All Activity
This stream auto-updates
- Today
-
Marty Dannar joined the community
-
I found the thread(s) regarding fire extinguishers and wanted to run one I found by anyone with 2 cents to contribute. I am trying to decide between a Kidde AutoFX 5, MAXOUT MX500B or a Kidde Pro. I do not want to go cheap nor do I want to break the bank. I am leaning towards the AutoFX5 because of the size. Any similar types anyone can recommend?
-
Thanks
-
Clifford: dzJeepChic's '92 XJ [ongoing project]
dzJeepChic replied to dzJeepChic's topic in Your Rig!
Poor Clifford. E11even days later and he's still at the shop. Every day they take him out to the parking lot where he sits baking in the sun waiting for parts. I'm sure he misses me. :*( - Yesterday
-
Looks nice John.
-
I subscribe to The Hustle; a weekly news email focused on interesting things that happen in various industries and business. This is an amazing article about the world of Matchbox Car collectors, and the outrageous prices they'll pay for these old toys! Anybody got a shoe box of these back in a closet? You might be rich!!! The collectors who spend thousands on rare Hot Wheels Every year, Mattel sells nearly $1B worth of new toy cars to kids. But on the secondary market, adult collectors and dealers reign supreme. BY ZACHARY CROCKETT By day, Bruce Pascal is a successful commercial real estate executive who brokers multimillion-dollar deals in the nation’s capital. By night, he buys $5k Hot Wheels cars on eBay. The 59 year old owns what is considered the world’s most valuable Hot Wheels collection, a staggering array of 7k rare toy cars that are collectively insured for $1.5m. Many are prototypes that were acquired from former Mattel employees, including a pink 1969 Rear-Loading Beach Bomb valued at ~$150k. Five decades ago, Hot Wheels were America’s hottest new plaything. Today, the children of the ‘60s are fueling a small but mighty collectors’ market that wheels and deals in obscure corners of the internet. Pascal is one of a handful of super collectors, dealers, and middlemen who pay top dollar for the rarest cars. It’s a colorful group that includes an ex-BMX stunt rider, an auto mechanics teacher, and a man who owns a geese-removal business. How did one-time 59-cent toy cars become 5-figure collectibles? And what drives grown men and women to spend princely sums chasing them? How Hot Wheels became collectibles Fresh off the monstrous success of the Barbie doll in 1959, Mattel founders Ruth and Elliot Handler saw an opportunity in the market for mini toy cars. So, they poached car designers from GM, Chrysler, and Ford and charged them with creating custom-made, brilliantly colored hot rods. The first set of Hot Wheels — dubbed the “Sweet 16”— hit shelves on May 18th, 1968, for $0.59 each. That year alone, Mattel sold 16m of them. A promotional poster for the first set of Hot Wheels cars boasts of their speed, custom styling, and special “redline” wheels (via Mattel) During the ‘60s and ‘70s, some 41m children raced Hot Wheels cars down the signature bright orange tracks. As these children grew older and started having kids of their own, a market for adult Hot Wheels collectors began to emerge. In the late ‘80s, a traveling food salesman named Mike Strauss — widely regarded to be the “father of Hot Wheels collecting” — organized the first convention for serious adult hobbyists. Newsletters, price guides, and Usenet trading groups followed. Mattel capitalized on this new demographic, launching its own paid membership club for collectors, which later grew to 100k members. The company also debuted a “Treasure Hunt” series in 1995 — runs of limited-edition cars that were randomly stocked on department store shelves around the country. Grown men were soon barreling over kids at JCPenney outlets, fist-fighting over mini T-Birds, Camaros, and VW Bugs. Those who were forceful enough to snag one for a few bucks could flip it on the collector’s market for $20-$80. Zachary Crockett / The Hustle Today, this collector’s market is alive and well. In 2019, Hot Wheels brought in a record-high $926m in gross sales for Mattel. Every second, 16 cars roll off the production line — and since 1968, the company has released more than 6B cars in 20k different models. Mattel