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GSL "Common Kit" '29 roadster - with GM slant engine prototype you never heard of


Russell C

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You never heard about the GM slant engine equivalent to Dodge's slant 6 because it doesn't exist. That's the fun of model building, even when it flies in the face of reality or physics because — as legendary model builder Cody Grayland said many years back about an implausible item in one of his models —  "It's just a model."

I didn't originally plan to do a GSL "Common Kit" entry (the Revell '29 Ford roadster, 4th paragraph down in the Class descriptions at GSL's site) but I did plan to put my GM prototype slant engine idea into a much newer Chevy with an opening hood. After thinking about it a while, it dawned on me to put it out in the open in a street rod where the story might be that the 1:1 rod builder aims to use a really obscure engine to set the car apart from other more traditional or mildly radical Ford rods.

Here's the basic ingredients:  the kit engine right side block sliced off to switch around and extend the left side (a slant opposite from the Dodge engines), a potential chrome / ribbed oil pan extension sourced from an eBay Red Baron glue bomb I got over a year ago, and a modded one-outlet water pump/front cover piece from my engine parts scrap pile, since I don't think I want the kit's chrome one with the alternator bracket over where the passenger side exhaust / intake pipes will be (the Dodges put it over on the exhaust/intake side, but I'll make that decision later). Two of the kit's carb trio should be fine under the kit scoop. The kit's intake manifold plate under the supercharger can serve as the new right side of the block, along with a textured scrap piece that'll have heat-stretched sprue as reinforcing rib extensions. The new Dodge-style intake manifold is a spliced-together / filed flatter pair of exhaust manifolds from an eBay Revell '69 Vette glue bomb I got back in 2016 (it's become quite a redistributed scrapyard among my several projects - more on that in a future different WIP thread and in my Quicksilver WIP). I'm not a fan of electric fans in street rods, so a fan from the scrap pile will do fine. I'm pretty sure I can hide the splice of the valve covers by putting an inset plate area in that'll have the long "Chevrolet" logo letters decal on it out of the Revell '60 Impala hardtop.

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curiousmodeler sez:
Can't you build engines right?

I built an Isuzu 4-cylinder to be an exact replica of my Chevy Luv 1:1 engine, except for the headers.

Quote

curiousmodeler sez:
You put it in the wrong race car!

I had the right engine in my top fuel dragster.

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curiousmodeler sez:
You built the engine wrong by lopping off one entire cylinder and rearranging the magnetos! And made the whole thing into a 4x4!!

I built the Y-block the right way for the right '56 Ford Crown Victoria those go in.

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curiousmodeler sez:
You put it in facing the wrong direction!!

Trust me, this will be facing the right direction. I put the engine in my '66 Beetle for the last GSL "Common Kit" category facing the right direction, didn't I?

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curiousmodeler sez:
You made it into a flat 5-cylinder!! Then you built the whole car totally wrong!

Trust me, this will be a sensible build. That is to say, model builders will see the collective sense in it all.

Quote

curiousmodeler sez:
Lunatic. I trust you as far as I can throw you.

Hey.  I resemble that remark.

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10 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

Great, you are entering that category? 😱

Yep, gotta bring at least something to GSL. If only I had more time, and/or less other obligations that would then free up more hobby time ....

10 hours ago, Kit Karson said:

... you've been sitting on this idea for some time, it'll be fun watching over your shoulder..! -KK

Yep, actually bought the Revell kit at Hobby Lobby back in Sept 2021, then figured out more or less what I was going to do this past February and showed a couple of photos in the "What Did You Accomplish Today" thread after that, and only just this week got enough photos collected to start a WIP thread. Time gets away from me too often, so I'd better get cracking in this!

Edited by Russell C
typo
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I showed how I lengthened the frame back in March in the "What did You Accomplish Today" thread, but here it is again, where I grafted the front part of the "sectioned frame option" onto the highboy frame. Another thing I did a while back came from reasoning that if the front part of the differential is chrome in the '29 Revell kit, the back part should be, too. I did an online search for custom Ford 9 inch axles and there are places offering a chrome or polished stainless steel separate cover, so I sliced off the back of the pumpkin so that I could spray it later with a really shiny chrome silver paint.

