’72 Dodge Demon Drag Racer 1/25 scale

[Moparman18064]

 Very cool Francis. It looks like you really could set caster and camber. Awesome!

[Steve H]

Francis my friend, awesome to see you back at it!! I hope you and your father are well. No surprise to hear that you are looking after your dad, and helping out neighbours. You’re a good man Francis. Our elders too often end up neglected. I will keep tuned in to admire your amazing work. 
Cheers, Steve

[Straightliner59]

Beautifully done, my friend! I am intrigued by your approach to the ball joints. Pure genius, Francis. It's such a "simple" solution, it's surprising no one ever thought of doing them that way, before. My hat is off, to you, sir!

[AmericanMuscleFan]

13 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Very, very, cool, Francis.  Seeing how small the caps are, one can appreciate how small the chuck on your lathe is as well!

Thanks Brian, I have 3 and 4 jaw chucks but the one pictured can hold smaller parts.

To machine even smaller parts I have to switch with my precision collet set, they can hold very small shanks for super precise cuts.

Francis

[AmericanMuscleFan]

13 hours ago, Moparman18064 said:

 Very cool Francis. It looks like you really could set caster and camber. Awesome!

Thanks Rich, I think I'm going to have to think about this, one step at a time, you have to learn to walk before you run as they say! 😁

Francis

13 hours ago, Steve H said:

Francis my friend, awesome to see you back at it!! I hope you and your father are well. No surprise to hear that you are looking after your dad, and helping out neighbours. You’re a good man Francis. Our elders too often end up neglected. I will keep tuned in to admire your amazing work. 
Cheers, Steve

Thanks Steve my friend, I think that what we call having a sense of responsibility, people first and tasks second. I must not forget my work, I don't have much time left for my hobby so I must use it wisely! 😁

Francis

10 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

Beautifully done, my friend! I am intrigued by your approach to the ball joints. Pure genius, Francis. It's such a "simple" solution, it's surprising no one ever thought of doing them that way, before. My hat is off, to you, sir!

Thanks Daniel, you don't have to be the only one with good ideas, I have to contribute from time to time too.

All joking aside, the principle is simple and it should work but certain elements could interfere with operation, notably the rack links, we will see.  I have ideas for that too but I still have a long way to go!

Francis

[Musclecarbuilder]

Wow Francis that is absolutely stunning! Every time I see your progress updates it makes me want to buy a lathe! 

[AmericanMuscleFan]

5 hours ago, Musclecarbuilder said:

Wow Francis that is absolutely stunning! Every time I see your progress updates it makes me want to buy a lathe! 

Thanks Will,  A lathe is definitely not a must-have when it comes to a hobby as it's not cheap, but for me it was a game changer as I was looking for something to fulfill my search for precision and find renewed meaning in this hobby.  If you ever decide to purchase one of these toys, my advice is to start slowly with the basic parts and not put too much pressure on yourself with overly ambitious challenges.  You have to walk before you can run, everything comes with patience! 😊

Francis

[Musclecarbuilder]

1 hour ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

Thanks Will,  A lathe is definitely not a must-have when it comes to a hobby as it's not cheap, but for me it was a game changer as I was looking for something to fulfill my search for precision and find renewed meaning in this hobby.  If you ever decide to purchase one of these toys, my advice is to start slowly with the basic parts and not put too much pressure on yourself with overly ambitious challenges.  You have to walk before you can run, everything comes with patience! 😊

Francis

Thanks for the advice Francis! I appreciate it!

[AmericanMuscleFan]

Hello everyone,

Just a quick update this evening to show you the lower control arms I made over the weekend.  This is mainly the result of bent brass rods and soldering, I don't have any photos of the process so I didn't see the point in doing it.  I downloaded the reference image which I used to mimic the parts.  In the last photo I inserted an aluminum rod to check the alignment (which is very good by the way) but I realized that it will be necessary to modify the supports of the coil over shock.  I will still have to add the attachment point for the coil over on the lower control arms as you can see in the reference photo.  Many small but critical parts will need to be machined, the front direction and suspension combo is one of the most difficult parts of the project in my opinion.  I'm in uncharted territory but I like the challenge!

Francis

The target.

One of the lower control arms, I didn't have measurements, I referred to the photo for general proportions.

A group photo, I'm thinking of plating them in chrome rather than painting them what do you think?

I inserted an aluminum rod to check the alignment and realized that I will have to modify the coil over shock mount on the frame rails, the ones I made will not provide sufficient height.

[Straightliner59]

Beauty! I think plating would look great, on the A-arms. Nice solder work, Francis! 

[AmericanMuscleFan]

14 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

Beauty! I think plating would look great, on the A-arms. Nice solder work, Francis! 

Thanks Daniel, I also think that chrome plated would be nice.

I inserted 0.020" pins into the ends of the rods for the lower control arms, I don't have 100% confidence in the strength of the welds for the small brass parts yet.

