Alyn
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I ran across a "bagged" 62 Catalina, complete and unbuilt for only $7.00 at the recent Omaha Model Show. If you're in the Midwest, you know this is the first show of the year and always has some great vendors. I've been working on a couple of other projects, but do have a little progress to show. The interior is almost complete. This is one of the few late model interiors (non-hot rod) that I've done. I struggle a bit with the foil work. I hogged out the center area of the dash and replaced it with some embossed foil. The pattern was taken from the knurled handle of one of my tools, and then applied to a strip of styrene. The gauge bezels are slices of aluminum tube that have been rounded over with a file and sand paper, and then polished.with Dupont #7 rubbing compound. Decals are from an unknown kit. This shows the color the car will be. I hope it's not too loud. Here's the dash mounted in the interior tub. I've used the custom tufted version rather than the stock upholstery. Carpet is cranberry felt. from the other side About the only thing left to do on the interior is paint the steering wheel and finish the floor shifter. I decided to go the extra mile on the shifter and do one up in aluminum. The part started with some round ~1/16" rod that was bent to the appropriate shape and then filed flat. The upper part is necked down to accept a shift ball. This will be the traditional round white ball once I figure out how to make it. I drilled out the base just because that's how the real ones are.
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That is cool !
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Exactly my sentiments after reading Harry's explanation. Thanks, Harry
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Jeez, "doctor". I thought you were only here to stalk Cranky. Looks like you're here to ride herd on us all. Good time to send you to the ignore bucket.
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Just flipped to the last page of the current Hot Rod magazine and there's a pic of the car that inspired my 40 Ford; Rocky's Rat. I first saw this car at the KKOA Lead Sled Spectacular in Salina Kansas. It's the first rat rod I've seen that I would actually like to own.
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Scratch Building an Aussie Ford Falcon **New update,15/1/18**
Alyn replied to ShawnS's topic in WIP: Model Cars
I feel like I should be paying to see this. Your work is the definition of modeling; very, very impressive. Looking forward to the paint phase. -
thank you all for your interest. Roland, I use Morton's coarse Kosher salt. This car was my first attempt after seeing some of Cranky's examples.At first, I practiced with common table salt. But then I looked at the granules under a magnifying glass and noticed each one was a symmetrical cube. Thinking that things don't usually rust in perfect square patches, I looked at some other types of salt. The coarse Kosher salt has a more random, jagged shape. However, for most of what I do, the granules are a bit large, so I grind the salt down in a mortar and pestle to a finer consistency.
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Here's a little tool I came up with for sanding tires. It's cheap, easy to build, and easy to use. All parts are available at your local hardware store, and include: 1/4" bolt, long enough to have a shoulder or shank around 1/2" or longer 2 nut inserts or panel nuts with 1/4" thread ( not sure of the actual name, see picture 2 beveled faucet washers (should have ~1/4" hole) . Insert the panel nut into the broad end of the faucet washer. Make sure that you have selected these parts to have a reasonably snug fit. This can be verified while at the hardware store Cut the head off the 1/4" bolt and clean up the cut with a file. Thread the two washer/panel nut assemblies on the bolt with the small diameter ends of the beveled washers facing each other. You should have a long enough shank on the end to chuck up in a small electric drill. The one pictured is a little short, but still works great. To use the tool, assemble the facing washers hand tight with a tire between them. The beveled shoulders of the faucet washers should fit a variety of common 1:25/1:24 scale tire sizes. Fire up the drill and sand away being careful not to sand off all the tread unless that is your intent.. I use a variety of sand paper grits as well as wire brushes.
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- tire sanding
- homemade tools
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This is a cool one, John. Nice execution of some seriously good engineering. It'll be a head turner for sure.
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Nice work on getting the twist out of the front end. This one was definitely worth saving. More importantly, best of luck on your job search. Money is the grease of life. Helps everything else go smoothly.
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Thanks, Tim. I appreciate your interest and nice words.
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Not a dumb question at all. I mean, who does a WIP after the fact? Me, I guess. This is the already completed car that you've seen. I was asked to show some of the details on the finished car, so I figured a WIP would be the best way to handle it. I'll probably do this on a couple of other completed cars as well. Some of my earlier WIPs were on an obscure forum where few here at MCM have seen them. The Retro Ram 99 Dodge truck will likely be one of them. I think you've seen that one.