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Seems this Revell kit's chrome trees weren't too happy leaving the factory, the rear radius rods were both snapped in two. My kit also had the thoroughly warped windshield frame and one incomplete wheel trim ring, but I'm using different wheels and only need the windshield frame uprights to go with the removable hardtop I plan. The rear radius can be fixed with some ancient brass tubing I have with wire inserts in the ends. Added a little beef to the axle mounting area since the arm ends looked a bit too thin, and cut a section of Plastruc tubing to match the widened arms, then sliced that in half with a razor blade, so that each half could be the "other side of the axle" bits for these arm ends.

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My next trick - inspired by "89AKurt's" fun with the rear shocks/springs - will be to separate them into upper/lower caps, to accept 2-piece shocks and real metal spring coils.

Edited by Russell C
grrr - typo
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Couldn't resist taking the 1-piece rear coilovers up several notches in detail, made easier for me since my late father gave me a mini-lathe a couple of decades ago. First order of business was to lathe-turn the centers down to a size that I could later chuck into my 1980s era motor tool, to 'lathe-turn' the parting lines off the dome areas. Then, since the tab areas (or whatever those are called) were sturdy enough, I was able to flip the units upside down and 'lathe-turn' in a boss in the lower unit that a bit of aluminum tubing (the shock body) would fit over, and then a smaller boss in the top unit that a length of polished aluminum wire (the shock rod) would fit into.

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Save those springs out of clicker ballpoint pens, they're the right size for coil springs! I still had some old Testers Metalizer stainless steel spray paint, but the plastic bits might need one more shot, from excessive handling wearing down the one later I sprayed. Needed a smaller diameter bit of aluminum tubing as a sleeve inside the shock body. So, a 1-piece of plastic gets turned into a 6-piece assembly. Fun!

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Couldn't leave the front shocks alone. The shock bodies are good enough for me, the parting lines on the sides aren't too noticeable, but the lines were a bit more noticeable on the shock rods, and I'd prefer to have a different color tone to those rods, via polished aluminum wire. Drilled out the bottom shock mounts, stretched silver gray plastic sprue will serve as the bolts to the axle, a little more sturdy than the tiny pins on shock mounts. Don't know why this kit has two notches in the brackets that get glued to the frame, so I'll fill in the top notches. Will also drill out those big holes a little more neatly, they didn't form well in the kit I got.

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23 hours ago, Russell C said:

. Don't know why this kit has two notches in the brackets that get glued to the frame, so I'll fill in the top notches. Will also drill out those big holes a little more neatly, they didn't form well in the kit I got.

 

Russell. the second set of notches allow the same shock/shock tower setup to be use on both the Highboy and the Z'ed Model A frame for the Channeled build version, albeit with a somewhat compromised resulting appearance in the finished Channeled model. 

Looks like you are off to a really interesting project....best wishes as you proceed!   TIM 

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2 hours ago, tim boyd said:

...the second set of notches allow the same shock/shock tower setup to be use on both the Highboy and the Z'ed Model A frame for the Channeled build version ...

Thought that might be the case - instructions not helpful there since the last 2 pages show both versions in the front view using the lower of the two notches (not that I know how to follow instructions anyway). I scouted through a bunch of completed model photos, including some in this guy's Fotki collection, and it looked like some modelers were using the upper one, and others filed it into one big notch. A little hard to tell in some builds. Will be sculpting on mine a bit more.

The other reason I wanted mine separated from the shocks was so that I could glue them to the frame and paint everything the same color. Will be using curved wire rod brackets to hold up the headlights that's less of a wide-eyed appearance. Below is the new polished aluminum rod steering link, before bending / shorting to the proper length, since I extended the frame for the longer inline engine. Also, seeing where I need to scribe the inside of the frame for locating the radius rod brackets when I glue them in after painting the frame. Beefed up the tab on the transverse spring for a more solid fit to the crossmember. No more parting lines on the tops of the spindle arms, but also no more chrome. Some bits of chrome mylar adhesive-back material should do the trick to fix that. The steering box will have to be located a bit farther forward, but I'll drive off that bridge when I get to it.

