Tuesday.... of mice and motors
Posted by Dr Diecast at 4/15/2008 7:00 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
Well it was another beautiful day in the neighborhood yesterday..... well sunny, little breeze and 95..... yeah 95...... Mind you I moved here for the heat but still 95 in April... ok , even I don't want that, LOL. Actually it was 93 on Sunday but its going back to the low to mid 80's the rest of the week so thats good.
On another note though...... Sunday I did tint the windows in my car, in the garage in the 94 degree heat. Gotta love 4% humidity.....does make those higher temps workable.
So...... as my plan was laid out, I was painting some 4-5........ or 6 cars yesterday. Now I have been painting cars for years and have accumulated 100's of paint formulas. See when I look one up I print the formula so I can keep it in my file this way I can just grab it when I need it. Mind you even though I have done over 1000 cars in the 10 years, yeah 10...... I used to do cars before I was known as the guy who repainted them, I have lost a few here and there in moving and such. But I knew I had a couple formulas I needed since I had already painted cars these colors.
HA !! Figures I go pull the Inca Gold for a 57 T Bird and its nowhere to be found. Then I go to pull the Light Carmine Metallic for a Corvette and yep cant find it. Heck I have the cars on my website in both colors yet these must have gotten lost... well those and the Olympic Gold for a 69 Chevelle also, UGH.
Anyway I had to do my Dupont formula search and as easy as it may seem the system is like watching the 70 year old lady at the self checkout line at Walmart, LOL. Type in this, wont take it, type in that, nothing found..... ugh.... HELP, LMAO.
Here is a quick example..... The Carmine color. 1998 GM Code 53. OK.... I try that, nothing. I try GM 1998, nothing.... I try code 53 and it gives me every color ever gone by GM but what I want, LMAO. So I go back to the paint code book I have..... look up 53 again....... then I see its called Light Toredor Metallic and not Carmine. But they have dark Carmine listed too, LOL. Ugh.... back to the Dupont site. I type in light Toredor and bingo there it is.
Almost the same thing with the Inca Gold. But this time when I type in 1957 Ford I get all their colors that year....... well ok ....... 4 actually the Gold, White Red and Black. LOL. For the other colors I will be needing in the future I will have to call Dupont direct, yeah.... LOL.
So.. I have that done and while standing in the shop realize I have a 67 GTO I need to paint that I could stick in with this bunch so it was time to break that one down. See if you guys remember that Starlight Black 67 I did months ago, well the guy liked it so much ie was showing it off and his brother fell in love with it so he gave it to him and now wanted me to create another one.
So as I start to take the car apart I realize just how easy some of these older POS diecast cars are assembled. I mean look..... 6 screws and the chassis with the engine comes out.... you can then pull the interior tub out and 2 screws remove the bracket that holds the hood, 2 more removes the dashboard and 2 more remove each door at the dogleg hinge.
Yeah........ in a perfect world, LMAO. Remember now, these are made by people in China who have probably never seen a car like this. That being said I do believe they had a fill in the day these GTO's were assembled because Tiny and 500# Sumo wrestler must have worked that day as this car didn't have one tight, beyond a 18 year old virgin tight, screw but 3. One in the chassis, one in the dash and one in the door. I used my grinder to cut the chassis and door ones off but the dash one was a bit more intense. Where its located is under the pedals and right next to the mounting tab for the steering column so that was out. Long story short that screw is no longer a virgin but more like a 20 year old hooker on Super Bowl weekend. I worked it do death till it came out....... whew.... but I was aggravated and wasn't in the mood to paint cars by then.
If you haven't noticed I am rambling on today...... figured you all wanted more of my senseless dribble so now your getting it.
On another note, one of our bloggers, CudaJeff, did get this Concept Cuda and said he loves it. Thanks Jeff, its appreciated. His was the Sassy Grass Green car I posted pictures of here.
OK......... so its 3:30 and the door bell rings..... UPS...... ok, has got my cammer engines, yeah, and I will say just in time. I was still PO'd at the GTO and with the engines here I could do that quick engine swap in the 57 T Bird for Pete and knock that out before my day comes to an end.
End........ yeah......... ok. I figured it would take maybe an hour to do this. Well 3 hours later I said..... its time for dinner, LOL. See I had seen this motor in this car before when the another diecast modder was doing a mock up so I felt it would be a simple swap. That being typed I will list below all the things involved with making this engine work in this car.
First off I had already removed the stock T Bird engine.
After trial fitting I realized there is no way to keep the steering rod so that had to be cut out.
Trim the interior bucket trans tunnel of the screw mounting tab
Trim the oil pan cradle on the chassis
Trim the mounting tabs off the engine
Cut a large chunk out of the top of the transmission
Now I have the engine in and sitting correctly. No hood, no fan but this is where is has to sit as the master cylinder will not allow it to sit back any further. So I can see right away that I will need to do some engine modifications and serious hood cutting. So its on to part 2.
Line up and mark hood for cutting then test fit
Move Magneto to a different location on the front of the motor for hood clearance
Reroute coil wires and move to different location
Cut fan shroud for fit
Ok..... now that this is all done I can at least get everything back together with working hood and the engine set right.
Upon inspection of the chassis I see that if I would have moved the engine any further the X brace would not have gone back on. I now need to change the drive shaft for a longer one and run some headers to the side pipes.
This in its self is a project as there is such little clearance. I sourced some raw headers I had and proceeded to cut, trim, heat and bend them so they fit correctly and then lined up with the side pipes. As you see the effect does look rather cool.
So these pictures don't reflet just cool cool this looks in person but you get the idea.
So....... now that this is done and I have to paint the top of the car I can add the hood too it and do that with the other cars in line.
OK...... well thats it, Im out !
