Ace-Garageguy

I would suggest you try 70% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol is also available over here commercially in a 91% concentration, which is probably too harsh...might remove your paint. 70% iso makes an outstanding wax and grease remover for fully cured painted surfaces. I began using it on models after it saved my bacon on a full-scale aircraft paint job that was fish-eyeing even after being swabbed down with an industrial wax/grease remover made for the application. Just be sure to test it on an inconspicuous part of the model, so in case there IS an adverse reaction with your paint, it won't be visible.

Thanks Brett; much appreciated. I did, of course, read the rules upon joining, and never once since.

The exhaust side of a 221-302 Ford is not that wrong as the ports are evenly spaced, the two middle ones needs to be a bit further appart to be correct tho', the intake ports on the Ford are also evenly spaced and the middle ports are siamesed on the Olds so you probably have to do something about that as the intake is quite visible. Good point about the intake port spacing being very different on the little Ford from that of the 215. However, though the two inboard intake ports on the 215 are paired and close together, they are not "siamesed". "Siamesed ports" (the term derives from the old "Siamese-twins" term that has been replaced by the PC term "conjoined twins") are present when two adjacent cylinders share a single port, or two adjacent ports have no dividing wall between them. The Olds 215 intake port arrangement is shown below, third from left. You can see there's a dividing wall between the paired center ports. These old AMC heads show the difference between siamesed ports and closely-paired ports. The upper head has siamesed inboard exhaust ports, while the lower head has closely-paired intake ports (the hole in the center is a heat riser passage).

The Buick blocks have cast-in bosses that appear as though they would accommodate the additional row of 4 head studs in the inside of the V, but I've never tried to make this work either. The Buick ports are tiny, so I've always used the Olds engines for 215 applications. It's difficult for me to grasp why Buick would leave the top row of stud holes blank if a simple machining operation would have provided much improved cylinder sealing over time and heavy use. Olds... Buick... I have a 1/25 Johan '62 Olds F-85 which definitely has a 215 in it. Though it's got a big ol' hole in the engine for a wire axle, it's a decent starting point. Starting with a 1/25 289 Ford to get a 1/24 215 probably is a pretty good idea, as long as you change the shapes of the heads, valve covers, and exhaust port spacing. Few people have ever seen an Olds 215, so with some gentle massaging, you ought to be able to do a believable one from the 289 Ford.

The Buick / Rover 215 differs significantly from the Olds 215 V8 block that the Australian Repco Formula 1 engine is based on (though they're closely related). The Olds / Repco block had 18 studs per head (six around each chamber, some shared) because of Oldsmobile's intention to use the engine in a turbocharged application. The Buick / Rover block won't take the 18-hole heads of the Olds version, having only 14 studs. The Buick 215 has more vertical-looking valve covers, reminiscent of the old nailhead, like this... ...while the Oldsmobile version has entirely different heads, with more splayed valve covers, like this... Repco replaced the pushrod heads and valvetrain with much more exotic (at the time) single-overhead-cam heads (SOHC, or one overhead cam per cylinder bank), ultimately evolving into a 4 valves-per-cylinder DOHC that met with very little success and was canceled. Supposedly 6 of the 3-liter SOHC engines were assembled on Olds bottom ends (but using a single-plane crankshaft) and the later Repco SOHC V8 engines, though still based on the Oldsmobile block architecture, used specially cast and reinforced non-GM blocks. The SOHC Repco engine was quite successful.

Being the somewhat embarrassed recipient of my first "never expires" warning point, I tried to look at the posted material explaining said points, and found this... Ok... we have a new and revised set of forum rules that we hope will make things absolutely clear to everyone, with no possibility of mis-interpretation. We have also detailed the "Warning" system for you so you know exactly how it works. I suggest you all scroll down to the very bottom right of the page and click on the "Board Rules and Guidelines" link and read the rules, especially the rules regarding the warning system. Well, I tried that. There's nothing there. So then, I found this... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules but when I click it, all I get is this message... Sorry, there is a problem The page you requested does not existError code: 2S100/6 Please direct me to the place where the point system is explained.

Easy one for me. I bought an engine for one way back when they were first built.

I've used Isopropyl to take off epoxy residue........ Isopropyl alcohol comes in two readily available drugstore concentrations...70% and 91%. 70% makes an effective cleaner. 91% may strip the paint off. Be careful.

As do many lathe-cutting operations. Cutting model-car sized stock properly certainly won't stall my own Dremel. You take off a little bit at a time...not a huge deep gouge.

Hey Austin, lighten up on the old guys. For some of us, the only emotional outlet of any kind left to us is bidging about nothing.

Excellent ! I'll be interested in seeing your work. I've put off buying a small lathe, thinking at some point I could do what you have in mind. Keep us updated on how well it works.

I can identify. Several years back, I was working out of town for an extender period, only came back infrequently for quite some time. Turns out that my basement had been leaking through a side wall, and a large part of my things in storage were destroyed...including all my family photos, antiques my parents had, and some irreplaceable vintage parts...including a Lamborghini crankshaft worth about $10k. Insurance refused to cover most of it, citing my negligence in allowing everything to stay wet for so long. Never mind I was out of town for close to 2 years.

Seems to me that over the past couple days, the appearance and functionality of the new look has improved significantly. I'm favorably impressed by all of it.

I'm surprised the site allowed you to register a new account from your old IP address. I thought it recognized the originating IP and dis-allowed new accounts originating from an existing, recognized address...to prevent multiple accounts being held by the same person.

Any kind of decent chisels, even micro-chisels, will be made from some kind of 'tool steel', which is very much harder than brass. Brass is a soft alloy of copper and zinc, and cuts very easily with steel tools. But to get good results making 'turned' parts, you will need some way to hold your Dremel securely, and a way to control your cutting edge rigidly and accurately in relation to your spinning part. Holding the cutting tool in your hand isn't sufficient. I have a full-sized lathe in my home shop, and frequently make full-scale parts at work. Being able to accurately control both the part you're making, and the tool you're cutting with, is paramount.

The black is pretty uniformly orange-peeled from not-great painting technique. Local 'polishing' of just the spotty areas (I assume these are the things you want to get rid of) will leave you with shiny spots where you polished, as the polishing operation will level the orange peel somewhat. There's really no way to locally repair a textured surface (by "textured" in this case, I mean the orange peel) without it being at least as noticeable as just leaving it alone.

Yes, a big thanks is in order just for providing this site free for car modelers to exchange information. I've learned a lot here.

'cause then you wouldn't HAVE to buy the other one...

And research has proven conclusively that learning new things as we age helps to keep our brains sharp, and may even help delay the onset of dementia or Alzheimer's. Think of the site change as a free opportunity to get mentally younger and fitter, while perusing something you enjoy.

The seam you refer to in the OP is obvious on this model in-progress by Chuck Most. You've already noticed it is in roughly the same place as the crease on the fender of the real car. The upper part of the fender stamping is stepped slightly outward relative to the area below the crease. Just try to get the same amount of relative step during assembly.

Click your user name @ top right of the page. You get a drop-down menu with "sign out" in it.

Just looked at one still on the trees in the box, and one not-too-bad builtup. The seam appears to be pretty well where the character line is on the real fender, and it also appears the fender-half locating tabs may be engineered to provide a sorta correct 'step' so that the crease will look right when built. Give it careful assembly, try to align the seam so it provides just a small 'step', and it should look great.

Road bliss? Novel concept. Maybe something like this? Or this?