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Thanks, Rich. I love building these flatheads
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Finished drivers side header in primer which will serve as a basecoat for some aging. I've also started fitting the radiator tubes. Finished headers after some salt technique rusting and a bit of black on each tube where the paint is burning off. The radiator cap is made using the extrusion method with a pressure relief button added in the center. You can see the brass inserted into the carb float bowls with the rear carb having the fuel line tubing. This is actually tube, not solid fishing line. I found it at Cabella's in the fishing department; micro-tubing. I don't have a clue what fishermen would use it for. Although hard to see, there's also a dip stick made from copper wire and brass tube between the front two header tubes. These are the coolant tubes. I like to pin them to assist with final assemble. The pins add strenghth as well. The flex hose is heat shrink tubing with BMF used for hose clamps. The final product. Hook up the battery and fuel lines and she's ready for a test fire.
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Here's the top end with completed linkage and hand wound return spring. The right angle bend at the end of the linkage is for a throttle arm at the firewall. The excess wire will be clipped off after the arm is permanently installed. At this point, the plugs and wires are also in place For exhaust, I'll build some megaphone style headers. These start out as some ferrules from cheap paint brushes. I look for some that don't have seams, and are of sufficient diameter. Then the appropriate size hole is drilled in some flat .015" brass sheet for the flange. A few sessions with a round file are needed to get a nice fit. The flange is soldered to the tapered ferrule. After some filing and trimming, they end up like this. I should have drilled a hole in each corner of the flange. Maybe next time... Styrene rod is epoxied to the end of thie finished megaphone and bent to get the right angle. Here's the completed header ready for finish sanding and primer. Carb stacks are 3/32" aluminum tube, angle cut and painted red inside for some style.
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My how time flies. Our local club, The KC Slammers is having a 55Chevy Cameo group build with a deadline for this June's Heartland Nationals here in Kansas City, so that's been getting some of my bench time. I'm also building a spray booth; more stuff, more time. Anyway, back to Rocky's Rat. Time to build a flathead. I think motors might be my favorite part of modeling, and flat heads may be the ultimate. Great cool factor. Here's the starting point, the flathead from the kit with some resin heads to get the center outlets for the coolant pipes, and twin carb manifold. The pot metal carbs are a darker gray than the aluminum manifold, not the gold that is all too commonly used. Heads are drilled for later installation of spark plugs I built the carb linkage from some copper wire. The throttle arms are flattened wire that is soldered to the wire shafts. Here's the arms mounted to the carbs. You can also see the 1/32" holes drilled in the float bowls to accept some fuel line fittings. Plug wire guide tubes are created using 1/16" aluminum tube with .022" holes drilled for the spark plug wires. The front of the tubes bend down to the distributor.
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Black & White oldie
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thanks, Dave. That's one of my recent favorites. Mike, my camera has a setting that does that. I think it's called miniaturize, and what it does is reduce the depth of field to blur the background as in your pic.
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I liked how this one turned out, although the tree leaves are a little blury. Trying to maximize depth of field is one key to a good photo.
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Bill, check your email.
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Bill's aluminum work is flat out rediculous. This picture of the steering box(working) says it all
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shiver me timbers drop dead gorgeous metal work, Bill. I've always figured that to build a good set of metal headers, you'd have to use brass in order to solder a section of tube on the end of the bent piece of rod: (rod for bending without collapsing, tube to achieve the thin wall look of real tubing). You've found the way (with your skills) of using aluminum to achieve the best result I've seen. Brass would have had to be painted with metalizer. Your flange looks great as well. Awesome work once again. Is this masterpiece going to be ready for the Heartland in June? Can't wait to see it up close.
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MPG estimates vs. reality
Alyn replied to Harry P.'s topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
The EPA ratings assume that "normal" includes driving within the speed limit. Who does that(other than me )? Although few drive within the posted limits, I can't imagine that a government agency would design their documents on the assumption that drivers break the law. Mileage stckers than I've seen recently include a statement that cars with the posted MPG rating will typically get from X MPG to Z MPG, in other words, an expected range, not a guarantee. -
MPG estimates vs. reality
Alyn replied to Harry P.'s topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Cars are tested on a chassis dyno programmed to simulate a fixed course including starts, stops acceleration, etc. Two different programs are used; one for the city cycle and one for the highway cycle. As Scalenut pointed out, a couple of years ago, they turned up the knob marked "REALITY" a few notches to more accurately reflect the way people typically drive. The biggest factor in not achieving these numbers is the way people drive. I've read numerous complaints from people that don't get the EPA numbers in their Ford Focus. I've had mine for 6 years and consistantly exceed the published MPG rating of 25/32. A few years ago I drove from Denver Co to Kansas City on one 14 gallon tank of gas and had a gallon to spare when I arrived home; 44.25 MPG. Minimal use of both pedals is the key. -
Jeeeeze, Ira. there's all of us, and then there's you. Your creativity knows no bounds. Another eye-popper in the works.