Ace-Garageguy

Quoted from a usually reliable source: "Engine Colors:Ford engines were generally dark blue in 1949 and changed to bronze in late '49 production through 1951. For 1952 and 1953 the Ford engine was either tangerine red or green. The Ford truck engines were red from 1948 through 1951, and then changed to green for 1952-53. Mercury engines were green in color from 1949 through 1951. From 1952 to 1953 they were either green or tangerine" ---------------------------------------------------------- This original '49-'51 air cleaner was obviously painted the copper-bronze engine color. There seems to be some agreement in the old Ford community that the air cleaners on copper-colored engines were copper colored. However...there are also folks who should know who swear the air cleaners were black. For a definitive answer PM Eshaver, one of the writers for the early Ford club, and a member here. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/profile/3159-eshaver/

I know that little bugger, mo debinately.

The surface the model is shown on looks like what "Scale-Master" (Mark Jones) frequently uses. If you were able to copy the photo from somewhere on this site, you should be able to PM the builder easily. I'm sure he'd (or whichever other modeler built it) tell you what he used for paint...

Cool stuff. Love that Autocar COE tanker.

It works pretty well for most of the people here most of the time, and is only occasionally annoying in its unexpected behavior. That doesn't quite fit MY definition of "next best thing to worthless". But...if you have some IT expertise you'd like to share, I'm sure the management would be more than happy to have your help. AND...this is a FREE forum. If it doesn't work for you at all, it's not like you're being gypped on something you've paid for.

70 deg.F here, 27% humidity, blazing blue sky, gentle wind. Just like the best of SoCal or Az weather, but everything is green too. We only get a few days like this a year, but they sure do make you glad to be alive. Too bad the rest of the year the humidity is 95% and it's either too hot or too cold. Took a brisk hour walk early this AM, than ran most of my weekly errands, just got back in. Now I really should do several hours of billing paperwork, but choo know what? I'm not gonna do it. Too nice a day to be inside behind the dammed computer. Bye.

You've apparently seen my house.

What irked me today? Hmmmmm....grown men behaving like spoiled brats.

As I mentioned, there are SOME V8 conversions in Porsche products that make spectacular cars...much faster and more reliable than the original Porsche product. The Chevrolet LS-powered Porsche Cayman (the Cayman is basically a hardtop Boxster) swap makes a very competent car into a great car, is only a few pounds heavier than stock, and costs less to do than rebuilding the Porsche engine. Hot-rodding at its best. There's at least one running around with a Ford Coyote engine in it too. If just for grins you were to say your V8 / 911 swap above is an aluminum-block-and-heads engine... WELCOME to the board too, sir. Always glad to see somebody who likes to build different. Different is good.

Really love the Drag-o-Matic. It's exactly the kind of hot-rod mashup of parts that made the real-world hobby so much fun in the wayback days of my misspent youth. I wasn't much into bikes back then, but the cars we built were exactly the same kind of thinking. VERY fine looking model, evocative, nicely-proportioned, and it looks fast.

Very interesting model, and your work looks clean. It's been done in reality for decades, and Renegade http://www.renegadehybrids.com/911/911.html still offers kits. Unfortunately, in the real world, putting an American V8 in the extreme rear of a 911 doesn't work so well from a handling perspective. An engine that's heavier than stock is really the last thing you want hanging out behind the gearbox, if going around corners has any appeal to you. Shoehorning one in the MIDDLE of a Porsche however, is an entirely different proposition. An LS-powered Cayman is a thing of wonder and joy. http://www.carbuildindex.com/29347/2007-porsche-cayman-s-with-ls3-engine-swap/ Kennedy also offers 1:1 kits and parts. http://www.kennedyenginc.com/pages/otheradaptions.aspx The first American V8 engine swap into a 911 I ever saw used the entire drivetrain from an Olds Toronado, and the weight distribution wasn't as horrible as bolting a V8 to the back end. It's still far from ideal however, as the cast-iron Olds engine lives on top of the gearbox in that configuration, and raises the center of gravity something awful. The builder went so far as to make up a fake, hollow set of "fitted luggage" to camouflage the big engine where the jump seats used to be. Seems like this was in the late '60s or early 1970s.

