astroracer

Pick up a Haynes or Chilton manual at your local auto parts store. OR, go to your library and ask if they have one. You can run copies of everything you need if you don't want to buy the manual. Mark

Nice build Greg. Your GN brought back some memories. I "undonked" this one in 1989... Mark S.

Nope...Clear is clear. It will be shiney no matter what is underneath it. If you want a flat or med flat look spray an epoxy type primer or find some Testors Dull Cote. Mark S.

You can sand the hood to get rid of the rest of the paint. Start with 1200 grit and work up through 2400 or 2600. It should be easy to polish it back to a nice shine from there. I have sanded clear (full size) tail lights with 800 grit and then simply clear-coated them. Brings them back to a beautiful clear shine. Mark S.

Paint, every time, for a number of reasons. Decals just don't look right on a glossy paint job. Spraying decals with clear is a krap shoot as they may wrinkle. Light colored decals over a dark base will look mottled. Mark S.

And this where the resin casters get involved. Sanding, priming and "sweetening up" the R.P. part creates a perfect master for resin casting. Rapid prototyping will never eliminate the casters... It will just create more work for them. Mark S.

Do you have the Alcad? I have actually brush painted the Alclad over a black base and it was impossible to tell the difference from a spray job... Just don't "brush" it on. Lay it on heavy and let it flow out with the bristles. What are you trying to Alclad? I did a lot of wheels like this and people could not tell the difference. Try it on a couple of practice pieces and you'll see what I mean. Mark S.

Perhaps someday It's already here Art. TRD is using 3D printing to create trans-kits and such. Creating the 3D model doesn't require anything more then a photo and an idea of how big the part actually is. Up-front costs can simply be having a Rapid Prototype company print out your part... It's really not that expensive when compared to your "start-up" numbers and can make for some high quality resin parts. Mark S.

That's not going to happen either. Creating the models is not that difficult but integrating everything into a buildable "kit" is. All I see the 3D Rapid prototyping machines doing is increasing the amount of available resin cast parts. I am in the process of modeling some intricate parts to be rapid prototyped. We will not run production with the 3D machine though, to expensive. We will create two part rubber molds and cast them. The neat part is, once the 3D model is complete it is fully scaleable. I can create a full size 1:1 3D model and then scale it down to 1/25th, or 1/12th or 1/8th if that is what is needed... Mark

No, it won't. Most resin cast pieces are made from masters that are fabricated by hand. 3D printing requires a 3D model to be created in a CAD program. Most resin casters do not have this ability. Mark

As far as brands go one isn't any different then the other UNLESS the bottle says nail ENAMEL... I haven't tried any of this stuff. The laquer polish has a very definative smell and that's what I have stuck with. I buy my polish at the discount stores. .50 cents or 1.00 a bottle... Dollar Tree, Big Lots, Dollar General. Sometimes they get big hauls and I go crazy... Mark

Any nail polish will need an automotive type primer under it to protect the plastic. I have used both Dupont and PlastiKote gray sandable primers with no problems. One rule of thumb when shooting any type of translucent topcoat is. A dark base gives a darker final color and a light base gives a lighter final color. If you want your red to "pop" shoot it over a white or yellow base. You can also pick up some of the "chrome" type nail polish and use that as a base... Absolutely incredible color "poppage"... Especially with a very transparent candy color. I usually mix the nail polish 2:1 with thinner. It doesn't take much and all you are doing is extending the dry time. I have tried using laquer retarder also but saw no real benefit. Pick up some plastic "pippets" to transfer the thinner. Works very well. Remember to shoot the candies or transparents with a wide spray pattern and lots of overlap to prevent streaking. Here is a Camaro I did with a silver nail polish base (over PlastiKote Primer) and a translucent pearl orange topcoat. Nail polish is a cheap alternative to buying a bunch of automotive type laquer or BC/CC paints. Besides coming in a huge array of colors it is easily mixed with a little laquer thinner and sprays beautifully http://images21.fotki.com/v578/photos/9/904975/4650494/MVC004F-vi.jpg http://images22.fotki.com/v518/photos/9/904975/4650494/MVC017F-vi.jpg When I first sarted spraying nail polish the biggest mistake I made was not buying enough. If you are going to do a lot of transparent colors buy three or four bottles just to be sure you have enough paint to do ALL of the car... Have fun and do some practice bodies before you jump onto the good one.... Mark

