Boxing Deuce Rails

[hot ford coupe]

That's a great tip. This is the kind of thing we need in a tutorial form. I for one am on my way to Radio Shack to get me one of them there nibbler things. For all those who haven't, check out the gallery on the Volcano Deuce. It's as hot as the name states. Check out some of the other stuff Steve's done also. Every time I see something new that he's done, I've got to take apart what I've done and redo it right. Some of us here call that being Discoed again. There's no real competition here, just great inspiration from great builders. Show us the way Steve. Hey if any of you remember that old show Kung Fu with David Carradine, we sit at the feet of the masters. "Styrenehopper, when you can remove this 1/8 scale carburetor from my hand, you may leave this school. Now go back to your room and build something." Glad to see you here, Steve.

[Don Garrett]

Go back to the opening page and click on Rod & Race Gallery.
Click on V-Deuce and give it a few moments to load all the photos.

[Don Garrett]

That's how we all started and I'm still learning! :)

[hot ford coupe]

Same thing for me. Until I met up with some of the great modelers on the net about 2 years ago,, I too was just a "model out of the box" kind of guy. I've learned so much in the past two years, it's like going to model college. Stick with us and you'll be putting out knock out models in no-time. This site is not about intimidation, egos, elitism, discouragement or those things that make you hate forums. It's about having fun, sharing techniques, encouragement, good fellowship,and discovering your own potential to build the best large scale models you can no matter what level you start at. Here's where you can learn all that you want without being ridiculed, ignored or discouraged. Have fun.

[robjos32]

Will ordinary poly cement be alright to use, when gluing the sheet styrene to the plastic.

[Don Garrett]

Yep. Should hold fine.

[robjos32]

I am trying to glue the frame rails, albeit unsuccessfully with Humbrol precision poly, but it is not taking, what glue would you recommend I use.

[hot ford coupe]

If you're glueing styrene to styrene , use liquid styrene cement like Weld on #3, Tenax, Testor's liquid glue, Ambroid liquid cement. In a pinch, you can even use MEK, methyl ethyl ketone.. It just takes a bit linger to set well. See what your LHS has.The whole point is to form an actual plastic weld like welding metal, where the cement dissolves the styrene at the joints, mixes together and then gasses off the solvent to leave a solid area of styrene and a solid joint.

As for the technique for using liquid cement, when you start the boxing, make the added piece a slight bit larger that you need. Flow the cement with a thin brush between the rail and the new piece, let it set overnight and then trim down to the rail. If you did it right, you'll have wirtually no need for filler. I let my joints set for at least 2 days before I even think of trimming it down. The softened styrene will shrink as it loses it's solvent just like Bondo or Squadron green as opposed to Evercoat. If you trim it too early, you'll be able to see the joint and need filler. If you've rushed and painted, you'll see the defect in the painted product and that will ruin the project. In fact, sometimes after I trim my styrene , I let it further degas and check for shrinkage. Sometimes I get a big surprize and the joint which looks great on Monday looks bad on Thursday. Don't worry though, the defect is very subtle but you'll know it's there. Let me know if you need more help.

Gap filling CA is good too but recently I've read that after a while, the glue deteriorates and lets go. Not good for archival use.

[Gluhead]

I assembled the rails and crossmembers. Then I cut oversized strips to cover the open rails. I trimmed the ends so they'd fit tight against the crossmembers, and glued them to the rails with Ambroid. Once they were *mostly* set up I went back with a new #11 and trimmed the excess off using the rails as guides. Gettin' the excess off while the sheet plastic was still a little soft from the glue made it a breeze. The blade went thru like butter. :D

Took me about an hour to box the whole frame. Then I went back after a couple days and did my clean up. This was last winter and I don't have ghost lines, so I guess it worked!

Glu

[Deuces-wild]

A member asked me for suggestions on boxing the Deuce rails and what tools I would reccomend. This is the way I go about. I use the kit pieces for the front frame horns #43 & #44.
Next lay the rail on a sheet of .040 styrene and trace the outline of the rail, make the outline just a little outside the edge of the rail. You could do this in one piece if you want but I'm more comfortable doing two pieces per side joining at the center cross member. Cut them out, I use a blade and one of the larger handles for this step, you can score and snap the parts out but I prefer to make several passes with the blade to get a cleaner edge. At this point you could attach them to the rails and go back and cut out openings for the crossmembers, steering box etc. but I don't reccomend it. I lay the piece on the rail, clamp it in place and transfer the openings onto it. Nows here's a great tip.....Steve Osbourne builder of the fabulous "Volcanic Deuce" turned me on to this tool. It's called a nibbler, available at Radio Shack, and it's inexpensive. I use it to cut the areas out for crossmembers etc. I'll post a photo if you want.
Once you have all the pieces cut, glue them to the rails, clamp them and let them dry....don't rush here.
When all of that is done file or sand the the edges of the styrene flush with the top and bottom edges of the rail, fill any defects or seams and your ready for primer . Hope this helps you out.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.....but this is one old dog that would be more than happy to hear any input from you other builders if you have a better or easier way of doing this.

Happy Modeling

Great tip Don, 1 question: could you be a pal and show us what this nibbler looks like?? Thanks....Guido :D

[Don Garrett]

Sure thing, I'll post a photo this afternoon.

[Don Garrett]

I forgot all about this...I'll post a photo this afternoon. :o

[Don Garrett]

Sometimes I just over the the obvious.....a 1/4'' hand held paper punch is a "nibbler" but with a curved bite....cool! :D

[Deuces-wild]

Ok, thanks Don. Guido