Bill J
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Posts posted by Bill J
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14 hours ago, Pete J. said:
This and other rules of the time always tickled me! Two other rules were the requirement for two seats and a spare tire. Both great if you blow a tire going down the Mulsanne straight. You could toss your riding mechanic out and have him change the tire. ?
Pete, what you say makes sense from today's perspective but going back to the beginnings of the GT class and the Prototype classes, it makes more sense to have room for some luggage and another person. Incidentally, while at some point they stopped this, originally the spare tire and jack made perfect sense, the driver was required to fix a flat anytime he had one. I would think it was very hazardous and the requirement was changed. The concept of the GT class was a "touring" car that a couple could pack some clothes and enjoy a road trip of several days or more. To be eligible for the GT class in FIA racing the car had to meet those requirements and also sell a defined number of cars for road use. In those days the "prototype" class had to meet the same requirements and the only variation is they had not met the sales of road versions. So you could build a few cars to race and not bother building any for sales to road users. Eventually the Prototype class has evolved into purpose build race cars that do not follow the GT class rules.
The reason a Ford GT-40 MKI was eligible for GT class by 1966 was because they had built and sold enough cars for road use. A few of those street versions ended up as race cars. Ford never built many MKII or MKIIB versions and never produced a street version, so the MKII always was in the Prototype class. At the time, they had to meet the GT class requirements, except for road car sales. This was a very defining and golden era in sports car racing.
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Actually they were required and also at Daytona. In 1966 the Daytona 24 hour race was also sanctioned by the FIA and the same class rules applied. The cars were allowed to remove the suitcase boxes for practice. The boxes were in the way of some suspension and gearbox access and some engine work was easier without the boxes. For qualifying and the races, the boxes had to be in place. This also applied to Sebring. I am not sure what year they FIA rules were dropped at Daytona and Sebring but it was after 1970 for sure.
This is the # 98 Daytona 24 winning car from 1966 and it clearly has the suitcase boxes.
I believe this no suitcase rumor began because of a How To write up in one of the modelling magazines. I believe it was building a 1966 Daytona GT-40 MKII The information was incorrect and likely based on a few photos taken when boxes were removed for access during practice sessions.
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Gerald, Gopher Racing makes a sheet with various under hood markings. Sheet 11065. There are some Boss 429 markings but not sure if they are the size to fit the valve covers on your build. They look small but maybe not as small as you would like.
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Gerald, all of your hard work paid off. The Allison Charger 500 came out great. I really like it. I keep starting Charger 500 builds and stop at some point when I can't seem to find the patience to do them right. You stuck with yours and it shows in the final pics, great job!!
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I recommend contacting Lobographix and asking them for their sheet for the Junior Johnson 63. It;s the best sheet made and presently available. This is their 03 sheet, they do make a #3 sheet but not presently listed.
What did you use for the aluminum sheet side panels in your interior??? Best representation I have seen for cars of that era. Please advise.
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Yes, what John said. I have a few compressors and usually airbrush around 25 psi. On a few paints I run it lower. Example is the Alclad Chrome. I spray several coats, very lightly at 10 psi and I have better results with the chrome look than If I spray is like regular colors in a single shot. For the paints I have used so far, I have never run over 25 psi.
You will want a regulator to control pressure at the output and pressurize the air tank to higher pressure, like 40 psi or so. If you ever inflate things like bicycle or car tires you need higher pressures. I have an old bigger compressor that I use for tires and such.
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I have read all the posts here and I understand most of what is being written. I have noticed a trend since around 1987, the trend has been to allow more and more aerodynamic changes and a migration away from showroom appearance and power plants. To me, the more NASCAR deviates from the original concepts, the more the interest fades.
Look at a 1990 NASCAR race car and note all of the contingency sponsor stickers on the front fenders and even the quarter panels. They were mostly all automotive related products, like piston rings, bearings, batteries and so on. All of the cars with the stickers would receive rewards for their finishing positions. Today the cars have a few stickers, probably still get some rewards but what it tells me is that even the automotive parts and accessory makers are no longer identifying with NASCAR cars and it's race series. Main sponsors are harder to find as well. Also consider the races used to have 42 cars make the race, some didn't make the races, but more than 42 cars showed up to race. Today they get about 38 cars, everyone gets to race because they cannot actually fill the field.
Myself, I became interested in NASCAR in mid-season 1962. The series raced cars I could relate to, Ford Galaxies, Plymouth Furys, Chevy Impalas and so on. The engines were available in showroom cars, Ford 406-427 FE, Chrysler 413-426, Chevy 409-427's and all of us new drivers wanted one of these cars for our daily drive. Today, the cars are named for street cars, have some nose features decaled on to resemble, vaguely, a showroom car and the power train is all custom designed for racing the one exception sort of being the Ford 9 inch rear axles. Which, incidentally will be going away with the next generation cars going to independent suspension rear ends.
My take is the interest in the series was based on that stock car relationship. When they began allowing some custom chassis cars in the later 60's, the cars still were requires to have a near showroom appearance and engines were still available in cars or at least over the parts counter.
The more NASCAR has deviated from their original concept, the less interesting it has become. As far as models go, I have not bought any NASCAR kits since about 2006 and have not built a model of any car after 2000. So unless the series changes drastically for the better, it will continue to decline in popularity.
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Excellent pair of Ferrari's
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A beauty
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Super nice build.
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Another great engine Mike! So far I have several of your engines. I have not gotten around to assembling one yet but I can see the parts and they are perfection in modeling. Keep them coming. Looking for the Ford 427 SOHC done accurately....hint, hint
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4 hours ago, MarkJ said:
Paint came out beautifully. Good old tamiya. Really hard to beat for consistent super nice paint jobs. Just for me though, not available locally anymore.
