ScaleDale

After paying way too much attention to rules and 1:1 stuff in my Mustang build, I decided to relax a bit and ProMod a ’49 Merc. Before I go anywhere with this, I want to extend my apologies to Dr. Cranky for what I’m about to do to this beautiful auto. The 49 Merc was off my radar until I found his YouTube links and watched his various builds on this car. In fact, Cranky’s responsible for my being here at all. I found MCM by following the links he posted on his home page at the Lab-Rat-Ory… Gotta love the guy for all he has done for scale auto modeling. Even if weathering isn’t your bag. Since there’s some interest on the board as to how to whack up a perfectly good model, I’ll post a few more photos as I go. This is how I do this and everyone has a different approach. As far as NHRA stuff goes, all I need to really concern myself with is wheelbase and width over the rear axle. The limit for wheelbase in PM is 115 inches and the stock Merc is 118, so that’s not a big deal with the fender skirts left on. I figured it needs to be narrowed by around 5 or 6mm to make it the scale equivalent to 70 inches at the back axle. Rather than cut that right out of the middle, I wanted to preserve some of the character of the car in the nose and top so I cut it to the right and left of center in those areas. My way of marking that was to glue strips of 2mm 1/2 round down the length of the car to guide my cuts. Getting glue on the body of a car is a big no-no, but I’m going to throw it away, right? Here’s what it looks like before the cuts with a little coming off the bottom as well. The cutting is done with the back side of a fresh razor knife blade that is turned around to the sharp side when the cut starts to show through the plastic. Some of the curves and thicker plastic required a razor saw. The aftermath. Now to put it back together… I used thin tabs of styrene to help align the sides of the pieces while I reassembled the car. I started at the back and worked towards the front one section at a time using liquid or gel glue or CA, depending on what worked. And it looked like this. The gaps in the nose are going to take a little more body work than I would like. Here’s the nose after an application of Milliput two part epoxy putty, something that I learned about here on this forum. It works like clay and hardens like sand able rock. The adhesive quality of the epoxy helps a lot in stabilizing a project like this. I applied it to the inside of all of the joints until is started to seep out just a bit. It reacts with water and a wet finger can be used to smith and thin it out. It comes in several grades and this is Standard Yellow-Grey The first stage of the outside is Milliput Extra Fine White. This will cure overnight in my dehydrator before I start to sand it. Thanks for your time. Dale

To determine how much my Mustang could deviate from stock, I compared an NHRA approved blueprint of a 2012 Camaro sold by 5 Star Race Car Bodies to the same measurements of a Revell stock 2010 Camaro. Here's the blueprint for the Camaro with the dimensions converted to 1:25 in inches and mm. This is the bottom half of the PDF with all the dimensions in 1:1 scale. This is the result of comparing the PS Camaro, Stock Camaro and Stock Mustang. I used these as a base for cutting my body. ComparativeDimensions.rtf Dale

Welcome, Scott. Thanks for the 4 link and front struts I'm putting on my Pro Mod '49 Merc. (yes, guys, I paid) The Competition Resins Modern Pro Stock slicks measure as follows: (actual followed by scaled up) OD 1.34 inches 33.5 in. ID 0.64 in. 16 in. Tread 0.6 in. 15 in. Width 0.8 in. 20 in. Dale

Wheel well at widest point measured directly from the scaled photo. Here's another I worked up from an artists rendition. Dale EDIT: I have what Competition Resins sells as current Pro Stock tires, and they seem big. I'll measure them and post later.

