Ace-Garageguy

"Always blame somebody else"...the mantra of the weak.

With the right parts and maybe some machine work, the cam can be used to drive a water pump as well, with it or the injection pump stacked out farther in front of the engine.

Haven't we been here before?

Had to look it up. Lovely, some of my favorite weather. Must be my Scottish roots showing.

It's Monday, and like Mike above, I didn't accomplish everything I set out to do over the weekend. But unlike in his case, it was primarily my creaky old lack of sufficient motivation.

Overnight low dropped from the mid-60s to 42. Forecast high today 71 and sunny. Rest of the week looks pretty much the same

And never assume that a man is weak because he's polite and kind.

Another remarkable score on vintage HO scale model railroad 'craftsman' kits. I had to run some errands this AM, so arranged to be in the neighborhood of one of the 'antique malls' where I've scored before when they opened at noon, but I'd promised myself I wouldn't buy anything if they hadn't restocked since two weeks ago, and particularly not unless the restocking included vintage 'craftsman' kits I'm so fond of. Well, the universe must have heard me, 'cause not only had they restocked, but there was a literal pile of Ambroid, Main Line Models, La Belle, Bev-Bel, and Ye Olde Huff-N-Puff milled-siding-and-sticks wood kits, die-cast metal Ulrich kits, and a whole bunch of vintage plastic Roundhouse and 'blue box' Athearn kits in fallen-flag liveries I didn't have as well....mostly for $5 each. Long out of production, prices have been steadily climbing, and now the asking online runs around $30-$40 each, including shipping. So five bucks each is a helluva deal. And yeah, I could do what the resellers do...search out and buy collections for pennies on the dollar, but that's just not my thing. The resellers make some money for their time and effort, and I only get stuck with what I really want...while still paying well under going market prices. The wood kits are challenging, to say the least, but built up they make exquisite models...and were the top of the genre in the 1950s and '60s. Ambroid introduced their "one of five thousand" collectors series in 1957. They were expensive then, and way beyond my skill level anyway, but I marveled at seeing what the wizard geezers could accomplish when I was a fumble-fingered kid way back in the dim recesses of time. About as close to pure scratch-building as you can get, they require the kind of effort most modelers simply won't put out today...like sealing and sanding wood parts that are supposed to represent metal, so the grain won't show, prior to painting. The images below represent what you get with these things: lotsa little wood parts, a few metal castings, some brass ladder stock, decals, wire, and a comprehensive instruction sheet with full size patterns. You have to cut (to length) and often shape most of the wood yourself, wire stock and staples are used for brake plumbing, grabs, and stirrups, and the cast metal parts, though very finely made, usually require substantial cleanup of flash as well. Built photo online: Tank cars are built up from dowels with turned ends, wrapped with rivet-embossed paper, with cast metal domes and sills and other assorted details. They may sound primitive, but again, they build into beautiful models that are far more evocative than lovely and boring perfectly scaled mass-produced plastic. Built photo online: There were several LaBelle passenger kits in the pile too, with folded paper diaphragms. Wow. Most of the wood kits don't include trucks and couplers, but the previous owner had put some in several boxes, and I've been buying them in lots as they come up cheap too. One kinda sad note: one of the kit boxes had a Christmas label "To Poppy, from Chris", in a child's writing. As it was one of the kits that already had added high-end trucks in the box as well, I'm pretty sure Poppy appreciated the gift. Mixed in with the plastic-kit restock were a few old time freight cars in the Gorre & Dephetid and Devil's Gulch & Helengon liveries, commemorating John Allen's spectacular layout he started in 1947, tragically destroyed by fire in 1973 shortly after his death...so the ones I didn't have followed me home too. There's a lot more really cool stuff in this haul, but last time I posted a long one of these, I got the dreaded 404, and most of the post was lost. Though for the foreseeable future I've had to abandon the plans for a large layout in AZ, building the old vintage kits will still let me enjoy a hobby I loved long before I started building model cars.

I've seen a fair few eroded pump impellers over the years, but that's just...wow. About the only coolant flow was from convection.

A man who doesn't read has no advantage over a man who can't.

Another baaaaaaaaad little kitty:

...and about half the planet.

Wow. That's just...wow.

Creative people who don't bother to acquire skill...including paid 'restorers'...may produce less-than-optimized work.

Back in Time makes me wanna go there.

And if you suffer from the Dunning-Kruger Effect, the more stupid you are, the smarter you think you are.

The first step towards wisdom is knowing where to seek it realizing that you lack it.

You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish. AND...You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose...unless you're unusually close.

Yup. I've replaced four to date. One natural-gas-fired, 2 propane, and one electric. Not hard at all. EDIT: And these days, a lot of installations don't even require you to solder.

Got sets of takeoff tires with great tread for the 911 and the blue XJ6. Free. Not exactly the right size for either of 'em, but they're each sitting on four totally rotten flats right now. Just need to be able to roll them under cover to get 'em running again.

Heavy rain on the way, tomorrow AM. We'll see if my makeshift roof patches hold.

"Experience" is widely thought to be something only past-it boomers value and rely on now that anyone can become an instant expert on any topic by watching a few minutes of YooToob video or accepting whatever gibberish search-engines and AI vomit up, and nuance, context, complexity, and critical thinking have become largely unknown concepts in the instant-gratification era.

It's the best racing film I've ever seen, and one of the best films, period. Free on YouTube right now...but don't try to watch it on YT without AdBlock or the paid no-advert YT tier.

6 oz. box of raspberries for 99 cents, which is $3 off the regular price...and they're not even moldy. In other news, I found and restored the 1/4 inch of clearance I mysteriously lost under the dash of the '66 Chevelle, between the HVAC box and the relocated OEM control head. I'm happy.