Codi

Chris, sent you a PM. Brad, that's the stuff, works pretty slick and is durable as mentioned. John, the bracket you see is for the twin remote oil filter system. I drilled the top just for giggles with a bunch of tiny holes too. btw, I adjusted this morning the chassis height and ended up adding just .60mm. Made an important difference. Took a couple pics of what the final stance will look like and when I compare it to my favorite, the Tramp altered, it's oh so close. Cheers!

The colors you chose for the build really "pop". The accent colors of the decals & headers complement it too. cheers, tim

Jimmy, thanks for your post. I truly like the fact that you like what you see and have been following along. Hope you like the rest of the build. btw, I have a bunch of pics of the Tramp........just a great car for inspiration as I move along with it. My car wasn't intended to be a clone of it, just was one that I liked just about everything about when I switched this to an altered. Thanks Brad, I'll have to try that to see how it might turn out for me. Appreciated Art...when will I get to see your brass short track thread again? Chris, how are things sir? Anything I can do to encourage you on the Vega? Hope you get some bench time soon! Brad/Joe..........that's actually something else I've tried, called "dip-it" Think I got it at micro-mark or somewhere. It's a liquid silicone for tools that you just dip and let it dry. Lasts pretty long too. I've used shrink tube too but this stuff wears a long time and has a softer "feel" to it. Different colors available, not sure why I picked white, maybe so I could see stuff?

I have a couple minutes before I have to run but I want to thank you for your contributions. Whether it's encouragement, tips or information, they're all appreciated. I machined the spindle knuckles and did a very quick mock-up. Good thing as I caught the fact that the front end my chassis was about .75mm too low. I couldn't figure out why the axle height wasn't where it should be based upon my tech drawing that I did. Double checked and sure enough........I was glad to discover the mistake and when I adjusted it, it matched the drawing. Nothing has been cleaned up or soldered yet. I'll make some brackets to set the axle at the proper angle and height then I'll start on the shock towers & brackets to get that set. Randy & Dave in particular, yeah you saw that.....one of the more time consuming parts of the front end was getting the bends even and correct on the axle..........gotta quite the pile of scrap. Thanks for the pics too Brad, that turned out pretty cool.......I was surprised that you soldered the stainless steel tube to the brass as I didn't know it would solder up. I use s/steel tube all the time for setup and securing brass tube as need be because the solder never stuck to it. Any secret to how you did that? cheers, tim

It's the little things Brad that make a build. That bumper & bracket DID turn out cool and I especially like the driver's window you installed half way up.............very creative. cheers

It's the little things Brad that make a build. That bumper & bracket DID turn out cool and I especially like the driver's window you installed half way up.............very creative. cheers

That is VERY impressive looking Jim. Cheers, Tim

That's pretty trick Brad. I have some other ideas I'm exploring on the steering arm, but I like what you did. I printed out a pic & put it on my desk as part of my reference material. Cheers, Tim

Randy Randy Randy...........I know it takes time to correctly jet 4 webers, at least that's what I'm guessing you've been doing since the last post but it has been quite a while.............ready to share yet? Hope so! cheers, tim

Okay Pete, I gotta call you and Randy out tonight......time for some updates right? cheers, tim

Thank you fellas..........I wanted to address Pete & Brad's question. Pete, I drilled holes in a piece of wood & put 2 pieces of stainless tube in them. They were my anchors. I slipped twin pieces of brass tube over them and checked them for vertical. Next I put the axle between the two, used tape and 2 small machinist angles to keep them aligned. Soldered and done.....well, sorta, the one side I had to fuss with 3 times till it was correct. Brad, my intent is to machine the spindle bracket and solder the spindle into them. I'll probably not bother to go to the trouble that I did on the Henry front spindle struts of having them be threaded on. I'll probably just glue the wheels onto the spindle and secure the wheel cap over it. The steering will turn. I'll draw up the spindles and figure out a thing or so before I start. I want to get the axle & spindles done so I can come up with a practical way to secure the axle at it's proper angle before going onto all the other bracketry etc. The list of pieces to fabricate kind of surprised me when I put it together to be honest. There's more to it than what you might think although I know you guys are well aware of that. I remember Dave saying that he likes this part of his builds, I'll reserve judgement till I see how I do with this. Appreciate the question(s). Cheers

Thanks Dave (GoatGuy) I won't be putting a trans blanket on it. I'll have too much time & effort into it that I don't want to cover it up. Gotta get a break in this weather so I can do some painting. Chris, thanks too. Joe, making gears (?) you have my thread confused with Daves(comp1839)......that's the kind of stuff he can / does do.....me..........not so much. Paul, thanks again for making that trans in 3D print for me........ Dave, thanks for all the insights & information to assist with this build. You guys should have seen the weekend emails going back between us over caster / camber & other "fun" suspension geometry "stuff"...............appreciate your patience with me Dave for bugging you on all that!! John, Dave is most certainly in another league. Think major leagues while I'm playing on the farm squad. Thanks though all the same. Today I started the front suspension. Took me the entire morning to get the front axle done but it was the first piece that I needed to get started. A LOT of brass rod was sacrificed to get one that was correct. The shocks I assembled are from RB Motion btw. My hope is to replicate the set-up used on the Super Thief Altered back in the day. Cheers, Tim

