| Building Period: 30 March 1999 - 30 June 1999 |
CONSTRUCTION
STORY OF
SCRATCHBUILT
STREET ROD
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MISCALLANEOUS AND DASHBOARD
| Building Period: 30 March 1999 - 30 June 1999 |
CONSTRUCTION
STORY OF
SCRATCHBUILT
STREET ROD
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| If you remember, the front shock absorbers were held in place by temporary nuts made from plastic wire isolation. It was time to manufacture real nuts. The material was a 0.6 mm thick, perforated aluminium sheet. This was once the grille of a cassette tape recorder. One of the holes were enlarged to 1 mm and then threaded with M 1.2 mm threading tool. Then the nut was freed from the sheet with the aid of X-acto #11 blade. |
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| Here you see the union of the nut with the shock absorber. |
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| For the front headlamps, the rear cap of a ball-point pen seemed very suitable. Other contributers were a wheel retainer that was cut to fitting profile with the cap and a toothpick piece, to hold the assembly better. |
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| The toothpick was inserted in the cap, only about 1 mm protruding. The reason is, this headlamp will be placed right over the shock absorber and its center hole will house the nut. This configuration will also help in partly disguising the upper resting bracket of the front suspension. At the right is the headlamp body assembly. |
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| The boomerang-shaped cutout of the hood blocked the first exhaust port, so its profile was changed. A big-block Chevy engine is used to power this rod. The cylinder head and carburettors are from Corvette Grand Sport, by Accurate Miniatures. |
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| For the custom dashboard, a rosewood grained cardboard was used. |
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| The base of the dashboard was carved from 4-mm thick balsa. |
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| The gauges were computer-generated and printed on paper. |
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| This is the three items' assembly. Scotch tape was applied over the gauges before the assembly, to imitate the shine of glass over the gauges. |
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| Next, the shelf panel was made from brass sheet and stuck to the backside of the dashboard with CA glue. It was painted matt black after this pic was taken. |
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| Holes 0.5 mm. dia. were drilled for the rocker switches and the ignition key. Silver dots were applied for imitating the bezels. Copper wire 0.2 mm dia. was painted silver and inserted through the holes till it protruded 2 mm from the dashboard. The excess lengths were cut at the back, and the wires were secured by CA glue. |
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| Dots of CA glue were applied at the tips of the switches and painted gloss black. Ignition key was from Detail Master. The glovebox handle is a pin inserted and excess cut away. |
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| The engine in temporary assembly with the exhaust pipes. The exhaust pipes are made from 1.5 mm diameter solder wire, glued together with 5-minute epoxy. The tips are cut from velocity stacks of a 1/20 McLaren, and drilled for realistic looks. |
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| The transition from the pipes to the tips are made by applying putty and sanding down to shape. |
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