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Ace-Garageguy

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Everything posted by Ace-Garageguy

  1. Back and forth for the time being. Probably won't be completely moved until the end of 2020.
  2. Typically, the radiator will have brackets welded or soldered to it that allow mounting to the vehicle frame. These can be located virtually anywhere on the radiator frame that's sufficiently strong. And as tbill says, additional brackets mount the shell to the radiator. The photo below shows a common arrangement. You have a chopped radiator mounted ahead of the crossmember, so a custom rad will be required. One easy no-show way to mount it would be to have the radiator builder install pins on the bottom of the thing, like some late-model cars use. Then you use brackets with holes extending forward from the crossmember. The pins go in the holes, with a rubber donut between. See below. On the top of the radiator, you would have brackets to accept stiffining rods that run to the firewall, instead of mounting pins.
  3. Definitely kool.
  4. Well, that bites a big one. Lotsa aircraft modelers are miffed, I'd assume. Guess it's time to stock up on the bottle versions before they disappear too.
  5. Soldering die-cast parts was the assembly method-of-necessity in the old model railroad days, before the advent of epoxies and CA. The exact composition of the base metal your kit is made of will have some bearing on its solderability, but there are specialty rods made that will stick just about anything to anything. As you've already surmised, experimentation is key. Here's an article on silver-soldering die-cast model cars. http://modeltech.tripod.com/soldering.htm
  6. Hmmmmm...I usually end up going the hard way, and would probably solder the body parts together, fill, etc., and re-engineer the interior so it could be installed after. And that's why I rarely finish anything. The most enjoyable way to build this model will most likely be to accept it as what it is, fit the body parts together as well as you can, and assemble it after painting, as it's designed. Built with care, it will still be a very attractive little car.
  7. FIRST NTSB REPORT
  8. Looking out my home office window, watching the snow falling in big fat wet flakes, while the birds and feral cats take turns having breakfast at the feeders. My cat's asleep in front of the heater, and I'm having my second cup of coffee. Think some ham and eggs sounds about right. Some days, life is pretty fine.
  9. 1). Should be no problem whatsoever if it's painted...and you can use hot automotive rattle can paint, including self-etching primer, on the metal parts. 2) Model A engine color was a medium green/bluish/grayish. This is a good general interpretation. There was variation from the factory, so something reasonably close to this will be fine. Exhaust manifolds might have been painted with black "stove paint", but rusty is just as correct.
  10. Yup. Not a lot of donor kits in 1/20, either. One possibility is finding a damaged die-cast in 1/20 with a decent engine. Depending on the damage, these can be had really cheap sometimes. Another option is looking at Shapeways offerings. Many of the engines there can be printed in virtually any scale.
  11. Scale on these is 1/20, if my memory is accurate. To verify the scale, mock the thing up on its axles and measure the wheelbase. Stock Ford model A wheelbase is 103.5 inches. Simple math. Asking prices range from about $10 to over $100, depending on condition. They seem to be plentiful, and not in great demand. I would guess typical selling prices to be around $25, but an eBay search can get you a better number.
  12. Frankly, I see proportion and line issues on both the red box-art car and the prototype-in-white. And they do not appear to me to be the same, either. I'm wondering now if someone in the design chain isn't sufficiently familiar with the real cars to realize there are two very different body shells, and has attempted to split-the-difference between conflicting data interpolated from photographs, rather than actually measuring one car. Though it's admittedly difficult to draw firm conclusions from the photos we have here, the roofline and window shapes appear to me to be different on the box-art car and what the white prototype represents. And neither of them look quite right for the early low-roofline car, which is the one preferred by just about everyone with any design sense. The A-pillars on the white car are heavier than they should be, too. We'll hope the white-model wheels are very early pre-production versions as well. Several manufacturers...years ago...demonstrated that it's quite possible to make very nice injection-molded wire wheels. Hopefully Revell will benefit from looking at how it was done in the past. The tires are another issue. The aspect ratio is too short, and they're way too square-shouldered for anything that would have been on the real cars in-period. During the course of my work, I see E-types constantly, literally, so I'm kinda familiar with the way they look from every conceivable angle. Revell USA demonstrated their then-ability to hit the shapes and curves pretty much dead on with their 3D-scanned Foose Caddy and Ford pickup. One would hope the reorganized Revell Europe has maintained that capability.
  13. There's definitely some truth to all of this, and I mentioned that dealers don't always use OEM parts. But I made my assertion about relative quality of OEM as opposed to aftermarket based on hundreds of different items over many years in the business, not on one or two isolated instances. Here's some more truth: many "OEM" parts are not even made by the vehicle manufacturer. If a Chrysler bean counter can source cast iron brake rotors that may be porous and warp early, crapp like that can easily get in the OEM-boxed supply chain. And when OEMs run out of stock on some parts for older cars, they'll often substitute decent quality aftermarket. For instance, the power steering reservoirs for PTs now come from Dorman. And they're the functional and fit equivalent of OEM-design, but they look different. An aftermarket supplier, like NAPA, may elect to source better quality brake rotor castings that are initially more expensive, as parts stores don't need the insane markups dealers require to cover their huge overhead. A reasonable markup on a more expensive part can result in a selling price that's still significantly lower than what a dealer gets for garbage. So a higher quality part can sometimes be available from the aftermarket...but that is hardly the norm. The situation IS improving, however, as some parts chains are looking at the long-term business sense of selling crapp as opposed to quality. Here's one of dozens of real-world horror stories I can tell: a client wanted me to do lower control arm bushings on his 160,000 mile Ram truck, as even though he does some of his own work, he has no access to a press. I was going out of town, and couldn't get to it, so he decided to do the job himself. Complete arms are available both OEM and aftermarket. They're expensive, as they're aluminum FORGINGS. And there are "just as good" aftermarket parts for a fraction of the price. My guy bought the cheapos, did it himself, and saved a lot of money. When one of the cheapo CASTINGS failed, he was doing about 80 on the interstate. Could have easily killed him if the traffic had been heavier that morning, and it totalled the truck. The litigation is proceeding. Here's the bottom line: the more you know about how your vehicle works, and the more you know about the industry that keeps it running, the less likelihood that you'll get screwed.