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Edited by Russell C
typo
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9 hours ago, Russell C said:

The other reason I wanted mine separated from the shocks was so that I could glue them to the frame and paint everything the same color. 

 

Glad to hear you are doing that.  Based on what i can see, I presume the same will apply to your Radius Rod to frame brackets.  These simple tweaks add so much to the accurate appearance of the finished model, as you are demonstrating to us all.   Thanks...TIM

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Love the detail you're putting into this project.  I recently acquired a Sherline lathe, just like a real lathe but very small.😃  I have almost no machining experience but hope to learn enough to make us of the lathe as a tool in model car construction.  Do you have any advice or comments on turning plastic on the lathe?  I assume very slow speeds to avoid melting the plastic. 

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15 hours ago, Andrew McD said:

Love the detail .. recently acquired a Sherline lathe ..  I have almost no machining experience but hope to learn ..  Do you have any advice or comments on turning plastic on the lathe? ..

I have no practical machining experience either, so I can't help there. My late father was an expert machinist, however, who did the rear wheels for my Lambo 300 and the outer rims for my Lambo Flambé. I have less than zero math comprehension skills, what I do is pure eyeball engineering which probably sends machinist experts crawling up the walls. Best advice I have is practice, practice, practice on various scraps (always wear eye protection!), and these days, observe whatever lessons there might be out at "Youtube University" on hobbyist mini-lathe machining. Plus if anyone in a local club can show you the procedures in person along with all the safety measures, that's even better.

Plastic does melt at higher spinning speeds, that's true. The 'lathe-turning' - in quote marks - I also do on my motor tool for really small parts is at its lowest setting, which is something less than 1000rpm. For example, in the above photo of the sliced-apart steering link, the little cylinder end that connects to the spindle was chucked into my motor tool and turned using a razor blade to get it to a more cylindrical shape before I drilled the hole in it for the new wire rod. Basic idea illustrated below, but I use two hands, of course.

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Beefed up the front shock towers then glued them in place using the temporally pinned-together shocks to hold them in proper alignment overnight. Lucked out in my first attempt to put the two up and over s-bends in the steering link, might need just one more slight tweak. Using the channeled body option steering column because I think it looks better. Will be filling in the gaps around the shock towers next so that it looks like a pro-welder 1:1 installation.

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Making good headway on turning the V8 into an inline. Reinforcing ribs will be added to the black part of the passenger side of the engine next. The distributor will end on this driver's side similar to the way those are but mirror-opposite on Dodge slant engines. Added side drain plugs to the transmission pan, 'late-turned' on my motor tool from little bits of old white metal sprue I saved from a 1/87 scale semi-truck kit.

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Edited by Russell C
fixed my wording
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The cobbling-together of the Revell kit's oil pan back area to the glue bomb Red Baron pan I had (the longest ribbed chrome one I had in my parts pile) worked out as well as I guessed. Friction-fit the head and new passenger side wall on the block before final gluing. Change of plans on the Revell valve covers which have slight top arch curves that won't look good when spliced together, so I'll put together the sanded off Edelbrock covers out of the AMT '34 Ford street rod. That center ridge will lend itself better to the long "Chevrolet" letters decal I have.

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curiousmodeler sez:
That thing is longer than a slant 6. How many cylinders is it going to have?

It is really long. I usually run out of fingers counting up that sort of thing. Probably less than 13 from the looks of it so far ….

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curiousmodeler sez:
Lunatic.

