Ira Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 Well Done, Very Nice Body Work & Detailing!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 Your gracious comments and interest are very much appreciated. Rob, I found some 1/2 round faux stick-on "Diamonds" at Michael s Craft store; a plastic card with rows of these clear gemstones with adhesive backs. I guessed that the glue was of the non-drying variety, so I cleaned it off with lacquer thinner and then glued two halves together with CA to form a spherical crystal. Then the small section of tube was glued on, again with CA. It took a few tries to get the two halves lined up before the glue set. The end result was the right size for a shift knob and somewhat unique. I've received about as many comments on the gearshift as rest of the interior. Bernard, the accuracy of the cutouts were not that much of a concern. If I remember right, the cut was made with the back of an Xacto blade, same as cutting out a door or trunk panel. While the cut wasn't a big deal, the edge around the openings had to follow the bead at the edge and be very straight and precise. Files and sandpaper around small wooden blocks took care of that. To accommodate the thickness of the upholstery, the gap had to be generous at about 1/32 of an inch. Any less than this and the insert wouldn't fit back into the seat. Any more than 1/32" and the insert would be too loose. There was a lot more work involved in fitting and refitting the upholstered panel than in getting a straight cut. As for the square holes, just build one of these: http://web.mat.bham.ac.uk/C.J.Sangwin/howroundcom/roundness/applications.html ... or do what I do; drill a small hole and file to shape with a square jewelers file. One thing about inner panels, square and other odd shaped holes are common place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 That's some excellent looking work Alyn! I definitely want to give that inner door structure a try on a project! Keep coming with the updates! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 almost forgot about this one. In my opinion, one of the more challenging things to do to an older hot rod is lowering the front end. On the 40 Ford, the axle runs under the frame rails with a transverse leaf spring used for support. The simplest thing to do is use a drop axle. The kit comes with one, but mine was donated to another project. I like to use the suicide front end; simple and it can easily drop the front end as much as you like. By design, the wheelbase ends up longer, but that's pretty commonplace with rat rods. I added a straight front cross member, and then constructed the suicide mount from some "C" channel styrene. A slot was cut to mate up with the tab on top of the leaf spring. This provides a positive connection between the two parts. Here's the finished mount in primer. I added some holes to accept some bolts. Radius arms locate the axle to the frame. The arms consist of aluminum tube, slightly crushed to create an oval cross section. There's no particular reason to do this. I just thought the arms would look better this way. Holes were drilled along the length of the arms for character, and styrene was epoxied into the ends to facilitate mounting.At the frame end, I fabbed up some brackets using square styrene tube. once again, in primer: 9" Ford rear axle as provided by the kit. This will be located with radius arms provided in the kit. I cut out the molded in gas tank to make it easier to paint. It was nestled down between the frame rails so deep that accurate masking would have been very difficult. thanks for looking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01blueedge Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 looking good so far I like how the seat turned out cant wait to see more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob McKee Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Alyn, that is incredible detail on the door panels. I have never seen anyone do that before with a realistic looking outcome. I can't wait to see more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cranky Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Nice work, keep it going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintagedragfan Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 (edited) sweet work Alyn!, I know you have the trophy's to prove it, can't wait to see your catalina!! Edited January 9, 2012 by vintagedragfan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wraith Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I LOVE THIS THING! AWESOME work all around! I see many things I would like to try/do to my 40 Ford Pickup when I pull it back out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 thanks for the interest, guys. Bil, nice to see you on-line. I'll be looking for some pics of your awesome aluminum work - real soon Darrick, build away. I'll be looking for some progress pics on the 40. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmvw guy Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Really nice work! I enjoyed looking at all and the coments. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wraith Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 thanks for the interest, guys. Bil, nice to see you on-line. I'll be looking for some pics of your awesome aluminum work - real soon Darrick, build away. I'll be looking for some progress pics on the 40. It might be a lil ways yet! lol! already have 5 projects going right now. too many at once but one idea on one leads to a idea on another and you get the idea. I will post pics when I get to working on it! Keep up the good work so I can have more to try on my truck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bates Offroad Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 For the headlights, I started with the caps off some scrap ball point pens. The slight flat spot on the ends of the caps were filled and rounded over. Once the shape was right, the caps were used as masters to create a mold. This in turn was used to create some resin copies that were trimmed to the length of typical late 30's, early 40's headlight buckets. To cap them off, I filed down some slices of 5/32" heavy wall aluminum tube to make the headlight bezels. Once they had the correct rounded shape, they were polished with Dupont #7 polishing compound. Luckily I found some lenses the fit with just the slightest bit of sanding. Great Idea!