Aaronw

Devo called this in 1980 Smart guys

They did the 6 wheel Tyrell P34 car as well although I guess that is actually 1970s.

You don't find them in stock in many hobby shops, but Evergreen does sell sheets, strip and tubing in 24" sections which might be useful on a project of that length. You can buy direct from Evergreen https://evergreenscalemodels.com/

Something else I've noticed different from many rally racers, lights very few of these cars seem to have additional lights. I guess with the race being divided into stages there isn't much driving after dark. I hope to get started in the coming week. It has been kind of crazy around the house recently. All good stuff, just coming close together and each needing my time. After watching a number of the videos of the P2P rally, I think I'm going to go a beefed up front axle and more gears (add 2 speed rear end) rather than my original idea to use the Livingood 4x4 conversion. The roads are rough, but they look to be more actual roads than I first imagined.

Scott I wonder if the insurance has to do with age. I've not heard of people having trouble getting insurance for antique (generally more than 25 years old) fire apparatus and there are some who buy ladder trucks. There are companies that specialize in vintage fire equipment insurance. Nice truck, that was a good era for Chevy / GM trucks. We had a GMC crew cab of that style as a rescue truck when I worked at Fort Ord in the 1990s. Big thirsty 454, it sounded great but really not a lot of power. I defiantly need a bigger bench, Ray.

Thanks, I've wanted an old engine for a long time, and the fact it actually came from my station is a great bonus. Lots of rust to kill, its been parked in a field out by the coast for sometime. Mostly surface rust though and these trucks were built stout so lots of metal left. 1/1

I've decided to try working on a large scale multi-media kit. This just followed me home it is 1958 Dodge W500 Power Giant, it is an ex US Forest Service engine that served at my station when I was in diapers. As it is today Far left is a similar engine in its prime, next to a 2 wheel drive D500 showing how much taller the 4x4 is. This actual engine in a 4th of July parade 1966, second in line behind the Chevy. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but it should be fun. I'm planning to make a 1/25 copy while I'm at it.

The family truckster is better looking. People always want to blame government regulation, yet somehow some manufactures are still able to build practical affordable and attractive cars and trucks. Regulations may take some of the blame, but designers account for the bulk of the ugly impractical designs. Show me the regulation that forced GM to build to the Pontiac Aztek.

That is an interesting effect on the trunk lid. I wonder what the benefit is to using a canvas cover, or if simply the stock lid was missing and it must have a cover by the rules.

They should team up with Yeti, that front storage space would make a great ice chest.

Frying pan spatter shields sometimes use round screen like that. When I built my dozer I just drilled it out with a pinvise and small drill bit.

You could probably cut it off and use it on the open top, but they are entirely different kits. The one with the hard top is a much simpler snap kit.

From what I've been finding, it seems many of the OHV conversions are OHV intake only, with the exhaust remaining in the stock L head location. Not sure why, except I gather there was a lot of guessing as to the best valve arrangement and the ratio, both in number of valves and size. Also some experimentation with the shape of the combustion chamber.

The miter box and razor saw works well. I got one of these at Harbor Freight and it works pretty well so long as you don't just mash it down. It cuts well, but not a lot of power so you will stall the motor if you try to cut too fast. https://www.harborfreight.com/2-in-mini-bench-top-cut-off-saw-62136.html

So does the monofilliment wrap the hub then? That was something I couldn't quite understand from the posts. I do have a small lathe and mill available, so I was contemplating brass or aluminum for the rim and hub, brass would offer soldering as an option. This of course assumes my meager skills are up to the task.

I'm not committed enough to own one, but over the past several years I've become quite interested in these beasties. They were not just cheap, there were other cheap cars nobody remembers. They are pretty amazing cars, and yes with no shocks, and a wobbly transverse leaf spring suspension 55 must be "exciting" (terrifying might be a better word). I am looking at some of the popular suspension and braking improvements, although I'm going with the strategy of spending less time stuck in the mud, and finding alternate routes around narrow passes, rickety bridges etc will help make up for the lower top speed once hitting the more civilized roads in the west. I've found a few short articles about their experience. That was a mostly stock T, and it is helpful to see where they had issues. Apparently the springs got beat to death, and they broke the axle, but luckily the car is so simple that it was easy to get repairs done in the middle of nowhere. That tells me beefier springs and axle support are on my list of improvements.

