Serious inside car Hobbies?
 

Okay! You like saving fuel, and maybe these days You're combining trips and trying to drive less to save some of your wallet from today's fuel prices. But in addition to that, or are you a dyed-in-the-wool car freak? If the weather is bad, and you have no reason to go anywhere or to work on any of your vehicles at while at home, do any of you enjoy making car models and or have diecast collections of interesting cars? And talking about regular cars, what situation or car or people turned you into a dyed-in-the-wool car freak? For me this last question is answered easily as this story will date me good I was working in a real gas station back in the day as a senior in high school when real gas stations did oil changes and tire repairs Etc. I was working the station one night with a couple of my friends visiting me, and the biggest car freak from high school who was a couple years older than I was drop by to get a little fuel. He was driving a Chevy Vega that he put a small block Chevy into to pattern himself after Grumpy's toy Vega dragstrip car. He managed to engineer doing this as this was early on before anybody made the V8 installment kits to do this. It was a very slow night with no other business going on, so my friends covered for me so I could go on a two-minute ride that was offered to me. So he pulled out of the parking lot at a 45 degree angle on to the four-lane street sideways and we got up to about a hundred and forty miles an hour and three and a half blocks length oh, then turned around and came back. I had my first car at that time the 67 Chevelle Malibu 4 speed manual with 283 and nice Cragar SS and fat tires. Had this event never occurred, I would have been plenty satisfied for the rest of my life with a car with just nice paint and nice Wheels. But that ride changed me forever! Soon after headers went on the car and eventually, I had that same guy rebuild my small block into a Performance Engine, with all work done in my parents garage with their permission. I used to be very busy building model cars when I was 14 and 15, and now have started collecting kits to be built once again now in my sixties. Of course I have a Grumpy's Vega to be built, at The Other Extreme are kits representing BMW M1, Lamborghini Miura, Ferrari GTO Circa 1962, many classic muscle cars, and even 18 wheeler trucks with car trailers of course so that model cars can be on the trailer as well to take up less room. Diecast collection varies from an AMC AMX first gen 248 Tucker to a Toyota 2000gt, classic early 70s Ferrari Daytona, and either a diecast or a model car kit representing the 10 most winningest NASCAR drivers ever. My favorite diecast is an Alfa Romeo Caribou 33 concept car that I literally ordered from Europe. So what are your guys stories? I can't wait to read them!!!

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Whe I was working in a gas station in McMinnville, maybe '60 or '61 a guy pulled in to ask the way to the airport, where the drag races were going on.

He had a black 1964½ Ford Falcon Sprint. Lifted. When he opened the hood it had a 427 with two 4-barrels. I just remember it was all dark and glittery.

All my die-cast and unassembled kits are boxed up, but there is this pic in my albums:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...4-100-1277.jpg

Can you guess the vehicle the paint two-tone is copied from? I have this same Tamiya kit [unbuilt] upgraded with thin wire to add the fender beading and a die-cast metal engine.

Wheels and tires are from a Porsche 356.

I guess I'm not too good at guessing games myself. The color pattern kind of makes me think of a modern Bugatti, this side of the bug with the red paint makes me think of the paint pattern on any Corvette C1 about 56 through 62 or so. The 356 Porsche Wheels add some pizzazz and I compliment you on creativity to think outside of the box! The black and red reminds me of like a 69 Olds 442 color possibly as well except the red would be lateral kind of a hockey stick in shape. In that vein I could also picture a black 68 Dodge Charger with a rear lateral red stripe.

Those Falcons actually make pretty good road race cars as well. With the 427 these days, I could just picture watching the fuel gauge move. Several years ago, I got to see a guy that came all the way up from California to race at Portland International Raceway in the annual July historic races in his red 65 ish falcon who was a real treat to watch because he was faster than the sixties Contemporary Mustangs. Those kind of memories just stick out and you never forget them.

You were warm and got colder. Think 1930s.

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Duesenberg?

Bugatti. I saw the two-tone scheme on a Royale, but I could only found the Rapide.

Nice job. I failed

Let's just say you started out right and didn't know when to quit. :)

I've never been into car models or diecast cars. When I was a kid it was model airplanes I was into. Balsa and tissue paper flying models.

I was really big into cars as a teen and into my early 20's but never really could afford anything too fast. I did have a 1972 Porsche 914 and 1961 Buick Skylark for awhile. The dream was to do an engine swap on the 914 and upgrade to a 911 race suspension but then priorities changed. My wife and I decided to get out of debt and target 40 for retirement. The project cars were sold off and we started driving a boring 50 mpg TDI wagon and a Prius. I did some suspension work on them but the engines stayed stock. The last 3 cars didn't get any modifications besides some better tires.

My real passion was motorcycles and I had some quick bikes and some bikes with some pretty substantial modifications. That too has passed and my current bikes are stock. (Of course some of that could just be that modern bikes are stupid fast in stock form)

Gas prices haven't affected us much. We drive the Bolt more but that is about it.

With everything going on in the world today I don't know if you were able to achieve your 40 retirement goal, it's great you're working towards that, but back to the Buick and the Porsche, I'm just thinking that if the engine in the Buick were the 215 V8, that actually would have made a pretty cool swap into the Porsche 914. I have had pre-owned motorcycles with aftermarket pipes on them, but otherwise my bikes have always been pretty stock. I will be putting racks yes a front one as well on the dr200 to carry soft luggage for camping.

But would have been a shame to gut the Skylark.

Understood. I used to have a 62 Buick special wagon with the 215. When I originally bought it, my thought was front engine swap into something else eventually. I ended up selling it to a friend who drove me crazy bugging me all the time to sell it had to have it. He got in trouble financially and otherwise further down the road and I actually got the car back. This was just a couple years ago. car was actually in pretty decent condition oh, so yes I didn't feel like gutting it out. I ended up selling it to a girl in her twenties that was already starting to collect other older Buicks, she already had two and I delivered the car to her in Wyoming.

We did not make the Retire @ 40 goal. It was a stretch goal but worth the effort. We are now 44 and the Monte Carlo simulations show a 99% probability of a successful retirement. We are taking the next year to prep: Convert the Ambulance to an RV, sell a bunch of stuff and the house, finalize which state to move residency, etc. It will be a busy year.

The plan for the 914 was a Subaru engine. Swapping the 215 Buick V8 into the Porsche was a common swap but the parts are pretty rare for that 215 engine. The Buick was going to get a boring Chevy small block. In the end the Porsche was sold and the Buick was cut up for scrap. I was moving out of state and got no offers on the complete car but people wanted pieces. I pulled what I could sell then cut up the body and took it to the scrapyard as clean steel. My records show I got $14.42 for it at the scrapyard.