garagepunk66

I just purchased a '65 Chrysler 300 kit from his E-Bay store. My first purchase from TMR and a very nice kit.

wasn't the Revellion based on the 62 Dodge Dart body? sure would like to see any of the '62 Mopar annuals reissued

yes, in absence of existing aftermarket this is my plan. i'm "between" desktop PC's right now, my old one which had my CAD and CAD/CAM programs on it had a failure in the power supply and was very old. i chose to purchase a used engineering-purposed workstation PC from the 'Bay and have spec'd out and purchased the Hard Drives and memory for it but have yet to have it built. anyone have some good measurements from any old 1:1 413, 426, or 440 manifold? would need...port spacing, overall length on each bank, bank offset ( i am presuming one port width would be accurate enough of a figure) bolt spacing, face angle (as measured from the horizontal plane), width at top of port flange at ports, bottom width at ports, etc., etc.

thanks for the replies fellas. yes, i'm aware of the kit parts in the JoHan Chrysler 300 kits of 62-3; however those are rare as stated and pretty inaccurate to boot, as it seems to represent a dual-plane. the real deal is single plane as shown. with a set of air cleaners and Fireball Modelworks AFB's , a manifold like this would very nicely back-date Revell's excellent 68-69 Charger 440 and AMT's great 71 Charger 440 engines for early-'60's hot rod duty and would look great under the hoods of the Moebius 65 Satellite and Lindberg 64 Dodges & Plymouths too

Does anyone cast the factory cast-iron low-rise inline dual-quad intake for the 413 powered 59 - 62 Chrysler 300 Letter Series cars as shown? I could find lots of uses for a vintage setup like this.

Another point to ponder is that if you can live without the knob-spinner feature, one can just use the ER8 collet chuck as-is; no machining required!

Also, don't overlook your local tech college. It's a one-class-period project for a reasonably bright and CNC functional student.

Yes Greg, i tend to agree to a point. But these days networking is king, and even if you don't know a "guy who knows a guy", the hobby machining bulletin boards are full of guys looking for request-for-work quotes

I purchased a low-cost import ER8 collet chuck on Ebay for about $15.00, and 5 different size collets; .2mm, .5mm, 1mm, 1.5mm and .125" from various online sources. Since i don't operate the CNC lathes, i told Curt, the day-shift Mazak guy what i wanted. About 1.75" of length needed to be removed and the end turned and threaded for the knob from the old pin vise. The Mascot pin vise uses a 5/16-40 (pretty unusual) thread form. The threaded portion is about .200" long. The major and minor diameters as well as the thread pitch diameter were all found in Machinery's Handbook. This is essential information for the lathe programmer. About 1/2" of length was turned down to the major diameter. One word of caution about using the collets; the collet "snaps" into the cap before screwing onto the chuck. The picture below shows the collet installed in the cap correctly. The collet can easily break if you attempt to place the collet and tool into the chuck and then try to screw the cap on. Mine also required a 9mm wrench and a 12mm wrench to tighten The finished product....

This is my first tech thread, so any kind suggestions or constructive criticisms will be welcomed. I have had a German-made Mascot pin vise since the mid-1980's. It is still a serviceable unit, and works fine as pin vises go. My problem with it has always been its inability to hold a small bit straight in the infinity collet, not since day one has it done this to my satisfaction. Recently, upon re-entering the hobby and evaluating all of my tools, i decided that i would try to build something better. But first, a little more background.... A few years back i had a career change; for 25+ years i had been an auto parts counterman in dealerships, with a 9 year stint in the middle as an assembly mechanic in the paper-making-machinery industry. In 2010 after a layoff from a parts job, i decided to go back to school for CNC setup & programming. I now work as a programmer/setup machinist, running vertical machining centers in a toolroom for a local company that specializes in making deep-drawn metal stampings in progressive-die presses. This has afforded me a familiarity with various tooling systems and opportunities to do some things for myself. We use ER (Erickson) series collets at work for holding drills and endmills. ER16's go from about .030 up to about .437, and ER32 for larger shanks. They work nice and even the cheap import collets will hold .0002 total indicated runout in a good collet chuck with a good nut. I got to thinking about my pin vise one day and wondered how small the smallest ER series was and what the range was and if a collet chuck could be made into a pin vise. Enter the ER8 series. The collets go down to .2mm (.0078") and up to 5mm (.196); perfect! more to follow....

Great job on the Little Deuce conversion. I guess i always thought the original Little Deuce used American Racing "LeMans" wheels like the Big Deuce did. Re: the original post topic, yes i would be all in for a Little T Redux with all bodies and parts to recreate all of the original 1/8 versions. the Deuce kit, however, though having decent proportions, is too simplistic in approach for me so new kit parts for the current Revell 32 roadster to backdate it (reverse engineered and improved ala the Slingster) is in order

While i understand your perspective concerning the tone of the OP's post; i believe the heart of the thread is aimed at re-purposing otherwise under-utilized, unused or throwaway consumables and materials that may not even have a commercially-available equivalent, or may work BETTER THAN what is available down at the LHS, For that, kudos to all of you for your ingenuity. i think for most, and definitely for me, it is a time-honored tradition of model building in general to pack-rat away this or that because it looks like it may be useful one day, or to look at something in the cosmetics aisle of your grocer or in the adhesives aisle of the hardware store and say to yourself " I wonder if that would work for....x?".

