Ace-Garageguy

Several years back I was able to find live full-race web-stream coverage of LeMans. Didn't find it this year, but I didn't look all that hard either.

This was recreated after "killing" several pilots in its day. The new one worked just fine.

Again, if you're interested in accuracy, pay attention to the width and design of the slicks you're using for the time period you want to represent. Wheels too. There's tons and tons of period photographs to allow anyone to become reasonably well informed on what looks right for when. Putting the Plymouth body shell on the heavy Ford chassis is something that could certainly have been done by a budget builder with limited fabrication skills and junk parts to choose from, but the trick setup was always to build as light a car as possible. For early cars, pickup truck rear ends were popular for their strength. Many had six-bolt axle ends requiring six-bolt wheels. Light cars often ran quick-change rears. The Ford 9" came out in 1957 and is very popular, as were Oldsmobile and Pontiac rears from '57 onward...loved also for their strength. One of the best home-made blower belts I ever saw was made from laminating two strips of ribbon. The inner strip had cross-ribs and the outer strip was smooth, then all of it painted flat black.

The rules changed and tightened up over time. 10% engine setback was the maximum allowed to even the weight-distribution playing field among vehicles with swapped engines. At one point, a 24" height from the pavement to the center of the crankshaft rule was also instituted, as well as a requirement that the cars sit reasonably close to level...NOT the stupid nose-high attitude some guys (real and model) seem to favor. In the early days, there were also requirements as to functional street equipment, seats, bumpers, etc. To build accurate, you need to pick a time period of a year or two, then research what would have been legal. Start here... http://gassermadness.us/Gas_Classes/index.htm

I'm sure you know this Dennis, but for other guys contemplating putting Fords in Fords...or other cars...one real-world part that works sometimes is the old Bronco pan. It puts the deepest part of the sump in the rear. Easy enough to hack a kit pan into roughly this shape if necessary.

If you stop and think about it, you'll realize there would be no easy way to mold the thing and get it out of the mold if it was made in one part. It ain't nostalgia. It's the realities of engineering.

Thank you, sir.

I like technology too, but Peteski's POINT was the idiotic suffixes added to emails automatically by a lot of these devices: "Some people's emails have a very annoying tag on the end. Things like "This was sent from my Verizon 4G smart phone", "This was sent from my super iPhone5". Just another irritating instance of the marketing dwerbs having to stick their tiny little protuberances in everything every chance they get. Somebody somewhere must think recipients of mail tagged with this carp will have to rush out and buy the thing because somebody else has it. Pathetic.

Isn't that the truth. But...I've found it's not really that hard to get to prefer things that are good for you, as Bill mentions above. There have been times I'd sit in front of the computer and eat a whole bag of Oreos in the course of an evening. I got fat. Surprise surprise. Now I'll go to the store and get a bag of cherries or grapes or a box of blueberries. Weight's coming off, and last time I decided to "treat" myself with Oreos, I really didn't enjoy them.

You just never know what you're going to get these days. I've had different kits from Revell of the same car be two different hardnesses, Maybe somebody was texting when they were supposed to be monitoring the mixing of the chemical constituents of the soft batches.

This is the DuVall in the AMT kit mentioned above. It's a nice piece. Rik Hoving mastered these. The one on the far left is the R&M resin part, which is a real little jewel... This race-car looking unit is out there too, but from which kit I don't know. Then there's the Hallock style, which could be cut down from a DuVall... This is how the gifted Mr. Hoving made his masters, which is also an option...

It is seems soft, be very careful when using "hotter" primers like Duplicolor. Some Revell kits have recently been pretty "soft" and I've had crazing issues with primers that wouldn't have caused a problem before.

Yup. I love 'em too. I don't eat much fast food, but sometimes there's just nothing else that quite hits the spot. And every now and then I'll get a bag of Krystal burgers. Ah yes...overrefined white-bread buns, American cheese-product, a small square of mystery meat, a tiny pickle slice and loads of greasy chopped onions. Heaven.

Glad you're still in one piece.

When the humidity is relatively low here, it's really not a bad place to be. Got up early this AM and went for a long drive in the country in the old truck with the windows down, low 70s and about 60% humidity. Not much traffic, stopped at a little church-lot car show on the way home. Treated myself to a steak / egg / cheese / grease bagel, heard Porsche and Ford won LeMans, now I think I'm gonna take a little nap. Then a couple hours of paperwork and a long walk late in the afternoon. Some days, life is pretty OK.

Porsche and Ford. Yeah.

The Switchers frames look absolutely nothing like real '32 frames. The other AMT '32 frames are pretty bad too for the most part. The Revell '32 Ford frames are nice enough, but they all have Ford 9" rear ends, not the traditional buggy spring. They DO have nice gas-tanks and frame horns front and rear that are about right.

It makes me think of paper airplanes.

Mmmmmm...you guys are killing me. Alls I got here is insanely high humidity, endless carpy malls, car lots, landscaping companies and fast food joints...and idiots everywhere.

That's some beautiful country, Dan. Man. Damm. Looks like heaven.

Man, that is one UGLY mother. What scale is it? How big?

So...I bees curious. I know Revell had Sikorsky S55 kits in the wayback in 1/48 scale, 'cause I had 'em. The H-34 is a Sikorsky S58...which is basically a longer S55 with 3-point landing gear. Anybody know if the new kit is an update of the old tool?

"Semi-automatic assault spatula" is a phrase you just don't hear very often. On the other matter, the jackazz's last word at the scene...after he was given the citation...was that he'd be paying me for the damage out of his own pocket. I have a feeling I'll never see a cent, but I'll go through the motions of getting a real estimate anyway. I DON'T want anything other than my truck put back the way it was. A used mirror, the dents and misalignment on the fender and door repaired and only put in primer, and a front end alignment, including replacement of anything that's bent (she pulls to the left now). I also think I busted a couple of cords in the LF tire going over the curb, as there's a thumping vibration that honestly wasn't there before. My truck may look like carp, but mechanically it's just fine (or was, anyway). I took lotsa photos of both vehicles at the scene, their orientation before we moved them off the street, and closeups of the damage. I'm just so frigging tired of always having to fight being screwed for something that wasn't my fault. We'll see what happens.

Yes. It fits under the old AMT '36 Fords too, as it should....as the frames are very close to identical in reality, and the models in question are reasonably well scaled.