Ed's timeless masterpiece

[Raul_Perez]

Alyn,

This one just keeps getting better everytime I see the additional work that you've done.

I'm also a BIG Ed Roth fan. Last year I did a tribute build in his honor. That's the 3 piece set that I still use for my avatar (because I haven't finished anything else since then ).

As a fan, I can easily imagine the smile he'd have on his face when he saw what you've done with his creation! BRAVO!!

Keep up the AWESOME work!!

This one will be "Under Glass" pretty soon!!

Later,

[Alyn]

Thanks a bunch for the encouraging words (and the enthusiasm, Raul). By the way, I've seen the fiberglass underside trick done before on the web somewhere although it was with tissue to simulate fiberglass. Mine is actual fiberglass cloth which I have not seen done before.

Anyway, here's a mock up shot that will finally give you an idea of what this rods starting to look like. The other is a close up to show the plug boots and plugs. I was going to plumb the carbs and add some linkage detail, but decided all the chrome would just overwhelm the details. This is how the motor will end up with the exception that the headers still need to be added.

Hope yer diggin' it.

By the way, I'm leaning towards cutting down the windshield to half height. Some opinions on this would be welcome. I'll probably do it unless I hear some good arguments against it. Thanks

[Raul_Perez]

Alyn,

I wasn't sure at first how a lowered windshield would look with respect to the high-back body, but it actually looks pretty good!!

Keep up the GREAT work!!

Later,

[Alyn]

Raul, I didn't chop the windshield quite like your example. I guess I took the easy way out and just wacked off the top half of the frame.

I'm calling this one done. At a little over a month, this is by far the fastest build I've done.

[Foxer]

The chopped windshield looks much better, IMO. It flows down with the lines of the car.. the original tall one sticks up way too high. Maybe the driver ends up looking over the top of it, but then, who worries about viability on a 50 Merc with a 6" chop? The rear wheel choice looks like they came on the Big Daddy Order Sheet! The whole thong looks SO fine!

Got one question I meant to ask before. How did you do the plug wire 90 degree end boots? .. just an insulated section with wire still in for the bend? They do look good. It's in my mind as I have to make some with those 90 degree metal ends which aren't much larger in diameter than the wire, but exploring all possibilities.

Edited July 26, 2009 by Foxer

[Alyn]

Thanks, Mike. The plug boots aren't too difficult. I use the insulation off some telephone wire. Not the multi-stranded red/green/black/yellow, but the single conductor wire that comes in 25 pair cables. Slide a small section of insulation off the copper conductor and you'll find it is a perfect snug fit over 30g wrap wire. The telephone wire comes in 10 different colors (white, red, black, yellow, violet) plus (blue, orange, green, brown & gray). Each color is striped with dash of an alternate color every inch or less. The dashes of color can be cut out and discarded.

Take about a 1/4" section of the insulation in the color of your choice and cut a "V" shaped notch in the middle. I use a #11 Xacto knife or sprue cutters. The notch should go almost all the way through the insulation which allows the piece to bend at a sharp 90 degrees. Then take about a 3 or 4 inch piece of wrap wire, curve it into a circle and slide each end of the wrap wire into each end of the notched insulation. The curved wrap wire will force the boot to bend at the "V" notch. You can play with the shape of the curved wrap wire to get the boot into a perfect 90 degree angle. Build eight of these assemblies and the one by one open the boot notch enough to apply a small amout of CA glue. Once the glue sets up, you can remove the wrap wire and the boot will retain its 90 degree bend. The only thing left to do is trim the two ends of the boot to a working length and slide the wrap wire back into one end. I don't even use glue for this part as the wrap wire is a perfect snug fit into the insulation.

Depending on how you attach to the distributor, you can slip the other ond of the boot over the distributor cap nipple, or insert a short segment of wire into the boot that will slip into a drilled hole on the cap. On this build, I slipped a small piece of the copper wire back into the boot and trimmed it to slip into a .020" hole in the cap.(eight times plus the coil wire)

Hope that helps.

[hemi]

This truly is a beautiful model man,I started watching it on another board and once you were slammed about the color of the backdropped I made my choice to leave that site for good.Any way glad I found it here.

[Alyn]

Hey! nice to see you checking in, Hemi.

Yeh, over-moderation, in "moderation" is ok, but as a standard policy it was a bit much for me.

No biggie. Life is good!

[charlzrocks]

Dude!! That Looks superb with the lowered half frame windscreen! Verrrry Coool

I love the Gold paint as well...it gives Ed's ride a kind of Elegance that he kept just out of our reach!

I wish I had the patience AND eyesight to do the plugwires. But when I build mine I will just be happy to not break any of the Billions of tiny chrome pieces!

I will be referring to your work when I do mine up un a month or so.

[Flatout]

Hey Alyn...didn't realize you'd finished this one already. Looks great, your vision of the "Outlaw in Gold" was right on. Looks good down there in your Sig...