Ace-Garageguy

I really can't imagine it would be all that hard, really. Chrysler MADE them, would have certificates of origin for them, or could EASILY generate them with a few mouse clicks, and most collector cars have "been disassembled and put back together a bunch of times". What's so hard about it? And we're not talking about some stamped out mass-produced POS. The tube frames on the early cars were hand built. These things are something special, lumpy bodywork or not.

EasyOff spray smelly toxic oven cleaner. Guaranteed. Wear rubber gloves. Spray it on, put the parts in a plastic bag for a few minutes. Wash everything off with hot water, Comet abrasive cleanser and a toothbrush. Did I say guaranteed?

Mr. Obsessive's technique also works VERY well to reinforce broken posts. On this model, someone had cut the top off thinking they might chop it, made a total mess, and gave up. I had to make new complete windshield pillars using a technique similar to Bill Geary's (Mr. Obsessive) above, but I used very fine fiberglass cloth to reinforce the joints.

This... is becoming this... Broken windshield posts can be fixed the same way as I repaired the bodywork. It's delicate work, but entirely possible. Here's the build thread. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58538

Doncha think maybe some $$ changed hands to get that put up as "news"??

"Punishing everyone for the mistakes of a few." Or the actions of a few. Stood in an airport line lately, or tried to get into a government building, or even figured out how much bloated weight and un-necessary airbag complication is necessary on new cars because some people just refuse to learn how to drive BEFORE they do it? Far as the Vipers go, it seems to possibly stupid me it would be better for Chrysler to just repo the things, citing the potential liability, and sell them on the open market. They could use the money to pay their lawyers to do the paperwork, and save all those lovely cars.

Another real-world illustration of how 3D printing can help eliminate excuses and inaccuracies from injection-molded products. There are also step-saving applications to limited-run resin-cast products as well. Anybody in the industry, and anyone seriously interested in the real deal, should read this. http://web.stratasys.com/US_EM_InjectionMoldWPSept2013_LP.html?cid=701a0000002EPj3

You're right about the FordoMatic case being cast iron, but I THINK the bellhousing and tailshaft housing were aluminum on those gearboxes. Manufacturers were generally a little better in those days about spending a few extra pennies to put at least a light coat of paint on everything, and I'd tend to guess the case was originally sprayed cheap chassis black before the bellhousing and tailshaft were bolted on. I know many complete gearboxes got sprayed all-over silver (aluminum) when they were rebuilt later.

I just hope you're not TOO sick to sneak in some bench-time.

Just buy an emblem, and stick it on something. Bound to add at least as much performance as all those old STP stickers did.

The "F duct" is definitely a nice piece of work. The slickest piece of airflow-management through a cooling system I've ever seen is the applied Meredith-effect, discovered in 1936. Applied correctly to the P-51 fighter of WW2, and designed entirely without computers, it is responsible for the signature belly-scoop where the radiator for the liquid-cooled Merlin lives. Rather than causing drag on the airframe, as would be the assumption, the ducting is so well designed that it actually extracts measurable THRUST from what would otherwise be waste heat generated by the huge engine. I'd bet the design of the cooling system for the P-51 cost less to develop, in adjusted dollars, than this silly Camaro emblem and all the surrounding hype. The Meredith-effect has only recently begun to be employed on race cars, but with the aid of CAD and CFD, it could conceivably be incorporated into road-car designs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_effect

I see you're a fairly new member, so just a word of WARNING. Be sure to use a paint stripper that's compatible with the plastic your model is made of (EasyOff oven cleaner, brake fluid, Purple Power, etc.). Just in case you don't already know, DON'T use actual stripper. It WILL destroy your model. I don't mean to imply you're a doofus...I'd just hate to see a new guy make a nasty mistake.

I'm between 15 and 79 too.

As the lead line says..."Now this is... engineering at its best." I wonder how many meetings, development teams, and hundreds of thousands of dollars it took to come up with cutting out the center of the emblem. Wowwee gee whiz, Mr. Wizard.

Highly motivated and sophisticated hackers could do a pretty good job anyway. No system yet devised is 100% secure. Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't seen well organized and widespread cyber attacks more often, so far. Perhaps that's a testament to the actual technical capabilities of the bad guys.

