STYRENE-SURFER

Okay, was just going to start a Maverick build of my own... think I'll put that away for awhile after seeing perfection. FANTASTIC!!! Will most likely steal all your ideas. Can we see a view from the underside ?If you don't mind

For sure, and just think about storage for who knows how long, shipping to China and yada yada. I know you get it. It's a giant investment really. Just wish they could correct it but... edit. I'm fairly confident now that it would take brand new die's, after a conversation I just had w/a family member in a kinda sorta close to it trade.? He quantifys by the millionth of an inch tho. It is just a plastic toy after all ! HaHa better to be glad we got what we got. And the best support group around. (Grumble in the back ground).?

Kevin, what type of injection molding did you do? did you ever see any kind of repairs done on the dies? honestly I never saw any, other than replacement of ejector pins. My experience is only aluminum castings and that was not my department but did have to pay some attention as I was machining those pieces later. So there quality trickled down.

More pressure won't help molds that have been constantly used,beaten,and moved from place to place. They are heavy, difficult to maintain and close toleranced . And then you have all those ejector pins to keep working. Not the simple process from what I've seen.

All good points, yes if these moulds where scrapped we would have nothing to look forward to and be paying those exorbitant eBay prices for vintage kits. I have seen some die casting production and spent years in prototype & production machine shops. Even time in QC. A thankless job!!! Before that I was in photo advertising for a large corporate dept. store (have a fairly decent understanding of marketing). Yet I still wonder why those old dies can't be brought up to snuff. ( I'm showing my lack of knowledge about the process here). Someone please help me understand this. from a marketing point of view, I think they are doing the best they can. When I was younger couldn't wait to get the latest kit that looked like those cars seen on TV, magazines and in movies. Car culture is not what it was in the 60's 70's. Yah, somewhat OT and now living as a somewhat grumpier old version of my teenage self.?

Noah, that timing cover is based off the Revell parts pack 427. And unfortunately no longer available. ? Håkan, that type of oil pan is probably close. On some early photographs Ive found of vintage funny cars, dragsters (thats what I'm making parts for). You can see an oil pump/filter on the front side of the block where that aluminum colored cover w/four bolts on it appear in your pic. That is a shared feature w/both Wedge and SOHC engines. I wish I could find some good pics on the net showing more detail, Google, Google, Google.?

JC, when I saw that color it reminded me of the old IROC series cars. Looks great.

Frank, that first pic of the hood alone would give me good reason to bin it. Amazing that a manufacturer even if using decades old tooling can sit right with that. good on you for persevering. Build on.

I just did a test on a flat piece of styrene. Made two circles of Elmer's glue brushed on leaving a void in the middle. After that dried put a puddle of Tamiya thin in one instant Jet CA in the other. Neither of them creeped past the white glue barrier. And warm water washed the rest away. No pictures because my camera could not pick up the thin layers of glue on a white styrene surface. Take from this what you will, there are situations when I just dont have enough hands and fingers and don't want glue getting everywhere ?

I'm fine with a steering wheel in my hands and my foot on the gas pedal for now, thank you ?

Snake... I just reread your last post and now understand what you were saying. LOL Yes there could be a pan from the SOHC dragster kits that would make a good donor part / starting point. ?

The FE (Ford-Edsel) 427 is different than the SOHC. Here is a bit of history snipped from a rcnmag.com article. Maybe you’ve read about a side-oiler here or there, or you know a guy in the local Cobra club has one that the other members drool over. But what is it that makes the 427 side-oiler more exciting than other Ford V8s? The 427 side-oiler engine belongs to the Ford FE family, arguably the peak of Ford’s big cubic inch V8s. The FE was available from 1958 to ’76 in displacements from 330 to 428 cubic inches. These engines took the place of the outgoing Y-block engine which only ran for a few years after replacing the flathead V8. The FE went through different iterations and was constantly being adjusted and perfected before being replaced by the 335-series (351C/M and 400) and 385-series (370, 429 and 460) engines. While it was second in displacement to the 428, the 427 was first in performance and the only ‘race-only’ engine in the FE family. Launched in 1963, the 427 engine actually measured 425.98 cubic inches, but was deemed the 427 because this was the maximum engine displacement permitted by a few different race-sanctioning bodies at that time. The thin-wall block was cast with a high-nickel alloy and featured a thicker deck to withstand higher compression ratios. A shorter 3.784-inch stroke was used for high rpm operation, but the 4.233-inch bore pushed the limits of the FE design. It’s important to note that the 427 cannot be bored more than 0.030 inch safely. Several improvements were made to ensure the 427 engine could endure sustained high rpm (above 5,000) abuse. Up top, most 427s used solid lifters instead of hydraulic lifters for improved horsepower figures at high rpm. Steel cranks were also used because they were a little stronger than their cast counterparts. For added durability under heavy loads, the main bearing webs were reinforced and main bearing caps were cross-bolted. These improvements to the rotating assembly proved beneficial, but weren’t entirely sufficient for the abuses these engines would endure in NASCAR and Le Mans racing. For that, Ford needed to reprioritize engine oiling. In the standard 427 engine, now dubbed the top-oiler or center-oiler, oil was pumped to a passage under the camshaft and up to the valve train before oiling the crank. To keep the crankshaft happier at the top of the rev range, Ford added a special oil passage along the left side of the block to direct oil to the crank first, and then the cam and valve train. This new oil passage from the side of the block resulted in its new moniker, the side-oiler.

