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Codi

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Everything posted by Codi

  1. Couple quick mock-up pics before moving on with the rest of the rear rails. I wanted to do a body /chassis mock-up too to check some things and I wanted to see what it will look like with the brakes on as well. Cheers, Tim Penny shot
  2. Chris, how long have you been using that brand of putty? Any longer term (shrinkage) issues you've had with it? Looks good for sure. Cheers, Tim
  3. Man John, you are really good with an airbrush. WOW is all I can offer. Tim
  4. Hi Mitch, working from 2013 NHRA rulebook (note the dates I started this build, that's why its not a 2015 rulebook build) Top Sportsman class running 7.50 or quicker. The baseline chassis spec requirement is SFI-25.1E and 25.2 among others. As Dave (my friend comp1839) described to me, everything inside the cockpit / interior is dictated by the chassis rules. Bar sizes and location in other words. IF it were my REAL car, I would have a beefed up 25.1E spec (which is what mine is built around due to the shortened chassis I'm having to work with) and add some additional rails ala a 25.2 spec for safety and stiffness considerations. Everything behind the main hoop and in front of the firewall is pretty much up to a fabricators interpertation. Between those areas, the rules are what they say they are. I've sifted through hundreds of files / pics as part of my research in addition to being able to frequently "pick" Dave's insights and knowledge as I planned my car. Hope this helps somehow / someway. Tim Dave, thanks....I realize I post frequently but if the pics help in terms of some kind of "order" or method to my madness and it helps someone else in their planning, all the better. I'm learning too as I go trust me. Cheers, Tim
  5. Appreicate all of your positive remarks guys. Scott, I use a Nikon D5000. Costco had a great buy on em' years ago. Cheers, Tim
  6. Thanks Brad and Matthijs for the interest AND comments on the Henry. Randy - Depends on the piece. The main hoop and bottom rails are tube, I drilled and pinned them together for the sake of argument. They won't come apart regardless of what I hang off of them. The funny hoop and the twin rails out the back are rod. Most of the rear suspension / backhalf will be rod. To curve the pieces, I have a set of hardened steel dowel rods that range from 1/8" up to 1". I pick out an appropriate size and bend accordingly. If you take your time and use light pressure you'd be surprise how easy it is to bend tubing without it crimping or collapsing. Just have to work it slowly. Let me know if I can be of any more assistance. Today- pics of the anti-roll bar brackets soldered up and a test fit of the anti-roll bar & brackets. Everything lines up beautifully so far. Cheers, Tim
  7. Thanks Chris......and boy o' boy aren't we glad those days are few and far between. Anyway, I went to plan "b" on these silly two rails. And they're on and I've included a few pics of the "perpetrators". Please ignore the solder joints as they went on terribly today. Don't know why either. But, I'll clean em' up and then put the anti-roll bar brackets on next. So I'll have to put the rear-end back in place for a quick test fitment and onto the next step. Can't tell you how annoying it was getting these two bars on but they are straight and true so I guess it was worth it and that's all we can ask for when we scratch-build. Cheers, Tim
  8. Thanks Chris for the links. Spent all day trying to get 1 pair of bars on.....plan A failed. Today, plan B. Don't ya' hate when that happens? Your car is looking sharp too! Thanks Dirk....what have you been working on lately? Let me know and I'll be sure to check it out. Dave, Gary and Chris...thanks gentlemen. Just so you don't think it's all easy peasy lemon squeasy (as my 6 year old would say) I spent an entire day getting nothing done even though I worked on it "relentlessly". It won, i lost. Gotta go a different direction so I can move forward with it. Hopefully I'll have some pics today or tomorrow of something. Cheers!