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 My how time flies. Our local club, The KC Slammers is having a 55Chevy Cameo group build with a deadline for this June's Heartland Nationals here in Kansas City, so that's been getting some of my bench time. I'm also building a spray booth; more stuff, more time. Anyway, back to Rocky's Rat. Time to build a flathead. I think motors might be my favorite part of modeling, and flat heads may be the ultimate. Great cool factor. Here's the starting point, the flathead from the kit with some resin heads to get the center outlets for the coolant pipes, and twin carb manifold. The pot metal carbs are a darker gray than the aluminum manifold, not the gold that is all too commonly used. Heads are drilled for later installation of spark plugs I built the carb linkage from some copper wire. The throttle arms are flattened wire that is soldered to the wire shafts. Here's the arms mounted to the carbs. You can also see the 1/32" holes drilled in the float bowls to accept some fuel line fittings. Plug wire guide tubes are created using 1/16" aluminum tube with .022" holes drilled for the spark plug wires. The front of the tubes bend down to the distributor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 (edited) Here's the top end with completed linkage and hand wound return spring. The right angle bend at the end of the linkage is for a throttle arm at the firewall. The excess wire will be clipped off after the arm is permanently installed. At this point, the plugs and wires are also in place For exhaust, I'll build some megaphone style headers. These start out as some ferrules from cheap paint brushes. I look for some that don't have seams, and are of sufficient diameter. Then the appropriate size hole is drilled in some flat .015" brass sheet for the flange. A few sessions with a round file are needed to get a nice fit. The flange is soldered to the tapered ferrule. After some filing and trimming, they end up like this. I should have drilled a hole in each corner of the flange. Maybe next time... Styrene rod is epoxied to the end of thie finished megaphone and bent to get the right angle. Here's the completed header ready for finish sanding and primer. Carb stacks are 3/32" aluminum tube, angle cut and painted red inside for some style. Edited February 18, 2012 by Alyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramfins59 Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Absolutely awesome work Alyn. I love how this is coming out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 Finished drivers side header in primer which will serve as a basecoat for some aging. I've also started fitting the radiator tubes. Finished headers after some salt technique rusting and a bit of black on each tube where the paint is burning off. The radiator cap is made using the extrusion method with a pressure relief button added in the center. You can see the brass inserted into the carb float bowls with the rear carb having the fuel line tubing. This is actually tube, not solid fishing line. I found it at Cabella's in the fishing department; micro-tubing. I don't have a clue what fishermen would use it for. Although hard to see, there's also a dip stick made from copper wire and brass tube between the front two header tubes. These are the coolant tubes. I like to pin them to assist with final assemble. The pins add strenghth as well. The flex hose is heat shrink tubing with BMF used for hose clamps. The final product. Hook up the battery and fuel lines and she's ready for a test fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Most Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Alyn- dumb question- are these WIP pics from the '40 you already did, or are you building another one like it to show how it was done? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 Absolutely awesome work Alyn. I love how this is coming out. Thanks, Rich. I love building these flatheads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vwrabbit Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Nice work! And thanks for sharing! Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 Alyn- dumb question- are these WIP pics from the '40 you already did, or are you building another one like it to show how it was done? Not a dumb question at all. I mean, who does a WIP after the fact? Me, I guess. This is the already completed car that you've seen. I was asked to show some of the details on the finished car, so I figured a WIP would be the best way to handle it. I'll probably do this on a couple of other completed cars as well. Some of my earlier WIPs were on an obscure forum where few here at MCM have seen them. The Retro Ram 99 Dodge truck will likely be one of them. I think you've seen that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alyn Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 Nice work! And thanks for sharing! Tim Thanks, Tim. I appreciate your interest and nice words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Cole Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 This is some amazing stuff! Great scratch-building. Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenb Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Alyn, love your style of building. I'm picking up a lot of ideas from you. This is a very nice build. I also spend a lot of time scratch building to get the look I desire. Keep up the great work, I'm watching. Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Most Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 The Retro Ram 99 Dodge truck will likely be one of them. I think you've seen that one. I have. Still one of my all-time favorites. That thing was so twisted (in a GOOD way) I can't belive I didn't build it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.