Another LSR Fantasy Car: Caddy Cat?

[Harpo]

2 hours ago, Jantrix said:

Wait! I think I have found a driver for this monster.

I think you're right, lol. 

I considered building a roll cage, but I have a feeling it would be rather useless in a 10 ton 300mph car.  Perhaps an ejection seat?    

[chris chabre]

correct that weight is not an issue on the salt, but torque is. light on the pedal is the way to drive, even sub 200. If youve ever driven on packed snow at speed, you know what im describing. You dont steer, the car floats around. Its an amazing experience. Im actually toying around with building a diesel roadster to get back out there and race again. I really do miss it. Im liking the driver up front idea and the narrowing of the body. I would guess that you could shave your tires of the tread and rounded them, they would look ok, OR, find some O rings that fit on your wheels. Remember, minimal contact patch is speed...I havent forgotten about my offer to you on the rule book info. Still working on it

Edited November 2, 2018 by chris chabre

[Ace-Garageguy]

26 minutes ago, chris chabre said:

 ...you could shave your tires of the tread and round and they would look ok, OR, find some O rings that fit on your wheels...

A couple o' thoughts on shaving or O-rings...

If you mount your tires on wheels, you can probably do a decent job shaving the treads by chucking the assemblies in a small lathe or drill-motor, and sanding the treads as they rotate. Using water as a lube, and about 180 grit otter get you there.

OR...finding pre-made O-rings that fit your wheels might be a good trick, but O-ring cord stock is available at places like MSC and Grainger Industrial Supply. An alternative is polyurethane round-section drive-belt material. It's available in diameters from 2 mm to 20 mm, and though the usual minimum order is probably many times more than you could use in a lifetime, you can sometimes get lucky and find short lengths that are useless for belting, cheap. The ends can be joined with CA for a non-power-transmission application. Just a thought.

Pre-packaged vacuum-cleaner belts, though too long,  might be close to the section you need, too.

Hmmmmm...this company appears to be willing to sell short lengths of their O-ring stock. Neoprene cord looks pretty good, maybe...

Their .005" diameter is $2.66/foot with no minimum...  https://www.theoringstore.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=117_2242&sort=2a&page=2&zenid=eca0dd28f97e9b0c1a0560eddc1cdeac

 

 

[chris chabre]

thanks Bill!, thats exactly where I was going with my comment but was in a time crunch! The joys of chasing a 1 1/2 year old little girl around the house haha Today, I went to put clothes in the washer and she turned my under construction office wall into an art canvas...literally gone from the room a minute. Anyways...

 

Garry, I went through my Land speed books, My information ends in 1968, My oldest rule book is 2008. I guess the next step would be to search out some of the big gun cars back then, but theyre going to be mainly jet and aircraft engined.

[Harpo]

Good tips on the tires, Bill.  I've tried sanding some down but I'm not very pleased with the results so far.  

Thanks much for looking Chris!  Here's a site I found that seems to have some good info: FIA Land Speed Record Archives  Since it was founded in 1904, I'm pretty sure this applies. 

Here's the standing in 1973 for the flying mile:

Absolute Record: 8/25/1973,  235.756mph, Virgil Snyder, Thermo King Diesel Streamliner, Class A-II-10 (305-488ci)
Class Record for A-III-13 (over 488ci): 4/29/1936, 158.870mph, G. Eyston, "The Flying Spray"

My car falls under Class A-III-13, so the Class record would be a cinch.  It's also quite likely this car could beat the absolute record for 1973.

The endurance records also look quite possible, in fact the 100/500/1000 km/mi records that were set in 1936-37 by Eyston stand to this day!

1mi record, 1973 Thermo King Diesel Streamliner:

100/500/1000 km/mi records, 1936 G. Eyston AEC/Chrysler:

 

 

[DrKerry]

Kool idea but seat up front? I ain’t driving it!! Well..... maybe once! Kool idea! Looks like something I’d build!

[dino246gt]

That's a crazy idea, that's why I love it! Oh, but I'm not your driver, hey, I'm going to be enjoying the build though, step by step! CAR-A-ZEEEE

 

[Harpo]

Got the various bits ready, now to make them all fit!

Lilly is not impressed, but that's how kittens are.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Oill dryve that tankah (trying for an Oz accent there). Wait...I'm too big. Durn.

[Harpo]

Front axle is narrowed W900 part, chassis is coming together.  Lots of cleanup/reshaping to do!

Edited November 8, 2018 by Harpo

[Harpo]

.  I measured and marked first, then applied 3/4" artist tape within lines, added striping tape for cut lines, removed artist tape.  Ready to cut!

[Harpo]

Hot knife makes it easy:

Block sanded for trial fit, I'm really liking the looks from the back:

[chris chabre]

We know you hung the body over the chassis....now spill haha

[Harpo]

3 hours ago, chris chabre said:

We know you hung the body over the chassis....now spill haha

Actually it won't fit yet, I need to get the body spliced so I can take exact measurements!

[Harpo]

The body is spliced...

