Mooneyzs

Oh man Jeff... this is going to be another sweet body mod by you. I look forward to seeing this come together. See what you have done with your Chevelle body and the Vette... This is gonna be awesome

I have to 2nd that. Would love to see the pics.

Derrick this is coming along sweet and lookibg great. The chutes look much better making those adjustments to it. Keep up the great work. Any ideas for paint yet?

Randy... Thanks for the props and you are welcome for the info on the benders. Joe... You have to do a bigger scale project. You won't regret it. Once you do a 1/16th scale you will get hooked. .... Well thats how its been for me lol. I say go for the starting line tower, it would be awesome. Rom.... Congrats on the Mod status. Right on that you made one of the benders bigger. I wish I could change the radius of the benders to get some tighter bends. Thanks on the props on the headers. I just hope they turn out like i am hoping for. I had bent these at 90 degrees and after looking at some pics i may need to bend a set between 65 & 85 degree's. I saw a pic of another one of Prudhomme's cars and the.headers didnt look like they weren't bent at 90 degree's. So now little confused what to go with. Richard....thanks man. I was looking at the kit headers and told myself u had to do something that was better than them. So far i am happy with how it is going. Right niw its practice until u get them right and then i think i will have a good process for them. It will also help with yhe jig that i want to make to hold all of the pieces together when assembling them.

Rom... Awesome work Looks great. I do have to ask was it a decal that you made for the plug wires. You are making me want to get my engine competed for my funny car. Look forward to your next update.

Jim. .... You are welcome. Glad i coukd help. Brad... That is a much better idea.... I will have to try that. Thank you for that idea.

I had picked up two of these tubing benders for different size tubing, one is for 1/8" O.D. tubing and one for 5/32" O.D. Tubing. They are made by Du-Bro and I picked them up from Hobby Linc. Here is the web page http://www.hobbylinc.com/cgi-bin/s8.cgi?str_s=Tubing+Benders The 1/8" bender ran $8.39 and the 5/32" was $10.89..... In my option well worth the money I was going round and round on trying to figure how I was going to bend this tubing. Did many tubing bender searches and ended up finding these. I ended up going with the 5/32" tubing for this build Brad... Thanks for the kind words and for following along. I am really digging your Fiat build and can't wait to see more. JIm... I had no idea what I was going to find because I had never seen them this small either. most of what I was finding was benders for wire where you had some sort of mandrel that you would put in a vice and bend around a pin. Danno... Thanks bud... I am trying to keep up with everyone here . We have so many great builders on this site. Charlie.... Thanks man... I started out by just bending some tubing that came with the benders, they gave about 4... 3" or 4" pieces and bent them to see the radius that they would give and had no problems with the tube collapsing and I believe that these pieces were .020" wall thickness. Well I bought a bunch of aluminum and brass tubing..... the wall thickness was .014 on these since it was the telescoping tubing. the first couple of pieces that I bend collapsed on me. So I ending up sliding brass tubing inside to see what it would do as well as solid rod. Last night I even tried packing the tubing with flour which didn't have much luck with but would like to try packing the tubing with sugar and seeing what it will do tonight if I get the chance. The tubes that I have bend there in the pic... I ended up puting some 1/8" Everygreen tubing inside the tubes so they would not collapse. then after cutting to size I went back and drilled out the styrene tubing as far as I could. once painted you probaly won't notice the tubing inside but I will try a few more things to see what I can do to hide the plastic tubing inside, Hoping that the sugar trick will work and I won't have to worry about drilling the tubing out. After messing around with all of this for a few hours, its actually really simple, It took more time figuring out the best way do do it

John... you knocked it out of the park once again. This turned out great!! It was nice to see this come together. The paint is just beautiful. Great Job!

I went with Model... Not sure though

This is a totally cool build. Nice start on the frame. Going to be a great build!!

