Mooneyzs

Brett... this is going to be a totally cool build. I searched thru some of my pics and found a couple for you....

Very Cool Kit. I may have to pick one of these up.

I went with Model on this one.

Niko... Thanks man. I am sure you could do this as well. i've seen your work and you do a great job. It just takes ssome.time and patience. Bob...you are right that the time i have taken to clean this chassis up i probably could have just done a whole new one. I have been been measuring and double checking things 3 to 4 times to make sure things are right before i glue anything. I do have some jigs that i have made for certain stuff on this build. My next funny car i will be planning on making a complete jig which i will be able to use for multiple builds and scratch building the whole chassis.

Bart... i don't know why i didnt just fab a whole new chassis since I ended up prety much.cutting.it.all up. i probably would have been easier to of done a whole new chassis lol I don't think I tealized how much work i really was going to do on the rework. plus after i had already completed the mods on the front end the day before. guess I didnt feel like redoing it for a 3rd time lol. Next funny car I will start the chassis from scratch. Jason.... thank you for the kind words. Mike.... thanks bud all of this rework is going to be worth it in the end. I am hoping to be able to get some more done to this tonight but we will see since I have a few house chores to do when i get home tonight.

Joe.... Thanks man on the kind works. Weld-On #3 is a glue just like Tenax or Ambroid Pro weld. Many years ago they used to bottle Weld-on for the hobby industry and I really liked using it and belive they stopped making it in the small bottles. So I ended up finding a plastic's supply shop and get it in a pints or quarts and it is much cheaper in the long run. here is a pic of it in the back ground, if you want to see a better shot of it let me know. this was the only pic that I could think of that I had the container in: Darryl... Thanks man. It has taken a lot of patience here to go back and redo all of this but on a good note. I am getting closer to having the refab work done and then I can jump back to the engine and even get some primer on the chassis. Couple more pics from tonight. I started removing the rest of what I needed to cut off the chassis to redo. Started cutting away...: All gone and ready to sand frame down and start cutting tube to put back in place:

Mike.. Thanks again for letting me pick your brain earlier. Really appreciated it. Bart... You are right about that its at the pioint of no return. I will be actuallycutting more of the tubing away and redoing more as well...lol. I feel like its never gonna end. I almost should just of scratch build the whole chassis... ok couple more pics to share with everyone. Sat down a little more tonight and make the top tube around the driver area and got it glued in place. My next thing to do is pretty much remove all of the support tubing on the side of the driver area and redo it since the pieces I cut away don't even touch the new pieces I made. I first started out with making the upper driver tube. I actually made this out of 3 pieces. I started out with one piece in which I made the "U" shape from. I tried a couple of different methods to bend the tubing and didn't get it work very successful so I resorted into drilling the tubing out and inserting a brass rod into it, so it would hold the bend I wanted. I left 3/8" of the brass rod hanging out from each end in which I drilled out some straight pieces and then glued them together. I should of taken pics but I spaced it: Here is the top tube glued into place, using Weld-on #3: Here is the space between the top tube and chassis supports. I figured it would be best to make new tubs rather than trying to bridge the gap between the kit from and new tube:

Here I removed the upper tube around the driver area: Starting the refab work. I have drilled into the upper tube and added a brass rod for extra support at the joint: Here I got the upper tube glued back into place and now ready to move to redoing the driver area: I am currently working on the next portion of this chassis refab. Hoping to have some more progress pics in a few hours for you. Thanks for looking.

Here is progress that I was able to make last night..... I started out by cutting away parts of the chassis: Removing part of the upper tube: Removing the other side:

Alright so I have an early afternoon teaser with a few pics of the current process the chassis is going thru.... Before: The chassis is currently going thru some changes...lol cutting away parts for the refab, removed the roll cage and motor mount tabs: Removing cross bracing:

Niko... Thanks buddy... I am back at this build right now and starting to cut the chassis up. so I will have pics in a little while. Hans... Thanks man. I can't tell you how much I want to get some paint on it. Just want to get the fab work done first but am very anxious to see some paint on it for sure. Bob... Thanks for the Kind words. I appreciate your suggestion. That was another nut that I was wanting to change out as well. I have sorta been holding off on that one till I was done with the refab work I am starting on right now. You know I would love to take this one to GSL. I will have to see when it is in 2013 and plan on bringing this build if I can make it. thanks for the suggestion ont he replica class. Alright back to working on this......

I haven't seen models in my local walmart for a long time. will have to take a look and see what I can find there. But I like going to hobby lobby or micheals so I can use a 40 or 50% off cupon on kits.

Joe... the chassis is looking good and coming right along. I think that blower bel guard is totally cool with the 426 fab'd into it.

