Codi

Hi Brad, I wanted to answer your questions as best I can. The practice piece was one where I didn't spend much time cleaning it up. The reason for the experiment was due to the fact the injector tubes & plate are something unique that I've not plated before. Round tubes / bars and flat surfaces at different times, but not something made and soldered up like this. Caswell gives fair warning that prior to plating, you'd best have it as good as you can make it. Smooth as can be, SHINY and of course, super clean. I didn't bother to smooth it out to a near perfect finish. I wanted to see how evenly the plating would take as the alligator clip was affixed in one location, so I wasn't sure how well the electrical current would flow and and through the piece and tubes in particular. What is most noticeable about the piece when actually viewing it is the difference in the plating over the areas of silver solder that I didn't remove. I like how the piece turned out and I think another half hour or so of cleaning up on the final piece will serve me well When compared to the brass one in the pic though, I almost wish the real ones had been made of brass. It looks pretty cool if I may say so myself. Hope this helped. The 1 thing I did discover that I was doing wrong on occasion was cleaning the piece before plating with either alcohol or acetone with a quick soap bath prior to plating. The booklet says not to use either and recommended Soft Scrub for final cleaning which I did this time. Cheers

Many many thanks guys for your posts and appreciation for the build. Quick update, the Caswell electroless system came yesterday. I watched a GSL video from 08' I think that showed Bill Cunningham (I think that's who did the youtube video) on how to use it. He made it look so easy AND he had great results with it. The manual they sent along was quite extensive on all of their different plating kits. After reading the directions I came across a few things they suggested NOT to do that I had been doing with their Brush plating system. That's why it was more "hit or miss" I think. So instead of using the new kit, I used the Brush plate kit with the nickel and did the dipping method instead. Yesterday I made a quick twin to the original intake I've been working on for test purposes. I didn't spend a lot of time cleaning up the silver solder joints and you can see from the pic the result. I'll be sure to be extra attentive to the final piece before I dip it to remove most if not all the silver solder I can. Please remember, the intake is approx. 1/4" in width X 5'8" in length. The result gives me confidence in using this technique when I'm ready to finish the piece with plating. My plan for the blower is to machine the front and rear plates in aluminum and do a magnesium colored finish on the blower body. I might just anodize the butterflies with red or blue or do them in an annealed, darkened brass OR I could do the injector tube bodies in blue or red inside and the butterflies in aluminum or brass. Any opinions on that are most welcome. Again, thanks everyone. cheers, tim

Beautiful Cato. Thanks too for the great info you shared on how you did it. cheers

Chris, it looks good on the manifold & blower you provided me. Got some things in store for the blower but I'm using the manifold as I just can't top that one. btw, you don't really know any curse words but I got the message. You're just too nice to swear. Pete, I saw one at Micromark for around $150. I think, the Littlemachineshop has one that is much more expensive. I bought mine several years ago and can't remember for the life of me where I got it. Sorry. Thank you John and for checking in too!! Hey Dave, thanks but I thought you were a "Walker" man now?! I checked out your sweet set-up on the tail lights on the 37'........how the heck did you come up with that cool design? REALLY like it! Bob, Scott & Davewilly, thanks too fellas. This bugger is going to be almost 2 weeks of work when done. crazy huh? (rhetorical, no need to answer unless you really feel it necessary ) Joe, hope it was nothing too serious & that you've completely recovered. Glad you like it so far, hope you like the rest. So, on the real setup there are 12 "flats" as I call them for the 8 fuel inlets and the 4 front & rear flats where the throttle linkage passes through the tubes. I found some dirtmodeler brass tabs that were almost perfect for this next step & they only required a bit of modification. I had to drill the fuel ports out as I'm going to insert .6mm s/steel tube that I'll slip the fuel line fittings into. I'm going to use .3mm nickel/silver rod that I bought from Albion for the hard lines. 12 tabs in all took me over an hour to get them soldered on properly. They are SOOOO small. I've ordered an Electro-less plating kit from Caswell that plates nickel over brass using a chemical process only. It's worth experimenting with it as the electro-plating process that I've been using I don't feel will be suitable for this part for a variety of reasons I'll skip over right now. I'll show the results of my "chemistry class" experiment once it arrives. Next I'll do the the injector plate & manifold fuel blocks, then it will be ready for plating & butterflies. Last step will be the fuel lines which I'm sure I'm going to have to ask Chris for advice as his are PERFECTLY symmetrical. Oh to have his patience. 1st pic I'm using a scribe to point out the "flats". Cheers, tim

I'll be waiting for the next pics, that's a pretty sweet looking rendering. cheers, tim

Stunning creation. Congratulations on what you've achieved. wow. cheers, tim

Flame soldered the intake together today, have to add fuel blocks and some detail "tabs". Should have this done next week then onto the blower. I did a quick mock-up out of curiosity. cheers, tim

Nicely done Art. I really enjoyed watching Indy during this time. Congratulations!

