Bathtub Buggy build

[farmboy]

Found a Bathtub Buggy build up.  I was pretty excited when I got it home that pieces came from it bot accidentally and on purpose.  I didn't think to take a photo of it first.  What I did get was a photo of the box o' parts that resulted



...and here's a partial mockup of the kit.

Question:  What is that silly box on to of the engine?  Blower case?  Phony jewelry box?  I know it was on the original, but what is it?  Does it hide an angled intake manifold?  Just curious.


Oh, the orange pieces in the bag are disk brakes from a donor kit, as well as fenders I may or may not use.

Comments and observations welcome.

[rodsnracin]

I bet it's a just a cover over a carburetor or two.

[farmboy]

Aug 15, 2023 19:03:30 GMT -6 rodsnracin said:

I bet it's a just a cover over a carburetor or two.

   Makes perfect sense to me, thanks for the reply r'nr  I recall an ad years ago for a carb housing that looked like a blower, complete with belt and pulley just for looks, but I have no idea what this thing represents.  

[farmboy]

I'm working on an idea for the platform and it needs a bit of preliminary work. Firstly, the top side was sanded flat, then I took the time to drill out all the holes in the deck as seen below.  I'll lay a strip of painters tape over the deck and re drill the holes thru the tape so I will have a relatively precise placement template to leave a marker dot for all the topside items:  bathtub, desk, spring mounts etc...



....the transmission/driveshaft tunnel was then removed



I found packages of gold and chrome mirror tiles at, where else, the dollar store.  Using the gold tiles worked out pretty well.  Some slight mods were made to the floor piece, namely converting the front wheel insets to rectangles as opposed to the kit's angled inset, and lengthening the rear wheel insets just a touch as the tiles would otherwise intrude on the rear transaxle.  I tried grinding, filing, cutting wheel, bench sander, grinder, even a tile cutter, to create the angles but the squares are so small that they tend to chip, or just shatter.  I checked wheel clearances before committing to the alterations and all is well.  This is just a mockup and looks like, well, a mock up.



Here's a loose representation of how it will begin to come together.  I intend to use the chrome mirror tiles under the rear section and the front sink area.



Going to experiment with grouting to see if it's worth the effort lol.

Comments and observations welcome.

[farmboy]

I stumbled upon a fix that really helped with the mirror tiling I'll be using on the Buggy.  Up to this point I've had to square the chassis in a couple of areas as angle cutting the tiles was a no go.  Then, I noticed a piece of chrome adhesive vinyl hanging near some shelving....and the light came on!

The show below shows a section of the chrome sheet, 2 tiles (mirror silver/gold), a piece of styrene.  


The process was easy.  I got lucky in having some stock the same (+-) thickness so it was simply a matter of sticking a tile to the styrene and cutting to the exact size of the tile.  Then, I stuck a small piece of chrome vinyl to cover the styrene square (tile removed) and trimmed it to the exact dimensions with a single edge razor blade for a close cut.

Admittedly, being mirrors, they are a little tough on my camera but there is a chrome single tile width border around the gold center area.  Note the two angled tiles at the left end.  The upper one is slightly off angle hence the faded look.  This is only a mockup just to show the results, however note the bottom one is just fine.  A row of chrome tile is needed across the front to finish the floor panel where the sink sits in front of the axle.   Also, you see the two corner tiles on the rear right are missing.  They will follow the same process only this time to make them a touch narrower to suit the cut out for the suspension arm.

Anyway, this opens the door to getting the chassis outline correct with a minimum of fuss.





and here's how it's adding to the look of the model




Comments and observations welcome.

[farmboy]

Some minor cleanup to do with the chassis floor but it's basically finished, time to move on. One item I wanted to change right off was the boudoir fit to the transmission tunnel. This is how it fits out of the box.  I'm puzzled by the gap between tunnel and boudoir, as well as the forward slant to the tunnel.  



My solution was to insert a strip of styrene around the inside opening to fill in the space.  A little bit of sanding made for a nice fit.  When adding this piece I turned the boudoir frame work over so the insert was the same depth as the rest of the piece so it look like it belonged.



The ends were cut to the same length 





Note the snug fit to the tunnel, with only a small bit of filler needed to close up the gap with the trim/boudoir.  It's essentially out of sight anyway but it's the one thing you don't do that suddenly becomes the focal point.  Not visible here but the front of the tunnel has been squared up as well.

I want to get this up on it's wheels so that's where I'm headed next.

Comments and observations welcome.

[farmboy]

Might as well start with the front axle. It's a pretty simple all in one representation. Don't think I'll be doing too much, just enough to add a bit of detail.
Here's' where I made the first cuts. As you can see on the left, I removed the 'spindle' sections right at the vertical portion of the all in one axle assembly.  This is looking at the axle from the bottom as evidenced by the two locater bumps.




Next, I proceeded to remove the tie rod but making a cut at the bottom of the vertical piece.  I then sliced a thin piece of brass rectangle, cut that in two sections, and had my spindle mounts.




Here's the axle assmbly.  I added two round backing plates to the mounts, added small slices of round tubing to simulate pivots, used small beads (two to the left, one on the right) to simulate connections for the tie rod and to-come steering link.  I did touch ups with gold.  I was going to use rose gold and could have had an axle rose front end!  Sorry. 


