Need a little help with a COE

[Aaronw]

I've been working on a '41-46 Chevrolet COE, it progressed well but I'm a bit stuck on the hood. I'm hoping someone might have some tips so I can finish this one up.

Edited June 23, 2009 by Aaronw

[Guest Davkin]

Carve a buck from balsa and stretch heated plastic over it. Ken Hamilton describes the technique real well here;

http://s13.zetaboards.com/B_n_B_Auto_Build...opic/6613391/1/

David

[Harry P.]

Or make the wooden buck and shape sheet brass over it. Either way, styrene or brass, should do the trick, although styrene would probably be easier.

Or.... if you're not too concerned with strength, but want something that'll hold its shape yet be easy to form, try some real thick aluminum foil... the kind those disposable roasting pans or pie pans are made of. Or for something a little sturdier, a piece of aluminum roof flashing from the nearest Home Depot or Lowes...

[Aaronw]

Thanks, I hadn't thought about that, I was trying to reshape the hood and it just wasn't working. It might even give me an excuse to try out my Mattel Vacformer.

[Art Anderson]

  Aaronw said:

Thanks, I hadn't thought about that, I was trying to reshape the hood and it just wasn't working. It might even give me an excuse to try out my Mattel Vacformer.

That hood is more than a bit too large for the Mattel VacUForm Machine, though. A '41 Chevy hood of any sort will be nearly as wide as the sheet of plastic the Mattel toy (I say toy, but those are a marvelous tool for modelers!), if not wider, and in any event, the depth of draw for the height of even a stock '41 Chevy pickup hood is so great, as to result in tissue-paper thin areas on the sides, given that Mattel's plastic (and the capabilities of the machine dictate this!) is barely even .020" thick.

Vitually any snub-nose hood of this sort can be created using a styrene kit hood though! It does require shortening the stock hood, then stretching it for the added height, and making some pie cuts to get the much greater angle of taper from front to back, when looking at the hood from the top. I know that sounds difficult, but it's not, although it will require some measuring, some thought, and careful planning--but it can be done, with razor saw, needle files, a straight edge ruler graduated in metrics (one MM is equivalent to .040" or one inch in 25th scale, certainly close enough for our modeling purposes), and some .040" thick, fairly wide Evergreen strip styrene. Oh, and a bit of your favorite putty, and some gap filling CA glue.

Art

[Aaronw]

The sides of the hood on the 41 Chevy are pretty slab sided, it is really the top that is proving difficult. I have been trying to use the kit hood as you mentioned but the shape is giving me fits.

Anyway thanks for the ideas, I'll keep plugging away on it.