Ace-Garageguy

Just like pulling an old wreck out of a boneyard to make something cool. The original spirit of hot-rodding.

I'm at the other end of the spectrum, and often open hoods that came molded shut so I can add an engine...and very often not the "correct" engine for the vehicle. In real life I love engines, and as mentioned above, feel they're the heart and soul of the vehicle. I've also done styling exercises that had no engines, just to see what an idea would look like in 3D, so I can see and appreciate both sides of the question.

Thanks for putting up the shot of the Modelik M35. That's one I'm after, and had forgotten the name of the maker. From what I've seen of that kit, it can provide excellent patterns to make a very nice styrene scratch-build.

Another face that you never forget.

...Which finally answers the age-old question of "does a bear sit in the woods?".

Yup...center-pivot steering, as shown in one of the photos above (but with a conventional tie-rod tying the two spindles together). And I don't know what the big fat round things molded to the tubular axle are, but I suspect they may be supposed to represent weights.

More... The "Jawbreaker" kit is said to be based on the earlier American Graffiti John Milner rail kit. Though I don't have either kit in stock to physically check, that car (and the kit) also have torsion bar front suspension.

This is yet another torsion-bar front end setup that uses hairpin-style radius rods.

I just don't have the patience today to do an exhaustive image search, but if THIS is the front axle assembly in question... It's a torsion-bar setup. The lower flat links connect the axle to a transverse torsion bar, while the upper two tubular links are essentially radius rods that keep the axle from twisting and maintain caster angle. There is NO steering link shown in the upper photo, but it would be a single long link running from the Pitman arm to the left front spindle, just like many other front axles...or a center-pivot setup like shown below on a similar front end... The shot below shows another similar front end with another more typical steering setup. Torsion bar front suspension on rail dragsters began appearing in the late 1950s. The early VW Bug front torsion bars were a natural for being used in this design, as they're stacked leaves and easily shortened and tuned for dragster applications. EDIT: If I remember correctly, Kent Fuller originated a torsion-bar setup for rail dragsters on Tommy Ivo's single-engined Buick powered car from 1958, and it appeared on many of Fuller's subsequent chassis.

I thought this little paper model looked interesting. Have been wondering about these, as there are several US military subjects available in 1/25-1/24 paper kits from Europe you just never see done in anything larger than 1/35 in styrene. This one looks like it will build into a very attractive model.

At least one version of the kit appears to have come with a hood ornament.

Another outstanding "Bernard Kron Special" that perfectly captures the spirit and feel of a particular type of racing car. Great model.

Love it. Perfect wheels, tires and color to send her back several decades.

Really? Wonder about what, exactly? And who made you the final arbiter of taste, or what's a waste of space? I personally find most stock builds boring, (unless they're exquisite pieces of work like Seve Guthmiller, Cato, Harry P. and a few others produce) ...but I don't call out builders of "stock" and label them as unimaginative sheep and use phrases like "makes you wonder". Again, wonder about WHAT, exactly? The automotive aftermarket for modification parts and services is a multi-BILLION dollar segment of the economy. Apparently there are quite a few adults who think stock is boring too. I also personally design and build REAL custom, race-cars and hot-rods, get paid pretty well to do it, and have done so most of my life. I consider it as valid an art form as any other, and when it includes technical sophistication and world-class function, it's one hell of a lot more difficult than most "art" processes. I'm not 13 or 14 either. I think MOST people who build custom or hot-rod models are people who would do so in real life, but possibly don't have the space, time, money or skill...so they enjoy the creative aspect of the car hobby building models of things they would do in full scale under different circumstances.

Here you go... https://www.engr.colostate.edu/~allan/fluids/page7/page7.html

Downloading the photos to your own hard-drive from Photobucket, while possible, is very time consuming and frustrating. It's FAR easier to simply go to your own image storage files (assuming you have the originals or backups) and find the photo you want to post here, delete the "account suspended" icon, and in its place, upload your own image directly to this site. Not quick, but about the "easiest" way to do it, if your photos are gone from your posts...unless anyone has a better idea.

You often seem to feel the need to call me out on technical matters I know quite well. I don't know why you want to make me look wrong, but feel free. In this case, not a damm thing I posted was incorrect or misleading. Intake tract design is complex, and I only touched on a couple of points, mostly to respond to your post calling me out...as is this response. 100 years of testing intake tracts on flow-benches with manometers, with the data recorded and analyzed, coupled with the last few decades' advances in micro-pressure-sensing technology that have given engineers the ability to SEE the pressure wave bouncing around in an intake tract as it happens, and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) making use of all of that accumulated data, has made the initial design of intake and exhaust systems far more accurate than in the past...but the physics is all exactly the same as it ever was...and extensive testing to verify any design is always necessary. Far as port runners feeding from a common plenum go, they produce a reflected pressure wave from the open end of the runner at the plenum (just like a stack does) and a smaller and more confused reflected pressure wave from the opening to atmosphere or the throttle body, edges of the air box, or whatever...or any other ring or bump or sharp edge in the intake tract. The physics in all cases is identical. The "organ pipe" principle is well known by that name in engine design, and has been for about 100 years. I'm not a big-block expert (nor have I ever claimed to be), having only done very limited work on only a couple of those particular engines, but my research into the port design since your earlier comments leads me to believe the port length in the heads isn't the issue so much as the direction the ports channel the charge as it enters the combustion chamber. The port length itself could hardly account for the varying length of the stacks on any one big-block Chevy engine to my eye, but only flow-bench and dyno testing could possibly verify one way or another. Staggering stack or runner length on any engine, while probably causing a decrease in the MAXIMUM power and torque produced, can be very useful in BROADENING and FLATTENING the power and torque curves. On a short and twisty road-racing track where it may be difficult or impossible to gear to keep the engine close to it's power and torque-peak RPM all the time, this can be of real benefit. Tell me please, which of the above statements is incorrect, or contradicts anything I stated earlier.

I've decided I'm not going to bother "migrating". I'll have the mods delete the old threads when my images disappear, and post new condensed versions for the most interesting ones. My own site that's been idling for a few years now allows unlimited storage and a lot of bandwidth for a reasonable amount of money, so I'll just post and link to my own photos from there as necessary. To hell with the rest of it.

Dave has already said he'd removed the photo storage quotas that have been in effect here, and let folks upload to THIS site directly. Pretty nice gesture. Harry, of course, isn't in a position to do that. I'll be leaving my own images on PB for the short term, or until they shut down my paid account, and reloading images here starting with tutorials, and then build threads as I pull each one out and actually make some progress on it.

I know what it is, but have to disqualify myself from this one in the spirit of playing the game fairly.

Nice job, Mr. Obsessive. I like your version a lot more than most I've seen. With just a tad less pronounced nose, it would look right at home as one of the early "specials" that would show up in SCCA road racing back in the dim recesses of time. Hmmmmm.....

From everything I've read, and some of the klugey workarounds I've seen to be necessary to use Google Photos and some others as hosts for forum photos, I think Fotki is the way to go. Reviews are mostly all positive, the price is definitely worth it, it's ad-free apparently, and they seem to actually know what they're doing...none of which can be said about PhotoBucket. I'm sold...and it's cheaper than what I've BEEN paying to the PB SOBs.

Your help IS appreciated. Thanks.

It's derived from a '39 Chevy sedan delivery...

Took about 30 seconds to find this. There's lots more pix out there. I never said there were tons of them anyway. My point was that it's believable and reasonably period-correct. Not necessarily for every injected SBC in every class, but they WERE out there.