Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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1967 'cuda said:
Too many toys? - Too many toys? you can never have too many toys. I only wish I could have afforded to have built some of this stuff when my boys were young.

I'm dreading Winter. Now & then I fantasize about moving further south. - Maybe Oklahoma or Texas. Even Missouri would be a bit warmer.

The insurance proof shouldn't take long to arrive. The 'Cuda should be terrorizing those Okie roads before long. We'll need pics for proof!
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55 and raining , no driving today ! our winters are a lot like yours. Snow only gets 28" deep once in a great while. gets below zero almost every winter , but doesn1t usually last a long time. An occasional (terrible) ice storm. Think I could find a nicer climate than here ! like the racetrack, use to have 3 H O scale train sets. Didn`t keep any of them . ALREADY DREADING WINTER !
 
famous bob said:
55 and raining , no driving today ! our winters are a lot like yours. Snow only gets 28" deep once in a great while. gets below zero almost every winter , but doesn1t usually last a long time. An occasional (terrible) ice storm. Think I could find a nicer climate than here ! like the racetrack, use to have 3 H O scale train sets. Didn`t keep any of them . ALREADY DREADING WINTER !
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Dang Bob! I spent a summer in Guymon repainting the stock yard building and I never realized it ever got cold down there.
 
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I've been determined to finish the basement racetrack before letting myself get distracted by other projects. The animated signs showed up and I got them wired in. While I was at it I added a roof to the grandstand.

Still photos of the animated signs just don't do them justice. They look MUCH better in person.
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360DartGT66 said:
It turned out beautiful!
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famous bob said:
race track is kick- a$$..
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Thanks guys. I'm still telling myself that I need to stop adding stuff before tis project gets WAY out of hand. Then evil voices in my head tell me that there should be spectators and pit crews standing around. The voices go on to say I need a flag man, ticket booth, emergency vehicles, etc, etc... Hopefully common sense will win out.

We heard back from Ken Black and the Hemi is going to be delayed another month. My son will be ordering the heads and new blower components soon. I need to get the garage prepped for the work that's coming.

The Halloween decor has been set up and running for a few weeks now. It looks amazing. We live on the edge of town away from most traffic so there aren't normally a lot of folks driving by but we get a number of people that park out front to see the display. It takes over an hour to set up and tear down the electronics each day. There are 5 computers, 5 projectors, and 5 sound systems. We've been skipping the days that have been rainy or too windy.
 
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360DartGT66 said:
We're going to need pictures of that Halloween rig.
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jaws said:
Ya John, what Anders said.
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I tried to shoot a video of the projected displays but our camera doesn't do well at night. The footage is grainy and blurry. I haven't tried taking still images because they wouldn't give you a sense of all the motion going on.

Yesterday a van parked out front for a half hour. I went out to chat with the driver. It was an elderly woman who lived about 30 miles away. She had brought her grandson Frank to see the decorations. He is a 20-ish mentally handicapped kid. Apparently he'd seen the display last year and wanted to come back. Frank didn't talk much. He was too mesmerized by the Disney Halloween cartoons shown on the garage doors.

I'll post still shots if I can't figure out a way to get better video.
 
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Good morning,late night owl... Beautiful work,on the slot car motif..... Just saying,Hello... Watching Leno's Garage,before sleep(less ness)....
 
Abodybomber said:
Good morning,late night owl... Beautiful work,on the slot car motif..... Just saying,Hello... Watching Leno's Garage,before sleep(less ness)....
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Hey back to you Bomber. You must have posted right when I got off the computer. Thanks for the thumbs up on the slot car track. I've added a few more pieces since the other day. I was shopping at a Menards and found some 1/32 scale light up billboards for $3 each and couldn't pass them up. I also picked up a few haulers to display and a rescue squad vehicle that's got flashing lights. - - - I knew this was going to get out of hand!!!
 
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Last night I finally got around to getting some pics of the Halloween decor.

