big tub, getting ready to pull out of the garage one sunny day

[jbwelda]

well, its been a busy summer but ive still be progressing on the model front, primarily the big

tub "quickie restore" thats become a bit more complicated. hope these photos dont turn out way

too big but here we go:

heres a shot of the motor mounted in frame with steering column and wheel:

this one shows the motor and front axle:

finally heres a shot of the engine front, showing the solution to the coolant cross pipe i

spoke of some time back. there will be a single hose going from the center spigot to the

radiator top...turned out looking pretty acceptable:

i am to the point of attaching the radiator and shell, then will cut a firewall for the deeply

channelled tub body, then build some floorboards and rudimentary seats and (hopefully)

call it done!

oh yeah then theres the cycle fenders for each wheel, and mounting the wheels and tires

themselves. coming soon...

more photos to follow as things progress!

one love

jah bill

[Smart-Resins]

Looking good so far!!Cant wait to see body on.......

[jbwelda]

got a bit more done over the past few days, mounted the motor for good, mounted the radiator

and grille shell (this is going to need to be revisited due to the problems installing the...),

radiator hoses.

also by popular demand, i stuck the body on it and the tires and wheels temporarily mounted,

while it was up on its stands:

and here it is on the ground (glass actually):

finally a three quarter front view:

again please excuse the crappy lighting on the photos, i have to build a proper photo box

one of these days!

anyway all is not exactly a bed of roses at this point. for one thing the body sits slightly off

center on the chassis and the real problem is not the body or frame, but instead the traction

bars between the chassis and rear axle. i already have cut and bent them to non-realistic

angles (luckily theyre mostly hidden) and they still interfere with the channelled body. but it at

least kinda fits.

second is even though ive painted the body, tamiya light blue pearl followed by tamiya clear, ive

found in my rush to get started on this "quickie restoration" i overlooked several body things i

would now like to clean up...like the bracket kinda things meant to hang the kinda dumb running

light lanterns, and those holes on the lower part of the body for the exhaust system. but at this

point i may do a quick and dirty on that, throw some primer spots on it and call it "in progress"

until (like a real life project) i find the time and/or funds to make it better...

then the front end is essentially ok except that the right tire assembly is very loose though not in

danger of busting off immediately. this came about from a "good enough" attitude when i spent

a bit of time redoing the front axle completely, and now its caught up with me.

all that said its coming together pretty nicely and i am learning a lot about modelling in this scale,

especially about building *strength* into every assembly, which i have been trying to achieve

mainly through the use of pins and epoxy, but of course some do slip by!

one love

jah bill

Edited August 24, 2007 by jbwelda

[cruz]

Very cool man

[Harry P.]

Wow...big model and BIG photos!!!

Looks good so far. Did you make the radius rods out of metal rod? They look awfully like real metal, not kit parts.

BTW...I know what you mean about building strength into every assembly. When I was doing my Big T's, I found that the finished frame had all the rigidity of a piece of cooked spaghetti. The thing flexed and twisted so bad I thought the front and rear axles would break off every time I picked it up to work on it. I finally made a stand out of styrofoam, where I could place the chassis on it and take the weight/stress off the axles while I worked on the model.

[jbwelda]

yeah sorry about the photos, for some reason the photo host i am using is getting kind of buggy

or something, and i cant seem to resize them...

yeah i made the radius rods, tie rod, steering rod and some other stuff out of aluminum tubing,

looks much better and is definately straighter than the kit parts.

the frame was pretty sketchy alright and i made it worse by cutting out some supports, but then added an aluminum tube front crossmember and did some supporting with epoxy. the frame on this car (i bought it built on ebay and tore it down to restore) had glue all over and needed a lot of work, work that of course doesnt really show because it was removal instead of building i was dealing with there!

you might notice the stands i built for supporting the front and rear axles, we are on the same wavelength on that one!

im starting on the floorboards tonite.

one love

jah bill

[Matt T.]

Neato!!

[Modelcarjedi]

Sweet RIDE !!!!!!

keith ross

[Modellpularn]

Hey cool! I've got a resto object of the Big Tub myself. One of these days I'll try and get my ###### together, and rebuild it. I like the fuel injection setup....

[jbwelda]

so now its got floorboards:

and a slightly different shot:

next up is finishing the body, making a turned alumunum firewall, a fuel tank,

and a pair of 6-volt batteries...

[jbwelda]

heres some progress shots just to rep a little bit and also i could have

this sizing biznezz licked:

seats, fuel tank, floorboards in place!

and from the back:

a close up of steering wheel, polished steering column, aircraft seats (will have

pillows in the bottom of them) and floorboards

and finally, a close up of the fuel tank. it turned out pretty good. note level gauge

hanging off the side:

now im off to kauai for a week to attend to some business, aloha!