Ace-Garageguy

Really pretty. I envy you guys who can do such attractive stock builds, foiling, etc.

These are probably my best all-time ebay scores. They were all holy grails I'd had as a kid and lost over time (except the Aurora '34) and I found them all within a couple of weeks of each other. Now I'm too broke to hunt stuff like this.

Me too. Thanks.

That is just gorgeous. Probably the nicest build I've ever seen of that kit. Perfect color too.

Thanks for all the interest. I think the LS9 would be the most rational choice, but I don't have one. When we started the concept work for the 1:1, the engine was to have been a Northstar. Part of the reason was that the car was to have had a light tube frame, and was to have weighed a LOT less than a "real" Corvette. We also wanted a high-winding 4-cam. Now I'm thinking the 4-cam LT-5 might be interesting. The AMT '39 Wagon Rod has an LT5, and I have one on the shelf, but I'll stay with the C5 rear mounted gearbox.

Yes, the Centerlines really jump. I vote Centerlines.

I'm pretty sure that would have been around the mid '70s. A couple of companies had come out with dropped tubular axles to replace the dwindling supply of wrecking-yard I-beam axles, and the tube-type axles were more rigid torsionally. The I-beam axles could twist somewhat to absorb the stresses put into them by the less-than-correct suspension geometry of split-wishbones or hairpins. The stiffer tube axles caused some handling problems, so it was Pete & Jake's, if I remember correctly, who came up with the 4-bar front end setup to fix the problem. I may be off a couple of years....I was getting away from hot rods by that time, having discovered Porsches, so if anyone remembers it differently, feel free to correct me. PS....to Jim Whalen, where'd you get that great looking stock Deuce firewall?

This is going to be really really cool. Two engines, too cool.

Beautiful machine work, absolutely the best.

I agree absolutely. The chrome moldings on the coves will stay, exactly as you suggest, and to delineate the two-tone color. They also define the new lower door opening cut-lines (drawn on). And the heaviness you mention about the rear of the top is the part of the chop I'm not happy with yet. The rest of the roof plan is to drop the rear of the roofline slightly, while keeping the side-window profile pretty close to as-is. The center of the roof panel will be creased as well, similar to but more pronounced than on the C5. Thanks for the keen observations.

Thanks for all the info. I'm way behind the curve as far as drag racing goes, and I didn't know where to start looking for the right answers. I'm also sure I remembered the wheelbase wrong. Duh. I REALLY appreciate your taking the time to post. Thanks again..

Thanks for the comments, one and all. Ger, the plan for the headlights is to go to 7" round as opposed to the 5 1/2" units the car came with. The idea is to mount Cibes or Marchals, with a modified, semi-frenched bezel. One reason for widening the front fenders (the strip of white plastic visible along the fender tops) was to accommodate the larger lights. I've still got some other work to do on the front end design details. The horizontal front-bumper blades will get moved back into the fenders somewhat, the over-riders will go away, and then I can look at where the headlights need to be to balance everything out.

I can almost hear the rumpity-rump. You've captured the feeling of contained but explosive power well.

Okay, dumb-guy here. I've been stuck on this build while I got my roll-cage skills up to speed, and for another BIG reason. I started out to do a pro-mod car without bothering to read the actual class rules. I shortened a chassis to fit the old Revell Miss Deal wheelbase, and it's now 101 scale inches. Problem is that the class minimum is 110", so I SHOULD have lengthened the body. Once I open the doors, all should be okay other than the twin-plug heads, which are easy enough to change. Do any of you real hard-core drag-racing guys know what, if any, class this thing could run in with such a short wheelbase? I kinda don't relish the idea of cutting everything apart again. Chassis shortening in progress. Aluminum Hemi, backed up with a Lenco.

That is the baddest, trickest, slickest, meanest, and just plain coolest '57 I've ever seen. I've been bored out of my skull by '57s for years, but man, that thing is just totally wicked. Glad to see you did a drop-top, too. This one needs to get built 1:1. And thanks for the satin-chrome tip. It looks perfect.

