Ace-Garageguy

Depends if it's lacquer or enamel. I don't remember which one that particular color is. If it's enamel, just strip it all.

Foxbat426: "Also How many models should one small can of testors spray paint or clearcoat cover?" As far as the Testors one-coat lacquers go, some colors don't cover all that well and take almost a full can to get the depth and even color I'm looking for. Flaming Orange metallic is one. It took me 5 coats of color, almost the whole can, over WHITE primer, to get what I wanted on my '70 Chevelle SS454 Gearz contest entry. I did colorsand between color coats, which uses up a little more paint, because you HAVE to reshoot metallics after sanding and before clearing to get an even finish. And if you're getting low in the can, don't try to squeeze it, because it will sometimes spit and cover unevenly towards the end. Also, don't expect two cans of paint to be exactly the same color. That means don't paint the hood and deck with one can and expect them to exactly match the body painted with another can. And, try to mount your loose panels on the car and spray everything together, if you want show quality results every time. Pro painters of 1:1 cars often use coverage-cards, simply glossy paper cards with a black and white printed checkerboard pattern, to let them know EXACTLY how many coats of color will be required th get full coverage.....when you can't see the checkers anymore through the paint. There's no hard-and-fast rule for how many coats this will take, on real cars or models. I've also found that 3 coats of Testors lacquer clear will do it, if you shoot it slick, and still leave you enough to wetsand and polish withoug risking breaking through into the color. That's probably around half the can.

The answer will depend on just exactly what the problem is, and what material you're using. Are there runs, sags and / or puddles from spraying too wet or too close? Is it badly orange-peeled from spraying too dry or too far away? Is it a solid color or a metallic or clear? Is it lacquer or enamel or acrylic? Each of these variables will determine what corrective measures you can take. If it's enamel or acrylic, I'd just strip the whole thing and start over. Lacquer is hard to strip, even when it's fresh, so if it's orange peeled or if you've got runs and sags, the best thing to do is to let it dry thouroughly, sand the peoblems out, and respray the whole thing. This can be problematic though, as sanding and more paint buildup will tend to obliterate fine details, like emblems and sharp lines. If you shot a good color coat, and now you have problems in your clear coat.....well, if it's lacquer clear I'd say shoot a few more coats, let it dry and THEN sand and polish. You'd be surprised that sometimes even horrible looking clear jobs can be saved and made show-quality with a really careful sanding and polishing.

That is an absolutely OUTSTANDING trick. Thabks for posting it.

The problem I have with clearing over metalizers is that if you BUFF the metalizer, to get the full advantage of the effect of the product, and then clear, the clear, in my experience, totally spoils the buffed effect. Tell me what I'm doing wrong. Perhaps a water-base clear wouldn't.

Yes, my bad. Lacquer thinner will work fine on a resin body, which is what I STUPIDLY assumed you had, but not on styrene. Like the man said, it will melt the plastic.

That's a really nice atmosphere piece. Wish I had a time machine, or at least knew where to rent one.

I agree with the guys above, but I have two other tricks that might be useful. 1) If you have a Dremel and you're good with it, you can thin the backside of the resin body a good bit to make the actual cutting go a lot quicker. It makes smelly dust, so wear a respirator. 2) I've found that the tip of a razor saw or a photoetched saw works very well. If you're careful and have good hand / eye coordination, you can also saw straight lines (with either tool) that are as clean and thin as what you get with the old backside-of-the-blade routine.

Or the really bad-stuff Easy-Off oven cleaner, or if that fails, lacquer thinner and a brush WILL get it off a RESIN body. Wear a respirator and DON'T SMOKE. Also wear gloves. This is a really good lesson on why you should ALWAYS TEST the compatibility of different paint products on a junk body or at least plastic spoons BEFORE you paint the model.

A further clarification of the actual function of a magneto: A rotating permanent magnet inside a magneto induces a current in the PRIMARY winding, creating a larger magnetic field (an electromagnet) adjacent to the secondary winding. When the points open (they are connected to the primary winding as a timed-switching-device, and they perform exactly the same function as in the distributor workings described above, namely to tell the magneto the position of the crankshaft and cam) the current stops flowing in the primary winding. The magnetic field collapses, and the moving lines of magnetic flux of the collapsing field induce a much higher voltage in the SECONDARY winding, which is more-or-less analogous to the COIL in a battery system (with a distributor). The hot "spark" output from the secondary winding is directed to the correct plug by a rotor-and-cap and secondary wires, just like in a distributor ignition. Because the magneto is capable of producing its own primary current AS LONG AS IT IS TURNING it doesn't require a battery or generator or alternator to function, and this, again, is why you always see old mag-equipped race cars either push-started, or started with an external device, like old Indy cars. Because the battery and something to keep it charged (generator or alternator) aren't required to keep a mag-equipped engine RUNNING, there is no onboard battery to run a starter either. SO, the engine in a mag-equipped car THAT HAS NO STARTER has to be made to turn some other way, so the mag can make a spark, by pushing the car in gear, or by an external starter that spins the engine. But one more time, you CAN have a street-driven car that has a battery to start it (which spins the starter motor), a generator OR alternator to keep the battery charged and run lights and accessories, and a magneto, that does absolutely nothing but fire the spark plugs. All clear now?

