Petty '69 Talladega and '69 Torino

[Scottnkat]

Well, I started on some rollcages this evening. I put together the main parts of the Polar Lights rollcage, then used that as a template to start building the one for the AMT kit. Not alot of progress - sorry, but it's new to me. I started by building the back wall - I need to make some adjustments, but I think this will come out okay. So here's a pic of my progress so far:

[Bartster]

That's a big reason I stick to street cars, the patience it takes for roll cages & frame work sadly left me long ago. I'm always impressed by those who still have it! Coming along nicely, Scott. keep em coming.

[Scottnkat]

Well, I've been busy but not alot to show for it. I've been looking at the AMT chassis - boy, does this thing stink! Here's a shot of top and bottom:

Unless I get hit by inspiration, I am thinking of leaving the bottom of the chassis mostly as is with the exception of adding the fuel cell cover, building up the cage in the engine compartment, etc. The top of the chassis is something else - that just won't work at all and I can't (or won't) use the interior for this kit as it will be even farther away from what I am going for than it will be already. So, I pulled out some sheet styrene - yep, I'm gonna cover that nasty chassis, make that the floor, and work from that. I'll also be building the cage around the engine as well and not using the stock pieces for that. Once again - something I have never done before. On the bright side, I've build the two engines for these cars - not completely built up, but just the bare engines.

Sorry for ranting - this is turning into a heck of a challenge for me. But I'm gonna do the best I can while trying not to get in over my head.

[Scottnkat]

That's a big reason I stick to street cars, the patience it takes for roll cages & frame work sadly left me long ago. I'm always impressed by those who still have it! Coming along nicely, Scott. keep em coming.

I can honestly say that I don't still have it - I never had it to begin with!! he he he. But this is good exercise for me and it's always good to try something new. Heck, if I totally screw this up, you all will be there to see it. But I am giving it a shot!

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

[Evil Appetite]

Regarding the issues I remember my LHS owner talking about. I spoke to him quickly today, he said that if he remembers correctly...if you install the dash the way it says in the instructions, the body wont fit around it properly. "Test fit!"

[Evil Appetite]

Mike / Scott

Lannys fotki site goes in to the engine fit question. It only happens when your building the 429 C.I. motor. Lanny shows you how he corrected the fit problem, I tried it and everything went right into place. Also, your going to have to shave a small amount from the front of the wheel arches on the fenders. Once again lannys build will get into this as well.

cant beleive I missed this. Thanks kitbash...thats def going into my reference links for future builds

[Evil Appetite]

Well, I've been busy but not alot to show for it. I've been looking at the AMT chassis - boy, does this thing stink! Here's a shot of top and bottom:

Unless I get hit by inspiration, I am thinking of leaving the bottom of the chassis mostly as is with the exception of adding the fuel cell cover, building up the cage in the engine compartment, etc. The top of the chassis is something else - that just won't work at all and I can't (or won't) use the interior for this kit as it will be even farther away from what I am going for than it will be already. So, I pulled out some sheet styrene - yep, I'm gonna cover that nasty chassis, make that the floor, and work from that. I'll also be building the cage around the engine as well and not using the stock pieces for that. Once again - something I have never done before. On the bright side, I've build the two engines for these cars - not completely built up, but just the bare engines.

Sorry for ranting - this is turning into a heck of a challenge for me. But I'm gonna do the best I can while trying not to get in over my head.

Yeah some of those older chassis are real stinkers...the 'less is more' philosophy sure doesnt apply there does it! The build is looking really good..keep it up!

[Scottnkat]

Well, I did get some time to work on the cars today. The rollcage for the Torino is beginning to take shape. I do have some clean up to do and some filing, but at least now it's starting to resemble what it's supposed to be. Hopefully I will have more time tomorrow for more work so I have a better update. In the meantime, there's this:

[Bartster]

Good to see you workin bro. Its a little beyond me now, but I hope to learn by watchin. please keep it up!

[Scottnkat]

Thanks for the comments, guys. So far I've just been using styrene rod and sheet - nothing cast in resin yet. Sorry It's going so slow, but I'll try to have more time for fun tomorrow.

[car-man666]

don't put to much stess on you're back , my advise,,,have some fun, after , when you admire you're kit on the shelf, a couple of time after, you'l remember the good time and the effort ,not how it was a pain in the a,, to build.i know ,we all want to make the best piece of work ,but is it worth the rage and discouraged .you're a artist , and i'm sure everyone else in this forum is . critism is the devil of every artist, be an angel and continue with you're great WIP.

