1/16 Scale Front Engine Dragster Project - Finished

[eviltwincustoms]

Great job on the pain,decal and clear work... now onto the tedious part of color sanding, polishing and waxing it out.

[Mooneyzs]

Hey Joe... Thanks man. I have been debating if I was going to go back and redo the radius rods on this one. I started this kit 15 years ago and the chassis was build to what you see here with the front end like that. The only thing I have done to it this year is the paint and decals. I really want to get this kit finished and have been focusing more on my 1/16th scale Funny Car. If you take a look at that thread you will see that I am using RB Motions rod ends there. Robert does some great work and I love his products. I recently had him to some custom nuts for me, which will be for all of the fiting ends on the injector and manifold fuel lines. After using the rod ends on the funny car, I will most likely go back and fix the ones on this build too. It looks so much better than what they provide in the kit. I do have to ask where did you get your .050 Stainless tubbing from? On my funny car I used 1/16 aluminum tubing and had to drill the ends out a tad. I am hoping to get to work more on this one here soon. The body needs to be finished color sanding and polishing out. so far I have only gotten two of them done.

Darryl... Thanks man. this was all shot with HOK and PPG base coats and PPG's 2020 Urathane Clear.

Bart... Thanks.... the color sanding and polishing may be tedious but worth it in the end ..... I am having issues trying to figure if I sould work on this or the Funny Car... :lol: haha.... I really would like to have this one finished before the funny car just because the detail level isn't at extensive on it and since It would be nice to finish it up. Guess I need to split my time on these two build. I was hoping to have both done possibly by the NNL's in Santa Clara in Feburary but not sure if i will get them done due to work right now but wanted to finish them up in time for the Arizona Desert Scale Classic in April this next year.

[BigDaddy]

Chris........I'll have to check out that thread with the Funny Car !

Yeah, the RB motion stuff is just awesome. My shaky, fat fingers have a tuff time once in a while..........but going slow and deliberate gets me where I want to go !!!

Im also a bit of a slot car drag racer/builder. I get all my stainless tubing from WRP - Wilde Racing Products. Paul Wilde is like us.....a drag racing fruitcake !! Check his website....www.bracket500.com/wrp. Mostly commonly, the slot cars use .050, .072, and .082 stainless tubing. He also has his stuff on eBay, under the seller name "WRP-1". He sells his tubing in 12 inch lengths, but if you pay the shipping, Im sure he'll sell you 36 inch sticks. The good thing about the tubing Paul sells is that the .050 will slide into the .072, and the .072 will slide inside the .082. For slot car drag racing, it's a nice touch. But, for model building, it's not all that necessary. There are other sellers on eBay that sell Paul's products, and they have his tubing as well. "amerpak" is one who Ive bought Pauls tubing from.

On the other hand, someone in another thread mentioned smallparts.com. I perused that site and found stainless tubing there, as well. In a MULTITUDE of diameters, lengths, and wall thicknesses !!!

Either way, you'll find what you need.

Im currently in the middle of an all stainless steel FED slot car drag car. .082 main rails, with .072 upright braces, with .050 triangulated bracing. Soldered together, at 1/24th scale, minus all the running gear, motor, wiring, guide flag, and styrene body/scale Hemi....it weighs 30 grams. The trick is fishmouthing all the tubing ends to create good joints. .050 doesnt fishmouth well !!!! Not in my banana-fingered hands !!!!! hahahaha

The neat thing about slot car drag racing is that I can still build models, but watch them hurl down the scale strip at silly speeds !!! All the hard core slot geeks who race cars that barely resemble even a funny car, have no clue how I get a very accurate looking slot car drag car. I just tell them ....."cuz Im a model builder first, slot racer second."

Again, great work on this one. This has inspired me to scratch build a frame or two for a static model of an FED. Keep em comin' !!!!

[Mooneyzs]

Joe... Thank you for the information on the tubing I will take a look and make an order. Thanks for also letting me know which sizes are telescoping. I am looking forward to seeing some of your builds they sound awesome. Gotta ask what are you soldring the stainless tubes with? Are you using the same thing you solder brass with? Thanks

Edited November 4, 2011 by Mooneyzs

[BigDaddy]

Yes, actually using regular ol' rosin core solder. But, I use an Acid Flux. Brush it on the joint, and tin the tip of iron and let the solder flow off the iron when touching it to the joint. The Acid Flux is made my "Lucky Bob's" and works great for the slot car stuff. it has a brush attached to the cap, just like a nail polish bottle cap.

The flux is there to provide the solder a place to "bite" the steel. Without the flux, very hard to get the solder to flow onto the stainless. Soldering brass with the same stuff works great also. Rosin flux works, but not like this acid stuff !! But, you MUST neutralize the acid after soldering the chassis. Washing it down in hot soapy water, then light scrubbing with an old tooth brush in baking soda/water does the trick. Otherwise, the acid flux residue will start to corrode the metal. On brass, it will literally turn it green over nite !! Soldering steel piano wire chassis is the same way. It will rust, AND corrode inside of a day, unless the acid residue is neutralized.

