115 replies to this topic

[Casey]

Thanks to Crazy Ed, we now have a driver:



He'll be sitting low, with only part of his helmet sticking up above the top of the car.




He's a perfect fit, so thank you again, Ed.

I started assembling the turbine engine last night, and I think I've hit my first bump in the road. The engine is so compact, it looks like a 1/32 scale engine, and will probably be smaller than the driver figure. I may have to upgrade to a larger turbine engine (Huey 'copter, maybe?) to keep everything looking more proportionate, even though the Howmet turbine engine is 1/25 scale. Perhaps a body shortening is in order...

[CorvairJim]

Casey: DON'T DO IT! Turbine engines are known to be very powerful for their size. Anyone who knows them would notice right off the bat that the helicopter engine was W-A-Y too big for the car! Your Howmet powerplant is more than enough for a way-modified Avanti. Here's a thought for you - Maybe you could mount the engine further back in the chassis to make room for a provisional 2nd seat, to make the car eligible for international endurance racing?

BTW: I like the concept of a turbine in a Stude, given Andy Granatelli's association with both Studebaker and his turbine-powered Indianapolis racing efforts. A great tie-in.)

[Crazy Ed]

Casey, that "little" Turbine weighed less than 200 lbs and put out ~350 HP and over 600 ft lbs of Torque so there's plenty of go power in that little whiner
And you are very welcome.

Edited by Crazy Ed, 02 August 2012 - 03:23 PM.

[Casey]

When I read the Howmet's Continental turbine engine weighed 150 lbs I was thinking that had to be a typo, but it make sense given how simple the turbine engine concept is.

Good idea on the second seat, Jim, but I think with the asymmetrical Avanti hood styling element, a second seat might balance things out too much. I will likely end up keeping the Conti turbine, even if it "looks" small. I've still got a ton of chassis and suspension work to do, so maybe a compact, small engine wouldn't be such a bad thing to have to work around.

[Monty]

For those of you who're considering building AMT's Avanti kit or using its engine, here's a link to some up-close pics of the 1:1 J-5 engine. IIRC, AMT included parts to build the single turbo engine as well as this twin-turbo version.
http://www.studebake...1/dc230211.html

[Crazy Ed]

Fun Link Monty. FWIW, the Studebaker used Paxton Supercharger(s) not Turbo's and the engines were id'd with the letter R not J

[Monty]

Fun Link Monty. FWIW, the Studebaker used Paxton Supercharger(s) not Turbo's and the engines were id'd with the letter R not J

Note to self: Posting while multitasking will make you look like an idiot. Stop it. Stop it now.

[Casey]

That cowl you see poking up is probably going to be sunken a few scale inches down into the body *snip*

...or maybe not.

I decided to leave the original cowl panel in place to retain another stock design element, and so that the driver figure will appear to be sitting a bit deeper inside the body. Next, I glued the hood to the body and was pleased with the contour of the trunk/deck area and how the front fender rear quarter panel tops worked with the deck, so I kept the rear third of the car mostly stock. I did start to fill in the cowl vents and the driver's headrest fairing will be modified a bit, but it should retain its squarish shoulders if all goes according to what I have planned.

I glued both doors closed a few days ago, since the last pics were taken, so I'm committed to having a fully closed one-piece body shell at this point, with maybe a second piece which will cover the driver and engine compartment. I will add a full belly pan, too, once I have to body shell finalized.

I began forming the deck/hood from the cowl forward, but have yet to glue it in place. I wanted to be sure the blade-like fender tops were still a prominent feature and harmonized with the rear quarter panel tops, while making sure the deck/hood wasn't too flat. I am going to leave a subtle convex curvature in the deck/hood, so it works with what's going on at the rear of the car, only a bit less bulbous.

Here are some pics of where the car is at now:








I emphasized the shadows in this pic to help determine of the front fenders were where I wanted them to be:




From the top:




Time to lay down some more superglue.

