14 September 2013 (22:11 UTC-07 Tango 13 September 2013)/09 Dhu ‘l-Qa’da 1434/23 Shahrivar 1391/10 Xin-You (8th month) 4711
Click pics to make bigger and read why the instructions are wrong:
AMT-ERTL & Hobby Heaven reissued the early 1970s MPC Multi-Maverick kit. They even reissued the original confusing instructions.
The reissue kit reminded me why I had so much trouble building dragster kits as a kid in the mid-1970s. The instructions show you attaching the headers in step 1, but if you do you can’t get the engine onto the chassis. Headers/exhaust pipes must be attached after the engine & chassis are mated.
I installed this firewall as per the artwork on the box. The instructions didn’t mention it and I found out why. If you build the car with the extended wheelbase, and the engine moved forward, the firewall contacts the engine preventing the body from properly resting on the chassis.
The kit allows you to build two options; a standard wheelbase or extended wheelbase dragster. It says not to glue on the fender mods so you can switch between set ups, but for practical race time handling, I mean display purposes your choice should be permanent.
A major reminder of why I didn’t get along with dragster kits in the 1970s; suspension components are frustratingly fiddly & fragile!
The suspension parts can be easily broken when removed from the sprues, and the instruction’s rigging template for the front suspension was no help. I used a slow setting glue while fanagling the parts into place.
The fuel can in front of the engine is not how the instructions would have you mount it. It won’t fit with the engine in the forward position, unless you turn it sideways. Also, there’s no definite location point. The belt on the supercharger (blower) is plastic and snapped right on. No mention of it in the instructions. In fact, in step 1 you’re told to use string to make a belt, then in step 9 you’re told to use a rubber band. The ‘C’ notch in the front of the chassis is so the belt drive can fit when the engine is in the forward position, however, I still had to thin it greatly to get the engine to fit.
Another problem: The body hinge bar. Instructions tell you to insert the bar into the chassis, then glue it to attachment notches on the body. So called ‘notches’ are almost nonexistent. On top of that when I closed down the body the wheel wells didn’t line up with the Altered wheelbase.
You get one flimsy rod to hold up the heavy body, when you’re not busy racing down the strip.
“Let me assure you the situation is under control…”-Abe Shinzo, Prime Minister of Japan comments made to IOC on 07 September 2013
“I’m sorry, but we consider the situation is not under control.”-Yamashita Kazuhiko, TEPCo official’s statement made at meeting held […] Continue Reading…
“…the challenge is huge! It makes Three Mile Island look very simple, what you have is much more complex….”-Lake Barrett, former official with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in discussion with Tokyo Electric Power Company officials
“…..I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is ‘what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.’ It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, […] Continue Reading…
Tokyo Electric Power Company reporting that radiation levels at a monitoring well, near the slowly melting down GE designed reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, has doubled since yesterday!
On 10 September, TEPCo reported 32-thousand becquerels per liter of contamination at a well […] Continue Reading…
“It’s crazy to say, I know that Assad did not use gas…….We are sure about this because we overheard a conversation between rebels. It pains me to say it because I’ve been a fierce supporter of the Free Syrian Army […] Continue Reading…
“I have carefully studied the footage, and I will present a written analysis on it a bit later. I maintain that the whole affair was a frame-up. It had been staged and prepared in advance with the goal of framing […] Continue Reading…
10 September 2013 (22:45 UTC-07 Tango 09 September 2013)/05 Dhu ‘l-Qa’da 1434/19 Shahrivar 1392/06 Xin-You (8th month) 4711
A week after reporting spikes in radiation contamination in test wells, a different groundwater test well shows beta ray contamination, including strontium, skyrocketing.
Tokyo Electric Power Company revealed that on 05 September 2013 they detected 80-thousand becquerels per […] Continue Reading…