  9. You are moving at "Teresi Speed" now. Great work and so realistic again John. Thanks for sharing. Tim
  10. Awesome Randy. I KNEW you had something good you were working on. So well done my friend. Tim
  11. Very cleanly exectuted Scott. Sharp. Tim
  12. Ken, you brought a smile on my old face. I built these (well, simple plastic kits) as a kid 40 years ago. The Cutty Sark comes to mind and a couple Men O' War ships. Granted you're on another planet but it's great to see your passion for the subject. Superbly done and congratulations. Cheers, Tim
  13. Mike and John, thanks again guys. Glad you're liking it. Dave (GoatGuy) - Check out page 16 of this thread, you'll see an alum. piece that is 5mm high (6/32"on the drawing) the chassis is set at that height and the body is supported during the build for test fitment by the two brass strips you see that stretch out from it. They're bolted on and can be removed quickly at any time. The strips are recessed into grooves I cut in the alum. so that the chassis and body match up at the bottom. It's worked quite well for me so far. Hope this helps. Randy, you owe me (us) some pics. And thank you too as always. Scott - great question and I mentioned it earlier but I don't mind sharing again. 1/16th for the bigger main rails, 3/64" for the secondary ones and finally 1/32" to bracing etc. I will go smaller on some things such as the seat supports but I'm not quite there yet. The sizes scale out in order 1:1 at 1.6" - 1.2" and .81" . These are as close as one can get in 1/25th to the actual build and if you saw the car in person, it is apparent that these are very appropriate. Too many times I see tubing that is too large on a build but if using plastic it is tough to use the smaller sizes I mention and to get the structural integrity for the chassis. It's one of the reasons I chose to do it in brass btw. thanks for asking and peeking in. Thank you too Chris. I'm on the lookout for alum. or titanium tweezers and micro pliers right now as the magnets (although very effective and convenient) are annoying when they grab tools out of my hand. And it could be a really "bad" thing if it happened at the wrong time. I'm being very cautious when I'm working near them but the best solution is to find a couple of the "right" tools so I don't have to worry about it. Cheers, Tim
  14. Chris, that just POPS. The entire bottle assembly is perfect and that red is just fantastic. Time and money...hmmmm....I would describe your build as simple "priceless" ! Looking forward to your next posting. Cheers, Tim
  15. Clint - I knew it.....you're pretty handy yourself. That King Tiger weathering is just phenomenal. Great job ! Today I FINALLY got started with getting the back rails on. In this small scale I have to be careful to work "inside-out" as I have to get the iron on it AND before I can move to the next step I have to clean up everything immediately as I'd never be able to get to it as the build progresses. Took me an entire week to get to this point but now it's moving along. One of my crude drawings as my guide during this phase. Might seem hard to believe but it is incredibly accurate to work from. No laughing ya' hear. This pic shows the start of the first rails boxed out during a test fitting And these shots show the "box" triangulated and ready for the next vertical support rails coming off the main hoop. I'm really pleased with how things are fitting together. So far, so good. There are some other pics on my fotki site. Cheers, tim
  16. Thank you Clint for your reply. I have taken your comments in the right way and as they say "no harm, no foul". I truly do appreciate the fact that you believe my build is worthy of your praise and that you place it in such esteemed company. I welcome ALL of your comments and questions as continue to follow along. btw, do you have a photo sharing site so I might check out your armor builds. From what I've seen, there is some tremendous talent building miltary planes and vehicles and I like to check em' out too. Thanks Clayton and especially for the acknowledgement on the effort, it has been time consuming. My machining skills are novice at best but I firmly believe they're getting better as I gather more experience and my mentor continues to offer advice and insight. Well, I'm off to the bench to see if what I made truly fits as expected. Then I can solder something on finally. For what it's worth, drawings are necessary as a guide but when making the pieces and test fitting them, you can "see" potential problems that I can't see on paper. And the truly tricky part is being able to figure out which piece of the puzzle gets made / attached first because I have to figure out how to even get my soldering iron onto the part to secure it. It would be easy to "paint yourself into a corner" if not done in a proper manner. Sorry for all the blabbing, gotta go build. Next post will have some new pics.. Cheers, Tim
  17. Ray and David, thank you fellas. I've spent the last few days making some headway on the brass rails for the back-half. won't go into all the gory details, but it ain't easy i assure you. many hours and still not 1 piece of brass soldered onto the backhalf. i'm at the measure FIVE times phase and then solder point. So many variables but I'm enjoying the engineering challenge. came up with some good ideas today on how to do somethings and I believe they'll serve me well. Clint, first, thanks for the compliment but I'm not comfortable being compared to people / fellow builders that i know are better than me. I've never seen Chris's work beyond what everyone sees on this forum, but I know I am suitably impressed. As far as Dave goes, whom I've referenced many times on this forum....well, in my humble opinion he is the finest you'll see. I look up to him quite simply because I've seen his work and there is no comparison. Still, I do appreciate your compliment and take it the way it was meant. But if you ever get the chance to see Dave's builds in person, do so....you'll be suitably dumbfounded at what the man can do...I know I am/was. And if you get the chance, go check out many of other builds going on in BigBoyz and even the Nascar sections of the forum, I've come across so much amazing talent but if you don't check it out, you'll miss out on some really great stuff going on. I do hope you continue to follow this build and enjoy it as much as I am. Cheers, Tim
