Ace-Garageguy

That may well be the case, and I don't believe I was being critical of the builder...simply stating the truth in unvarnished terms about the condition of the model. What has got me somewhat chapped is that supposedly, the 3 wheels on it were true, and all the instruments were in place with the panel intact. The less-than-right packing apparently allowed the model to take a heavy hit, bending most of the spokes and pulling many of them out of the rims, bending both rear stub axles, and also dislodging the body from the frame and twisting it so hard the instrument panel cracked and several of the instruments fell out...and continued on their way out of the non-sealed box. Both headlight lenses are glue-ruined too, not mentioned in the description. Insurmountable challenges apparently abound. I would have GLADLY paid for a decent crate to ship the thing in, which would have been cheap insurance assuming the additional damage occurred in shipping and was not a misleading auction description. I got a pretty good price and had intended to do a full disassembly and rebuild anyway, but I didn't expect to have to rebuild all 4 wheels, buy multiple parts, and straighten and/or repair many others. Even a $75 crate would have been acceptable. The packaging was a joke. The flip side is that I've been in contact with the seller and he's offered a partial refund. I countered with a LOWER dollar amount than he offered just to show there are no hard feelings and to try to reassure him I'm not just trying to get something for nothing. Everybody should be happy shortly, and I WILL restore this beautiful model.

The recent Revell '50 Olds kits have decent gen-one Olds V8 engines. The ancient Revell Stone-Woods-Cook Willys kit has a better one, 6-71 blown and injected and backed up by a classic B&M Hydramatic. The also ancient Revell Anglia and Thames panel have the same basic Olds engine as the SWC Willys, but they're both Hilborn injected. And the very old Revell Roth Beatnik Bandit has the same engine again, but 4-71 blown with carbs. A three 2-barrel manifold and a nice stock style water pump and timing cover are in the AMT '40 Ford Tudor. By mixing parts from both early and late Revell Olds engines and the ancient AMT bits, you can build a really nice early Olds engine.

Several of the ancient AMT kits had engines that would swap around fairly easily due to the similarity among engine mounts, etc. Some were simple drop-in swaps, some took varying degrees of surgery to perform.

So...you want to know which engines will swap around between recent Revell kits with NO surgery whatsoever? Like drop-ins?

Well, since I'm going to do it pretty much straight, and as a lot of it looks like it comes apart fairly easily, I think I can get it to go fairly quickly (for me). No entire re-engineering of anything, just take it apart, make it nice, and put it back together. I'm shooting for early November completion. Speaking of which...do you have the particular wheel jig for this one you'd be willing to part with, loan or measure so I can make one up on the lathe?

Yup.

Exactly. And try to keep your measuring rig as simple and short as possible. The object is to keep it entirely rigid. If the measuring setup can move at all in relation to the work, all the measuring in the world is useless.

Correctamundo.

Pretty much any engine will go in any car. It just kinda depends on what your particular definition of "interchangeable" is.

Hmmmmm...looks like I'm going to need a jig to build the wheels on too. They're ALL bent and wonky, way out of round; more shipping damage apparently.

Thank you sir. The PDF format is most helpful.

Thank you sir !

After seeing Harry's I had to get one for myself, especially seein' as how I'm starting on a traditional channeled 1:8 '32 Ford roadster too (finally amassed enough of a 1:8 parts stash to build the Big Deuce-based model pretty far out of the box). The Alfa just came in today and needs a complete teardown, strip, respray, and entire rebuild. Poor little car was poorly packed too, some shipping damage. Everything is wonky, wrong, broken, forced...typical of everything I get...but this big ol' girl will be worth the effort. And I got her pretty cheap. Though she's not really a gluebomb, the workmanship is no better than average, and it's apparent the builder wasn't anything particularly special. Lotsa runs in the paint, lotsa trash, and kinda gives the impression it never really fit together very well. Still, it seems to be pretty much complete...and boy, is it big. Most definitely has that bare-bones European hot-rod look I love, plentiful exposed mechanical bits Anybody have instructions for this? (NOTE: This is NOT mine. The photo I had posted was from the auction site where I bought the thing, and it's disappeared. This gives a fair impression of the condition mine was in when it came in, though mine also had a couple of semi-destroyed wheels, bent spokes, etc.)