Removed the next tab: All Tabs have been removed here: Here I have taped the chassis down and got the tabs set where I wanted them and used Weld-On #3 to glue them back into place: Here is another view of the tabs being glued. Just to mention at this point I still haven't glued the rod end that I removed from the radius rod. I wanted to let the glue dry well overnight and in the morning I will go ahead and glue the rod end in with 5 min epoxy and I will actually glue it in place on the chassis to get the correct length for the rod: Stay tuned, I will be working more of it tomorrow (Saturday) well guess its actually today seeing the time that this is getting posted . Anyway I don't have to work tomorrow so most of the day I will be tinkering on this build. I will probably start with finishing up a few loose ends on the front end then I will jump right into the refab work of the chassis to get the motor moved forward as planned. Thanks again everyone for looking.

ok So tonight I was able to sit down and get some more bench time in. Tonight I was focusing on reworking the front end a little bit. I was having to shorten up the radius rods as I noticed a couple weeks ago that I originally made the radius rods too long after I was studying the pictures I had a little more closely. so with that came shorting the rods and removing the tabs and repositioning them. I also had to do a little work to the axle with what I am calling making shims and adding to the axle to help with the play/slop that I had in the spindles. That should be completely buttoned up tomorrow as you will see in the pics I had to add another .010" to one side. Here are pictures of tonights progress. Thanks for looking.... This first picture is for Brad (Gasser59) as I mentioned in a previous post that I would get a shot of the rear of the car and how he mentioned how bit the rear tires were, after downloading the pics I thought that this was a cool looking pic: Tonight I started out with cutting the Radius Rods down to shorten them: Here they are once they have been shortened. I removed the RB Motion rod end and currently they are just placed in the cut end for the pic: Here I started removing the tabs that the radius rods attach too:

John... Thanks Buddy, still wish I could build just a little faster. I have so many other builds that I want to start but I am being patient and waiting but I do need to finish up my 1/16th FED though. I need to spend some time on that one here and there since it is basically 75% done. Joe... Thanks man. Don't be ashamed. This build is one where I am trying to capture all the details I can and making it the best that I can with the limited reference pictures of this car. I wish I had more details other than the pics I have but I am using other cars for minor details but also have picked a few people's brains here as well. I appreciate you following along and this is just one build i am taking my time on to get it right for myself. Walt... I don't want anyone feeling that way. I can tell you this, there is no way I was building stuff like this 20 years ago when i was 16. I have learned alot over the years and I had some time away from the hobby when I was going to college. I realized 2 years ago when I got laid off that I missed this hobby so I started building again. then got back into a job and into a not so good relationship that took me away for a bit, that relationship ended for the better. Unfortunately was laid off again at the beginning of this year got back into building heavily at the beginning of the year and was able to land a contract position with the company I work for now, which I have been working crazy busy hours because of a big project we are doing at the moment. I also have an amazing girlfriend now that supports me with my hobby addiction and she is wanting to build a car herself. So I am looking forward to teaching her and guiding her the best I can. Again as I mentioned to Joe, I do appreciate everyone that is following along. I will have an update shortly from tonights work. Downloading and editing pics as we speak.

I have to agree with everyone. That engine is looking sweet. Dave is right that those restraints pop and I love the color contrast with them and the rest of the engine. Nice work man!

Brett... that turned out great and looks good. You did a really nice job on this.

Dave... Thanks buddy. Yeah I was still thinking about replacing that as well. Do you happen to have a top down view of that area by chance to see the radius of the tube?? The more I have been thinking about the area that I need to move the more I think I need to cut the roll cage away and just replace it all instead of trying to splice into part of the tube.

Looking good Mike. Nice detail on the transmission. Got to ask is the flywheel made out of aluminum or plastic. Keep up the great work on this.

Niko... Thanks for kind comments it is appreciated and i am glad you are enjoying following along on this. Thanks for sticking around on the slow process of it. I hope things are coming along on your vega and look forward to seeing more on it.

Brad.... I will have to take a shot of it from behind so you can get the true effect of the Tires Jim... Thank you and thanks for all of your work you have done for me so far. I am hoping to maybe sit down and draw up a few more parts that I have been thinking about. Thanks Virgil! Mike... Thank you and for all of your help so far. Its much appreciated. I think I sould be picking up some purple pond tonight or tomorrow and will post some picks of that when I get to it. But though I might as well get to soaking while doing the chassis fab work.

I agree with Lee on this. Try Fotki or Photobucket. I have been personally using Photobucket and have been happy with it. IMO its really easy to use.

Mike this is looking great and you are doing a killer job on it. I am glad you pulled this build back out. I look forward to seeing more progress on this build. I will be following along.

Here is a Shot of the rolling Chassis after I had cut down the rear axle a little bit to get the rear tires tucked up against the chassis: Side View: I then decided I wanted to add a little spacer to the front axles as I found that I had some play/slop between the front axle and spindle. So I took Shims and glued the pieces to the axle in which I will go back and trim it down by cutting and sanding to shape. I will be letting this dry for the night and picking it back up tomorrow drilling the hole for the bolt to go thru. Then I can start with the chassis re-fab: Thanks for following along and stay tuned for more progress over the weekend.