Duck, PRO 275, RVW, 66 Chevy II

[Deuces WiId]

Skip straight to paragraph 3 for model details and build progress. 

  I purchased my first model while I was in Hobby Lobby pushing the cart around for the wife. My offspring wanted a Star Wars model. I walked down the isle to help him pick one out when a AMT 66 Nova caught my attention. Just across the isle was an assortment of little rods, tubes, thin sheet stock in various materials that I never thought of mixing in with a model. Since I don't know what moderation is I cleared out and filled up the buggy with one of everything. I got everything from an airbrush to glue that I thought was needed for scratch building a model. 

I built my Nova in the garage with my dad when I was a teen in the 90's. I  back halfed it, built a 454 with a little nitrous and went deep 10s in it, was pretty quick back then. Fast forward a few years with college behind me and little bit of folding money in my pocket I had the itch to go faster. It was about this time that my track was asking around if anyone would be interested in bringing in new series that was quickly becoming becoming very popular, PDRA OUTLAW 10.5. After reading the rule book and talking to a fellow racer who was going enter the series with a new car (a Matco Tool dealer who at the time had a orange SN95 Mustang, Mr Stevie "Fast" Jackson). My Nova was never going to be competitive unless I cut it down to just the roof and quarters. My car was was to nice for that so I pushed it off to the corner of the shop and began to build something more deserving of that fate, a foxbody! The rules back then were very favorable to turbo setups, so to the dark side I went. I went through a total of 4 foxbodies (Jersey Barriers are just as hard as they look, and a hurricane dropped a big tree on my shop and took out number 3) I was pretty successful with them, updating them along the way as the PDRA and 10.5W tires stepped out of favor to drag radials and the greatest race promoter ever, Mr Ducky X. Cars 3 and 4 went to the front when my transmission builder told me to blow some Co2 into a new torque converter design that he was working on with his converter guys.The Proline stage 2.5 mill was estamated to be producing over 5,000 HP with its PTE promod gen 2 102mm turbos when it ran deep in the 3.8's at a slow 220 MPH. I was able to come pretty close to matching that MPH the following season.... sliding across the beams on my roof. The ET took a big hit, along with two vertebrae in my  back, my tibia and fibula, collar bone, some ribs, a punctured lung and while I didn't break my neck it's bothersome too. I left the hospital after a long couple of weeks in a hospital gown with my bare butt hanging out the back. I parted out my entire race program and I've only piloted 1 fast car early last year after I was almost completely recovered. The seat and belts were molded and setup for a driver much shorter than me. I didn't wiggle and sinche hard enough when strapping in and when the car left I was pulled pretty far back into the seat and when the laundry launched it threw me hard into the belts that were mounted well below my shoulders and compressed my back so hard that it broke the bolts loose in my L4-L5 vertebrae. I played it off since fast>walking and made 2 more passes until I was knocked out in round 1.

This little plastic AMT Chevrolet is the race car I always wanted but never had the heart to cut up and build. I can't use much of my Nova for reference because it still has my old booger welded back half and cage, an old bolt in Mustang II hot rod style front subframe, an HRE 427" LSX, a big Whipple charger, and syncroless T-56 because rowing through the gears without using the clutch pedal is fun. It's not quick because it just wads up the 14" slicks, but it's a fun street car. I still have chassis #3 which is a double frame rail with the connected mid plate and firewall. 

Model Details and plans: High Ambitious 

I'm going to build the car in 2 stages. Stage 1 is not going to use any aftermarket parts. I don't think I can learn the fundamentals of scratch building if I just glue a bunch of aftermarket parts into it. I'm using CAD to help me get started, as I've completley tore down and rebuilt the entire chassis 3 times now without it. I still have to cut off and redo a couple of things now, but nothing too much. The suspension is fully functional, as in the chassis separates a full 5mm when rotating the pinion back. The front doesn't work very as of yet because I'm still trying to figure out what fluid I can safely use and properly valve the shocks. Right now the shocks are working on friction for testing. The front struts don't have any pistons in them and it's just sitting on some hard springs to maintain the minimal 3" ride height during construction. I'll shorten the shafts and affix them to the chassis with a more appropriate spring as the build gets closer to completion. I'm going to detail kits small block with the tunnel ram. My 40 Ford coupe deluxe has an old 350 in it with a Wieand tunnel ram. When phase 2 starts I'll pull the engine and reserve it for a future build of it. The transmission is a Reid case M&M turboglide, my first attempt to carve one out of miliput wasn't very convincing. 

