Ace-Garageguy

Which gearbox? Throttle bodies for which engine, and setup?

I'm not familiar with that mod, but the Walkinshaw-built engines were eventually punched out to 7.4 liters, making around 750 HP in endurance racing trim...which means nowhere near the engine's maximum power potential. The production 5.0 or 5.3 should be able to make 500 HP relatively easily with compression, cam, exhaust, and induction upgrades. There's a lot of possibilities for induction, from 4, 3-barrel Porsche 911 Webers to 6 downdraft 2-barrel Webers, I believe there's a cross-ram sidedraft Weber setup, and a few flavors of direct-port fuel-injection. They all look exotic, and perhaps best of all, sound like a V-12. Redline is respectable, and with a lightened flywheel and a manual gearbox, you can get the peaky "ripping-canvas" exhaust note Ferrari made famous.

Getting to be increasingly common everywhere one looks today.

Not exactly in the Matra V-12 class, but if you have a powerful hankering to build a V-12 powered street car for reasonable bucks, a ratty old Jag XJS can still be had for chump change. The SOHC engine has a whole lot of potential, especially considering the production version was seriously de-tuned for emissions. EDIT: And there are engines out there for as little as $500.

Also remember that it's OK to push yourself to be the best builder on the planet, if that is part of what you enjoy. I'm pretty sure Gerald Wingrove was having "fun", and his exquisite scale creations were built primarily to impress only one person...himself.

Just to avoid confusion...the 14 in a 14" wheel refers to the diameter of the tire sealing bead, which is also the diameter of the hole in the center of the tire. As tires are "stretched" over slightly larger rims so they don't pop off when they're inflated, this makes perfect sense, and the outer rim diameter is usually about 1.5" larger than the diameter of the hole in the center of the tire that seals against the rim. SOME model car wheels and tires maintain a semblance of the real relationship between outer rim diameter and tire center diameter, and some don't. To get really accurate looking wheel/tire setups on your model (or to know what nominal wheel size your model wheel would be in reality) it's necessary to measure the outside diameter of your model rim, multiply by the denominator of whatever scale you're working in (EXAMPLE: if you're working in 1/25 multiply by 25 to give you the full-size outer diameter), and then subtract 1.5" to get the nominal wheel size. But just remember that in general, all "scale" means is the fraction of the size of the real car or part the model car or part will be. To get the correct scale measurement of any part, in any scale, just divide the dimension of the real part by the denominator of whatever scale you're working in.

The new stuff is semi-useless compared to the old product...for whitewalls, anyway.

Thanks for the heads up on this. I've been wanting do do one for years, as I kinda fell in love with gun trucks a few decades back. If I remember correctly, with the American withdrawal from Vietnam, almost all of the gun trucks were dismantled and returned to life as transport vehicles. Only one I know of, Eve of Destruction, was shipped back to the States intact...and it wasn't built with the 113 hull in the bed.

Also keep in mind that you can sometimes use a different scale wheel/tire to accurately represent a size that's not available in the scale of the model you're working on.

Agreed. But there are a few parts suppliers who keep them separate...like Fireball Modelworks. http://fireballmodels.info/

Today at the hobby shop, I found a nice reference book full of detail photos of these trucks. And by the way, I'd tend to think that "de-militarizing" is nothing more than a paint job. REF BOOK: https://kingshobby.com/store/m911-m1070-het-action-sc-squadron-signal-ss10262

You're welcome. Though this arithmetic is about as simple as it gets, for some unknown reason many kit designers over the years have been baffled by it. Either 1) they couldn't measure the full-size parts accurately, or 2) they were unable to do the arithmetic correctly, or 3) they just didn't understand the concept of scale. The result has been some oddly "scaled" kit parts. Examples include a ridiculously undersized (about 1/32 scale) engine in the "new tool" 1/25 scale AMT Ala Kart kit. There are also several 1/24 engines that are exactly the same size as some other 1/25 engines, like the 1/24 scale Buick "nailhead" engine in the old Monogram Orange Hauler kit being the same size as Revell's 1/25 scale nailheads. And sometimes even two kits from the same manufacturer will represent identical engines in the same scale, but in the kits they're different sizes. A glaring example of this is the Revell Magnum and late-model Challenger kits, both in 1/25 scale. Both cars have what are in reality identical "new Hemi" engines. Both kits are in 1/25 scale. The engines therefore should be identical in all dimensions in the kits, but the engine in one is much larger than the other. SO...if you're reasonably careful in your mix-and-matching, you can get away with using parts from both 1/24 and 1/25 scales on the same model.

