Pete J.

Ok, you got it. Here is the lathe. Nothing spectacular but definitely one of the best. Sherline, made here in SoCal in Vista California. This is an image of the machine in action. I am cutting a pin .040" in diameter for the suspension. Here you can seen the pin completed and soldered in place at the top of the spring arc. This is a test fit of all the components. The pin goes through the mounting bracket and holds the whole thing in place. The springs are mounted to the axles with similar pins. The differential will not be black on the final piece. The black finish is just the base coat for alclad. I am planning on using alcad stainless. I want it shiny but not high gloss like chrome. I want a differentiation between the diff and the axles.

notec blackout lights. Not too tough. Only two shapes. A disk and a rectangle. Turn the disk and then cut the rectangle and solder them togeather at a photoetched screw head. Not hard really. Just not sure that they would look right on this one but I did consider them. Thanks

I didn't realize what old was until I had a back problem. Went to the doc's and was given a two week course of steroids. About two days into it, I got out of bed and nothing hurt! Body felt like it was 30 again. Then I realized that all that heavy lifting when I was younger had taken a toll on knees, back, hips just about everything. After the steroids ran out I now understand drug abuse. I don't condone it, but I sure as hell understand it!

Drove across Kansas from U of Wyoming in 1970 to got to summer encampment for AFROTC at Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka. "zat count. Also spent a little time at McConnell AFB in Witchita swaping out aircraft. I don't know if it still is, but it use to be the depot for modifications to the KC-135 aircraft. Picked up several birds after the wings were reskinned.

Seems to make sense. It is always nice to get something you can work with at no out of pocket cost, but sometimes there is a payback in there someplace. Just for my own info, did you try anealing it before you worked with it. If not, it may help the workablity of the metal, but I would be cautious about it. As you said, there may be some lubricant on board and heat may produce toxic vapors.

Yea, I noticed that in the photo. Kind of hard to notice on 1:1. Photos are great for bringing out the errors. I will also clean off the bit of Qtip on the left lens also before I clear coat it. I like to let the brass age just a little and get a slightly deeper tone before I seal it. Thanks Mark.

Mark- Nice looking work. I especially like the transmission. You are right about the basic shapes. I learned that bit reading Gerald Windgrove’s books. You take it to a level I haven't quite got the hang of yet. I am learning from watching you though. Thanks. I am a little intrigued by your comments about the bronze/brass soldering. There is not a lot of difference between the two and after reading a little more, I am even more befuddled. The only difference seems to be zinc vs. tin. I would think they should work equally well. I wonder if the fact that these were pickup shoes and had high voltage going through them in their prior life had any impact on what you are doing? Great work. Keep it coming.

I'll second that! There isn't enough room here to cover it from start to finish, but some general bits. First of all if you are building for a show, know the rules and the categories. Once you have looked at those and decided what category you are going to build in, build to those specifications. Do every step to the best of your ability and if it isn't done to your satisfaction, do it again until you are happy. Last, after the contest, go to the judge with your model and ask for a personal critique to see what the judge saw that you didn't. Don't argue the points or take it personally as the judge is helping you. Thank the judge and learn from it. Do this even if you got first place. I guarantee that there are things that could be better. There is no such thing as a perfect model. Then do it all over again with a new model but most of all, enjoy what you are doing. Contests are for bragging rights only and should be treated as a place to meet new people and start new friendships not to get trophies. Each time you build, try to do something a little more difficult than what you did last time and improve with each model. That is the fun in it.

Hi again! Well it is time for an update and a request for opinions. Here is some of the latest progress. I had a bit of a problem. The screen that I used was brass and I used "blacken it" to get a nice even color. About a week after I used it, the black changed color and flaked off. Not a problem. Sand it down and paint it with a good enamel. It seems to be holding. In the meantime, I have mounted the head lights on the radiator shell. I think they look good, but here is where your opinions will come in. I put a clear lens (Krystal Klear) and they looked good, but I have seen hot rods with colored lenses before. I can do red, orange, yellow, blue or green. I have my opinions about what may look good in this context but I am not really a hotrod person, so I am going to you for your opinions. What do you think??

Mark- You parts are more complex than most peoples models! Great build!

