Ace-Garageguy

Looking good. Nice thing about the AMT Vicky is that it's the only '32 Ford chassis in the AMT line (well, maybe the Phaeton too) that doesn't have the totally blobular chassis with the rear axle molded in. Though the underside detailing is totally incorrect (there were no plank floors on '32 Fords), it's a decent place to start to build a traditional car nonetheless.

Same thing as every day...rampant stupidity and ignorance everywhere...and people who wear their dumb like some kind of badge of honor. Really, everyone is NOT created equal.

Most likely. The sudden release of pressure when the paint with dissolved gas in it escapes through the nozzle pretty well triggers the release of all the dissolved gas. Just like the Coke you lick off the floor (after it sprays all over everything when you drop the can) is flat. Spraying the stuff against the wall of a container does the same thing. Really.

This is the oldest model I could find.

Best of old and new-school. An anti-grav bike with an IC engine. Kewl.

This is interesting. I've found several references to the car having been designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, who also did some very angular cars like the Fiat X1-9. His accomplishments are many and varied, and he's one of my favorite designers. The interesting part is that in the mid-'70s, there was a lot of mindlessly repeated BS concerning his propensity (at the time) to do sharp-edged cars "because he couldn't draw perspective and curves". Probably started by someone a little jealous of his ability. ​I think that this beautifully voluptuous but elegant design pretty well puts paid to that stupidity.

Wow. There bees a Ferrari I've never seen before. Pretty car. I could deal with having to look at that every day. Wow.

When are twodoors not twodoors? When they're ajar. A jar...get it?? I know, stupid joke.

This is kinda a well-known car, being the only convertible coupe built by Pierce in their last year of production. I'd seen it before.

Good looking work, interesting project concept, frame stretch looks very well done. Couple minor points. A radiator is unnecessary on this, as already noted. As you suspect, the little extra tank is for water. Many drag cars don't even run a pump, but there's no reason not to (other than the loss of power it takes to drive it...which might be worthwhile to preserve the engine a little longer) if you have space on the front of the engine, which you will as you're not running a blower. Electric pumps were in use quite some time ago, and will work if your car carries a battery. Your work on the intake manifold is nice and clean, but the ports on a 440 are not all the way at the ends of the heads as you have them. They are paired, like you have, but the pairs are rather closer together. One more thing...an automatic trans is entirely unnecessary as well. It would only serve as a weak link, add weight, and would probably slow the car down. Lotsa rail jobs run no trans whatsoever...just a flywheel and clutch in a scattershield, and an output shaft to the rear end. A guy on a budget would do well to run some sort of air filter, and on a relatively low horsepower engine like this, it shouldn't make too much flow restriction. Grit in the air can take the rings out of a race engine very quickly, and do enough damage to the cylinders to require an overbore. Not fun if you have limited bucks to race on.

If a whole lotta power isn't enough, WAY too much is just right. Might not wanna wear baggy pants or shoes with strings on those though. Nice thing about the blown one...it doesn't need a kick stand.

Sorry that one didn't do you any good. I'm really surprised that, what with all the tons of reference photos of the front-engined Scarabs and even the F1 car, there's almost nothing in detail shots of the mid-engined Mk IV...which you already know. I tried about every search term I could think of, and the one I posted seemed to be about all there is showing any interior detail whatsoever. Good luck. I wonder if the car is featured in any old race-car books. EDIT: I just found this. Maybe it will help you. "There is a very good story on the Rear Engined Scarab in the Nov/Dec 2004 issue of Vintage Motorsport it is 10 pages and has quite a few pictures also. It is called The Last Scarab. " EDIT 2: There's a copy on ebay right now. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2004-Vintage-Motorsport-Magazine-Number-6-Last-Scarab-/111527086676?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19f7884a54

All I could find so far...

http://englishrussia.com/2013/01/18/video-diy-all-terrain-vehicle-on-the-thin-ice/

This week: a uniboby Ford pickup, a chopped '49 Ford coupe, and a '40 Ford next to a '41.