Joe, I don't know how you guys do it. The car looks great but I can't figure out how you build the rest of the car with the body painted so far in advance. I take the thing on / off so many times, I would have that beautiful looking paint looking like you know what in no time. Looks great & like everyone else, I'm anxious to see your next post. cheers, tim

Uh, duh, uh, duh, uh, duh............drool........uh,duh, uh,duh..............drool.................

John, yeah I read that acrylic is the way to go if I decide to paint it. It actually looks pretty close as is just with the marker. Already thinking about how to add the "snap" rivets to secure it to the seat. Fake ones of course. Thanks also Brad & Eric for your comments AND continued interest in this one. Today spent a lot of time getting most of the Lenco ready for paint & then final detailing / assembly. I used a couple PE pieces that I drilled & modified from Futurattraction. The Lenco is the 3D piece that Paul Mendoza re-scaled per my request. I had to sand down the one flange that meets the reverse and 2nd gear case as I wanted bolts in it but I couldn't get them drilled out it's so tight. So I machined & drilled on in Renshape. Drilled out the many sundry other holes in both cases for detailing later. I really wanted to replicate some of the connecting rods & shift levers so I spent the better part of the day drilling etc. The first pic I have a pencil pointing at the connector for the shift tower to the shifter. I took stainless steel tube, drilled # 79 bit holes in them and then used .20mm jewelers slit slaw to cut them down the middle. The pic explains what I'm attempting to replicate. Here's what I was able to replicate. I had to fab 3 of those brackets in total and drill out the L-shaped lever (cam?) that the rod attaches to. The curvy looking lever that is drilled repeatedly is for reverse. I wanted something of a different color so I made that one by hand out of titanium sheet. The pistol grip looking piece is for 2nd gear. The brass bracket was fabricated to attach the lever to. The pink looking flange that joins the 2 cases is the Renshape piece I noted above. Nothing has been glued together yet as an fyi. Paint first. Cheers, tim

More please...............just more. cheers

Man I like that shot you just posted of the car. Obviously on the right track Paul. cheers

Thanks guys, I've not had much bench time as we had over 20" of snow here. I'm going to quickly re-do the rotors as I forgot to add some of the detail to the "backside" of them & I've started the Lenco trans. In the meantime, I've been going back & forth with John Teresi and he shared some great ideas for a diamond pattern quilted seat pad that I want to do for this car. More on John's ideas after I get some materials to test with but John has had some great success with his attempts at this. Today i stumbled across a common material that I spent just a couple bucks for. What you see in the pics is a quick cut out pad and colored with a Sharpie permanent black marker. 5 minutes. The pad is not glued to the seat as I have to re-do it with a few tweaks and cut-out for the seat belts. The material has a proper thickness and it's flexible so it will take the shape of the seat beautifully if I use it. The material is from a common dish washing glove with a diamond pattern print on the palm side for gripping wet dishes etc. The R & D continues.............cheers, tim

What color is that green Dave? I like the satin look to it or is that the lighting tricking my eye? cheers, tim

I sent you a PM Bill. Hope I can be of some help. tim

Gotta agree wholeheartedly with John, there are so many ways to engineer something to accomplish the task at hand. The bottle arrangement, their design and quality really compliment the car. I enjoy staring at the obscure things on the car such as particular tabs and brackets etc. A lot of ingenuity to go along with top notch execution. btw, saw what you did there. too funny. cheers, tim

This is a real treat Mike. Your original concept and the changes you're making along the way have really grabbed my interest and I especially like what you've done with the engine already. The entire car is going to be pretty spectacular. Cheers, tim

So cool John. I like the way you did the bed too. Thanks for sharing your method and I wanted to ask if this was the first time you used "Liquid Glass"? I'll have to check out Art's offerings and try that myself. Cheers, tim

Glued the halves together and did a quick mock-up. Primer/paint and add the bolts & they're done. I machined an aluminum support bracket that is not in the pics as an fyi. I'm going to assemble and detail the Lenco that was printed in 3D that Paul drew up next & then the front axle/suspension is on the list. cheers, tim

I love watching your builds Bill and the way you document the changes and progress. Beautiful looking car made all the better with your changes. btw, if you're interested, I think I have Shelby script in PE. If you let me know the height of the letters on the trunk, I'll double check & get back to you. cheers, tim