says there are some 15m “avid collectors” who average 1,550 cars each. Around 90% of these collectors go after the newer models, or “mainlines.” The remaining 10% — almost exclusively made up of men in their 50s and 60s — is focused on the lucrative “redline” cars produced between 1968 and 1977. On eBay and other auction sites, certain iterations of these cars — old or new — can sell for thousands: One set of the original 16 redline cars sold for $31k An 8-car set from 1998 fetched $20k A 1968 custom Barracuda Bronze sold for $15k A rare custom Camaro sold for $7k A 1976 Z Whiz drew 28 bids and sold for $6.5k As one dealer told The Hustle: “The right model can pay for your kid’s college tuition.” But first, you have to find a collector crazy enough to shell out for it. The Hot Wheels whales Bruce Pascal’s home office in Potomac, Maryland, is a testament to his obsession. Enormous 24-foot orange “race track” beams run the length of the room. Craftsman tool chests double as storage units for rare diecasts. A floor-to-ceiling Hot Wheels mural adorns a wall, and glass cases house a selection of his most-prized toy cars. Top: Bruce Pascal standing in his custom-built, Hot Wheels-inspired home office; Bottom: Pascal eyeballing a selection of his prized toy cars (Logan Werlinger/Barcroft Media via Getty Images) Pascal’s route into the hobby is a familiar one among serious collectors: He fell in love with Hot Wheels in 1968, at the age of 7. His cars eventually ended up in a cigar box in the attic, where they gathered dust until he retrieved them 30 years later. Overwhelmed by nostalgia, Pascal quickly went from 0 to 60. He voraciously consumed price guides, studied the market, and started running ads in newspapers offering to buy others’ vintage Hot Wheels collections for 50% to 70% of market value. A mere 6 months into collecting, the real estate broker secured his place in toy car lore by plunking down ~$70k for the “Holy Grail” of Hot Wheels: A pink 1969 Rear-Loading Beach Bomb. At the time, it was 3x what any Hot Wheels car had previously sold for — and it opened the floodgates for 5-figure deals. Today, the cars on the open market aren’t enough to satiate Pascal. He spends his time tracking down former Mattel employees who might be willing to part with ultra-rare unreleased prototypes. He’s spent hundreds of thousands of dollars acquiring these cars — sometimes, with giant bags of cash. Sometimes, the sellers aren’t even aware of what they have until Pascal informs them that the old toys in their possession are worth $25k. Recently, a seller broke down in tears when Pascal handed him a check for $12k. A few forgotten toys turned into a new roof for the man’s house. “I’m like the Antiques Roadshow that shows up to their door,” he says. Top: Pascal sifts through a drawer of rare Hot Wheels; Bottom: The $150k Rear-Loading Beach Bomb (Logan Werlinger/Barcroft Media via Getty Images) Valued at $1.5m, Pascal’s collection costs thousands of dollars per year just to insure. Pascal says the most valuable Hot Wheels cars are the famed Rear-Loading Beach Bombs, which were axed in 1969 before they hit the market. Only 48 are known to exist, and they typically go for $20k to $50k. Then there are the “Over-Chrome” Hot Wheels, a run of ~30 or so cars with an especially brilliant sparkle produced in 1968. Most go for $20k to $30k, but a particularly handsome strawberry-colored Mustang once fetched $50k. The estimated value of cars can be highly subjective, and contingent on what a small pool of buyers is willing to pay at any given time. “The value often comes down to a magical mix of condition, casting, and color,” he says. “In the Hot Wheels world, there are endless variations of paint, interiors, and wheels. You really have to know what you’re looking at.” More recently, COVID-19 has gotten Pascal ruminating on mortality and the fate of his Hot Wheels. He’s spent the last 6 months carefully tabulating the value of each car in an Excel spreadsheet. “There might only be 10 people in the world who know the value of what I have, so if I drop dead without documenting everything, I’m screwed.” Pascal isn’t the only guy super collector with a pricey heap of toy cars. Sid Belzberg, a Canadian businessman and chess