The view as you approach our house from the corner. I picked up the big inflatable jack o lantern at a swap meet for $6. It's over 6 foot tall.
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Our front door.
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The walk in garage door doesn't have glass so it's not lit at night. The addition of fake ficus trees with white Christmas lights helps to illuminate it.
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The wind has really raised havoc with this screen constructed out of emt and sheer curtains. It's like a sail when it's blowing outside. Being able to see behind the life size projected skeletons really helps to give the illusion that they're rising from the ground, dancing, and playing music.
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Next to our front door we have aplastic skeleton that's holding a mirror. When you get close to it - the mirror talks and beckons you to look at yourself. Then it makes a screaming sound as it flashes a skull image through it's two-way glass.
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This large animated witch bobs back and forth when it senses motion. It lights up as it talks and cackles. I taped a candelabra to the zombie's hands. He doesn't do much except hold the lights for added illumination. The two cauldrons have fans and lights in them that blow the fake cloth flames. In the dark it simulates fire pretty well.
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One of my favorite effects has always been the trio of jack o lanterns projected onto 3 hollow plastic pumpkins. At night it really appears as though they're lit from inside. Their expressions change as they sing and tell stories.
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We've got 4 animated zombies up front. Two of them moan as their heads turn side to side. One of them tries to crawl it's way out of it's grave as it says "I'm coming for you!" The fourth one has eyes that look back & forth as it asks for help.
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An addition we made this year was another projected special effect. I draped a tan vinyl tablecloth over a stand and have this witch that seems to be standing in the yard. She goes through a routine of 4 or 5 videos where she sings and casts spells.
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The large living room window serves as a display for animated shadow scenes. There are a number of videos that cycle through that have trick-or-treaters facing vampires, werewolves, and a Frankenstein monster.
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My camera must have screwed up because I did take photos of the Disney Halloween cartoons displayed on our big garage door. They seem to have disappeared.
 
John,your commitment to excellence,inspires me.... Work got done on the Scamp,yesterday.... Waiting, for rain ......
 
360DartGT66 said:
I can see why people travel long distances to see the show.
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I'm disappointed when I go to the effort of setting the electronics up on those days when only a handful of people drive by. It seems like a lot of wasted work. Then I remind myself that we're living on the edge of town where there's normally little traffic. We tend to see quite a few vans packed with kids that stop out front.

Last week a car from Omaha full of teenager boys was stopped. They started chatting with me about the displays and I invited them in to check out the racetrack. They had a blast and I had to chase them off when it started getting late.
 
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Abodybomber said:
John,your commitment to excellence,inspires me.... Work got done on the Scamp,yesterday.... Waiting, for rain ......
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We checked out the weather forecast for Halloween and it says it's supposed to rain here. Although I don't put a lot of stock in a forecast made a week early, it'll be a bummer if it's accurate.

Keep up on the Scamp progress!
 
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Good news for Halloween here. - They've taken rain out of the forecast and are predicting decent temperatures now.

Despite the need to move onto other projects I'm trying to avoid the garage until after Halloween. I know myself well enough to realize that any work out there would spill back into the driveway.

Meanwhile I've been back on the racetrack. A few of Teresa's grandsons came over last weekend and pointed out a major flaw. By placing the grandstand in the middle of the setup it blocked your vision of much of the track. - - So o o... I rearranged the layout. By moving a portion of the straight track to the back I was able to move the grandstand without major mods.

While I was at it I decided to construct a concession stand for additional decor.

I did a Google search for images that I could manipulate with the computer's PAINT program. After collecting a bunch I modified them to create the interior and exterior walls. Then I did a little math to resize them and printed them out.

A trip to the local lumberyard yielded a small sheet of 1/8" plexiglass that I cut to fabricate the structure and then glued the printed images onto.

This is what I made for the front:
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The 2 interior side walls:
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The interior back wall coolers:
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The roof:
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The floor tiles:
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The exterior side walls:
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I also printed a cashier counter with worker that I made into a standup inside:
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I used a cut-off wheel to cut the plexiglass pieces:
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After assembly I added a light to the ceiling to show off the interior.
The finished results:
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I bought 60 unpainted 1/32 scale people on eBay. When they arrive I'll paint them and create a crowd.
 
Those 3 billboards that I purchased at Menards didn't look 'race' themed so I searched Google again for images that could be resized and attached.
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The 1/32 slot cars fit well on the haulers I bought.
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The die-cast rescue squad is under scale, but close. I think it's 1/35. When placed far enough away from the cars in the pit area you don't notice the mismatch in size and it looks good with the lights flashing. I still need to print different decals for it.
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The new layout is much less view restricted.
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If you're having fun, how can it be a "waste of time"? My parents used to say that to me all the time when I was busy building models, or later hot rodding my old cars, or helping guys with their circle track race cars. They though I should be golfing! Go figure.
 
69_340_GTS said:
If you're having fun, how can it be a "waste of time"? My parents used to say that to me all the time when I was busy building models, or later hot rodding my old cars, or helping guys with their circle track race cars. They though I should be golfing! Go figure.
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I'm not respectable enough to play golf but the idea of going off-roading in one of those carts seems like fun. If I'd put as much effort into making $$ as I did into these toys I could've hired Trump to wash MY limo.
 
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