Ace-Garageguy

I've been on the dirty end of vehicle maintenance for over 40 years...plus design, restoration, racing, fleet-management, etc. Brake hydraulic systems in old vehicles frequently had a breather pinhole in the master-cylinder cap that could conceivably allow ingress of moisture. Modern vehicles almost invariably have a bellows-arrangement that effectively seals the entire system. That, coupled with the "low moisture activity" of modern fluids makes fluid-changing entirely unnecessary...unless you want to literally keep your car forever (change it maybe every 5-10 years if it makes you feel better), or race it, or if it's sat unused for a long, long time. I have vehicles with over 200,000 miles on them still happily running their original brake fluid. 10-15.000 mile engine-oil-changes if you're using a quality synthetic should really be perfectly adequate...but be sure to check the LEVEL frequently. For later model vehicles, follow the book recommendations for auto-trans fluid changes. Though the bulletproof Turbo 350 and 400 GM boxes, C4 and C6 Ford boxes, and Chrysler TorqueFlites could run just about forever on the original fluid, today's cars with more and more internal complication to provide more "gears" for increased fuel efficiency have placed VASTLY higher loads on the necessarily SMALLER internal components.

Change your timing belt at specified intervals. It's absolutely critical. Anything else, not so much.

I just typed a lengthy, several paragraph answer to a real-vehicle technical question posed by a member, and when I hit "post" I got the moronic 404-error message that said the page I'm trying to access doesn't exist. Then, when I backspaced to the previous page, the forum's once helpful feature of saving a response was apparently inoperative. Several paragraphs gone, time out of my life gone, useless. Between that and frequently being called a know-it-all for trying to be helpful (even though I DO know rather a lot) I think I'll just quit answering. Nothing but "awsume build dude" from me in the future.

Agreed, but he did a pretty good job considering that the torque-reaction you mention wasn't formally understood until about 200 years later when Newton's Third Law stated: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Leonardo's air-screw is also likely influenced by the "Archimedes screw" used to pump water, which dates to the third century BC, but may be from as far back as 700 BC.

Exactly. By "rational unit" he simply means, for instance, everything on an engine that's the same color. You'll find that sometimes cylinder heads, intake manifolds, bell-housings and transmissions are the same color as the engine block, sometimes not. You'll also get superior results spray-painting your parts, no matter how small they are. Primering small parts or assemblies prior to painting also improves the appearance usually. There are a variety of methods you can use to hold things while painting them. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/108917-holding-small-parts-for-paint/

The interesting thing is that Leonardo's "air screw" did in fact indicate he had an intuitive understanding of the problem, as it actually illustrates quite well the path of a propeller through the air. A large ship propeller is also very obviously much like his early idea, but with sections of the "screw" removed. What he did not grasp, however, was the particular non-intuitive working of an airfoil, which would have required rigorous experimentation and mathematical analysis to unravel. BUT...if you simply cut away almost all of his "air screw" and left only two slender wings, you'd have something very much like the Wright's early propellers.

It's usually unnecessary, and is almost always simply a scare-tactic to pump up the service bill. Old brake fluids DID in fact absorb moisture over time at a much higher rate than today's fluids do, and it was actually a pretty good idea to change it periodically. But if it's a newer vehicle, less than 15-20 years old, I'd not even consider doing it.

A "bearing" is just about anything where two surfaces slide on each other. Bearings on wooden wheels on carts can be nothing more than a hole in the center of the wheel, with the end of the wooden axle sticking through, lubricated with animal fat or tallow. There'd be no need for any "differential' with the wheels rotating freely on the axle this way. Bearings were also made from other materials to prevent like-materials from being in contact with each other. Strips of lead or leather were common. Strips of leather have been used as emergency "bearing" material for 20th century automobile wheels and even internal engine parts, notably during the Dust Bowl migrations.

Thanks Pete. I've known that for 60+ years. It's the fact that it may come as news to some folks that's unbelievable.

I began smoking when I was about 16, sneaking cigs like a lot of the rest of the kids. By '69, I was up to at least a pack of unfiltered Camels or Luckys or Pall Mall a day. Always smoked significantly more during consumption of adult beverages too. Started tapering off around 2000, was quit entirely by 2003. Still love the smell of tobacco and have no patience whatsoever for "second hand smoke" nazzis. And depending on whose figures you believe, the link between lung cancer and smoking may very well have been imaginary (though there are certainly other heath risks associated with the habit). https://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/smoking-down-lung-cancer-up/

The answer is solely at the discretion of the car builder, but the optimum solution for building ANY straight-axle car is to get rid of the heavy front cross-member and carp that locates the OEM front suspension, and build something simple and light. No real need to replace the front rails entirely, but that's always an option.

Much better line between the grille shell and the cowl than on the oddly-proportioned "Milner Coupe" from American Graffiti. MUCH better. Overall this is a good looking little hot-rod, nice parts choices, color works well.

Probably another "good thing" to look forward to, if the Alzheimer's ever firmly kicks in, is that I'll only need one kit in the stash. Every day, a new model.

For making curved sections of sheet, I find .010" to .030" to be ideal. They're flexible enough cold to wrap around a piece of tubing, and of course, after the formed sections are assembled, they become much more rigid.