master, built up a $700k+ collection that included the first Hot Wheels car ever made (a red Camaro). Mike Strauss, a food salesman, sold 30k cars for an estimated $800k-$1m in 2011. Larry Wood, one of the original Hot Wheels designers, auctioned off his legendary stash for somewhere in the range of $600k. But other collectors focus more on breadth than valuation. Mike Zarnock, an auto mechanics teacher in Utica, New York, holds a Guinness World Record for the largest collection of unique Hot Wheels cars — currently 30k. Michael Zarnock poses with his world-record-setting collection of 30k+ cars (Guinness World Records / Michael Zarnock) When I called Zarnock this week, he was cruising in a Chevy S10 hot rod that he built from scratch. For a car buff like him, Hot Wheels have been a life-long love — so much so that he stopped at a toy store to buy some in the middle of the first date with his now-wife. He started seriously collecting the toys in the mid-90s, shortly after his son was born. “Most of us older collectors are trying to buy our childhood back,” says the 62 year old. Zarnock has written 14 books on Hot Wheels and hosts a YouTube channel where he riffs on topics like the nuances of special edition Spongebob Squarepants cars. His collection includes not just toy cars — Beatnik Bandits, Silhouettes, AC Cobras, Corvettes — but paraphernalia like Hot Wheels underwear, Hot Wheels speakers, and Hot Wheels roller skates. If the logo is on it, he probably has it. He won’t place a hard value on his collection, but guesses it’s worth somewhere in the vicinity of $750k. “If I died tomorrow, there’s no way I’d get back what I put into it,” he says. “My wife would probably sell them at a garage sale for $0.25 apiece.” The Indiana Jones of Hot Wheels Rare Hot Wheels can be tough to find, so super collectors sometimes have to rely on the scavengings of expert dealers like Bob Young. Based outside of Philadelphia, Young is a man of many talents. He spent years directing physician’s assistant courses while simultaneously launching a geese-removal franchise with a team of Border Collies. Now 60 and semi-retired, he runs the website Redline Archeology in between joy rides in his Ferrari California. Bob Young specializes in hunting down Hot Wheels collections (Bob Young) Young is something of a Hot Wheels broker: He specializes in hunting down vintage, one-owner collections that have been sitting around for decades in basements, attics, closets, garages, and storage units. “Basically, I’m like the Indiana Jones of Hot Wheels,” he says. Young got his start in the mid-90s by running ads in local papers. Then a struggling high school athletic trainer, he netted so much cash reselling Hot Wheels that he was able to pay off his school loans and install a backyard pool. Today, most of his leads come through SEO traffic to his website. Once in touch with a seller, he’ll appraise the collection and offer 50% to 70% of its market value. He’ll then contact his buddy Woody Itson, a retired BMX stunt rider and Hot Wheels collector in Dallas, who buys his items in bulk for 75% of the market value and sells the cars individually. In one recent deal, Itson bought a collection from Young for $32.5k. Young doubled his investment and Itson was able to net a $9k profit. Young prefers to incubate himself from serious collectors, who he says can sometimes be pretentious, demanding, and aggressive. “It’s hard to find people to trust in the Hot Wheels world,” he says. “You’ve got a bunch of charlatans out there, people who will slit your throat to get their hands on these cars.” Vintage Hot Wheels (Live Auctioneers) Young is less than convinced about the valuations some collectors put on their personal collections. “A lot of these guys pay way too much money, then have a real surprise when they find out what they go for on the market,” he says. “Hot Wheels are like stocks: The price fluctuates constantly, based on what other people are paying.” But most of the hobby’s big spenders will tell you that it’s not all about the benjamins. “My grandfather was one of the foremost automobile historians in the US,” says Pascal. “If he could see my collection, I’m sure he’d smile. At the end of the day, I’m in it for the love of the cars.”
