Codi

Thanks Kerry. Today I machined front the lip to the engine girdle and soldered it up. I used Caswells copper plate and then nickel on it. The last pic is of the Henry steering box that was finally nickel plated. As an fyi for Chris, these parts were dipped, not wand plated and doing the copper plate first and then the nickel seemed to give better results. Next I'll get to plating the rear finally. cheers This is the pic of the steering box and you can clearly see the lip that I added at the front of the girdle.

Thank you Chris. Dave, THANK YOU for your assistance as always. Wouldn't have been possible to attempt this without it. Cheers

Great result Roger. Always loved that period of pro stock and one of my all time favorites was the Motown Missile. What's on deck next for you? cheers, tim

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. I spent some time doing drawing to get the block / engine going. Dave's 417 Donovan info that he shared with me was of tremendous help and his ideas on how he did HIS Donovan were even more helpful. I've blatantly copied ( I prefer "adopted") some of his machining tricks too. Since this will be my first attempt at machining all or most of an engine, I wanted to proof out my numbers and even how to setup certain operations / tools to get the block done. I used Renshape for this block as practice for the real deal in aluminum. I was happy with how the proto turned out and with just a few tweeks, I'm confident I can pull off a reasonable version in metal. Can't wait to get to the heads and valve covers for this engine. Next is to solder the girdle together and plate it and continue doing drawings for more engine parts. Joe, you've not lost your humor and I truly enjoyed that laugh as well. THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE! cheers, tim One of Dave's tricks of the trade wherein how to get the ribs onto the block...........simple but VERY effective. To the best of my knowledge there are no 417 Donovan engines in 1/25th out there and the one I have was from a vintage kit. It has more than a few errors in its design / dimensions. Mine isn't perfect but I can say it is / will be better than the kit piece.

Really nice touch on the electrical box Chris, along with everyone else you've shared. You're killing the small details. Like that a LOT! cheers, tim

Very impressive solution Cato. I read your description regarding the door panel matter ( don't you just hate the word "issue"?) and can truly respect the effort expended to get it to fit properly. Your conclusion as to why this occurred was interesting as well. Like you, I want to know the whys and wherefores when you run into such obstacles. Great result all in all sir. cheers, tim

Thanks Tony, but I'm not in Dave's league, or zip code or.....you get the idea. I got the rascal soldered up and done today. Other than adding the necessary bolts to it and the pinion cover and plating, it's done. 8 hours of soldering / finessing the last few bits today to get it to this point. cheers everyone.

Thanks Eric (and Andy too) for the feedback / info. The idea of doing a brief Youtube video would be fantastic Eric. If you ever have the opportunity to do so, let me know and I'll certainly check it out. I'm sure many other builders would like to see it as well. Great build you have going there. cheers, tim

Dave, thanks for teaching me everything I know. I've said too many times that its more important to have a good mentor than anything else when learning a new skill such as machining. Always striving for more. The Donovan will be next after I get some drawings done. Again, thanks!! Chris, you're absolutely right. A lot of research and time goes into any part before putting tool to metal. Especially when I have to get "creative" in how to do a setup to achieve a particular result. I'm so much better at puzzles now than I was before taking up machining. Thanks Bob. Mike, thanks man. I'm still quite the newby at it but I believe I'm getting better at it with each new part. To stay grounded, I just go check out Dave's (comp1839) photo bucket for inspiration and ideas and then i "bug" him endlessly. Poor dude! I always seem to stumble across something new that hes made that just blows me away. Cheers

Hey Joe, any pics of the box / kit this car came from by chance? I'm not savvy on particular releases by the model company's. This one looks like its going together really well. Flames from the headers, I DID read that right? cheers

Thanks Eric. Now I've got something new to add to my list of building techniques to explore thanks to you. My 13 year old has Adobe on her computer thanks to school and I'm going to take some time to have her show me the ropes. I can see many applications just based upon the things you've accomplished on this build already. Very cool is all I can say. As an fyi, is this something you do as part of your current job and how difficult is it to learn in your estimation? cheers, tim

Soldering this thing up has not been fun. I only have the "spines" and rear cover to put on yet, and then plating time. I've been on this for more than 3 weeks now and I'm more than ready to move on from it. At least 70 hours in it when all said and done. cheers, tim As mentioned above, the rear cover has not been soldered on yet.

Must say I'm flattered by all the positive comments. Dave hit upon the fun part of machining with his joke about getting rid of the "ugly" metal to get to the jewel. It's truly what I enjoy about machining. It made me think of those dinosaur kits that have bones buried in plaster and they give you a wooden mallet and pick to "chip em' out". Always cool to see what the "prize" is. Today I was anxious to complete the twin while the numbers were fresh in my head (even though I take copious notes). I'm going to shorten each side by 1mm and increase the taper of the splines. But this is so close to being done now. Thanks again for following along. cheers, tim

What a cool touch to the bottle Chris. Little details like that need to be in your build book one day. cheers, tim

Very sharp my friend. I like the way the cage soldered up around the seat too. Always fun to see you back at the table too! cheers

I lied, couldn't help myself after parting it off and cleaning it up. 2 pics of what I'm shooting for..... It's so close now and now I've got to start its twin. cheers

Ray, thanks for the sentiments. Immersed now in this one and the Falcon. Chris, looking forward to it and Dave....thanks too the compliment. Today was productive even though what you see today is not parted off yet and the axle "braces" need to be tapered / shaped after they're off the mill. This was satisfying as i have a tremendous amount of planning before I could even start. I'm limited by the scale and the size of the end mills to do certain operations. I have to get creative to be able to make certain parts and I know it takes me a LOT more time to make them because of it. I have to make the twin but when done, the rear will be just about complete. Here's a pic of a 1:1 showing the "bells and the axle braces. It would have been too difficult to make / shape 16 separate braces and then soldered them on in perfect alignment, so I wanted to machine them instead. This pic shows the drilled ring setting on top to give you an idea. The entire piece when parted off will be just over 7mm in overall length. And with the bell resting in the "cradle"........I'll solder all of this together when competed. I'll share later this week when they're both done and shaped. cheers

Some truly fantastic builds here. Appreciate your sharing the pictures Pauloe. cheers, tim

My first build since returning to the hobby.

Who'd a thunk it possible but you actually made a Pinto wagon cool Brian. Can't wait to see how it comes along. cheers, tim

Tom, Bob and Tony, sincerely appreciate your following the thread and for taking the time to comment. Glad you like it so far. Chris, like where you are on the Vega, ready for another update though. Dave (comp1839) - I got nothing on the rear you did for my Henry build. Having fun doing this though but still so much to learn yet. I'll give you a call soon! btw, anything new on your dragster to share? Joe, last but not least...........thanks for the chuckle and the sentiment. Yup, just gotta get on with it. After the rear is finished on this one, I'll be jumping back to opening up the Falcon so I can keep it moving forward too. cheers fellas!

She's coming together nicely Tyrone. What colors you have in mind for this build? cheers, tim

Thank you everyone. Tony, that's a bit over the top but appreciated none the less. Got the "bells" done with the drilled rings. Had to make them this way as I didn't have a particular tool to make them the way I wanted to. More work but the result was the same. Couple more things to make for it and then solder it all up. The mock-up is not soldered as an fyi. I'll have to show it next to a penny for scale next time. Truly small. cheers, tim

Wow Brad, didn't know you enjoyed dioramas. That one is one of the best garage dioramas I've seen. Like the light under the car you put in too. Nice touch. cheers

AHA, found ya' John. That is one s-w-o-o-p-y bike and a great subject. Looking forward to your next post. What color John? Green?