More mag stuff regarding "period look" cars from another of my posts..... More One more small point. There are cars out there now, doing the period look, that have hollowed-out mags with capacitive-discharge ( like MSD) guts. Mags do have limitations, in that they have a lot of precision mechanical parts to wear, they have points that also wear and need adjustment, and ultimately, they won't make as hot a spark at high rpm as current technology. All that said, they can make an excellent and fully functional ignition system on a daily driver. And a further caveat. Mags work great for dragsters, top-fuel and otherwise, because the high maintenance factor isn't an issue. The bearings and points etc. just aren't expected to last very long in a professional race car, and they get replaced frequently. Electronics can have their own reliability issues, and there is probably a very good reason (or reasons) why pro drag cars still use mags, but I won't get into that, 'cause I just don't know.

An older distributor does two things. 1) It tells the coil when to fire and 2) it directs the resultant spark to the correct spark plug. (Many later-model distributors ONLY direct the spark to the correct plug and have no role in establishing ignition timing). It knows when to tell the coil to fire because it has a sensor of some type, either points, a magnetic device, or an optical device, that senses the position of the distributor shaft in relation to the crankshaft (and cam). This is called "ignition timing". It can be varied by manually twisting the distributor body during tuning, or automatically by mechanical or vacuum "advance" mechanisms while the engine is running. A little wire running from the distributor to the coil carries a signal that makes the coil "fire" (resulting from a collapsing magnetic field inside the coil), and the resultant secondary current, the "spark", is directed back to the distributor by the one BIG wire in the center, and sent to the correct spark plug by the "rotor", which turns with the distributor shaft and aims the "spark" at the correct BIG wire going out. This is an oversimplification, and I've used some terms loosely, but that's how it all works in a nutshell.

Here is an answer I posted to this exact question on another forum a few months back. I hope it will clear up some mis-understandings. I've posted this before. I currently build 1:1 period hot rods for a living, and I'm an engineer. This is the true and complete answer from someone with 40 years of actual experience working with magnetos, etc. Mags were / are commonly run on period street / strip cars. They made a fat, hot spark at relatively high RPM before the days of capacitive discharge. A fair number of 'teens and '20s cars came with magnetos, and many early race car mags were adapted from AIRCRAFT parts. Small aircraft engines STILL use magnetos that look very much like those on '40s-'60s competition cars, and they use them because the engine will continue to run even if the rest of the electrical system fails. Small airplanes have batteries for starting, and charging systems ( generator OR alternator ) to run accessories and to keep the batteries charged for starting. TO RUN A MAG on a street / strip car, you'll need a generator OR alternator, and a battery , and a starter. You will NOT need a coil or distributor, of course. The advantage to using an alternator is that it will provide more current at lower RPM. They work better at running loads like air conditioning and lights at idle, or while sitting in traffic. Alternators began to become common in production cars in the early '60s. They appeared first on police cars because of the high electrical demands of the communications radios. Interestingly, most small aircraft alternators are adapted from CAR parts. The guys above are correct in that: 1) The magneto has an internal generator (sort of), points, "coil" (sort of) , and distributor cap, and provides its own spark to fire the plugs 2) A magneto does not provide enough energy to keep a starting battery charged, or to run any accessories 3) For STREET use, battery and starter motor will be required to start the engine. Old race cars (that didn't have batteries or starters for weight-saving) were push started, 'cause the mag has to be spinning to make any juice, and without a battery and starter, no spin, no juice. 4) A charging system will be required ( generator OR alternator ) to keep the battery charged and run accessories. AMT Chevy 409 specific: The mag in that kit isn't really very accurate. It sorta has a distributor cap molded on. Some mags had this, and you wire them to the plugs like you wire a distributor. No coil wire though. More common mags had little numbered "buttons" on top of the "cap", and the plug wires came out on the side grouped together. Do a google image search for "vertex magneto". You will see that what you need to do is file the nipples on the AMT Chevy magneto almost flat. Paint the "cap" black or red and the remains of the nipples silver. Also paint the body of the mag silver. They were all aluminum. Route your plug wires like in the photos on google. For a push-start car, you only need one small ground wire going from the mag to a kill switch inside the car. The only way to "turn off" a magneto is to ground it. For a battery start, street driven car, you could also simulate a starting-voltage booster with a small hot wire running to the mag. These would be two very small wires, much smaller than plug wires, coming out under the "cap", well away from the plug wires. The small hot wire could run to a little box on the firewall. There was also a unit called the Spalding Flamethrower, basically two, four-cylinder coil-type ignition systems in a single, usually red, case. It looks like a mag, but isn't. It had two groups of 4 plug wires on either side. Do a google image search for that. It was fairly common on really hot street cars, as was the Vertex ( Scintilla, Joe Hunt, etc.) Plan your work, work your plan. In closing, a mag won't blow out lights as posted above, because it's constructed so that it's spark discharge is directed to a SPECIFIC spark plug as the magnetic field collapses, and not into the car's general electrical system. The spark is created in a magneto when the magnetic field rapidly collapses inducing a high voltage in the adjacent wire windings. The spark is directed to a specific plug by the position of the rotor in the "cap", exactly as it is directed to the correct plug in a battery-type ignition system. A magneto is timed in much the same way as a POINT TYPE battery powered ignition system is timed, to make it fire with the correct amount of ignition "lead".

