Ace-Garageguy

Agreed. Most helpful.

Yup. Something to remember. Instead of whining and panicking about tomorrow, make today count.

K&S makes streamlined aluminum tube in several sizes. I don't know if there's a size as small as you need, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Still working in one shop, business as usual. Sometimes a little difficult getting parts and supplies though, as many of the businesses that feed us are short staffed. Thought I was getting the bug a couple times, but the pollen has been in record high territory lately, and it's been causing problems even for people who have no previous allergic reaction to it. Local infection rates are still climbing, and several types of crime are way up due in large part to stress and cabin fever. Traffic is, of course, way down. Getting around is much like it was 40 years ago when this was still a rural county. And still no TP in the major chain grocery stores. I wonder what they do with it.

Just to keep them in place, one would assume the very minimal of adhesives would suffice. Nothing sticks very well to vinyl, but there are several non-solvent glues that should do the job, including white PVA, epoxy, Walthers Goo, or even hardware-store Duco or silicone. If the model is going to be handled, or played with and and upside down a lot, you might need a mechanical fastener.

Yeah, "used to" is the operative phrase. That pretty much covers it, other than the nice wheels from Curt Raitz. Here's what was discussed about dragster fronts last time we went into it in depth...

Wow.

OK. I'll accept that. Having seen your work up close, I know you know what you're talking about. Pico Elgin has printed some vintage-car rims and hubs designed to be hand-laced, complete with printed in holes. They have ferrules or adjusting nuts, and look fantastic assembled...far better than anything using jigs and split rims, or the PE alternatives. Nothing in old dragster-appropriate sizes though, and not commercially available anyway...as far as I know. Possibly Randy could seriously consider rims and hubs. I'd buy a bunch.

Very nice. VERY nice. Wood looks great.

Yup.

Wow.

Anything you make, I'll buy multiples of. Anything. But please, PLEASE...make a good set of old-school dragster front wires. I've tried everything on the market, even laced my own, and nothing comes close to what you can probably do.

Couple months back, I shot some very hot aircraft engine enamel over a base of SEM self-etching primer. As the SEM stuff is pretty much impervious to everything shot over it, you can imagine my surprise when the enamel produced a cracked finish on the broad flat areas, probably just about what you're looking for. I've seen "cracked" finishes for faux-aging furniture, available in hardware stores too, that intentionally take advantage of adverse reactions of topcoats with basecoats. Lacquer over enamel is well known to cause wrinkling, lifting, or cracking, and hot lacquer over bare plastic may cause crazing or cracking too. Just now remembered...last week I shot some Transtar 6183 self-etching green over bare Gunze plastic to see what it would do, and a wet coat generated cracking, again, probably pretty close to what you want. Problem is that it's not really very predictable, so much experimenting will probably be required to hit your sweet spot.

Glad you're OK. Missed your "class of..." builds.

Saw this posted elsewhere, pretty sure nobody can find it to be offensive (though you never know): The pandemic has done Americans a great service. Millions of them now understand a cup of coffee doesn't cost four bucks. And this one: Whiner: If we had some bacon, we could have bacon and eggs. If we had some eggs. Answer: How 'bout hand-sanitizer-on-toilet-paper sandwiches? Betcha have plenty of those.

Being offended has pretty well become a national pass time here, a cheap hobby folks can take anywhere, and use to impose their will (and utter and complete lack of a sense of humor) on anyone and everyone. From what I understand though, it's not too much different most places now.

Works well. Loses some texture during transmission though.

I keep the low-sodium version in stock, have it fried with eggs regularly. Makes a good protein breakfast on the days I have to do physical work. Makes a decent sandwich if I forget to get lunchmeat, too. I don't use much salt, and the original version is so salty to me, it feels like my tongue might shrivel like a salted slug.

Or this... ...or, uh...

Needs some floppy ears and a wicker basket...

Yup. But it's no big deal. I never go anyway.

Glad some guys find this useful. These are very much just scaled-down versions of real-car body hammers, much smaller, but still heavy enough to be useful for doing metal shaping on large-scale models. Get a leather shot-bag, you're pretty much set as far as basic hammer-shaping goes...though some small dollies would be muy helpful too.

Another one that rates spectacular. Top notch. All the way. Fine, fine, fine.