Well, it WAS amt's '61 Ranchero...

[Farmboy]

Sometimes Slotto, I'm sure the lunar phase or coronal shift has an effect on how the acrylics spray lol, but I think they're worth the effort.

 

[Farmboy]

Got her painted.  A single monochrome finish, in this case vintage (or antique) white.  Primer, acrylic craft paint, a couple of coats of clear, a wet sand, some Novus 1 & 2 and here it is.  On to the interior...

Comments and observations welcome.

[Farmboy]

I have to install the grille and lightbar before I can finish the interior.  The floor is attached to the chassis and once the seats are installed the body can not be removed.  I need to get behind the horizontal grille bars to get them into position.

 

The headlights turned out ok, here's how I did them.  

As mentioned earlier in the build I've convinced the rear tail light assembly from the Ol' Pro nova kit to be the center bar/headlight assembly.  As shown below I cut a single strip of embossed diamond shaped foil (it's the Melitta coffee can seal) to act as reflector bases.  A narrow strip of clear plastic to cover and I'm in business.  I tried pin heads, dots of paint, kitty litter granules and a few other bulb stand in's and decided it was too busy.  Maybe next time with only 1 or two bases to deal with.

My camera seem to over compensate on monochromatic shots.  In the mock-up below, I can assure you the light assembly on the left looks like the one on the right.   A blue Ford oval will replace the SS in the center bar.

Comments and observations welcome

[cobraman]

Looks like that will work great . 

[Farmboy]

I'm hoping it'll turn out ok Cobraman, 'preciate the kind words.  I'll post a pic of the completed light bar and grille assembly as soon as it's completed.

[Farmboy]

....and this is what I ended up with.  The center piece from a Nova, the upper and lower grille pieces from a Pontiac.  There will be a Ford blue oval in the center.  I also redid the dash in tan, I felt there was too much black.  Home made windshield needs a good cleaning too

Looks  like a booboo under the drivers side headlight to fix.  We'll see.

Comments and observations welcome

 

Comments and observations welcome

[Farmboy]

Got the seats in, whew!  Using plain ol' Testors tube glue and some old school tech, I applied cement to the bottom of the seat bases and mounted them in position on the floor.  The glue sets reasonably quickly but takes a few hours to cure solidly, so, after about 30 minutes I began carefully mounting the body starting from the back.   I slowly let the rear cab wall pivot the seats toward the dash just enough to get the front pan  down over the front of the chassis.  Once I had the body in place, I used tweezers and the eraser end of a pencil to tilt the seats back to their original positions.  Try that with CA or liquid glue lol!  Steering wheel is painted and drying but shouldn't present any serious install problems.  On to the engine!

Comments and observations welcome.

[Farmboy]

I found an excellent on line tutorial making 90 degree plug connectors using solid core plug wire but my plug wire is multi strand.  Another approach is needed.  Just so happened to have some lengths of close-enough-diameter brass tube.  You can see it miked out to 3/64.  It has a thin wall that has a nice fit to the wire I'm using.

First the opening needs to be round for the wire to be easily installed.  I used a sharp pointed tool to first make the inside round and large enough to accept the point of a tapered square file to ream it.

Next I eyeballed where to cut a slot half way through the tube.  If it's too far from the end a file will dress it to length

Then using a corner of the square file I created a notch that went a little deeper to almost the opposite side of the tube

When satisfied it was filed enough (be ready to have more than one that doesn't work out). I inserted the pointed tool I used earlier and  g e n t l y  bent it down 90 degrees.

It was then cut to length and the wire test fitted

This is the naked result.  It has yet to be slightly filed to remove any burrs,  primed, and painted (in  this case red), but at the end of the day it'll be just what my flathead needs.  I may simulate the white insulator before mounting, we'll see.

