Alyn

Very clever building, Pete The brass and aluminum look great with the black paint. Nice to be able to add some metal parts and retain the metal finish. It's always a drag to build something really cool out of metal and than have to paint over it.

ROBO CUDA

Nice reminder of how good you are at this game. Beautiful paint. Super nice dash. You never let us down.

Excellent ! Your chassis is a dead ringer for the ones I use to steam clean and paint back in the day. Nice work

appreciate it gents. Bill, here's a better view of the battery clamps. They're a little large, but the shape is cool.

What ever you do, John, you gotta have those stripes. They really complete the Retro Chevelle look for this car. It's gonna be a knock out with the stripes. P.S. It's a knock out already

Bill, the frame looks beautimus. If the brass didn't have the yellow tone, you could easily imagine this this setting out in the garage on jack stands. Super fine work

Thanks, guys. I appreciate your interest and support. I moved the ball a bit more the past few days. First off, some advice. Don't glue the front axle on backwards I did, and now have to cover up the groove meant to accomodate the metal axle. I added a strip of square styrene across the top to mimic the upper flange of the beam axle, and added a couple of chunks on each end to fill in the gap where the knuckles attach. Next time I'll pay attention. No battery in the kit, so I scratch built one. It's simply a block of styrene with a flange around the upper edge. Round styrene was used for the caps, and aluminum rod for the posts. The cable clamps are metal zipper teeth that are filed down a bit and modified to accept the braided ground strap and live cable. The other end of the strap will be finished similar to the one I showed previously. The Champion emblem is a dry transfer from a pinewood derby sticker sheet. Bracketry to hold the battery is square section styrene rod, cut and fit into place. You can see that the pedals are finally in place. They are oval shaped pieces of .015" sheet styrene, punched out with a sharpened section of brass tubing. After filing the edge of the tubing to a sharp edge, the round shape was slightly flattened to create the oval shape. After seeing a picture of the 1:1 muffler on-line, I decided the kit supplied piece fell short. Here's what I came up with. The real deal does not have a tail pipe, but rather a 1/4 round opening in the back edge of the muffler. I duplicated this with several diameters of styrene tube and rod, then wrapped it all in .005" aluminum sheet. Some simulated rivets were added along the seam. Another minor detail are the braces for the rear fenders. If you've looked at this kit, you know how the fenders are attached at the front edge, but then extend rearward without support. The braces are simply small lengths of 1/32" brass rod bent to shape and inserted into holes with CA for glue. I thought this would be a great detail, but then found that with the pickup bed in place, you hardly see them. I started doing some paint work on the wrecker boom. So far, it's just covered in matte black, but it will get some chalk powder applied as well. the chain is dipped in Blacken-It to achieve the darker color. This provides some color without the heavy thickness (and loss of detail) of paint. Here's a rear shot of the chassis showing the relationship of the battery and muffler. The exhaust slot in the muffler should be on the left in this picture, so it will be rotated from the position shown.

Very interesting. Looks like you're got the knack with the acid etch process. The parts look great!

I've never thought he was. Why, do you think he might be? Not likely. I think Bill may even have different size cutting bits mounted on each finger.

I'm perfectly capable of building a particle box for a spray boot, but I took the easy way out and built one similar to Hollywood Jim's. It even looks like it might be the same brand; shorter though. I bought a $60 give or take $5 bathroom vanity cabinet from Home Depot. I don't have pics, so I'll try to describe it as best I can and try to follow up with pics down the road. It's a cheap, white clad particle board cabinet that you assemble yourself. One large door and a single drawer on top. I set this on a table top for a working height booth. During assembly, I modified the cabinet to mount the drawer on the bottom. I then built a shelf about six inches above the drawer with a plenum box underneath. The shelf has several large holes to down-draft into the plenum box. I ended up with working booth dimensions of 23" wide, 18" high and 14" deep; a very nice size. I set a lazy susan in the middle for a rotating platform. For another $ 70 bucks, I looked through Granger's catalog and found a squirrel cage blower with a shaded pole (no contacts or brushes) motor. This is mounted on the side of the cabinet and draws air from the plenum box threw a hole in the side of the cabinet. This is then dryer vented to an outside window. I would not change a thing. The box is a great size, cost around $150.00 or so to build, looks good and allows me to paint year round (in the Midwest) with minimal fumes or odor. It even has the drawer in the bottom for painting supplies, and recently I added some hooks on the inside of the door to hold two air brushes between coats. I have also purchased one of those round florescent light fixtures to mount in the top of the box. This will likely be partitioned off with a clear plastic or glass false roof.

