AmericanMuscleFan

Sorry to be a light year late but I haven't yet seen what motivates you Andrew and I see that the details are clearly part of it. ? We like different subjects but I can only admire your talent sir. ? Oddly enough we love racing cars but the speed at which we achieve them is inversely proportional... ?

Hello everyone. Just a few pictures to show you the installed hardware on the frame rails. I have already started working on the panels to dress the engine bay, I hope to show you something at the beginning of next week as I will be kept away from my workbench for the next 3 days. Comments and questions are welcome. Francis In order to have a perfect alignment, I decided to make the grooves with the milling machine. As you can see I put a piece of styrene between the frame rails so as not to risk breaking them during surgery. Luckily I had just enough room for the cutter and the supports lined up perfectly. Different point of view (sorry for the blurry picture). You can notice that the attachment points for the upper A-arms are flush with the frame, I wanted it that way because they are tabs welded onto the frame rails on the real car. If you look closely, you can also see the tiny brass bolts I added to the shock mounts for added strength.

Thanks Charlie! Not much aluminum and brass so far but I'll fix that in the next few weeks. ?

Great job Daniel, this is often unavoidable but certain repairs/modifications occur during a long build like yours, it prolongs the project but you need what it takes to be satisfied and I know you are demanding. ?

Great job Roger! I had already done the same thing for my Demon project (remove the section under the hood of the new Duster kit to graft it to the Demon body). I did this operation for my 70 Dart Swinger several years ago and it is a perfect match. After second thought and to make different, I'm going to build a stripped down version so as not to hide the steering/suspension elements I planned to make. However, the path you took is the right one and will produce an impeccable result. ?

Oh yeah! I knew there were ingenious builders on this forum, now my patent is burned... I should have done more research... ? Thanks for the kind words on my return and recent progress Ian, I hope to start the milling machine and lathe soon for the countless aluminum and brass parts to be made. Francis

Hello everyone! Now that the basic fabrication of the front frame is satisfactory to me, I wanted to complete this part of the project before focusing on the rest of the bodywork under the hood. I won't be making the upper A-arms and lower control arms right away because I need to machine the wheels first to be able to estimate the measurements. On the other hand, I made the attachment points for the upper A-arms and the coil over shock brackets. Instead of styrene, I used aluminum because it will be stronger and it's high time to add some metal to this build. ? I will still have to graft them to the frame and I will do that next before continuing on other aspects of the project as mentioned earlier. Comments and questions are welcome. For aluminum lovers (I am one of them ?). Francis Upper A-arms attachment in the rotary table (Sorry if I didn't take a photo of each step to get there). One down three more to go! Coil over shock bracket at early stage of machining. At later stage. It's starting to look more like a bracket. The final product. From another angle. I drilled two holes to add brass bolts, they will help secure the bracket to the styrene frame. I don't completely trust adhesives, I try as much as possible to add reinforcement when it comes to gluing dissimilar materials.

And that's as many parts as were found in most kits not so long ago. ??

You are a real encyclopedia on the subject John, I am always amazed by your knowledge on the subject! I really love that version, especially the hood stripe and body color grille frame. ? They were less greedy than today on the bill as we can see... ?

Hi Claude, It's nice to have left some for the others but anyway, with inflation and interest rates, it would be expensive to extend your house to store all the trophies you have and those to come! As for the patent, it might be a waste of time because I must admit that super glue and liquid cement are just as effective. ? Francis

You don't have to be embarrassed about what you do Roger, you are a damn good modeler and all your builds are potential trophy winners, you have that in your blood and it shines through in all your subjects. You'll probably cross the finish line before me because I spend a lot of time making barely visible details but that's how I'm made and I can't help it. There is room for everyone on this forum regardless of how we work and it is beneficial to perpetuate this hobby. Keep up the great work! ?

Thanks JC ! I feel the same way about race car conversions, but I think most prefer to see replicas of the original versions. The purpose of this hobby is to do what we love and it feels good when our project receives appreciation from our peers. I'm only at the beginning, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to come back whenever you want. Francis

Aluminum is a very handy material for holding brass parts in place when soldering as you mentioned, I have tried it before and it is very effective. It's almost impossible not to have repairs to make when you are in a very complex build like the one you are currently in, it's part of the game and it just tests our determination. ? Francis

Thanks Claude! Yes, it's TIG, I managed to invent a unit that uses styrene rods to weld styrene parts together. I cannot share photos of this invention at the moment because I am waiting for the patent to be approved and the process is very long as you know. ? Did you manage to make just one trip to bring your trophies when you returned from the exhibition in the Eastern Township or were you forced to return there to make a second trip? ?