Ford is withdrawing from all Professional categories of drag racing after the 2014 NHRA season. Force isn't going anywhere. He will either get another sponsor, field his own team or just sell the technology he (and Ford) have developed to the other drivers in FC. The team in this that is really getting dissed is Robert Tasca III. His grandfather practically invented ford drag racing and literally wrote the book Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday. EDIT: Ford is also looking to redesign the Mustang for the 2015 model year, making it more European in styling. As far a Castrol, I've never put any other oil in my car or truck because of their support of motorsports and drag racing in particular. Looks like Lucas oil just got a new customer. Dale

What type of nail polish? Anything metallic? A surface like that often comes from paint that is almost dry when it hits the surface of the model and builds up in micro clumps like sandpaper. Lacquer thinner evaporates quickly and a 1:1 mix might do that. Maybe try lower PSI and spray closer to the body. Also, since you said it started out OK, maybe stop and do a bunch of very light coats. Dale

All of the red lines got locked together in one layer and I couldn't move them when I found an error. The 1.2 is the width of the rear wheel well (1.25 in a white box) and the 1.1 is the length of the rear overhang measured from the back of the wheel well. The overall length is off by 0.05 inches if you add it all up due to rounding to the nearest 1/10 of an inch. Sue me... The 0.3 is the distance from the bottom of the rear window to the top of the rear wheel well. Dale

I read about something called "tolerance stack" in model building. It's when parts that have small plus deviations in sizes are assembled into a unit that will not fit. This drove me nuts with some of my first builds and I used to take a file to stuff to make these final fit adjustments that the OP talks about here. It's important to clean each part carefully and test fit units as you go and not assemble things until the fit is right. Dale

Scott: One of the first things I did with my version of this was to get a profile of Larry Morgan's car and scale it to 1:25 in software I have (PhotoShop). Then I measured it and recorded the different dimensions to give a starting point to work from. Here is what I came up with. The wheelbase I scaled it to is an NHRA standard for Pro Stock. Note: I'll still post my stuff, but a check tells me your reference is built to ADRL Extreme Pro Stock rules and might be different from what I have from NHRA. ADRL Link: http://www.adrl.us/rules/extreme-pro-stock/ I have more tomorrow if you want. Dale

HA!! Welcome to my world. (I edited that way down in honor of your Christian beliefs...) I know we exchanged a pm or two on this, but if you want i can send you some of the measurement I used on my P/S Mustang build. I have an NHRA approved blueprint of the Five Star Race Car Bodies 2012 Pro Stock Camaro that I used as a reference for how much to cut the body. I can post them or send them to you by PM or email. Key for the NHRA are these. They are consistent across all brands in current competition. width at the B post - 2.63 inches / 67mm wheelbase - 4.2 in / 107mm overall height - 1.76 / 45mm width over rear axel - 2.65 / 67mm All these have been scaled down to 1:25 from the 1:1 measurements. If you stacked all the current Pro Stock cars up, all these numbers would match. The cars have RF chips implanted in the bodies and they run them under scanners to make sure they match the blueprint. You're on your own if you ever decide to try a P/S Camaro. The wheel wells are so different from stock that they are more like a funny car that a stock car. The body is also narrowed more in the front than the center, which makes for a very difficult mod. It's a model car, though. That's my standard disclaimer... EDIT: Also note that the grill is airbrushed on but the headlights work. I recommend a two part epoxy putty called Milliput for some of the more radical body work. It fills well, sands smooth and acts as a strong adhesive to hold what is now a severely compromised body together. I used the contemporary Mustang grill from one of the Slixx decal sheets (Pro Mod Grills) on mine. I wound up filling the headlights because I did the front end crazy. Dale

Part three. Dragsters and Top fuel Harleys Duane Shields in the Peak Oil top Alcohol Dragster. Chris Demke with the winning OSI T/AD. Alcohol is a bit misleading for this class of competition. The injected cars like the Peak machine are allowed to run nitro while the supercharged cars must run alcohol. If you watch these cars run on TV, you see the crew spray stuff in the blower hats of the supercharged cars. That's some sort of antifreeze as the methanol gets so cold that it will freeze the fuel system. Tommy Grimes does his burn to the line in Top Fuel Harley. He was the winner with a run of 6.19 at 242 mph. One of the quickest runs by a bike ever. Funny Cars up next. Dale

WOW! All those US door cars smokin' it up in Finland! Now I know where all the missing muscle cars are. great photos. Dale

It's not the sharpest shot, but here's what a 1:1 setup looks like. Dale

I'm going to put my '49 Merc Pro Mod back in the box and build something else... Just awesome. Where did you get all that stuff? Dale