Quoting Wayne Buck: " I think I have more WIPs than there are Galaxies in the observable universe!" Finally, someone who has more WsIP than me..........

Thanks for the comments, gentlemen. This is something I'd build 1:1, exactly as it is, if I had the time and money. I have a 394 Olds, a 3X2 Offy manifold, and a pair of American Stamping '32 repop rails, but whether I'll ever be able to build the big one is anybody's guess. As with all of my model builds, I try to get most of the technical details right enough so you could actually build a 1:1 version, using the model as reference. Thanks again for your interest and kind words.

I use a piece of cabinet grade, sanded-both-sides, veneered 3/4 inch plywood, about a foot square. If you get a decent piece, it's about dead-flat, doesn't break when you drop pliers on it, and your parts can be pinned or clamped to it while working. Some home improvement stores will cut you a small piece. If you use glass, I'd seriously recommend at least 1/2 inch thick, with rounded corners and polished edges, like they make tabletops from. Most home improvement stores can set you up with someone who can cut and polish a piece of this.

Sanding basecoats and metallic color coats is fine, just DON'T SAND THE LAST COAT BEFORE CLEARING. As partially stated above, if you sand the metallic, the little sparkly particles in the paint will be unevenly uncovered, disturbed, and will look a right mess, and the mess will be trapped under the clear, and sometimes actually magnified. Sanding is fine if you're removing orange peel or trash between coats, but you MUST color coat over the sanded coat to get an even, uniform surface back before clearing. Experiment doing this on a test body, and you'll see exactly what I mean. Once you have that last perfect color coat, then you clear with NO SANDING of the LAST METALLIC COAT. If you get a little trash or orange peel in your clear, you can sand it out at the end, and polish. Try to make sure whatever trash that DOES get in the clear isn't a light or dark colored speck that will show up against your metallic color. Little pieces of colorless dust will virtually disappear when you sand and polish your clear, but colored specks must be sanded out of the first coat they appear in. Otherwise, you'll bury them in successive layers of clear, and never get them out.

Stunningly accurate, very beautiful work. And truly inspiring.

Yup, I like it. A lot.

Of COURSE you need another project going. Multiple projects force your brain to expand.......a good thing. You just reminded me I have one of these to get working on too. Let's see, how many is that.........brain hurt.

Some progress. Widening decklid and making up drip channels in rear of body....... Worked out the through-the-cowl steering linkage, and the ahead-of-axle tie rod layout. This would have been necessary on a 1:1 to clear the big Olds engine, and to accommodate the dropped axle. There was a starter relocation adaptor that put the starter on the right of the Olds and allowed the '32 steering gear to be used, but I like the racecar look of this setup. Test fitted the carbs and manifold, and it looks like I'll still have to dimple the firewall for the distributor. Having the steering linkage finalized also let me finalize the locations of the headlights, and it all worked out just like the mockup. Lucky. The headlight buckets will mount on 1" scale tubular brackets, and shock mounts will also be fabbed in behind them. Close to being ready for primer. Still have to do the quick-change, and see where that will put the rear rolled pan to allow the QC to show.

This setup has worked great for me, and it is relatively cheap, and VERY bright. On the left is a magnifying lens-lamp I got at an art-supply store scratch & dent sale for $15. It was designed to take a 100watt incandescent bulb, but I modified it (very slightly) to take a compact flourescent, which has the same screw base, and makes negligible heat. The compact flourescent bulb only takes 25 watts to make the same amount of light as a 100 watt incandescent. The other two swing-arm lamps I got at Goodwill for $5 each. They are rated for only 60 watt bulbs, but because a 100 watt comparable-light compact flourescent only takes 25 watts, I installed two of those. Compact flourescents come in soft white and daylight-balanced color temperatures, so you can mix and match bulbs to suit the kind of light you prefer. I use two soft whites (which are more blue) and one daylight (more yellow). It's very bright, like I said, and you can put the light exactly where you need it. The actual light falling on the desk would take 300 watts using incandescent bulbs, but only 75 watts using compact flourescents, so it saves on your power bill too.

Thanks a lot, Andy. I really appreciate it. ........and I just found one and bought it. Thanks again.

What they said...beautiful work.

Thanks gman. I'll be looking for one. I assume that the "fat fendered" version doesn't have a louvered hood, even though it's pictured on the box. Is that correct?