Comments and observations welcome.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Farmboy

[Farmboy]

A

Edited April 25, 2023 by Farmboy

[Farmboy]

Continuing on, the spark plug connectors are sprayed red.  They're small enough to fit on the end of toothpicks

I wanted to try something different than a plain Jane distributor, didn't want a magneto either.  I've seen this referred to as an e-fire, or crab type.  Looked like a candidate for a simplified version.  Using the same brass tube as for the plug caps I cut lengths to approximate shape -- better too long than short.  I lined them up, applied some thin ca, and filed each one to length, adding the coil tube 90 degrees to the rest.

It was attached to the kit distributor after filing down the distributor posts, then sprayed red.

A short shaft will be attached to the bottom of the assembly and mounted in to a hole I'll drill in to the side of the engine cover

For variety's sake, these are the three reds I've used for (left to right) the engine block, plug connectors, distributor.  

I have a clear red for the tail light lenses to go.

Comments and observations welcome.

[Farmboy]

 Just a note.  Recovering from triple bypass surgery 6 days ago. Amazing how one has to relearn ones walking balance and small motor movements with finger/thumb control.  It's not lost just needs some retuning.  Anyway, I will be back to finish it.  Cheers.

 

[NOBLNG]

Good to hear you’re recovering Mike! Nice work on the plug wire boots and distributor…very resourceful.?

[Farmboy]

Getting a little more done...

Got the engine wired to the scratch built crab type distributor

 

I had originally painted the plug boots red but thought it looked too much like a Fisher price toy lol.  Out comes the black.

The coil will mount below the pump pulley.

Speaking of pulleys, I found a couple in the parts box and added an extended shaft cover made from brass tubing, and a collar mount on the back of the pulley.

They were mounted to the front of each head in another set of scratch built collars.  The pulleys are in line with the main crank pulley, and  I also made sure when installing them that they were up enough for the belt to just clear the top of the blower extension.  The generator will go below the pump pulley on the driver's side.

These are all mockup shots.  The chrome piece on top will probably get a coat of flat.  Haven't decided on what color the headers will go.

Comments and observations welcome.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Farmboy

[cobraman]

Looks great !

[Farmboy]

Thanks cobraman, finish line is almost in sight.

 

 

[JPL-ACE]

Your detail is just incredible. Keep it coming.

[bisc63]

Fantastic build, and glad for your recovery!

[ea0863]

Aside from a great build, I am learning SO much from you! Thank you for posting as you go

[Farmboy]

Hey Gary, thanks for the shoutout!  Glad to have you along.

[Farmboy]

Glad you're enjoying the build Rusty.  I'm almost back to normal, thanks for the good words.

 

[Farmboy]

happy you're finding the the postings interesting, emre.  Thanks for following

 

[Farmboy]

On 5/9/2023 at 7:54 AM, NOBLNG said:

Good to hear you’re recovering Mike! Nice work on the plug wire boots and distributor…very resourceful.

Hey nobling, thank you much.  I tried these pieces in aluminum tube but in this instance found the brass held it's shape better thru bending,  cutting, and handling in such a small application.

[Farmboy]

For fuel works I was planning on a central block with 8 lines total going to the manifold.  The plumbing was so small and short I stopped at 4 and did a rethink for fuel delivery.  The mockup shot below represents 8 injectors mounted on the manifold.  Small styrene rod was sprayed black (hence the licorice alsort appearance).  They will be sanded to an even height.  Incidentally, the manifold was chrome, I sprayed it with flat clear, I'm ok with the finish.

The fuel delivery bars were made from rectangular rod with a piece of half round on one side.  These will sit on top of the injectors.  I may or may not add simple wiring to simulate injector electrics.  The bars will be sprayed chrome.

A mockup of how things will sit on the engine, with room to plumb the bars despite the upper rad hose locations.  I made those from aluminum tube to keep things a little more compact.  To the left are leftover injector cuttings from the couple of dozen I had cut.

For size reference

Comments and observations welcome.

[JPL-ACE]

I just love your detail. Thanks for the fine detail update.

[Farmboy]

Thanks for the kind words Gary, glad you're enjoying the build.