-
Nemesis Industries Notorious JK aluminum flares install
theksmith replied to theksmith's topic in Jeep Specific
test fit done, holes drilled, riv-nuts in. prime & sand & repeat: there are some options in terms of inner liners with the rear. i tried to trim and re-use the factory plastic liners, but that doesn't work out great. the back leaves a big area for dirt and mud to get trapped behind them. several companies including Nemesis sell aluminum liners. i decided to just paint the factory metal, for now anyway. there are several cracks and holes that should also be sealed up... i've had problems before with automotive seam sealer cracking when used on large spans, so i'm going to see how Flex Seal Tape will hold up instead. sanding, sanding, always sanding! i should get a frequent shopper discount on Krylon Black Satin by now! the black on the underside of the flares is also done and i just put a rough first coat of color on the tops this morning. -
Nemesis Industries Notorious JK aluminum flares install
theksmith replied to theksmith's topic in Jeep Specific
i also got a new gun handle for spray cans... the old one on the right below only worked with small nozzles and would sometimes block some of the spray causing paint to pool up and make a big mess. the newer "Can-Gun1" on the left solves all those issues. the main reason to use a trigger handle like these is to help get a more even coat - and after a bunch of spraying it keeps your finger from getting tired! -
Naw, it was the one it came with
-
Sweet!
-
Check out this Swincar E-Spider Extreme Offroad vehicle! It looks like so much fun to drive. Doesn't seem like it could ever take the place of a full size rig, but definite competition for the ATV market. What do you think? Would you drive it?
- Last week
-
EasyGuard JK push to start
EarlKann replied to EarlKann's topic in Classifieds: Parts & Equipment For Sale
The saddle dash trim piece is gone. -
EasyGuard JK push to start
EarlKann replied to EarlKann's topic in Classifieds: Parts & Equipment For Sale
Sorry, forgot to check in here for a while as I've been busy with sale of my house and moving to TX. Unit is still available, I just came here to gather info so I could post on ebay. I did not do anything to the harness other than taking it from neatly packaged to a tangled mess. Much of it isn't used anyway. There is a keypad, yes.. -
nice! is that a new grille insert too? i don't member it
-
Finally got the winch plate to mount the winch. Had to relocate the vacuum pump but otherwise no it to bad.
-
neat! ...but yeah, WASH YOUR HANDS! also, i think he should have tried the old starter-fluid and a match way to seat the tire while the Go-Pro was in there
- 1 reply
-
- 1
-
-
This guy stuck a go pro inside a tire, just to see what it looks like inside a tire when you're going down the road. I've never wondered what it looks like inside the tire when you're going down the road, but this piqued my interest. The sounds from inside the tire are more interesting, to me. One thing that drives me crazy, is the guy doesn't wash his hands after mounting the tire and before driving the car.
- 1 reply
-
- 1
-
-
Nemesis Industries Notorious JK aluminum flares install
jgaz replied to theksmith's topic in Jeep Specific
That can shaker attachment looks waaaay nicer then my “red neck” shaker, aka, two hose clamps and a long blade. Good luck -
random photo of Brady climbing a rock while out last weekend. he says he really wants a Wrangler when he turns 16 in a year, we'll see if that idea sticks or not - and see if we can find an affordable one with low enough miles to not need constant work. got around to re-painting the front under-sides this week (i had freshened up most every other black area recently). and the rear Nemesis flares finally showed up today, so i know what i'll be up to all weekend!
