Ace-Garageguy

I've had rat-sign in the back shop attached to the house for a few weeks, ever since workers tore down some old buildings up the street to put in a new gas station. Poor little critters been looking for new homes. It didn't bother me too much until i noticed they'd chewed through the door seal at the passage to the shop from the hobby room. Then I found the dragged-away-and-licked-clean plate of Christmas cookies I thought I'd misplaced in my dotage...and I noticed they'd been in one of the bookcases and had started shredding. I love my books. OK rats, that's enough. I used to catch them in Havahart live-traps and release the little buggers in the woods, but I just don't have any patience with mindless destruction anymore. Those old-school Victor snap-traps work a treat if you put 'em right in the middle of an obvious run. Caught 3 since 7:00 PM this evening. Dead as bricks. Edit: 4

Doesn't much matter on an engine that's going to be under a hood, and when most of GM's engines of this period had similar port-spacing anyway...and they look pretty much alike. But when it's a Buick nailhead that's completely exposed as a styling element of the car it's installed in, and the exhaust-port-spacing is THE number one identifier of that particular engine, it kinda matters. But it doesn't have to matter to you. Put Ford heads on a Chevy and call it a Chrysler. It's only plastic toys

Same group...

My favorite method still relies on this massively-high-tech adjustable and programmable tool that fits everything, adjusts automatically, and turns the body or part as I paint...again, all automatically.

I just gotta do the pedantic thing, so here goes... To get an explosion, you generally need a liquid fuel to be atomized (and even common flammable gasses have to have an adequate supply of oxygen to go boom), and you need an ignition source. If the tank didn't rupture and spray little droplets of liquid fuel into the air at the same time there was a nice spark from metal grinding on itself or on rocks, nothing much would happen. There are films of ruptured tanker trucks pouring liquid everywhere, but the atomization and ignition sources just didn't happen at the same time. You can drop a match in an open container of gasoline, and much of the time it will just fizz as it goes out. You can spray gasoline on a very hot exhaust manifold and again, much of the time, nothing happens. Surprising though that Hollywood would miss an opportunity to blow something up. Interesting about the radiator hose too. You'd think at least they coulda shown the guy wrapping it up with electrical or duct tape, anyway. Maybe that segment ended up on the editing room floor, cut for being non-essential to plot...or just too long to cram all the commercials in during the TV-version.

You're right. There are certainly individuals who can and do make things that work extremely well on a regular basis, and some of them frequent this very forum. The problem, as you allude, is that management, the "corporate structure", has been so successfully convinced as a whole that design has to be by overlarge-equal-opportunity (but not necessarily the most highly talented, skilled or motivated) committee and computer, and that manufacturing is best done overseas where we don't have to deal with the smelly bits, or pay living wages to workers with good manual skillsets. As a result, the future of America (and the developed Western world) as a global economic powerhouse looks pretty bleak. When engineering giants like GM don't seem to be able to get something as simple as an ignition switch right (and pretend it's OK until they're sued silly) and VW feels it's necessary to simply lie about meeting emissions targets rather than actually doing so, you really have to wonder just what is going on. EDIT: Nov 17, 2014... " This week, Delphi handed over thousands of documents relating to the ignition switch" THOUSANDS OF DOCUMENTS? FOR A FRIGGING IGNITION SWITCH?? So, how many billions of documents would it take to get a B-24 in the air today??? The actions of GM's lead engineer on the switch (and just how many engineers does it TAKE to design one frigging switch????) have been called "emblematic of a GM riddled with unchecked engineering processes and tangled bureaucracies that undermined vehicle safety (and) resulted in overly complex databases..." And it's not just GM. It's everywhere.

Great wheels and color for it. I've always been impressed by the fine job Ford's designers did with the update of the GT40 to get to this car. Your model is looking like it will do the beautiful 1:1 complete justice.

I just did a quick Google image search for "nail file sticks" and came up with a remarkable array of tools for doing this kind of work. Like Rob (Jantrix) apparently, I use metal files for a lot of my shaping, and only resort to flexible files rarely. Also like Hugh (Kit Basher) I use regular or self-adhesive sandpaper stuck to a variety of backers for fine work. Cut-up credit cards make an excellent, flat-but-flexible and waterproof backer. Klingspor (among others) makes self-stick sandpaper up to at least 2000 grit. Rubber cement makes a good removable adhesive, and contact cement makes a good permanent one (if you want to use non-adhesive-back paper).

