Flipnose Hinge Tutorial: Gassers, Altereds, etc

[Ace-Garageguy]

This is a repop of something I put up a couple years ago at the neighbors. I'm seeing quite a lot of interest in gassers (several Corvettes recently), and though this was done specifically in answer to a question about the AMT Double Dragster Fiat, this general technique will work for just about ANY flipnose you might want to do. You can modify the shape of the arms to clear obstacles like radiators or Moon tanks etc, but the idea is the same. The real trick is to determine what's in the way, what has to be cleared, and then to be sure to tack the nose in place while you do all of the assembly. This GUARANTEES it will work as desired when you're finished, without ANY adjustment afterward, which in my own experience, is impossible. I build 1:1 hinges the same way.

NOTE: The parts I made for this tutorial were quick-and-dirty just to show the basic idea. 

The IMPORTANT thing to remember is to have your opening panel or hood tacked in exactly the right place as you do your measuring, mockups, fabrication and gluing. That is the ONLY way you can be assured of having your panel close in the right position EVERY TIME.

1) Hinge arms have to go up and over front suspension. Tack nose in place EXACTLY where you want it to be when closed and draw hinge arms on the side of the beak.

 

 

2) Transfer these to .030 styrene. Make 2, EXACTLY the same.

 

3) Then make a hinge. Styrene tube in this case with 1/16 aluminum tube inside it ( which has about a .030 inside diameter ), .030 wire inside that. The wire is the actual pivot.

 

 

4) Now use the hinge arms you made to locate and drill .030 holes on either side of beak, making sure they line up with an acceptable location for the hinge in the center

 

 

5) .Next, glue in your hinge center and let it set up. Nose is still tacked to frame to make sure everything stays aligned.

 

 

6) Glue your hinge arms in from the back, using the pin through the hinge center to keep everything aligned. You're gluing them to the frame of the car, NOT to the hinge.

 

 

7) It will look like this from the back. Ends of hinge arches are glued to frame crossmember.

 

 

8) Ta Daa....Let the adhesive on the hinge arms cure COMPLETELY. Then GENTLY break the tacking points of the nose loose. If you did everything right, you have this.

 

 

Hood will actually fit the car and come down in the right place every time. Make your pieces nicer than I made these quickies for this demo. There are other ways, but this works. You can make the hinge arms out of tubing if you want to do more work, but these blade type hinge arms could easily have been on a real car, most likely fabricated out of aluminum alloy plate.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[vintagercr]

Bill, thanks for the tutorial. I have always wanted to do a flip nose. Now I'm motivated.

[jeffs396]

Yes, thanks Bill!

You've made it look easy, will have to try it on the Hudson gasser that I've got the front clip removed from already...

[High octane]

Good job on the tutorial Ace, and thanks.

[farmer1]

Nice tutorial, Thanks, have a couple of those I'll use this on

[Marty "Hatchet"]

Now there's something I can use!

[mark wheat]

thank's for the tip

[Ace-Garageguy]

Bump.   

[TarheelRick]

Really nice work, great idea.  However I don't believe that would work on a full-fendered car unless the fenders were cut at an angle.  Any ideas on how to hinge one like that, without having to cut at an angle?

[Ace-Garageguy]

5 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

...However I don't believe that would work on a full-fendered car unless the fenders were cut at an angle.  Any ideas on how to hinge one like that, without having to cut at an angle?

   Depending on the specific body, it actually will work on some full-fendered cars where the cowl/nose intersection is narrowing as you go forward. It may be very tight, but it's often doable. In general, on the ones where it will work, the distance between the lower rear inner corners of the fenders has to be just a tick wider than the door front edges or cowl (as the rear of the nose piece arcs up-and-forward).

On "envelope bodied" cars like the '49 Ford and most everything built later, you're absolutely correct.

With a single hinge point, it's about impossible to get upward and forward movement happening quickly enough to avoid having the front clip sides foul the doors as it flips up.

Some kind of scissors hinge is required, but it's tough to do the secondary hinges in the smaller scales.

That's why I usually just do what a lot of the real car guys do...either make the nose come off entirely, or hinge it as above, but carefully 'spread' it at the back while opening to avoid nicking and scratching the doors.