How I avoided getting "hosed"

 Every hose has its thorns

I think some tubing and hosing replacements are so hard to find or buy due to expense.  The first type of hosing I wanted was the classic space type as seen in this truck from the alpha 1 base from about 1979

Another example is from the set below

So I took a piece to a local O'Reilly auto part store.  I was afraid the 2 clerks would laugh at my lack of a true masculine car project but these guys were incredibly nice. I took a piece that the hose should fit and we eventually found black tubing the right size.  Needless to say I will definitely go back there; the only problem was a small amount of black residue and the small piece I bought made the car smell like a tire when I mistakenly left in a hot car!  But the size was perfect and will help create new little space vehicles!

I also bought gas trimmer fuel line tubing with a nice yellow tint that I had read will work!

This is the reference from bricklink

I have a few original hoses and they were kept in a cool damp environment which likely helped preserve them as I would think dry and heat storage would dry and crack the rubber material.

The second type of hose seems more common on the internet...the hydraulic hoses for technic models

The inner diameter appears to vary 1.5 to 2.5mm, some appear to be available for order in the UK.  Hope this helps others, I'm trying to get more info and may update the info in this post!

ADDITIONAL INFO FROM BRICKLINK

Favorite adventure cars

I never had any of the jungle theme, jurassic park scene, Egypt sets but they had some of the coolest cars.  I often took pictures of the set numbers and cars, unfortunately some of the cars have such unique pieces and colors

The color of this car is so neat!!

Similar to the above red car, this car has cool hubcaps And love the rounded hood and grill piece!

This car had a neat round inverted piece for the side door

A little better view 

This roadster had a mix of colors and a extra tire on the back!!  Also love the hubcaps with spokes

Love the curve from the back coming to the open door area

Love the roll cage bar piece, also the exhaust tube

I don't know how anyone can make an old fuel truck any more cool.  The thin tire treads and cab are fantastic.

Like 

I like this car that could be amphibious and the tilted unique window 

Nice jeep above for escaping from dinosaurs!

Great sand mobility and new style of grill in front.

This isn't lego brand but still a cool design for a scooter

Good truck for fire response above

Like the dark green color!

I like the dune buggy appearance...would be fun on sand!

Building this car was really nearby, love the use of clips for fenders

Like the design but I hate green legos!  In gray and blue this would be more amazing!

missiles! If I like the pink, but still a cool car!

Who couldn't love A speeding car shooting misssiles!

This is by far the neatest car, the color scheme and design!! 

Well there are many more but these were so neat that I hope to build these eventually!!  Have my own version of Jay lenos garage (probably about the same cost legos are so expensive!

Giving my wheel opinion

 Lego has made some improvements to their wheel choices over the years.  Recently I referenced sets 383 and 115 and the hubcaps are so much fancier and more realistic in the 383 set (I don't know much about earlier wheels)

Koop

Above wheels vs set 115 wheels below

Although the wheels above were not developed, they were better than the huge wheels in this set...

The wheel below was never practical except for a train creation i saw on the internet...it does look perfect for a locomotive wheel..not much else in my opinion!

Another initial piece when I was little...

My skills of building my own creation came from placing 4 of these together on a 2x8 plate...I tried to fashion the car after my favorite book at the time...Go Dog Go!

Then lego made another leap forward in wheel history, TREAD

Then the next revolution in wheels...flat plates!

Then these came with more treads

Then the tread tires got bigger as below; I didn't know at the time that these bigger tread tire existed til ebay in 2004!

Then I thought the wheels below came and I never liked them, I thought they looked dumb (and still think so!)

Finally, this wheel came back for the mobile rocket transport...it had been in one of the older universal sets!

From that point on, 1984ish I lost track of all the different types of wheels!!!

All this writing has tired me out.

The lego garage! The perfect end to finding the toy garage every kid wants!

 I have to chuckle about the lego garage sets, both an older version and the one from a few years ago.  

I don't know what is fascinating to kids about toy parking garages, except that it gives a place to park all those toy cars.  Here's how I think the lego garage came to be (via some non lego toys).

First garage toy I had!  Teaches you to not drive off the second floor! 

Also not good for teaching staying in your lane on the ramp when one car covered both lanes!

This playschool garage was only available to me at the nursery at church, I was there every Sunday!!!!  The only good thing about being separated from parents while in the nursery (fighting with other children for this toy).

As I got older, this garage you could design the way you wanted it, you could move the ramps etc...and matchbox cars fit in it!  It was sponsored by BP fuel

The height of this garage made it so desired by kids and the elevator was battery operated..it didn't get any cooler than that!  The ability to park 10 cars was mind blowing 

Now came the cumulative sum of all the features of the above childhood into the earlier lego parking garage set

This set has all features of the above non lego garages...cars, rails, elevators to multiple levels, people, motorcycles...what more could a kid want???  All the pieces could be made into any configuration as seen by the alternate builds on the back of the box.  This set also highlights Shell corporations sponsorship.

Then, a few years ago lego made a second version.  

Interestingly, there is reference to Octan fuel company (a fictitious company) vs.  A real company (Shell) The cars are rounded out and the elevator goes all the way to the top.  I don't know which of the lego parking garages is bettter??, but the concept of toy parking garages has sure come a long way!!!

This 1982 lego creation was all "mine"

 This was my first moc i did on my own...it was for a 6th grade project on coal ...I used an aquarium with a shoebox, Styrofoam peanuts, and Legos.  (The red clips on the one machine..whatever it was supposed to be, were from the 383 set.)  I had plans to make better coal mining equipment, but I put off the deadline too long!

The red clips in set 383 above

My equipment looked like alligator jaws.  I have to admit my moc wasn't the best quality!!!  But i was the founder of lego and STEM!  But Mindstorms and robots by lego did surpass me.