I'll post some photos of the bare stainless chassis, un-painted, soon. Ive had a project for a friend going lately of a 1938 Willys Pro-Mod slot drag car. Ive had that in the building stage for over a year, and since the resin body is a ONE OF A KIND, I have been very leary of working on it !! The FED is in the final build stage, and awaiting running gear and a body along with a scale 392 Hemi. Ive got a few other cars that Ive built over the last few years, and subsequently sold off, and I will post those as well.

Also, forgot to mention to you that JDS Racing also sells stainless tubing. He has the same diameters, but also has .065 tubing. 12 inch lengths. Joe Cardoza is the owner of JDS. Slot car drag racing specific companies, but with an eye for the realism of drag cars. Not just the flat, lexan bodied land rockets. www.bracket500.com/jds These sites are specific to slot car drag racing, but I find invaluable, due to the gallery of slot car builds that is associated with the main site. Inspiring is the bare minimum for words to describe it ! Some of these guys really show their model building roots, with the amount of detailing they put into a slot car !!!!

[Ira]

Beautiful Paint Chris!!!

[Mooneyzs]

Well Fellas... In the midst of building the Army Vega Funny Car, I have decided to knock the dust off of this build that I started 17 years ago and of which I painted 3 years ago right before I dove into the Army Vega build. And well since I have not completed a model in the past three years I figured it was time to finish the one. Keep in mind that everything you see here was done when I was about 20 years old Everything that you see in the 1st pic is what has been sitting for the past 17 years other than the Machined Aluminum Specialties Photo-Etch Wire wheels and the new radius rods. This weekend I worked on the Wire wheels and the updated radius rods. There isn't a whole lot left to do to this build and with our Local Contest coming up next month, I wanted to have something to enter since I didn't enter anything the done for the year before other than putting the funny car on the display table. Here are some pics to share...

 

 

Here is a quick over view of all of the parts. Everything seen here was done as I mentioned 17 years ago, other than the paint and the front wire wheels:

 

 

 

 

Here was the start this weekend when I was going to redo the radius rods and make the front wheels, as you can see I removed the radius rods already in this shot:

 

 

 

Here is the kit radius rods removed and the new ones mocked up on the chassis. I ended up using 1/16" dia aluminum tubing and I decided to try out the TDR rod ends. I really wanted to use RB Motion rod ends because I think they look better but I only had one pack of 4 in the size I wanted plus I didn't want to dump a whole lot of extra money into this one:

 

 

 

 

Upclose Shot:

 

 

 

And another view:

 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Mooneyzs

[Mooneyzs]

Here is the kits radius rods removed and the new radius rods I fabricated. I painted the rods a silver color and used scale hardware nuts to go on the rod end and polished the aluminum tubing:

 

 

 

 

Here are the MAS photo-etch wheels. Man were these a bugger to put together. They had me frustrated for sure. I have a few more sets of these for some other build but I will have to make a jig or something to better align and put them together. But I will say that they look a little better than the kit wheels but my other sets the main rim portions look better because they aren't as big:

 

 

 

 

The new rods mocked up, I need to cut down the long bolts for the front and then just glue them in place then they will be done:

 

 

 

 

Here is a straight on view. Now I am not sure on the real cars if they tires camber was like this or not and wondering if it was just the way the front end went together way back when I did this but I am half tempted to heat the front end up to try and make the wheels have a little less camber in them...lol:

 

 

 

 

 

Another shot of the front end:

 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Mooneyzs

[Skypower]

Wow that looks sweat Chris great job.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Good idea wrapping this one up. The dragster looks great. Also as you said it shouldn't take to much to wrap up.

[Chi-Town Hustler]

Chris,

Top notch, incredible work as always....

As far as the front wheel camber question, I can recall seeing several photos of older diggers with the fronts cambered outward a slight bit, but can't recall ever seeing any that were cambered inward....That might be a real handful to drive!!....Not saying they couldn't be but my recollections were either outward a slight bit or straight up and true....

Out of curiosity, how were you planning to heat up the front end without risking damage if I might ask?....

Or, is there possibly a way of redoing the bolt holes on the top of the "C" joints where they attach to the front axle to achieve a truer vertical camber?....Just a thought....Either way, it's a stunning model to say the least!!

Cheers

Edited March 18, 2014 by Chi-Town Hustler

[majel]

Holy cow Chris, 17 years and its not finished yet!! There's hope for me and my incredibly slow building habit! Seriously, that is an amazing looking dragster. Didn't I see this a year or two ago at DSC on the display table? It will be nice to see it finished next month, you've inspired me to get my two wrapped up before the contest.

[John Teresi]

Wow Chris……your getting some great work done on this build……i`m so glad you decided to finish this build……looking good brother

[Mooneyzs]

Bob... Thank you very much.

