microwheel

Outstanding detail

Welcome back into the hobby Ernie, boy do I know what you mean. I've only been back into it myself for just over a year now. For me it was the sticker price of kits and aftermarket supplies. Just seems like everything about the hobby went through the roof price wise since I was last building many years ago. You pick a good one to get you feet wet with. Nice start on the engine.

Well thank you kindly Joe my friend. I hope some of my tricks help others the way so many have helped me over the years. It's nice to have a site like this where so many people share there ideas and building talents. I hope to have another engine update in the morning to share.

Just a small update for today guys. Been working on the engine some. Removed the molded on plug wire lumes from the valve covers and made slight notches with my exacto knife where they were, and in each corner of the valve covers near the back sides of them. Then added photo etched wire lumes and covered the oil cap with BMF. Drilled holes for the PVC and breather Lines. Next got some model masters chevy engine orange lacquer paint mixed up and gave the valve covers and oil pan a few coats. I then picked out the wire lumes with semi-gloss black and using a tooth pick dipped in lacquer thinner cleaned the paint off the oil cap exposing the BMF. I touched the bolt heads on the oil pan with metalizer aluminum using a tooth pick. I also painted the after market engine pulleys semi-gloss black, except for the one for the alternator, as well as the Air condition compressor and brackets. I gave the tranny a few coats of metalizer steel over coated with testors flat clear. I also gave the engine block a few coats of chevy engine orange. The Alternator got a few coats of Tamiya flat aluminum, and the brackets for the alternator got a few coats of Tamiya semi-gloss black. The engine main pulleys where then added to the block and the Alternator also got cemented to the block. The head bolts where touched with metalizer aluminum using a tooth pick and a light black wash was given to the back of the alternator. The tranny was detailed with different shades of metalizer to bring the detail out a little better. Later I'll add scratch made linkage to it. I'll post more as I get more done. Now that I've finally got a start on the engine, my hope is that things will move along a little faster and smoother.

Thanks Tim, I'll do my best lol.

Thanks Joe, It seemed like I was never gonna get to the engine on this build. But, I'm finally getting to it. Now if I can just get everything done to it that I want, without alot of complications then I might just get this vette done sometime in the near future lol.

Thanks Robert. I know what ya mean. If it needs a bracket then I just seem to have to make sure it get's one lol.

Thanks Del. LOL yup it takes it's toll on these old eyes that's for sure. Thank god for magnifier lights and a wife who knows where to find them on birthdays and christmas. I go through alot of em on the work bench. The light on em is on so much on the workbench they tend to wear out and burn out all the time. And the visor type tend to irritate me when I've tried using them in the past.

Really looking good Tim, Your paint job came out outstandingly smooth. I'll be following along as you go. You have a really clean and tidy building style and that really makes a model look good.

Nice start Paul, love the color.

Hi Dave, Really nice work so far on your Firebird. I haven't ever used, or even know much about EZ chrome foil, but I have never had a problem with Bare Metal foil leaving a residue or interact with any of the clear coats I have used. Also Bare Metal Foil lays down nicely and can be burnished with a tooth pic or q-tip revealing even the slightest of trim lines for trimming away excess. Don't know if you've ever tried BMF or not, but if not give it a try sometime.

Nicely done Duster. Love the color and cool idea using vinyl interior paint. I'll have to remember that one and give it a try sometime.

Nicely done freshening up on the interior Joe. Exhaust is really coming along to. John is right about the mufflers on the TA and AAR models being black right out of the factory, usually a high temp matt black at that. Take it from a old chrysler corp guy, not alot of people seem to know or remember that lol. But it's nice to see some do.

For the steering box and pittman arm we use pretty much the same process as we did for the idler arm above, except the pittman arm was made from the one already supplied as part of the kits tie rod.. see my earlier post when I was working on the front suspension. I started out by drilling a straight pin sized hole into the area of the steering box that would attach to the kit supplied pittman arm on the tie rod. Next another piece of the larger round rod was cut and drilled out to straight pin diameter to be used as a filler spacer. You'll see why shortly. (the pic below shows the previously made idler arm parts as well. The steering box was then test fitted into place to make sure the spacer and pittman arm matched up to it. If everything fits correctly. once the parts are painted.. just a small dab of CA glue on one the steering box side where the straight pin goes into the steering box should be all thats needed to hold it together.. and on the idler arm passenger side.. just a small drop of CA glue on the upper mount side where the pin comes through and on the tie rod side where the pin comes through the idler arm, and it should hold together as well and allow both sides to pivot with the tie rod. That's pretty much how I make these parts to work with the suspension. You'll see them attached and detail painted when I'm ready for them on my build. More to come as I get it done.

