The Weekend Hobby Thread (Presented By TRex)

Welcome hobbyists. Do not adjust your interweb. A spin of the Ace of Spades “wheel of hobbies” has come up with automobiles. If our four legged friends can have a home in the pet thread, then four wheeled friends can have a home in the hobby thread.
Looking forward to silliness and shenanigans until CDB releases a fresh music thread.
As usual, keep this thread limited to hobbies. Politics and current events can wait for other threads. Don’t make me turn this car around.

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Cars are fun. Drive them and design them. Restore and repair and modify them. Write about them, take photographs of them, draw them. Race them and watch them race. Enjoy nostalgia and history and wonder about the future. Collect them and the assorted parts and memorabilia. Cars have personalities. Cars star in movies and television shows and feature in music. Do you have a passion of the four-wheeled variety?

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Car Museum of the Week

The Simeone Museum near the Philadelphia airport has an amazing collection of remarkable automobiles. Dr. Fred Simeone was a neurosurgeon who collected what he liked over many decades. He bought many cars before they became unobtanium valuable. Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar, Shelby Cobra, Ford, Alfa Romeo, BMW, Bugatti, Maserati, Mercedes and more. Do you have a favorite auto museum?
USA Today is currently running a vote for the top car attractions in the US. The Simeone Museum is a nominee.
Check out the others.

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Garage of the Week

If you’re saying to yourself, “I’d do more if I had a bigger garage or more room for my tools,” check out Jack Olson’s 12 gauge garage.

Very efficient use of space. Do you have a favorite space to tinker, bodge, fix, or build? It is neat, organized, and tidy or it is a whirlwind of partial projects waiting for completion?

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Tamiya Tours

Model makers know the name Tamiya. The Japanese company has made plastic models of cars, tanks, ships, jets and more for decades. Have you built Tamiya kits?
What does their flagship factory store in Tokyo look like?

How about a tour of the museum at Tamiya HQ?

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Pinewood Derby

Were pinewood derby cars a starting point for your tinkering? Did you build one as a child? Have you built one with a child? Such a simple idea for a kid to learn through making a simple racer and running against their friends. Weight, friction, aerodynamics, and the eternal friction of family dynamics. It is a shame how many youtube videos and write-ups are on the interweb. Pinewood derby cars are quite an interweb rabbit hole. I wonder how many kids these days get “the
answer” rather than learning through their own trial and error.

Confessions of a Pinewood Derby Dad. It's about doing a project together. But if you ain't first, you're last.

I pulled up Amazon, and bought a small tube of graphite lube. A few minutes later, I placed a second order, having located a tungsten putty that could be cut, molded and shaped exactly as needed. As soon as I placed that order, I was fed a recommendation for a special jig that would help me insert the nail-axles as straight as possible.
That’s a good idea, I thought. I should order that, too. It’s only five bucks.
There’s a tipping point, it would seem, in between one’s second and third orders for aftermarket Pinewood Derby car accessories—a point when the algorithm senses that you may be possessed of a sickness of the mind and opens the floodgates.

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Alfa Romeo can’t legally name a car after an Italian place that is made outside of Italy.

"A car called Milano cannot be produced in Poland. This is forbidden by Italian law," Adolfo Urso said in Turin, referring to 2003 legislation that targets "Italian sounding" products that falsely claim to be Italian.
"This law stipulates that you cannot give indications that mislead consumers. So a car called Milano must be produced in Italy. Otherwise, it gives a misleading indication which is not allowed under Italian law," Urso said.

Alfa Romeo: Milano Name is not OK? “Alfa Romeo Junior” then!

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Thieves steal $300,000 worth of high-value Lego sets from Target, Home Depot and Lowe's stores across California

Building Engines with Legos

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Pint Size Utility Vehicle of the Week

Texas is making changes to allow importation and registration of Japan’s keitora class of compact truck (known as kei trucks).
Lots of history, but seems like a fun option that fits neatly between small utility vehicles that are not licensed for the road and pick-up trucks that have gotten absurdly expensive.

For morons that like to draw

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Here endeth the Weekend Hobby Thread for another week. Thanks to MisHum for the open blogger training wheels.

posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 05:30 PM

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