Bob... Thank you. Yeah there really isn't much here is my basic list of to do on it:

1. Finish Color Sanding and Polishing Body

2. Paint inner body panels black

3. Build Machined Aluminum Specialties photo-etch wire wheels for front - Done

4. Remove kits radius rods - Done

5. Redo radius rods with TDR rod ends - Done

6. Work on Kit headters

7. Glue Rear End in

8. Paint rear brakes

9. Hook up rear brake lines

10. Install Bell housing to engine

11. Install engine and drive line

12. Install gas clutch, break and gas pedal

13. Install steering shaft

14. Make a Parachute

15. Install Parachute and Chute line

16. Glue tires in place

Done...lol

Lee... Thank you. I do have to agree with you I have seen more of the rails with the camber outward slightly. The kit just seems like they are way too much out there you know...lol So I was hoping to some what correct it a little if I could. I think I was going to try a hair dryer on the front axle just to see if I could soften the plastic a tad and see if it would work but i am leary about doing it...lol I may be able to do what you said and take a look at the joint of the front axle. I can't remember exactly how the spindles is connected to the axle off the top of my head.

Jim.... Yeah this build was something I started before I went off to college and I really didn't do much building during college like I would of liked to and then I went on a course of not building for quite some time but now I am back at and have been for the past 3 to 4 years. You are correct you did see this at the DSC on the display table. It will be finished for this next one I feel I really haven't accomplished much since I have had nothing new done for the past 3 years granted I am very proud of the funny car and how its turning out so far. can't wait to have it at the DSC finished in 2015...lol

John.... Thanks brother. Its coming along and I think I should be able to build a little of this one at your speed ...hehe Thanks for giving me that extra encouragement and basically convinced me to finish it for the show next month. Without you pushing me I don't think I would of finished it cause of trying to have more progress on the funny car to show there.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Mooneyzs

[Danno]

Go, Chris, go!! Finish that baby.

Looking forward to seeing them both on the tables next month!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Chris I think that trying to use heat to fix the camber isn't a good idea. Are the spindles plastic or metal. If they are plastic you could adjust the camber by redrilling the holes.

[swamprat58]

Awesome work Chris!

[comp1839]

great to see you finishing this one chris!!! gonna be awesome when you're done!!!!!

[Mooneyzs]

Danno.... Thanks buddy. I had to have something to show next month

Bob... The spindles are the plastic kit ones and the way I have glued them in and did the body work on the axle, don't think there is an easy fix for it....lol I could see if I could cut the axles off and redo but sorta leary at the moment on it...haha

Kevin.... Hey Buddy its great to see you on here. Hey will you PM me your email Addy I have some photo's I want to send to you that I told you about a while back, I finally got them scanned into my computer. Hope you are doing well. You should show some of your gorgeous builds here. Have you talked to Paul or George lately?? Tell them Hi the next time you see them.

Dave... Thanks buddy. Yeah Its gonna feel good to get this one into the Done bucket...lol I think it will turn out ok. Just the camber on the wheels is bothering me but I don't want to tear the whole front end apart haha.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Chris,

Might be better to leave it alone. If you ever do another take it into account. You have done a lot of nice work on this.

[Mooneyzs]

Bob.... I was also thinking that to just leave it and when I do my next 1/16th FED I will make sure to fix the camber then.

[Prostreet]

Chris, great looking build, can't wait to see it finished. What you have there is alot of positive camber. I have never seen pictures of any with positive camber, most i have seen have a tiny bit of negative camber, not sure how much they put in. Here's what they usually look like. Chris, did you glue the spindles on allready? I wonder if you may have put them on the wrong sides?

Negative camber.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Prostreet

[Mooneyzs]

Joe... Thanks bud.... You know it makes me wonder if I glued them on wrong 17 years ago... I think I may have. I wonder If I cold remove and flip them. Love that pic.... seeing that makes me want to fix these to make them look right. I just went back and checked an unbuilt kit and the spindles were installed correct. I think maybe just a flaw with the kit from Revell...lol But I have a way that I think will fix the issue...lol will show it when I finish it.

[gasser59]

I think you could "adjust" that camber with a little massaging of the plastic. I've built these tubular axles and they never seem to end up perfectly straight up and down.

That picture above is awesome with the car apart and on your cutting board. With the exception of the headers, parachute, nails and the grid on your cutting board, I'd swear it was real.

When I get to building a 1/16th dragster, I'll probably make one out of aluminum.

Edited March 19, 2014 by gasser59

[Chi-Town Hustler]

Chris;

Having thoroughly enjoyed following your Army Vega FC build for the last few years, and knowing your penchant for perfection and "getting it right" (i.e., the drive shaft and driveline cover on the Vega FC ), something tells me that you will be fixing that camber, or else it will drive ya crazy, ha ha!!!! ....Although I possess no where near your level of skill, I am the same way, little things like that will drive me crazy!!....And I'll tweak and tweak and tweak....I've ruined a few things that way, BUT I've also done some of my best work because of that....Here's to pushing that envelope!!!

Cheers