On another note though...... Sunday I did tint the windows in my car, in the garage in the 94 degree heat. Gotta love 4% humidity.....does make those higher temps workable.
So...... as my plan was laid out, I was painting some 4-5........ or 6 cars yesterday. Now I have been painting cars for years and have accumulated 100's of paint formulas. See when I look one up I print the formula so I can keep it in my file this way I can just grab it when I need it. Mind you even though I have done over 1000 cars in the 10 years, yeah 10...... I used to do cars before I was known as the guy who repainted them, I have lost a few here and there in moving and such. But I knew I had a couple formulas I needed since I had already painted cars these colors.
HA !! Figures I go pull the Inca Gold for a 57 T Bird and its nowhere to be found. Then I go to pull the Light Carmine Metallic for a Corvette and yep cant find it. Heck I have the cars on my website in both colors yet these must have gotten lost... well those and the Olympic Gold for a 69 Chevelle also, UGH.
Anyway I had to do my Dupont formula search and as easy as it may seem the system is like watching the 70 year old lady at the self checkout line at Walmart, LOL. Type in this, wont take it, type in that, nothing found..... ugh.... HELP, LMAO.
Here is a quick example..... The Carmine color. 1998 GM Code 53. OK.... I try that, nothing. I try GM 1998, nothing.... I try code 53 and it gives me every color ever gone by GM but what I want, LMAO. So I go back to the paint code book I have..... look up 53 again....... then I see its called Light Toredor Metallic and not Carmine. But they have dark Carmine listed too, LOL. Ugh.... back to the Dupont site. I type in light Toredor and bingo there it is.
Almost the same thing with the Inca Gold. But this time when I type in 1957 Ford I get all their colors that year....... well ok ....... 4 actually the Gold, White Red and Black. LOL. For the other colors I will be needing in the future I will have to call Dupont direct, yeah.... LOL.
So.. I have that done and while standing in the shop realize I have a 67 GTO I need to paint that I could stick in with this bunch so it was time to break that one down. See if you guys remember that Starlight Black 67 I did months ago, well the guy liked it so much ie was showing it off and his brother fell in love with it so he gave it to him and now wanted me to create another one.
So as I start to take the car apart I realize just how easy some of these older POS diecast cars are assembled. I mean look..... 6 screws and the chassis with the engine comes out.... you can then pull the interior tub out and 2 screws remove the bracket that holds the hood, 2 more removes the dashboard and 2 more remove each door at the dogleg hinge.
Yeah........ in a perfect world, LMAO. Remember now, these are made by people in China who have probably never seen a car like this. That being said I do believe they had a fill in the day these GTO's were assembled because Tiny and 500# Sumo wrestler must have worked that day as this car didn't have one tight, beyond a 18 year old virgin tight, screw but 3. One in the chassis, one in the dash and one in the door. I used my grinder to cut the chassis and door ones off but the dash one was a bit more intense. Where its located is under the pedals and right next to the mounting tab for the steering column so that was out. Long story short that screw is no longer a virgin but more like a 20 year old hooker on Super Bowl weekend. I worked it do death till it came out....... whew.... but I was aggravated and wasn't in the mood to paint cars by then.
If you haven't noticed I am rambling on today...... figured you all wanted more of my senseless dribble so now your getting it.
On another note, one of our bloggers, CudaJeff, did get this Concept Cuda and said he loves it. Thanks Jeff, its appreciated. His was the Sassy Grass Green car I posted pictures of here.
OK......... so its 3:30 and the door bell rings..... UPS...... ok, has got my cammer engines, yeah, and I will say just in time. I was still PO'd at the GTO and with the engines here I could do that quick engine swap in the 57 T Bird for Pete and knock that out before my day comes to an end.
End........ yeah......... ok. I figured it would take maybe an hour to do this. Well 3 hours later I said..... its time for dinner, LOL. See I had seen this motor in this car before when the another diecast modder was doing a mock up so I felt it would be a simple swap. That being typed I will list below all the things involved with making this engine work in this car.
First off I had already removed the stock T Bird engine.
After trial fitting I realized there is no way to keep the steering rod so that had to be cut out.
Trim the interior bucket trans tunnel of the screw mounting tab
Trim the oil pan cradle on the chassis
Trim the mounting tabs off the engine
Cut a large chunk out of the top of the transmission
Now I have the engine in and sitting correctly. No hood, no fan but this is where is has to sit as the master cylinder will not allow it to sit back any further. So I can see right away that I will need to do some engine modifications and serious hood cutting. So its on to part 2.
Line up and mark hood for cutting then test fit
Move Magneto to a different location on the front of the motor for hood clearance
Reroute coil wires and move to different location
Cut fan shroud for fit
Ok..... now that this is all done I can at least get everything back together with working hood and the engine set right.
Upon inspection of the chassis I see that if I would have moved the engine any further the X brace would not have gone back on. I now need to change the drive shaft for a longer one and run some headers to the side pipes.
This in its self is a project as there is such little clearance. I sourced some raw headers I had and proceeded to cut, trim, heat and bend them so they fit correctly and then lined up with the side pipes. As you see the effect does look rather cool.
So these pictures don't reflet just cool cool this looks in person but you get the idea.
So....... now that this is done and I have to paint the top of the car I can add the hood too it and do that with the other cars in line.
OK...... well thats it, Im out !
I knew the engine was going to be tight (like you know….) and you accomplished it very well. One thing though, one wiper seems to of disappeared since yesterday pictures.
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To current and future customers of Mr. Diecast: Hats off for the fantastic work on my El Camino. The pictures do not do justice to the final project. Quality and details are more than I expected. To all those whose projects are in-process, you won't be disappointed!!! Thanks so much, John. I'll be sending you a followup set of pics when the car is presented to my son. He's gonna be on cloud 9
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