AirBoston

I'm about to turn 37 in a few months. I got my first hobby quality RC (Tamiya) in 1984. That launched a hobby lasting many years. I got into boats for awhile when but kept running my cars too. After awhile, I got board with the whole RC hobby and sold off or threw away (SuperChamp!) most of my stuff. I kept the Golf GTI as it replicated my real car, but that was it. Even that one was lost in the basement for some time. My nephews got into the hobby and that helped bring me back. Now, my boys are starting out too. One of the car clubs I belong to really started getting into the RC car hobby too as we found a replica of our beloved 914. I'm sure some time I'll be in and out of this hobby for most of my life. I'm a car lover at heart no mater the scale. Most of the people I know who are into cars are also into models. I just prefer mine to run more than collect dust.

Back when I was selling VW's, a kid had his parents buy him a GTI VR6 which he totaled drag racing on I495 in MA. They bought him another which he also totalled on the same road. After he bought and totalled the third one, he parents bought him an old Rabbit. If I were his father, he'd have been on a bicycle after the first... that is if I were stoopid enough to buy a 16/17 YO a VR6 in the first place.

Daily: '96 VW Passat TDI Occasionally: '70 Porsche 914-6 When I need to borrow the wife's car: '04 Toyota Sienna LE

nother: In the standard 914 stance

Showin' off a little:

I don't have access to the my two M04L chassis right now, but from one company's site... "Carson Lexankarosserie des VW Porsche 914. Die Karosserie hat einen Radstand von 240mm und eine Breite von 170mm. Sie passt somit auf das Tamiya M-Chassis (lang) sowie ähnliche Fahrzeuge. Die Karosserie wird ohne Decorbogen/Fenstermasken geliefert. Diesen finden Sie unten."

Are you in the USA or on the other side of the pond? I have contacts in both places. http://www.914club.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=46526 http://www.gtautoperformance.com/ (my first video: = )I bought over 30 from this place: http://www.racersparadise.de/index.html?ka...und_hpi_gti.htm

last one for now...

more...

'nuther...

I finally got a chance to finish decaling the car. I still need to find new wheels and tires plus a few screws.

Does anyone have the link to the willy contest? That would be very interesting too see. I didn't notice that the grill was different. That's a shame. Nice lights though.

I was just looking through the showroom at the WWs. It looks like the exact same body as it even has the cut out where the original front spring went. I see several people are upgrading to BF wheels and more scale looking tires. I just sent the creator of the Wendy an email. I hope I can get one.

I sold my original WWI a few years ago on ebay but now wish I hadn't. So, now I'm thinking of picking up a WWII. Is there anything in common with the original besides the body? Is the performance any better or is it still just a wheely machine and no more? What is this "Wendy" figure? How do you get one? Thanks!

That is sweet! I've always loved the big Healeys. Now if only there would be a Triumph TR6...

Thank you. It's nice to know people like what I paint. I use Bob Dively's Liquid Mask only. It's rare that I even use the body's included window masks, but at times (like this Golf) I'll apply the BDLM over the window stickers. This stuff is pretty simple once you're used to it. Apply 3-4 thick coats (applied with a 1" brush) letting it dry completely between coats. Then, draw the design and all cut lines on the outside with a sharpie. Remove the area's you want to paint. The main thing is to get the mask on thick enough to peal off easily without tearing. If you accidently lift a corner you didn't want to remove, just oush it back down.

BTW, This is a factory style car. VW made quite a few Harlequin Golfs. When I was selling VW's, I read in some dealer news that the Royal Canadian Mounties bought a few for use as Police Cruisers.

nah, this one was easy. Picking and mixing the paint was the hardest part. Keep in mind, I'm used to painting cars like this Carson 914 (M04L)

Here's the Golf so far. I'll spend this evening applying the decals. I'm also debating adding some tint to the windows. I guess I'll wait to see what it looks like with the decals applies and mounted to the chassis. I found a few rims I like at Tower Hobbies. I started to bid on some 2 piece BBS rims on ebay but they went for too much. Here she is at this point:

Ok folks, I'm getting nervous now. Having been a VW fan for some time, I had always like the Harlequin Golf. I'm about to spray, but now I'm having second thoughts. I know this body is somewhat rare and really don't want to have a butt ugly car when I'm done. So... What's your opinion on this car: http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/printer_1291.shtml

My $0.02: I worked in a hobby store while in High School in the late '80s. It was a great place to be at that age. We were in a mall located just across from the food court. After work a bunch os us would go out to the parking lot and run-what-we-brung. By-standers would sometimes come into the store the next day to talk to us, that would lead to sales. Sometimes, I would even let a kid try my cars. This store was know in the Boston area to be high priced, but we still sold some RC stuff, and lots of train and plastic models. We were told to always have the TV/VCR running to promote the hobbies. When things were slow, the employees would work on their own models and that would generate even more business. Things were good. There are now NO local shops here. There is now no place to go get help or brows the new stuff. In my opinion, the internet pricing wars closed the local guys for good. Without the local guys, the hobby will die a slow death. How can you get someone to drop $300(usd) if theve never seen first hand what these "toys" can do. Strangers to the hobby see all RC as equal. Why spend big money on hobby quality stuff when you can get a 1/6 scale monster at Toys-R-Us for under $100 (usd). Case in point, a new hobby store open up in my town a few years ago. I went to check things out and walked away with a new interest in RC planes, electric flight to be exact. Why is this? Because one employee was flying his newly hopped up Zero in the parking lot. Unfortunetly, the store closed before Christmas. I'm told it was due to lack of street viewed signage. Because this was a large chain store, the prices were close to that on the internet. Internet = Low prices Low prices = tough compitition Tough Compitition = Closed local stores Closed local stores = death for RC and some other hands on hobbies To have kids involved in computer games is bad for society in so many ways. Limited to gaming is also bad for todays kids. This leads to a "pay others to do things for you" society. The RC hobby helped me to develop mechanical skills. Because I could tear apart and rebuild my "toys", I figured I could to the same with my vintage Porsche. Shoot, a bearing is a bearing; you just need bigger tools. Ok, I'm done. If you read my ramblings, thank you.

Anything more than a few buck is out of the question. My fullsize toy will get repaired first. I did find a few wheels I like now I just need to get the right tires. I have the paint scheme nailed down now, so it's time to start spraying. Does anyone know what chassis this car is based on? I'm looking for a few cheep hop-ups that will work. Thanks.

I've spent the last few days of "free time" to cleap up my art studio. During the clean up I stumbled on a speare Golf VR6 shell. I had already planned on running the car again but now I think a complete "frame off" restoration is in order. I'm looking through Tower Hobbies for suitable wheels and tires. Any opinions on what would be good? I will probably keep the Novak ESP and Trinity Midnight motor in the car as oposed to bringing it back to complete box stock. Looks like a few screws are missing so I'll need to figure out what I need and hope I can find replacements. The Body is now trimmed with two coats of Liquid Mask. I'm planning on replicating a rare VW Factory paint scheme. This body is really thin! I've been painting mostly Carson and Proline bodies and the plastic on these are far thicker than the Tamiya stuff. Anyway, I thought I post a thread on the restoration process like the full size car boards I frequent.

And here I thought that the rally track shown on some of the Tamiya club videos was just too cool. It's the lack of scale and only speed over all else that I left the hobby years ago. I've always had the desire to build and run a scale track. These are just too cool!

That's not the one I wanted... An error keeps me from changing it, so I'll try one more time. Maybe this is it: