kennb

put gull wing doors on this and you got a flying machine

started getting the intake manafold put togehter, and getting the front sheet metal aligned and closer to finish...Guess I am going to have to get the frame brought up to speed next........all the comments are welcome, thank you.

very nice clean build...................................

coming together very nicely,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,just keeps me thinking of a ham and swiss sammy

very nice start on this. I learned to drive in one of these.

great paint color for this

I have the exhaust manifold started and the steering box finished and installed. The manifold is pinned so I can get it in and out while working on it,,,The intakes go between the exhaust as shown in the picture. Kenn

Pens, screwdrivers, caps from various containers, super glue caps. lipstick tubes plus anything else you can think of for the male mold parts and some tubes and caps and tape reels for the female parts are all you need. Keep you eyes open for possiblities that can be used. The more interesting the shape of the male mold the more detailed the final part will be. first set up a small space that is open and you can work quickly since the plastic is only plyable for about 30 seconds at best. You need to work fast when doing this and have everything close at hand. You will get the feel for it after about 2 or 3 times. Select a male mold part and female mold part and a piece of plastic that will be large enough to make the finished part. Heat the plastic up so it is very soft. You will see it "wilting" as you heat it.(about 1 to 2 inches abouve the flame). After the piece is soft place it over the female mold and quickly push the male mold into the plastic to the depth required for the part and hold it fo about 10 seconds, the plastic will harden up quickly. Be carefull because the plastic will be about 180 t0 200 degrees but cools fast. You may want to hold the plastic with pliers. Here are some more ideas. More on part 3 posted sometime tomorrow. I have used both .20sds, and 40sds plastic in the next photo. All comments and questions are appreciated. I will try to answer questions the best I can. Kenn

I took yesterday to add a few bits to the engine and firewall. I use the photos to get shapes and general layout on what I can see but end up faking in the bits I cant see that I feel need to be there to fill in spots. Theree has to be a certain level of detail parts to give the impression that you everything there whether you do or not.For this i use tubing, built up shaped parts like the water pump and stamped parts like the pullys. I feel that if you have enuff of the layers of parts that show and add some here and there to sujest what you can noy normally see it looks more finished and if you hove something out of place a bit or not just right it will not show unless you find someone who has an intimat knowledge of the particular car you built up. i still have the right side to fill in with the steering and manifolds. After all the painting is donw the 3rd layer of detail goes in with the wires and piping here and there. I will most likely have a lot of futtzy wires going about to make it look conplete. I only have pictures to go by and the dont show all areas very good. Thank you for looking and the comments and questions. I did start the Thermal forming thread 2 minutes before the forum crashed on Thusday, Kenn

Here is the nearly complete rear end for this car. I will be going into detail of the construction in the thermal forming tutorial that I posted part 1 of tonight, It still needs some clean up and the springs, brakes and jacks need to be made. Kenn

This is an introduction to part 1 of thermal forming parts for your projects. How many times have you wanted to do something but you were not sure how to do it. Wheel wheels, hubcaps, engine parts, rear ends or any other parts you can dream up? This is one option that you can use to make your own parts whether it is just one or a dozen in just a few minutes and no tools. It is limited only by your imagination and not restricted to size. This is by no means the authorative guide but methods that I have used and had success with little knowledge by through trial and error. Not everything you try at first will come out since there is a short learning curve to the process, but in a few minutes you will be turning out crisp sharp parts that you only dreamed of making before. I get all my plastic in 40 x 72 inch or 4'x8' sheets from a local sign company or through U.S. plastics out of Ohio. for under $20. I am not sure if Evergreen plastic will work since it is designed to be stable unlike the material I use thst is designed for thermal forming.The only other things you will need is a supply of things to mold the plastic with, and a candle. For large items like an entire body you will want to use a small counter type oven.They can be bought for about $20 dollars. These are some of the things we can mold. I will be posting part 2 sometime tomorrow. We will be forming some simple parts for rear ends or motors and playing around a bit. Kenn

Gerald You are very correct with the 2 part bondo. I used to build 1:1 custom Corvettes and Mustangs and used more that I care to admit to. I find for the little bit I use that the putty does fairly good other than taking so long to cure properly. Did not know it came in tubes,,,,I will have to look............. Thank you also for getting the book. I hope that it helped you in some way. Kenn

I heat it over a candle until it gets very pliable and limp......I am setting up a short tutorial that I will post this week end showing how to do that and what is needed and a lot of different shapes,,,,,I am experimenting on making my wheels this way also and will show that......Thank you for the questions since they help in setting things up and what I need to include. Kenn

Mudding the body. I used Bondo spot putty that I picked up at wally world. I put it on with a scrap piece of plastic. It is a little heavy and noticed that there is only about a 2 minute window of working time before it started to grab. it did take a few hours to harden and the bottom valance on the back should set overnight but it is a little heavier. I sanded out with 220 340 and finally 400 to get it decent. Most of the putty was removed and there is a few spots to refill. nothing to sweat about though. Thank you for looking and commenting with questions. Kenn

Thank you for the links,,,,,,they are very good and the second one has a great deal of information that I can use,,, Kenn

That is the one,,,,,,yes...... Kenn

I get the sheets of plastic,About 40" by 72" for under $10. The first part of the thread tells about it. I will set up a short thread about forming parts in the near future... Thank you for suggesting it. Kenn

First I am using .40th thick thermal plastic. When I get done, some parts are less then .10th thick. I do end up making several parts to get the right draw on them For the pumpkin I used a deep tube for the female mold. This has a lot to do with the depth of the parts. I am finding with the more I work with the molding process I can get more complex shapes depending on the male mold(Tide stain stick cap). This is really the only thing that limits me, the male mold parts. The one thing to remember is that with the thermal plastic you get it right the first heating since it will not heat a second time. With practice you can make anypart you need this way. I am still looking for how to do the inner fenders ont he front since the shape does not fit anthing I can find. I hope this answered the question adaquately, if not let me know and I can go into more detail with photos as needed. Thermal plastics are used mostly in vacuum forming of parts like boxes and packaging of parts. I learned about this from my borther,who hold most of the patents on vacuum forming methods and machines. I have helped him out building machines and watched as he designed new ways of forming parts. Granted I dont have anything like the budgets he would have and do everything with simple parts and an exacto knife,a few files, and sandpaper. Everthing is made in a space of less than 2 square feet on my desk. I hope that the methods I use can be helpful to others in making some parts to augment the kits most people use. Again thank you for the comments and questions. They help me in coming up with new techneques to make more elaborate parts from nothing. Kenn

I appreciate any photos that you can come up with. The more origional in paint and colors is needed. I have a lot if color photos but am not sure how close to the origional colors they would be. That is one thing I have been going over. I have seen some very nice color combinations but not sure they would be authentic to the period, the British racing green colors seem to be a most likely combination. Spending the time I am on this I want it to be close to authentic for the time period. So many are maybe updated, to me closer to a contemporary color selection. Thank you for the imput. Kenn

The one problem i run into on all my builds is the rear pumpkin. They can be very complex to shape but i think i came up with some nice things to get the effect I am looking for. I used a Tide stain stick and my wifes masquara stick to get the shapes and size I was looking for. I cheated a little when it came to the universal joint. I had an old tree from my Mustang kit that I trimmed a little and with some fileing to make it fit the drive shaft I ended up with w decent representation. Sorry for resorting to a commercial product on this. I have over 100 pictures on photobucket showing a lot more than I put here. the link is: http://s126.beta.photobucket.com/user/shutter-bug/library/1936%20MG%20Saloon Thank you for all the comments and encouragement on this project. It is taking some time but I hope it will be worth it in the long run. thank you to all those that are looking also. Kenn

progress on the. kenn

The body frame and engine are now all roughed out with the top of the hood being started. Now I will go back and start the second step of the body and getting it more detailed and finished. I have some second layers to put on the parts and a lot of sanding and filing to get things to the final shape. I also have the engine lowered to about the right postition with the ability to lower or raise it in small inriments for final location. Hope you are enjoying watching the build. Kenn

Continuing with the motor and adding a few more details we come to the installation of motor mounts. With a kit this is all figured out for you and is quite straight forward. In scratch building this is something you have to figure out. If you want to go through all the math it would set things up for you, but I just go by the seat of the pants. Since I have no information on how the motor is installed i have to just go with trial and error. I an using a plate on the back of the motor that spans the frame and a haunch on the front setting on the radiator mount. This attempt does work but the motor is setting far to high as you can see in relation to the fire wall. I have 2 things to do at this point. The motor needs to be dropped but I am not sure how far I need to go. I will remake the mounts to drop the motor down and then wait untill I have the wheels made and axels in place to make sure the unmade oil pan does not drag. I also have to take into account that the transmission falls under the floor with no hump since the floors are all flat. The transmission is a 3 speed so it is not a problem going under the floor pan which is above the frame. Thanks for looking and let me know what you think. it is all appreciated. Kenn

One of the big problems is that I have very little to go on for the engine of this. I have a few pictures to go on but little else. With this in mind i started out with a block and started to make parts and glue them in place trying to replicate the best I can from the pictures. thank you for looking Kenn

The glue is Plastruct plastic weld and superglue......i try not to use too much super glue because i become part of the car then.