Ace-Garageguy

Man, that is a GOOD looking model. Nice work on the canvas top too. Very fine indeed.

Thank you sir. I try to keep my models honest and as close to accurately representing functional vehicles as I can. If you like this one, have a look over here... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/118694-amt-sock-it-to-me-corvette-hack-n-bash-msp-engine-mount-plates-dec31/

I put a crank-centerline stub on the front of the engine, and made up a front mount-plate, using the jigs I'd made earlier to hold the engine in place while measuring and fitting the plate. Lefty helped with test-fitting too, to keep me honest about foot-room so somebody could actually drive the thing if it was full-scale. The first mount-plate I recall seeing in reality was at the bellhousing ends of the Pontiac engines in Mickey Thompson's Challenger I, built in 1959. Though I'm certain they were used prior to that, trying to ferret out the history of engineering features on race-cars on the internet can be frustrating. Often, sources don't agree with each other, and then also you get endless repetition of just flat wrong info. There's no reason front and mid plates couldn't have been used on a car like this built in the early 1960s...but I don't know for sure if they were. But since this is a what-if model intended to represent what could have been built at the time, it's OK with me if nothing actually was. The bellhousing was removed from the engine with my new favorite tool, one of the the .007" thick photo-etched saws from MCG. Before I finished that cut, I decided to remove the old trans to make way for the parts-pack version. Doing this now let me "machine" the rear face of the bellhousing to insure it would be square with the engine and perpendicular to the crank centerline. Once the bellhousing was separated from the engine block, I filed a groove and installed a piece of styrene rod to simulate the crank and gearbox centerline. Using the angle of the front plate established with the trans in place, as well as the extended crank centerline, I was able to mock-up the engine block at the right angle relative to the rear end. There is another temporary fixture under the oil pan, just visible here, that held the engine stationary so I could measure and make up a mid-plate to hold it there permanently. The fitting mockup shown is cardstock. Taa daa. Dimensions and angles from the cardstock mockup transferred to styrene, which fits exactly.

I picked one of these up today with the ol' 40%-off coupon, and for that money, I think it's a pretty good kit. I rarely buy anything to build stock or anywhere near out-of-the-box, and for me, this model is simply a parts-source. I needed a non-blobular chassis for something I've been working on based on the AMT '70 snapper coupe, and this chassis will serve admirably. The headers are going on the '62 Corvette AM/SP I have on another thread, and one set of optional wheels will become the basis for the very unusual Halibrands on the front of the old Tony Nancy '29 Ford roadster. The optional FI intake manifold will form the basis for a Ford FE unit, and the really great METAL injection stacks will go that way too. There's other good stuff in the box (even though it's a relatively low-parts-count kit) that I'll undoubtedly find good use for...all of which leaves me with a pretty good body shell. I've been wanting to build something very much like this, and I have just about everything else already, so that's what she'll become...

For what it's worth (I don't have the kit) I HAVE seen some folks use the FRONT wheels to re-center with 15" PE wire spokes, and 15" is significantly undersized from the 17" -18" wire wheels common on old diggers of the period. Point is, if the fronts are undersize, the rears may very well be also. Do you have a diameter of the rear tires and wheels handy?

Thanks for that. Those are exactly the centers I need for the wheels featured on the front of the Tony Nancy '29 I mentioned earlier, though I bet the wheels on the Nancy car are considerably smaller diameter than the ones built for Indy roadsters. I didn't even know of the Indycals site or products, so thanks again.

Beautiful work. Glad to see you feel well enough to post too. We were all kinda concerned...still are of course, thinking of you all the time.

Man, you know your stuff. I remember the tires in the '32 Ford / Willys kit now that you mention it... Just checked, and there they are. VERY similar to the Revell OC fronts, but I can't put my hands on those to compare at the moment. I knew I'd seen the wheels too, but had absolutely no idea where they came from, and I don't have a first-issue of the '49 Ford anyway.

It's not really worth what I paid for it, about $15, for information (the models are all pretty crude by today's standards) but it's kinda neat to look at for the nostalgia factor.

