My little bro went throught the industrial engineering college at Iowa State University and they had one of these maroon ch***is in the back room. He showed it to me once, but I kind of remember it being a '39 instead of a '40. They didn't use it any more, and he asked around about how to "get" it, to no avail. But years later we saw it at a local swap meet on display again, with a new owner, so it didn't get s****ped.
I teach Automotive and I have a sweet cutaway made by our local Caterpillar machine shop. It has all polyurethane bearings so it turns over real easily. I had my lab ***istants tear it completely down and clean all of the parts. I need a new motor for it. It has a fake alternator that is a plug-in 120V motor that is supposed to turn the engine over slowly but it does not work. Does anyone know where I could find such a thing?
Are there any tags or labels on what you have? Maybe you could post a picture of it? I can't be sure what you have, but the motor/gear reducer unit you describe sounds like others I have seen used to power cutaways in the same way. The ones I know of were made for commercial ice machines. And per your situation, they aren't very reliable when used to power a cutaway. I know Grainger used tio sell them. Unfortunately I can't offer a simiular but better alternative. The animated cutaways I built were all powered by an industrial motor snd gearbox hidden in the base of the display, and drove the cutaway through the support post(s) it was mounted on. The way yours is powered the drive is at least somewhat visible, and not too reliable, so I never did that, and 5t6herefore have no first-hand experience to offer. If you run the cutaway a lot you will find that plastic bearings wear/deteriorate. Also watch for wear in the valvetrain, and other areas where there is a lot of rubbing. When the engine is running be VERY careful about safety. Even when powered by a small motor there are all sorts of ways to hurt yourself.
At the British Motor Heritage Museum at Gaydon,England there is a fascinating Cutaway MGB split down the centre, both halves are displayed so that you can walk through the middle, <LI cl***="g knavi"> mgb cut away | Flickr - Photo Sharing! <****ON cl***=vspib type=submit></****ON> A cut up mg i have more pictures of this .at the British motoring heritage museum gaydon . <CITE>www.flickr.com/photos/21871659@N00/1468787656/</CITE> <CITE></CITE> <CITE></CITE> <CITE></CITE>
Keep 'em coming! I prefer the real ones (with closeups if possible) to the drawn ones though the drawn one are still cool. I remember a green kustom that was cut away by Harry Bradley in Street Rodder magazine that blew me away. He even swivelled the rear around to the side so it could be seen with one shot. Hard to describe - I'll have to search through my pile to see if I can find it again. It was cool. In fact I remember his name from that one feature I read so many years ago (around early 90s I think) so it must have left an impression.
Think of a cutaway illustration as a painting, and a physical cutaway as a sculpture. Becuase a cutaway illustration was created to be viewed as a painting they tend to show more than a photo of a physical cutaway. In illustrations you can have see-through parts, parts suspended in air, multiple points of perspective in the same picture, and changes in relative size to make things easier to see. With an actual cutaway it normally requires a series of photos to show the detail an illustration can show in a single drawing. Although an illustration is not the same as the actual hardware, and photos of cutaways are often used in magazines and adverti*****ts, a good cutaway is at its best when viewed in person.
In case anyone is still interested in this topic, "scootermcrad" from this forum contacted me. I sent him some cutaway pics and info which he posted on his blog. Some of the pics are the same ones I posted earlier in this thread, but there are others, and also more info about cutaways and my shop. http://scootermcrad.blogspot.com/2011/05/al-english-cutaway-master.html
Thanks again Al! Was great chatting with you and I appreciate you sending me all that info and the pictures. Since you sent me those I've been cutting all kinds of things apart. The toaster, my desk phone, my iPhone, my... Oh wait... Not really. But I would like to! HAHA!
On a good day, I might be able to cut something up. But could never scratch built it in 1/24th scale. Check out the tires, fuel filler, trans, dif, and engine pan.
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