egg crate grille and the car behind it!

[ChrisBcritter]

Paul, if it's not too late to save you some effort, that whole blower setup is a custom item in the AMT '63 Ford pickup.

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by ChrisBcritter

[Paul Payne]

Chris, that is exactly what I had in mind! Never knew this part existed! If you have this kit, are you planning to not use these parts(the carb looks great too)? I hate buying a whole kit for a few parts with no interest in the rest of the kit. PM me if these might be available!

[bisc63]

1 hour ago, ChrisBcritter said:

that whole blower setup is a custom item in the AMT '63 Ford pickup.

'63 or '53?

[Paul Payne]

Rusty, just checked on the net, definitely the '63.

[ChrisBcritter]

8 hours ago, Paul Payne said:

Chris, that is exactly what I had in mind! Never knew this part existed! If you have this kit, are you planning to not use these parts(the carb looks great too)? I hate buying a whole kit for a few parts with no interest in the rest of the kit. PM me if these might be available!

Hi Paul, I do have the setup but it's earmarked for a '53/'56 pickup conversion. Watch eBay parts sellers for it (especially Andy aka vintagemodelcarparts, and sportfuryus); they turn up now and then.

[Paul Payne]

Chris, thanks for the link! Looking forward to pix of this installation. Here is something to consider- these superchargers were usually crank driven through a gear train- check out Novi engine photos on the web.

[Paul Payne]

Not dead yet- I have worn out a lot of sanding sticks on this project. Finally decided I needed to throw on another coat of primer to check things out- and it still needs work! Got the belly pan/chassis under it with some wheels- pretty happy with the stance. Still constructing the grille, will start on the divided windshield frame soon, V-16 engine slowly progressing (more putty sanding) and the interior is becoming more definite- mocked up the dash gauge cluster- the steering column will be under the large center gauge. The inner interior panels are from the Revell model A loboy version.

[Paul Payne]

Still doing body work and working on the grille, but decided to tackle the V-16 engine. Alfa Romeo came out with a straight 8 with the cam drives and supercharger drives in the center instead of at one end. Dual centrifugal superchargers were always part of the plan- these are from Replicas and Miniatures. Still gathering parts to fabricate the intake manifolds and exhaust system- will probably bend some hot sprues to get what I need.

[Spex84]

This is bananas, I love what you're doing with the project. I was unaware of that Alfa engine (way cool) and it had never occurred to me that superchargers could be driven off the center of an engine. Good luck with the exhaust setup! I see a pile of AMT Olds hilborn injectors. Do they factor in, somehow??

[Paul Payne]

Spex, I tend to gather parts for "possibilities"- most go back in the parts bin. I'm in the process of thinking through the intake manifolding and some of these parts look promising. Whatever I come up with, it probably won't look much like the original parts! I also have to work out the distributor- or distributors- not sure if one or two will be used, and what will fit- we shall see! These (or this) will also be driven by the central gear tower. The transmission is the Muncie rock crusher 4 speed from the Monogram 39 Chevy- should be strong enough to deal with whatever the engine can throw at it.

By the way, the name of the car is the new for 1949 Hurricane Typhoon- guaranteed to blow everything else off the road!

Since the last pictures of the body in primer, more putty has been applied to improve the symmetry, and the center console is being built up. This will be body color as well as the dash- the final color will be deep metallic teal, leaning more to the blue side. The dash will be attached to the center console- sort of a T shape. The rest of the interior will be a deep slate blue.

Stay tuned for more imaginative insanity!

 

[Paul Payne]

Got some paint on the engine- looks more cohesive- shows up in the photo as black, but is actually dark metallic grey. Red pieces are preliminary intercooler plenums- they will sit on top of the intake runners- the yellow pieces will connect the superchargers to the intercoolers. Also included a pic of the final body color- picked this up at the Hoosier model contest and swap meet last year.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Will they mount in-line?

[Paul Payne]

The theoretical gear drives would be 90 degrees driven from the center of the crankshaft. Each supercharger would feed to 8 cylinders- in this picture the supercharger nearest the viewer would feed the front 8 cylinders and the one on the other side would feed the rear 8 cylinders. Feeder pipes from large diameter exhaust pipes will be cut and fitted from the superchargers to the intercooler plenums. I am also working on a scratch built distributor which will mount between the camshaft drives. No additional pix at this point, will post more when progress is made.

[David G.]

Crazy wild with this one, love the body lines!

Looks like it's ready for a shot at the land speed record.

Or maybe the next Batmobile.

David G.

[Paul Payne]

Got the distributor built and the wiring done- here's a couple pix:

Next step for the engine is the cross over tubes from the superchargers to the intercoolers.

[Katsusauce]

Really enjoying following this build‼️

[Jonathan]

Oh man - this thing is cool!  I can't believe I missed this earlier.  Really like what you're doing.

 

[Paul Payne]

Thanks everyone, the encouragement means a lot! The body still needs a lot of work- that was supposed to be mainly plastic to plastic gluing with a little filler- LOL!!!!!!!?

[Paul Payne]

Been concentrating on this build- still puttying, sanding, and puttying- but also making progress on other things- had a part of a belt sander laying around for coarse sanding, and decided it might work as carper, so cut some and laid it in- now the glue is drying. Fabricated and installed the connector pipes from the superchargers to the intercoolers plenums, also painted and detailed the carbs and added air cleaners. Figured out the exhaust manifolds- waiting for first coat of paint to dry, will be adding elbows and extensions before final fitting. Decided on the headlight treatment- since this car was supposed to be built in 1949, decided on long nacelles blended into the fenders- used the barrel of a dead mechanical pencil- more putty and sanding- found headlights in the parts box along with lenses. The interior panels are from the Revell 29 A roadster highboy version, adjusted to fit. The tail lights are two quarter round clear something or others from the stash- painted them inside and out with stoplight red. After some misguided attempts at a windshield frame, which was always to be divided, I started with some H section stock and cut down 1/8th x 1/8th stock into a triangular cross section for the beginning of the central divider. Small channel stock will form the bottom section mounted to the cowl- there will be no top or side frames. Once this is completed and installed, I will make a cardstock template for the glass and cut it from a clear plastic box that was waiting to be useful.

[Mike F.]

Looks like the "car behind the egg crate grill" is taking shape nicely.

Enjoying your build ?

[Paul Payne]

Thanks, Mike.

[Zippi]

This is looking pretty sharp.  I like the coarse sandpaper for carpet. 

[David G.]

Wow Paul! That V-16 you bashed together looks like it might have been "borrowed" from a vintage Bugatti and updated. Impressive engineering on that!

Great idea with the carpet too.

David G. 

[Paul Payne]

Made some progress on this project- finished the engine, created some pedals, cleaned up and restored the chrome on the exhaust tips and rear view mirror, created and installed hood hinges made from jumbo paper clips and styrene tube- worked right the first time! Also started sculpting on the long awaited egg crate grille! My scrap box yielded some chrome pieces which I stripped and cobbled together to form the center of the vee windshield and devised a way using waxed paper taped in place to properly place the bottom troughs for the window glass to match the cowl contours- pix on this soon.

[David G.]

Lots of great things going on here!

It's going to be awesome when it all starts to come together.

David G.