Pocher 1:8 scale gluebomb Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza. Fair build, lotsa runs and trash in the paint, no parting lines removed, wheels wonky, nothing fits right. And completely rebuildable. Does anybody have a set of instructions for this thing?

Calhoun, Ga.

Yes Sir! Sir! Three bags full, Sir!

Hmmmm...sounds like rather a large percentage of the adults I know.

Lotsa old race cars had hand-operated fuel pumps, easy enough to do on a drag car. A pump in the cockpit pressurizes the tank, and the fuel is delivered to the engine. Tanks were even mounted in the cockpit. Surplus aircraft air tanks could be used, and then the advent of the Moon tank came along. It's easy enough to drive a pump from the fan belt too. What's historically accurate depends on the exact time period you want your model to represent. Electric fuel pumps are also an option, originated in England around the late 1920s, plenty of 24V aircraft surplus just after the war, 6V and 12V pumps made specifically for vehicle use available widely in the US by the '50s (SU Petrolift pump available as early as 1933) etc. EDIT: This old midget has a hand air pump just to the right of the steering wheel used to pressurize the fuel system.

Don't feel bad, Rob. I've done my fair share of dohs too. I have a spare engine for you if you can't get the heads off clean.

The three exhaust ports can be facing outside and the heads can still be on upside down. What I'm seeing on your photos is the combustion chamber detail that's molded into the bottoms of the heads is facing UP instead of down. At least, that's what it looks like to me... but I MAY be seeing things, or be cross-eyed or I might just be totally incapable of interpreting a photograph correctly. Anyway, circular things shouldn't be seen on the tops of the heads. Long rectangular things where the valve covers mount is what you should see. Notice frame #2, part number 13 on your instructions. 13 is the cylinder head. It has a long rectangle on top, not 4 circular things that seem to be in your photos. The 4 circular things go on the bottom. You can have the circular things on the bottom and still have the three ports to the outside like they're supposed to be. Honest. I've built dozens of these Revell Caddy parts-pack engines, have two on the bench right now. There's a shot of a de-chromed Caddy engine with the heads on right-side up towards the bottom of this thread (there's also a shot of the engine with NO heads on it, which DOES have 4 round things showing... which would be the cylinders, that the round combustion chambers on the under-surface of the heads should mate to.

Yup. Excellent news, Harry. Nothing terminal.

Hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll chime in...as these are both critical to get right. It WAS mentioned that you need to shoot all the parts "at the same time", but you NEED to go a step further. ALL the parts that are on the body, especially opening panels and front / rear fascia, NEED TO BE ASSEMBLED when the thing is painted...if you care about getting a perfectly even color. Candies build up color with each successive coat, and it's just flat impossible to match parts that are painted separately...even if they're painted "at the same time". Look around and you'll see panel-to-panel mismatches on most candy-painted cars...real or model. It's also CRITICAL to have a gun or airbrush that does a good job of finely atomizing the color, and can be adjusted to provide a very even pattern...not heavy or blown out in the center. Your technique as far as consistent overlap of each pass and painting well past the edges of the panels needs to be practiced and perfected too. Why all the bother? Because if you do these things, you largely eliminate the streaked and sometimes "candy striped" paint jobs a lot of people get with this stuff.

The big 1/24 kit? Sorry...the big one I have is a UH-1B.

Boy, I was really looking forward to having that extra month to procrastinate with no guilt.

Ummm...kinda looks like the heads are on upside down. The combustion chambers should face the block, and the rectangular ridge the valve covers seat to should be up.