  14. That's what my comment said...the correct info is the graphic. Michael Jones said it was NOT..."I believe this method may be wrong", referring to the graphic.
  15. Nice work. I like this kit a lot. Besides being loaded with extra parts, it actually looks considerably more like the car it represents than some others out there.
  16. The odds of a general-service collision-repair shop even knowing what to do are staggeringly small. The car is a unibody, so structural rust issues need to be addressed by completely removing the affected elements on the factory spot-welds, and new panels and members built up as the factory intended. Doing this right can run into really serious money. And scabbing in slabs of steel plate and angle-iron, as is the common "repair" in situations like this, is patently unsafe if the damage is close to any suspension attachment points. HOWEVER...if the rust is just, say, some holes in the trunk floor from water ingress, and not in the primary load-bearing structure, then somebody ought to be able to do something for reasonable money.
  17. It's entirely possible for those rear bushings to appear "ripped" and be perfectly serviceable...which means functionally fine. And the sway bar bushings can look fine to the uninitiated, and rattle and bang to beat all hell when the car's going down the road. Plus, never assume any dealer will use OEM parts. I've been in the business now for over 5 decades, know all the scams, and was trying to maybe save you some money. Buyer beware...because contrary to what people want to believe, the majority of car-repair shops are crooked, incompetent, or both. https://www.simple-car-answers.com/Dealership-Parts-Scam.html PS: My long-time PT client would have spent at least five thousand bucks on "necessary" repairs that were either mis-diagnosed or fraudulently recommended if she'd not always brought the thing to me for a second opinion. Control arm bushings, an engine management computer, power steering pump and rack, catalytic converter, wheel bearings, and most recently a complete transmission some thieves tried to sell her when she only needed one sensor.
  18. You may want to look again. Though the method above fails to account verbally for the difference in a nominal rim diameter (tire seating surface) and the measured outside rim diameter, it's there.
  19. I envy you having a new one. All of mine were tired when I got them, but after engine rebuilds with new seals, naturally, I also found them to be tough little buggers, mostly leak-free.
  20. The factory oil cooler is visible in that first photograph, directly under the alternator. You can also see how the belt has to turn 90 degrees. Early cars could be prone to throwing them, as already stated, but factory fixes and aftermarket tensioners improved reliability. As the belt drives the charging system, when it goes you get a big red light on the dash. It means stop. One cause of "overheating" related engine failures was thermostatically controlled cooling doors, or the bellows that controlled a "ring" on the fan in early cars...but these were largely seen on abused or very high-mileage cars. Turbo cars used a pressure-retard distributor to limit ignition timing advance while under boost. A failure, or somebody trying to get more power without understanding the possible consequences, could easily result in holes melted right through piston crowns from destructive detonation. Also attributed wrongly to "overheating".
  21. Boy...I'd go if I could. All those in one place would really be something to see.
  22. As an engineer who is also an artist, I can certainly understand your comment. Most people seeing a flat disc in an illustration aren't going to identify it as an incoming missile, nor are their minds going to automatically interpret a nose-down attitude as defining a trajectory that will miss. That is, however, an entirely different species of fruit.
  23. I believe there's either some confusion as to terminology, or somebody's just getting dishonestly hosed. While it is certainly possible for control arm bushings to fail at 66k, in my experience, it's highly unlikely unless the car is abused, hitting every chuckhole and speed bump going stupid fast. I have a client with a 2001 PT Cruiser I've maintained from new. 200,000 miles on the clock. What is notorious for failing early on those is the SWAY BAR bushings, NOT the control arm bushings. The sway bar bushings literally fall out, allowing the sway bar to rattle and clunk against the frame so bad you'd swear the thing was falling apart under you. A pair of bushings is about $40, and take an hour to put in. Zip, zap, fixed, feels like a new car again...still at 200,000 miles. Sway bar end links, also cheap and easy to replace, are also often mis-diagnosed as control arm bushings. Inner tie-rod ends on PTs are another early source of front end rattles and shakes over rough roads, and tipsy steering. In the rear, there is a Watts-link that locates the rear axle side-to-side. The center bushing in those fails early too, again making you think the car is disintegrating on anything but a glass-smooth road. The entire link is about $50, a little harder to do than the front sway-bar bushings. This is another one of those areas where being able to do your own work can save you lotsa money, especially considering how many dishonest and just flat incompetent "mechanics" are out there now. When the control-arm bushings do finally go, complete control arms are available with bushings included. Most shops and DIYers are simply not technically competent to replace just the bushings, which requires using a press, so the high cost is for replacing the complete arms. NOS MOPAR parts are still available for these cars, and in most cases, they are FAR superior to cheap Chinese-made knockoffs.
  24. Always reminds me of Tobor the Great for some odd reason.
  25. Wait...huh?... Palindrome...ain't dat da have-gun-will-travel dude?
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