Ace-Garageguy

Glad youse guys like her. I'm thinking about just a little more chop, too.

As always, I appreciate everyone's interest and comments. Actually, that's exactly where they're from.

Nah man...they REALLY all got driven to the edge of the flat-Earth and pushed off. All part of the Masons / Rothschilds / NWO conspiracy. I saw it on youtube. Seriously, far as I know, there wasn't anything really spectacular about the engines. The "police" package had more to do with improving long-term stamina than making them fast...things like stronger timing chains and I think roller-cam-followers at some point. That series also had a problem with metal fatigue (in heavy urban use) of the front crossmember that supported the somewhat odd transverse torsion bar suspension. I wouldn't be surprised if that accounted for a lot of early retirements and a failure to make it into the taxi ranks in large numbers. Being a not-particularly-desirable V8-powered old car, I also wouldn't be surprised if significant numbers didn't meet their ignoble ends in the oh-so-helpful "Cash for Clunkers" program. Government intervention at its finest. The movie and TV industry blew up and crashed a lot of them, too. Still, there's no shortage of used 318 and 360 engines out there if you really want one (in the $250-$500 range)...and anything pulled out of a retired cop car or cab would most likely be pretty tired.

Best looking headers of this type I've ever seen.

Pretty cool site. I just found this while beginning in-depth research into the Barris Ala Kart. There are quite a few audio interviews available here with folks like Barris himself, Gene Winfield, Darryl Starbird, etc. http://www.legends.thewwbc.net/index.html

Bondic comes with a little UV LED light specifically for that. They're not hard to make, either...and should be available separately from a variety of sources. https://www.amazon.com/Bondic-Anything-Waterproof-Resistant-Plastic/dp/B00QU5M4MG https://www.walmart.com/ip/Streamlight-65069-Streamlight-Stylus-UV-Pen-Light-Black/17011815

There are idiots and crooks everywhere. For the most part, I still think the USPS is one of the best deals around. It HAS to be a pretty easy job, with decent pay and benefits. You'd think that would be enough.

Here's just a couple. There's more.

Good one.

I remember when Rome seemed to be a sea of nothing but tiny Fiats and Vespas...both of which I think are great fun and truly practical urban transport. I'm sure you know the old joke...Q: How is a Vespa like a fat girl? A: They're a whole lotta fun, but you wouldn't want your friends to see you riding one.

The main reason for that is because Eric Broadley was the founder and chief designer at Lola. Following the success of the Lola MkVI, he was hired by Ford to do much of the design work that transformed the original Fort GT into the world-beating GT40. The T70 was designed by Broadley largely using lessons learned on the MkVI and GT40 projects. I've done a fair amount of work on Chevy-powered T70 coupes over the years, both when they were still mid-field real race cars and much later as historic racers. Great project, one of my favorites. I'll be following along.

Nothin' like a little street-racing to brighten the day.

Finally finished the bodywork and put a black wash in the body lines (more for an experiment, as this is still just the plug for a mold set). First three coats of Ace Hardware refrigerator white gloss lacquer. A little peel, but nothing difficult to deal with. A few days drying, wet-sanding with 800, and a couple more coats, then final wetsand and polish. The idea is to get a hard, slick surface to mold from. (I'm disappointed that the black wash doesn't show up better in the panel lines. I may not have scribed them deeply enough)

Nothing Earth-shattering. Had to cover the body in an automotive high-build primer. Unfortunately, a couple of the panel lines weren't lined up perfectly between the upper part of the tool and the lower part of the tool when this particular body was cast. It's necessitated some heavy re-scribing of some lines, which requires a little heavier fill than I'd really wanted to do...hence the high-build buff primer.

After everything is solidly dry, we cut the ends of the forward rails off, remove the original crossmember, and sit the body on the frame. We can measure exactly how high the perch for the suicide front end needs to be because we already put a temporary cross-piece inside the body to let it sit on the frame EXACTLY where we want it. With the mockup now sitting on the roughed-in front perch and spring, we see how the traditional hairpin radius rods will fill the visual void left by the frame rails being relocated upwards due to the zee.

Time to zee the frame. I ALWAYS get the look, stance, ride-height and proportions dialed in before doing anything else. We got all that in the last installment, so now it's time to get it all carved in stone. Since we have a mockup on the bench to measure from, it's not hard to figure out that the frame is going to need some major work. First job is to cut down just in front of the Revell-supplied zee. You simply stack the loose part on top of the ends of the rails. If we'd cut at a perfect 45 degree angle, we wouldn't have any shortening effect. Since we cut on a shallower angle to match the slope of the existing vertical members, we WILL end up shortening the frame just a tad. Doesn't matter though, because everything gets moved around to suit the look we're going for anyway. MEASURE to keep everything square. So...when we fit this enhanced zee up next to the body, it's apparent we'll have to go further. Cutting a lot of loose pieces and getting them all to stay aligned is a real PITA. It's much easier to do things as shown below. Follow along. The frame in the rear is stock. The center frame has the previously explained zee completed, and a strengthening piece stitched in behind the vertical member. The frame in the foreground has additional rails added to the tops of the existing rails in the rear, as well as the strengthening pieces, as above. The added height of the rear rails allows you to cut clearance for the rear axle from the underside of the old rails, and everything stays aligned...plus, the work goes quickly. Now for the front zee. We want the zee to be hidden inside the body on this car, behind the firewall, just because. Some people put the zee forward of the firewall. Some people split it AT the firewall. Personal preference...though putting it forward of the firewall is really better, as it gives a little more foot room, and an easy place to hang the ends of the radius rods for the front axle. I zeed this one this way because Spex had already done his somewhat similar build the smarter way. Anyway, after you decide where you want it, mark and cut at 45 degrees, and stack the cut piece on top of the original rails. REMEMBER: cutting at a 45 degree angle means we do NOT shorten the frame by doing this. We've also added a tubular front crossmember for the suicide axle perch between the ends of the front rails. We were able to figure out exactly where this needed to go by measuring off of the first mockup.

Hey man...I suppose I really shouldn't dump on the guy's Enterprise "model"...though I think "very loose interpretation" might be a little more accurate. I got put off of the folk-art genre watching an undisciplined Georgia "artist" named Howard Finster become sought-after and rich while the "critics" and gallery owners ooo-ed and ahh-ed over his no-talent and tacky assemblages all the way to the bank. If the guy in the OP is having fun, great...but 25 grand? Pretty ridiculous. And I prefer Les Paul.

Man, being able to actually see OUT of the car might tend to distract you from your smartphone or the nav-app on the dash, or the rearview-cam display.

This one's bigger...

http://georgeklass.net/altereds.html

Looks like ol' NCC-1701 flew through a system where some kind of fractal-junk lifeforms attached themselves to the ship and started multiplying. Kinda like non-cute tribbles...on the outside.

Every now and then I'll get a page or three that load V E R Y slowly, but it always clears up. I just figure it's some momentary browser or anti-virus issue. Also occasionally, when I upload content, with pix from P-bucket, I'll get a very slow load as well. It eventually goes through though.

Most films pass through my mind rather like water through a sieve, so re-watching old ones is often like seeing them for the first time. I do enjoy watching films that are before my own time, or ones I missed on the way to here...particularly old sci-fi, crime and war subjects in black and white. Lately I've been into British noir, which is kinda odd after having been steeped in the American version. It's interesting to see chases in Bentleys and Rovers, with distinctly American-sounding jazz-noir soundtracks, trashy bleach-blond dames with Cockney accents...and usually not many guns.

NICE ! Best seven minutes I've spent online in quite a while. I'd planned to make it this year, but other last-minute obligations got in the way.