jbwelda

i am the ex-longtime owner of a 74 thing, along with a couple of ghias, a small oval window bug, and some 356 porsches. i miss this car the most: gene berg motor: its great to see all the interest in VWs here.

>How is it off topic? It's a thread about bikes. its a website about car models.

this thread is way off topic so im going to take it a bit further off topic by swerving into swap meet territory here: anyone have a 60s or earlier Schwinn brand chrome bullet head lamp that does NOT run off a generator...has batteries inside? and probably a bakelite switch on top? if so please shoot me a PM and maybe we can work out a swap, i have lots of vintage schwinn parts and other stuff. cool

nice one mike...how did you do against that lotus/caterham seven in the background? and curt...pleasanton this coming weekend, eg: june 5/6? might see you there and thanks for the reminder.

jody i did a little research on recumbent bikes uphill, and it appears they do just fine. requires adjusting your riding style a bit but most everything i read said the uphill "problem" is largely urban legend. so there you go. i just dont like them because you are too low to the ground and it is harder to see you from a car than a normal upright bike. but probably if i rode one much i would fall in love with it.

i use tamiya clear over decals all the time but its probably worth the time to test on a piece of scrap plastic with a scrap decal first...some react different than others. i do try to do a couple mist coats first but i dont go out of my way to be especially careful...i just dont dump a heavy coat on it right off the bat. i also typically use microsol on decals whether they need it or not as it tends to melt the decal into the finish and maybe thats why i typically dont have problems with clear over the top. one other thing you can do just to be safe is brush a coat of future over the decals before the clear, let it dry up well, and then shoot the clear. it should protect even sensitive decals from harm and the future self levels and is pretty much unnoticable after it dries.

yeah thats pretty slick. what are you going to do for a motor? seems a type 3 pancake motor would be a great choice but not sure you would be able to see any of it unless you cut an access panel into the pickup bed floor. looks great, should be an interesting build!

thanks for the replies...hadnt really thought of where exactly to source a buick motor, but i think i have one around somewhere though it would probably be the bigger nailhead. i would just want the look of the vertical valve covers more than anything. wasnt there one of those in a revell parts pack that was reissued and ive got on the shelf? or maybe in that newish AMT 62 Buick...ah yes the "Advanced Thrust Wildcat V8"...that should probably do though its not strictly the motor i was referring to. seems to me i recall a small aluminum block buick motor being in some kit i had years ago but i cant put my finger on exactly where. any tips would be helpful... i am not sure what the motor in the TP2 was supposed to represent, it looks to my untrained eye like a small block chevy; i think thats what was in the original tweedy pie. but i think at this point i am going to stick with the ala kart hemi. as for era, i am thinking sort of mid sixties semi backyard build look, street driveable but just barely. something more like a gasser that is drivable on the street. we will see how that goes as it progresses. i am currently seeing it in tamiya mica red with an overcoat of their clear red for a candy color look (my friend john just showed me a car with this combo on it and it looks sweet like a candy apple should! like i may have mentioned, im not much on hurrying through something so i see this on my workbench for a few months at least. plenty of time for evolution. that jig there is from micro mark and yeah its magnets like from a stereo component cabinet on a folded metal sort of base. very useful for things like this and for setting wheels parallel and vertical etc. i usually glue a piece of grid paper to it but in this case didnt bother. i really want to finish the karmann ghia and the jaguar race car XJ-S that i am closing in on before i get hot and heavy into this austin, and also progress some on the 1/8 offy motor ive got on the bench. this is really just setting up some projects for this coming winters hibernation so be ready to see endless fairly meaningless posts from me in this thread for the next, well, quite a while!

