Ace-Garageguy

Cool project. I'm liking your idea of using the old trusty six with the B&M Hydro Stick. Just in case you don't already know, the AMT '51 Chevy kits and the Galaxie '48 Chevy kits have some unusual speed equipment for the inline engine. The Wayne 12-port head with fuel-injection is pretty exotic... ...built for the slightly larger GMC version of the engine.

The Airflow also has parallel leaf-springs front and rear, though I'm fairly certain the Airflow lacked a heavy X-member in the frame (common on other Chrysler products of the time), most likely because the advanced body construction added sufficient rigidity without it.

Looking at these photos of some of the models built, I'm still of the opinion they do a pretty good job of capturing the looks and proportions of the real ones. I don't currently have any in stock, but I think I'd like to try a couple. I DID build the '57 when it was originally released, and though I recall it to be more complex than many other kits of the time, it was far from impossible, even for a young teen.

Early and post-WW II Japanese cars were frequently made up of reverse-engineered parts of other vehicles. In some cases, parts would actually interchange with the originals, the only difference being that the Japanese blueprints were dimensioned in metric units. The outstanding Datsun 240Z engine was heavily based on a Mercedes design. And the Russian Tupolev Tu-4 was an almost exact copy of an American B-29 bomber. 850 were built. http://b-29s-over-korea.com/shortstories/russianclone.htm PS. Sorry for the digression. I'll gladly remove it.

Welcome again to the forum. I don't wish to seem unfriendly or not helpful, but all of your questions have been addressed multiple times on the board. For a relatively easy way to search for specific information, click here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/79627-how-do-i-search-for-answers-already-posted-here/

Try this... Why & How Do Things Burn? http://pslc.ws/fire/howwhy/howtri.htm

Not exactly. Potential energy is a log at the top of a hill, poised to roll down. The energy released in burning is an active, quantifiable force that simply changes form from invisible forces holding a molecule together to heat and light.

Energy isn't "created" during burning. Energy that was maintaining the chemical bonds in the substance being burned is simply released during the rapid chemical oxidation process we refer to as fire. The chemical bonds in the fuel are broken and part of the fuel combines with oxygen in the atmosphere. The energy left over from these bond-breakings and re-combining is what we experience as heat and light from the flame. The "total energy" of the "system" remains constant. Blowing out the candle simply stops the rapid oxidation process. The heat is not "destroyed". The reaction simply stops, and the energy liberated as heat up to that point diffuses into the surrounding air molecules. These basic concepts really should be taught as part of elementary school science...at least they were when I was a kid. We had had this stuff by grade 6. Even a nuclear explosion does not "create" energy. It releases energy that was previously being used to hold nuclei of atoms together, which is far far greater than the energy contained in the chemical bonds released by burning or conventional explosives.

Just one minor note on the above comment: LEDs wire up just like grain-of-wheat bulbs. Wiring them parallel makes them all the same brightness. If you buy the pre-wired units for the correct voltage, they come with red and black pigtails and hook up identically to your incandescents. As Pete says, they are bright. They also come in a wide variety of colors and configurations, and can open your model lighting to a whole new world of possibilities. I routinely use them in 12V applications where I don't need dimmability, want instant "on", with very little heat.

One version of "string theory" suggests 10 dimensions, another suggests 11 dimensions, and another one suggests 26. These "extra dimensions" are used as aids in mathematical modeling of our perceived 4 dimensional world (time being the accepted observed 4th dimension), but it may be that there are actually more than the 4 accepted dimensions of spacetime that have escaped detection so far. Some people argue for an infinite number of dimensions, based on a belief in an infinite number of "parallel realities" or lines of alternate probability. An infinite number of parallel realities would of course necessitate an infinite number of dimensions...times 4.

Very interesting project. It looks to have a lot of Chrysler Airflow influence. I've been wondering if the kit was curbside or full-detail. Thanks for putting this one up.

Here's a start...a good introductory article on the functioning and setup of one of the most simple and basic front suspension designs, and one of the most popular for use under hot-rods. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Tech/suspension-solid-axle-radius-rod-design.html I'll dig through my library and give you the titles and authors of some good reference books too. These are two of the classics, and though they're primarily concerned with tuning and racing, they explain how common systems work, so that the modifications make sense.

AHA ! So, what we end up with is the tensioner / idler arm pivoting off the end of the blower drive shout, in order to give clearance for the street-setup additional V-belts. Something like this...