Thanks Brad, Chris & Mike.........today I confirmed certain details I want to add and how to fabricate them. Made 1 butterfly wherein I took a 1/64" ball mill and cut a groove down the center of an alum. rod and inserted it into the injector tube. It looks good when it's snugged up nice & tight to the throttle linkage rod. 7 more to go. You'll note too in the pic I inserted s/steel tube where the fuel lines will go. I wanted to be sure it was all nice & square before I sweat solder the entire thing & the pic gives a good idea how high up the butterfly sits. cheers

What exquisite detail Randy. The proper scale and attention to the smallest component sets an all new level for detail. I am completely overwhelmed with your efforts to replicate the different scale, texture and materials to bring the interior to life. Great to have the doors swing up that way so everyone can really appreciate the efforts you put into it. Thanks for the post. Cheers, Tim

Thank you Chris. I managed to get the tubes drilled and properly aligned. The blower is from the parts bin and will not be used on the car btw. Just a mock-up. I'm figuring I'm about half way done on the intake. Hope to get some more bench time over the next few days. At this point everything lines up well and fits properly. cheers, tim The butterflies will be up near the top of the tubes like the 1:1. I didn't appreciate how high up they're truly located till I saw a particular pic that Dave(comp1839) shared with me. Thanks Dave!!

WOW.......................just WOW! I believe the hardest bits are done now and it's truly light at the end of the tunnel for you Chris. Soon you'll be on that FED rail of yours & I for one, can't wait to see what you do with that build. This has been a massive undertaking by any measure but you certainly proved up to the task. The entire engine is stunning, just like the entire car. But that thing is a jewel. Congratulations Chris on crossing an important thresh hold on the Vega. cheers

Hey Dave, thanks for the encouragement. I won't know if it's right until I get it actually soldered, but I am more confident if it doesn't work out, plan B will be a pretty good substitute. Time will tell. Thanks John, saw all of the builds you took to GSL and your picture on the big screen while you were picking up a bunch of awards. Congratulations!!! Randy, thanks man, as I mentioned to Dave, we'll have to see when its completed. Your weber carb for the GT40 was plenty of inspiration to try this and even if I get it where I want it to be, it will never hold a candle to that gorgeous 4 weber intake of yours. Today I spent 5 hours just exploring various setups etc. to make the injector tubes. Each has to be drilled for a fuel line at the bottom facing outward and the 2 butterfly shafts that run the length. Ideally, I would have been able to machine the tubes, solder them to the base & then drill them all the way through. My problem is the drill bit is a #78 which I'm concerned about getting through all of it from 1 end to the other. So, I set up to drill each tube individually. The 3 crude tubes you see in the foreground have .4mm stainless steel rod through them to check alignment during the test and to confirm that I could replicate the height of each so they match. The tall tubes in the base were a simple mock-up & have the proper tube in them. After drilling the necessary holes I'll cut them off at approx. 3.3mm. The base is .5mm in thickness. I'm hopeful I can get the tubes drilled and soldered onto the base by the end of the week.........

Thank you Scott. It will be painted, just not sure what color just yet. Eric, a truly deserved win for you. The competition was pretty strong among the best builds and you have to be proud with Best in Show! I'm sure we'll meet at some future show. Randy, thank you as well........I'm hoping we're going to have some/any kind of update on one of your current builds soon.....hint - hint. Pete, thanks for sharing......gotta agree the parallels can be annoying but I use a heavier machinist vice and they served me pretty well on the heads & valve covers on the engine. Now, for smaller parts, well, something like those jaws could come in quite handy. I'll have to play around with making a pair of those when I have a moment and want to experiment. The 2 pics I'm sharing today are of the Crower 8 port that I want to replicate but I won't be putting a scoop on it as I want the butterflies & linkage to be exposed. I've got a couple plans on how to approach making this and this is plan "A". I have some thin wall brass tubing that should arrive soon to see if this plan will work. The pic of the 1:1 is from Mike Garland that he took last year & was among a slew of great pics of the Tramp itself. Thanks again Mike. Start of the base in brass. To replicate certain aspects of the intake, I will have to solder some things & wanted to try this approach. Got a "base" removed with the slitting saw. Gives a better idea. This pic shows blue marker on the sides that I will remove .2mm from each side once the injector tubes are soldered in place. At least that's the plan.....to be able to part the base off from the mill I had to leave some material in place. The actual injection tubes are almost to the very edge of the base on the 1:1.