That's good advice in general, but because of some heavy financial setbacks a few years ago, due primarily to trusting the wrong people too much (and not trusting in myself enough), I'll most likely be working until I fall off my perch. It's become a sort of race to see if I can get to the point where I can retire while I'm still in a position to enjoy it...and it's not looking promising. But all any of us can really do is to try to continue moving forward one day at a time. Set a goal, move in that direction. Once you give up, or get in the "I can't" mode, it's over. i'm fortunate in that I enjoy most of my work, and it gives me much of the satisfaction to build things for other folks that I would derive from building my own designs...and nobody ever said life was fair, or that we'd get what we really wanted from it.

BMF on the rims prior to mounting the tires should work at least as well as an epoxy coating...the BMF is probably better, actually...as long as you can mount the tires without disturbing it. The aircraft stuff I use (because I always have out-of-date but still fine-for-models in stock) is extremely stable and hard once cured, and goes on very smooth and even. Depending on the type of epoxy you use, and how you apply it, there's always the possibility that you might get a thin area due to brush strokes, or you may have an epoxy that's not highly chemical-resistant. BMF would not have those potential problems...as long as its integrity isn't compromised by tears or cuts during tire mounting.

Come to think of it, Tom Geiger turned me on to the source for a set of ribbed wheel covers he used on one of his models. Turned out it was the optional set from a 1/24 Jada die-cast 1/24 chopped '49 Merc...which I purchased cheap just to get the covers (though the model looks OK on the shelf). I've also bought "take-offs" from die-casts, where the owner has upgraded.

Agreed entirely. Harry was a seriously talented and skilled builder, and a large part of what made this forum what it was. There's not a day goes by that I don't think of him, and consider him to be the best friend I never met.

Though I have a wide variety of interests, my gripe is that, after winding down, getting cleaned up and cooking a meal following a 10 or 12 hour workday, I rarely feel much like doing anything that takes effort. My weekends are usually spent either working for bucks or taking care of necessary maintenance and repairs on the house and primary vehicle, plus grocery shopping, laundry, miscellaneous errands, and all the niggling things everyone has to do, but that get shared usually with a spouse...for those of you lucky enough to have helpmates. My project 1:1 cars sit and rot, and my models may go for weeks or months at a time with nothing accomplished. Other interests and hobbies fall by the wayside too. I'm glad I have plenty of work, and that I can still do it at my ripe old age, but I AM getting tired of still having to put off almost everything I do for relaxation until some time in the indefinite future.

Some time back I bought a Welly 1/26 scale '55 Olds to rework into a 1/25 scale model. The tires were so nice that I bought several more just for them (very cheap at the time). That got me looking at other cheap die-casts as source material and parts, and I've bought several as donors for items not available in styrene or resin. Never overlook anything. NOTE: It's often remarkable that people will list models in the wrong scale. The Welly says right on the box it's 1/26 (and it is). I've also bought several trucks manufactured in 1/28. The odd thing is that all of these are often listed as "1/24". Jada, on the other hand, has a habit of listing some of their models as 1/24 when they are in fact significantly larger. Fractions must be REALLY hard to understand.

Thanks guys. Soon as my old '32 roadster gluebomb is done, the 5W coupe is up for completion. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/59708-32-ford-roadster-gluebomb-rework-april-26-back-on-track/

Glad you're enjoying it.

There are several possible reasons. One is that a different mix that supposedly met the same spec was substituted to save money. This is kinda what we're seeing with the really soft styrene coming in most of our newer models. Another possible problem is that, in some cases, there's just no way to know how a material will age other than by aging it. While two similar vinyl tire compounds may seem to perform exactly the same way in accelerated "age" testing, one may be entirely stable for 50 years and one may turn to goo in 15.