Higher ambient temperatures can definitely have an effect on industrial processes, and very possibly on the time it takes for a part to cool for it to be sufficiently dimensionally stable to de-mold. It IS surprising that there isn't any QC guy on the line who looks for things like this, or at the very least, a temperature-probe that's tied in to the de-mold timing. Remember that molds have to be heated to allow the molten plastic to flow properly during injection, and then have to be actively cooled to allow for de-molding without warping like we're seeing. Some sources site the cooling-time may be as much as 95% of the cycle time, so short-cutting it can be seen as a profit maker...but not, obviously, if the molding contractor has to eat the rejects and returns.

So, we can dance around topics like good-and-evil, right-and-wrong, life-and-death...as long as it's hypothetical and opinions voiced are not not based on actual occurrences. But bring bring in a real and very personal experience, not, mind you, a graphic or sensationalized experience, to make a specific and relevant point, and that's cause for alarm? I don't get it. When I give someone technical advice on how to do something with his model, it's based on my own personal experience...not something I "heard" somewhere, or discussed with other people who have never done it. What's the difference, here, in principle?

Good to know....but the hanging-in-space idler is something of an issue.

Scary? Sorry you're scared. It's a scary world if you live in reality. This is the "off topic" area. If you don't like the topic, YOU don't have to read it or participate. You're constantly sniping with your inane psychobabble comments that have NOTHING to do with modeling, even in the midst of modeling threads....and for that matter, I've NEVER seen you add anything of relevance TO any modeling thread based on personal experience. No photos, no technical help, no WIP material, no under-glass...nothing. I did not initiate the direction this thread took, but I added what I considered to be relevant commentary to try to put into human, up-close-and-personal perspective some of the opinions that were voiced, and to remind people that unfounded opinions based on nothing but hearsay are worth just that. Nothing. When YOU become the final arbiter as to what's discussed here, I'll leave. Until then, I'll defer to the authorities whose position it is to make the call.

No idea. At all. I disqualified myself and looked it up. Fascinating...never knew it existed.

Snake's right though...on a real car, the idler / tensioner is ALWAYS positioned on the non-drive side of the pulleys. It's just the way it's done, and it's done that way for a very sound engineering reason. Most engines you'll ever see running this type of blower rotate clockwise as you're facing the front of the engine. This means it's the right-hand side (as you're facing the front of the engine) of the belt that is tight between the drive pulley on the crank and the driven pulley on the blower, and the side that is transmitting the "drive" between the two by being pulled. This side of the belt can not have the tensioner / idler on it.

You can use batteries for your power source exactly the same way. There are holders available to allow you to mount multiple standard dry-cells in series to arrive at the necessary voltage. Eight, 1.5V flashlight batteries will provide 12V DC. Larger batteries (D cells are larger than AA cells) will last a lot longer powering the same load, if you have room to hide them. You might also want to consider replacing your incandescent bulbs with LEDs, which use much less current and will give you dramatically improved battery life.

No, I'm making the point that no matter how many 'opinions' there are concerning the use of lethal force to defend oneself, they're meaningless until an individual has experienced the dilemma personally. ...as meaningless and useless as almost everything you've ever contributed to this forum. And I'm suggesting that people closely examine their own philosophical and moral positions on the idea of arming themselves for self-defense. The police won't arrive in time to do any good once there's an intruder in the house. This is a very serious issue, and when the bad guy is in your living room, it's a little late to try to figure out what to do. As a member of this community and not some news-item, I'm in the unenviable position to make the point that bad things DO happen to people, sometimes relatively close to us, through no fault of their own, that the world IS a dangerous place, and that personal preparedness IS something to seriously consider.

And usually founded with a total and complete disregard for facts or understanding...or simply parroted from others.

Kinda makes one wonder just what the QA people are doing for their money, as it's obviously not having much impact on QA.

I believe he means respirator. I like the 3M line, or any of the decent ones you can get at Home Depot, etc. Be sure you get something labeled "organic vapor" or "paint" that also has gauze pre-filters to catch particulate matter.

Maybe because the more familiar "big block" wasn't introduced by Chebby until '65, so for a big-inch Chebby engine, the W would have been more common earlier. The 409 was Chebby's top-line engine from '61 to '65. The 348 hit the market in '58, and was getting swapped into a fair number of cars soon afterwards. These engines made in the range of 250-425 HP in factory trim, pretty damm good for the period, but they were heavy compared to the smallblock, and ran out of breath around 6 grand, 6500. 425 bolt-in production-engine horsepower with real-car reliability is pretty impressive.