Just a small update for this evening. A few people have commented now that they were wondering about making working pitman and idler arms with the front suspension. And though my plans are not to install these until I'm 100% sure about the clearances for the exhaust manifolds, I thought I would go ahead and scratch make up the parts so you can see how it's done. For those of you who might want to try this on your own builds. Or at least want to try my way of doing it. To start with, the basic tools and materials I use for this process is as follows: ) Some straight pins used to pin everything together and act as pivot point rods. ) 2 different sized plastruct round rod to use as spacers and for making the idler arm. (I'm not good at keeping track of sizes here guys, but remember the round rod has to be drilled out to straight pin sized diameters so you want to use round rod at least big enough to drill through) ) A jewelers flat file for filing off the burs left after cutting the straight pins to size ) A pin vise with a straight pin sized diameter drill bit ) And some testors liquid cement (I use this because it welds the plastic) This may take more than one post to get it all in, so bare with me. To start with, drill a straight pin diameter hole through the center of a piece of larger diameter round rod, giving yourself plenty of extra, (remember your making several pieces out of this. You'll need 2 short pieces to use as idler arm ends and 2 longer pieces to use as spacers.. how long depends on the gaps that will need to be satisfied from the idler and pittman arms to their mountingpoints. You'll understand later on. Cut a small length of smaller diameter round rod the same length as the drivers side pittman arm, that comes as part of the kit supplied front suspension tie rod, and using a tiny drop of cement glue the rod to one of the shorter rings you made out of the larger drilled out round rod. It should look something like the pic below: give the glue a good couple hours to set up and then remove the partially made idler arm from the pin and then glue the other end of the round rod to the other short ring. so when your done you should have 2 pieces like the pic below. Glue a flat piece of scrap plastic on one side of the longer tube like the pic below and then cut off any that sticks out below the length of the tube (you'll see in the pic below the pencil mark on where I plan to cut off mine . this will be the part that mounts on the side of the frame. Later you can cut all of your straight pins to their required lengths, but for now, your just mocking everything up so no need to cut them yet. This is the hole that you should have already drilled in the tie rod for the passenger side idler arm assembly. And where the parts you just made will attach. Next test fit the parts you just made, before painting and gluing them into place. Here is how it should all fit if you get it right. And it should allow your new idler arm assembly to pivot with the movement of the tie rod. I'll be posting the steering box and pittman arm process in the following post.. so check back shortly. Continued below......

Hi Del thanks for the info, yes I know about silver thread, and somewhere back in this build you'll see I mentioned it. but it doesn't really scale out very well for plug scale plug wire, and to try to wrap each wire with it is very time consuming and this build is already taking a lifetime to build lol. Detail master's braided line though close to being right, would still make the plug wires seem over sized in scale, that and it doesnt thread through photo etched wire lumns very well either. As for guitar string wire for the ebrake flex lines. I've done that in the past with old used ones I've had laying around, but they have long been used up, and making them the way I did, is just as easy and cheap as going 40 miles to the closest music shop to buy more. I plan to finish the idler arms on the front suspension soon, my process for those where first to assemble the engine and make sure that I had all my clearances for the tie rod and steering box correct around the exhaust manifolds and oil pan areas. It's will all make sense when I get that far. One thing you have to remember when researching front suspension online for these vettes, at least what I'm finding out anyways, is, the way the pitman arms and idler arms configure seems to change depending on the year.. And there is a really big difference between the power steering versions verse the non-power steering versions.

Your vette is really coming along nice Bob. Nice conversion. I always loved that show.