Phase I progress:

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by Deuces WiId

[Deuces WiId]

Here's some tools made out of household junk drawer items. I haven't seen any of them on the forum so far, but I'm also new and haven't been able to read much. There's also a lot of old posts with broken links to photos. 

Scribing tool made out of a mechanical pencil with a needle in place of the lead.

Tubing and rod cutter using cat toe nail clippers. Just put them on the cut line, apply slight pressure and spin the rod until it cuts free. Quick and perfectly squared off with no cleaning necessary. 

Perfect scratch built hex rod for nuts and bolts. Chuck up the desired rod size into your 3 jaw chunk in your pin vice or drill. Use a sharpie to color the entire rod. Turn the chuck until a jaw is at 12 o'clock and file it down slightly until you see a nice flat surface. Spin the chuck until the next jaw is at 12 o'clock and file like the first flat section. Follow the same thing on the third jaw. After that reapply the sharpie to make the tube the same color again. Rotate the chuck until the section between the jaws is at 12 o'clock and file it down until the sharpie goes away as it meets with the two previously filed edges. Rotate the chuck until the space between the next 2 jaws are at 12 o'clock and file  as previously.  Repeat again on the last section and you're done. It looks great in both plastic and aluminum.  I alternated between course sanding a flat, and polishing the next flat on the aluminum to make it stand out more.

A fixture for a Dremel made out of the handle of a broken Kureg coffee maker. I removed the needle from the top jaw, put some screws in the side to hold it in its open position. You  can also just mount your dremel directly to an old folding TV dinner table with a piece of plumber strap and a couple of screws. The platinum  is made from some thin plywood to space out ABS work surface to just above the center line of the grinding disk. This is important because if the surface is below the center, your work will self feed into the grinding disk, too high and your work will try to jump away from the disk. I have a small hole drilled in the corner of the platinum that registers into the hole of little tabs so I can hand file them into final shape.

Tubing bender made from a tea candle, pie plate, tin foil. I got sick of black smudges and inconsistent bends because of not being able to put the heat in a small enough area on the rods. If you make the chimney very small like mine you will need to poke a hole into the side to get more air into it to keep the candle from self extinguishing. 

A small lazy suzan made from a heavy candle lid for the base, a stolen rim off my son's RC Bigfoot truck (shhhhh he still hasn't figured it out yet), and I bucked one of his finger widgets when I was rummaging through his toy boy, it has roller scare bearings in it, it might spin a little too easily. The top is a round piece of random plastic, I might have found it in the tool box, I mean toy box as well. Just CA glue the base to the wheel, the wheel to the outside body of the fidget spinner, and the surface plate to the center of the fidget wheel. 

Edited June 23, 2020 by Deuces WiId

[NYLIBUD]

Interesting build so far.

[Deuces WiId]

I need some help from you guys. I've searched the forum for my answers but there's little out there I'm finding. What I can find has broken links or pics with watermarks that make viewing impossible. 

First off I need to figure out how to make tires.  I need a  pair of 275 MT Pro Radials for the Pro 275, Limited Drag Radial, and No Time/Grudge racing. I also need a pair 315 MT Pro Radials for the Radial Vs the World class, and NT/Grudge racing. 

Secondly I need to know what kind of fluids I can safely use with Poly Styrene or just plastic in general.  I need a thin light viscosity fluid that won't negatively affect plastic, aluminum, resin, and the stainless steel that are used in my rear shock bodies. Major kuddos if you know of something that doesn't evaporate like alchohol or turn nasty and evaporate like water. The shock bodies are polystyrene, the end caps are aluminum, the piston is resin, and shaft is either hardened stainless steel or high carbon hardened steel that are chrome plated, it's to tell. The shaft clearance with the end cap is very nice with no noticable play or drag. I filled the shock with some alcohol for testing and there was a little bit leaking during rebound with a solid piston, and no leaks with a small hole drilled in the piston for valving. I don't know the valves are going to like in the model when it's complete, I would like to use lead to get the center of gravity as close to a big car as possible. A good starting point for rear shock settings is 40/60. To make it happen on the tiny shocks I need two holes in the piston.  One is unrestricted and the other needs to be much smaller with a check valve. I can make a reed valve very easily or a ball check valve with a little more effort. 

[stitchdup]

You should be able to find the tyres you need from some of the aftermarket suppliers. I've seen them with and without the bulge at the bottom. Unfortunatelly I dont know which suppliers carry them but a search for scale drag tyres should bring some up, and I'm sure the other folks here will be able to provide sources.