Mark, while I live in a big city, I find it is always a long way to a local shop that carries the Tamiya paint. I also find that after a long journey through hazardous traffic the shop may not have the color I seek. This is most often. I forget what the break point is for free shipping from Tamiya USA but I have had great results ordering online from them. I know if the color is in stock, often pay less and I always buy a few cans of their excellent primer when I make up an order.
The other thing around this city, spray paint is locked up because of graffiti taggers. You have to locate the person with the keys and select your paints while they hover over you. Pretty annoying. I'd prefer that they would proclaim an "open season" on taggers, it would solve several problems, the way I see it. The locking up of paint has no effect on graffiti and really only creates needless difficulties.
Jason, your :Lumina is coming along nicely, I always used chevy engine red for my Earnhardt interiors, I used Testor's and with all their reddish colors I always have a semi loss look, never could get it shiny but it looks great for that Earnhardt chassis. Be careful with clearing Scalefinishes enamels, they often take a long time to dry completely and most clear over it will spiderweb on you. Calypso Coral is the same paint code as Poppy red, Calypso coral is the Mercury name for the same Ford color. Hard to see my interior in this pic but it's Chevy engine red.
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Both of you guys did good on the blue Elliot cars. I had the Slixx correction numbers when I did mine, overall the decals fought me all the way. I used Ford Guardsman blue for mine, looks darker in the picture.
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Both of those hard to paint Elliot 'birds. I am impressed again
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Great job on the very hard to mask car. It looks perfect. I have a set of those decals but always chicken to try to mask it up!
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Super nice Ferrari, I was wondering how you got the 1:! car on your table. Very realistic!
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I never had any luck with Testor's wet look clear or really any of their spray cans. I once had a race car model that was painted and decaled over 15 years ago, decided to finally finish it up and because it was a red color and not very glossy, I decided to "wetlook clear" it with the Testor's. The paint on the car was Testor's BTW. After a day, the entire car was spider-webbed all over, ruined. Decals were long OOP and the model was a total loss, unless I get around to stripping it and making some other car at some point.
I've tried all the model clear paints with limited success. I prefer not to clear, if possible. Clear had always been a way to ruin all the previous efforts. I usually avoid the risk. I have had some success with the floor polish clear, used to be called Future or the Testor's acytlic clear mixed and sprayed from an air brush.
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2 hours ago, vamach1 said:
I have not found anything yet. They look like a very generic light for that time period -perhaps for a truck or emergency vehicle. The Spark 1/18 model has replicated them nicely.
Thanks for that. I was thinking the lights were perhaps navigation lights used on ships or boats. Haven't seen anything like them in scale or 1:1. I guess the same can be said for the front fender mirrors, they're a little different from most. I guess we keep looking
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Your Wyre Gulf GT MKI from 57 Daytona looks great so far. What are you planning on using to replicating the marker lights on the top of the car? I've looked around trying to find something similar and have come up black so far.
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The fuel cell should be about the same as the cars of today. Partly underneath and partly in the trunk.
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The way I do the splatter paint is I paint my chassis top with Testor's Model Master gloss gull gray. Once it dries I spray Testor's Acrylic white from my airbrush, at a distance and without thinning the paint. I then do the same with Testor's acrylic black. Because the paint wasn't thinned, it spits and gets a nice almost to scale result. I am sure someone else has other ways of doing this. Not hard, just a few steps. The hard part is cleaning the airbrush, the acrylics tend to foul the tip and it can be tough to get it cleaned out.
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All these guys nailed it, the Polar Lights chassis. It does require a little work, it needs to be shortened in the front to clear the Merc bumper, the dash will need work to clear the windshield and the rear end may need some movement to line up with the wheelwells. Whenever I make a PL Talladega or Merc SpoilerII I cut out off the curved down bars next to the engine and move them outward a little to provide clearance for the Boss 429. Someone else may have a better idea, that's what I found to work for me.
I paint my chassis gray and give it a speckled finish to replicate the Zolatone paint commonly used back in that time period. I paint the roll cage semi gloss black and the underside of the chassis is also semi gloss black. That was the way Holman-Moody painted them when constructed. I glue uo my cage without gluing to the chassis so I can paint it separately. Then glue it when everything is painted.
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1 hour ago, vamach1 said:
I wonder if the body and parts ould be scanned and a 3D mold made so someone could cast them. It's seems a shame all this work will just sit there and his legacy will only be shared via some pictures on this forum and a few other places.
Myself, I always thought it was a huge waste to put his work into the museum. Bob was trying to duplicate every aspect of these cars, each part, each structure and accurately in dimensions. Which is why that notebook is so important, he had taken all the measurements and photographed everything on, in and under the cars.
Today, with laser scanning and 3D printing it should be possible to make such accurate parts and/or kits available. The last I heard that museum was shutdown, is that still the case??
I would have liked to have those Cobra projects finished my some good modelers than to be displayed at a museum, especially if the museum wasn't financially sound. I always think about all the models that people made for the Atlanta speedway, many were difficult builds and often hand lettered too, all replicas of Atlanta winners. One day the speedway decided to reallocate the space and basically threw the models away. At least that was my understanding. Very sad to see all that effort by all those modelers just treated like a used napkin.
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1 hour ago, afx said:
It would be a great service to the model building community if that notebook/measurements/information where made available.
Absolutely!! To have put that into a .pdf file or print copies for sale or something. We all lost a very valuable and nearly irreplaceable resource. Someone knows where that notebook is and likely has it on a shelf somewhere. Very disappointed in the handling of the notebook and all of Bob's excellent work.
1966 Ford GT40 (gold) car
in Model Building Questions and Answers
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Thank you for the support JC