Remember Your First Model Car?

Hello,

Our first model custom car was an open roadster with an SBC motor. But, the stock pipes in the kit were ok, but, it was supposed to be a custom build. So, I got a hold of some jewelry store “lost wax casting rods” to create some nice side pipe headers for the exposed motor.

Similar rods used to create a separate header pipe system

When I installed them, they were soft enough to shape into a nice set of headers. I flared the ends to create a slight wider opening on each pipe. They were soft enough to shape into headers, but for the long run, sitting on a shelf, they were a failure. Why? Well, during the winter, our house heater warmed up the den where we did our model building. When it got warm, the solid wax rods got soft and started to droop. That was not going to work. But, no model kit had made nice set of headers for any motor let alone a SBC motor.
Lost wax casting rods came in all sizes and were used to create any shape of design for casting projects in jewelry. The “lost wax casting rods” were available at our local hardware/supply store and jewelry/hobby shops.

(in jewelry making, the label, “lost wax casting” was a term that virtually melted the wax shaped rings and necklaces when the hot melted gold or silver was poured into the sand casting hole. Therefore: the wax disappeared due to being melted away… a lost wax casting…)

(In our high school metal shop, we used a finished shape of molten metal Lincoln head. Packed it in a wet sand mold, cracked open and took out the original solid shape. Then put the mold back together, gingerly, and then stood back as the melted, hot liquid metal got poured into the little holes in the sand mold. There was no lost wax as the empty hollow molded shape was the “lost wax,” nothing to melt, the solution was already liquid.)

(In jewelry making, the wax rods are pliable to shape any angle or shape. If the shape needed a knife edge, then an X-acto knife blade made the wax shape smoother. Once the wax shape was ready, then the sand got poured all around the wax form. When the liquid molten metal is poured in… then it is shaped by the sand making the outside shapes and only the wax get melted by the hot liquid… therefore: lost wax casting…” your original design is lost and now your have a custom shape of molten metal to shape and clean up. )

Blue insert is the backside view of the silver wax headers. The side of the headers shown to the public is stock, smooth and no rod showing.

The wax rods in themselves are stiff, but pliable. So, my header pipes needed a stiffener to keep the shape of the rod curves and straight pipe angles. The solution was to melt thin metal wire into the wax surface not seen by having the model hot rod sitting in any angle. Once that was done, the wax rods stayed up all winter and even in the hot summer months.

Jnaki

Our next version of models with headers had the same shaped lost wax casting rods bent to fit any header placement and we installed those thin wires for support. YRMV

 

Interesting and very inventive. Use what you have available. Today you can buy styrene sheet, strip, tube and rods in various thicknesses and diameters. The rod can be bent to shape. Keep in mind there is some spring back.