I'm in the "work" phase on several builds, no eye-candy, but stuff that has to be done to get the desired finished product. Sooooo, I dug out another old one to try to make some progress, and to help to maintain my creative interest. This is an AMT '58-'60 Corvette body shell on a Revell Corvette C5 chassis. The nose is from the Revell version of the early 4-eyed Corvette, because I like it better. I always thought the AMT version didn't look quite right in front, probably owing to liberties taken to simplify the tooling. Lots of mods here besides the nose. Split and widened front fenders with custom flares and relocated wheel-arches; widened and opened-up vents at the front of the coves; chopped windshield frame and hard top; split, widened rear fenders, custom rear flares and again relocated wheel arches; lengthed and reshaped doors; top-cover panel / head fairing adapted from a Mustang show-car. I'm not 100% happy with some details (like the chop) and shapes, so it will be getting tweeked. C5 chassis has been lowered on the suspension a good bit by drilling the uprights and moving the stub-axles up. Not really correct in the rear, but it's more a styling exercise that anything. This actually began as a design "sketch" of a 1:1 project for a client several years ago, but it's on hold due to the economic mess we're experiencing.

Nice to see one of these little guys built so nice. It's a car I used to truly hate, but i've really come to love the styling over tha past few years. It certainly doesn't look like anything else.

Beautiful.

I've seen #10 Aeroquip delivery line on a twin-turbo'd, direct-port injected 351C in a DeTomaso Pantera with methanol injection (because there's no room for intercoolers), on the street. #10 AN for fuel is ususally spec'd for applications making around 1000 WHP. It's a little overkill (the old Pantera is only dynoing around 780 flywheel) but like I said, fuel line will possibly be smaller on a gasoilne burning car. #8 is about the smallest for something really fast, at least in my experience. #8 is the smallest you'd ever want to run for OIL, also in my humble opinion. ALCOHOL fuel has much less energy per=volume than gasoline, so you have to burn a lot more of it. Hence, it takes a lot fatter fuel lines to get it to the engine. AN hose sizing chart: http://www.angelfire...428/ANHose.html The AN hose numbers loosely refer to the number of 16ths of an inch of the ID, hence dash-8 is 8/16 nominal, or about 1/2" (and actually closer to 7/16").

This happens to me frequently, but I always end up finding the part EXACTLY where I put it. Amazing.

#12 Aeroquip braided is pretty common for oil lines on race cars. It's listed as having an outside diameter of .94", which is pretty close to one inch. Divide by 25, you get .040", or about 1.mm. Fuel line will possibly be smaller on a gasoline-burning car, possibly the same on an alcohol-burner.

I'm sure Art's MCM series is very good, 'cause the man knows what he's talking about. In case you want to get a quick overview of the process, and other applications, a company whose products I've used extensively over the years has several hours of instructional videos FREE online at: http://www.freemansupply.com/video.htm Though the videos are geared to industrial and art projects, the processes are identical.

Really cool. I love HO, and envy you having enough room to do that. Looks like the start of a very nice layout. I've been collecting a few oddball pieces of rollimg stock for years, but have no idea if I'll ever lay any track. Sometimes I'll just run a loco back and forth on a lone piece of flex. Too many interests....too little time.

Thank you all again for the interest and kind comments. Not a jell of a lot of progress, but some is better than none. I've extended the front and rear cowl panels. In front, I'm moving the windshield back, so I need more sheetmetal under it. Also, the windshield frame is going to be more of a removable roadster style, so I want the illusion that the cowl flows all the way into the top of the instrument panel. Think Porsche Speedster. In the rear, the very thin strip between the backlight and the decklid was just too narrow, so it got widened too. The body is also very fragile, and adding this little reinforcement will stabilize things, a lot. On the underside, I've reinforced the fitted styrene filler panels with fiberglass and epoxy resin. I've also reinforced the insides of the front and rear pans or valences the same way. There's a lot of bodywork to do everywhere, and I hate to have things cracking as I'm working, so I go for overkill at this stage.

I build for myself 100%, to impress MYSELF when I look at a completed model and can't quite believe I'm the one who did it. I have a long way to go as far as skills go and I'm my own harshest critic, but I try to evaluate my own work objectively and compare it to the work I see of guys who inspire me. I'm constantly trying to improve my skills, add more, and work a little beyond my comfort level. That's how I grow. I've been back in the hobby about 5 years, and until June, I hadn't finished a single build. I'd start something ambitious, get to a point where I really had to admit I didn't quite know what to do next, and I'd shelve it and start another one. Lately I've been pulling those unfinished builds out and making real progress on some, because SOME of my skills have caught up to my ambition. Practice practice practice. This hobby is a journey, not a destination. Keep building, work at developing more and better skills IF that's what you want to do, and above all, enjoy the DOING of it. No matter how much raw talent you may have, you're probably not going to be scratch-building cotest-quality cars immediately, so try to just focus on doing the work in the moment (a Zen thing) and only bite off chunks of projects you think you're ready for. You HAVE to work beyond your comfort level if you want to progress, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with building at any level, if you ENJOY it.