Francis

[Musclecarbuilder]

Great craftsmanship Francis! If you didn't have the dime next to the control arms I would've thought they were real!

[Moparman18064]

Amazing work keeping everything aligned! Great solder work indeed. Are the shocks actually going to work? 

[Ian McLaren]

I'm with Daniel on the plating, and the control arms are great as usual. Don't fear the joints, if they were well cleaned,properly dry fitted and the correct flux was used along with sufficient heat the joints are close to indistructable

[bobthehobbyguy]

Amazing work on the front suspension.

[AmericanMuscleFan]

On 12/17/2024 at 3:37 PM, Musclecarbuilder said:

Great craftsmanship Francis! If you didn't have the dime next to the control arms I would've thought they were real!

Thanks Will, They are not bad but not that good, I would have liked to have brass rods just a little thinner but I was forced to take what I had in hand.  The recent strike at Canada Post forced me to make concessions!

On 12/17/2024 at 9:43 PM, Moparman18064 said:

Amazing work keeping everything aligned! Great solder work indeed. Are the shocks actually going to work? 

Thanks Rich!  Yes, the shock absorbers will be functional, it's not difficult to do, I have already made some for the rear suspension of my pickup (D100) and they work wonderfully.  I'll tackle this in the next few days.

On 12/18/2024 at 1:58 AM, Ian McLaren said:

I'm with Daniel on the plating, and the control arms are great as usual. Don't fear the joints, if they were well cleaned,properly dry fitted and the correct flux was used along with sufficient heat the joints are close to indistructable

Thanks Ian,  I don't know what you use for your welds, I use Tix (flux too) and it's very versatile but maybe it's not what produces the strongest joints?

On 12/19/2024 at 10:40 AM, bobthehobbyguy said:

Amazing work on the front suspension.

Thanks Bob,  I hope to get into making more interesting pieces soon, so come back and check back from time to time.

Francis

[AmericanMuscleFan]

Hello everyone,

Like many of us, I have a short holiday break for end-of-year celebrations, so I'll have a little more bench time before I have to return to work.  As I mentioned in my last update, I realized that the shock mounts I had made previously wouldn't do the job, it didn't give me enough height for the installation.  No room for improvisation, I have to redo them as closely as possible to those of the original kit that I wish to reproduce, I have downloaded the target photo.  They will be inserted in the frame rails and painted as part of the frame, I will add small bolts at final assembly only as I don't want to hide them with paint.  I used brass again for its rigidity and its soldering quality.

Merry Christmas! 🎄

Francis

The target.

I cut a slot in the frame rail using a hand saw to insert the new bracket, I used 0.015" brass for the main part.

I cut and filed the attachments using 0.010" brass.

They are now permanently welded, I will add small aluminum bolts during final assembly.

Different angle.

A little test to see if it will do the trick.

Different perspective, now I will need to add the attachment point on the lower control arm and determine the height of the shock.

[Straightliner59]

Very nicely done! Those parts are beauties, Francis.

[Pierre Rivard]

Indeed they are, beautiful craftsmanship.

[AmericanMuscleFan]

17 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

Very nicely done! Those parts are beauties, Francis.

16 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Indeed they are, beautiful craftsmanship.

Thanks Daniel and Pierre!

Now I will be able to make the coil over and move on to the other parts for the front steering, there is still a lot to do and these will be much more technical parts to machine.

Merry Christmas to everyone! 🎄

Francis

[Musclecarbuilder]

Very nice!

[absmiami]

Great …

[Codi]

😏 Mighty fine Francis........got caught up as well on your progress and ALWAYS enjoy the shared insights you provide.   You're moving along quite well and the "rust" has obviously been knocked off.   cheers, tim

[AmericanMuscleFan]

Thanks Will, Andrew!

Thank you Tim, regarding the rust, I think that if it is just superficial and not structural rust, there is hope and a good wipe made these long months of inactivity disappear! 😁

Francis

[AmericanMuscleFan]

Hello everyone,

I'm taking advantage of my short vacation to spend more time on the bench these last few days.  Now that the shock mounts are redone, I was able to take measurements for the coil over shock.  I didn't reinvent the wheel, I used the same technique as before to make them functional, I could have added more details but I think they look pretty good like that.  I also soldered pieces of brass to the two lower control arms to create the second mounting point like the real ones.  I'm not sure (and that's not the point) that the front suspension will work smoothly but most of the parts I made should allow it.  Fabrication continues!

Francis

The example I used as a guide but 25 times bigger! 😁

First, I started by machining the rod ends.

Then onto milling to make flat surfaces and drill holes.

This is one of the shock caps (upper part) on the lathe.

Bottom rod end being about to be separated from the rod on the lathe.

Final product, sorry I realize I didn't take many photos.

I didn't make a video but they are functional, I compressed one between my fingers to show you.

Temporarily installed in place to check fit.  There's going to be a lot of pieces in there when it's all done... 🤔