Got a few more bits done. I can see that I am getting close to a time to start painting the plastic bits. Here is the steering wheel. I shaped the basic shape with brass with the jeweler's saw and finished it with files. The center hub was turned and the black grips are just Tamiya enamal black. I also got the head lights done tonight. All turned on the lathe. Now for the major change. The original Red Barron does not have a windscreen. In converting this I wanted to make this look like a WW 2 German soldier with googles. I had a hard time deciding exactly how to do this and make it fit under the helmet. In the end I decided I could take some styling cues from an aircraft cockpit as well and added the top piece accross the top of the bar. This is all test fitting.

Mark - It is coming together nicely! I really like the plastic work. Are you machining the flat pieces or cutting and filing?

Ok, I finished a couple of more parts. I made a brass firewall using the plastic part as a pattern ... ...and it didn't fit because I made some mild modifications to the body. So I made a new one that used the body as a pattern. And then I drilled it for the fasteners and polished it. Next, I turned the gas tank and gas cap. The gas filler is a little slanted because the tank sits under a lip and the filler would be set forward of the center line of the tank. Then I added some brass straps and fasteners.

Not to mention a Sapporo or two. Great time. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Here is the saw I bought. http://www.ottofrei.com/Knew-Concepts-Jewelers-Precision-Hand-Saws-with-Knob-Tension-3.html I like it because it has a cam testioner that means I don't have to go through a lot of messing around when I change blades or take one end out to get it through a starter hole. I also got this blade holder with blades as it seemed like a good starter set since I didn't know what I would need. It really makes working with this stuff easier than I would have imagined. http://www.ottofrei.com/Swiss-Sawblade-Assortment-On-Wood-Stand.html

March 2003 Mark. Some times is seems like that was forever ago and other times like yesturday.

You got my curiosity up and I did a little research. The reason the air ran through the crankcase was to warm it. Normally, heating the air is not what you would want to do, but keep in mind that this is an aircraft engine and one of the major problems with carbureted engines is that they can develop ice at the venturi. This can be a bit of an issue when you are in combat at 15,000 feet and your engine quits.

Randy- Thanks for the encouragement and for the help. I would be at a loss on some of this without your advise. I look forward to your next installment of the rat rod wrecker.

I have used google translator by scaning the instruction sheet. Converting it to a PDF file and the running it through the translator. There are only a few types of files it will work on and PDF is one of them.

The engine appears to have a supercharger in the crank case so I decided to play with an intake system. There is a little artistic license take with this, but then it is a hot rod and a show car so I guess I am free to do this however I like. Here is the first piece I made for the intake. It is simply brass sheet that has been bend around a piece of tubing and the ends solders shut to form a mounting system. I then added at cover from the crank case to the intake. And then you have to have a way to get the air into the system, so I turned a cover and added a little brass screen. I did clean up the solder after the picture was taken. There is still some detailing to do to really make it pop. Adding hoses and bolt heads, but that has to wait until the engine block is painted and I have a lot of other parts to create to get there.

A very thin coat of clear lacquer will do the job. I still have some DuPont clear and I thin it about 6:1 thinner to paint and you can't tell it was coated.

Thanks Mark. Not up to your standard yet but I'm working on it.

They have been lying about my work bench for 10 year now. When Mark Jones and I were in Tokyo 10 years ago(doesn't seem that long ago does it Mark?) one of the hobby shops we visited was having a clearance on them for 100 yen each. Yes, that is about $1 and I think I got four or five sets of them.

Ok, so for Chrismas I gave myself(best santa ever) a high end jeweler's saw and decided to start hacking up some brass shim stock with it. My first piece was a radiator for this thing. Here is what the saw looks like in action. Notice how truely small the blade is. I have to get my optivisor out to see which side has the teeth in it and which way they are going when I put a blade in it. My first try got me off to a good start, but after I got it this far I realized that the front and back have to match exactly and be soldered to the edge at the same time. So what I did was to use super glue and glue two pieces togeather and cut them at the same time. And poof, matching pieces! Then we soldered them togeather with a strip of brass. By the way this is colored the way it is because of anealling. And finally we polished it up and blacked some brass screen and added a turned aluminum radiator cap.

Ah, a model of an upscale Volkswagen.