Going to restore and rebuild a Johan 64 Dodge I dug out of the stash the other day. I love the Johan models.
Got started on the Johan '55 Pontiac. Robbed the wheels from a Revell '50 Olds. Originally planned on 2 tone red & white, but will probably go with solid "Pepper Red''.
Well, the trike is just about done. I wanted to do more wiring & plumbing but my eyes and hands said NOT HAPPENING! Now it's time for the trailer. I started with an old 60s built utility trailer bottom from my parts box, made a better looking tongue for it and the rest is scratch built . Here's a pic of the decals for it too.
This is not my build I did not build this just thought it was great !!! sorry can't remeber the name of the builder !!
The '55 Pontiac is on it's 3rd paint job. First was going to be "pepper red", but that wasn't very close to red. Strip with mineral spirits. Then, the roof & trunk get a really nice coat of shiny white & I'm just grinning ... searching the old boxes of model paint I find some metallic teal that will work nicely. I mask the white & shake up both cans of teal & of course, they don't spray. One did spatter just enough make me strip that side. Starting to wonder if I should be doing this .... Grab a big can of royal blue (which I try before painting the car this time) & shoot the lower ... comes out fine. I'm going to slow down & do this right. 2-3 days drying should do it. Off comes the tape !! And so does the white ... This doesn't surprise me. Mineral spirits won't touch this blue, but brake fluid sure does. Get it washed & & blown dry. Found a Dupli-color touch-up "Inferno Red" that looks good. That's how it's going to stay.
It's been at least an F-1 Trillion since I've posted here, but I've been busy... I finally finished my (circa 1954) scratch-built 1925 Dodgy Underslung slat flat racer. Here she is on location at the salt. Not Bonneville but the Great Slat Plains here in NW Oklahoma. From a galloping horse I think these photos bear a pretty close resemblance to a Bonneville shoot. The salt there is so fine, IMO it looks in scale to my 1/12 model. Next up will be some progress photos of my latest project. A scratch built 1/5 scale P-38 belly tank slat flat racer. BTW @greaser35, nicely done on your 3D printed model! PS: Well crap! Having trouble uploading images. I'm getting an error message that reads "There was a problem uploading your file". My photo is not particularly large @ 1.09m
Got it. Thought I was logged in, but I wasn't. A little rusty in the Matrix known as the H.A.M.B. Ha!
And so it began... My idea to build a larger scale belly tank salt flat racer started with an ordinary chore, cleaning up my back yard. I had an old (but not valuable) red wagon which had out-lived it's useful life, and was destined for the trash bin. But I had an idea. The wheels and tires seemed to be in good enough shape. At 8"dia., they would make a good start for a 1/4 scale (nearly 39" long) belly tank model. As it turned out the rust was too advanced inside the wheels to make that idea practical, but it got me thinking. The next idea came when I found a 1/6 scale die-cast Hemi on eBay. It was a mid 60's 426 so not right for the late 50's belly tank I had in mind and way too big. But I thought, why not use it as a basis to build a back-dated Hemi to resemble an early Chrysler. I could "shrink" the 426 Hemi to the approximate dimensions of a 331-ish c.i. by changing the scale to 1/5 from 1/6. I realize that most belly tanks ran Ford flathead V8's, but a few ran early Hemi's, which I thought would be really cool. So I got to work doing a 1/5 scale drawing of a P-38 Lightning Belly Tank from a drawing I found on the internet. Then I found an old gas station (6" dia.) rubber tire ash tray which was a nearly perfect diameter for 1/5 scale tires, again on eBay. I snagged it and sliced one of the sidewalls off to make a silicone mold. Then I cast 8 resin sidewalls from which I built 4 tires and the beginning of wheel structures. With the 1/5 scale solidified, it was time to bring the drop tank to 3D life from my 2D drawing. Layers of white foam core at each bulkhead with pink insulation foam between, formed to basis of the buck I would use to create 2 fiberglass shells. One shell for the top, and the other with a flattened area at the bottom of my belly tank. That's the idea anyway. Countless hours later of shaping and sanding; more sanding a layers of PVA white house primer, more sanding and filling followed by layers of automotive high build spray primer, the buck is ready for Fiberglass. Stay tuned... Here's the tires from the vintage rubber ash tray:
Hemi build pics: The first slide shows the 1/6 scale 426 die cast Hemi I bought, then the next slide is an inspiration pic of an early Hem that caught my eye. Last slides are my mods. so far, with Cal Custom style valve & valley covers, high rise intake manifold, twin 4 barrel carbs, and a Cal Custom style scoop. I started the headers which are just stubs now. I'll lengthen them once I have a solid plan for how they'll exit the drop tank shell.
Belly tank shells (top & bottom) coming to life. At 1/5 scale my drop tank will be about 31" long. The last slide shows the PVA mold release on the bucks...
Big step forward this weekend... I got the fiberglass laid up on the bucks, pulled the parts, and rough cut/sanded the flanges. I haven't done much fiberglass work before and certainly never pulled parts from a buck, so I was a bit nervous about the outcome. Another fear overcome. BTW, I am thinking about offering replicants of my drop tank as vacuum formed halves. I thought that at 1/5 scale, there might be a few RC builders that might want to build an RC belly tank, or there may be a few other nut jobs out there such as myself. that would like to have a head start on their belly tank static model project. I would include paper plans, and photographs of my build with the kits and maybe offer resin sidewalls as an option. I'm thinking RC guys will not want the side walls, but static model builders may. So what do you blokes think about this idea? I can't quote pricing until I have an idea of vacuum forming costs, but I do know of a local sign shop that would do it for me. So what say you? Later, David PS: I started building the pumpkin for my quick change rear end too. PSS: I did three layers of fiberglass. Seemed to be a good balance of stiffness and thickness of the parts (that's what the girl at the picnic said).
The Jalopy Journal