I've gotten the nudge in the direction I needed, feel free to expand this into a more general 1920s/30s era speed equipment discussion. I'm finding this period quite interesting.

Yes, I read through both of the posts within the post I linked to. I think you are confirming what I got from it, which is basically you need a jig for each number of spokes unless it is a clean division (24 spokes could be made on a 72 spoke jig by only using every 3rd space, 36 by skipping every other). The T seems to have an added complexity as the outer has 10 opposing spokes (straight across), while the inner has 20 spokes which sort of form an X. I gather the spoke ends either need to sandwich between two pieces or be well secured and then glued. 0.1" music wire would be about 1/4" in 1/24, that is nice and stiff so should make a sturdy wheel even if it might be a bit tough to work with. Any idea how well steel wire solders to brass? I'm thinking that might be a better solution than CA or epoxy. I guess I could use brass wire if steel won't solder well, but music wire seems less likely to get bent. Thanks

I found this thread, and within it there are links to two others describing how to make wire spoke wheels. I have questions, primarily about making a jig. I would love to pick the brain of somebody familiar with making their own wire wheels. I want to try making Model T wheels which are far less complex (30 spoke) than those in the tutorials, but there is no discussion about aligning spokes of different numbers than the examples. Also would love to get a better look at how the ends of the spokes are captured by the hub and rim. Also on the off chance maybe someone has a 1-1 Model T with wire wheels, what diameter wire was used, it looks fairly stout, maybe 3/16" or 1/4".

I'm heavily leaning towards a roadster body. A four door would provide more room for stuff, but I think the key to the T is lean and mean. Loading it down with 1000lbs of gear would kind of defeat the point. The dizzying array of aftermarket for the T is the appeal to me. You could buy 4x4, 6x4, 6x6, halftrack, tractor and snow mobile conversions. It wouldn't surprise me if somebody tried to market amphibious and flying T conversions, although I've not seen anything for those. and I found, there was a 1913 Model T in the 2013 race and it didn't do too bad.

I did not know that. The only one I've ever actually seen was 4x4, but it could have been converted. The Jeepster Commando was of course 4x4, but I think that is pretty solidly in early SUV category like the Bronco, or Scout so it wouldn't qualify.

Missing Link does a slightly later, but very similar 1970s Ford F700. http://www.missinglinkrc.com/ford_kits_2012.htm

Wow there is some great info there. The '25 Frontenac catalog in there shows the twin cam 16v version of the Frontenac, and that is definitely what is in the '27 T Police car kit. 500 miles isn't 5000 miles, but those Frontenac engines can't introduce too many reliability issues if they were consistently doing well in races of 100-500 miles. I also see that in 1923 a complete 8v Frontenac racing engine cost 3x as much as a new Model T.

I took the underlined as referring mainly to Jeeps, early Broncos etc which some might argue are passenger vehicles rather than light trucks. While definitely a fringe case I'd think one could probably make a decent argument for a Willys Jeepster. Way more passenger than utility vehicle.

Unfortunately I can't find any kind of serious torture testing, as it was years before the military was interested in a jeep like vehicle and of course who today is going to do that to a vintage vehicle. It appears it was a pretty advanced system and built as tough as the rest of the car. I haven't been able to find anything warning current owners to baby them and there are some videos of them playing pretty hard. There were only a few hundred made, and a fair number are still on the road which is a pretty good sign of their durability. Unusual for an early 4x4 it could be set up as a full time or part time unit. I'd think a part time system would save a lot of wear and tear when not needed. Since it used a modified rear axle on the front, that part should be as tough as the rear. The T is a fairly light vehicle, running skinny tires and I expect only 35-40hp, so stresses are relatively light. Short answer I don't know, but I'm assuming yes.