do them for 6 months, and she was just starting to get the tiniest pulsing from warping rotors. Unnoticeable to anybody but a machine head who hears them talking. Rear brakes looked practically new, needed nothing. I have a 1993 Geo Metro out West I bought from the same person, after I'd maintained it from day one. 230,000 miles now, one front brake job (didn't need rotors), one clutch, a burned exhaust valve at 160,000 miles. Nothing else but maintenance including oil (Mobil 1) and filter changes, and timing belts at specified intervals. I dropped the pan to look at the rod bearings back in 2011, and they looked like they'd go another 60K easy. I replaced them because I had 'em.

Some time back, GM's mo' better vision of the future was to get out of the sales of vehicles entirely, providing an "on-demand transportation experience" utilizing self-driving pods instead, for either a monthly fee, or a per-mile charge. "Mommy...can I go pway at Biwwy's house? Wi' you take me...pweese?"

And perfectly reasonable if you're working on a daily driver that isn't going to be subjected to "restoration" scrutiny.

In short: out of warranty, out of mind.

Agreed. Both my Jags are mid-'80s, last of the '48 XK-engine-design powered cars. Equipped with EFI and other mod cons now, they're easily backdated to run-forever carbs and ancillaries, and one's slated for a SBC with a 5-speed stick.

Unless you're a skilled mechanic. I couldn't afford my Porsches and Jaguars when they were new, but in my hands now, these old beasts are everything I would have expected them to be then...or will be again fairly shortly...and when they inevitably break, I'm not going to be held hostage to the "fix it, mommy" mentality. EDIT: Looking farther back, it occurred to my tired old brain that I've ALWAYS bought older cars (except once), even when I was a callow young white-collar fella. I realized pretty early I could get WAY more in image, appearance, and performance than if I bought new, and it was beyond worth it to me to learn how to fix 'em...and what ultimately lead me to get into the dirty-hands end of the car biz.