Ace-Garageguy

I disagree adamantly. Reading at a college freshman level is identical to reading at a high-school-graduate level. Think about it. You graduate from HS, you have summer off, you start college. SAME reading level. What the report actually SAYS is this: "According to officials from City University of New York, a full 80 percent of high school graduates in New York City can’t read when they graduate. As CBS Local reports, “They had to re-learn basic skills – reading, writing, and math – first before they could begin college courses.” Article here: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/officials-most-nyc-high-school-grads-need-remedial-help-before-entering-cuny-community-colleges/

I like to go "vroom vroom vroom".

Agreed. Lots of interesting ideas certainly worth further investigation.

Yup.

It is mechanically and structurally very similar to the Abarth 1300OT race-car I wrenched on for Performance Research Associates back in the 1970s. The car had been owned previously by Al Cosentino, USA Abarth racer of some renown. (this is probably not the same car)

OK, sounds reasonable. What kind of mold-release do you use for these alternative materials? I assume the UV-curing resins stick both to styrene and to themselves, so a mold release would be required...correct?

The cheapest and most readily available home-brew mold-making material that actually works is plaster of Paris. Like all home-brew cheapo alternatives to using the real stuff, it has its limitations... Liquid brushable latex can also be used effectively, and is widely used for mold-making, but because it also dries by evaporation (like dissolved styrene) it has to be applied in relatively thin layers. I've seen hundreds of second-rate and downright awful results using both, and even a few decent ones. What I've never understood is the widespread reluctance to use commercially available materials that work perfectly, every time.

Glad you had a good time. GREAT pictures, especially that rainbow.

Mickey Thompson, mid-engined Buick-powered car, 1962. https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/10/15/a-piece-of-dan-gurney-mickey-thompson-and-indy-500-history-shows-up-at-hershey/

Same reason there's always huge loud explosions, screaming and rocket noises in movies about space. When your target audience has the knowledge-base and intelligence of a not-too-bright 8-tear-old, why bother with boring things like logic and technical details?

I've had my fill of small, greedy "adults" whose entire focus in life is me me me me me me me me me me...MEEEEEEE !!!

Just remember...it's a lot easier, and far more frequent, to ruin a car's lines and proportions while "improving" it than it is to actually improve them. Photoshop pre-cutting customizing is great if you can do it, but if you don't have the program or the skills, you can still do your pre-planning and trying different things the old fashioned way. Simply print out several views of the car you want to modify, and cut / paste the images to try various changes. This can be a lot more effective that you might think, especially if you're careful to watch the scaling, perspective and proportions as you work. The more you do of this stuff, the better you'll get.

Had a good meeting with a client who was beginning to become concerned that the custom design and fabrication work on his vehicle was taking considerably longer than I'd initially thought. He was so pleased with what he saw today, I'm in the golden "it will be finished when it's finished" zone, and he added more work to the ticket. It's nice to be appreciated, and to deal with people who want quality rather than low price.

...Which reminds me of another great one, the Nissan L-16 / L-18. Essentially a 240Z engine missing two cylinders, it was derived from an earlier Mercedes design and was as strong and reliable as a brick. Well known for its racing successes too.

That is as it should be. I've NEVER seen the point in working the week between Christmas and New Years...or a couple of days before and after. I think this needs to be a law.

Another real gem is the little Ford 105E / 116E "Kent" and all its derivations. Widely used from 1959 through 1983 in production English Fords, it was also the 1600cc pushrod engine delivered in early Pintos over here. Many saw service as Formula Ford, Formula Junior and Formula 3 racing engines, as well as in many other classes. I had a 1340cc variant in a Super 7 with a crossflow Cosworth-modified pushrod head that was pretty quick, and the later Lotus twincam engine was also based on this bottom end. Cosworth developed a 4-valve head for it for Formula 2, and the engine eventually morphed into the Cosworth FVA, which spawned in turn the development of the Cosworth 3-litre V8 Formula One DFV engine design...which shares some major dimensions with the lowly 105E...like the bore spacing. The Cosworth BDA is another development of the basic design.

Very nice, parts look great so far. Are some of them Alcladded to enhance contrast in the photos, or do they come out silvery? I'm always in the market for unusual engines, so this is particularly interesting to me. Pretty impressive work, especially for a self-built printer.

Glad you posted that. It's a great tutorial for ideas and techniques for doing wood. I recall seeing it before now, and meaning to flag it. Thanks again. Good stuff.