 

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Untrustworthy that I am, I don't trust that I can avoid having an air gap happening between the firewall and the floor transmission hump area, if I first glue in the floor and then the firewall to the body. So I cut the back-most flat area of the firewall/hump area off and glued that to the floor now, where I can smooth in the area when the glue dries and ensure it is seamless. I can always add in some shim bits to the back of the firewall as I have it now, to make sure it meets up again perfectly with that flat vertical area. I may also have to sculpt it a bit if the slant GM engine has any clearance issues over in the driver's side area. Filled in the hole for the automatic tranny floor shifter since I will have a column shifter. Later, if things work out right, you'll see why I need a smidge more floor space.

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 curiousmodeler sez:
What's that supposed to mean? What are you up to with the interior?? You are not trustworthy, that is true …

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On 1/11/2023 at 8:37 PM, Russell C said:

Beefed up the front shock towers then glued them in place using the temporally pinned-together shocks to hold them in proper alignment overnight. Lucked out in my first attempt to put the two up and over s-bends in the steering link, might need just one more slight tweak. Using the channeled body option steering column because I think it looks better. Will be filling in the gaps around the shock towers next so that it looks like a pro-welder 1:1 installation.

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[...]

Now you're going to make me look at the steering box area.  😑  You going to make working steering? 🤪

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Filled in the 6 tab cutouts at the floor edges, sliced off the corresponding tabs on the interior side panels, filed off the locator circles for where the rear frame crossmember locates to the floor and filled in the dimpled hole locator areas for the exhaust pipes over the rear axle by just putting a big sheet of really thin Plastruc sheet strip over the whole area. Not sure if I am ambitious enough to fill in the exhaust divots in those parallel ribs in the center of the floor, though.

The tradeoff in gluing the back vertical lower part of the firewall to the floor to make for a smooth transition in the transmission hump area is now the giant gap where the forward part of the firewall meets that vertical flat area. Will fix that by adding more material to the back of that now-separate front part of the firewall, but after I took this photo I got the firewall to sit maybe another 64th of an inch further back into the body.

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Well, the slanted over GM engine mostly fits. Will tweak the platform on the engine where it meets the frame mount and engineer one on the other side so that the engine sits lower and more level (my masking tape of the engine to the transmission is really weak here). Might not actually need any sculpting of the firewall for clearance, although the 1/25 scale mechanics that need to work on this car later will probably curse at the builder for making the valve cover too difficult to lift off the engine at the back in such tight quarters …

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Edited by Russell C
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One of my objectives is to use up every scrap in my parts pile - when they are all gone, then I'm done model building. Here, one of my seats from some 1970s AMT semi-truck contributed a corner to be the underfloor master brake cylinder bracket. The brake unit itself comes from the '69 Vette glue bomb I got off eBay, with an additional plastic scrap to fill in the empty void in the bottom of that unit.

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Got it figured out that a Lokar-style column shift link will work from the transmission to the steering column where I can scribe in what looks like a movable sleeve and add an arm to that area to connect to the link rod.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Put a mounting plate on the side of the engine that's missing (where it used to be a V8). Will carve those gussets down a bit smaller after the glue dries. Temporarily clipped to the transmission to be sure it's all proper flat joining surface.

'Lathe-turned' (on my motor tool) a new perfectly round brake pedal out of black plastic sprue (ignore the plastic fuzz in the treads, that will be cleaned out better). Keeping the accelerator pedal, but will sever it from the assembly after the glue dries and have it hanging from a wire arm instead. I drove one car many moons ago with a pedal that hinged at the floor, never liked how that action felt.

And finally, partway through adapting a parts box auto shift steering column to the kit column, will add a turn signal lever next along with the gear selection indicator and ignition lock. Not a fan of the lonely-looking stock '29 Ford dash gauges, but I do like the aircraft-style ones in the "Red Skull" car from the "Captain America: First Avenger" movie, so I did a low-res paper printout size check to make sure it fits on the additional plastic I put on the kit dash. When I get the higher-res printout from "89AKurt" (in exchange for doing the graphics of the license plate he's putting on his GSL WIP build), I'll add some black plastic Waldron bezel rings to the gauges to give them more dimension. If it turns out that clear canopy glue doesn't dissolve the printout ink, that might end up looking like convincing gauge "glass."

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