Ace-Garageguy

That's what she said as she ran away laughing gleefully, having just cleaned out our joint account.

This is the kind of YT content aimed at entry-level modelers I personally think has the most value. Nobody has to agree.

Handy-dandy internet-connected fridges that smell your milk to see if it's gone sour are such life-altering things, I just don't understand how anyone could have survived back before they existed.

I started using PP around 2001 when I was getting back into car modeling and selling off some of my full-scale car stuff I figured I'd never use (sold the Lambo Espada crankshaft to a fella in Spain...but anybody need a head or a flywheel?). Anyway, that's a long time. There have been a few hiccups, very few, but to date I've never lost a dime. But I'm sure some well-meaning ------- will "fix" it shortly.

Everyone who worked there, including me, took every appropriate precaution and used state-of-the-art PPE. The building was closed...not sealed, just closed during production, so airborne particulates didn't escape. They're too sticky to get through seams, small gaps, etc. There is some floaty fiber that comes off the glass feed to the gun, but it's not much. The stink emitted by styrene monomer during chopper-gun or other kinds of spray-based fabrication is really really bad though, and you could smell the shop for at least a block during sprayup operations. I'd used appropriate PPE for decades doing other things, from simple dust masks to respirator masks and full suits. But I'd never had the need to use an air-supplied full-face mask and a hood, as well as the suit, previously. A regular paint respirator is quickly overwhelmed by the styrene monomer stink from a single chopper-gun operation, even inside a 3000 sq. ft. building. As an aside, when we were making short-run small fiberglass parts, doing hand-layups, we worked with the rollup doors open and a powerful exhaust fan to suck stink out of the dead-air and of the building...always with personnel using particulate filters over respirator masks, gloves, and paper suits. But the release of the styrene monomer stink was so minor, and so fully dispersed, you could barely smell it even if you stuck your face in the fan outflow. Inside the building it was about the same as the bondo smell coming from a bodyshop...easily handled by organic vapor "paint" respirators with dust prefilters. There are many potential hazards working with any kind of composite materials, but as with most "dangerous" things, health problems and injuries can be completely avoided if correct precautions are in place. That said, I still see welders using nothing but sunglasses. I'll never understand why someone would risk almost certain permanent eye damage. Just to look cool, I guess.

"Anyway" can be used effectively to start a sentence when a conversation has gone off the rails, as in "anyway, back to the topic".

Many years ago, a composite parts fabricator I was working with went from hand-layups of relatively small polyester bits to "chopper gun" layup of large fiberglass sailplane-trailer top shells. The smell from the styrene monomer was massively increased, and as the shop had no air handling/filtration capability, and was in a light industrial area close to a neighborhood, I thought we'd better do something preemptively. We called the local EPA office for guidance, and explained the situation in depth. The response was "has anyone complained?" "No" we said, which was true. "Then don't worry about it" was EPA's answer, and we never heard another peep.

I never said "can't". I said there's a lack of "WANTING to". Where there is sufficient desire to do something...wanting to...cost constraints can be overcome. Several injection molding companies make things profitably in the USA, proving that cost by itself is not a deal killer. That means there is insufficient desire to make other injection-molded stuff here when it's easier to get somebody somewhere else to do the work as cheaply as possible, and just rake off the profits.

Hard to believe? There was a time when food prices in America were such a small part of my expenses, I didn't bother trying to save a little bit here and there. Now, frankly, I'm wondering how some people are able to get by at all.

You might enjoy this 2-parter on assembling an Offy midget engine. There are some shots of the nekkid chassis in the background as well.

My earliest one is red, and it's definitely, positively acetate...but not badly warped...yet. I don't know if there were earlier yellow ones or not.

Love your attitude on this. So many useful things just get tossed in the trash with no thought whatsoever... It may be small and originally intended for kids, but it has the potential to be a real tool capable of making high-quality parts. As Snake45 would have said: model on.