Yes, when i was in my auto body course in the mid '80's i was taught that any lacquer topcoat over the top of not-fully-cured enamel would buckle or curdle, so that is telling. Do the Tamiya Lacqers dry similarly then? I have no experience with either, as my last finish paint job on a model was done in the early 90's!

could it be that in the case of the Testors lacquers, that the "lacquer" marketing term is being somewhat misconstrued, chemically speaking? enamels will "cure" thru their exposure to oxygen (IE oxidation), while acrylic lacquers, by their very nature, are dissolved acrylic plastics that "dry" thru solvent evaporation. that would be some crazy-slow thinner to take the better part of a month to dry!

Wowza! Fantastic work and great subject matter!

Fantastic build John! Thanks for sharing

Bill, if you read my post, I was suggesting the 57 Chrysler frame as a starting point for scratch-building the bolt-in FRONT subframe.

I would think that the logical starting point for the front subframe would be the AMT 57 Chrysler frame. The frame horns differ somewhat and the subframe rails "vee" outward to the rear after the kickup ends; but the suspension, engine cross-member and central section are all very similar. A.#3 cross-member ( the one where the torsion bars anchor) will have to be scratch-built. For the rear suspension, rails, rear floor, etc., you might try the JoHan Turbine car as the rails have the right "C" shape to the kickup and seem to be correct for a C-Body car.

This story is pretty much anecdotal, presented for your amusement only.... I would totally agree that the bulk of Auto World brand marketed items were top notch! From the Mini-Men to the Sponsor Decal Sheets it was all good stuff. I wish i could find some more decal sheets!

Dateline: 1975...Nine years of age and I was starting my 4th or 5th model kit to date. I had found the Revell '54 Chevy Sedan Delivery (with the Stars & Stripes Box Art) Kit as an opened, returned item at my local Jupiter Store (sort of a discount liquidation/overstock-based retail outlet for various department stores). Having (somehow) already finished the Revell '55 Bel Air and not yet fully understanding the pain that some of those late '60's - Early '70's Revell Kits could inflict; i plunked down some change for the kit. The kit had been taped shut at the store and had been marked as contents complete, so when I got home and opened it, I was baffled at the non-opened doors on the body, as the box art car clearly had opening doors! I looked the rest of the kit over and pondered my options. I had an old hand-me-down copy of a 1969 Auto World catalog and all at once clearly understood the need for their much-hyped Auto Cutter tool that I had seen within its ratty, dog-eared pages. Now for those who are too young to remember this gadget, it basically consisted of a woodburner fitted with an X-Acto blade holder at the tip. In the catalog it was touted as a wonder-tool to end all wonder-tools! A full page was devoted to its various, amazing uses! So, off i go to see my Dad, to present my dilemma and show him my wonder solution! My Dad, assures me that we do not really need that expensive gadget, and that he can open up those doors for me. He gets a candle out on the kitchen table and lights it, then pulls out his pocket knife. At this point, even in my young, inexperienced mind, the prospect of success with this particular method seemed rather dubious and voiced my concerns; but Dad could not, and would not be swayed. The results were quick and predictable, rendering my new pride and joy into completely un-buildable junk. Tearing up, i gathered my stuff and headed for the basement, swearing off ever asking my Father for help on any model car project ever again. Now, I never did get that Auto Cutter. I think as a result of this experience, i surmised early, and probably quite correctly so, that in unskilled hands such as mine, a heated plastic-cutting tool could become more of a liability than an asset. Anyone have any similar experiences to share?

1/24 - 1/25 Ulrich Mini-Men are available again, the same ones Auto World used to sell. Ulrich is an EBay seller, sells at a Buy-It-Now price and ships quickly. These were tooled up in the early '60's so the look is reflective of that era

Sorry to dredge this old thread up from the dead; but I am also contemplating the open-mold concept of casting a styrene/Tenax mixture. I also use this combo instead of filling with putty so I'm quite comfortable with it's working characteristics. Using SCI-Grip 3 intsead of Tenax (covered in other threads on this forum - available from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00466V8F0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_3&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER ) would make it more cost-effective too, and lord knows i have enough sprue to melt down. I have an original AMT 69 Falcon Kit and i want to make molds of the wheel opening areas, the trunk-lid section between the tail-lamps and window frame detail to cast sections for adding back to the current-release modified-stocker body and I prefer to work in all-styrene. I would think that a very-thin mixture that would be brushed in and built up in subsequent thin layers would work pretty well if allowed to dry thoroughly between coats; and the subsequent coats would fully fuse with what is already cured out.

Thanks for the fantastic review Tim. I still have the mid-1980's reissue unbuilt in my stash, but those tires, the reference booklet and decals are worth the price of admission alone! I hope AMT/Round 2 will package those pad-printed Firestones in a Parts Pack in the near future as i can see buying several sets

RancheroSteve, i did notice the scale issue, particularly in the engine components. It looks like a small V6!. I believe i am going to use the Tamiya slot-car body and open up the front and rear bonnets after finalizing a monocoque tub configuration and fitment. The opening doors i can do without as I believe that aspect to be the fiddliest of the fiddly on the IMC kit due to the relatively unsupported cowl structure. The detail-up kit from HRM does look nice. The GT40 and the T-70 are at least fraternal twins in some senses by birth given their Lola Mk 6 parentage; but I'm not certain of how much is similar by the MkII generations of each are shared in terms of suspension, transaxle, etc.