[jeffs396]

Wow Casey, quite the undertaking on your Avanti transformation, very cool!

[Casey]

After a few rounds of sanding, priming, then repeating, the body is finally coming into shape. The former hood/cowl bulge, which will now form the fairing behind the driver's head, needs to be a bit taller, and I have to add a matching/mirror image air duct to feed the turbine engine, but those will be tended to once the final engine and driver positions are established.

I took some late evening pics with poor lighting, so these'll have to do for now.






I've tried to retain the stock body's hourglass shape, while still giving it a slight taper from back to front, and I'm happy with how the fender and quarter panel peaks work together (and are now symmetrical side-to-side), even though they aren't an exact match front-to-back. The slight;y mismatched front and rear wheel arches still bother me, so I think I need to "sweep back" the rear openings a bit more.

[Crazy Ed]

That's coming along nicely Casey. FWIW rather than raising what's been turned into the drivers headrest might I suggest a simple hoop rollbar. It'd add the height with a period look.

[cobraman]

That is looking very sharp. I have to agree on the wheel wells. They just don't look quite right to the eye. I think modifying them could make a big difference.

[Jantrix]

Yep, I have always hated the Avanti wheel wells, but love everything else. Great work going on here.

[Casey]

FWIW rather than raising what's been turned into the drivers headrest might I suggest a simple hoop rollbar. It'd add the height with a period look.

That's kind of what I am going with, as the fairing behind the driver's head will not to very tall, and likely not as high as the top of the driver's helmet. I always liked the hoop on Marv Eldridge's Fiberglass Trends 'Vette roadster F/C, so I kind of emulated that here. I plan to position the driver so that his eyes are just over the top of the body, which will allow me to use a lower rollbar hoop like so:






I used two sections from the Avanti's original C-pillars to form the hoop, then laminated a thin piece of styrene on the inside for strength. I will thin it down a bit and blend it into the fairing/hood bulge once I get closer to determining the driver's final position, as it was left too tall for now:






The rear wheel arches are going to need some filler strips and sanding, as they are uneven side-to-side, and need more forward lean to be consistent with the front wheel arches.

[Crazy Ed]

You had mentioned using the C-Pillars for a Rollbar in your concept description. I wasn't sure how that'd work out. Turns out Very Well!

[Casey]

I had been eying up a Star Wars kit at Michaels, hoping the exhaust outlets would work since there's no scale listed on the box. Today with a 50% off coupon in hand I decided to roll the dice and see if they were the right size:








Almost perfect. Now I have to clean up the headlight holes, make some beveled mounting rings for the outlets/tips, and drill the centers out.

[Danno]

Holy Studejet, Batman!






Gee, Grandma, what big peepers you have!

[Wicky]

Hi guys , I'll join in here as there's plenty of time left , I wont be making the meet and greet though as it's a bit far for me . I'll have a dig through my kit stash , there's a salty dog and a miss deal in there somewhere .

[Wicky]

I found the Salty Dog , so this will be my build





somewhere in there is a complete ( I hope ) kit .

Edited by Wicky, 04 September 2012 - 02:26 AM.

[Wicky]

made a start on the body



for anyone unfamiliar with this kit it comes with a stock shell and a seperate roof panel , to build it by the instructions you're supposed to chop it through all the posts ( in the right place of course ) and glue the new roof on , problem is the replacement roof panel has no top for the windscreen or front quater lights ( box art actually shows it with the quater lights removed , but I wanted to keep them ) , so when I mocked it up like that it just looked wrong to me . My answer was to use the rear half of the replacement roof and the front half of the original and do a " propper " chop on it , looks a lot better like this I think , I also removed the moulded in windscreen wipers , they look way too long with the chop and I dont think you'd be using this thing in the rain anyway . still a ways to go on this yet , lots of filling and sanding to get the roof lookin right and ready for paint .

Edited by Wicky, 11 September 2012 - 12:36 AM.