Dry-lakes scratchbashed '29 Ford/Ardun: Front 4-link, etc., Jan. 26

[Dragline]

Read this from the start and I must say this is coming along VERY nicely Bill. The engineering is top notch, execution is typical from you. Just all the right parts in the right places.

 

Very enjoyable to follow.

[Mr. Metallic]

Love this build. Rather than search through all 10 pages to find the answer, I'll just ask. Any idea where those yellow front wheels are from? They look to be a larger diameter than the similar ones in the AMT Double Dragster.

[Ace-Garageguy]

As always, I appreciate everyone's interest and comments.

 Rather than search through all 10 pages to find the answer, I'll just ask. Any idea where those yellow front wheels are from? They look to be a larger diameter than the similar ones in the AMT Double Dragster.

Actually, that's exactly where they're from. 

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

YAY, Bill painted something!!!!!

Go Bill, go...

[Ace-Garageguy]

Bill,

... When you say mould, does that mean you will be making copies and, if so might these be available to Forum members?

Yes, there will be copies. I'll be making molds of the individual custom parts...nose, hood, side panels, and bellypans, tonneau and fairing...to produce almost-scale thickness fiberglass copies for myself so I can build this thing with opening panels to show off the guts. The model was designed with the intention of fitting the old AMT 1929 Ford body shell...which has recently been repopped as the Mod Rod...and a resin-caster has expressed interest in producing some traditional resin copies (different from the fiberglass ones I'll be doing) too. The recent Revell '29 Ford and '30 ford underpinnings could also work as donors.

Hey Bill, if you ever get to making copies of this little rocket, I would be happy to trade you for a full set of vacformed  components to build a replica of the Niekamp roadster that was in your B&W reference photo. I built one 20 years ago for the Model Car Museum in Salt Lake City and a slightly different version for myself.  Your Kurtis and my Niekamp would make a great couple!

Alan, I'm familiar with your model of the Niekamp car (very nice) and you're right, they belong together. I'm sure something can be arranged.  

[Mr. Metallic]

As always, I appreciate everyone's interest and comments.

Actually, that's exactly where they're from. 

 

 

Aww man. I was hoping they were from a different source because they looked like a bigger diameter. The search continues

[Ace-Garageguy]

Aww man. I was hoping they were from a different source because they looked like a bigger diameter. The search continues

I've been looking for the similar wheels in a larger diameter too. It just occurred to me that the rim could be wrapped with styrene strip, very carefully of course, to add an inch or two to the outside diameter. You're probably aware that one of the wheels they represent is the early Palamides alloy wheel introduced in 1956 (later became American Racing), so a 16" diameter would be common back then.

[cobraman]

Glad to see you working on this one ( any one really ). Looking very good. Looking forward to seeing it finished one day. Keep er' goin' !

[Earl Marischal]

Thanks Bill for taking the time to reply.

I will need to keep an eye out for the resin now.

Cheers

steve 

[alan barton]

Thanks Bill, glad you liked my Niekamp!  Your Kurtis version reminds me very much of a beautiful white and blue 29 lowboy that I photographed at Bonneville back in 1992.  Apparently it had been racing since the fifties and I believe it is now fully restored.  The grille was more early Ferrari style but your build really brings back memories for me.

 

Cheers

Alan

[Ace-Garageguy]

I made a stupid noob mistake, and it's costing me plenty of extra effort to fix it.

While getting this ready to paint, I rushed the final sanding just a bit so as to get on with the project. After the first 3 coats of paint, I needed to sand a little peel out before shooting more. In the process, I went through the paint into primer in a couple of areas I SHOULD have got straighter BEFORE I ever started painting.

So, when I re-coated the little car, on the areas I sanded through the paint acted much like enamel rather than lacquer, wrinkling around the edges. I can't just bury it in mist coats, as there's fine detail I don't want to obliterate. Nor do I want to strip it, because that will eat into my carefully done bodywork and really make a mess...further delaying the build by weeks.

Yes, I'm irked that my own impatience to try to finish SOMETHING has bitten my behind...as I knew it probably would.

I will now have to very carefully sand the entire body AGAIN, re-scribe all the body lines, and then TRY to shoot three more coats dry enough to avoid more lifting / wrinkling, but wet enough to flow out enough to avoid a LOT of finish sanding.

Lesson: Shortcuts rarely are. Stick to what you KNOW works, even if it takes a little longer. 

[Jantrix]

Ouch. Real sorry to hear that. This is why I tend to avoid a lot of custom work. When I inevitably screw up, it's that much harder to fix.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Ouch. Real sorry to hear that. This is why I tend to avoid a lot of custom work. When I inevitably screw up, it's that much harder to fix.

Thanks Rob. Yup, one of the reasons that i rarely actually finish anything is that most of my work IS a lot of custom stuff, and things like this inevitably crop up. 

I'll often just shelve a problem build...sometimes for years... but I'm so close to getting this one looking like something, I think I'll press on.  

[cobraman]

Cool model Bill, keep er' goin' !

