Ace-Garageguy

Sorry, I can't do one year. But the decades between 1949 and 1969 have more of my favorite vehicles than any other period.

Figgered out choo can use clear silicone to do a pretty decent repair on blown speaker cones. I blew both subs not too long ago and haven't gotten around to replacing them. I tried CA gel first, and though it worked initially, it was too hard and the cone broke again right next to the repair. After finally getting sick of listening to buzzing rattling bass, I tried Devcon silicone adhesive. Gooed it up, let it dry overnight. Still sounds just fine 3 days later. Time to order some new subs, but I gots tunes in the meantime.

Thanks Chris. I have the same pic of Chuchua's rig in an old Hot Rod, but your posting saves me from having to dig it out. And thanks for the reminder which kit that water pump setup was in. I knew it was in something, but you've saved me more hours of digging.

Put me down for illustration.

The blue one appears to sit a little higher than the red one. I don't know what weight ratings these trucks came in, but a 3/4 ton could likely sit higher than a 1/2 ton, for instance. In that case, the bumper might be mounted lower slightly so as to line up with other vehicles better. Just a thought.

Lotsa that going around lately. Dave is hoping things will return to normal after the next big update dealywadder.

Guess I shoulda wrapped my computers in tinfoil.

Thank you sir. That's very helpful.

The complete sets are gone, I believe... BUT, the hood gills are still available here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Corvette-Grand-Sport-Accurate-Miniature-1964-Sebring-Racer-Hood-conversion-Parts/163439552068

You could do the same thing with parakeets.

Thanks for your interest and comment. I will double check the rules, and I appreciate you bringing that possibility to my attention. If I remember correctly (and it's been some time since I researched this thing) the MSP class rules were closer to altereds than gassers. MSP didn't require street lighting equipment, bumpers, allowed 25% engine setback (rather than the 10% of the gassers), etc. MSP was eventually absorbed into the altered classes. BUT...it's definitely worth checking again, and reading through the rules. Much easier to build it right than to have to go back and correct something. EDIT: I'm researching what the majority of these cars used for cooling at the moment. A similar-engined dragster would have had no radiator, but a gasser with similar power would have one. Packaging a radiator in this chassis is no problem, but accommodating a water-pump and pulleys, which requires spacing the Gilmer-belt blower-drive farther out and coming up with a correct belt-tensioner setup will require some more fiddly fabrication if it's necessary. Running a water pump will also require that I drive the fuel-injection pump from a combo angle-drive under the magneto, or off the back of the blower. HOWEVER, as far back as '58, some guys were already using electric pumps for coolant circulation duty. Brian Chuchua's Bonneville record-breaking, front-blown Corvette ran electric marine pumps, IIRC. This is getting to be much like building a real car.

And I'll go with real as well.

I bought a bunch of Accurate Miniatures Corvettes a couple years back with knocked-down boxes and no PE or decals. Really really cheap, some for parts, some to build. I recently came across a few sets of the PE parts sold separately, so I stocked up on enough to do the cars I'd like to have in the historic racing collection. Also got a Y-block out of the old 1/16 AMT '57 Thunderbird. Don't know yet what it'll go in, but I'm slowly getting a few 1/16 kits, gluebombs, and parts together.

Another one I'll be very interested to see finished. Looking great so far.

Though I have zero use for today's NASCAR, I love the era you're modeling. Great stuff.

Remember, these are highly skilled professionals, so don't try this at home.

Yup...same here: "problem uploading files -200"

I'll definitely be interested in seeing your results. I'd really like to try something like the Bugatti Matt Bacon posted.

Beautiful. That would be killer in real life too, especially when the V8 lit up. Very very fine.

Yes. Sad to hear that, Carl. I'd have a hard time with something like that too.

Wow...silk. I never thought of that. Genius. I don't know right off hand, but I'd suspect silk is right up there in strength with glass fiber, maybe stronger. Some spider silks exceed the strength of Kevlar, and work has been done to boost its availability by genetically modifying animals to produce the spider-silk protein in their milk (kinda scary really). Anyway, silk is a great idea. Its finer weave would look much better on the back-side, more in scale, than even the lightest glass fabric I'm aware of, and it should fill entirely with very little primer. Of course, if you use matched molds, the weave wouldn't be visible anyway. You're thinking right with the razor-blade trimming while the parts are still in the mold, too. In the industry, it's called "green trimming", and is routinely done after the resin has gelled but not hardened. It's important to hit the sweet spot with the timing, as too early you'll pull the layup out of position on the mold edge, and too late, of course, you can't cut it with a blade and have to wait for full cure to cut it with rotary abrasives.

Couple things (I'm trying to help you out here, so you don't waste time and materials): 1) "Unidirectional" has carbon fibers running in one direction only. That's why it's called unidirectional, and why it's only .006" on the product TDS. A woven "bi-directional" fabric using the same tows would be about twice as thick (I'm assuming you're referring to #2114 in the FiberGlast line). It's not woven, but rather has a few knitted-in strands (on the Y axis) of a carrier thread to keep the tows oriented, as well as the sticky uncured resin. It has essentially zero strength in the off-axis. To keep your laminate from cracking along the primary axis almost immediately, you'd have to do another layer of the stuff at a 90o angle, and you'd have a devil of a time making that happen. Carbon does not conform happily to small-radius curves or sharp corners...like what you'd have in typical model car parts...and its strength just isn't required for model parts anyway...unless you're making something like wing spars or wing skins for flying model aircraft. RE: ABOVE reference to unidirectional vs. woven bi-directional. Here is a woven bi-directional cloth, equally strong in both axes, using smaller tows, and measuring .007" in thickness. This one is not pre-preg. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/bigraphite.php?recfer=23781 2) Vacuum-bagging is way overkill for anything on a static model. And with pre-preg, you'd have to keep vacuum on the mold all through the curing process, which requires heat. Bagging parts in an open mold with room-temperature cure resin is tough enough. You have to keep vacuum on the mold until the stuff kicks as hard as it's going to go on its own, overnight usually, and than kill the vacuum before you put the mold in an oven, hot box or autoclave. With pre-preg, you've got to have heat and vacuum simultaneously. Just FYI, I've been designing and building carbon (and other composite) parts for real aircraft and 1:1 cars for decades, and vacuum bagging is a lot of work and materials. And the bagging materials simply will not easily follow the intricate shapes of the inside of a frame rail in 1/25 scale. Nor will carbon. I've also been making close-to-scale thickness fiberglass parts for models for almost 10 years, using an aircraft-quality epoxy resin (MGS L285 with 285 or 287 hardener) and several 3/4 and 1/2oz. glass products in various weaves. Open molds, hand layup, no heat or vacuum-bagging required. The finished parts do develop more strength with an elevated temperature post-cure, but 24 hours at room temp is fine for model car parts. The finished parts range in thickness from .010" to .030", depending on the glass and numbers of layers in the laminate. They are FAR stronger than injection-molded plastic parts of the same thickness, and can be handled and finished with no worries about breakage. None of the parts shown are as high-quality as this technique can ultimately produce. They are all Q&D development parts experimenting with full-scale technology shrunk down for model use. Upgrades in the mold-release agents, for instance, will yield an almost flawless surface finish, rather than the slight texture that's visible on the black part below. Some of my results: