Ace-Garageguy Posted November 8, 2013 Author Posted November 8, 2013 (edited) Last bench shots...morning light on the 'alloy' body. This is the 'bare metal', fresh-from-the-body-builder effect I've been working on for a little while now. The other side... On the trailer, going to Under Glass and the NNL Southern Nationals... Edited November 8, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy
Bernard Kron Posted November 8, 2013 Posted November 8, 2013 OMG Bill! That's heartache beautiful! Enjoy yourself at the NNL. I'm sure you'll spend the day discussing this masterpiece.
gasser59 Posted November 8, 2013 Posted November 8, 2013 A real stunner Bill. That looks great with an aluminum finish. Good luck, like you need it.
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 8, 2013 Author Posted November 8, 2013 OMG Bill! That's heartache beautiful! Enjoy yourself at the NNL. I'm sure you'll spend the day discussing this masterpiece. Thank you, Bernard. I know you have a particular fondness for this car...I'm glad you approve of the results.
Ace-Garageguy Posted November 8, 2013 Author Posted November 8, 2013 A real stunner Bill. That looks great with an aluminum finish. Good luck, like you need it. Thank you very much. I'm glad this much of it is finished... Looks fantastic ! Thanks a lot, Ray. I'm kinda pleased with the way it turned out too.
Skip Posted November 9, 2013 Posted November 9, 2013 Bill, i think you captured the look, looks like metal! Now you need to build an out of the box Challenger to sit side by side for comparison. Great job!
horsepower Posted November 13, 2013 Posted November 13, 2013 I agree, Bill. One of the more counter-intuitive trends in things automotive is the rise of the blunt nose as the dominant form in reducing drag. We see it everywhere these days, particularly in passenger cars,often aided and abetted by other factors such as the EU law mandating that at speeds below 10 kph a car coliding with a pedestrian must throw the hapless victim upwards and not under the car, and the move to increasing interior space by having passengers sit more upright. All this has eliminated the old long and low, "swoopy" streamline look from the automotive design vocabulary. It's fascinating to see it so obviously manifest in Thompson's Challenger. The injected car was fast, though not quite fast enough to be a record setter. But it was fast enough to attract plenty of additional sponsorship. I have no doubt your surmise is correct, that MT got some professional help and this accounts for the car's more blunt shape at the front. I'll have to scratch around the web some more to see if I can find some history on this matter but it's quite clear in comparing the two versions. How very, very cool... By the way, when it comes to voluptuous streamliners the old Hammon-Whipp-McGrath Redhead will never be equaled! Being from Redding, the home of bothe Roger Whipp, & Don Hammon, I got to see quite a bit of this car, personally I was really disappointed when the switched from the early Hemi to the "Baby Hemi" Daimler engine. I looked like someone left it in the dryer to long.
Ace-Garageguy Posted December 2, 2013 Author Posted December 2, 2013 (edited) There really IS a remarkable amount of information already available on this forum. I've been looking for some realistic velocity stacks for the FI on the early engines, and came up with these from searching the site. Not perfect, but definitely in the ballpark. http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=70078419 The stacks I'm looking for are much more bell-mouthed, like the one clearly visible in the far, front engine in this photo. Any suggestions? EDIT: Like these... Edited December 2, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy
Brett Barrow Posted December 3, 2013 Posted December 3, 2013 The Parts by Parks velocity stacks have a little more flare than most other aftermarket stacks: I seem to recall some resin stacks that have even more of a bell shape, but I can't recall who made them. Rep & Min, maybe?
Ace-Garageguy Posted December 3, 2013 Author Posted December 3, 2013 Thanks for the photo, Brett. Based on this and a couple of responses I got over on the "resin and aftermarket" board, I'm going to order the Parks versions. Cut down to the height I need, I think they'll give as close to the right look as I'm going to get (which looks pretty close to me) without taking a lot of time to make custom parts. Thanks again.
Ace-Garageguy Posted December 26, 2014 Author Posted December 26, 2014 No pix, but just a little update. I finally pulled the trigger and sprung for 4 sets of the Parts by Parks stacks, and located a can of the right period-Pontiac-engine-blue. Shortly after the first of the year, I should also be in possession of a fresh gallon of the magic epoxy aircraft resin I use to build molds and body skins. All comments, negative or positive, entirely welcome. Anyone who might have photos of the non-blown car's guts, with the skins off (other than what's on the net), please contact me as well.
misterNNL Posted December 26, 2014 Posted December 26, 2014 A beautiful streamliner.Exceptional attention to panel fit and finish.Thanks for sharing your techniques with us!
Bernard Kron Posted December 27, 2014 Posted December 27, 2014 Here are the Parts by Parks stacks siamesed. There's plenty of metal to work with so manner and the degree to which you pair them is easily controlled.
Ace-Garageguy Posted December 27, 2014 Author Posted December 27, 2014 Thanks for the shot of the modified stacks, Bernard. That's almost exactly what I'll have to do, and I appreciate the info.
Ace-Garageguy Posted February 8, 2015 Author Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) Have the engines back on the bench, as I've now got all the injector stacks and Hilborn bodies in one place (there's one more set of injectors in an unopened Thames kit). Edited February 8, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy
chris chabre Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 did you ever end up making any bodies Bill?
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 24, 2019 Author Posted January 24, 2019 On 1/22/2019 at 2:04 PM, Don Sikora II said: Great project. Thank you sir. 22 hours ago, chris chabre said: did you ever end up making any bodies Bill? Not yet. The water-based release agent I tried had an adverse reaction with the surface finish, and I didn't want to use a silicone-based product. There's another one I have used in the past that might work, it's a two-pert process, I've run out of the first part, and the new minimum quantity is a gallon...and it's not cheap. Still kinda studyin' on which way to jump.
chris chabre Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 well when/if you do, Ill most likely be in the market! I use to land speed race and love land speed cars
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 24, 2019 Author Posted January 24, 2019 13 hours ago, chris chabre said: well when/if you do, Ill most likely be in the market! I use to land speed race and love land speed cars There will be almost-scale-thickness fiberglass copies at some point, mainly because I want to finish the guts of the injected version and be able to remove the body panels to show it all off. The body now is really just a plug for the molds, but it came out so nice, I'm a little hesitant to bugger the finish to make molds. I finished the plug for a show here, but it didn't get as much attention as I thought it would. I overheard a couple of folks saying "ah, that's nothing...just a diecast that's been sanded on". Pretty effective finish though, if people up-close thought it was really metal.
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 24, 2019 Author Posted January 24, 2019 (edited) 46 minutes ago, Bob Ellis said: Which MIckey Thompson car had Tempest 4s? Attempt I ran single Pontiac 4-cylinders of various displacements to set multiple world records...several of which still stand (IIRC). Edited January 24, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy
Dr. Trevorkian Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 I will NEED a copy of your fantastic work when/if they become available.
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