[Codi]

That's truly not cool Bill but the car is simply such an interesting build that I hope you see it through. For anyone that hasn't learned the valuable lesson you've shared, they should consider it before dunkin' a body into the "purple pond".  That lesson being that the only way to go to SAVE all your hard earned body mods is to sand it off.  I dunked my first car after a botched paint job when I returned to the hobby.  Had lots of filler and changes to all 4 fenders.  Ate all the bondo etc. away and had to do it all over again.  Never did that again.  Thanks for sharing your experiences and if even one builder avoids that mistake, you performed a valuable service.  Look forward to your next post.  Cheers, Tim

[Ace-Garageguy]

Rattlecan Ace-Hardware white lacquer, sanded and polished...but not too glossy. Too much gloss at this point can make it a bugger to get the PVA mold-release to lie down slick.

Masked for pulling molds for front sheetmetal, with a coat of PVA sprayed...

[Dirty Dave]

All this time later, and I'm glad to see that progress is still being made.

[landman]

I think my favorite part of your builds is my personal learning while watching you take the time to make sure it's possible for this to exist in 1:1

Me too. Loving this.

[Ace-Garageguy]

All this time later, and I'm glad to see that progress is still being made.

Me too. Loving this.

Thanks for the interest, again.   

I laid up a mold of the entire nose and hood, using a high-strength epoxy and very fine cloth. Not my best work to date, but I was in the big-car shop and decided to use up some resin I'd mixed for a 1:1 project. Anyway, I rushed the work a little and didn't really think the draft-angles through very well, but she'll be OK.

The release was a little dicey, but the mold did finally come off with minimal damage to the plug, and no damage to the mold.

The next step is to prep the tonneau and pull a mold of it. After that, the plug can be set aside or discarded, though I'll probably use the nose of the plug as a final part of this particular model. Fiberglass copies of the hood and tonneau, as well as the bellypans and decklid, will finish her up.

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Made the mold for the hard tonneau. The draft angles were not quite right on the plug and I got in a hurry. The result was minor damage to the plug, but the mold is fine.

The body parts were designed and developed to go on a suitably modified AMT '29 Ford body shell. The junkyard yielded this candidate, needing some repairs as well...which is just fine. The hood is solidly glued to the cowl, so this thing is pretty much useless otherwise anyway.

Here's the modified shell, and the first set of parts out of the molds. They have been cleaned of mold release, and shot with a coat of self-etching black primer to show up defects.

This underside shot demonstrates how thin the molds and parts are. Entirely different from the usual "resin".

Parts being fitted to the modified shell. Though everything needs a little more finessing, it all works and fits as intended.

[chris chabre]

AWESOME!!!!

[alan barton]

Hi Bill, fantastic to see this progressing after all your trials and tribulations.  Unfortunately they are a part of the things we do - if we just built box stock we would only have to worry about a few seam liines and sink marks but where would the fun be in that?  This car is looking stunning.  If it were mine, I would be building the original up as a curbside, just for a bit of instant gratification and to keep the juices flowing on the full detail version.  Either way it is going to look as cool as any Model A that ever hit the dry lakes.

 And when the day comes for production of your fibreglass copies, please be sure to keep me in mind.

Cheers

Alan

!

[STYRENE-SURFER]

Bill, great to see you are still working on this. It takes a great amount of skill and perseverance to muck around with fiberglass and epoxy mold making 

and to do it at this scale is quite amazing. My only experience is with much larger models (1/8th and larger scale R.C. warbirds).

Your projects are always interesting, thanx for showing us how you do it.

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Thanks for the comments and interest.  

16 hours ago, alan barton said:

 ...If it were mine, I would be building the original up as a curbside, just for a bit of instant gratification and to keep the juices flowing on the full detail version...

Funny...I thought about that, and after your reminder, it will probably happen. There are some repairs that need to be done on the plug, but nothing overly dramatic. It would be nice to have it in one solid piece to try the paint scheme I'm thinking of too, and possibly make up some frisket masks. 

I'm also kinda thinking of doing a silicone mold of the whole thing, maybe making a few copies as curbsides that could be opened up by an enterprising builder.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[Ace-Garageguy]

I built some structure in the front of the new shell. It will form the front body mount, as well as support the firewall and footbox for the driver. The flanges on the body sides will positively locate the hood side panels.

Lefty still has infinite patience when it comes to helping fit parts so a real driver could actually operate things. One of my goals with most models is to make them represent reality close enough so that they could be scaled up and built 1:1 pretty much as-is. That framework isn't actually wonky, by the way. It's an optical illusion.

New seat supports on frame, firewall and footbox, and decklid fitted to new shell.

Fabbed some new wheel opening fillers too, made to fit the previously built-up plug for the rear bellypan. The bellypan assembly had warped a little over time since I worked on it last, owing to the very slow evaporative drying of liquid "cement" trapped between layers of plastic. I also found that there is an inherent slight twist in these AMT '29 Ford body shells.

Looking like it's supposed to (though the helmet fairing is shown too far to the rear; it's been corrected).

The rear axle was mocked up previously with a spring and spacers to simulate hangers and shackles. Below, the axle is getting mount tubes for the shackles. The threaded rod and nuts hold the axle bells in correct alignment without glue, while I build the spring mounts. It all has to be taken apart again to be painted. The inboard ends of the axle bells have been thinned to better represent reality than the way-overly-thick usual kit parts.

Below, the tubes the shackles bolt to have been trimmed to length, and spring "eyes" are being formed on the spring ends using styrene rod.

One more shot for tonight: the spring eyes are done. Now they just have to be drilled, and the rest of the shackles made up and attached.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy