OldNYJim

Grill looks great! Could I ask what the ‘Walmart German Carpet’ is - I couldn’t work out what that was, but I like the result you got!

Oh, interesting! Do you happen to have a pic of one? (I figure that kind of advanced parts knowledge often comes from having said part on one’s bench at the time, or close-by anyway... ?)

A few of this week’s sights from around Brooklyn:

That’s really helpful! Thank you everyone! I appreciate the pics too, Bill! I did some research, but without knowing exactly what you’re looking for it can be an uphill struggle...

That’s really helpful!! Does it look like any particular manufacturer’s part to you, or is it one of those ‘looks roughly right’ Monogram parts that they used to come up with way back then?

I just saw on Instagram that someone is making 3D printed versions of these in scale

Do I have to? ?? That rear view isn’t bad, but it’s kind of a mish-mash in that first pic, for me. Looks skilfully done though, I’ll give them that!

Doing some research here...is this transmission (from the T’rantula kit) based on a real design? The engine is a 427 SOHC, but no idea what the trans is meant to represent, if anything...any ideas anyone?

It seems, even as big as the aftermarket is I keep coming up with pieces that I wish I could manufacture myself if only I had the tools. Current project that I’ve been mulling for a few weeks is a Ford SOHC engine for T’rantula dragster...and my stupid imagination came up with the idea of a lathe’d aluminum trans for it to replace the kit’s plastic part so now I’ve got to at least see if anyone could make one - or something close to it in shape (I realise those ribs and lumps and bumps won’t be possible without a LOT more work): Does anyone know of anyone who does that kind of work, or would be interested in doing it themselves? I’d be curious to know what it would end up costing, by the time material costs, labor and postage were accumulated up Thanks in advance for any leads!

So Bill, revisiting this (incredibly useful) topic as I start work on another one of these engines...how do you rate the 3D printed version that you picked up compared to the kitbashed version you were working on? I can’t decide between doing a kitbash as you’ve done or just getting the version from Shapeways - I’d be really interested to hear your opinion!

That’s a GREAT idea! Inspired!

Beautiful work as always - can’t wait to see that paint!

This is coming together really nicely! Can I ask who makes the photo-etched bolts?

So, my wife’s aunt sent me a couple of AMT 53 Studebaker kits that she found my wife’s grandpa’s garage - he was a real Studebaker nut before he died, and rather than throw them out I ended up with them. I built one stock, to match a 1:1 the Grandpa had had, but one had a bust up body and was beyond saving for a STOCK build, anyway. So; I used that one for this! Mostly box stock but with a set of resin steel wheels, a z on the front of the frame and some alterations to the leaf springs in the back to get it about as low as it’s possible to get a 53 Studebaker with a stock-ish frame and floor. I made a bomber-style bench seat on my vinyl cutter and added a little detail to the engine, plus a scratchbuilt roof rack and swamp cooler. This was a fun one! It’s nice to do something not-shiny now and then! And a couple of shots of it with it’s box-stock brother ? Thanks for looking!

And...it’s done! More pics in Under Glass!

Huh!! Interesting!!! I didn’t know that - that would certainly explain it! Even the 30 and 40 year old Ford vans driving around here didn’t look as bad as that Astro so I wondered what had happened to it. Fascinating! Spent yesterday doing some assembly on this thing - I’ve found that I really like Elmer’s rubber cement for holding interior tubs in. It stays tacky nice and long so you can get the body over the tub without snapping the glue joints like you would with CA, but then seems to set up plenty strong enough to hold it all in place: I got kinda carried away with getting the engine together and didn’t really take any pics, but it’s in there! Added an aftermarket resin air filter and a few wires and doodads: And today I need to attach the wheels, the exhaust and a couple of little details and I can call this one done!

That’s really interesting!! I’ve never even heard of such a thing - thanks for the info! How does it compare to BMF? Does it work as well?

That’s really interesting - what kind of foil is that?

Haha! Those are good! I guess if it were a bar it would be a tiki bar. Fun to be in for an hour or two, but you wouldn’t want to LIVE there ?

Dash in place! I used the cutter to make some glass for the gauge faces, Createx for the nice metal flake-looking wheel and a couple of other little bits...not that you can see most of this when the tub’s in the body anyway ? Need to put an engine together and then I can start finishing this thing ??. More soon!

Not sure about those...but I did all this stuff in the free software that came with the Silhouette. I’ve been using Photoshop for years so I can lay out stuff in that if I need to and then bring it into the cutter software but for most projects you won’t need to do that. I bet the Cricuts come with software that’s plenty competent to do all kinds of useful stuff too though, and they have some cool products for those that might have some modelling uses too (wood, metal sheet, leather etc)

As a Miata fan I kept grabbing the new Miata casting when I saw them...I think I probably have enough now though ?

Me, after my wife wondered what I was looking at ?

Oh, and a couple of cutter-projects that I forgot about - that rear speaker on the interior tub of my Studebaker project was styrene sheet cut on the cutter with a fabric insert also cut on the cutter - and below that a set of floor mats I made for the same build:

I couldn’t find a thread specifically for tips and tricks on using a scrapbook cutter (such as the ones Silhouette and Cricut sell) so I thought I’d show some of the stuff I like to do with mine. The most obvious use is to use them roughly as they’re intended and cut either vinyl or masking material for airbrushing or painting. Here’s some I did recently using airbrush frisket: Another project I did lately called for a leopardprint pattern on the interior, so I used the cutter to make a mask so I could paint that: That little tiki shift knob was done with a mask cut on the cutter too - that was really pushing the limits of how small you can go on these things. That bomber bench seat was cut on the cutter too - Eric Ritz has done a bunch of MUCH more interesting parts on his (frames, dashes etc) but this was a fun quick project and the cutter did a nice job of that diamond pattern I think! Another thing that you can do with them is cut some thin acetate sheet to make gauge glass (excuse the poor photo - tiny clear parts are hard to photograph!) This lettering on the same project was done on the cutter too - just cut a mask and sprayed through it with the airbrush: I’d love to see if anyone else has any cool things that they’ve done with their cutters - there’s a bunch of cool stuff you can achieve with them by thinking outside of the box a little!