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Ace-Garageguy

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Everything posted by Ace-Garageguy

  1. The Dodge Red Ram small hemi came in the original Ala Kart double kit, and all of its MANY subsequent '29 Ford derivatives. There is a ridiculously underscale one in the "new-tool" Ala Kart.
  2. I bought some to test back in June. Haven't had time yet.
  3. I went back and read all of the thread I'd missed. Beautiful work, and masterful attention to technical detail...as always. That cross-pushrod valve train arrangement is one of the odd ones. If I remember correctly, it's featured in this book...
  4. Fascinating. I learned quite some time ago to keep an open mind, having experienced things myself that defy conventional explanations.
  5. The inline Zephyr six block shares a lot of design characteristics with the little English Ford 4. The height and width of the block is very similar (as the bore and stroke were the same as the Consul/Zephyr 1508 4-cylinder early on), and the distributor location is similar too (though the carbs are on the opposite side of the head). Grafting two cylinders from a four cylinder English Ford pushrod 4 to the rear of another one ought to get you well into the ballpark visually. The stock L24 Z-car engine most likely has Hitachi knockoffs of SU carbs. Similar visually, but they have square shoulders on the vacuum chambers, as opposed to the rounded ones on the SU version.
  6. Old kit "glass" doesn't bother me. Even if it's in good shape, it usually looks thick and has serious distortion. After experimenting with ideas from Bill Geary and Tulio Lazzaroni, I've found that windshields, backlites, etc. formed from clear sheet look much more realistic. If you're going to go to all the trouble of entirely rebuilding somebody's old mess, why not upgrade it too? Same goes for drilling out chrome headlights and replacing them with reflectors and clear lenses...unless, of course, you're doing a period-piece straight restoration of the kit as it was manufactured.
  7. Fifth line in the OP's post: " it passed the spoon test I had painted "
  8. Yup. I didn't even know what this thing was when it showed up in a group of other parts I'd bought.
  9. That sounds great. Speaking of "craft" beer... You just reminded me...there's a tiny local minority-owned company in town here that makes the best "pimento" cheese spread in the known universe. It's expensive, but worth every nickel. It would probably be a very good place to start for a knockout mac and cheese recipe.
  10. Wow. That's certainly something.
  11. Hmmmmm...Craigslist personals? I imagine something like this: "Single crack-addicted welfare-queen mother of seven, uneducated and unemployable. No idea who the babies' daddies are to get child support, but still engaging in irresponsible reproductive behavior. Seeking financially well-off soy-boy to pay all my bills without cramping my independent and free-spirited lifestyle." At least, that's what I imagine they'd say if any of them could write...which is quite a stretch anyway.
  12. Sounds a little like my vision of "heaven".
  13. Kraft has finally managed to remove the last vestige of anything tasting even remotely like cheese from their Macaroni and Cheese. Better to call it Macaroni and Bright Yellow Cardboard Sauce. Never again. Hell...the box probably tastes better. All week I eat right. Friday night is garbage food night. Pizza, Krystal, Taco Bell, whatever. Tonight it's cold, I'm tired, thought it would be fun to have some mac and cheese, watch some old B&W TV, go to bed early. What is with idiots "improving" things that were just fine? Same old story everywhere. But how could ANYONE think this crapp tastes GOOD?
  14. Will do. Yes, it was full. Thanks.
  15. Thanks Ray, but I think this one is beyond even me. This is one of those "jack the VIN up and build a new car under it" deals...though about 2 square feet of sheetmetal around the LH taillights and the instrument cluster look like they just might be usable. A clean beehive-taillight cabriolet VIN is probably worth a few grand...specially if you have a car with questionable provenance stashed in the barn.
  16. Correct. And in this thread, I go into some detail doing just exactly that, as well as fabbing a new rear crossmember for Revell's '32 frames that will let you hang a buggy-sprung rear end.
  17. They had a rig that had working steering...to a point...but the track still had a guide slot. With the steering, you could sortof steer around obstacles (to a limited degree) and cross from one lane to another, but only at one place on the track that had an X slot. You could also make the cars hang the tail out, which was pretty fun.
  18. I'm sure this is old news to some of you guys, but it's new to me. Pretty cool.
  19. Nah. I'd be the last person on the planet to buy knockoff resin parts.
  20. That IS pretty weird. I got nothin'. So far, all the dead people I know have stayed dead.
  21. Lotta dead people seem to be able to vote, so what's to keep 'em offa social media? Oops. I see Nick made a similar comment hours earlier. Never mind.
  22. Quoted from a CBS News article here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-bridge-collapse-fiu-florida-state-university-project-behind-schedule-over-budget-updates-2018-03-20/ " MIAMI -- Construction of the pedestrian bridge that collapsed and killed six people in the Miami area was behind schedule and millions over budget, in part because of a key change in the design and placement of one of its support towers. Documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public-records request show that the Florida Department of Transportation in October 2016 ordered Florida International University (FIU) and its contractors to move one of the bridge's main support structures 11 feet north to the edge of a canal, widening the gap between the crossing's end supports and requiring some new structural design.... Videos of the collapse show that the concrete, prefabricated segment of the bridge started crumbling on the same end of the span where the tower redesign occurred, two days after an engineer on the project reported cracks in the same location. The segment that failed had been placed atop the pylon's footing, and the taller tower section was to be installed later. Though it is still unclear if the design change played a role in the failure, emails between the school, contractors, officials with the city of Sweetwater and permitting agencies show a project that ended up behind schedule, which had officials worried that further delays could jeopardize millions in federal Department of Transportation funds. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) began an investigation last Friday. Officials say crews were applying post-tensioning force on the bridge on the day the accident happened, but aren't clear on whether that caused the bridge to fall. Local authorities have said workers conducted a 'stress test' the day of the collapse." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Design changes are not necessarily bad things, as long as they're handled with the same care and obsessive attention to detail as the original design and engineering work. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. GM's ignition switch fiasco that resulted in multiple deaths and which may ultimately cost the company $10 BILLION was the result of a specification change. Though ONE person was ultimately targeted as the scapegoat there, the truth is that checks and balances in the engineering and documentation process that are SUPPOSED to keep "accidents" caused by faulty parts from occurring, failed.
  23. We'll see. So far, I've only opened a case through eBay. It was refused, and I've appealed it. It will probably be like a lot of things...scream long and loud enough, somebody listens.
  24. Thanks Ray. I'll raise as much hell as I can if they don't. It's not the few bucks...it's the principle.
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