A couple of months ago, I grabbed an inexpensive apron at a local fabrics store. A plain white, heavy cotton apron that was sold with the intent of it being further decorated. I rolled the bottom edge over a couple of times and secured the roll with some of those little black binder clips (office supply). When I sit at my desk to work on small parts, I put on the apron, then open the center drawer and lay the bottom end of the apron on the drawer. After closing the drawer, the rolled edge keeps the apron from slipping out. This creates a catch-all bib between you and the small parts you're working on. (When I remember) to wear the apron, the little parts that try to make a run for it fall into the apron and are easy to retrieve. It has saved the day almost everytime I use it. Highly recommended, and cheap. Besides, my old knees hate the hard concrete floor in my model space. This is generally what is referred to as a jeweler's bib or apron. Certainly not my invention. If you don't have a center drawer to capture the end of the apron, you could sew on some snaps and attach the opposite snap to your work bench, or sew a loop in the end of the apron to insert a wooden dowel rod along with a method to hold the rod in place. In any case, it works great to avoid those times when you're on you knees trying to calculate whether the time to to find the part exceeds the time to make a new one.

gorgeous looking parts, Mark. Back in my slot car days, I remember the oilite bronse bushings that you could buy if you didn't have the bucks for ball bearings. The oilites were, of course, impregnated with a lubricant from the onset. With a little googling, I've also found that bronze can be alloyed with a variety of metals including aluminum. That would make for an ugly soldering experience. Looking forward to the next part masterpiece.

Bill, the yoke looks spot on. Are you planning on machining a cross shaft for a fully functioning u-joint? I'm guessing "yes" Derek, if you haven't already checked out Bills California Charger, do youself a favor and do so. Under glass: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=59550&hl=%2Bcalifornia+%2Bcharger WIP: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53715&hl=%2Bcalifornia+%2Bcharger well worth a few hours of your day

What an awesome build to give this new kit a jump start. No one could have been better for the job. Your 32 should give others a glimpse at the potential of this kit.

Great work on the body mod's, and excellent choice of colors.

Put some aluminum in front of this guy and you never know what you're gonna get. Nice work, Bill

Come on Mike. As they say; Just Do It! Grab some brass and file away. I build with metal when the extra strength is needed, especially for small, intricate parts, or to get the natural metal finish. Bill builds with metal because he has to. He has plasitic alergies. He even has to buy leather seats in his cars to avoid touching vinyl. Joe, I'm guessing you noticed the lever arms for the brake rods. I will be adding the levers and rods for the mechanical brakes, but that's as far as the detail will go. Thanks for taking a peek.

7! I bought a new one in '85 and loved it. Driving that car was great therapy after a hard day at work.

Thanks Danno ! I may have to change your nickname from Snydley Wiplash to Quick Draw McGraw

Here's some mock up pics with the latest additions. Brake lever, steering and pedals in place: Steering column simply runs straight through the steering box: Also got some paint work done on the intake/exhaust manifold assembly. This will gets some weathering and a couple of details for the simple carburetor: thanks for following along.

I wrapped up the steering linkage. With thin parts like this, brass is a must for strength. This pic shows the assembled links. The drag link still needs to be shorten to the proper length, so it's not soldered to the end that attaches to the tie rod yet. AMT's kit does not include a steering box. I scratched one up using a rectangular block of styrene, round tube and flat styrene. Some bolts were added for more detail.This box was not patterned after a real Model-T box; just something generic to fill the void. Here's the draglink & pitman arm in place. The truck will have working steering, although there will be no gear reduction. The steering shaft simply goes straight through the steering box to rotate the pitman arm. I also built a hand brake lever. I wanted to have a clear separation between the brake lever and the lock/release rod that runs parallel to it. The kit supplied part does not represent this detail well. The handle end was turned in a Dremel to add a bit of character.

Here's a link to a Flathead I built a few years ago. It's not greasy, but definitely worn and grungy. Look on page 3 of the WIP: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22135&hl=%2029%20%20ford%20%20roadster For a more greasy look, a few rounds black wash would be a good starting point. This should be applied over a gloss finish. You can dull it down afterwards if necessary with Testers dull-coat. You could create a mixture of black paint and baking soda to add some heavy, caked on grease. Some guys save the gunk in the bottom of the thinner jar used for cleaning their brushes for use as gunk.

Fantastic job with the patina, VIrgil. Fantastic job all around, but your paint work is superb.

Cool combo shots ! Thanks for sharing.