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by stitchdup

[jasoncamaro]

Fireball model works has some drag radials here’s a link hope it helps you 

http://www.fireballmodels.info/

[Deuces WiId]

21 hours ago, stitchdup said:

You should be able to find the tyres you need from some of the aftermarket suppliers. I've seen them with and without the bulge at the bottom. Unfortunatelly I dont know which suppliers carry them but a search for scale drag tyres should bring some up, and I'm sure the other folks here will be able to provide sources.

 

I found that 3d specializes has a printed 275 pro. I'm not sure if they're going to work for me. The sidewalls are plain and the material might not stretch out on a 15x14 rim. There's also some of the 3d lines from the building process in the grooves of the tires that might be a chore and a half to clean out. 

But he does have some other items that look great. I need to get in touch with him and ask him about his Brodix BBC engines. I need a cast 5" Bore Space with a 9.8" Deck, but a 10.2" Deck will work if that's all he has. He has a gorgeous Reid TH400 case that I can use for my turbo glide. His shifter and interior components are pretty spot on as well. I also need a pair of AJPE billet heads and Precision 102mm turbos. Rules state that I can use a billet block or heads, but not both on the same engine. I'm a fan of the 481x style of engine because they're "affordable", easy to work on because it uses BBC architecture and parts are always less than 24 hours away from anywhere I've ever been. 

4 hours ago, jasoncamaro said:

Fireball model works has some drag radials here’s a link hope it helps you 

http://www.fireballmodels.info/

Thanks those tire look great! They're the street version of what I need, but beggars can't be choosers. They're a beautiful rendition of the MT Street Radials. The only visual difference between them and the MT Pro Radials are the tread pattern, but that's not going to be very visible when they're stuffed into the wheel wells.

I need to stop drooling at all those speed parts and finish up the fabrication of my chassis. 

 

[Deuces WiId]

I haven't made much progress this week despite working on it every day. I lost a few chassis tabs that caused a rebuild of my work station. A friend dropped by to show off his new vette when I was in the middle of airbrushing my offsprings AT-ST. I dry sprayed the ever loving mess out of it. It was worth it, it's not everyday someone brings me a new vette to thrash.

I ordered all of the parts needed to finish up today.  My wife loves my new hobby after she found out what I spent. I told her to put some money into checking this morning because I needed some new radials, wheels, and some detail items. She rolled her eyes and shook her head because I failed to mention that it was for the model. Turns out that she still loves me after 15 years of marriage because she put 6 grand in there for me. I spent a few hundred between four vendors, I tried to spread it out as much as I could to help support these guys. I spent way more than I thought I was. My wife called me a few hours after ordering and asked how much I spent. I told her, and she sighed. I knew I was in trouble, but it was a sigh of relief. That's when she told me how much she put in the account. I missed an opportunity to get more Go Faster parts as I shouldn't push my luck. I got some brakes, tabs, levers, and dzeuse tabs from Futurattraction (tried to get a few more items but I couldn't get them into the order basket). I got all my decals, carbon fiber, and more tabs from Ted's Model Marketplace. I got a couple sets of radials from Cheetah. My biggest order was on Shapeways getting a handful of turbos in different sizes, BBC, AJPE Turbo HEMI, wheels, electronics, fire bottles, rear diff with brakes and tabs, and transmissions. Now I'm going to be looking out the window every time a truck drives by until they all get here.

No pictures today as I only have the front suspension tabs mounted on the frame, one coil over finished and a box full of various brass and plastic "practice" parts that I messed up. 

[AmericanMuscleFan]

Cool project you have!  It seem that you will have a very expensive build on the bench sir!  So much cool stuff are available these days and the newest 3D technologie just add more offering and spending opportunities!  Hard to resist for the big boys with child hearts!

[GeeDub]

Nice work so far.  I will definitely be following your build progress.

[Deuces WiId]

5 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

Cool project you have!  It seem that you will have a very expensive build on the bench sir!  So much cool stuff are available these days and the newest 3D technologie just add more offering and spending opportunities!  Hard to resist for the big boys with child hearts!

All this stuff adds up fast. I'm a little over a grand so far. This is also my first model, so most of that is just tools, supplies, glues, cement, paint, brushes, sand paper,  raw materials like rod and sheet styrene, brass, and aluminum. Most of the stuff that I just ordered will be used for future builds aswell. I don't like spending a bunch of money for the sake of being frivolous. I want my money to be used on items that can be used for multiple projects down the road. I really didn't want to buy the items that are going to be used in this build only and nothing else. I tried building a turbo and a transmission, but they weren't going to be acceptable. I could eventually make something acceptable, but I want to finish this thing up in 12~ weeks or so. I actually built most of the tabs for this car already, but my poor fingers need a break lol. Filing and sanding on a piece of brass that's 25% the size of a pencil eraser with my finger tips hurts. I don't have a way to hold these small parts without marring the surface. It's difficult to find these kinds of tips and tricks in the forums, and the good stuff that I can find has broken picture links. So I'm mostly learning the hard way,  trial and error. Even a bad day of model building is pretty fun.

