1/16 Scale Army Vega Funny Car - Finished 10/14/2018

[jedimark14]

Mooneyzs, thank you for the inspiration. I started building a 1/25th scale, i used some of the reference pics you posted. I'm not going for a ton of detail so mine wont look half as good as yours.

[bobber84]

Very good job

nice

[Mooneyzs]

Mark... Thank you for the kind words. Feel free to save any and all of the pics I post here. And if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Ardouin.... Thank you very much

[Mooneyzs]

Now that I have wrapped up my FED project. It is time to get back to work and boggie on this one. I got some bench time last night and tried to remember where I left of and decided that it is best for me to go ahead and fix the issues with my motor mid-plate and the body tin work that will sit on it when the body is down. A lot of my mock ups have been with the mid-plate just sitting in the chassis and not really bolting it up. So I decided to mock it up with the mounting hardware. I still have some work on the mid plate tonight but wanted to show what all I did yesterday.

So I started with sanding the sides of the mid-plate down because I previously was having a little bit of a fitment issue where it wouldn't slid in real easy and I knew I needed to trim the edges down a tad. Its all bolted in with Scale Hardware's .8mm threaded bolts:

Different Angle:

Was trying to get a close up of the bolt:

Side view of upper mount:

Opposite side, and here is where some little troubles come into play. Once I bolted the front motor plates up and got the mid plate bolted to the frame and started to mount the motor to the mid-plate. well I have a small issue where I am going to have to either add material to the engine block or add some material to the mid-plate. I am thinking adding a small spacer to the mid-plate will be easier:

More pics to come......

[Danno]

Awwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrright! Back to the bench!

Way to go, Chris. Get right back after that bad boy. Can't wait to see this one evolve into table-candy!

[Mooneyzs]

I am not sure How I got the engine to be off from the mid-plate but I may of over looked something with my original mock-ups way back when I started on the mounting of the engine. SO here you can see the light and the gap between the mid plate and the motor:

Looking straight down on the engine, everything seems to look good as far as the engine being square to the chassis:

Another view with light to see the gap a little better:

Here is a side view where the engine looks like there is no issues with how its sitting and how everything is straight:

Then I checked it with the body on to make sure everything cleared ok, and it was a perfect fit. The blower and injector hat sit perfect in the center of the body:

[Mooneyzs]

Awwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrright! Back to the bench!

Way to go, Chris. Get right back after that bad boy. Can't wait to see this one evolve into table-candy!

Thank you Danno..... You know it will get done this year. I am gonna be busting my butt on this one for the next few months

[Davewilly]

Bummer Chris on the mid plate....The motor looks as square as can be...maybe the vertical frame members the plate has its tabs on dont measure the same distance on each side from the front of the frame rails or something? Not that I know anything about using a scale or ruler! free hand that is...in cad I am pretty sure of my measuring skills though ....computers never wrong!

[Prostreet]

nice to see you back on this Chris, Sucks about the engine being off. Best bet at this point i would think is adding styrene to the back of the block. No one will ever know.

[GoatGuy]

Could be a little bit of both. If the plate is off a hair and the engine is off another hair, it adds up at one spot. I agree with Joe, just add a bit to the block.

[F/CNUT]

I have been looking at your pictures and I had a thought. Could it be that the plate should be installed at the front instead of behind where you have it now. Just thought considering you messed around with engine in while.

[Mooneyzs]

Dave... Yeah little bit of a bummer but I already knew I was going be reworking the Mid-Plate anyway. I am going to look at a couple other options as to reworking it. I will unbolt it in a few and check the tabs and measure the distance. I am also debating on maybe switching out the simulated bolts on the front motor mounts which are a little smaller size and maybe using a .8mm threaded bolt to see if that will help keep the fronts straight and sturdy because what I have now is somewhat loose and the fronts can shift just a little bit.

Joe... yeah good thing I decided to really check it out. well I knew it was kind of off because before when I have mocked up the tranny and had it all in the chassis I had to work it a little (not much to make the front plates sit where they were supposed to. I will get it correct. I did think about adding to the back of the block but was trying to avoid repainting the block...hahaha But I will do what I have too. maybe I can just blend that area in.

Dave. you are so correct about that. I could of had a brain fart when I originally set things up and I didn't catch it then. All I know is for all of my fuyure builds I know a few areas I will make sure and focus on so this doesn't happen again....haha liek getting the rear end, tranny, driveshaft and engine lines up. mainly the engine and rearend lined up with a straight rod or tube how they do it on the real ones. the way I look at it, I have learned so many little things from this build that I will do things different on another one.