Indeed. Sure would be interesting to know what he was really thinking of. The differential effect as applied to a "cart designed to measure distances" wouldn't be necessary if one simply used a single wheel in the center of the whole affair connected to whatever the measuring apparatus was to have been. Probably somewhere in his lost papers there was a drawing of a diesel-electric power unit too.

Gotta love the air screw from 1493. He had a very strong intuitive grasp of what he wanted to accomplish and how to get started, but simply lacked the math and physics derived from hundreds of years of experimentation to make it all happen. The design of his gliders reveals he appeared to have an understanding that the curved (airfoil) shape of a bird's wing was a necessary part of the equation for flight, and enough experimentation would have almost certainly revealed to him that the shape of his air-screw would have to be modified to include airfoil sections in order to provide lift (thrust) as well. These are, of course, the elements the Wrights successfully combined in 1903, along with the necessary engine that was finally light enough...while still producing enough power...to lift itself. Then the helicopter finally realized his wingless-flying-machine vision in the 1940s (though a helicopter's blades are nothing more than rotating wings...)

While I've been a lifelong fan of Leo D., the explanation of a "rear differential designed to let cart wheels rotate a different speeds during turns" kinda begs the question of why the cart wheels weren't simply placed on bearings so that they could rotate separately?...which just about ANY cart or wagon wheels were. The need for a differential is non-existent unless the "cart wheels" are mounted rigidly to the ends of an axle powered by something...not dragged down the road by a horse, ox, donkey, etc.

Here's a trick I've been using to shape styrene tubing for roll-cages and sheet for other panels...for years. It works perfectly every time, doesn't burn your fingers (if you're reasonably careful) and doesn't melt and warp your plastic bits into smoke-stained wrinkly slag...if those things matter to you. FIND a piece of something that has exactly the radius you want for whatever you're making. WRAP your sheet or tube around it. SECURE your tube or sheet with quality masking tape, so it can't move. HEAT the whole mess in boiling water (styrene PERMANENTLY deforms at about 212F or 100C, which is boiling) or pass your industrial heat gun (or hair-dryer on high) back and forth several times. MAKE SURE THE HEAT SATURATES THE PLASTIC EVENLY. WAIT about 30 seconds to a minute. COOL it under running tap water. REMOVE the tape. Your part will STAY in exactly the radius of the form you had it taped to. NOTE: You want to use a QUALITY masking tape, like 3M green, because it's designed to be baked in a paint booth. It will hold up well enough to boiling-hot water for a couple of minutes to be removable without squirming around and leaving adhesive carp all over everything.

Again, I agree entirely. Though I DO love a well-done track-nose car, the nose on Probiscus is just flat ugly.

The REAL Dow7 for reference, for anyone who's interested. http://www.chemical-supermarket.com/Dow-7-Magnesium-Treatment-Compound-p652.html

Well, if you have no clue as to how to go about 3D modeling, it's a great place to start. Gotta start somewhere...and when you're first learning to drive around the block, it doesn't make a lot of sense to buy a Ferrari. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnYV4881tHc And there's an extension for SketchUp to convert renderings to STL.

I agree entirely. Only point I'd like to make about the comparison between Blackjack and the Gord Gray car is that the latter is more of a contemporary hot-rod with a heavy period influence, and Blackjack is pretty much a top-of-the-line hot-rod exactly as it might have been built in 1949, and the stance as-presented is the result of many hours of tinkering with the suspension (and a conscious decision to NOT use a dropped front axle). Josh Mills' (the builder of Blackjack) real specialty is building period-perfect cars that are recreations of past practice, rather than contemporary interpretations of period work. To really appreciate exactly what Mills is doing, you have to understand that he only uses parts that would have been available new or as junk during the period he's aiming at. What that produces is a very subtle (and often un-noticed) blending of period used parts in a way that would have given a car its own character long before catalogs were full of bolt-on individuality. The wide-five wheels on Blackjack, and hubcaps made up of several different vintage Ford bits cross-pollinated is an example of his style. The exquisite chopped '35 Ford he built for himself (that I fell in love with, and that was the reason I went to work with him) is about as 'period' as you can get, with everything done, again, exactly as it would have been in 1949 or so, with no modern technology whatsoever...and even so, the car was his daily driver for quite a while.

"Caustic soda" (Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as lye) is the active ingredient in Easy Off oven cleaner...the stinky smelly hand-burning stuff...which works beautifully and takes the undercoat off too. NOTE: The baggie also keeps the stuff WET so it will continue to work longer. NOTE 2: I strongly recommend a careful scrub with Comet or other abrasive cleanser, hot water, and a toothbrush after stripping. NOTE 3: If you use oven cleaner or any other harsh chemicals, WEAR RUBBER GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION.

I agree, the blue pickup is a knockout, and it's closer to what I would build for myself, of if I were the designer for a client. Still, the point is that no matter WHICH car here appeals most to a particular onlooker, it's quite an accomplishment to be one of the years top picks...especially when the shop is a hole-in-the-wall, with hardly room to swing a cat in. These cars are the best of the best, with no excuses made as to fit, finish and function.