My house is in Byron, about 20 miles west of Flint. I work in Livonia though so I guess I live on the freeway... Mark Smakal

I just joined up... Member no. 40

I haven't gotten as much done as I had hoped (of course...) but the outer grille surround is taking shape and I got a parking light housing made. Thanks for looking Mark

The best thing you can do is look at the real deal. Do some googling. Chris Alston, TCI, Art Morrison, Chassis Engineering are just a few aftermarket suppliers that cater to the 1:1 "model" builders. Order some catalogs and you will have a ton of handy ref material. Mark

The housing looks just like a banjo style diff from a Model A. Get yourself a couple of diff housings and build the axles out of aluminum tubing... Real simple. Mark

Use a '53 Corvette for the rear, re-shaping the tail lights of course. Get yourself a '51 or '53 chevy for the hood bulge and fab the front fenders out of sheet stock. Gather as many ref photos as you can for the dash and interior. What you can't actually document simply swag it. Mark

Thanks for the kudos Casey. The car is based off AMT's 1/16th scale '55. The best thing about this conversion is the 55-56 interiors were identical so all I have to replicate is the outside stuff. Mark

Here are some shots of the grille. I am building it out of styrene strip and sheet stock. I have the shape pretty well laid out and expect to have it fairly well fleshed out tomorrow. Mark S.

Wow! I have been out of the loop for a long time! I started a new job 3 years ago this coming Febuary and just haven't had time to work on the model car stuff. As most of you already know Terry Kinnear has taken over Machined Aluminum Specialties and is doing a great job learning the machining side of the business. He figured out early on this stuff doesn't grow on trees and it takes a lot of time running a business. Anyway, the real world job has slowed down a bit and I have been on vacation this week working out in the shop. I actually did a lot of modeling these past few days and have made some major headway on the old '56 Chevy conversion. I've picked at it over the last few years but never got anything accomplished. The last two days have seen me finish the front and rear bumpers, fill in the old kit door lines and lay some heavy primer on the body so I can rescribe those. This morning I started fabbing the grille and finishing up the fender extensions. The grille ia going to be a piece of work. Right now it stands at 6 pieces and I am just getting the shape built. The rear bumper (top) in primer and the naked front bumper: The Front bumper in primer: The body in primer after filling the door lines: I have some pics of the grille taking shape. I'll post them up later. The camera is out in the shop. Thanks for looking Mark S.

Hi Bob, thanks. My vending days are pretty much over. I'll be starting a new job Monday and that will leave me with no vacation time for road trips. Parsippany is a 4 day trip and I just won't be able to ask for the time off. I still have tons of product though if you are interested or need anything. Just holler. Mark@MAS www.mas-parts.com

Thank You Guys, Hey Steve, I see you are still building some kickaz customs! Nice work yourself! Mark

I was out in the shop this morning running rims for an order and decided to make some one-off rims for my 1/16th scale '56 I am working on. These are for the front, using tires from a dollar store toy truck. The tire specs work out to a 295/30R-19 in 1/16th scale and the tread pattern is darn close to the rear tires I will be using. I still need to come up with a center design and I am leaning toward a BBS style center. What do you think? Here is a pic with a 1/25th scale Pro Street tire for comparison. Once I get the conversion done I will want to build two of these cars. One as a straight axle style gasser and the other as a low slung Pro Touring car. These tires and wheels will be for the PT car of course. The rear tires I will be using are from another kiddie toy and they scale out to a 420/20R-23. I need to order the aluminum for those. It will take some 1 1/2" dia. X .25 wall tubing to make them. Thanks for looking. Mark@MAS www.mas-parts.com

Another option is swapping chassis. Kit bashing. Many of the Pro-Street, Pro-Mod and Pro-Stock kits have nicely done chassis which will fit under other cars with little to no modifications. Find a kit which is similar in shape and wheel base and you will be on the right track. As an example: I started building a Pro-Mod style '71 Satellite. I used the Revell Red Hot Pro-Stock Thunderbird chassis under it. It fit like a glove, even the roll cage, with only the addition of some sheet stock in the rear wheel wells to flush it out to the wider Satellite body. Mark@MAS www.mas-parts.com