Nice project Roger! I am very delighted to see the little brother of my Dodge Demon project. I was actually thinking of building the same car, I had bought the Slixx Billy the Kid decals a few years ago but I opted to build a fictional version instead as I couldn't find enough references for a detailed build of the real car. I know what you're capable of so I'll be following your build with interest, I love what I'm seeing so far! ?

You can find one at Competition Resin (1972 Demon Pro Stock/Super Stock Resin body kit) but I don't know the quality and details, I don't work much with this type of material. I decided to take the "Demon" by the horns and make one myself out of styrene but it was a lot of work!

Hi Roger, this doesn't help speed up a project but it certainly helps get nice, straight parts. You have the advantage of living in the USA so you pay at least 40% less (exchange rate) than us in Canada. You shouldn't deprive yourself of the essentials but if your budget allows it, treat yourself and what's more you support an excellent product made in the USA! ??

Thank you Daniel, as you know too well, effective direction starts with straight and parallel elements! ?

The headers are stunning and full of detail Daniel, how could I not love them! ? You're on your way to your newest most detailed build ever! ?

Hello everyone! I made some progress on the front frame components while making the rest of the elements from Chris Alston's upgrade kit. I have tried to reproduce as best I can using the few photos I found on the Internet as a reference since I do not have precise dimensions other than the size of the frame members which are 3 x 2 inches. I think it's very acceptable but you can judge for yourself, the target image is the first photo from my previous update (last week). I still need to make the attachment points for the upper A-arms and the shock mounts (on the frame), so those will be the next parts I work on. Comments and questions are welcome. See you soon with more progress, Francis One of the lower control arm on the wise, the holes for the pivots are 0.020" I made an opening on each piece before closing one of the sides with a thin strip of styrene. I carefully aligned the four pieces in the vise and made an angled groove for mounting to the frame rails. To make sure the parts are properly aligned I inserted a 0.020" drill bit into the pre-drilled holes, the mounting arms should be perfectly parallel and aligned. View from a different angle. I then added the round tubes which create the K-member. View from below. View from a different angle.

Yes and it's a good time to go back to my cave to work on my project. Your Bugatti is amazing, just the wooden templates are works of art in themselves! ? We haven't finished drooling!!!

Nice job Niko, I love seeing someone take the time to sand or put putty filler over the small casting defects. ? I remember building the street version of the kit when I first started modeling, probably the late 60s or early 70s and having a hard time with it. It was a very complex kit for the time and good practice for sharpening your dexterity. ?

Thanks Bob! I used liquid cement like Bondene or Tenax so it's easy to align the pieces (strips) before gluing them, the liquid melts the plastic by capillary action. I only had to sand the sides but there are still a few barely visible joints that the primer and paint should hide. I've made progress on the other parts of the front frame but have to get back to work for the next three nights, I'll post the photos of what I made in the next few days. Francis

Thanks Keith! I love this Mopar body style so much, rest assured I will do my best to take this old MPC kit to the next level. Francis Thanks Scott! Nothing really impressive done on the front frame so far but this Alston kit will be really fun and challenging to build I think, stay tuned! Francis Thanks Daniel! I would have loved to make the entire front frame in brass but the connection with the styrene floor pan would perhaps have become a fragile point where the choice of adhesive is limited to 2-part epoxy. The whole thing will be painted in the end anyway, so styrene I think was the way to go (It's also easier this way, I think I'm getting a little lazy). ? Francis

Hello everyone! Now that most of the major interior components are made (except the seats and roll bar), I'll move on to making the front frame. I also want to work on the engine bay, so I need the frame rails in position to create the radiator support and parts to mount the grille as well as making the front valance. This is the first part of this update to show you the fabrication of the basic elements, the other structural parts are still in work in progress at the moment. I found some photos on the web of a very cool kit that several guys used on A-Body's and I will try to reproduce it as closely as possible based on the images since I was unable to find the dimensions of the elements that compose it. I think the name of the kit is "Chris Alston 3x2" and it's exactly the kind of racing upgrade I was looking for for my project. Comments are welcome as usual. See you soon, Francis The target . I made the frame rails using the lamination technique because it is stronger and gives rigidity to the whole thing. I was afraid that the joints could fail by joining 0.080" x 0.125" strips at an angle. The frame rails after some curing time and minor sanding. Frame rails glued to their final position on the floor pan. I will only have to adjust the length when the radiator support is at the fabrication stage. I added the typical round reinforcement tubes as seen in the target image.