Steve... You know that is a great idea. I will be honest I didn't think of that. I will have to mount it to the other side and see if it would work that way. It would make the gap less and maybe I could sand a little off the the back of the block on the one side if needed but I have a funny feeling either way I will need to add a shim piece to make it right but the time to do it is now to get it correct.

[Mooneyzs]

Paul... I actually measured the block this morning and the block seems fairly straight maybe off by a 1/64 or so. I did it real quick with my metal ruler on the 1/32 markings. I will double check it again when I get home frim work this afternoon. After that I measured the tabs on the top chassis tube and all 4 of those seem pretty consistant from the front of the chassis, as well as the distace between the tabs. Then I looked at the tabs that mount on the lower portion of the chassis for the mid-plate and that looks where maybe its a tad off. Tonight when I get home from work I am going to mount the mid plate to the opposite side of the tabs to see what it does and how it looks.

Currently the front motor mounts mount to those front tabs towards the front of the car and the mid plate mount to the aft of the back mounting tabs. I don't know if there is a right or wrong way for the tabs on ther rear to be in front or behind the mid plate. I did change the way my front motor mounts bold to the front of the block. Before i was using simulated hardware where the bolt just pushed in (and would be glued it on final mock up) which made those front mounts not quite so stiff. I drilled them out a tad and threaded them with scale hardwares .8mm threaded bolts. After doing that it made the front mounts much stronger. So with getting that set up first I can now make my way to the back of the block to fix the issue and gap there. It seems if I just flip the mid plate to the other side of the tabs that it would fix that gap. It is definitely a learning lesson that I will use for my next build and the type of hardware i will start out with to get everything lined up properly.

Sorry to be a little bit of a wind bag and talk your ear off on this..was just trying to explain the best I could so people would hopefully understand what I was talking about.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Mooneyzs

[topher5150]

I'm typing this to find the end of this thread

[Mooneyzs]

Kristopher... Thank you for the kind words.

Paul... Thank you. I am pretty sure that you are correct that back in the day they probably made it work however the needed too. I did what you said about bolting the mid plate to the block to check things from there.

[Mooneyzs]

I sat at the bench for a while tonight on how I was going to fit this issue I was having with the motor and mid-plate. Here are a few pics of what I did....

I had started out by removing the old simulated bolts and adding .8mm threaded bolts from Scale Hardware:

Next I bolted the midplate up:

Here is a shot of the front motor mount plates bolted in place:

[Mooneyzs]

Here is a shot of the bolts mounting the front of the engine to the chassis

Here is how the mid-plate sits now although I need to so a little work to the back of the engine but it looks much better than before:

Here is a bottom view and you can see where a little of my issue is. I will end up sanding the back of the block down in hopes of making the plate perpendicular to the block:

[Magic Photos]

Looks great Chris glad you are back on this build, I will give you a call tonight.

[gasser59]

I'm not sure what you did to fix the gap but it looks so much better. I noticed in the earlier photos, the back of the manifold was parallel to the back of the engine and neither one of those were perpendicular to the block. Is this still the case?

Rock on Chris.

[Pat Minarick]

Looking great, Chris.

[Danno]

Would a Slant 6 work better?

[Mooneyzs]

Mike.... thank you and sounds good.

Brad.... Thank you my friend. I didnt do much other than bolting the mid-playe to the block properly and I also sanded the mid-plate down around the spot that it butts up to the tabs. I still have little more rework with it but am happy its turning out good other than it seems its really time consuming because i want to make it correct and fit right so I dont have any issues when it comes to tue final assembly.

Pat.... thank you very much

Paul.... you are right that it is still a little off on the bottom tabs.I thinj when I originally mounted the bittom tabs that I didnt have the mid plate bolted to the block solid and things moved when I glued them in place. I rook your advice last night and bolted the mid plate to the block so that it was secure to the block and went from there test fitting and checking the fitment. So now when youlook st it from the top it doesnt look like it is off. The bittom side is a little different the tabs are off a tad and I have an idea i may try or as you said makde a small spacer piece for it. I van remember how much my bottom chassis tin covers. If i am right i made it to go up to the mid plate. Things should work out pretty good I am thinking.

Danno... i was thinking more like a 4 Banger....

[Scott Colmer]

This is looking really nice. Glad to see you are back on it.

I feel your pain on getting the engine to line up. Seems like every time I assume something will fit later, it doesn't.

Will the drive shaft still line up after the adjustments?

Scott

[Romell R]

Ace work Chris keep it up bro.

[John Teresi]

Chris……."Wow"……..I am totally IMPRESSED!!!! ……..I love it Brother