not that i dont have projects i should finish, but i have had a resin austin body of unknown origin, bought it at the NNL West one year, that i have been waiting for inspiration on. the other day it came to me: use the roth tweedy pie 2 chassis and running gear, its perfect: stubby, already Z-ed, well detailed with really cool vintage parts (lever shocks for instance). so i dug out the kit (i had hoped to build it as the original tweedy pie but theres always another one where that came from i suppose) to try fitting the frame to the body and see whats up. well whats up is the frame really is the right length, that is to say, very short and stubby, but a bit too wide. so i have sliced the inner frame X rails and squeezed the rails together. but its still not narrow enough because i want to channel the body way down over the frame rails. ive got it drying up nice now and tomorrow i will attempt some more narrowing...maybe i will just try a heat gun with me squeezing the rails together about a half inch forward of the X member...the mark you see on the frame is approx where the body will begin. for motivation, ive been mulling over mills so to speak, and i want something brutish but smallish. my original, and still current, thought was the small hemi out of the ala kart reissue, and i like the short slanted injector stacks on it too, so its certainly compact and brutish. ive also thought about a buick small alum block motor and with that i was thinking taller injector stacks for a more eye katching look. but at the moment i am using the hemi for mockup purposes and its still what i see in my minds eye. if you dont know, this tweedy pie 2 kit is very very nice. the more i look at it the more i think i might just use it complete as it is. if i didnt already have some halibrand kidney bean type wheels for the front i would like the TP2 front wires with disk brakes. there are a lot of really detailed nicely cast pieces in this kit including the six velocity stack topped carbs in glorious chrome plating and that motor is itself a compact jewel...separate chrome wiring harness and fuel lines! anyway heres a few pics...like i mentioned i have other projects to finish up but hopefully i will put some more time into this in the near future...at least get the stance right. i might cut the rear cross member loose from the rails and raise it up because theres plenty of room on the rails to do that at least an eighth of an inch. i kind of want this car to sit mostly level, maybe a slight rise to the rear, but very low overall. heres the body: very nice delicate casting and nice proportions. rear fenders are nicely incorporated into the body. i should have bought two of these because i think they were only 10$ or so: heres the frame being held in place while the glue sets up, post narrowing. i should have taken a pic of the frame as it was originally, as it sits ive probably cut about 3/16 out of the center of the X-member + where the front of the Xmember meets the frame. finally heres another shot of the frame in the jig with the body in the background: many thanks for looking and questions comments criticisms appreciated!

nice! you might think about using the twin cam motor originally from the gunze sangyo lotus elan but now available in resin from replicas and min of maryland. at least i think they repoped the gunze one, they sure look close to identical. but i do like your idea for the V6...but i not sure where youre going to find one. did tamiya put one in something that can be transplanted from? i dont know. you could get a buick/rover/mg/etc V8 in white metal: heres the twin cam, this one in white metal...i forget where i got it: or a jaguar V12: there are a lot of interesting options out there. no matter which one you choose though, i gotta keep an eye on your progress!

did you used to know pat and mike rooney from sacramento back then? they were pretty well known speedway riders. cool project, this is gonna be my favorite bike model for the year!

yeah actually i might have spoken too soon but they look like they might work for the rear. i appreciate the offers too, thank you much!

jody i would warn you recumbent bikes work great on flat land, but going up hill is more or less impossible. you arent in the right position to put pressure on pedals with your weight shifted like it is going uphill. i dont really know that as a fact, because ive never ridden one more than a few hundred feet and that was on level ground, but its what i am told. check into it at least before you spend a bunch of $ on one. nice stingrays!

>There is a huge difference between the quality and attributes of a bike shop bike and a department store bike. truer words have rarely been spoken. i tell people: a "dept store" bike may LOOK like a bicycle but those looks are deceiving. just wait till you try to adjust something or really take the bike for a ride (as in > 10 miles on something other than flat ground)...you will find out that what you have is more aptly described as a "bicycle like piece of sculpture" than a bicycle. for the guy in australia who says bikes cost 4k at the bike shop, that might be true but typically they are on sale at a deep discount and im not sure about aussieland but here in the states you can buy a very nice and decent mountain bike from a bike shop for less than 2k list and about 1200 on sale. i am talking high line consumer brands like trek, specialized (remove the "iz" for "special ed"...its one of the first mods people around here do to their specialized bikes), gary fisher, rex, etc. ive never really ridden a full suspension mt bike before but the few times i have i realized they require a different riding style than my front suspension only bike, as mentioned you tend to loose a lot of momentum unless you know how to use the rear suspension and typically that requires you set it hard, almost solid, for anything other than straight downhill.