[Scottnkat]

Thanks for those words, man - by the way, I love your profile picture - too bad there's no kit for that

[car-man666]

Thanks for those words, man - by the way, I love your profile picture - too bad there's no kit for that

well, it just came from the heart, and that the way i think, my 3 years old son came to me with the frame of my 62 bel air and sayed "papa's racing car broken", and found the rest of the pieces on the sofa, he had tried how well it rolled, what was i had to say? how would i had to react ? i just kneed in front of him and explained that daddy's toys are not like his,,, just the look in is eyes ,for me was enough, and let me tell you ,that when i was is age ,my dad would'nt had react my way...well just to say that i'm promoting patience and understanding.i think that its inside of me .gee ,i'm confessing myself here.... sooo,,,, to make a long story short, i love the patience, the thoroughness and the technique we put into modeling car (and the other stuffs). i believe that the craft take alot of dexterity, handling and all , and it's so relaxing.you think?

on other topic ,my nick is car-man666 ,"the car" represents evil being beaten by men, and it's a great build by George Barris , one of my youth hero ,,, guess that it's normal to be my avatar, (and it's a shame that they don't do it as a models no more ,agree with you 100%) and ,,,just love the style of that ride + the Batmobile(hey!... hey! . Dark cars are giving me gooood chills.

Bare with me , i don't want to make everybody falls asleep..period, go to bed now.

[Scottnkat]

Thanks for sharing that little bit - I can relate. I've got five kids still at home and I've been trying to give them a better dad than I had growing up. I've had my share of things broken by them too, but you've still gotta love 'em and teach 'em. I've been getting the youngest four into model building as well - my 14 year old is building a vinyl Ghost Rider, my 13 year old is building an A-10 Warthog, the 11 year old is building a Plymouth Prowler (alongside dad building one, too), and my 9 year old just finished a '63 Corvette. It's great spending time with them, they get to build something to be proud of, and they get to learn about the proper way to handle models now.

When "The Car" first was released, my buddy Jonathan and I watched it together. Our parents didn't like it, but we both thought it was the coolest thing we'd seen. When I got older, I had to buy the DVD, of course!

[Scottnkat]

I did some sanding on the Torino floor, then sprayed it with primer so I could see where I was at. Yep, sure enough - I need to putty and sand some more. So while I was waiting for the primer to dry, I had some time to get a couple of engines and transmissions done up into their basic format. Yes, they still need a little work, but they are getting going. Here's the AMT 427 and the PL 429 Boss blocks:

[Scottnkat]

Well, I did some work on the Torino body today. Remember how it looked in the beginning?

Well, here it is now - there's just a small lip to hold the hood on and the small back brackets. Forgive the blach "cut" line - I still have to clean that off:

This looks much better than the full inner fenders and that terrible radiator support with those two huge cylinders. It's nice to have something go right the first time on this build.

I also did some work on the chassis floor - sanding and puttying. It'll be nice when I get that part done so I can put the rollcage on there and make it start looking like something recognizable.

[Scottnkat]

Well, did a little sanding on the chassis floorboards and this is how it looked:

Not perfect, but I figured I could live with it. But before I fit the rollcage to the floor, I really need to make sure that it's all going to fit in the Torino body. Well, it fits:

So I glued the rollcage to the chassis and primed it so I could see where I need to sand (yep - gotta make some parts more even):

It's not a great job, I know. However, I am proud of it for what it is - it's been a learning experience. This has been my first time using sheet styrene to make a floor like this and I had never used rod styrene for anything at all before. Okay - things to note for next time:

1) Make a template of all the pieces so I can duplicate curves, length, etc. Trying to do this all freehand is messy and things can end up crooked or just plain wrong. Next time will be better.

2) Use paper or cardstock to make templates of things to be cut out of sheet styrene. Once again, doing something by eyeballing it is not the best way to do something and just creates more work.

3) Come up with a plan and stick to it. I just kinda jumped into this project with both feet without actually thinking things through. If I make a plan, then I will know what needs to be done when and how I am going to do everything.

I mentioned at the beginning that this was going to be a learning experience for me and it has been. Hopefully, I can take what I am learning from this experience and make the next one better. Also, I hope anyone thinking about doing something like this will also make note of my errors so they won't make the same mistakes I have.

I think that's it for tonight. More to come for sure.

[baloney]

it's going to look pretty good!