Yes and no. The 2.3-2.5 "Lima" series of engines were based on the German-designed "EAO" 2.0 engine. There are a lot of differences, like the position of the distributor and oil filter, valve-train oiling system, etc. I never tried to do much with the 2.3/2.5 engines, as my first impression of them was that they were all cleverly disguised boat anchors (but my impression at the time was surely based on the early smog-compliant (1974) engines with retarded ignition timing and a host of related drivability issues, and gutless performance generally. I'm sure the 2.3 can make plenty of power now that they're all too old to be subject to the smog police in most jurisdictions.

Yes it does...and my dumbity...my old van was indeed a Chebby Step Van, not a Grumman. Duh.

Yes, I agree with that one. Excellent engine. When I had the fleet service company, one of my clients had a fleet of 60-odd vehicles, a mix of Rangers and little Yotyto, Isuzu and Mitsubishi trucks. The Toyos were hands-down the most bulletproof of the bunch (the drivers were mostly teens with zero respect for the vehicles, and they really abused all of them)...and the Toyos all ran the 22R. And that is the main reason I've recommended to an old friend who now needs a small old 4wd that she look at Toyota.

For real (production) engines, I'd have to include the little Honda B16 / B18 series. It's capable of making incredible, almost unbelievable amounts of power. The stock bottom end is good to somewhere around 300HP, and I've seen these engines dyno at close to 700 (supercharged / turboed of course...and longevity kinda fades at those power levels...). Along with the Alfa mentioned above, another truly great Italian engine was the Fiat 124 twincam, based on the 124 pushrod bottom end. Though maligned over here (mostly because people neglected to change the toothed rubber timing belts when they were due) these engines were very well engineered and built, the materials were very good, and again, they were capable of making big power and staying together. Introduced in 1966, they remained in production in various displacements for 34 years, and had some impressive racing victories. We ran a little Abarth 750cc D-Sports Racing car in SCCA back in the early '70s. The twincam engine in it was based on the Fiat 600 block and crank designs. The thing didn't start to make power until about 7000 RPM, and it would keep on pulling to well past 10,000. The block was cast steel. Not cast iron...cast steel. And this tiny engine was fed by a pair of two-barrel Weber sidedraft carbs. I'm also a fan of the old Ford SOHC 2-liter. I ran a Pinto with one of these, twin-40DCOE-Weber-carbed, cammed, headered and balanced, and the thing seemed to be just about unbreakable.

I still think scratching most of it is the way to go. The Model A is overall a much smaller car than the '38 Ford, and though I have NOT measured the models , in real life you'd be way off. There's only one compound-curved part that needs to be addressed, and that's the section of roof over the front seats. I don't believe any of the woody kits available are going to come close, but the corresponding section of the '37 roof could easily be flattened somewhat, and blended into a flatter rear section, perhaps from a woody kit, perhaps scratched. I'd still vote for scratched. A fabric or textured finish could help to hide less-than-stellar bodywork. Scratching the doors, quarters and rear gate is about as easy as scratch-building gets, except possibly for making the curved elements...which only require care and precision to lay out and assemble. No rocket science or magic. Interesting that this came up when it did. I noticed a couple of '37 / '38 stockers in some old films recently,, and my mind has been working on how to do one most easily. I think I may have to add a stock one to my list of projects. The faded-paint and wood techniques I've seen here on the forum would give me exactly the kind of evocative look I'd be after.

Correct...pretty much. I just bought the ARM engine and it represents quite accurately the 270 cu.in. mid-1950s engine, and with a little work also does the later 250 engines through the mid '60s. It is a BEAUTIFUL model. The main engine assembly (one piece), gearbox, and lower sump are very nice resin castings. The rest of the parts are white metal. The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that the cam covers are cast in, so unless you make duplicates and remove the originals, it's difficult to get a nice polished-aluminum effect on the covers and an as-cast finish on the rest of the engine. Interestingly, it is physically the same size as the 97 cu.in. engine in the VERY OLD Monogram midget kit...below...which is about 1/20 scale or so. The engine in the kit shown below only has two parts...left and right halves...but it CAN be detailed for use as an unusual hot-rod powerplant. It takes some work to make something nice out of it, but it IS possible. The more recent Revell 1/25 midget kit has a correctly scaled and very nice 97 cu.in. Offy. Also interestingly, the Offy engines represented in the old AMT Indy car kits are significantly undersized, probably done to make them easier to fit inside the plastic kit bodywork. An interesting thing is that many (if not all) Offy engines could be built up with the induction and exhaust systems on either side to facilitate packaging in a particular chassis. Swapping these required different cams of course. Here are engineering drawings of the 270 and 97 Offy engines. The dimensions are shown so you can get a feel for the relative sizes.