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Rodent Toaster: Bits and pieces, July 12


Ace-Garageguy

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So, I broke down and bought a Revell Rat Roaster. Good stuff in the box, just not a lot of it. Love the wheels and tires, just like everyone else, and that was enough to set my little mind whirring. The idea will be a channeled '32 lowboy with a zeed rear frame and a stretched, suicide front end. Obviously mouse and rat motors are out of the running. Going to go radical-traditional, with as much out-of-the box as I can, and the rest vintage kit-sourced and scratched stuff.

This was a start on a similar though still-born project a while back, but it's the general idea.

DSCN5027_zps565ba16f.jpg

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Vermin Vaporizer?

:lol:

I like it, but with a name like that, it probably needs a turbine engine..... ;)

A little more on the chassis...Revell chassis modified with new rear rail sections to go up and over, tubular crossmembers front and rear, suicide front spring perch. I just checked the ride height with the RR body, and it looks spot-on, so i'll be copying this (upper) earlier chassis for the new build. Lots of exposed mechanical bits, like the front and rear hairpins from an old Monogram super-modified, and probably a champ-car rear end.

DSCN9266.jpg

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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I like the look. One observation -- You'll have a hard time opening the doors unless you lower the rear radius rod mounting points.

Thanks for a good observation, but it is still a mockup. The new door cut-lines drawn on the body were originally above the original hairpin mounts, which show in the photo. I later channeled the body (an early Momogram 2-piece '32, but actually more like a '30) deeper, resulting in the higher mounts on the body relative to the frame. The door cut-lines had not been re-drawn at that point.

As the actual build will use the Rat Roaster '32 body channeled the width-of-the-frame, the cut-lines at the bottoms of the doors will be raised to clear both the frame rails and wherever the radius rod mounts end up.

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  • 1 month later...

Days of looking and thinking and fiddling and all that have finally spit out what I think this one is going to be. Stretched wheelbase, suicide front end, track nose, Halibrand kidney beans, fat Indy car front tires on the rear and a blown Pontiac with a Cragar chain drive for the blower. Car is shown with a DuVall windshield, but I'll probably go with the R&M Hallock.

DSCN9927_zpsd3f1d261.jpg

Lots of fiddling to get the stance dialed in. I'm sort of thinking the lines of the rear quarter panel on the Revell '32 roadster bodies are a little off. More on that later.

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Chain driven GMC 6-71 just snuggles under the hood, is going to get an interesting side-draft carb setup for clearance.

DSCN9944_zpsae591c7c.jpg

Suicide mount for the spring on the new tubular crossmember is visible ahead of engine.

DSCN9943_zps9f3945f9.jpg

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Thanks everyone...glad y'all are liking it. I'm tinkering just slightly with the length and wheelbase.

Where'd ya get the kidney beans?

They're from a vintage AMT parts-pack. I never really noticed them before, but a fellow forum member needed one to finish a period Cobra he's building, I happened to have some, and I got to thinking that they would be the perfect wheels to give this build a little different flavor.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm running low on some kits, times are hard, and I wanted to try some more new techniques. I only had a couple of examples of the louvered hood and deck I want to use on this. Now I have more.

Originals and molds...

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First set of parts. I have some micro-porosity issues with this first set, but a slight change in the lamination technique should fix it right up. Parts are only .030" thick.

DSCN0059_zpsb12b645f.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

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