The piece I was trying to glue in which has a compound curve kept trying to flatten out and this was after some man handling to get it to comply. There was a bit of a friction fit just not enough. That Touch-N-Flow applicator look like the ticket, going to order that kit.

That's good news, cars can be the best or worst things you'll ever own.

Was trying to get this grill fill in piece to hold its shape while gluing it in. It was giving me such problems/fits that I figured using the kit part as a buck to hold its shape and make it easier to place. I did cut that original kit part down a bit to keep it from being glued in along with the fill. Just the contour was needed. So I used Elmer's to attache that fill piece to the grill part and also covered the backside to halt glue creep. Used small clothespins as clamps to hold the fill and kit grill parts together till the glue dried . Then did some final sanding to fit and glued it into the body as shown. After the glue dried overnight soaked it in warm water to release that part used as the buck. No glue creep, and it worked out well. I'm going to try this out with CA. I use it all the time but not on so much with this kind of thing because it can really make a mess. So basically the idea is a barrier for were you don't want the glue to go and a way to hold parts in place/shape while getting it where you want it. Yah, thats how my brain works. Always experimenting and OCD as ever. ?

Was home on a Friday today waiting for a delivery, was pleasantly surprised to find MeTv is airing the old Magnum PI shows. Magnum: "I know what you're thinking" Higgins: "OHHH MY GOD !" LOL?

Here is a pick of parts so far (well not all of them) in this assembly. In GRAY shown on my everlasting Mustang Altered/Match racer build. More masters to create.

Those are totally in my wheelhouse. Great!

Geez. I really don't like it when ya got a possible Gladys Kravitz living next door! Been through that. Arrrrg!

I should also ask for anyone interested in this endeavor of mine, what parts would you like to have available? will be working on a M/T style timing cover soon to go with the blower manifold parts. This will hopefully give options to build something different than the Chrysler Hemi, Ford SOHC powered models we see everyday. That's the plan anyway ?

Snake, I'll take a look at that for sure. Not yet sure how interchangeable those pieces might be between the Hemi and Ford blocks. Will do a diligent Google following your tips. JC, it may be a SBC, but that does look like an stock oil pan in that rail so perhaps in the early days it was typical to use the factory pan. I really don't know for sure though.

Currently I am cooking up some parts for those of you that might want to put a big block Ford in it. (not the usual SOHC or Boss 429) A set of mid/late 60's speed parts primarily seen on front engine rail dragsters, Altered's and match racers. I have a couple masters done and just completed a deep pan oil cover. Plan is to make a shallow oil sump style pan as well. I have no knowledge of vintage f/e dragsters (and no kits in my collection). So... My question is. What would the oil pan on a typical dragster like these look like?

Received a package from Norm at R&M. Lots of excellent parts to help with a little side project going on here in the lab. Two that you see here where mastered by myself, the rest for aiding in creating more pieces of the set. Oh, and also a special extra bonus T-Bold kit.

Thanx Kevin, for some reason I just couldn't get the link pasted correctly. Kind of fun looking at all these old magazine covers for reference / inspiration. I picked out a few that are interesting to me. The Shadow Can-Am cars have always been cool to me. Had the AFX slot car version of one of them. I had this issue when it came out, now mulling over what to do with my Jo-Han Maverick kit. Hmmm. This one because I'm currently working on similar year match racer (Look at that horrible fiberglass layup under that hood) Have a look around that site, you may find some info / ideas for a future build.

Thanx JC. I completely forgot about that thread.