I spent a little time tonight tinkering on this build. I was focusing on the headers and making them out of tubing. I was originally wanting to make them out of aluminum tube but was having issues when it came to bending the aluminum. so I then switched to brass tubing which will probably be a better bet since I will be able to Solder them together. Plus the fact that they will get painted anyway. I did a lot of test bending. till I finally found what I liked. Anyway I only have one pic to share tonight since this was all I was focused on. Here are the tubes that I have bent: I still need to make another set for the other side. I am planing on making a jig out of Balsa wood to hold the headers together during the soldering process.

Brad.... Mighty fine work you got going there. I just love how you are paying attention to every little detail. The motor work detail is just gorgeous. Seeing this come along is making me want to jump onto my 1/16th scale fiat build. Then again I need to focus on my funny car and get that done before starting on another heavoly detailed build. The next one I have planned will be a little different thats for sure . Again great job on this.

Brad... Can't wait to see these updated progress pics... I am sure you will win over that Shift lever. Sometimes it takes for us to walk away and then come back and it just gives in....lol

Jeff the rear of the body is looking awesome. I just love how the whole thing flows. Its perfect!

Rom... this is just off the hook man... Keep up this great work you got going on here. Nice job on the spark plug boots on the valve covers. We need more pics!

This thread is awesome... every time I look there are just more great builds. Wayne... thanks for sharing some of Daryl's work, he sure has some nice builds like the rest of you top notch guys. I am impressed by many builds on here.

Hey Will... I personally use PPG base coat/clear coat on my models. To be exact I use the DBC and Omni line for the bases and their 2020 or 2021 Urathane Clears and haven't had any troubles with shooting the clear over the decals. I will spray my base coats let them flash inbetween coats about 10 to 15 mins depending on weather. Then I wait about 30 to 45 mins to shoot the clear. once done with that I tend to wait a fiew days before I apply my decals then will wait a day or two and then go back and add more coats of clear over the decals. I have a thread where you can see how I painted a Front Engine Dragster where I did the process I just explained if you wanted to take a look. Not sure if any of this has helped but I would make sure you mist your first and maybe second coat of clear. now I am not sure what type of paint the testors one shot clear if it is an enamel or a Lacquer. if its a lacquer it may just be having a reaction with the decals. I am not sure what else to suggest. How long are you letting the decals dry before you are clearning it? I have never tried the method that Steve mentioned about brushing a coat of future over the decals before clearing. maybe try a test decal on a sheet of plastic or old body before you try it on your build.

Greg... Thanks Mate! I was thinking that I needed that extra touch on the fuel tank straps. I also have some thoughts/plans to take some fine wire and bend it. then they will be glued to the back of the tabs to represent the Dzus faster spring. Thanks for your opinion on the Body Mount bracket, I think that one flows too but will probably make the choice as everyone one has mentioned after test fitting it and figuring which will work best.

Very Nice build!!! Provence Moulage makes some nice kits. I picked up a kit from them at the NNL west back in '96 and build it. would like to do another few more of them

That is one beautiful '49 Merc.... You did an awesome job on this. I do have to ask what color did you lay down first and what type of paint did you use on this. It is just gorgeous!!

Bart.... Welcome Aboard here. and as others mention thanks for sharing with us. Also as Jeff mentioned this a great sight with a bunch of great people. I look forward to following this build and see the progress of it. Look forward to some more pics. That frame you going going Looks great and this build is off to a nice start.

This is a very Impressive build. really like what you got going on there. Nice work by the way.

Gabriel, Richard and Brett.... Thanks for your opinions. I may keep it open until I figure out placement of the body as Brett mentioned. The only part of the body tin work i am planning on using is the piece that goes around the driver. The back mount portion is going to be made with brass rod and plastic pieces for the structure pieces as well as having them in the front which will dictate where the body sits on the chassis. I did very little on this tonight. So only one updated pic for you guys.... I ended up just making tabs for my fuel hold down strap and getting them glued into place. Here are the tabs that my Fuel hold down strap will attach to:

Hey Chuck... I have been talking with Terry from MAS for the past few months...actually before i started my funny car build. He is having more made just dont know when they will be ready. I know I need one soon too LOL.

John... nice paint work buddy.... That is looking Killer. It is coming together nice. Every little detail shows. Do you ever get any sleep.... ... I still cant figure out how you can build so fast. Keep up the great work!!