I put the black-primered body in the sun for a couple hours to cook off, then scuffed it with a gray ScotchBrite pad, and shot a couple coats of SEM high-build buff primer over it all. In this scale, it's pretty much like sprayable bondo, and fills 180 grit sand scratches well. Again, let it sun-bake, and sanded it with 400 wet. After sanding, I sprayed a couple of coats of PlastiKote scratch-filler gray primer. Getting close, but still many minor issues to tighten up. It's necessary to re-scribe the panel lines after every primer application, and some of the details are softening from the thick primer. I'll need to sharpen them back up after this coat hardens, and then shoot a couple of coats of sandable, non-high-build white primer. I also have to be very careful of primer buildup on the louvered areas, and that takes a different technique to avoid.

Thank you very much. Thank you too, sir. -------------------------------------------------------------- One of my methods for creating finely-sculpted shapes is to tape off areas I want to build up, and only add filler where it's really needed. That worked out well, and the right side now matches the left side...as much as it's gonna. I got ol' Lefty to sit in the car again, this time with the seat installed on the frame rails, just to verify that the driver's head will actually be in the center of the fairing as-built. Things seemed to be close enough to shoot a few coats of SEM self-etching primer. This stuff is really hot, and when shot very wet, really hammered on, it makes the styrene swell somewhat. The bondoed areas don't swell. I use it because it provides exceptional adhesion, and this model will be the plug for a set of body panel molds. I want to do a few takeoffs on this design, but I don't want to do all this work again. I also don't want to have to repaint it after molding, and really good adhesion of the primer is insurance against the finish coming off and sticking to the mold.

Beautiful weather here...low humidity, 75 deg.F, no wind. Got the self-etching primer on the '28 Ford / Ardun dry-lakes build, got it sanded and got a couple coats of high-build on too. And somebody gave me a mystery fan they took off of some oddball hot-rod. It turned out to be the one I needed for the '86 Jag XJ-6 (the OEM plastic one exploded and took out the radiator, etc.) So now I may just get her running again and forget about engineering a custom shroud and electric fans for a while.

Now THAT sounds like a very good day.

Skip's got it exactly right, and you can't beat the old "little pages" and Hot Rod (which was a full-size mag from the beginning IIRC) for getting the straight dope on how it really was. Another drawback to running the old Y-block in anything really hot was a lack of a wide range of serious speed equipment. The odd stacked intake-port layout was not the best possible configuration, either. The Chevy smallblocks caught on because they were light and small for the power they made, and pretty quickly became available in prodigious numbers in junkyards. They also made more power stock than some heavily modded flatheads, so their popularity is no surprise. And because they became so popular, so fast, the aftermarket go-fast guys concentrated on developing parts for the little Chevy...where the biggest potential market was. The wide array of available speed parts further drove the popularity, etc. The formulaic hot-rods all running little Chevy engines do it for the simple reason that it's an engine that fits easily most everywhere, and because of the extreme popularity you can get hop-up parts for it cheaper than just about anything else. Oh yeah...it's also a very VERY good engine.

You go to the hardware store and get simple fittings, bushings or whatever adapters may be necessary. Everything "works" with everything with a little practical effort.

May I point out again, for the dozenth or so time, that a simple photovoltaic solar array on the roof of a house can split wastewater and rainwater into hydrogen and oxygen, using only 100% free sunlight for its energy input. A household-sized unit can easily produce enough hydrogen fuel daily to power an "average" car on the "average" daily commute. Yes, the array costs money, but the prices are dropping rapidly for this technology, and the payback is much quicker than anyone seems to realize...and with widespread implementation it could become very cost-effective. Compressed natural gas is also an ideal motor vehicle fuel, Which Art mentioned in passing. I was HEAVILY involved with the development of the tech back in the mid 1990s. Unfortunately, the prevailing "wisdom" in the country preferred to take the cheap expedient of generating electricity by burning natural gas rather than take a little more effort and clean up the coal-fired plants...which is entirely possible using currently available tech too. And now that gasoline is relatively cheap at the pump again, nobody gives a rat's rear about planning and developing rational alternatives for when the tap finally runs dry. WHICH IT WILL.

Sounds like the way I live every day...

Somehow, I think he already does (judging from the possessive arm leaning on the Merc, as proud mommy and daddy look on obviously thinking "he's SO like us!!!" )

I kinda have to agree. Guy I used to do some work for occasionally had one...and actually put a marble floor in the thing. I think the fuel mileage went from about 6 to 4.