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Thank you my friend....and just like Jesse, you're always generous with the encouragement! Already have one more project lined up, been doing the research on it That'll bring the fleet to ten!

And now the last daunting challenge, the stripe. To my knowledge no decals exist for this body type. I do have the decals from the MPC kit of Daisy's 74 Roadrunner, but this is a different body type with different contours, and the subtleties of the strip were very different between the two vehicles. I also noticed the first '71s they painted for this had stripes that didn't quite fit the countours of the new type, but by partway into the second season the paint crews seem to have mastered the marriage of '71 body style and stripe style. My solution: use the roof decals, the paint the thick stripe center along the sides, then use fine striping for the pinstriping. I used a photocopy of the roof decals from the MPC kit as reference to set up the masking for the side striping. Through this I saw the side square from each end would have to be cut off. The rest would work fine.

Okay, back to business. Earlier I had gone to the trouble of cutting away the GTX emblem from the grill (since all such emblems were removed from all cars in the show), then priming/painting and re-chroming the bumper with Alclad. Next the chrome bumper was masked, and the grill and its surround was sprayed with enamel Steel, and a wash used for the grill's recesses. Then to make the headlights. I use acrylic gemstones because they're soft enough to have the facets sanded away to make it rounded, then polished. When finished with Future/Clear acrylic floor polish, they make very convincing light lenses, better than what comes with any kit. In this case I used 5mm gemstones for the headlights, and 3mm for the signal lights.

Hey, you guys be getting ready! The annual Moonshine 400 is coming up August 31 and I think Enos might be in it this year! I know I will, because ANY thing with the word Moonshine in it , has GOT to be good stuff! ( LOL!) There's also a rumor ( though not confirmed!) , that Cooter will be there too! I think Rosco is going to try something sneaky and underhanded though....so.....be watching for it!

Belated birthday wishes from me too, Spike. Apart from the non-functioning Fitbits, it sounds like you had a good day.

It feels like F1 is moving away from this sort of controversial/arbitrary rule enforcement. Hopefully they've realized how badly it goes over with the fans!

Oh...and YES! ( Belated) Happy Birthday Spike! I hope it was a good one!

Thanks my friend! Well, the replacement engine was finished (AMT '71 Duster), a small-block to replace the kit's big-block which apparently any smooth-hooded Satellite would never have had. HOWEVER, many problems arose: 1) Drive shaft too short for the new engine (was lengthened, see previous) 2) Once installed, found it sat 'WAY too low. Had to redo the already-redone engine mounts to raise it several mm. 3) Once totally installed, found it was still much too far back. By this time I was far more committed....I would have had to lengthen the drive shaft AGAIN, and redo all three points the engine mounted to. VERY disappointing to see the distributor almost touching the firewall. Sadly, I gave in and went with it. Remaining wiring was connected between the engine and the engine compartment. Hopefully it looks busy enough to divert attention from the 2-3 mm the engine sits too far back. Learn from this setback, kids.... Now the rear body skirt. The kit's has two half-circle openings for the high-performance exhausts, which the actual car(s) did not have (see reference). Easier to plug a square-shaped opening in this case; so it was done with plastic, then sanded and blended to shape. Then once installed, it was blended into the body, then primed and painted to make it look like it's all part of the body, totally connected. Couldn't do it before the chassis was installed; it wouldn't have fit and it would have been torn apart in the process (only have to make that mistake once to know).

Jeff Gordon is leaving the broadcast booth to become Vice Chairman/2nd in command at Hendrick Motorsports https://nascar.nbcsports.com/2021/06/23/jeff-gordon-named-hendrick-motorsports-vice-chairman/ he will do the rest of his Fox contract duties till the end of the year. Wonder who they will get to replace him. Dale Earnhardt Jr is locked into a multi year deal with NBC and to be honest he's really not good at calling the races. Chase Elliot's 13th place finish at Nashville has been disqualified, for of all things , 5 loose/missing lugnuts. Chase vented his frustrations on Twitter with a pretty good observation that if the wheel would have come off and he wrecked he would have been able to keep his points. I can understand DQ'ing because of skirting the rules on the car but for too many loose lugnuts is absolutely absurd. Just when I think Nascar Officials have done the most ridiculous thing they do something else even more crazy.

I've seen people die....you always remember it.....