That's an older camera but you should still have something in the menus for setting the ISO. Search the net for your camera model or look at the manual if you have it. Dale

It would say RAW on the dial. All the DSLR cameras can shoot in both RAW and jpeg, but most point and shoot don't. Cameras like the Canon Powershot G15 will, but they start at $550. Aperture is $80. Another thought on this, where is your camera's ISO set? Around 100 is normal but your camera will go higher. A higher ISO lets you shoot faster in bad light but you give up detail for that. Dale

That's a really nice car, but aren't those curb feelers supposed to be sticking out the side and not the back? This whole movement of messing with vintage muscle cars to make them nice and street friendly bothers me. I'm itching to hit the 1/4 mile with a stocker and every 68 to 70 Mustang I find with a running 351 has been reworked or updated in some way that would move it into either Super Stock or Super Street and I'm too old to play with those guys. Dale

I have a small scale studio set up using daylight florescent lights in 10 inch reflectors and a semi professional thing called a light tent or table top studio. It's a 16 by 24 inch semi transparent box with openings in the top and front. It has velcro for different backdrops and came with white and black ones. The reason I mention all this is that I think you are doing everything right except for your backdrop. The fibers in the towel (if that's what it is) may be capturing too much of the light and causing the overall image to go flat. Maybe something that is a little more reflective would show off the gloss of the paint better. I don't do glossy, so I'm just relying on my photography background here. Ultimately, you need a camera that will shoot in the RAW image format. It's a digital negative that can be "developed" or modified in computer software like Adobe PhotoShop, Lightroom or Apple's Aperture. It's rather easy to adjust the look of the photo to get it just the way you had envisioned it. Dale

What camera settings are you using? What light source? Flash, room light, daylight? Are you using a tripod or hand held? Post a pic so we can see what results you are getting with what you have. Dale

Then he probably tangled with the Lang brothers. I think mom Lang was racing then, too. They still run a wagon in stock. There were a whole lot of Oregon cars here for the Division 6 part of this race. Lots of winners, too. Oregon is one of my favorite places to visit for camping and travel. Dale

Some "Door Cars" from Saturday at the Lucas Oil Regional and Divisional races. Pacific Raceway, Kent, Washington. Super Street A pair in Comp Eliminator. A C/Super Modified Automatic with a cool hood scoop and a modern day Altered with an Old School snorkle. Super Street Nova. From the GT section of Super Stock. Any engine ever made for a car may be used as long as it's from the same manufacturer. SS/GT has become the modern day hot rod. Yes, that's a Porsche. No, I really doubt it has anything other than American HP under the hood. Running in Super Gas. Dragsters and bikes up next! Dale

Nice start. I really like that distributer. This kit has a lot of nice parts. I used the engine and oil system out of it for my Pro/Stock Mustang build. Dale

The Gasperelli car ran 5.64 at 248 mph on the 1/4 mile to win at the Lucas Oil regional race in Kent, Washington. He also won the Northwest Nationals two weeks earlier at this same track. EDIT: At the same race a Top Fuel Harley ran off a 243 mph pass... My car's faster... Dale

Thanks again, Niko. If I ever want to do shiny, I'll build Steve Gasperilli's Alcohol Funny Car. My shots from earlier in the day looked distorted from glare off the body... He was the Alcohol FC winner at the Lucas Oil Regionals last weekend. Waiting for you to start on that Pro Mod Chevy... EDIT: Also, the brighter lights in my model studio burned out quickly and I replaced them with florescent ones. They are daylight color temperature but a bit soft. It has a sheen to it that isn't in the photos. Dale

Thanks for the comments, Niko. I used a semi-gloss finish coat for this build. The cars I see at the track are nice and clean but none of them have that show quality gloss. If anything, it needs a bit of burned rubber around the rear wheel wells... As for the chassis detail, there's a full 4 link from Future Attraction and coil over suspension that I scratch built hidden behind those tires. Beyond that I'm not much for hard wiring fuel lines and stuff like that. I can manage a good distributer but detailing the water, oil and fuel system is something that is just beyond by patience level. Dale