Mooneyzs

Gorgeous work my Brother!! That interior looks killer in and with the body painted.

So I have a teaser update with the Escape Hatch Hinge for all of you. I started working on it a little while this morning and I have most of the parts ready for Soldering. Here is where it sits and I will be showing you more when I get it done. Here are the starting pieces, I used a couple sets of brass hinges from Micro Marks (if you want to know the part number I can let you know don't know it off the top of my head), .020" dia. brass wire from K&S: Here I have marked the hinge where I want to cut pieces off to make a continuous piano hinge: Here is the hinge pieced together after I used my dremel to cut them down, I will need to sand the hinge pieces a little to get them to sit next to each other like I want: Here is the hinge with the hatch laying on top of it:

Henry.... Thank you Clint... Thank you. I couldn't agree with you more about the comraderie and friendship that goes on here on this forum. There are so many talented builders that are willing to share how they do things and then there are the others that go out of their way to help others with information needed. For that reason I just love this message board. Alan... Thank you for the kind words. Larry... Thank you. Dave... Thanks man. Oh yea I will be soldering it together and then figuring out how to bolt it to the body...haha Darryl... Thank you. I am plugging away and hoping to see more light at the end of the tunnel.

Fredrik... You are off to a great start. I have always loved the looks of duster pro mods. Making a jigbisnone of the best aids to help with the build.

Dave....these updates are out of this world man. Love the progress and attention to detail you put into everything. Every update this build gets better.

Mark... I was wondering where this build went. Man I gotta tell you that is some stellar work on the radiator. This whole build is impressive. I also really like how you are doing the gauges. I may have to borrow that idea on some future builds.

John... Thanks for believing in me Brother!! I just hope it turns out ok, liked want it too...lol

John.... I love both that you want to build. It's hard for me to choose which to start next.. When you do the streamliner I think you should do it in 1/16th scale. I will make room on my display shelf and it can sit next to my army vega f/c when done ....lol.

Ray... This is coming along nice.

This is one killer build. Nice work. Love the wrinkle wall slicks you put on there.

Hello All... Thought I would share a few pics that I did screen shots from the Army Vega video off of you tube. These are shots of just the Escape Hatch and I will be going back and trying to do the same on other parts of the video to help me with some other details.... Hatch Closed: Hatch Open: Hatch Latch detail:

John.... Killer work Brother. The paint looks killer. Your paint work is always flawless. Keep up the killer work,

Dave.... Thank you my friend. I can't wait to have the hinge together, hopefully I will have it done tomorrow. I took my time when I was scribing in hope I wouldn't mess cutting the hatch out....lol Brad... I will make sure and take some good step by step pics of the hinge assembly. I will be trimming all of the pieces and soldering them together. If all goes well it should work out pretty good I am hoping lol. Mike... Thanks. I am happy with how the hatch is going. I will post some more reference pics of the hatch to show what I am trying to duplicate. Henry... Thank you. Alan... Thank you. I am sure the engineers at Ford Motor Co. Could do this much better than me...lol glad to hear you are making some progress on your FED. What you could do on those radius rods is cut the ends off the kit and use aluminum tubing for the rods. Greg... Thanks Mate. Hope I can come thru on the hinge for everyone Scott... Thanks brother. You are right Dave's work is stellar. I took my time cutting the hatch out so I wouldn't screw it up lol. I will have to take a pic of the hinges next to a ruler or coin so everyone can get an idea on the actual size. I actually can't wait to work on the hinges. I have some hopes it will work pretty well. Tony... Thank you. As far a glues, it all depends on what I am gluing together. For the chassis and bare plastic I mostly use Weld-on #3 which is something similar to tennax or pro-ambroid. Yars ago it used to be bottles in 4oz sizes for the model industry. They stopped bottling it and they still sell it at plastic shops and I get them in pint and quart sizes. The last time I bought some was a few years ago and I picked up 2 quarts for around $30 bucks due to a min order. It ends up costing a lot cheaper buying it in the big bulks sizes I do. I also will use CA glue at times on the bare plastic too. Everyone has certain glues that they like to use and different glues work better for others. I would say find some thing that works best for you. I have tried many different ones and stick with what works best for me but I am not afraid to try something new. If you need a pic of the glue let me know and I will post some.

Hello All... well I was finally able to get a little bit of bench time in last night and finally have some time to post the pics tonight. Started working on cutting the escape hatch out. Here are a few progress pics.... Here is the start of cutting the escape hatch out. I started by laying a few layers of 1/4 tape to use as a guide to cut along. I also went around the border with a sharpe so I could see what I have cut: I am using the technique of scribing with the back side of an Xacto knife where I broke the very tip off. I typically like to use my Bare Metal Foil scriber but thought that the Xacto black would cut a little smaller gap: Another Scribing pic of the other side: Here the scribing is pretty much complete other than having to work the corners a little more for the hatch to come out: The scribing is complete and the opening is ready for the lip to be installed: Here is the hatch and brass hinges that I got from Micro Marks which I will be modifying (will be shortening them) and then they will be soldered together to create a piano hinge for the escape hatch:

Scott.... those are some incrediable updates my friend. Your work is killer. I love what you have been doing to this build. dont feeo bad about having to reglue some of the frame. I did the same thig with the body of my funnt car recently. I was working on the escape hatch and didnt pay attention and busted one of the under body support braces and had to reglue it myself....lol Looking forward to your next update.

Dave... Freaking awesome updates. You have sure been busy on this one. I am loving the progress you are making. Your work is just awesome and hope I can build so,e stuff as good as this. Can't wait until your next update.

Brad.... Glad to you back to work on this buddy. Can't wait to see the updates. Have a great New Years.

Dave... You are welcome. I really appreciate the kind words. You knocked the pulleys out of the park and blew me away by them. The prints will definitely help for future projects too. You know I will be having more Silly questions to ask along the way..... Especially on the Top Alcohol Dragster that I will be hopefully starting soon after this project . Mike... Dave is definitely a top notch guy. Jason.... Thank you. The army Vega has to be one of my favorite Vegas....even though it was only run at 2 races I believe.

Clay... That is some awesome work on the bug catcher. Man it looks mean and killer. I also love the seat insert that you made. That is one heck of an awesome idea. It looks great, I may have to borrow it. Very nice work and update.

Very clean build..... It looks great.

Ray... Very nice work man. This thing looks great!! Love the color you went with.

Tyrone... Those carb set ups are awesome man. Very nice detail to them. This build is flat out awesome Brother!!! Can't wait to see what you post next on this build. Stellar work!

Tyrone.... This is looking Bad A$$ as always. Love your builds. Always top notch work man!!

Jim.... Thank you. John... Thank Brother. I am hoping to get some more work done the next a few days . Mike.... Thanks buddy. Dave.... Thank you. I would love to make it back to one of those shows to meet all of you. You are right that Dave is always willing to help out with info when asked. Alan...thank you. I still need to make the panel for the back window with the cut outs in it. That is awesome you are tinkering on a 1/16th scale dragster too. Brad... Thanks man...yes it was a big surprise with those pulleys. He does some killer work, even more impressive in person. Danno... Thank you... Yeah I am still in Wow mode myself on them. Henry... Thank you.

Mike.... I am waiting on updates buddy