As America continues to outsource its manufacturing, as management folks claim it just can't be done here profitably, and as people become more and more convinced that it's impossible to make anything that doesn't rely on computers for its design and operation, it's interesting to take a look at what America was capable of in 1942. It was this capability that was responsible, in large part, for winning World War 2, and saving much of the rest of the world's bacon. I really wonder if there's the will and the aptitude to do the same thing today, should it be necessary.

And as Håkan Persson (Force) pointed out, lots of 1:1 cycle fenders were made from spare-tire covers. It's relatively easy to do exactly the same thing in scale, or to cut down rear fenders from something like a stock '32 Ford to make a set.

Two reasons, basically. 1) It was designed by people who never changed a light-bulb in a vehicle, never will, and who wouldn't think making something easy-to-service is a valid engineering or design goal, and whose primary professional focus is attending meetings and covering their behinds while kissing enough butt to ensure their salaries and benefits continue, and 2) if it's a major pain in the tail, the dealership can charge 2 hours flat rate (or whatever ridiculous time is listed) to do it. This is the real world, if you calls it like you sees it.

Yeah, welding wire is pretty stiff. Any hardware store will have soft, shiny plated tie-wire in about the same diameter, and as noted above, craft stores have beading wire in a variety of diameters...but you have to know what diameter you need in the scale you're working in to approximate the look of the lines you're modeling correctly.

Well...like...isn't there, like, an app for that ??

Be careful, be safe.

HAPPY 2016

X2. Really like the pacer...but man, I love that '57. Something about it.

If the base color is a metallic, I'd personally shoot clear over it before applying the decals. Some metallic colors are delicate and very unforgiving of handling prior to clear-coating, and MAY show disturbances in the way light reflects from the flakes in the vicinity of the decals. The solid-color basecoats are generally less susceptible to damage before clearing, but be sure your fingers are clean and that nothing can possibly scratch the surface during decal application. I have inadvertently sealed in fingerprints and scratches with clear in the past (particularly visible on lighter colors) and the only solution is to rework the entire panel...or the whole model.

If it was plastic and built by a forum member, those of us who liked it would say so, and those of us who thought it was an ugly turd would remain politely silent. At least, that's how it usually works.

Indeed, the old-school way was often to cut up spare tire covers...which works fine for old-school narrow-tread tires. A problem arises when you start running more contemporary rubber. The fenders get wider, the weight goes up rapidly if they're steel (I've seen 16 gauge steel trailer fenders used, and those things are heavy) and many not-well-engineered struts can't cope with the vibration and other loads for long. So the solution is contemporary materials and engineering...if you want to run wide tires and not be re-welding your dorky struts all the time.

It'll probably show up on ebay as a "rare and collectible previously unknown and un-credited but signed lost mystery Barris creation" for $100k.

Well, either I missed your point or you missed mine... ...mine being that a need for driving lessons may very well not be the cause of his frequent visits to the "collision center", as "collision-centers" often do non-collision repairs, and metal fatigue could very well be the reason he's going back regularly (Craig Irwin verified that is indeed the case, above).

Man, nice toys, nice photo.

I doubt even ol' Barris hisself would want to take credit for having anything to do with this one.

The thing is, it really doesn't have to be astronomically expensive, especially to make a carbon version of something that already exists. Fiberglass molds are made from the original parts, and the carbon fiber cloth and resin is laid-up in a manner very similar to making fiberglass parts...with the exception that carbon, being much stiffer than glass, has to be vacuum-bagged to follow all of the contours in the mold. People will tell you yuu HAVE to use pre-preg and an autoclave, but that's just bull. For aerospace and F1 parts, yes. Otherwise, no, not at all. Back around '96, my own company used to manufacture carbon-fiber doors, decklids and hoods for Buick Grand Nationals. The parts were exact duplicates of the original steel parts in shape and fit, but weighed almost nothing. They were marketed by a company called Bowling Green Customs (now defunct, after running their OK-profitable company into the ground by going for the gold and charging credit-cards multiple times for the same part). I think we got something like $900 for a hood, a little more for a door because of its complexity. BGC marked them up, maybe 50%, if I recall correctly. The carbon and the high-strength epoxy resin themselves really add very little to the cost of custom parts. The real expense of carbon parts comes in during the design and development phase of prototypes and tooling, when there's an original design and nothing to copy. Getting a high-gloss "show" finish on carbon parts adds cost too, and a bit of unnecessary weight. Most less-expensive race-weight carbon has surface blemishes and voids, and the texture of the carbon weave is very noticeable.