What are you working on?

[RUSTY Cuda]

I just bought a bunch of junk lots, forgot to check & bid on a few more, ended up I won 6 or 7 so I'm buried in about 60 engines, I fix em up & sell em cheap, mostly to the guys on the train board (Tyco depot
Check it out, I'm Rusty Cuda over there too) Just to keep busy. I do have at least one of those switchers in good shape!
Tucos that were mixed in all the lots (there's tons of it out there).

 

[69.5CUDA]

WANT either of those rock islands! as is

used to have that amtrack too

im sooooo burried up to my eyeballs in work right now on the house to even think about looking....

the red/silver pusher for somereason snuck in to my collection back in the day, from 3rd grade rummage sale when i went to a private school..and it is still my fave..tho it poofed with all the other train boxes

i think ive got an apple box of "reminants and busted stuff" that someone didnt feel was worth steeling

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

I'll check the rock isles out & see if I can make one good one out of them, I'll get a pic of the switcher & see if it's "THE ONE" !

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Is this the baby?Almost got you a complete rock isle, it was wired different than factory but it works, messed with getting it running & I'm close, runs great on the straight aways but for some reason it loses power on the curves, I think it's the motor truck, I'll keep digging.

pretty clean, I fixed up all the rails, actually the nice metal ones, just a few marred spots on the shell, not bad for 50 years old!

 

[69.5CUDA]

to this day i dont know why that plymouth pusher speaks to me so much...but yeah thats the one

so that rockisland was part of this set which i still have the box for and instructions and all the track and trucking and all the other bits..EXCEPT for the train itself
said set was under the xmas tree for me in 1980? 81?...over the years i aquired ALOT more slots and ho train stuff..somewhere after moms acccedent when we had liv in care givers for a couple years before i took over full time..things tended to just "walk away"

to a kid who ADORED trucks and cars...this was like the best thing ever!!!!!...and still is to a great extent

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

A friend had the car & train setup, not sure if it started as a set like that.
Dad had the 027 for many years, we had an 8x4 table packed to the gills, when I was 10 or 11 he switched to HO so we could get more in the allotted space.
The one I remember was the rocket launcher & exploding box car, hours were spent trying to hit that car in motion!
Have any idea what freight cars were in there I have a ton, might be able to get some of them for you.

 

[69.5CUDA]

a yellowy orange hopper car, dont remember a branding, a silver texico tanker, and a green burliungton box, and of course the matching RI caboose

as for the rocket launcher i KNOW the set actualy...i have some of the pieces

there wernt but a handfull of "road and train" sets, but i do know of atleast 2 car versions and 1 SUPER RARE trucking set..which was a GI-JOE truck n train set..now thats a really cool set..as much as i hated GIjoe..the set is pretty epic

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Pretty sure I don't have the caboose , tanker I have some where, probably the box too, hopper?

When I'm moving boxes around I'll look for them!

 

[69.5CUDA]

yeah like a grain/coal etc hopper 3 belly dump style

with the new space pending..ive full intention of doing a "empty" table that i can setup whatever whenever...as i have both slot and slotless trucking, car, catch n crash, all sorts of really cool fun stuff..even a bunch of glow n the dark, rail sparks shit like that

but i also want to setup something like a L in the corner of 4x12 by 12x4...something stuck in somewhere around the 70/80s trucking slot and ho mix full landscaped

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Wow, you have some space, if I had that the good stuff in the attic would be on full display!

 

[69.5CUDA]

how it started..

we bought the house in 96ish, and with that in mind we needed a wheelchair ramp, now see i wasnt about to build some cheep POS, but what i needed wasnt going to be cheep...

mom did some calling, got to talking to a manager at parr lumber who remembered her..someone who rememberd her comming in and paying the account ordering etc, who just so happened to be so far up the food chain he simply said say no more, what do you need

the results was what you see in the first couple pic's, my own design, and aside from a few top boards id replaced over the years, still the original deck i built..with NOTHING more than a screw gun and a sawzall

mom may be gone, but ya know what, having a ramp/deck is infinitely better than stairs..i should mention ive DRIVEN up the thing many times over the decades..its stronger than it ever needed to be

wife wanted some "slight" alterations for more space...i caved..but i also finished outthe secondary ramp out into the yard..which was ALWAYS the plan, and i added a few supports where there was sag or post twist

NONE of the base frame has been replaced..or even needed it...its all as solid as the day i built it..so its good to go for another 30 years

 

[69.5CUDA]

meanwhile..this fell into my lap to fix for a guy...and chasing down parts hasnt been easy as black body panels are tricky to come by as everyone wants them

its a 2015 smart fortwo brabus edition....fun lil cars, he whacked the back of a truck, pushed and mangled a good bit but..the main body was square, strut towers didnt even move even if the horns around them did....ive squared it up..im awaiting a reprogramer to finish it out..and i need to lay a lil clear coat

fun fact..these are NOT PAINTED..its raw plastic clearcoated....and even stretched on would fit comfortably in one..and they are a riot...street gokart YES

i even had to replace th heater which is in the car as it was crushed by the firewall...the firewall is a GLUED IN PIECE (no bolts at all)with windshield glue...so i had to carve one out of another car

 

[69.5CUDA]

and with all that going on....
the house has been in need of a roof for a LONG time..atleast 10 years, but last year we sprung a couple small leaks i patched up..so i had to start on the big project
spent all spring/summer hunting for deals and thus...put myself WAY WAY WAY behind the nice days...but i got shigles for less than 0.75 a sqf, i got all my shething and floor plywood for 6$ a sheet at 3/4inch TNG, insulation at 8$ a bag for r32/38.....ive litteraly scored and saved huge everywhere

as for the stairs well, they are temporary..cause i was not about to hike materials up a fucking ladder....so i took the easy way out!

for the question of WTF are you doing
im tweaking the roofline to a tierd "shed" roof aka mono pitch..so that the primary roof can mount and support 45 or so solar panels unobstructed and up high enough to get FULL sun

currently have 32 of the 48ft framed and skinned..waiting on a reasonable day to pop off thew tarp throw down underlayment and start shingling

as for siding im going to shiplap the old roof boards...."unfinished" attic with a 12x48 footprint

 

[69.5CUDA]

now with all that going on ive been takin care of my wife with multiple hernias, who had surgery on halloween..shes recovering nicely

but ive also been preppin her new ride for full delivery duty, doing general maintinance on a few others and whatnot

this years been chicken with head cut off mode...wifes been down since dec 16th LAST YEAR..DR's fucking suck

that last shot is front for front rear for rear...155/175 vs 175/195...hard ass OE conti's for a full set of quadtrac tripple peaks..i swear by them...had them in conditions where they OUTPERFORMED blizzaks on the same car the same day(did testing with them on the yaris)..got the same tire in various sizes mounted on 5 cars of mine 3 of a friends...best damn tires ive ever driven on...wet/dry/leaves/snow/black ice...nothing touches em..only way to be better in the ice is a set of studded blizzaks imo