Ace-Garageguy

100% agreed. Some of the very few people who have seen my model area ask if it's a business. Only a couple are able to understand it's the same thing to me as having a warehouse/workshop full of vintage cars, old race-cars and hot-rods that I can work on and enjoy whenever the mood strikes, and having a VAST junkyard out behind the shop with non-rusty parts for just about anything I can imagine. When I get closer to punching-out, I'll start thinking of how to best dispose of it all. In the meantime, sometimes just taking an old kit out and LOOKING at it is a great little change of pace from the daily stuff we all have to do.

Acetate is a cellulose (wood) based plastic. There are many different varieties, with differing properties...even many different specific formulations under the trade-name "Tenite". acetate is soluble in many common solvents (especially ACETONE and other organic solvents) and can be modified to be soluble in alternative solvents, including WATER. acetate will absorb moisture if it's soaked. It may warp badly when it dries out. acetate is easily weakened by strong ALKALINE solutions and strong oxidizing agents. WARNING: SODIUM HYDROXIDE IS A STRONG ALKALI

I know the music and artist well.

Bought an assembled Tamiya 356 Porsche, quite nicely built, actually exceptionally clean, just a few parts coming loose...for restoration. When it arrived, somebody had "repaired" the loose parts by squeezing half a tube of Testors kiddie gloo all over everything. Ruined the wheels, windshield frame and glass, several other parts, huge gloo lines between the rockers and floorpan, all over the muffler and bumper bracket ends, and glooy smears etched into the previously-acceptable paint. People who have no clue as to what they're doing really ought to notice they CAN'T do something BEFORE they ruin ALL OF IT.

Most of the "two part" fillers made for real car and hobby work are polyesters.

Here's a coupla whack jobs...

I just addressed your package with the vintage piecrusts. It'll be on the way tomorrow.

Actually, an A is between the size of a T and a '32; a '32 ("deuce") isn't an A...it's bigger. And an A is bigger than a T. So...a '32 deuce is bigger than a model A, and a model A (1928-1931) is bigger than a model T (through 1927)...and they only made the "deuce" body design for one year...'32...but it's sometimes called a model B through '34 IF it has the 4-cylinder engine from the A (even though the '33-'34 cars are entirely different otherwise from a '32). Confused yet? The V8 '32 deuce is called a model 18, but in '33-'34 it's called a model 40. I have a couple of the Big Tub kits, and they're definitely 1/8. Cool project you have there.

Except for the colors, that looks much like the view from my Az. place. The trick will be living long enough to get moved and set up.

Joe is absolutely right if you're using the standard hardware-store applicator/mixer types, or the higher-grade hobby shop stuff. If it says mix 1:1, it is essential to get it as close to 1:1 as you can for it to work correctly. It's very difficult to get the exact mix if you're mixing VERY small amounts. Epoxy can be persnickety when trying to mix and use tiny amounts too, because it never generates sufficient exothermic heat to kick. Some gentle heat might help. Many epoxy products can't be used if the temps are below 60F. It also has a shelf-life; some of the stuff goes bad after 6 months and will never set up, no matter how well it's mixed. "Epoxy" is also a term that's misused a bunch, often interchangeably with polyester resin, which has entirely different chemistry and mixing ratios. What exactly are you using?

Headlight lenses and rings are different too, though the buckets are the same.

Only way to do it I've found so far is to buy a cheap diecast for parts.

What ruins the scale realism most of the time is when the clear becomes excessively thick, giving the model a dipped-in-syrup look. Do it right, it looks right. Some metallics HAVE to be cleared, some don't. The Testors basecoats generally need to be cleared if you want to polish them. Otherwise, they remain semi-flat. Some Duplicolor pearls and micas CAN be polished to a decent gloss with no clear; some get blotchy when you polish them.

A T is a MUCH smaller car than a '32 Ford. I think you'll find it is actually 1/8 scale. What kit is it? I can tell you for certain...

Definitely more than one way to skin this cat, so whatever works for any individual...works. The important thing is what Trevor states above...if you're going to wax, wax LAST.

Yup...had a client whose PT Cruiser did much the same thing...but it would turn the driving lights on whenever it wanted to, no matter what the switch position was. Dead battery in the AM. She never actually USED the driving lights, so I just took the bulbs out. Problem was resolved years later when we replaced the ECU for a (theoretically) unrelated issue. Ghosts indeed.

This is why I hate the perceived need on the part of car designers to run every dammed thing through an ECU now, even things that could very easily be run by TWO WIRES. I recently had a car that was discharging its battery SOMETIMES, like you. I eventually traced the cause to an internally-shorted brake-light switch. BUT...the short was more like a very high resistance in the OFF position, rather than a direct dead short. You'd park the car, test for current draw, nothing. Come back two days later, dead battery. Checked every circuit in the thing, and the diodes in the alternator. Everything peachy keen. It was a "second" car, so the owner could leave it in the shop for a while. I happened to come in one night and saw the brake lights on. Ghosts. The intermittent high-resistance short through the brake-light switch was just enough to send a signal...SOMETIMES...to the ECU, telling it to turn on the brake lights. Try diagnosing THAT without a fair bit of luck.

The antics of my local PO are becomingly increasingly entertaining. 10 times in the last 60 days, packages have been left on the hood of a car in the drive, or just on the ground. I get frequent deliveries of electrical & electronic parts, and printed material. So far it hasn't rained... More than 10 times, the tracking number online has said "no access to delivery location", when in fact, the location, my front porch, hasn't changed in 4 years...and the non-brain-dead drivers seem to do just fine. Now there's a shipment that's dropped off the radar in a town 50 miles north of here, after having been processed through the local distribution center !! ??? I'm wasting HOURS every week chasing to the PO to get somebody to find my stuff, and to complain. I'm told the "new" driver on the route has been warned repeatedly, and that's pretty much all they can do. Man, I WANT THAT JOB.

X2. Love it.

1) After you lightly sand the dust nib out, you will ALMOST CERTAINLY need to dust a little color over the area BEFORE YOU CLEAR. The metallic particles are USUALLY uncovered by sanding, and this will make an obvious blotch, even after it's cleared...IF YOU DON'T TOUCH UP THE COLOR. 2) Most of us advise AGAINST wax. It will cause decals to not adhere well...and if you get a good polished surface on your paint, it's just not necessary.

NOTE: There WILL be small draws to keep the presets in the radio memory, and usually, the memory in the vehicle ECM. These are normal, and will often be too small to illuminate a test light. You'll also need to take the fuse out of the interior light circuit if the fuse box is inside the cockpit, and you have to work with the door open.

A failed diode in an alternator can discharge a battery. A stuck relay can discharge a battery, as can a failed sensor, a switch allowing the underhood or trunk light to stay on, etc. Easiest non-spendy way to BEGIN to determine where the draw is (if you have a test light), and what I'd do to start diagnosing the problem if the car was in my own shop: Close the car door (to eliminate getting a false-positive from the interior lights). Disconnect the positive cable from the battery. Connect the test-light between the cable and the battery terminal. IF there is a current draw somewhere, the test light will light up. Open the fuse box cover. Remove one fuse at a time, look to see if the light goes out, then put the fuse back. The fuse that turns the light out will indicate the circuit, or group of circuits, where your problem is...assuming it's something straightforward. I' you can't find the general location that way, testing the alternator (by someone who's competent) is the next step.

I wasn't poking at that. It's just that the Viper was developed while real Jeeps were still in production, and some cross-pollination is possible, though not very likely.