Mooneyzs

Dave... it is looking great and wow I am impressed by the progress. I love the mesh seat and head rest as well as your steering box and bushing. Nice work.

Hey Aaron.... I took the material and layed to down on a somewhat hard rubber peice and I used a ball point pen to make the bead rolls using the rubber piece as a backing. I did practice on some prior to doing it but I did a little at a time. applying pressure then applying a little more. When it was done then I had to go back and work the front of it a little more with some pieces of balsa wood pushing some of the part down because of how the piece bends a little when you put the bead in it. Brad.... Thank you bud.... I am much happier with these new tins I made. I think they came out better as well. Dave... Thank you buddy. I appreciate. Thank you for all of the inspiration with all of your builds. I am a big fan of your killer work. Joe... Thank you. I feel that I can get some primer on these tins now, I just need to clean the back side up a little and remove the ink from the ball point pen. lol Darryl... Thanks man... I sure hope it all is going to pay off. I can already see some of the reward from the rework and detail I redid. it makes me glad I did so and feel it will make it look better. Scott... Thank you as well. these past two days really tested my patience with redoing these tins. I can't tell you how many of them I made. today alone I must of redid the one side like 4 or 5 times Bob... Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words. I have been making myself take it to the next level and can say its paying off with the results so far. Well Guys I sat down for a few good hours today and tonight reworking the tins again... actually redoing one of them that I wasn't happy with. I am pleased to say that after making about 5 of them because i wasn't happy or I slipped with the ball point pen while doing the bead. I finally got it to where I was happy with it. thats all I was able to get done today but now I can move forward and add a couple more components to the frame and start diving into more of this build...... Here is a pic of the Tin pieces completed and which ones I ended up going with, so glad to have them done and I don't think I want to see another tin piece with bead rolling for a while :

Very nice work. Looking good!

Charlie... Very nice work bud.... Looks like I am going to need to get an order into you. Thanks for offering more for the 1/16th guys.

Hey Edgar... thank you man for the nice words and for following along. Well as promised a little later than expected but I did sit at the bench for a few hours and worked on the Chassis Tin work and made a good accomplishment and that much closer to having the refab done. I started out by getting the templates made out of plastic, one for each side: I then started making pieces out of aluminum printing plate and as you can see I made a bunch since I wasn't totally happy with some of them and kept starting back over : After making a few of them here are the two that I was happy with although, I am considering redoing the top one yet again because I have a couple of dimples that I am not happy with. i was considering seeing if I took a little bondo to them and sanded down that you may not see them. but its easy enough to make another. but was tired for the night and decided to wait til tomorrow: I had to then hold it up against the chassis making sure it all looked good and lined up.... it passed the test : Here I just stuck both pieces next to the chassis:

You looking for photo-etch or turned aluminum parts?

Brad... thank you bud it is getting very close to having primer on it but I have realized that I need to add a few more things before like the mounting tab for the break handle, the mounting tab point the gas pedal and two tabs for the steering linkage, as well as the oil catch tubes that are supposed to mount right into the chassis frame. Art... you are right I can't wait to get to the wiring and plumbing of the engine. I already have a big smile knowing that I am almost done with the chassis refab and how happy I am that I went thru all the work. I also can't wait to see the engine come to life as well. Aaron... thank you so much for the kind words. Its appreciated and glad to hear that you are enjoying it. As you mentioned I have had a lot of patience with this build...lol Well everyone I just got home from work and its time to hit the workbench and get back to some build time. Stay tuned and I will have updates for you.

Niko.... I knew it for the same reason too, since I have seen pics of it before...

Ok Fellas.... I was able sit down at the bench tonight and make a little more progress. I got holes drilled in my side tins template and got my other Dzus faster tabs glued in. Here are a few pics Here is the side tins template: Here is the Dzus fastener tabs glued in on the other side of the chassis:

Jim and Art.... I want to Thank both of you once again for everything you guys have done so far to get one of Tom McEwen's cars into production again. I am very thankful for both of you going to bat for us 1/16th Scale builders. I can tell you this that I will be a 1/16th scale builder for life. So thank you for all that you do. Jim, I do have a question for you since you work for Tom McEwen, I had not idea you did and I just learned that from your latest post. I was curious if there was any way to get some really great pictures of Tom's Navy duster and the Blue Mattel Hot Wheels with Flames or if you knew of a good source to find detailed pics. The reason I am asking is that I am currently doing a very detailed 1/16th Army Vega build, you may or may not of seen the thread on it here and I think it would be awesome to do a Very detailed build of Tom's car as well. I thought it was worth a shot to ask. Thank you again for all of the updates and keeping us all informed on with the possibility of bringing back a 1/16th drag kit for us.

Bart....with out a doubt i know it will turn out well. I am excited to see this come together. It's always good to get the hard stuff out of the way lol. As ar as my Pro Mod subject.... I already have the kit I am gonna use for the body which I will be modifying. I also just placed and order with TDR/Shapeways for some other parts and cant wait to them in a few weeks. I have thought of putting the funny car aside to start the pro mod but cant get myself to do it yet. lol bit soon

You are welcome Mike. I don't think it sould be too hard to learn. on another note.... tonight I won't be working late and I am already looking forward to getting some bench time in on this build. And I think think I will be getting more time in over the weekend too even though i will have to work saturday til about noon. i am stoked to get back to this.

