Mike Sullivan Fiat AA/Fuel Altered Dragster by CDW - Finished - Kit Bash Custom Build - 1:25 Scale

[Canute]

Craig, my condolences, too. The drug issue is so pervasive. I see the lives lost or screwed up by this insidious killer where I work at our county courthouse.

[Jack12477]

Craig, sorry for your loss.

[CDW]

Moved the car inside the garage in case it rains tonight. 🙂

[Old Collingwood]

Same  from me  Craig.

 

OC.

[mtaylor]

I'm sorry to hear that news about your nephew.   Drugs have becom a serious problem and sadly, we're losing the drug war as they get moved in faster than law enforcement can catch them.

 

The car is looking good.

[kpnuts]

Sorry to hear the news.

Great tip on the chrome. Loving how it's going

[CDW]

When building a custom kit-bash like this one with a resin body, there is a lot of fitting, filing, sanding, test-fitting, in numerous attempts to get the body sitting just the way you want it. Like carpenters say, you can make additional cuts, but you can't add material if cut too far. To make the body clear the zoomie headers, the valve covers, and blower assembly to get that certain "rake" on the body, it's been a slow-moving process. To add to it, one must take special precaution when cutting, sanding, or filing resin as the resin dust is particularly hazardous for our upper respiratory system. The only safe way to do it is wet-sanding, wet-filing, and wet-cutting. 

 

What's going to take a little additional time is to scratch build a hinge for the rear of the body-to-frame attachment that will allow the body to flip back, similar to how the Orange Crate model was done. It will be another cut, fit, adjust, and repeat type arrangement.  Once that task is completed, the rest of the build should go smoothly by comparison.

Edited December 16, 2023 by CDW

[Canute]

The word shoehorn comes to mind.😉

 

A good sealing dust mask is also a good idea when working with dust producing operations on resin parts.

[CDW]

46 minutes ago, Canute said:

The word shoehorn comes to mind.😉

 

A good sealing dust mask is also a good idea when working with dust producing operations on resin parts.

Absolutely right

[CDW]

Has anyone else tried using white gel ballpoint pens for tire lettering? Makes a difficult task much easier.

[gsdpic]

22 minutes ago, CDW said:

Has anyone else tried using white gel ballpoint pens for tire lettering? Makes a difficult task much easier.

Nice!  I could not decide which reaction to use, the thumbs up, the wow, or the thanks, so I had to leave a comment.

[CDW]

After adding more component parts to the chassis, gave it a primer coat of Tamiya gloss black lacquer to underlie the Alclad steel paint to follow.

 

 

I am not so certain gloss black was the correct color to underlie Alclad steel. Seems it should be a tad lighter in color once the steel color is applied. 

 

 

You can see some difference, but not much.

[Canute]

Maybe a gloss charcoal gray. Tamiya German Gray maybe. The gloss black may subdue the steel.

[gsdpic]

As soon as you said "alclad steel", I could almost see that coming.  I also recently used alclad steel for the first time and was surprised/annoyed at just how dark it was.  I also put it over a gloss black base.  On their website, the "steel" color is in the list that says to use white, gray, or black primer.  Maybe the "stainless steel" color is more what we are expecting.

 

 

[CDW]

1 hour ago, gsdpic said:

As soon as you said "alclad steel", I could almost see that coming.  I also recently used alclad steel for the first time and was surprised/annoyed at just how dark it was.  I also put it over a gloss black base.  On their website, the "steel" color is in the list that says to use white, gray, or black primer.  Maybe the "stainless steel" color is more what we are expecting.

 

 

Light gray or white would have probably been best in this case. Live and learn I say.

Here, I went ahead and shot AK Xtreme metal steel over the Alclad. This is closer to what I wanted, maybe a little too light. I would say this looks more like stainless steel but still preferable over what I had before. I'll live with it.

I'll add a few touches of chrome parts here and there to break it up a bit. Front axle will definitely get chrome, probably the radius arms, too.

 

 

[CDW]

I went to my local auto body supply shop today to pick up a few items I needed. They had these 16 ounce 3 in 1 primer spray cans on sale for just $2 each! Needless to say, I loaded up.

[CDW]

I fashioned some support brackets with a bar/tube as a hinge point for the body. Without completely butchering the body for clearance, I could not get a satisfactory hinge that would allow the body to clear the engine and wheelie bars if swung upward. So, I opted for the next best thing and made some mounting attachments for the read body support to the frame. The fiberglass body would be lifted off the chassis for engine, chassis, and drive train maintenance in this configuration.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by CDW

[CDW]

Got a nice white lacquer paint job on the body now. Will give it a day or two before placement of decals.

Chassis is 90% or more complete now with a hand brake/master cylinder package, a gear shifter, and a clutch pedal to add before doing the plumbing. Oh, there’s a fuel tank to add as well as the parachute package. I can see the finish line now. Maybe this weekend will wrap it up?

[CDW]

[CDW]

[DocRob]

Late condolences for your loss Craig, what a tragedy.
Your dragster looks spot on and your kit bashing will lead to a very unique result, which shows your great craftmanship all around.
Thanks for the tip about the white Sakura pens, I will order one for exactly the same reason. tyre lettering.

 

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

17 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Late condolences for your loss Craig, what a tragedy.
Your dragster looks spot on and your kit bashing will lead to a very unique result, which shows your great craftmanship all around.
Thanks for the tip about the white Sakura pens, I will order one for exactly the same reason. tyre lettering.

 

Cheers Rob

Thanks Rob. Those pens come in very handy for that.

[CDW]

I didn't expect to find the time to do what I did today, but since I did, I'm going to call this one finished for now.

I yet need to install all the plumbing but that will be a little tedious and time consuming and I want to do it when I'm good and ready to sit down a few more hours to finish that task. I can always update the post with some more photos later if they seem worth posting. There are some other things I want to move on to soon.