The hot-rod 'standard' drop tank for building a "lakester" was and is the 316 gallon unit from the P-38. It is about 13' long, with about a 36" diameter at the fattest part. In 1/25 scale, that would be actual measurements of approximately 6.24 inches long, and 1.44 inches in diameter. EDIT EDIT EDIT: Actual FULL SCALE measurements: P-38 Belly Tank WW II Drop Tank Shell Top and Bottom with Horizontal Flange.......1/25 scale is 153/25= 6.12 153" long X 36.5" wide ( incluling flange ) .............................1/25 scale is 36.5/25= 1.46 WW II Drop Tank Shells extended 20" 173" long X 40" wide ( including Flange )

There's a lot of exceptional, inspirational work all over this forum, and I find it's pretty easy to just scroll through all the topics every week or so, pulling up whatever jumps out at me. Not looking at things like trucks, or NASCAR, or whatever may not be your primary interest is a SURE way to miss some really fine modeling, and miss learning a thing or three.

Cool. For some odd reason, I really have a soft spot for old "working" trucks that get pulled out of the weeds and put back on the road. Nice work so far.

Tulio (Lovefordgalaxie) has it dead on as far as I can remember from the many un-restored 'Birds I've worked on over the years, except for the possible exception of the voltage regulator, which I remember as being black usually (although I may be remembering cars with replacement regs). IDK what color for sure was on the OEM. And John Goschke is also dead on with his warning about trusting the instructions regarding colors. Mistakes are frequent.

I wish. Oh well. The street is still entirely blocked. Guess I'll just have to work on something else and see what can go wrong elsewhere.

Just pure adrenaline charged sexy.

In my own experience, rear-engined cars like the Porsche 911(with a relatively higher polar moment of inertia and a rear weight bias) are much more susceptible to "snap oversteer" (also known as "lift-off oversteer") than mid-engined cars (either "front-mid-engined" like the Panoz and Cheetahs or the typical mid-engined cars with the more familiar layout of the Porsche 914, Boxster and Cayman, Ferrari 360, etc). A relatively low polar moment of inertia and even front-to-rear weight distribution tends, generally (and this is vastly oversimplified, as many MANY factors combine to determine a particular car's handling) to make both ends of the car lose traction at about the same time. That results in a sideways slide rather than a sudden swapping of ends, as in classic tail-heavy snap-oversteer. It also tends to make the car somewhat easier to maintain in a 4-wheel drift than either front or tail-heavy cars with higher relative polar moments. As I said, MANY factors combine to effect handling, including tire size and compound, the specific design of the suspension geometry, variables in suspension setup and alignment, and road conditions and temperature. Front engined cars with a forward weight bias tend to understeer and plow, while rear engined cars like Porsches may plow initially (the earlier Porsches didn't, but later ones seem to have more initial understeer built in) but tend to have the tails come unstuck first when you lift off the throttle...especially if you touch the brakes in a hard corner. A slow-to-react or inexperienced driver of a tail-heavy car may well find himself heading backwards off the track. It can also happen in a front-engined car, but you get more warning, and typical front-weight-bias too-hot-cornering results in the front wheels sliding off the track in a looser line than the steering angle would indicate. A car with a relatively low polar moment of inertia will be more responsive in general, and will respond to steering inputs quicker because there's not a big pendulum hanging out on either end resisting direction change. It's this willingness to respond that can bite a driver who's just a fraction behind the curve. That said, when a mid-engined car DOES start to slide or spin, it can be very difficult for a less-experienced driver to regain control, and the transition from steady-state controlled cornering to a spin or slide can be very sudden when driving at close to the limit of adhesion during lateral acceleration.

I think it looks great, but you should really check out Cruz's technique if you haven't already. His are about the best I've seen so far. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=80880

So, I hit the ground running this AM, thinking I'd get the last car moved, an old 450 SL. Naturally from sitting for 15 years, all the tires were too rotten to hold air, but I'd prepared for that. I'd snagged a set of 16" takeoff tires from a friend a while back, thinking I'd have them mounted on the "16" inch alloy AMG rims another friend had brought me that would fit the car. Turns out the "16" inch AMGs were 15 inchers (yes, I SHOULD have checked myself) and I'd used the last of my 15s on the trucks. The 16" tires I have are now useless. The old Merc rides on 14 inchers stock, and the first 14 OLD takeoff I mounted on an OEM rim popped shortly afterwards. Okay, I buy some 14 takeoffs and get them mounted, come back and get them on the car. She's on her feet, but the brakes are locked, so I deal with that. Finally b'out ready to move the old girl, but it seems my neighbor to the south, who seems to have more money than Croesus to spend on questionable "upgrades" to his house, decided for some unknown reason to move his septic tank. The work, apparently, is running long, and the street in front of MY house is blocked with earthmoving equipment and a rather huge honey truck. Absolutely impossible for me to get either a rollback in, or a trailer out, or even to pull the Merc on a towbar. To top it off, the whole neighborhood smells strongly of gooey brown stuff. Typical day.

Yup, pretty much useless. I saw that one, which is why I mentioned "accurate".