3 hours ago, GeeDub said:

Nice work so far.  I will definitely be following your build progress.

Thanks, I'm following your Nova build aswell. Don't expect much actual progress from me as I wind up throwing away more parts than I glue lol.

Building these things is very therapeutic. Focusing so much while I file to my scribe line on these tiny pieces makes me forget about pain. I feel like the oldest 40 year old boy on Earth sometimes. I have way more titanium in me than my car ever had, and it had a bunch. I won't mention the cadaver parts in me. Discovering this hobby has helped me out more than I ever could have thought. I was born into drag racing and building hot rods. I was directly involved in building, piloting, or advising some of the quickest and fastest door slammers on planet earth. Technology has been advancing so quickly in the sport that my knowledge became obsolete 2 years ago. Now I can't even talk about race car stuff with my friends anymore without getting lost in the jargon. I can't give anyone advice about chassis adjustments or tune up changes. I can't even change the oil in my car anymore without help. I stopped talking with pretty much everyone about a year ago and deleted my Facebook because everyone kept asking me one question that I couldn't answer "when are you going to build another car". I'm starting to believe that I'm never going to. All I can do is stay the course and wait. This hobby is breath of fresh air that I most certainly needed.  Hopefully it helps you just as much as it's helping me.

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi!

Interesting concept, clever building techniques, and promising results. We'll stay tuned!

CT

[Deuces WiId]

Things are going to get pretty crazy from this point forward. 

My wife was asking about the parts I ordered this evening and when I told her about the Shapeways 3D printed items, she said I was crazy. I have a lot of experience with 3D modeling parts for civilian nuclear reactors. She asked me why I didn't just buy a 3d printer, my response was that they used resin printers that cost a lot of money. She googled them and it turns out that they are a whole lot cheaper than I thought. 

I'm buying a new SLA resin 3D printer under the stipulation that I make her all the baby Yotas she wants! 

[GeeDub]

8 hours ago, Deuces WiId said:

I'm buying a new SLA resin 3D printer under the stipulation that I make her all the baby Yotas she wants! 

That is one heck of an agreement.  I can't wait to see what you create once you have your 3D printing shop set up.

 

[Deuces WiId]

I got all the suspension pinned to the chassis and started skinning out the door jams. I've been spending more time building CAD parts in preparation for the 3D printer than working on the car.

I got all my PE and decals in mail. Most of the parts look great, except for the front strut supports. Only half of them are useable, the rest are all eroded away.  Is this a common problem with PE parts? Is there another company that produces these that are better, or do I just order more and hope I get lucky?

 

I'll be printing out my own parts before my Shapeways order gets here. I've got my RCD wheels ready to go and I'm making good progress on the billet AJPE 481X.

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Deuces WiId

[GeeDub]

Looking forward to seeing the results of your new 3D printing setup.  

I wish I had the eyes and steady hands to do the high degree of detailing with pe parts.  In the alternative, I very much enjoy seeing the pictures and following the creations you and other builders post here.

 

[Codi]

That's a beast of an engine.  I'll be anxious to see how it prints out for you when you get to that juncture.  Anybody that has CAD skills has a leg up on the rest of us for sure.  cheers

[mustang1989]

Man you've gotta be KIDDING me!! Um......I'm going to hit the frickin' "follow" button up top. This is KILLER!! 

Edited July 10, 2020 by mustang1989

[Deuces WiId]

Got a bunch of stuff from the brown suit Santa Claus today. 

I got in touch with Scott and he fixed my Strut Supports and I ordered some Dzus Fasteners from him. The new parts look great and dealing with Scott has been a pleasure. 

 

I also got my 3D printed parts and 3D printer. 

 

 

[NYLIBUD]

Looking good.& Right up my alley.Excellent job so far.

[TransAmMike]

That tedious craftmanship is amazing. So much more than my old shaky hands could do.  Impressive work Dick?

[Deuces WiId]

Slapped on some paint

[Tortuga Kustomz]

Looking real good man, love all the 3D printed parts for this project, looking forward for more updates

[AmericanMuscleFan]

It has been a while since you last updated this thread and glad to see you back at work Dick!  All these costly parts must be put into contribution for an impressive build in the making.