Ace-Garageguy

In Georgia, at least in this county, stored vehicles outside that are visible have to be tagged too, or they have to be removed from the property. The county "logic" stems from the additional requirement that any vehicles on residential property have to be "operational", and if the county Code Enforcement Officer wants to be a real butt, he can make you start and drive any cars you have. Believe me, after I got the first "warning" from the Code Enforcement guy, I double checked the laws...and had to remove (and store elsewhere) several vehicles that won't currently pass the emissions test, and consequently can't be tagged. I am now an upstanding citizen in full compliance, with my head respectfully bowed to authority. (What a bunch of hogwash.)

There are several more in the series that are great too. Even if you're an old-school real-car builder, having all the right info in one go-to place is really nice.

Wild Thing was the favorite song of a long-ago girlfriend.

Thanks for making my point. EDIT: My '96 Blazer has 6-way power seats. I didn't even know it until I had tires put on it (which I usually do myself, but the compressor in the shop with the tire machines was down). Man, I gotta tell ya. That whole minute it took to get the seat adjustment back with no memory just flat wore me out, and ruined my whole day.

Wishing anybody out there a safe time.

Bought a decent sleeping bag just in case the power goes out. Left the other one in the AZ house 3 years ago, never thought I'd be here this long. I can keep the house kinda warmish in the daytime with the propane burner, but can't let it run at night because of the carbon monoxide risk.

Even at that, only the driver's door...IF the vehicle has 4 window controls, 2 exterior mirror controls, and all-vehicle door lock controls...needs to be that big. A vienna-sausage-size bundle should be adequate for the other three...including insulation and the loom. EDIT: ...unless the seat position controls are on the doors, but in my opinion that's stupid too. 1) Wire runs should be as short as possible, with seat controls either ON the seat, or on the console ADJACENT to the seat. 2) How hard is it, really, to manually adjust a seat, after all? "Oh...my widdle weak fingers that can only work a keyboard can't do that, and I might hurt my widdle self".

So...ummm...only a real moron who had no clue would design anything like that. I'm positive that circuit could work very simply, without any "logic" other than a relay or two, and would be essentially bulletproof AND easy to diagnose if it failed. Part of what I do for a living has been designing and building custom wiring harnesses and electrical systems for rather a wide variety of vehicles, some that fly. And every day I see more and more just flat stupid spaghetti messes, with everything talking to everything else, and lotsa little things that, if they fail, trigger just the kind of bull in the video. They apparently don't teach the KISS principle any more, to our detriment.

My guess is that whoever repaired/restored/built the car couldn't find the right grille, or didn't try. It's been popped in the front. If you look closely, you'll see the center of the hood line across the top of the grill is slightly bent down, a sure sign it's been "worked on". After over 5 decades of looking at this stuff with a very critical eye, poor craftsmanship just jumps out at me.

Pretty cool. Looks WAY more like a 356 than anything else ever built from this horrible kit. Much applause for tackling such a major undertaking. Love the lights too.

I've been saying for years that the over-reliance on electronics, unnecessary complication, just plain stupid integration of every vehicle system through onboard computers (including the whole CAN-bus idea) is going to make the current crop of cars a nightmare as they age. And I get shouted down by "everything new is better" gibberish, and the misguided who seem to believe that additional layers of processors and logic code are somehow cheaper to manufacture than a couple of wires or a cable. Well fellas, I've been in the car biz for over 5 decades, I've worked with a LOT of mechanics (most of which were either knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers or just plain crooks), and THIS GUY IS THE BEST I'VE EVER SEEN. Anywhere. He tells it like it is.

Actually I did get eggs. But first I had to go pawn my watch so's I could afford them.

Yup, most likely a cast-iron Hydramatic (an entirely different animal from a Turbo 350, 400, or anything later). A current, highly internally-modified 4L60 or 4L80 will handle around 1,000 horsepower, so that's an option if you want to use more modern parts.

See my post immediately above. There's a link to a shot of the bellhousing and gearbox.

OK...this is the mid-engined Beast II, but you can see a pretty much normal looking automotive bellhousing, and a big cast-iron early Hydramatic gearbox bolted to it. A conventional driveshaft would run to the differential. (click the link, as the photo is copy-protected) http://www.sixmania.fr/wp-content/uploads/the-beast-2-rolls-royce-merlin-powered-car/arriere.jpg The big old Hydramatics were capable of handling a LOT of torque, and were the basis for the famous B&M "Hydro Stick" drag racing automatics. You can find a very good early Hydramatic in several Revell kits...including both Anglia drag cars. PS: Here's the article. Some of the technical description is scrambled though. http://www.sixmania.fr/en/the-beast-2-rolls-royce-merlin-powered/ EDIT: Don't worry too much about getting the driveline absolutely "correct", because everything like this would be a one-off, so there's no "right" way.

Surely there's some build shots and tech info on Dodd's Beast out there in webland too...

Here's a quick video with a decent shot of the adapter, PTO, reduction box, and gearbox bolted to the Merlin at 3:05. You might have some luck searching for more images of this car.

The power takeoff comes off the prop end, naturally. Try to find photos of the "Big Al" '34 Ford drag car, several other Allison powered beasts, or "tractor pulling" vehicles in the US. The 1710 Allison used in all the above is similar in appearance to a Merlin from a Spitfire, and the installation and gearbox setup would be essentially identical. If I get a few minutes free, I'll see if I can find you some definitive pix.

Yup, I've done repairs similar to the ones above, styrene carefully fitted and installed with liquid cement, allowed to dry several days, but I use very fine fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin (not the 5-minute stuff, but real structural epoxy) for final reinforcement on the backside. No progress shots, but this one had zero pillars when I got it, after somebody tried to chop the top, realized they were in over their head, and gave up. The slender pillars withstood rather a lot of handling to get it to this point.

Great build. Like everyone said, the tires change the look entirely. I've been wanting to do one of the Hoover Dam APs.

Stocked up on bread and milk to get me through the coming snowstorm...'cause that's what you do, right? Anybody have a good recipe for milk sammiges?

Car things are being pushed to becoming as disposable as cheap offshore-made appliances and last-generation cellphones, but if you try to explain this to anyone who's not in the business, you get shouted down with "EVERYTHING NEW IS BETTER-LASTS LONGER-IS SAFER-MORE CONVENIENT-MAKES YOUR LUNCH-DOES YOUR LAUNDRY-PARALLEL PARKS ITSELF IF YOU HAVE ZERO PHYSICAL SKILLS-BLA BLA BLA" ad nauseam.

Support from the aftermarket is nonexistent for loads of late-model electronic bits, and some vehicles are configured specifically so you can't swap in used bits, so if a part is NLA from the OEM, you either re-engineer systems entirely (often cost-prohibitive even IF you can find anyone who has the skills), or in some cases, just junk an otherwise perfectly good vehicle.

Real car reference material, but very useful for "traditional" model rod builders who like to understand reality, and get things right.

Japan seems to be going down the questionable engineering road much of the rest of the world now favors, unnecessary complication that really doesn't make a product "better", just more prone to failure and more costly to repair.