-
Nemesis Industries Notorious JK aluminum flares install
theksmith replied to theksmith's topic in Jeep Specific
rear flares finally showed up today! also, i bought that can-shaker gadget that Jim recommended. it seems rock solid even with the extra tall 15oz primer cans - no worry of them flying loose while shaking! i'm not sure if it will help the sputtering on those cans of metallic color, but it beats shaking by hand any day! a friend asked me why i didn't just buy a paint gun yet, especially since i already have a decent size compressor... well, mainly because cleanup is a PITA! especially when going between several colors/types of paint. and i've just never really had a problem getting a decent job from spray cans until this project. i'd already purchased enough paint to do all 4 flares, so i'm sticking with rattle-cans for the rears too. maybe i'll buy a gun for the next paint project! -
StefanMe joined the community
-
Hi Diane, I really like watching vids about how things are made or how they work. Thanks.
-
Notice they didn't even use a Rubicon for comparison. It is probably a sport model.
-
leightworks joined the community
- Earlier
-
Nemesis Industries Notorious JK aluminum flares install
jgaz replied to theksmith's topic in Jeep Specific
Sometimes nothing seems to help. I didn’t really stop to consider that keeping a can warm wouldn’t be a problem out here in the summer. My hot water trick was more effective I think when I was in Michigan. -
Nemesis Industries Notorious JK aluminum flares install
theksmith replied to theksmith's topic in Jeep Specific
the instructions are great, so here are just a few additional tips and tidbits about the install of the fronts... - use anti-seize or even just a dab of grease on all the bolts. the stainless fasteners from Nemesis are a nice touch, but SS is a soft metal and the threads can get doinked slightly while trying to line up all the layers of metal, which makes it easy to cross-thread or gall them. - a ratchet with a really small head and/or a wobble adapter along with a 3/16" allen head socket makes things way easier, a 1/2 ratcheting wrench is all but required as well since a driver won't fit in behind some of the places. - the nut and washer is really hard to get on the bottom-most bolt, so i ended up just going ahead and putting in a riv-nut. the rear flares attach using a ton of those, so it's good to go ahead and buy a tool for them if you don't have one. i used this 14" one from Tacklife on Amazon, but a 16" would be better for these large inserts. - i mentioned having to cut-up the one inner support bracket to fit around my K&N snorkel. beyond that everything worked out well with the snorkel and the flares, i just had to leave a little extra width when trimming the factory inner plastic liner for that side: - the flares have a provision for a 3/4" marker light to replace the OEM side lights. it's barely visible so i guess it's really just for liability/legal reasons. Nemesis sells amber ones separately but i went with these white LED in smoked housing versions from Amazon to match my other lights. - the flares include strips of adhesive foam to go on the inner top edge. i still had a problem with some sections pinching against the factory fenders which rolled the paint on the new flares and looked bad... i ended up removing both flares, touching up those spots, and then getting some thicker foam from Home Depot. the thicker black foam shows and looks OK since i have a dark colored Jeep, but would not work on a light colored rig... my recommendation would be to just ease that inner top hard edge with sandpaper pretty well before painting - that's my plan for the rears anyway. -
Nemesis Industries Notorious JK aluminum flares install
theksmith replied to theksmith's topic in Jeep Specific
interesting options Jim, thanks for the tips. i don't know if the Dupli-Color metallic cans were sputtering from not shaking them enough or what. i've got a couple more so i will definitely try to shake them better when i do the rear flares. the one clear-coat can that dripped must have had a poorly aimed nozzle - spray had been hitting the edge of the can and pooling up in there without me noticing and that's what dripped. the other cans of clear did not have that issue. -
Nemesis Industries Notorious JK aluminum flares install
jgaz replied to theksmith's topic in Jeep Specific
The flares look good Kris. It’s such a pain when you do all the prep and the can lets you down during the finish coats. Have you ever used something like this to shake the heck out of a spray can? MixKwik Tool https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055S7DJS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_lmUhFbS80RNXT I’ve had some luck in the past salvaging cans of Rust-Oleum by soaking the cans in hot water and shaking the heck out of them by hose clamping the cans to a long recip saw blade. Just a thought
