Ace-Garageguy

P-bucket has shot itself in the head. These responses are typical (click the link below) and everyone who has half a brain (and who has their photos backed up on their own drives) is leaving. I'm still wondering if this isn't an elaborate hack though. It's hard to imagine any business management team being SO unbelievably stupid as to think that this could possibly work for them. But then again, welcome to the Idiocracy. http://blog.photobucket.com/status/comment-page-2/

Here are some responses sent to P-bucket regarding the required ransom: http://blog.photobucket.com/status/comment-page-2/

This diagram shows the main wiring harnesses in the 360. The computers are indicated by the red dots. The sub-harnesses that run to the coil-packs are shown in gray, running as stubs out of the main engine harness. Kinda hard to see, but there. (It's easier to make this out if you save the image to your hard drive and magnify it).

I have been doing extensive reading all over the web on this idiotic mess, and MANY PB USERS ARE SAYING THEY CAN'T EVEN GET IN TO DOWNLOAD THEIR OWN PHOTOS. Here's one... http://www.laurenwayne.com/2017/06/photobucket-phail-how-to-ruin-host-site.html

The Ferrari 360 engine has individual coil packs for each cylinder, and no distributor as such. What appear to be "high tension" leads running to the plugs are in fact multi-wire ('low-tension') harnesses that include a power and ground wire, and a trigger wire from the computer that tells the respective coil pack when to fire its plug.

Here's what PC MAG has to say today...be sure to read the comments. https://www.pcmag.com/news/354711/photobucket-breaks-image-links-across-the-internet This seems to be the internet-wide response to the issue at hand...(from the comments under the pcmag article referenced above): "If you have used Photobucket (and I do), then you know their technical prowess is very weak. Their website fails a lot, there is no usable tech support whatsoever, and they have steadily made their site less and less efficient over the years by overburdening it with a fancier and fancier, more animated user interface that is far more cumbersome and much less useful than it was 5 or 10 years ago. So don't expect them to have the brains to realize how stupid this move was. They will go out of business. Their "new customers per month" number just went to zero, for starters. Anyone who goes to Photobucket today and realizes they can't post links to their photos elsewhere on the internet is going to move on to some other service. And every single one of their existing customers is scrambling to download all their stuff even as I type this so they can move it to another service. Even if they revise their policy, they are probably doomed. Would YOU stay there, once they did this? I would probably keep my existing photos on their for a while, but I would start hosting everything new at another service. And that means that over time, their customer base will trickle down to zero."

EXACTLY. And...I've been a paid PB user for several years. I haven't had the e-mail yet, and my photos still post normally. If / when I get the message, I WILL begin to look into filing a class action suit. One of my clients is an attorney who's made millions going after retarded stuff that does harm to lots of people.To come out of the blue like this and freeze access to countless forum users is beyond belief...still assuming it's not a hack. Hacking IS very sophisticated, and there have been countless spoof emails floated from Ebay, PayPal and others for years. Somebody with access to the PB code could EASILY change what appears on the site, and lock the real admins out, so I'll suspend judgement for a while. If the PB management actually thinks they have any future as a photo-hosting site that forbids linking to forums, they must be smoking something really outrageous. The one-year subscription fee for the non-linking plans could buy you all the home storage you could ever use, so they have no hope of making a viable business case as a storage-only venue. They will die as a viable business entity. And if this IS a legit total brain fart on the part of the PB management, whoever stays in the photo-hosting game for a reasonable amount of money-per-year is going to see their business grow fantastically.

I knew what it was right off, but it took a while for my brain to ferret out its name. Kinda cool little car, very interesting technically.

Beautiful cars, and the engine sounds really sweet. Some odd engineering choices though, like hydraulic headlight motors, and a hydraulic steering column (or maybe pedals...it's been 28 years since I've worked on one) adjuster mechanism that pees on your leg when the seals inevitably fail. One of my ex-clients shipped an in-progress resto of one out west, and used some "professionals" to prep the car for transit on an open trailer. They failed to notice that the stainless roof panel, normally pop-riveted to the structure, was no longer riveted and was only held in place by the anti-squeaker and sealing goo. The roof panel blew off on the interstate somewhere between here and there, and got flattened by a semi. Expensive.

I'm much more pleased than I appear to be...

If you're using the free service AND running an adblocker, you're not a supporter. You're using something for nothing. Again, the only way P-bucket makes any revenue from free accounts is when the ads run, and their counters automatically bill the advertisers. P-bucket can NOT host millions and millions of photos free and provide a 3rd party linking service with NO INCOME. I'm not saying this applies to YOU, but it applies to anyone using the FREE service and adblockers.

SOMETHING ELSE TO REMEMBER: While everyone is in such a hurry to embrace the hip-cool-happening-with it "cloud", other-party hosting of your data exposes everyone who doesn't maintain on-site data backup to this kind of potential for ransom demands. Think about it.

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER... While $399 per year is exorbitant, it might be good to stop and remember that Photobucket IS a business, and businesses can't survive without income. If you have a FREE account and run an adblocker, you've screwed Photobucket out of the only way they can make anything on your free account...the ads running. Thousands of people doing the same thing are simply stealing the service P-bucket provides. Maybe P-bucket just got tired of so many people seeming to think they were entitled somehow to something for nothing, and decided to simply clear out all the freeloaders. PS. I've been paying for the service for several years. So far, no ransom demand. We'll see.....