Probably not. Those of us who cast things always use a pourable product...unless you do the old "slush-cast" technique, which just doesn't work very well. You can try to reinvent the wheel if you really want to, but I'd bet money you'll be very disappointed with the results. There's simply no way that something with the doughy viscosity of Milliput will flow into fine details, etc...unless you have rigid steel dies and inject the stuff under high pressure. I don't know which videos you've watched, but this is one of the best series in the known universe...made by the people who make the products you need, so you don't get any fubar idiot information included... http://www.alumilite.com/store/pg/21-How-To-Videos-Alumilite-Mold-Making-Casting-Materials.aspx Here is another very good series. I've used these techniques and materials from both manufacturers, They work, pure and simple. No surprises, no BS. https://www.freemansupply.com/video.htm

The tire appears to me to be a copy of the front Firestones in the Revell Orange Crate. That's the only kit I've ever seen them in.

Yes sir.

There's an unusual set of supposed-to-be Halibrands on the front of the Tony Nancy 22 Jr. '29 Ford that I've never seen anywhere else... I've been looking for something to use as a starting point to master these, as I'd really like to model this car. So far, no dice.

Sorry if I misinterpreted what you meant. This time of year, USPS seems to have some problems all over. I've been waiting for a return-receipt on a critical piece of paperwork for almost two weeks since it was mailed to Texas, registered. I just checked the tracking number again and see it was finally delivered on the 28th. Interestingly (possibly) I mailed it at a UPS store that also takes USPS items (to avoid the seasonal lines at the regular PO). Maybe their respective tracking systems don't talk to each other very well.

I don't have a definitive answer, but there are some extremely light spoked magnesium wheels floating around out there with no cast-in ID. There is speculation they might be Halibrands, though to the best of my knowledge, there is no all-encompassing catalog of everything Halibrand ever made.

I didn't find sufficient information in the post to infer that. I also prefer to avoid making assumptions based on something not specifically stated. BUT... I have only had ONE problem with USPS here in the States, on well over 2000 Ebay transactions. An article marked "delivered" on the tracking-number site failed to show up for more than a week. I printed out all the tracking info available from the USPS website, went to the Post Office with it, and raised a little hell. After a couple of days, they miraculously found it on the other side of town, and it arrived on my doorstep shortly thereafter.

"USPS" as in your title is United States Postal Service. "UPS", as in part of your paragraph, is United Parcel Service. These ate two entirely separate and unrelated entities, and both have international shipping capabilities. Which one are you referring to? If one was shipped USPS and one was UPS, that might account for your problem.

These early sprint-car Halibrands appear in the Revell Orange Crate kit, but in a scale 15" diameter. These similar solid-center Indy-car wheels (with nice period Firestones) are in the old Monogram Kurtis Indy Roadster.

AMT definitely did a set of those in an old kit, but without the center cap. I had some come in that had been swapped on to an original AMT AlaKart gluebomb by the first builder. The way they fit the old generic AMT bias-ply tires, it was pretty obvious they were made to...but I don't know which kit they originated in.

Got this a couple weeks back. '61 or '62. Man, how times have changed.

The wheels on Mickey Thompson's Challenger I were cast by Halibrand too, and are well represented in the Revell kit...

The parts that were used to master the R&M P-147 set shown above appear in the original Revell C1141 "Competition Wheels and Mags" parts pack.

None of us got it right the first time. Knowing how to deal with ill-fitting parts comes with experience, for which there's no substitute. If you like making models, hang in there and keep trying. It WILL all seem to make sense and get easier the more you do it.

Your plan to use styrene as a base to build your "Bondo" flares on will work just fine. Liquid cement for styrene will melt the styrene and create a temporary (not very strong) bond with resin parts, but the strength is marginal because it doesn't melt and fuse the resin too. If you want a more permanent bond between your styrene and resin, you'll need to use epoxy or CA. You probably already know this, but the most modeler-friendly packaging of 2-PART "Bondo"-style polyester filler is this...#801 PROFESSIONAL Be sure to roughen your resin parts THOROUGHLY with 180 grit paper to insure good adhesion.