Post by pete on Aug 31, 2020 15:04:33 GMT -7
Todays installment: Fabbing headers, yeah it can be a pain but...The finished product will allways outshine the kit supplied Zoomies in a dragster kit. Get some plastic tubing (Not rod) Get some brass rod that will fit in your tubings I.D. and go to town!! I made a jig years ago to bend the tubing and make the initial length cut. Boil a cup of water, This is so you can bend the tubing without it breaking in the bend. Now remember kids!! Boiling water is...Well...HOT...Don't burn yourself doing this...Dip your tube in the hot water, then place it in your bending jig and bend it to the desired angle. Immediately dunk it in cold water to get the plastic to set and keep its memory (shape). I use evergreen tubing, it usually takes a 15 to 25 second dunk to get it pliable enough to bend easily. I have a line on my jig that allows me to get the overall length in the ballpark. As for the flange end? I just eyeball it to get close. (You can always cut the tubes later to shorten em when doing the assembly) Flanges...You can make em from strip styrene. Drill 4 holes in your flanges equidistant from each other. (Try and make the holes the same size if not slightly smaller than your brass rod) You want this stuff to fit tightly for ease of assembly) Insert your brass rod in the holes and cut it so you have a stud to glue your tube over. Make sure you have a flat finished end on each stud, so it does not stick out past the head side of the flange.( A file works well) Now place your bent tubes over the studs and line em up so the angle is the same for each tube. Now make sure both sides look the same. (Don't worry about the mismatched lengths)youll cut em all down to even em up after the glue is dry. This what you will have at this point. Let the glue set up, cut em to what ever length/angle you desire. Drill the ends out, paint em up and glue em in position.
Put a coat of clear over every thing and then realized my mistake... 
Had to airbrush out the sponsor lettering now. That required me to re-paint the black stripes after another coat of clear to seal the yellow. (Didn't want to put tape over the decals with a single coat of clear) and risk peeling the decals off and making a bigger mess... 
After all this is set up...Back to clear coat. THEN, hopefully I will be able to finish this thing! Some days you get the bear...Some days...The bear gets you...I never have good luck with yellow models.
