jmpsebring

I thought MAS were long ago out of business. Thanks for the link!

Bernard I've always loved cars. At first it was drag racing. I'm from the West Palm Beach, Florida region. My first "real" job was at PB int raceway. Later it became MOROSO and now it's again PBIR. But I also grew up close to Sebring and Daytona. So Endurance racing is another fave of mine. As far as models go...It's not the subject it's the lack of quality. I'm amazed that 10-15 years after Boyd and Foose style hi tech customs, there is no hi tech 32 ford model yet. I don't want to ruffle feathers but the hot rod, drag area has not changed much reguardless of price. Model factory hiro in Japan makes jaw-dropping kits of extreme quality. They are big $$$, but they are complete. Here's a shot of a Ferrari OTB. But I have $200 wrapped up in a 1/16th model and it still won't be as high of quality as a standard MFH kit. I'm not complaining about the cost,just the lack of parts. I can't find 1/25th P/E dragster front wire wheels??!!! REALLY??? There is no 1/16th P/e engine set?? So I have a passion for most go fast things. Cars, boats,etc. I like making my own cars instead of a historical copy of something from history. But I have done that too. I worked in a Porsche prototype restoration shop for five years. Seeing the Daytona 24 hour winners posed on the banking was cool! Knowing that 4 or 5 of those winners I helped restore/maintain is even cooler. Still nothing in the motorsports world can compete for the shear energy of two fuel cars leaving the line!

I started cutting the body up in order to slam the thing all the way down. Plus I wanted to move it forward...so I attacked it with a barrel sander in my Dremel. The Jawbreaker had a vital piece of internal tub that needed serious trimming to fit the resin body. Plus at this point, I had to grind out the roof's thickness. Once I had the body on the frame with the tub and double checked everything... a couple drops of super glue locked in the tub and body forever. BTW I did pre-sand the tub.

Here we go! A couple weeks ago I saw a comp coupe photo on someone's Facebook page. I've always had a passion for them since childhood. (born 1955). So the search started for current day supplies of Drag parts. I've been building F1 and prototypes for the last 15 years. From 1/25th to 1/8th I was searching for everything. I ended up with some 1/25th parts and 1/16th parts. Still waiting for the 1/16th stuff to show, so instead of sitting on the computer looking at Chris's 1/16 funny car WIP, I decided to play with the 1/25th till the other stuff arrives. I'm starting with the Jawbreaker kit and a flintstones resin body. The frame was a mess being warped and just poorly molded. The body is typical flintstone. It's OK........ I now remember why I switched to Tamiya years ago. I build on graph paper making it far easier to keep things inline. I made a temp cross beam with a tab glued on to have a way to anchor the frame down to the flat base. Then used a small screw to center the frame. As you can see, being off center shows up instantly. I drilled out the ends of the frame and inserted pins. I used 1/16th tubing to make dead straight rails which will add a precision look (hopefully!) to the finished frame. Once cut to length, they were soldered to a tube. Again the graph paper made everything go quickly. The pins allow all of this section to be removable until final assy. So no worry melting the back half while soldering the front. Of course I had to set the body on the frame. I waste alot of time doing that kind of stuff.

Chris I bought the Prudhomme F/E dragster due to it's lack of rear bodywork. Because I want to make some kind of comp coupe, I didn't want to deal with possible problems surrounding the rollbar area. I've been studying the decals for 1/16th cars. I would like to call the car, "Time Warp" indicating the visual pull between old school and present day nostalgic class racing. Kinda early to worry about that....but everything gets planned right down to the paint.

I did win the Ebay auction! (If some here saw it, thanks for not bidding!) The typical 9"x 10" brownie pan offers alot of high quality aluminum with a nice grain. Easy to trim with a knife and ruler. Offered as an alternative cheap source to all. Not suggesting you need to use it somewhere. I 've installed dzus fasteners and other types on real cars. I was lucky enough to work at Gunnar Porsche Racing for 5 years. It's a part time race team and full time restoration shop for Porsche prototypes. Maybe some small rivets sticking though the tabs wrapped with a strand of conductor from a piece of wire? Or do you plan on making them function too?

All of those Dzus tabs will disappear too..... Chalk that up to brain fade. Like saying Zerox Is printer's plate much like the aluminum from a disposable baking pan?

Well I have 12.5 hours into this project already... (Just looking at your work and your sources.) I have orders in to all of the vendors and even made my building surface covered in graph paper. . My dragster purchase is next on ebay...So far....it's just me... I'm one that will be sad when your frame is in primer. It hides all of the work you put in to the project. All of those new frame parts and zeus tabs and rear end mods will dissappear. Good news for me, is the countless (100+?)of hours I'll save by learning from your project what worked and didn't work ! I swear last night I fell asleep online. Finally got up and went to bed. Laid down and my mind took off on a step-by-step process needed to make the front axle . Are we creative types... boderline bi-polar people?

Thanks for the reply and warm welcome. Found the Micro Nitro !!! and got all excited. Hubs and wheels are ordered. Don't have a model yet but I do have a FE dragster bid on ebay right now....so if anyone is reading this, leave my dragster alone I'll be building a restored injected comp coupe. Again thanks for taking the time to list the sources. JP

Hello, First post and first day of discovering this site. Your project was the reason I joined. Hope that is a compliment! I build LeMans type prototypes and F1 mostly, but saw a competition coupe photo the other day and decided to build something different. Long story short...Who is Mark Johnson? I'm trying to order an engine but I see no link. I discovered Comp resins...but see no engine kit. What engine are you actually using? I don't mind paying for quality. It saves time in the long run. What website belongs to Mark Johnson? I know Rob from RBMOTION, but this is jumping back into a scale and type of car I haven't built in decades. Mark ..no offense, but I am unfamiliar with your products. I've spent the last two days searching for everything drag-model related.