...but we have a problem.  It's too narrow for the rear wheels:

I was sort of prepared for this. I had decided I wanted to take at least 18" out of the total width to get the look I wanted, and I wasn't sure everything would fit.  One of those "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it" moments.  I REALLY want to maintain those sexy fins, and after staring at it for a while I came up with a possible solution.  Why not slice off the top half of the fins, and just rotate them up?  Here's the tentative cut line:

And here's the same view with that section rotated clockwise in Photoshop:    

I'll have to add a wedge-shaped filler panel to close the opening, but the look is good.  This may get interesting though, 'cause I'm not sure I can cut and putty as well as I can Photoshop...  I'm off to hack away, so my next installment will either be a triumph or an embarrassment.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by Harpo

[cobraman]

This is a way cool project.

[Harpo]

Many thanks to all for the kind words!

Cutting went very smooth, though rather slow since I used a micro saw instead of the hot knife.  Here's the hack job:

Trial fitting still wasn't getting things as low as I wanted them, so I ended up narrowing the subframe to reduce rear track a bit:

Now everything fits, and we're down on the ground where we should be!

 

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by Harpo

[Harpo]

Fin section is tacked in place.  The front vertical edge of the section was cut to mate with the body and bring the section forward for better fit with the roof posts.  Also started some shaving/filling work.  No putty used yet, just styrene and hot knife.

   

[misterNNL]

Looking very good. This is a fun build to follow.

[Harpo]

I needed a way to fill the gaps created by the fin shift:

Not wanting to form styrene sheet and end up needing too much putty, I decided to try this.  It's a UV cure micro-balloon filled epoxy, intended for surfboard repair:

 

It's available on Amazon, I ended up ordering a kit containing both this product and it's companion, a straight UV cure epoxy with no filler.  Here's a link.

This stuff is single part, no mixing, and activated by exposure to UV light.  I already had a 10w UV light that I use for night races on my slot car track:

  

The lower fin sections are rather loose, so I reinforced with sheet styrene on the back...

...then masked the back with artist's tape to create a form for the epoxy.  I also masked the front edges of the gap in hopes of minimizing the mess and making sure the fill was deep enough:

Pour in the filler, and here's what you get:

Five minutes of UV light...

... and the clear filler turns white:

Remove the masking, and there you are - overfilled.  Ooops.

But after much filing and sanding, the result is very good:

Note also that I went back and filled the three holes and the fender skirt seam.  This stuff is very effective for this, just dab it in carefully with a blunt pick, light it up, then trim and sand.  I did better on the other side, not so much overfill there:

I think this is an effective product for this use, but I'm not proficient with it yet.  Viscosity is the issue; it tends to dome up and leave things overfilled.  It also has a slight solvent effect which will mar exposed surfaces.  This was the reason I masked the outside too, so I could draw a squeegee across the fill without spreading the excess over the quarter panel.  Another approach might be to skip the squeegee, carefully under-fill, then apply a light coat of conventional putty.

The instructions say that the maximum depth is 1/4" for proper curing.  Even at the ~1/8" thickness I used here, it was necessary to re-expose all surfaces to light both front and back after unmasking.  This eliminated the slight stickiness that was particularly noticeable on the back.

For filling seams, small imperfections, and door lines, this stuff is near ideal.  Just scrap the line with the point of a knife, run a line of epoxy in with a blunt pick, and light it up.  It trims easily with a knife, sands well, and sticks tight.      

 

 

Edited November 23, 2018 by Harpo

[Dave Ambrose]

I’ve used this for fixing my surfboard, but never thought about using it for model cars. It’s great stuff. You can cure it in the sun if you don’t want to use a UV light. 

I need to try this myself. Thanks!

[chris chabre]

I like that idea!!! Im also gonna try it out. I think the over fill is a good thing if it sands well as it eliminates most of the filler...my reasoning is....

Im a stainless fabricator by trade, hot rods and custom trucks, bikes etc are my passion..I do a ton of metal finishing at my FT job that doesnt allow any filler as its on stainless, so that has transferred to the car side..and ULTIMATELY the model side...I try to everything with as little filler as possible.

[Harpo]

It's time to accommodate the driver of this contraption, so I began by cutting the hatch where the brave/stupid guy will climb in (and hopefully out):

Here's a view looking in from the front, with a typical driver's face added for perspective:

 

Sheet styrene cut for hatch mounting:

Sheets glued in place:

Hatch and mounts drilled for hinge point:

Hatch installed, open:

And closed.  Windshield will slant from back edge of hatch to front edge of opening in hood, with same angle as main windshield.

I'm not sure what the front styling will be yet, I'm making this up as I go along!

 

Edited December 1, 2018 by Harpo

[bisc63]

Cattyllac! Too wild; fun build.

[Harpo]

Though the front bumper won't actually be visible, it provides a good base for the new front end.  Here it is narrowed to fit:

The wheel openings are filled with two thicknesses of .020 styrene; one as backer, the other fits inside wheel opening to reduce amount of filler needed:

Installing the sheets:

Installed and trimmed:

  Here's a rough idea of where this is heading:

This is getting much more complex than I anticipated, but it's great fun!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2018 by Harpo