Another fantastic HO scale train score at a local antique mall. Many rare (really) vintage car kits, built ups, NOS ready-to-run (boxed) cars, and a couple of locomotives at 1/6 to 1/3 of what they would have cost online if purchased separately. Just one example...an out-of-production mid-range RTR NOS Athearn caboose, list when new was $24.95, current asking online including shipping, about $60. I paid $8. Score included multiple NOS Roundhouse Gorre & Daphetid car kits as well...passenger cars, boxcars, hoppers, ore cars, gondolas, and a tank car...$5 each. The built-ups are all extremely well done, from kits dating to the '50s and '60s, most with sprung trucks and Kadee couplers, some beautifully weathered, some pristine. $3 each. Sadly though, for me to get these so cheap, someone must have dumped Dad's or Grampa's collection for pennies, or given them away. I hope whoever owned them is happy they've gone to a good home...at least for as long as I'm their caretaker.

Wonder of wonders, pretty soon it won't be necessary to actually DO anything in the physical realm at all; it seems a lot of people actually WANT to live in the matrix.

Primarily because the engine was vastly simplified, there are several differences between different Offy engines, and concessions were made to simplify tooling and to get the parts out of the dies without sliding elements...like the angles and shapes of the cam covers. All of which is why the old Monogram engine doesn't make a very good starting point for a much larger displacement Offy engine in 1/25 scale. Way cool build, by the way. I have a bunch of the originals, even one of the very first run in wavy, warpy acetate.

Subscription salesman don't go door-to-door anymore since everything went digital.

According to the chart below, it looks most like a New Process 421 to me (as fitted to Mopar A-bodies from 1960 on), but it's missing the cast-in shifter bosses on the tailshaft housing. That doesn't mean a whole lot though. There are so many American manual boxes, I almost always have to research one I have to work on before I even know what it is. https://www.shifterdoc.com/4_Speed_Transmission_Identification_ID_Chart.PDF EDIT: Note the reverse shifter boss under the rear of the side cover. 420-series NP boxes are the only ones on the chart with that feature.

Mephistopheles isn't much for after-the-deal support, so I've been told.

About time I put a plug in one of my tires instead of pumping it up every few days.

Insurance in general seems like a good idea, ideally protecting people and entities from possibly catastrophic expenses resulting from unforeseen events beyond their control. But like many things, where there's an opportunity to exploit a loophole for gain, there's never any shortage of those who will try. It's also true that, for the most part, an insurance company's primary business mission is to pay out as little as possible, while taking in as much as possible. And the house always wins.

I failed to take the excellent advice against attempting to have an argument with an idiot, especially if it involves facts, logic, and basic reading comprehension. Most irksome indeed.

Yup.

Thanks. It's been so long, I'd forgotten whether I posted the technique or not. First, it takes some trial and error to dial in the exact effect you want. But basically it consists of getting a perfect coat of gray primer, no orange peel, sanded slick to at least 600 grit or so, and then carefully forming the "brushed" surface by stroking it with 320 grit (IIRC) sandpaper, dry, in ONE DIRECTION (particularly important on the DeLorean). I had to use magnification to see that I had a uniform surface. The final finish is achieved with silver-leaf Rub 'n Buff. Again, it takes some care and experimentation, as you can easily fill and ruin the "brushed" surface if you get too froggy with it. It's quite durable, though it will fingerprint if handled too aggressively. I just looked at the Challenger model, and it has dulled somewhat over the years. HOWEVER...I have a real DeLorean in the shop right now, and the finish on the Challenger model is pretty much identical to a real DeLorean that's been in the weather for a while. NOTE: Keep in mind that the front and rear bumpers on a DeLorean are semi-flat silver-painted urethane, so to get exactly the right look you'll need to paint them with a very fine-grained silver metallic, not glossy, probably something from Tamiya.

Saying something 10,000 times doesn't make it true.

That's pretty cool. I had no idea those even existed. Really like your quote "I already used it to sand a part I made for my little Mattel Vac-U-Form (ironically - one Mattel toy fixing another) but this is actually a surprisingly decently powered tool, considering it was aimed at kids. Motor is decently torque-y, and definitely good enough for a lot of what we do." I do have a Vac-U-Form that I still need to do some upgrades on.