Straightliner59

Thank you, kindly, Jim. I appreciate it! Here's an update with the dash/gauge panel. Dash is Krylon Semi-Flat Black. Gauges are from Auto Meter's website. I sized them, and printed them on photo paper. I'm currently working on the switches, and starter button. I'm hoping to get the interior wrapped up in the next couple of days. Thanks for looking!

Here's the anti-sub belt and harness clasp. As I stated above, I textured a piece of old toothpaste tube by rolling it over an aluminum rod with a 6" fine mill bastard, in order to achieve some sort of texture similar to the Eduard belts. It's not as fine, but, it's not horrible. Typically, I use a material without texture, because the weave of harness material is so fine , that it would be barely there, in 1/25 scale. Also pictured are the beginnings of the gauge panel. Bezels are 1/8" aluminum rod that I bored, shaped, and cut to length. Gauges (not pictured) were sized using Word, and printed on photo paper. Lenses will be punched from clear sheet. Comments, etc. are always welcome. Thanks for looking!

Thanks, Scott! I'm going to try making matching dies, so I can do the curved lines for a dragster cowl. It should work, well, and I have just the project, in mind--it needs a new body. And, to be completed!😀

Nice work with the tin!

There are quite a few on Ebay for very reasonable prices. Not all of them, of course, but I saw one or two that could be had for about $40, shipped.

This one has one of the wheel/tire sets they also released separately. There were four different wheel sets (all the tires were the Radial T/As). There was a set of slots, the "Vector" type, pictured above. I can't recall what the other two were. Later, they were re-released by Arii. They were very nice wheels and tires!

Thanks, Ian. They do look really nice! Just a little more work than the "lead" foil I generally use. This set didn't come with an anti-sub belt, so I made it from a piece of an old toothpaste tube. I used a 6" bastard, and rolled it over a round handle, to give it some texture to try to match the Eduard belts. It worked out pretty decently. I'll post photos, with the next update. Thanks, Ron.

I got the seat installed, along with the lap belts. The shoulder belts are attached to the cage, but the cage can't be installed, until the dash is completed and installed (I'm working on that, next--I think! 😄). One thing I like best about the Eduard belts is the printing of the stitching. One of the things I like the least about them, is the stiffness of the material that stitching is printed on. It's very difficult to get it posed, so that it doesn't look posed. I'll mess with the shoulder belts some more, next time I pull the cage out of the tub. The shoulder straps are "wrapped" around the shoulder bar, as nearly as I could do them, given this material's rigidity. They're secured in place by an apparatus (in 1:1) that bolts around the bar. I faked it with Contrails round styrene tube. The seat covering is painted Krylon Chalky Finish Charcoal(?). Once that dried, I drew (no pun intended) a Prismacolor black pencil through the patterns, to give them some depth. I think that's about it, for now. As always, questions, comments and critiques are welcome. Thanks for looking!

I really like the basic white bumpers and grille! Cool!

The linkages for the Lenco are done! Since the photos, I've painted them (Tamiya Titanium Gold Acrylic). I'm happy with the way they worked out. I used some old MSC (I suppose that's redundant!) silver/grey 1/25 plug wire, to make them. Anyhoo...

The seat belts are mounted/installed. The lap belts are fastened to the floor with model railroad hex nut/bolt/washer castings. The Eduard belt material is pretty stiff to work with, so I had to fake the wrapping of the belts on the shoulder bar, rather than the actual way it's done. The cage will be installed once the seat, dash, wheel, and shifter details are all installed. Comments, critiques and questions are always welcome. Thanks for looking!

Once you get the hang of it, you can make longer bends, too. I've used it a lot, over the years!

Oh, yeah. I remember seeing those heavy old things!

I made this bender on a lathe. It does a decent job of bending 1/16" and 3/32" tubing, without kinking.. I made this drill from a battery powered eraser. I needed to use a couple of layers of heat shrink, so the metal clip that holds the eraser can grasp the carbide bits. This is perfect for these bits, because it's high speed, and ultra-low torque. If the bit grabs, the motor stops turning--tiny bits, too. I used it to drill through the thin aluminum of the wing of my Supermod, quickly and easily! Sometimes, I have to reset the bit in the clip, to eliminate the wobble, before drilling. Finally, I superglued brass strips to this sheet metal bender, with just enough offset to clear the sheet I was messing around with. Once the sheet was aligned, I gave it a squeeze, and ended up with smooth lap joints. It'll be mostly, and especially useful for dragster body side panels.

Nice! That'll come in all kinds of handy! Mine's all in an old Evergreen bin.

Here's the one I did, with light "overspray". The rest of it's down and dirty, as I really just wanted to try it out. Usually, I would have taped off the trim, and shaped the seams. This is a slammer I did using the Hasegawa Buick. I used a spray bomb, to do this one. I would guess that even finer grain could be achieved, experimenting with an airbrush.

I made the knobs for the Lenco shifters from sprue from an '80s Monogram Pro Stock kit. I sliced thin discs and made a slit on the side of each, to fit over the handle(s). I may use the red roll cage padding, but I have black, as well. Work is progressing! Comments are always welcomed. Thanks for looking!

I'd say the way to go is to tape off the body and dust paint on the roof, after applying a color coat. It's the best method I've seen or tried. Simple, too.

I don't generally use stuff that's in a "finished" state. I was, however, intrigued enough by the Eduard safety harness sets to order a couple of sets of them. I like that the metal is soft enough to be easily cut from the fret with a #11 X-Acto blade. Most frequently, I use lead foil (actually foil from wine bottles, which is no longer lead, but has most of the same properties as Pb) for the belts, because I really don't think 1/25 scale belts need any texture. I digress. The belts that Eduard provides are photoetched with a textured pattern that I'd call heavy, but not annoyingly-so. The sets go together fairly easily, and they look good. Most of Eduard's harness sets are Sabelt. Obviously, in drag racing, Simpson is pretty dominantly used. So, I printed some Simpson decals (heads-up: On Simpson's website, their logo is in .svg format, which is perfect for making decals!) to place over the Sabelt markings. Speaking of markings, I also like the stitching that's printed on the belts. It's nice touch. I think it will look better, toned down, a tad, with some grey/tan pastel. I'll do a bit of touchup, and cover the visible portions of the Sabelt tags with the same paint, while I'm at it. Anyway, here are a couple of shots of Eduard's harness set, before and after...Thanks for looking!

The 'chute packs look great!

They're awesome! I just discovered them in the last couple of years. Everything you said is true, about them, and, they can be had much less expensively! I bought 100 of them for about $12, and they came with a handle. Without the handle they're about $10!

More progress...I somehow managed to build a .063" styrene rod roll cage that was sturdy enough to go into out of the interior, for fitting, etc. I got the door bars made and installed to it, as well. Next, I'll finish up the Lenco. The dash will at least be partially painted the same Mulsanne Blue as the car's exterior. There's still a fair amount of work, to go, here, but I am very happy with today's progress! Thanks for looking!

On to the interior... Boy, that Lenco shifter cluster was fun! Now for the knobs. Next, I'll finish the shift towers. I'll wrap up the Lenco with the linkages from the towers to the shifters. Your comments, critiques and questions are always welcomed. Thanks for looking!

Go to your regular search engine, and type "site:modelcarsmag.com" (without the quotes) then enter the search terms. That'll work much better for you. Ace Garage Guy gets the credit for that method. In fact, it's in the thread directly above.

It's coming along very nicely, Ian! Great progress, too!