Joe... Beautiful work on the rearend of the chassis. This is sure taking shape and looking great. Loving the progress you are making. Keep up the awesome work.

Dave.... That body is flat out gorgeous and aweseome. The body is just beautiful. What a killer job they did. I have to tell you I am stoked on this as well as I just made an order to TDR 2 days ago and I can't wait to get the parts that I had ordered. Dave I look forward to the many updates that will come along with this build.

Very cool Bart. i cant wait to see this build come together. This is going to be an awesome build. man I need to start my pro.mod build one of these days.

Mike that body came out nice. Those chassis are looking great too. i am jealous they are in paint i cant eaot to get mine in primer lol

That is one sweet picture for the box. man I love it. I cant wait for this kit to come out. I am ready to buy at least 6 of them.

Sean... here is a couple of pics to hold you over until I have more time to upload more pics of this car. I would of uploaded them all but I need to get out the door here soon for work. but here is a few pics for you.... Hopefully these pics help out a little and then I will upload the rest. There is about 14 pics total that I have of this car.

Mike... SW is a little pricey for an individual user, seats cost about 5 grand for the basic package But there are some other CAD software out there that aren't that much that does the same basic thing. I am going to give you a link to a product called Draftsight. It is basically like AutoCAD where most of the drawing work is in 2D but it is a software from the same company that does SolidWorks which is Dassault Systems and its free download. It used to be called DWG editor and was part of SolidWorks and I guess AutoCAD somewhat got upset with them calling it the name they did and SolidWorks/Dassault Systems decided to change the name and make it free to the public...lol. Give it a shot http://www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/overview/ Also I wanted to apologize to everyone I wasn't able to get any bench time in last night and once i sat on my couch for a few I realized at how tired I was and I wouldn't of done very good work on the car last night. So I am hoping to not to have to work too late tonight and maybe get a little bench time in and if Lucky I may have a few updated pics for you all.

I have some pics of one of Kenny Beirnsteins Budweiser cars from the early 80's from a car show here in the phoenix area that it was displayed I believe this car was redone. let me see if I can find and post real fast

Brad... its called modlers ADD lol i have a few builds i started 15 years ago that i still havent completed lol

Hey Mike another great investment is an Opti-Visor.... I don't know what I would do without mine now. I have found that on this build Have become totally dependant on it haha... it helps seeing those little details

Wayne... Thank you so much for the kind words. Seeing your builds and everyone else's here have inspired me to do the best I can. It has been fun so far and now seeing the chassis fall together has made me realize that I did the right thing by going back and redoing it. Stay tuned i may try to sit at the bench for a few tonight. I won't make any promises but I hope to have a couple of updated pics for everone.

Art... Thank you man I appreciate it. I appreciate everything you and all of the others are putting their personal time in to help promote this 1/16 scale building. I think its fantastic and want to support it how ever I can. I have to tell you that I love the 1/16th scale since it is a little easier to detail being that its a little bigger. I am all excited about Dave being able to bring one kit back to start and hopefully it will build from there. Trust me that I will be buying a hand full for sure. Bart... Thank you for the kind words bud. I have been really happy with how its turning out. and just like you I can't wait to get onto more of the engine. Although I will have to admit seeing a bunch of the details you have done on your pro mod, its making me have to step up my game even more. I love all of the working linkages that you have done with your foot pedals and the door handles. Its got my mind brewing with a few ideas for this build. just trying to figure out how to impliment them Lee... Thank you for the kind words and taking the time to look a this build. Mike...I have been using SolidWorks for the past 5 years with my jobs and before that was Pro-E and AutoCAD with the industries that I have been in and have been using it on pretty much a daily basis you can say. I would tell you that for scrach building you don't need to use a CAD program, you can always draw by hand with paper and pencil too. I will admit that there has been a few parts on this build which I drew up, printed out, cut out the part on paper and then glued to sheet plastic with white glue. From there I cut the part out to the shape and drill holes if need be, then you have a new part. My advice for you since you are just starting to scratch build is to not bite off more than you can chew. Start off with some small parts and work yourself up. My number one piece of advice is to have patience and to take your time.... ok so 2 pieces of advice . Don't let yourself get discouraged if the part doesn't turn out right the first time. also don't be afraid to try something new. I can speak at this first hand. I can't tell you how many parts on this chassis that I redid over and over until I was happy with it. The more you practice the better and easier it gets and you find little tricks that work for you. I started out years ago by doing a little scrach building. my first thing I think I did was a roll cage, oh wait it may of been cutting open a trunk and making it hinge for it. then after that I tried something a little more. Feel free to ask me as many questions as you'd like. I will be more than happy to answer them. I have learned alot from others here and we have some amazing builders on this site. I am glad to be part of all this fun that goes on here. And if it wasn't for Gregg we wouldn't have the message boards that we have here. A big thank you goes out to him.

Art..that is awesome!! cant wait to see what all they will have. maybe some of their current Duster decals in 1/25 can be scaled up to 1/16