LOBBS

I've been working 50-60 hours a week pretty much from the day we got married and started having kids so that my wife could be home with them until they hit school age. When I first got back into the hobby as an adult, I was buying up kits left and right and had a "plan" for each and every one. Over time, lack of actual time on the bench began to become a frustration and I walked away for the hobby for a couple of years. We moved into a new house about a year and a half ago and I had a room in the basement designated as my hobby area as it already had cabinetry in place on which to work. Up until a few months ago, it sat largely unused with all my stuff still in boxes from the move. The idea of unpacking and organizing all that stuff into my new area when I wasn't going to have time to build anyways was a huge mental block. So I downsized. I picked about a dozen projects that I was really passionate about and proceeded to begin trading off everything else for items that I needed to go all out on the selected few. It's been the best thing, hobby wise, that I've done in a long time. Not having an overwhelming inventory of projects has energized my interest again and made it easier for me to set aside time to get in front of the bench. I started with a couple simple projects that I wanted to have cast and I'm gradually working back into full scale builds.

I picked up a ZR1 while I was out today. Parts for the LS9 should be on their way to Manny on Monday.

Its been a rough couple of weeks at work. Hopefully, I'll be able to slip out this weekend and pick up a ZR1 donor kit. I'll get the parts off to Manny shortly after that.

Looks like I'll be putting the paint work on hold for a bit. I'm sending my hood down to Lex's Scale Modeling so he can cast up a 3" cowl-induction hood for the Revell '67 Chevelle.

Can't wait to see that Chris. My first project with the LS7 will be a '69 Camaro with a full Air Ride setup. I just need to track down a Revell Ferrari 599 GTO at a Hobby Lobby so that I can snag the BBS F1 wheels and tires from it. I try to avoid buying kits just to bash one thing from but if I have to I like to get it on the cheap.

I suppose that it's about time to get something on the bench using the new stuff that I had cast by VCG. Here's the start of my '67 Chevelle project. I'm going with the kit's BBC but dropping the Muncie in favor of the new T-56 six-speed and using VCG's repop of the '67 Imp EFI unit and a set of their 572 valve covers. Color right now is MM AMC Sterling Silver lacquer. MM Bright Platinum was my first choice and if I can find a few cans locally I'll exchange these for those. Wheels are some Aoshima Prof VF1s that I received in a trade awhile back. I may widen the back rims and order up a set of wider tires from Ma's Resin. Other plans call for a full Hotchkis suspension system which means I'll have to fab up some upper and lower A-arms and 4 links out back. I'm also trying to track down a reasonable cowl-induction hood. I'm not a fan of those huge outlaw hoods.

In my personal experience, they (VCG) have been great to work with. I've never waited more than a day for a reply to an email and have talked to Manny personally on the phone. I had Manny hold my order until all the masters that I'd sent him were cast and ready for production but even that entire process only took a couple of weeks.

I got a big package from VCG Resins. The first two copies of my LS7 crate motor, 6 T-56 six- speed manuals, 3 of the 6L80 six-speed autos, a half dozen sets of the 572 valve covers and a pair of the resin EFI BBC intakes from the AMT '67 Impala.

The LS7 crate motor and the pair of six-speed trannys (T-56 manual and 6L80 auto) are now available. A supercharged LS9 is also a go once I get the parts to Manny.

Yep, that is everything in the kit. It's pretty much a plug and play setup.

Awesome work, Antonio!

Yep, you can officially place orders tomorrow the 24th for the LS7 with the manual T-56 six-speed. As soon as Manny let's me know the six-speed automatic 6L80 version is good to go, I'll post it here as well.

Is that Dark Bronze from the Testors lacquers line?

I think the purple fits the Olds well. Great looking build.

Looking great.

Looks good so far. Can't wait to see some color on it.

Very nice work on the weathering.

Basically what I'm seeing is necessary to do an LS9 crate motor in scale is to raid the ZR1 kit for the manifold pieces, front cover and belt/pulley assemblies.

I did a quick Google search and found a few places selling the LS9 as a crate motor. I know the ZR59 SEMA Vette that is inspiration for my own '59 Vette used one. The Stielow Camaros use the LS9 upper on the LS7 427 block.

I was hoping that the ZR1 LS9 setup would work as that would be fairly straightforward. After seeing these pics, there is quite a bit more scratching to be done. The upper part of the manifold for sure. I'll have to pick up a ZR1 and see how that kit's pieces are laid out to see if it'll make a good base to start from.

Thanks for the heads up on the differences.

Yes, Klaus is using the angled-face 18" x 24" opening dimensions in his calculation which is correct. But, the point you both have missed is that the actual cross-sectional area of his booth is around 17" x 24". So when the air leaves the opening of the face and enters the body of the booth the airflow is actually slightly accelerated by being forced through the smaller area. By calculating for the slightly larger opening you can ensure that the column of air through the booth maintains a sufficient velocity. Air is not empty space. It is full of molecules that have to be treated like a fluid where motion is concerned. So in the case of a booth you have to move all (or a great deal) of the molecules that are in the space between the fan and the opening. In the case of this booth, you have exactly the opposite scenario of Klaus' example. You have an extremely small opening and a large cross-sectional area. Once the air passes through the inlet filter into the box, it will decelerate rapidly as the molecules coming in have to fill the much larger column of the booth. That 100 cfm fan has to move all (or a great deal of) of the molecules in that 2' x 3' column before it can exact a draw on the smaller inlet. To actually obtain 50 fpm at the fan in this case of the enclosed booth, the air may have to hit the inlet filter at nearly 100 fpm to overcome the inherent deceleration of hitting such a large working column. If you want an example, take a drink with a straw from a glass and see how easily it pulls. Next take the large end of a funnel and put it over your face and try to take the same sip with the same effort. It's not going to happen. The straw has the same inlet and working area so it is relatively simple to draw your column of fluid through it. The funnel has the same roughly the inlet size as the straw but a much larger working column and as such requires a great deal more pull to achieve the same effect. Quite simply put, you have to maintain the rate of flow through the largest cross-sectional area of the column of air. It does not matter whether that is the opening (as it is with the angled opening of Klaus' example) or the large working area of the booth in this thread. On the exhaust side or second part of the equation, the ducting is so much smaller than the area being vented that the molecules of air can get stacked upon each other and create a back pressure. So in picking a fan you have to have enough pull to maintain velocity on the inlet side and overcome back pressure on the exhaust side.

With this dropping Monday, and I have no doubt that it will be a success, what do you guys want to see next? We've already added the automatic version and the exhaust manifolds into the mix based on feedback from here. I think that the supercharged LS9 from the ZR1 would be a no brainer. Or a carb'd intake. Perhaps the flatter dry-sump oil pan that is used in some 1:1 builds. Manny has briefly mentioned in one of our conversations wanting to do more with this based on the buzz that he's seen here on MCM.

I will respectfully disagree with that logic. Greatly exaggerated to make my point, following the method you stated, one could in theory properly exhaust a full-size 8' x 10' x 8' room through a 1' x 6" filter with a 25 CFM fan as that combination would have a proper rate of flow at the filter. There is no respect to the area being cleared and outside of the immediate area of the fan the pull would be virtually non-existent. I have read and re-read Klaus' article many times over the years and have exchanged communications with him several times. In his guide, he always refers to the square area of the box dimensions when calculating the first portion of the flow needs.