Pete, thanks so much, after attending the NNL East, I want to be sure to make the GSL someday. I won't make it this year, but 2019 would be a possibility and I'd like to exhibit this car for sure. How are you making out btw on the engines? Updates soon? Eric, hey there, I was hoping we'd meet at the show but I did get the opportunity to see your beautiful artdeco streamliner. That's a killer build sir. Your ability to build matches your imagination. Did you win any awards for it at the NNL? Brad, thanks sir. I'm planning on nickel plating the axle & spindles but the rest of the frame will be painted. I'll have a build book on it so I'll have some record of what lays beneath the paint. Davewilly, I posted a pic below with a penny for scale. I was pleased after getting it mocked-up how close it turned out to the pic of the 1:1 car I shared at the beginning of this part of the car. Thanks! Dave, shame on you, you forget I've seen you Topo & Blitzkrieg altereds. Thanks so much all the same. Mike, thanks man, see the pic below. There is so many bits & pieces crammed in there that I had to write down the order of the "jig-saw" puzzle to be able to come back and do the final assembly.

Love what you're doing on this build John. Thanks too for sharing that photo, always love seeing great pics like that. cheers

Thanks to one and all for the posted comments & continued interest in the build. The front suspension is done after more than a month of work on it. She sits level & I'll drop some .9mm stainless steel tube down the center of each spindle, then I have some 1cm. long .6mm threaded stainless rod & nuts that I'll cut to length to secure the top and bottoms of the spindles. Yes, the steering bracket has to be completed yet but when I work on the body & firewall I'll address it at that time. cheers, tim

BEAUTIFUL Car. Congratulations on your build! cheers

Still here Brad, snuck off with Dave to the NNL East show. My first in 40+ years and really enjoyed it. I met Leonard as well....super nice guy and he had his Camaro there. What a nice build, there were quite a few and the vendor areas were packed. Only the shock towers to put on and the front's done. I'll have those on this week but I was messin' around today looking forward to returning to the engine to finish that part up. I won't be doing the scoop after all and will do the Crower Injectors with them exposed. I cut up quickly some 2.5mm stainless steel tubes and placed them on top of the blower for giggles & to get an idea as to what it might look like. I also lowered the engine (this was bugging me for quite a while) by 1.0mm. Makes a big difference to my eye and I stare at this thing way too much. Couple quick mock-up pics to verify everything works and fits properly (it does) and now I'll finish up the front suspension. I'm really anxious to get onto the Crower. The 3D printed manifold & blower were from Chris btw. I'm going to use the manifold AND the blower if I can't machine the blower design that I want for the car. The pieces are VERY nice that he sent me. Thanks again Chris! Couple pics to tide you over Brad. cheers, tim

Nothing gets ones attention like the prospect of failure. I think the site has a lot to offer modelers of any skill level. Reading all the posts it appears that the glass is either half empty or half full. I would say half empty when it comes to the magazine. MCM's prime competitor on the magazine rack is Scale Auto and they quite simply put out a better product IMO. However, you can't compare the forums / websites that the two offer. Here is where MCM has ScaleAuto beat by quite the margin, again IMO. I would cut bait since almost all printed papers / magazines are facing the same struggles and challenges, especially since there is no end in sight to the downward trend of subscriptions. Focus your teams energies on improving the forum and figure out how to monetize it. If that can't be done, then Gregg, I have to ask you personally, what is your "aggravation factor / quotient"? At some juncture it just doesn't make sense for you and the "fun" will be gone. I commend you on your efforts AND especially your desire to make it work somehow. I have many more questions but they are probably more suited to a one on one conversation if you're interested. There is value in this forum, it's just a question on how to tap into it I believe. Cheers, Tim

That pleated effect you achieved turned out really really nice. cheers

This will be fun to watch Mike. Looking forward to your next post. cheers, tim

Getting closer Dave. I finished the necessary brackets now I have to drill the chassis for the 4 link brackets and assemble it all. The only missing piece to fab yet is the panhard bar but I'll get to that after I get the shocks and 4 links in proper position. Don't laugh at my bracket drawings okay.........promise me!! cheers, tim well, okay, you can laugh Dave if you must.............it's a long ride to Jersey!!

Congrats to you Brad. Well deserved! cheers, tim

Hey Paul, I use stuff called "BurLife" by RioGrande Jewelry supply. Part number is 117-983. I apply it with either a glue wand (when drilling tiny holes) or a very small brush (when doing using the slitting saw) as I use a little at a time. It's a very light oil and a little bit goes a long way and it truly does add life to your bits or blades. I'd probably try something else if I was machining something bigger just due to the cost. A big bottle lasts me quite a while though. cheers