It works exactly the same way for any scale, Your example: a 14" wheel to 1/25 scale. Divide 14" by 25. The answer is .56", or a little over a half inch. A 14" wheel in 1/8 scale? Divide 14" by 8.

Can't tell you about that specific rig, but it's made by Oshkosh... Looks like an F2365 / M911, built originally as a military heavy-haul tractor in the 1970s.

I don't think so.

Revell '40 Ford...

Good to hear.

I want to know how the eff it's your place to try to tell me when to build, criticize my lack of finishing things, and make asinine references to ANY other aspects of my life? We have a compact on this site: NO PERSONAL REMARKS. I'm getting sick of it being your constant running joke that I don't finish models. Think about it. Whether or not I ever finish a model is none of your concern, unless you've changed your name to Karen. I'm not going to complain to the mods, because I'm not a little crybaby. But one more time... BACK OFF.

Yup.

How 'bout you do you? I don't come here to get hassled or psychoanalyzed. And I sure as hell don't try to shove my ideas of how or when people build down anybody else's throat. So back off.

Best analogy I can think of off the top of my head is preparing and eating a fine meal. Sure, the object is "accomplishing" a full belly. But you can get that with a PB&J sammich. In my mind, the careful selection and preparation of quality ingredients, developing the skills involved, the combinations of subtle flavors, and the time taken to savor every bite, every sip of wine, vastly overshadow the "accomplishment" of having a full belly at the end. Nice thing about model-building is that I can savor every step, redo what I'm not happy with endlessly, and not have to worry about burning something if my attention lapses, or have it go cold if I need to step away from the table. Building real cars is somewhat different, whether my own or someone else's. It's another story entirely. It's real life. The object is to end up with a functionally beautiful machine, and in the case of clients' cars, to do it in a timely enough manner that I get paid well and regularly. I'm involved in finishing up a client car now, and it takes priority over everything else...except preparing to move my home, shop, and studio 2000 miles west. Building my own cars falls somewhere in between, the final desired outcome being the same, but the process being rather more like model building for me. I can savor the process, but there's the added incentive to "finish" because I love driving something I've built even more than the building of it. But what do you do with a finished model? Sure, they're nice to look at, but the fun for me is mostly in the building...which is why I have way more kits than I'll probably ever get to, but I'll always have something to pull out and work on, no matter what subject might spark my interested on a given day. Finally, my own standards for myself are very high, and I derive zero pleasure from rushing through anything just to gitterdone, only to move on to another half-assed exercise in mediocrity. Far as your Yoda quote "Do. Or do not. There is no try" goes, I never walk away from anything making the excuse that I "tried", so that should be good enough. I work to master whatever it is I get involved in, at least to the point that I can look at my accomplishments, no matter how small or partial they may be, and see quality that I'd admire if it was someone else's work. So there you go. I'll "finish" a model when I bloody well get around to it, in my own damm time, and that's pretty much it.

I know a lot of folks who no longer have dreams, ambition, or the drive to accomplish much of anything...particularly anything of any significance. Even many people younger than me seem to be content to sit on their spreading behinds and wait for the inevitable end, putting forth the minimum effort in everything they do. I'm glad to know that I'll be actively engaged in something I have great passion for, whatever it is, until I'm dust. But whether I finish or not is not particularly important, so long as I'm truly alive in every moment. The journey is everything. We all arrive at the same ultimate destination.

And some people try to say there's not opportunity in this country for anyone to make it to the top. Clearly the purchaser had less intelligence than a bowl of chili, but had a half million and change to blow on...that.

Any luck, I'll be dug in at the Az. homestead within 6 months. I may have to come back to Ga. one more time to build up the '66 Chevelle after it's painted, but other than that, I'll be quit. Period. Forever. Except for my own stuff. Really. If I live that long.