customline

As I was driving this morning my mind wandered away from the road and I envisioned the Tasca traction bars. I guess my subconscious had been working on your explanation of how they work and, like these sort of things usually happen, I finally got it just at the moment I was turning right on a red light and then I heard the blast of a horn of the pickup behind me ("where'd he come from? ?.) Anyway, I think I finally understood that the bar takes the action off the rear half of the springs and as the axle housing tries to turn in the opposite direction of the wheels,the bars actually pull down on the rear most part of the car without losing any energy from spring flexing. All that torque is used to pull the weight of the rear of the car down on the rear tires. I guess you said all that in different words but my brain couldn't "see" it until it ran it through that part of my brain that could deal with it ?.....so....do I get it?

The top of the front seats must have been tricky. How did you manage that tight radius?

This is an updated response to your comment: Thank you, Ron, but I screwed up. See above ?

This looks like fun, Dave. The thought of a car without windows makes me a bit clostrophobic but it's a pretty cool piece of automotive history. I'm following this one, for sure. What's this about stretch marks? I thought only pregnant women got those ?. Edit: BTW, I wouldn't call this box art "Art Deco". At the time this thing was current, Deco was old hat. I don't know what the official name for it is but I think of it as "Jet Age" or "Modern" or maybe " Futurama ". Maybe somebody here went to art school (but I doubt it) ?

Ok....I removed the T-bolt style traction thingies and (and this is my lucky day ) I discovered that I never glued the shackles ? so I was able to just remove them easily and then I made new, shorter ones and, in less than an hour, had my chassis (virtually) back to stock. Yay.

Sound like a case of "orange lump" to me. Talk to "Speedshift" ?

Did I tell you that? I don't remember....I must have blacked out ?

Ohhhhh.....I thought maybe it was some chemical incompatibility issue. The up-side...for me?.....I could not care less. I crashed my last slot car around 1965 ?....but thanks for helping me not give a ?. (OK, that was uncalled for, sorry?) Edit: this is what happens when I drink ?

Ditto that. Edit: enter "orange lump" into model building lexicon.

I wondered what's different about that stuff. Why is Lexan any different? It's still a paintable surface. And why not regular paint on Lexan....it's over my head. ? forget it, I don't wanna know.

Making them is not a problem. Reversing what has been done could be. Luckily, Andy weighed in before I got the whole mess painted and I heartily thank him for that. I would really appreciate somebody telling me just how these rear mounted traction bars work. What do they actually do to improve the situation.... and what situation? That's a kind offer, Tom. I think I can fab something close with junk I have around here. My smooth, well-oiled-machine-like building technique has been blown up because I made some very bad assumptions, so my seat fabrication is now on hold until I can get the traction bar thing straight. If anyone has first hand knowledge of these strange traction devices I would appreciate your input. Pictures would be great.

Andy. I do believe you are correct. I misinterpreted what I saw in the photos. You have just ruined my day. And maybe saved it. I have some work to do. Thank you.

Upholstery looks fantastic, Dave. Dash too. Got a color for it yet?

All right then, here's some. I don't have much hope of obtaining an MCW interior so I have opted to modify the kit tub. I cut the floor out of it and trimmed it down a bit to work with the '60 floor. I had to do some grinding on the top of the tunnel and the bottom of the seat (at the arrows). The plan is to remove the arm rests and most of the somewhat lackluster detail and fake in my own. The '60 kit had some warpage that had to be dealt with earlier but I just found a new one which may turn out to be beneficial. The glass. When I mocked up the interior using the dash and glass, I found if I forced it into place both panels fit up into their places nicely. I may just epoxy the glass despite having to force it. The mock-up seems good with everything fitting well. The firewall looks like it may be a bit of a challenge and it's next. Thanks for checking in.

That's a lot to unpack, Jim. I too am a disciple of "the Old Man" (I'm pretty sure I'm a lot older than Don) ; I bought the DVD, I learned his method and it gave me somewhat satisfactory results over the years. I use an old Wren and it works well enough. My paint jobs will never win anything. I don't care. I can't compete with the "pros". Too much can go wrong and half the time it does. Temperature, humidity, dust, flying insects, too much rum, dropping it on the floor, etc...I just want paint to be done as simply as possible. Minimal orange peel and no serious blemishes. MIcro-polishing will take care of the rest. Testors enamel has yet to fail me. I like the "Extreme Lacquer" too but it needs to be decanted because it comes out like a fire hose. I seldom use clear top coat because it's a dice-roll for me. Bad things happen with clear. I am a bit jaded on all the "new" stuff and I have not yet tried water-base paint in my air brushes. Last year I bought a high-end Iwata and still have not even tried it out. ? I paint in my dirty, cluttered garage. I don't enjoy it but it must be done..... But it does get me away from ....you know who ? Incidently, I will be trying the MCW lacquer on a couple of projects that require factory colors. I have seen their instructions. I don't trust them. Just a feeling ?

Nope....I'm all wet on this?....I just looked it up. Your neighbor could not have anything bigger than a 352 in his Starliner. The 390 was available for '61. Now I'm really curious ?.

Just the intake, Lenny ?.....Nah, I already got one glued on. But the kit engine you have there, David, is most likely a 352. Look closely at the decals sheet for little round decals that fit on the non-chrome rocker covers. I guessing your kit may have chrome THUNDERBIRD covers which would make it a 390 and with the dual quads maybe a 406? Your neighbor probably didn't want a gas guzzler after the recent recession. Unless he was like us ?

Sometimes I think I'm better off not knowing stuff. Ignorance truly is bliss. ? The loss of Model Master put me in a flat spin.

Since we're discussing paint right now (aren't we?), I can't seem to find much info on MCW enamel. I see they have "hardener" but I cannot determine exactly what it's for. Is the enamel a catalyzed paint system? I'm confused ?. I am so confused ? Edit: they have a really crappy website with many dead ends. Unbelievable ?

This is very cool, Dave. I don't imagine there was a whole lot of this sort of cars back in the day but anyone who had the guts.... Here's a photo of one such car that was seen running at New England area strips in the '60s. I found it while looking for other stuff. I remember seeing this car one day while picking up parts at Norwood Motors. It blew my mind. It looks like it was classed as BM/SP.

Got some stuff done tonight on the radiator support. I ended up removing the entire '63 screw boss partition. I found I was able to fit the '60 support along with the top piece attached with only slight tweaks on the top corners of the support. I don't know yet if I need to do anything about the way it looks but it fits just fine. I did need to move the engine back about 2 mm. due to the very slight interference with the expansion tank, which is part of that top piece. I removed the mounting from the transmission crossmember and installed a new pin maybe 2 mm back to locate the transmission. I am optimistic ?. Next thing is the firewall. Not sure how to proceed on that and I am hoping for some informed suggestions. You have all weekend; I'm back at it on Monday. Also, I am going to need the MCW lightweight interior and they don't have it in their on-line catalog ?. OK, I'll check ebay ?.

Thank you, Ron. I try.?

And it sold for 7K? ?

Like maybe the fiberglass nose, deck lid, aluminum bumpers and front seats too. That 7K was worth the aluminum bumpers alone, I would think. Where else could you get those? ? I can't imagine trying to restore a car they only made 50 or so of. I wonder if the one on ebay had the '62 chassis. ? This is a very interesting subject. I have the one with the styrene bumpers and the '60 chassis ?.

Paint....the final frontier......?.....there's gotta be an explanation.....right? ?