I spent some more time this evening on the mock up work for the engine on the vette. Mostly on the AC compressor and getting all the aftermarket pulleys lined up. This is the configuration I'm after for the AC unit. Since the kit didn't come with the needed AC parts, I dug around in my parts stash and came up with the needed parts from an old damaged beyond repair revell 65 chevy impala ss that got dropped too many times. I knew I saved it for parts so I robbed it of it's AC compressor and accessories. It will need a bath in the paint stripper but it will work as is for mock up and making the mounting brackets on the vette. After playing around with different shapes of pieces of evergreen plastic sheeting for a good part of the day, I finally scratch made upper and lower mounting brackets for the AC compressor that was at least close to my reference pics. These were pinned together with piano wire, and were made to be removable for the purposes of disassembling for paint. Most of the engine was liquid taped together for checking alignment and fit. And to make sure all the pulleys were going to line up correctly. plastruct round rod was laid across the pulleys to check for alignment and adjustment as needed. Now everything can be disassembled and cleaned up and painted. I'll detail the intake manifold and carbs once the block gets painted and is set aside to dry. I don't have braided plug wire, which most of these cars had, so I'll have to go off accuracy a little bit and revert to black or yellow plug wire. We'll just call it a generation 2 vette. Since I may just leave the pulleys unpainted for that hot rod dress up look that alot of my generation did with our cars as teens and young men. I still got more odds and ends detail work to do with the engine and engine bay, but at least the biggest part of the conversions are out of the way. I'll post more as I get things done.

Hi Richard, yup it will.. if you check my pics, you'll see it was lined up using the kit's original fan belt pulley assembly. What might be throwing the perception off is the fact that the valve covers arent in place in the pics yet. In the last pic, you'll see I mocked the original fan belt assembly back in place to make sure of just that, as well as give the alt more strength as I was handling it alot for drilling stuff out. Using the original fan belt assembly with the alt mocked to it, when making the brackets and tacking them into place with the alternator, pretty much guaranties the alternator will be in the proper location when the kit belt assembly gets removed from it.

Update for today guys, I finally decided to start work on the power plant. Now don't forget, I'm attempting to convert the vette into a rare ac version. To start with, I de-chromed a couple parts such as the Alt, and the intake and carb assembly parts, (I should have thrown the fuel pump in for de-chroming as well, but forgot. Oh well it's being done now.) I assembled the basics and cleaned up the join lines. I mocked up the fan belt and alt assembly so I could pre-attach the Alt where it needs to sit. The Alternator will be used as the main alignment point for the fan and crank pulleys . I plan to use a aftermarket pulley kit, so I'm using the kit supplied one to get a sense of alignment. I then scratch made a bottom alt mounting bracket and cemented the upper and scratched made brackets in place. These and the alternator can get painted with the engine and later detail painted. When the cement set up, the kit fan belt assembly was removed. A hole was drilled in the fan pulley mounting point to allow the stem from the aftermarket pulley to fit. This now gives me a alignment point for the crank and fan pulleys, while keeping the Alt solid and stable. Next up was to mock up the aftermarket pulleys into place. The Alt pulley got a photo etched fin piece from detail master's photo etched engine detail set and then the alt, fan and crank pulleys where set in place to check for alignment. Once everything was correctly aligned the pulleys were removed and set aside for later assembly. Next was to pre-drill most of the holes needed for later detailing. Holes were drill for plug wire detail, heater hoses , brake booster and crank vacuum lines, and a dip stick, though not all depicted here in the below photo. There will be more needed, I'm sure, as assembly goes along. I also removed the molded on shift linkage rods from the tranny, and drilled holes for scratch making better detailed linkage rods. Sorry the pic is a little blurry. Sometimes white parts on a white background does that. That's pretty much up to date on where the vette is at for today. I'll post more as I get it done..

Thanks Michel. I can't wait either.. this thing is taking alot longer than I thought it would.

Thanks Carl. Don't sell yourself short my friend, I've watched some of your builds, and your abilities are top notch in my book. LOL thanks Niko, I only wish it were a real 67 Vette. The wife would never keep me home cuz I'd be out cruising everyday.

Hi Michael, they shouldn't be to hard to find. Most hobby stores carry them. Just remember there are two type in the line.. buffing and non-buffing.. the buffing metalizers can be buffed out with a soft cotton cloth when dry and shine up to a nice metal finish. the non buffing metalizers will give you more of a bare non shine metal look.. such as bare steel and aluminum. It just depends on the look your after. I have almost the entire line since I use them alot for different finishes. A little pricey when you go for the whole lot, but if you buy just a couple at a time. It goes easier on the wallet. And yes, they come in both a spray can and bottles.. I mostly use the bottles, and when I need to spray them I use my air brush, and no they don't need thinning.. but with really small parts you can even apply them with a paint brush and still get a nice result.

Cool nice save on the glass work

Thanks Michael. I've used Model Masters Metalizer paints since they first came out.. Dang am I telling on myself here lol. No really, They are a little fussy to work with and can be a little messy to, but they do look good.