david yes youre right about the japanese cars...the beauty of the miata is its almost perfect balance. lower that thing down and you have instant boy-racer road car. it could definately use about 100 more HP but pretty much what car couldnt? i have a friend who stuck a GM 350 in his miata (a so called "monster miata") and just totally ruined it. yep its good for some bragging rights but the only place it does well is in a straight line, the transplant totally ruined the cars handling and i can run circles around him when it comes to curvy roads. just too much power and too much weight up front. now dont get me wrong: i love building and checking out dragsters and models of them (including heavily modified street cars) but for someone to think they can take one on tight road courses is just kinda crazy. its just an inappropriate application for most of them even though, as you say, with enough skill and practice you can make them do cool things. but it takes just that: practice and skill. and a willingness to change your underwear often. like more than twice a day often!

hey that first pic, the rim on the right, chrome reversed with baby moon, is exactly what i am looking for! i will send you a pm and maybe we can arrange a swap. thanks again!

the thing is, the motor "insert", especially when its mostly obscured by the intake etc sitting on top of it, replicates what you see in the engine compartment of a prototype. so to me thats what the kit is supposed to replicate and as typical for tamiya, it replicates it pretty well. i was looking at the kit the other day and was pretty impressed with the amount of photo etch that was included. its almost like this kit incorporates an "upgrade kit" and that partially explains the price (i think it was 72$ at the LHS). but that brings me to a problem ive had with tamiya lately: this factory upgrade kit they want to get another 30$ out of you for. seems like its been standard for their big time new issues and some reissues for a while now. i really hope they (tamiya that is) dont come out with one for this DBS because thats really asking a lot: 70+ for the kit and another 30 for the (almost mandatory for anyone who really wants to build one) "upgrade". if i am spending 70$ for a kit, i dont want it compromised from the factory and in need of extras. aftermarket i would be ok with, but from the kit mfg themself, i think it borders on extortion!

what i actually meant was the camaro you see in every gas station in the midwest and for that matter anywhere barely post-teen tweekers congregate: blue with one primer fender, lifted about a foot all around, mag wheels on three wheels and a steelie on the fourth, minimal or no muffler...the model year is irrelevant so insert any year you think is appropriate. sorry i wasnt familiar enough with them to get the year right...i was around when they were introduced but they just didnt make that much of an impact on me. i was driving big healys and jaguars at that point. nope i dont drink butwiper either!

thanks again casey; i am doing just that! there are a lot of "junk yard" lots on the bay at the moment and a couple of them look promising.

>No thanks- modern advances in tires as well as suspension and brake technology make it possible to have a real car with power and >decent handling without having to resort to girlie cars yep just keep telling yourself that. reality is a whole different manner. a "real car"...now thats funny. as for powersliding, yep thats fun on the roads around here. with a 20 foot drop on either side of a narrow two lane road, and those drops going into 20 feet of muddy water on one side and 20 feet into a farmers field on the other side, its very entertaining to watch someone attempt a "powerslide" in his 66 jacked up camaro in your rear view mirror. not to mention i am pretty much an expert on "powersliding" my miata (or my nissan 240 sx for that matter) on these roads so again its gonna be fun. as for the girl, well dont mean to be rude but theres a reason darwin is still known many years after his theories were first postulated.

nice. good job on the interior and that orange paint looks killer. are you going to detail paint the chassis or just flat black? those should look great slammed into the weeds!

looks like you got a foiling session or two ahead of you! is that a johan body, or resin, or resin from a johan body? they always did the oddball subjects that turned out to be cool 50 years after they were granny cars you laughed at when they drove down the street! great lookin paint too!

i am kinda obsessive so i usually fold up my boxes so they more or less lie flat and keep em on a shelf! that way, in 20 years, i might be able to recoup the cost of the kit! not really, mostly just to have em!

thanks jim but i have the box right in front of me...just bought this kit last night. based on weight only its a real bargain!

not trying to make light of death, but i often chuckle when i see some 60s amped-out muscle car come roaring up on me while im doing 60 on a momentarily straight stretch of country road out here. typically i will just keep going at my steady 60 and wait till the 20 mph deadmans curve i know is coming up and then keep at 60 right through it (in my "girlie car" miata, lowered konis big anti sway bars etc) and then watch in amusement as the tweeker-heads in the pile of straight-line-only junk about blow it trying to slow down in time for the curve. works great for old men on harley davidsons too. try it sometime...it will bring a smile to your face and some well needed change of underwear for the hicks in the "muscle" car.