[Bartster]

You're doing great Scott. Just attempting a build like this is a noble endeavor, & you seem to be handling every bump in the road like a Petty. Keep up the good work.

[Scottnkat]

Well, I've been working on mixing silicon today, everyone. Yep, the time has come for me to try my hand at making resin parts. First, I had to make a part that was not included in either kit. See, this is what the rear end cooler looks like in the car I found for reference:

Well, neither kit had a piece like this. So I thought about it and decided that I could build this in two parts - one part for the main body and the other just a cylinder cut from styrene rod. Then I could do a one piece mold to make copies. So I got out the modeling clay and made the main body part. I then cut off a piece of rod and sanded the ends smooth. Here's how they looked:

The rod looks weird but that's because part of it was painted and the paint matches the background. Well, I got those nice and stuck to a piece of glass so they wouldn't float up when I poured the silicon. I then used Legos to build a wall around it the right size allowing room on all sides:

I then used modeling clay to seal the bottom of the mold walls (the Legos) to the glass. It looked like this:

I decided to go ahead and make molds for other parts as well at the same time. So, I am taking a mold of the PL tires (notice the modeling clay inside the tire - these won't be hollow and I couldn't figure out how I'd get the tire out if I didn't do this), the rims (both parts), the PL rear bumper (it has the nice edges that the stock Torino doesn't), and a CrossRam manifold for a later project.

I am trying three different things with this:

1) Making a single piece mold

2) Making a two piece mold using clay to form the base when pouring the first part

3) Making a two piece mole using nails to hold a piece suspended in the silicon

Here's pics of everything all ready for the silicon:

At this point, I was thinking I was ready to mix the silicon...

PS - if anyone that has experience with resin casting has any comments or suggestions, I am all ears...

[Scottnkat]

Well, I mixed up the silicon. The instructions state a 10:1 ratio between the two parts. I pulled out the postal scale and used that to make sure I got the ratio correct. Here's the silicon carefully stirred so as to not introduce bubbles and ready for pouring:

I then started pouring into a corner and letting the silicon roll and pour over all the parts:

And here's the pieces the way they will sit for the next 8 hours to dry. Heck, it'll be overnight as I won't have time to get back to this until tomorrow after work at the earliest.

[Scottnkat]

He he he - I asked Stephen if he had some extra Legos that I could use. He brought me a 5 gallon bucket and said, "Here. Take whatever you want" - I did. I not have my own Lego stash.

[Scottnkat]

Okay, I just got home from work a little while ago and started looking at the silicon parts. The first thing I had to do was remove the clay from each of the molds. So, the one-piece mold I had made of the clay parts was first. I used a couple of picks to pull all the clay out of the silicon. I then turned my attention to the majority of the other molds - the ones with the clay on the bottom. I turned them upside down and used the picks to pull all the clay out of each of those molds as well. Note that I didn't have to do this for the mold using the nails to hold the tire in place. This may be a benefit of using the nails instead. Here's all the molds with the clay removed:

I broke the Legos off the one-piece mold as this mold is done. I found that the silicon had seeped into the Legos a bit, but was retained inside the Legos I assume because of how the Legos are made (two sides and firmly snapped into each other).

As with the clay, I used the picks on the silicon to pull it off of each Lego piece:

In order to make sure that each half of the mold fits together the way they are supposed to, I made a small trench in each piece. The new silicon will flow into this trench and make a pin and hole to ensure that the molds are lined up properly when I go to use them - one note: I did not do this to the one with the nails. On that one, the nails themselves left the trenches to ensure alignment. I am also keeping one of the nails in so I will have a ready-made hole to pour the resin in. The other three holes were covered with packing tape:

Finally, you need to use silicon release on the silicon halves before you pour the new silicon in. Silicon will bond with already cured silicon. By using this, it will ensure that the second half won't get bonded to the first half. It says to use this three times before pouring the second half of the mold.

Well, back to work - I'll catch up in a bit.

[Scottnkat]

Okay, while I was mixing up the silicon again, I started thinking - if newly mixed silicon adheres to fully cured silicon, then I should be able to use the old silicon scraps to help "fill" the molds so I don't need to use as much newly mixed silicon. So I cut up the old silicon into small pieces as shown here:

I then used the "chunky" silicon to pour into the molds. They are all sitting now and curing.

Maybe tomorrow, we can take these molds apart, see how they are, and mix some resin. Woo hoo!!!

[Bartster]

You're on a roll, Scott. Must be butter! Very interesting. Can't wait to see how it turns out....Tomorrow:(