Good advice (above) to open older kits and make sure the tires aren't in contact with anything. These days, if i want to know the plastic rims in a built model won't be affected by the plasticizers in the tires leaching out, I'll coat the rim in question with a single layer of epoxy resin and let it cure fully prior to mounting the tire. Something there's just NO cure for (other than making soft resin copies) is that some fairly recent tires tend to split after having been mounted on rims for a while. The only two I can think of right off hand are the ones in the AlumaCoupe kit, and several sets from Pegasus. Annoying to look on the shelf and notice a model sitting wonky, only to find a tire or two to be split into multiple pieces.

And to elaborate on that theme, the concept of "tribal knowledge" at it relates to online communities is largely a fallacy. There are generally a very few people who actually know what they're talking about, and a ton of folks who parrot wrong information, because either they lack the first hand experience but wanna-be cool guys, or they don't bother seeking out primary sources. Usually both. Just go looking for youtube videos to do something on your car. Mostly incomplete or just flat incorrect information copied from somebody else...but you'd have to be very knowledgeable in the field yourself to realize that. There ARE some real wizards out there, but you have to know quite a lot to be able to sort the BSers from the real-deals. Amen.

Once most "resins" used in the hobby world are fully cured, they're (mostly) for all intents and purposes chemically inert. Sanding dust should not produce any contact skin irritation (though you do NOT want to breathe the dust). Urethane (the common "resin" casting material) has been known to cause allergic reactions and "sensitivities", but as far as I know, only when it's in the liquid state. The MEKP catalyst in polyester-based resins can be a severe irritant, and some epoxy resins provoke an allergic response, but these also only happen when the resin in question is still in it's liquid, uncured form...as far as I know. There IS a possibility that if sloppy mixing and measuring procedures are used during production of a part, a portion of "unreacted" material may remain in a hardened resin part. In this case, exposure to the dust could conceivably produce the reaction you describe. When in doubt, try to find out the specific material that was used to make the part, and look up the MSDS (material safety data sheets). Most are available online.

Offering help to fellow modelers is different, in my mind, from doing a professional-level proposal for free to benefit any company that might choose to use it, with no compensation to the originator of the proposal. Attaboys and warm fuzzies don't pay the rent. I'm seeing more and more frequently online solicitations from "communities" for free work, most often so far in graphic design and art, and I think it's a disturbing trend. I also find it interesting that several years ago, I was criticizing all the "expert" opinions that maintained it was impossible to design and build kits here in the good ol' USA due to cost constraints...which I knew at the time was bull (from my involvement with other manufactured products), that the capability was still here, that then-cost-competitive solutions could be found and implemented, and that costs here would be coming in line with overseas sourcing. I was shouted down, sometimes irately and rudely, with a lot of "if you know so much, why don't you go to the model companies and tell them all what they're doing wrong". Ring a bell? I kinda lost interest at that point. Prior to that, I would have been interested in working on ways to implement US development and production. But when everyone just wants to argue, and nobody wants to listen or think outside the box, it just gets tiring. Funny...here it is years later and all of a sudden, apparently magically, the costs stateside are coming in line with overseas sourcing. Not to say "I told you so"...but...I told you so. Still, you have an intriguing project going on here, and I will be absolutely fascinated to see what kind of material comes out of this approach. I wish you luck, seriously. And you know...there are one or two kits that I still think would be slam-dunks. Hmmmmm....

It's a pretty simple kit with a relatively low parts count (and I believe you'll find some issues do not have the custom grille, headlights etc.) and goes together easily overall. The one problem is the separate hardtop. The way it's attached to the body shell, it requires careful fitting and some very fine filler work to look its best. Just like the old AMT kit of the same car, the fit and finish of the hardtop join at the bodyshell spoils the looks of most of these that get built.