Art Anderson

Here's the first, defective tank, posed on the chassis of the Oldsmobile Truck, just to show what this is going to look like Art

It's been awhile since I did anything on the workbench worth posting, so here goes: After going to the Model T Ford Centennial T Party in July, I got the urge to try making a vintage gasoline tank truck body for the '20 Oldsmobile truck project. How to scratchbuild? This is the cardboard tube from industrial paper towels--chosen because it's much thicker and stiffer than say, the tube from a roll of Bounty. Of course, a small mailing tube would be even better, but I had this one handy. Here's the tube, cut to length. Easy to do, this step--I simply marked off where the cut was to be, by wrapping a thin strip of Evergreen styrene (.015X.250), making sure it was straight by aligning the edges in the overlap. Then I simply drew a pencil line by this guide. Cutting was simple: Use a single-edge razor blade, and rotate the tube against the cutting edge, and continue doing so until the razor blade cuts through the cardboard, then just pull apart. At this stage, I've cut pieces of .080" Evergreen sheet styrene, to make the end plugs, just a hair larger than the diameter of the cardboard tubing. Here, the end plugs are installed, using gap-filling CA. Use this glue generously, as too little will simply soak into the cardboard. To hasten this process, I used Bob Smith CA Accelerator liberally, to set up the CA instantly. Then, it was a simple matter to cut the corners of the square plugs away with a razor saw, finish rounding to match the curve of the cardboard tube with a flat mill bastard file. Next is to make the hard surface of the tank itself. I used .020" Evergreen sheet styrene, the width cut to half the length of the tank itself. To make the sheet styrene easy to bend around the cardboard, I used the old "curl Xmas ribbon trick", in this case, I bent the sheet stock over the edge of the workbench, and drew it back and forth across that edge, to give it a curl. First section covered in sheet styrene. Of course, you will ask, what about the seams? Well, tanks like this, before electric arc welding became acceptable, were riveted together, much like a steam boiler. This was done by using overlapping strips and bands of steel, over the top of the tank surface itself. So, any misalignment of the seams, gaps, etc, will be covered with wide flat strip stock. New tank! After studying the first tank I built, I discovered that one end was slightly out-of-round, so I made a new one, in fact, 3 new ones, using the same technique of laying styrene sheet over cardboard tubing. Here, the installation of rivet detail is about half completed. The .010" band in the foreground has the rivets finished. The middle band has raw rod stock installed, you can see both steps here: First, insert the rod stock (.025" on these tanks) into .028" diameter holes drilled into the bands, then clip them off with a styrene "nipper" to about 3/64". Finally, the third step is to dress them all down to about 1/64" high with a sanding stick, the final step being to polish them to a rounded head by using one of the coarser Micro-Mesh polishing cloths (I used the 2400-grit cloth, with water, and the "pad" of my index finger to do this). When painted, these will be very convincing rivets! Art

Morgans of this era used a V-twin engine mounted out in front of the radiator, and were a very small 3-wheel car. Art

Actually, this engine almost predates Pontiac. Also, back in the era of this car, all Pontiac engines were flatheads. Try again? Art

Sorry, but Chevrolet NEVER produced nor offered a straight 8.

Well, straight 8 is a start! There are hints as to the manufacturer in the picture, BTW. Art

Here's a pic of an old engine in an old car. Can anyone identify it, by make and model????? (Hint: It may not be exactly what you first think it is!) Art

Unfortunately, $500 won't do much at all, either at a wholesale distributor or the manufacturer--their minimums are higher than that. While there was a time when smaller hobby wholesalers would entertain an order in the amount you suggest, and look the other way as to whether you had a retail license in your area, or a storefront, those days I think are long gone. The relatively few wholesalers operating today are much larger, and much more interested in dealing only with either established local hobby shops, or with someone having 10's of thousands of dollars ready to go in making opening buys from them. Additionally, and while many may disagree, wholesalers are very protective of their established accounts--they aren't very willing to sell to someone undercutting them from their homes--this may anger some, but it is the way of the industry, and has been increasingly so since the late 1970's. People such as Model King and Tom Carter of Hobby Heaven were able to establish themselves as mail-order/swap meet dealers by making what most of us would consider HUGE buys, in order to get the net price directly from the likes of AMT, Monogram and Revell in years past, but even those sources have gone away for the most part (which is why Hobby Heaven is no more, BTW). and Model King does his thing by commissioning special runs of AMT/Ertl kits. Such special runs can be as many as 10,000 units or more of one kit. While you are in the UK, I suspect that the same things are operative there just as they are in the US. Art

Found this on the wall in a bar in downtown Auburn IN this weekend! Figured you'd been there, left your license plate, as a calling card? Art

That be me--I lost my original registration when Insight Communications traded us here off to Comcast, and I had to clear my cookies, and I was unable to re-register with Biscuitbuilder, so here I am, warts and all! Art (The modeler formerly known here as Biscuitbuilder)

Actually Izzyt, Manufacturers of the bolt on ancilliary equipment, such as generators and starters didn't decal their products in those days--rather they riveted on small brass plates, which gave the mfr's name, any and all patent data, and such as that. Art

Izzy, That Imperial is looking sooooo fantastic!!! By the way, do the vacuum windshield wiper motors work? Art

'37 Ford wheels are too small for a car the size of the Imperial, George (6:00-16). That Imperial rode on at least 7:50-19's. Art