  18. Michael, you're correct with regards to the shock brackets. Unlike the anti-roll bar brackets, which were machined, these we're 3/32" brass tube that I soldered some dirtmodeler brackets to on each end. I used a properly thick piece of aluminum between the two brackets to keep them accurately spaced and so they wouldn't move once I put an alligator clip over the brackets. Soldered and did some light clean-up and shaping on the ends of them. The brackets already had the small hole in it for the bolt to secure the shock to it. About 30 minutes or so. Cheers, Tim
  19. Michael - I took RB Motion .054" A/N fittings and slipped them, one at a time, on a thin brass rod against my dremel wheels. First the "red" sanding wheel (dremel part EZ473SA held at an angle and then the polishing wheel, Dremel part # 512E. That took the edges off of them for the most part and shined them up afterwards. I like the contrast you see on the ends. Took 20 minutes to do 8 of them. Let the part spin against the wheels, don't hold them still or you'll immediately get a flat spot. MitchP - Very high praise indeed that I certainly appreciate. You're learning new things by trying and as I'm sure you've discovered, when you get it right, it's the most rewarding. I can see from Michael (10Thumbs) his big step forward in his scratchbuilding skiils in just 2 builds. When I get to a point wherein I'm not learning anything anymore (which I just cannot ever forsee) then it would be time for me to look for a new hobby/challenge. Again, sincerest thanks for your post. Today a few pics of the setup I've done to locate the rear shocks since the rear end is now in position. I wanted to "protect" my Penske shocks so I made matching rods that match them in length and you'll see them in position on the shock brackets I made. These key pieces are now fixed. Now it's time to bend and solder some brass tubing to get this thing moving forward. I did discover one aspect of my jig that I don't like. The magnets have a tendency to grab some of my tools if I get them too close to them. THAT can / could be a real problem. You'll see in on the taller brackets that I put some 1/2" aluminum block over the top of the magnet to "shield" my tools from their magnetic field. Cheers, Tim
  20. YOU and only YOU could have pulled this off John. What a COOL build. I love your stuff, always have and always will. Cheers, Tim
  21. Thanks Chris. No I won't be going to the GSL...with kids, spring break and all the other things that "life" throws at me, I will have to miss it again. It's on the bucket list and it would be great to finally meet so many other modellers that I've met through this forum. Whew...thanks Randy. Glad you like it. What you won't see is that today I spend 2 hours tearing it all apart and re-doing the bars and geometry on the rear It was wrong. Now it's correct. I thank my friend Dave for catching that one. Oh well, better to get it right. If you go to my Fotki page you'll see the changes I made. And I must add that I'm so flattered that you think enough of the build to share it with others. Especially those not familiar with our hobby. Cheers Michael - Thanks dude. See my comment for Randy. Nothing is easy it seems. But, it WILL be correct. Please note too the difference in the diameters of the upper v. bottom bars. The tops are 1.1mm and the bottoms are 1.4mm. Dave pointed out that the bars on real cars are substantially bigger than most modellers make them (1.250" to 1.5" in diameter) So, I took what was the closest material (s/steel tube in this instance) to replicate the 1:1 cars. It's the little things. Mike (MagicPhotos) nice to see you following and I DO appreciate your comments as always. Take care. Cheers, Tim
  22. Hi - Brad and Joe, I do drawings before milling any part. I know some guys might be able to do a piece without having something to go by, but I'm not one of them. I will be sure to share some future mill setup pics and other info that might be of help. As an fyi, I don't own a lathe at this time. When choosing between the 2, I chose the mill as my first purchase as it's more versatile and theres more to learn. I figure if I can learn my way around a mill reasonably well, then a lathe will be a much simpler learning curve. I know that might seem like a backwards approach to some, but it's just the "weird" way I think. Scott, thanks too for ALL your positive comments. It's greatly appreciated. Today, I got the 4 links done. The rear is now in position, height and side to side and back/forard. Now I can start the rails. The jig worked VERY well but todays work was fairly simple, straightforward stuff. It's true capabilities will be tested in the coming days. The tubing is s/steel and I tried to replicate the bungs on the ends of the rods by softening the edges of RB Motion A & N fittings. Kinda worked. Now, if I had a lathe, I might have..... A few pics.......
  23. Randy, I thought I had a decent vocabulary but I'm running out of superlatives. Let me just say..........SWEET workmanship. Cheers, Tim
  24. Ray and Brad, I do use drawings. For the rear they show top and side profiles. Of course, it doesn't mean that they might night change as I get into the fabbing of the rails. I promise to post frequent progress pics as I build and you should be able to see all of the good, bad and the ugly. I'll be specific about what works and doesn't work. Art, thank you sir, and btw when are we gonig to see more of your "dirt" car? Cheers everyone. Tim
  25. Yeah Dave, what they said....what's up with that? When will you get this done? In all seriousness my friend, when the time comes, then it will be the "right" time. Now go get that awesome 37' hotrod done. Cheers, Tim
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