What's the best way to do this?

[Monty]

Background: I've got a Lindberg '67 442 with a subassembly that's got me annoyed. Some brainiac designer apparently decided it would be a great idea to mold the rear sway bar to the axle. He then compounded the problem by making the sway bar indistinct and filling the gap between it and the axle in solid plastic. It looks more like some kind of differential bracing you might see in NASCAR than a standard Olds rear end. (See pic)

I've ground off the "sway bar" and removed all traces of its existence. Now I want to create a more accurate sway bar out of solder. It has the right diameter and I doubt I could bend styrene to the required angles.

I've never worked with solder before so I want to know the best way to attach it to the styrene without making a mess. (The left and right ends of the sway bar attach to the insides of the trailing arms).

TIA for all helpful replies.

[Tradeshowjoe]

hey bud. You can use CA or 5-minute epoxy. Try to find a solder other than "rosin core" if you do end up with the rosin core, make sure you seal the ends COMPLETELY! If you don't, over time the "core" will "ooze" out and otherwise make an ugly mess of your model. I haven't seen this personally but I have read it everywhere. Almost all my models have solder scratch built headers. I use "clear flux, and I make sure to CA the ends real good, just in case.

[Modelmartin]

I would recommend using some brass rod instead of solder. It bends easy adn holds it shape and you don't have to worry if it's rosin core or not. The CA (superglue)) should work just fine.

[Tradeshowjoe]

I forgot to mention that you can also use "modelers Armature" wire. It's made for (well,packaged for) sculptors to use inside of thir figures and such. It looks nice and is easy to use, no dents when bending, and no worry about the "core" down the road. Here's some headers I built with them:

after this picture was taken, I primed it , painted it wit $1 black gloss from Lowes, then Alclad chrome. they look sick! Next is heat staining.

Edited August 7, 2010 by Tradeshowjoe

[MikeMc]

Brass will work, but why not styrene rod? if you bend it slowly and pre mark your bends you can do 1/16 by hand....

[Monty]

hey bud. You can use CA or 5-minute epoxy. Try to find a solder other than "rosin core" if you do end up with the rosin core, make sure you seal the ends COMPLETELY! If you don't, over time the "core" will "ooze" out and otherwise make an ugly mess of your model. I haven't seen this personally but I have read it everywhere. Almost all my models have solder scratch built headers. I use "clear flux, and I make sure to CA the ends real good, just in case.

Thanks for the heads-up on the rosin core solder. As I mentioned in the original post, I've never worked with any kind of solder before, so I was totally unaware of any pitfalls. Who knows what kind of mess you helped prevent .

[Monty]

Brass will work, but why not styrene rod? if you bend it slowly and pre mark your bends you can do 1/16 by hand....

The rear sway bar on this car will have to bend in at more than 90* because it's supposed to line up on the inside of the rear control arms. Sounds like you've figured out a way to manipulate styrene rod without breaking it, but I think I would just be adding to my own frustration by trying that on this assembly.

[MikeMc]

The rear sway bar on this car will have to bend in at more than 90* because it's supposed to line up on the inside of the rear control arms. Sounds like you've figured out a way to manipulate styrene rod without breaking it, but I think I would just be adding to my own frustration by trying that on this assembly.

If you start with a long rod and measure and mark first, your body heat will allow clean smooth bends....do it slowly, bend past where you want and it will relax....takes a little practice The smaller the rod the easier it is!!

[Harry P.]

Aluminum or brass rod and superglue.