Ace-Garageguy

I think Bob just settled on Flintstone because he comes readily to mind as a resin caster, even to people who don't really understand the difference between quality and crapp. It could just as well have been ANY resin caster in Bob's comparison. Apples and bowling balls, either way.

Bob refuses to acknowledge (or possibly even understand...though it's been explained) that Flintstone can make silicone molds for a copy of something for an investment in the HUNDREDS of dollars, but that it takes TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars to make steel tooling for injection molding. Throw in the CAD design cost for something that's never been done before, and you're probably into 100 grand. The simplistic way Bob sees it is "if Flintstone can do it, the real companies can too". Okayyyyyy..... Possibly throw in there a lack of understanding of how business even works, risk, the cost of capital, etc. etc., or that when you're running a company that has slender margins, borrowing heavily for tooling and design can drive you into the toilet if the cost of servicing the debt incurred on a BAD GUESS is too high. Hobbico's top heavy debt on loans just to keep going...not additional heavy tooling expenditures...is apparently what killed them.

I know one thing a lot of us probably WOULD buy: a single sprue of nothing but beautifully engraved clear generic 5" and 7" sealed-beam headlight lenses, plus some flat ones in various diameters appropriate for older vintage cars. Or maybe half a sprue of that, and the other half generic taillights (easily tinted red) appropriate to hot-rods and customs. Flats, several kinds of bullets, etc. I get tired of having to rob kits for this stuff, and then find or make repops if the kit ever comes up to get built. Anybody doing restos or upgrades need these things...judging from the number of threads started about dealing with chrome headlights, or making clear lenses. They also tend to get lost easily, glue spotted, whatever, and none of the kits give you spares.

Stupid eBay bidders too. I'm seeing even high-number buyers who ought to know better raise each other by a dollar for days on end. Do these clowns REALLY think that last buck is going to stand and knock everybody else out days or hours before the end? Idiots.

A little off topic...have any of you guys had direct experience with the 1/24 Kinetic P-47D bubbletop kit? (Or the razorback kit...I'm trying to get some insight as to whether I really want to pop the bucks for one)

1961 F600 below. I assume this is medium duty? Heavy 6-bolt wheels? I'm not being argumentative. I know very little about real (not pickup) trucks. Just trying to learn what's correct for what.

Google is getting stupider and stupider. I don't know who's been "improving" the search function algorithms (or why), but it's getting to the point you HAVE to use the "advanced" approach if you want highly relevant results.

You do realize the Styline parts are designed to fit SPECIFIC car bodies...the kits they come in...not just generic stuff, right? It takes significant skill to make them fit what they're MADE for and look good. WAY BEYOND THE AVERAGE MODELER. The seams have to be body-worked...a lot. It takes a hell of a lot MORE skill to use them effectively on anything else.

Pretty close...

You have the engine mounted the correct way. Power takeoff is on the end away from the pointy-end of the valve covers. Here's an Allison with multiple automotive carbs. Or, you could use a single huge fuel-injection throttle-body, mounted to the supercharger... You can get rid of the gear-reduction box for the prop on the output end, and do something like one of these big bellhousings bolted to adapter plates on the block. Bolt your gearbox to the bellhousing. A big gearbox for a truck or something else very heavy should handle the torque, as long as your driver doesn't dump the clutch, and goes light on the throttle getting up to speed. Here's a thread you might enjoy.

Thank you ALL very much. Most helpful.

How many have YOU bought?

Anybody know the diameter of those heavy 6-bolt wheels? I see them on a lot of medium duty older Fords.

The rear springs will be replaced with real wire-wound compression springs, yes. I was going to just detail them with paint, but after going to so much trouble fabricating new front forks, I need to do real rear springs too.

Those are...interesting. Not what I'd want for breakfast.

I can hardly wait.

It depends on the specific engine design, and its weight in large part. Early VW and Porsche flat fours, for instance, have no engine mounts per se. The flywheel end of the engine is bolted to the transaxle, which itself sits in a cradle mount bolted to the frame at the engine end, with a rubber snubber mount at the other end. The 911 flat six is the same, but due to its greater weight and length, it has a steel plate cross mount bolted to the pulley end. The VW 411 flat four uses a similar pulley-end mount, as well as bolting up to the gearbox, both in mid-engined (Porsche 914) and rear-engined applications. The Porsche 964 / 993 mount is similar, and becomes progressively more complex with newer models. Big fat heavy boxer engines like Ferrari often have mount ears cast into the lower crankcase, or cast-in bosses to accept bolt-on fabricated mounts, and typically sit on a steel subframe. You can see the rubber mounts clearly, below.

I've been using this stuff... ...but it dries shiny, doesn't adhere very well, and doesn't cover well either. It does the job fine in some applications, like making an engine block look oily, but it bites for doing wheels, grilles, etc. because of the shine. It's about useless for doing panel lines, and though it looked GREAT after I'd used it to black some chrome gauges that I then cleared with PVA for lenses, it literally fell off a few days later. I know a lot of you guys use black washes. Any suggestions (from actual experience, please)?

It's a shame that what was once Petersen Publications, the gold standard of enthusiast magazines, and the originator of Hot Rod as well as many other titles including Car Craft and Motor Trend, has sunk to lowlife billing tactics. Robert E. Petersen, who started Hot Rod himself on a shoestring in 1947, sold out in 1996. Since then, apparently 'unethical slimeball' has been adopted as the new business model. "In 1996, Petersen sold his company Petersen Publishing Company to a private equity fund for $450 million which, in 1999, sold it for $2 billion to publisher EMAP. In 2001 it was sold to Primedia. In 2007 Primedia's enthusiast publications, including all the once-Petersen titles, were again sold to Source Interlink, controlled by Ron Burkle." * *source for quotation above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Petersen Petersen was an example of American entrepreneurship at its finest. https://books.google.com/books?id=ae7nAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA218&lpg=PA218&dq=car+and+driver+petersen+publications&source=bl&ots=P-lNHSGrLg&sig=yuWzPsQVQJVQWxMvppykjV7HE60&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjuptHDxuTZAhWK2VMKHTgtDa8Q6AEIeTAH#v=onepage&q=car and driver petersen publications&f=false

Yeah, I don't think that one's going to be a big seller...unless Bob buys them all.

Yeah, I just checked. Says it was "removed by the user". I guess he took his marbles and went home.

That's actually the "Howli Kart" (Ala Kart clone), built by Howdy Ledbetter in 1996. The real Ala Kart has coil-over-airbag suspension, louvers in the aprons, exposed wheel centers and nuts, and a host of other subtle differences.

Do dead cars on blocks with chickens living in them count?

Some pretty cool pix. Seems like I remember half those places.

Music's a little dorky, but everything is here, from what is to me the middle of drag racing's golden age. Gassers, early FX cars, blown rail dragsters, M/SP cars, altereds...yeah, baby. At 11:50, that's Pontiac's marketing ace Jim Wangers driving a B/FX Poncho. Compare that to GM's fake-focus-group marketing today.