Harry P.

Now I placed the kit dash panel on a piece of 1/32" birch plywood and traced around it with a pencil. I also drilled through the holes I made in the kit piece and down through the birch, to mark where the gauge centers will need to be on my new dash panel, then cut out the new dash with my X-acto: Then I used a drill bit slightly smaller than the final gauge opening diameter and drilled out all the gauge faces. I went with a smaller drill bit than the final diameter needed to prevent the wood from splitting or "tearing out" around the circumference of the holes. I then used a small round file and a conical sanding bit in my Dremel to carefully enlarge the openings to their final size:

I like to skip around when i build a model, so let's put the chassis aside for now and start on my favorite part... the dash! The kit dash has no gauge face engraving, and there are no gauge face decals in the model. Obviously that will never do. Here's the kit dash... pretty sad: Step 1 is to use the back side of my X-acto blade to scribe and remove the dash panel from the cowl piece: Next, I drilled a small hole in the center of each gauge face:

It is pretty beefy. Technically I think it should have four blades, but I didn't feel like messing with that. Once the model is built you're not gonna see it anyway. That must seem like blasphemy to a detail fanatic like you... but I'm not against cutting a few corners here and there, especially on a kit this small. If this was a 1/8 model, I would have corrected the fan, but as it is it's just going to be another one in my 1/16 scale used-car lot!

It can't be a model... it has a rear-view mirror!

As with most model kits, the wheels are supposed to roll, but I just glued them on and didn't mess with the little sleeves and retainers. I don't see any need for the wheels to roll on a model... I'm not going to play "zoom" across the floor with this... But the front wheels are posable.

The leaf springs are molded to the frame rails, and they're pretty hefty. I don't see where there is any problem with any of the suspension being "weak." No need to reinforce anything as far as I can see. And yes, the wheels are posable in the kit. Here are a few more photos of the almost-complete chassis. Can run the fuel lines until the firewall and auxiliary fuel tank are in place.

This week's car is a 1924 Kissel Model 6-55 Speedster. Who got it right: wisdonm sjordan2 Draggon Pete J mr moto landman MikeMc otherunicorn jaymcminn Thom Jaguar man 21 62rebel horsepower peter31a

There's a good reason that joke isn't funny Corn isn't a vegetable, it's a grain. Like wheat, rye, oats, or barley.

Not much building time the last few days, but I did manage to get most of the chassis built. It went together pretty well except for one problem. The gas tank mounts to the frame rails by means of a pin on each side that is at the end of a short extension that comes off the back of the tank. The problem is that if you try to get the tank's mounting pins into their respective holes in the frame rails, the front of the tank hits the differential and the tank can't be placed correctly. So I had so cut off the two short extensions on the gas tank, shorten them, and reattach to the tank. What that did is basically allow the gas tank to move rearward about 1/8", which was just enough for it to clear the rear axle. Other than that, all other chassis components fit like a glove. Of course, none of this will ever be seen once the model is finished... the fenders will completely cover the frame rails.

And Nancy Wilson doesn't get the acknowledgement she deserves as a guitarist. I don't know if it's because "she's just a girl" or what...

"There goes my baby, there goes my only one. I think she loves me, but she don't wanna let on"...

I can't imagine a mechanical clutch linkage operating four engines simultaneously. It would almost have to have been hydraulic. Crazy stuff.

I agree! I've only seen Heart on TV and in videos, never live, but for some reason my eyeballs pretty much stay on Nancy.

"Now I'm singing all my songs to the girl who won my heart. She is only three years old and it's a real fine way to start."

"Dialogue." Extra credit: "Lobo's" real name?

So was all of that fancy engineering (and the weight of the extra engines) actually worth the bother... or was it more a sense of "look at what we did?" In other words, we did it because we can, not because it makes any mechanical sense? BTW... how did one clutch pedal connect to four separate engines? Was the clutch system hydraulic?

How were these engines hooked together and synchronized, and how were they connected to the rear axle?

Red House and Hey Joe... my two favorite Hendrix tunes.

"Are you optimistic 'bout the way that things are going?" "No, I never ever think of it at all."

"Who cares what games we choose? Little to win, but nothing to lose."

It has British plates...

"Eddie waited 'til he finished high school. He went to Hollywood, got a tattoo."

"I have a bad, bad feeling that my baby don't live here no more."