I'm thinking "class-action suit". A BIG one...if this is actually PB who's had their brains explode and not some more malicious hacker BS. This amounts to the same thing as "ransom" hacks that hold your data hostage until you pay some exorbitant fee. PB has been hacked before, and their weak management hasn't always been forthcoming about full disclosure. It strikes me as odd that ALL free users did NOT get the same e-mail simultaneously if this incredible idiocy is actually being initiated by PB. PS. To get an idea of the extent of the scope of the ransom demand, and the reactions, just Google "Photobucket $399 per year".

First, try hard to get your cuts really precise and square. That will allow you to flow liquid cement between the cut ends and get a good "welded" bond. Use a razor saw for your cuts, and work carefully. It's a LOT easier to cut square than it is to try to square up a raggedly line after the fact. Also remember to allow about .020" for the width of the saw cut. That doesn't sound like much, but it's 1/2 inch in 1/25 scale, and it can make a difference in how good your model looks. Also come up with some kind of simple jig or fixture to keep your chassis parts aligned in both planes while the cement sets up (I usually leave large joins overnight, at least). Depending on exactly where you end up cutting, something as simple as a few strips of .040" styrene strip should probably be enough. Just bridge the top of the joined parts, being careful to think about where your reinforcements may interfere with the interior tub, etc.

Definitely. That's why I hogged out the entire floor in the AMT chassis. A real PITA.

Been drivin' this a fair bit lately...

Swapping the chassis around under the Revell and AMT '57 Fords isn't rocket science. This is the AMT '57 set up as a straight-axle gasser. This is the same AMT chassis under a Revell wagon I set up as a straight-axle gasser LONG before the Revell wagon gasser kit came out. Swapping the other way, Revell under AMT, isn't all that difficult either. Just measure and think.

I've never understood WHY this kit is so universally reviled. It's really pretty well proportioned, and it's not hard to build if you're a reasonably skilled and patient adult.

Yes, I have a couple myself and agree it's a decent kit. The question though, to MY understanding, is which subject would make sense in this "series". As the '56-'57 is pretty much the same car mechanically, and this "series" is 1/25, a single-headlight car would make mucho sense to me.

This is not one of those areas where subjective "opinions" are of any value. Go by the numbers. Measure the wheelbases of both models. This will require dry assembly of the suspension on the Lindberg kit. If they're identical, take material off of the ENDS of the chassis to make it fit the old body shell. If the wheelbase is shorter on the old Johan model, take the exact amount out of the middle of the Lindberg chassis where it will be easiest to splice. THEN, fit the ends as necessary. Remember that it's EXTREMELY important to center the wheels in the wheel openings on the body.

The 700R4 does not bolt up to the Jag six, or the twelve either. Though the 12 cylinder cars used GM Turbo 400 gearbox internals, the housing is Jag specific. The XJ-6 requires a cast and machined aluminum adapter plate to bolt the box to the engine, and also a small adapter to bolt the GM flexplate to the crankshaft. The starter is swapped for GM to match the teeth on the GM ring gear. I used the John's Cars (Texas) kit to do my swap, and it's pretty much a bolt-in other than having to have the Jag driveshaft shortened and a GM yoke welded to the nose. Re-balanced too, of course. There's a little trans tunnel bashing required, and the handling ears have to be sawn off of the gearbox housing. The speedo adapter is straightforward, an angle drive that mates the GM output on the trans to the Jag cable. I don't recall if there is any gear ratio change in the speedo drive. The John's kit is OK, but the trans mount is kinda mickey mouse, as are a couple other things. If I had it to do over, I'd fabricate all my own stuff...but I didn't have the mill and lathe when I did the swap back in '95.

I think a '56-'57 would make sense. It's visually different enough from the '62 to make it appealing to fans of the earlier cars (like me), and it's on the same underpinnings as the '62. Many of the dimensions are identical to the '62, so intelligent use of existing CAD work could streamline the new body tool design Then, if the CAD files were intelligently managed, it would be relatively straightforward to do a '58-'59-'60 body using the '62 nose and the '56-'57 tail (IF the company wanted to update the existing bodies, which are really quite good).

Ditto the truck. You can build accurate versions (fairly easily) of two of the other body styles on the Revell fenders if you modify the old AMT bodies (phaeton, Vicky ) but there isn't an easy way to do a '32 truck. The Lindberg '34 cab can be made to work, but it's not ideal. Give us a '32 pickup with traditional dropped I-beam front suspension and a buggy spring rear. I'll buy 10 of the things.

I'd personally like to see one done with a beam-axle in front and a buggy-spring quick-change in the rear. Add the wheels / tires from the Rat Roaster, and maybe the nailhead and Chevy engines from the '29 and '30 Fords (if they ever really come back). If not, include the Olds engine from the '50, or a 348-409 Chevy, or a Caddy. Instant period hot-rod, using mostly existing tooling. And ummm...try to get the stance right.