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Everything posted by Ace-Garageguy
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Clear coat gone wrong
Ace-Garageguy replied to 1hobby1's topic in Model Building Questions and Answers
Fifth line in the OP's post: " it passed the spoon test I had painted " -
Choosing a glue bomb..
Ace-Garageguy replied to slusher's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Yup. I didn't even know what this thing was when it showed up in a group of other parts I'd bought. -
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.
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Wow. That's certainly something.
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Craigslist removed the personals....
Ace-Garageguy replied to JollySipper's topic in The Off-Topic Lounge
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. -
Sounds a little like my vision of "heaven".
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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?
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Tires...Tires...and more Tires!
Ace-Garageguy replied to 3dscaleparts's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Will do. Yes, it was full. Thanks. -
Porsche 356 for under $6K
Ace-Garageguy replied to Richard Bartrop's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
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. -
Halibrand Quick Change
Ace-Garageguy replied to spike morelli's topic in Model Building Questions and Answers
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. -
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.
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Nah. I'd be the last person on the planet to buy knockoff resin parts.
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That IS pretty weird. I got nothin'. So far, all the dead people I know have stayed dead.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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Idiots, eBay seller AND eBay resolution people. We paid for TWO items. Idiot seller can't count that high, put ONE item in the package, but listed the SAME tracking number for BOTH ITEMS. Package arrived, sealed. ONE ITEM IN IT. POST OFFICE shows tracking number delivered...BOTH ITEMS. We only got ONE. So I contact seller, who LIES about "sorry, I gave you a refund for the missing one". NO REFUND. So I open a case. DENIED because the idiot PO shows BOTH items delivered, even though there's only ONE TRACKING NUMBER...ONE PACKAGE...AND ONE ITEM IN IT. Now I've appealed the decision. We'll see. This is the FIRST time I've ever come up against reading-comprehension-challenged morons at eBay.
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NAPCO Conversion
Ace-Garageguy replied to c-plane362's topic in Model Building Questions and Answers
Ask over on the truck forum. Lotsa those guys really know their stuff, and I KNOW I've seen a reference to the NAPCO conversions over there. -
Depending on how much you like the car, you can probably keep it if you fight. A "total" loss usually occurs when the estimated cost to repair gets to be around 75% of the "book" value of the car. Book value rarely really takes into consideration that an older car might be very low mileage, in excellent condition, and not replaceable with anything other than a worn-out-piece-of-junk for the money they'll give you. In MY state, if you scream loud and long enough at the insurance company, they will pay you very close to that 75% figure and let you keep the car. You can then apply the money to repairing cosmetic damage, and pay the difference out of your pocket. I've retained SEVERAL cars this way, and have advised several other people to do this when they've had old but GOOD cars with relatively MINOR damage, but still enough damage to push the car into "economic total" status.
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215 mph Cheetah ?
Ace-Garageguy replied to Greg Myers's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
I've driven one. There were three main problems with the Cheetah that certainly would have been sorted had there been more time. 1) Because of the car's too-flexible frame. suspension tuning wasn't very effective. You have to have a dead-stiff chassis in order to set a car up with any hope of repeatability and predictability. 2) The front-mid-engined layout of the car gave it exceptionally good weight distribution, and because the center of mass is well inside the wheelbase, the car is VERY responsive to driver input, very willing to go where it's pointed. You can almost think it into a turn. But then the twisty chassis comes into play, and as the car is cornered hard, the suspension geometry is moving around as the frame flexes. This makes it twitchy, and not at all fun to drive close to the limit of adhesion...and prone to spinning if you're very close to the limit. 3) Because of the front-mid-engined layout, the headers run right next to the driver's feet. Extremely light-weight insulation didn't exist in those days, so the cockpit could be just dammed uncomfortable. It's hard to go fast consistently when the car is fighting you and your feet are on fire and you're being boiled in your own sweat. -
That failure "simulation" looks NOTHING like what actually happened. Compare it to the actual video. Wear your critical-thinking hats while doing so. The thing did NOT bend in the middle as shown in the "simulation". The FIRST failure WAS AT THE SPOT CLOSE TO THE CRANE. It buckled at the TOP of the FIRST inverted V of the truss web, and subsequently bent / broke at the LOWER RH. END OF THE FIRST INVERTED V. This so-called "simulation" places elements and failures in the wrong locations relative to each other.
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Watch carefully the top element of the bridge to the LEFT of the crane. Just before the collapse, the concrete, which would be in compressive load there...what concrete does best...bends visibly, then crumbles.