Also, here's a mock up of the disc brake to go on the front wheels whci will mount to the backing plates



...and a mockup of the mockup




Comments and observations welcome

[rodsnracin]

Good modifications! Nothing worse than a bathtub that won't steer or stop!

[farmboy]

You're right r'n r! Sounds like an old Chrysler Newport I owned once upon a time...but I loved all 17 feet of her lol!

[bigredwolf]

Looking good so far! I've got one of these in pieces, that I've been wondering what to do with. Might be time to dig it out.

[farmboy]

Thanks for the shout out bigredwolf! Hope I pass along a little inspiration!

[farmboy]

A sad side note. The man I swapped kits with for this build died suddenly Sept 3 from cancer. Gordie T. was 66. I last saw him a couple of weeks previous.

[rodsnracin]

Sorry for your loss. Hope any other kits he had find good homes as well.

[farmboy]

Thanks r'nr. The club has a swap/sale coming up and will certainly help with that if needed.

[farmboy]

No matter how many excuses I gave myself, the mirror floor didn't look....good. I removed the tiles on one side and laid on a thin coat of scratch filler, sanded, and now I have a level surface. This is the only pic I have of the process, sorry but I was quite immersed in the process and didn't think about it.  The result was quite satisfying and I'll post a completed chassis pic as soon as I get there.  The shot below shows just one side leveled.  the tiles in the shot have yet to be removed.




Moving on, the one piece that always caught my attention was the one thing I wanted to redo from the word go.  The radiator shroud.  Firstly, the way the shroud flares out to the rear makes no sense to me and will not remain that way in my build.  And second, where's the rad?  So, in the photo below is what I've begun the whole process with.   Firstly as shown, I scored around all 4 sides  till it came out.  I'll be replacing it with a square section of screening.  My favorite is from a grease splatter screen.  Cheap and much more stable than regular window screen.



I'll find a suitable rad from the parts box to stick behind it.  

This angle does nothing for me.  I'll be cutting and squaring up later.



Comments and observations welcome.

[stevielewis]

I agree with you not going with the mirror squares on the floor, they just did not look right. My guess it's supposed to be like ceramic floor tiles.

[farmboy]

Hey Stevie, looks like a crossed wire. I fully intend to use the mirror tiles, only this time they'll be flat lol. The original chassis finish looked like large squares and, until I found the tiles, I was going to go with a marble floor. Oh well...

[stevielewis]

Got it. Good luck!

[rodsnracin]

The tiles are petty neat, hopefully you can work out a use for them. One of the deficiencies of the kit, IMO, is the end of the exhaust pipes. The real car in the pic above had black iron pipe fittings at the termination of each pipe, kind of a rat's nest. Not sure how you could duplicate this in scale, might be more work than it would be worth. Be a neat touch, tho, if you could pull it off!

[farmboy]

Thanks Stevie, gonna give it a good try.

R'nr, sounds like something that needs looking at, lol.

[farmboy]

Even though the front and rear springs are not necessary to have a rolling chassis, I thought I'd redo the springs before mounting the wheels. I know myself.
This kit only shows spring leaf detail on one side only, leaving the inside faces smooth and blank. Springs aren't too difficult. As you can see, all it takes is a pair of dividers (or other measuring tool you're comfortable with) and liquid cement.  I'll add spring straps and a mounting plate later.   But this isn't the only reason I chose to do this.



The front lights are molded so that the the shock absorber is part of the light assembly mounting to the frame rail and the top of the spring.  Drive that over a bump.  I think I see how the real thing did it.  When the springs are rebuilt, I'll move the spring mounted  'eye' about 1/8" forward, and add another eye on the frame piece beside and forward of the existing one.  This will be the new home for a better detailed shock absorber.  The light pole will cement to the original frame eye on the frame piece.  In the one or two photos I've seen, it appears that a horizontal round bar goes from the light assembly, and bolts to the side of the radiator shroud.  It even looks like there might be two of these bars per light, but I'll take imagineering license and only do the one per side.  Neat.

Comments and observations welcome.

[farmboy]

Apologies to anyone following for the delay. Onward.

The photo below shows the scratchbuilt springs and how they will mount to the model. This is not the same pair as in the photo above. I redid them as I wasn't really pleased with the first ones.  I had also originally thought they would be chrome but I think the bronze looks more at home.  The shot below is a mockup.





A little work as required to mount the new springs.  For the front as in the photo above, I removed the frame end where it showed the springs mounted as one piece.  A square piece of plastic tubing fit the width of the springs.  I removed the top side of the square to be able to lay the spring ends in.  For the other end of the spring, I settled on using brass rectangle tubing.  i had a length of it that fit the springs as well, and it looks more like the 1:1 mounting.  The springs were left enclosed  at the top for a little extra strength.  The photo below is of the rear assembly.  Same thing as the front,  just upside down.  I'll be adding small round bits of styrene to the outsides to suggest the spring pivot points.




A couple of spring banding strips were added purely for visual interest.  They were made with regular paper staples.  Slice two off at a time, bend to fit, cut to size, and superglue them to the springs. 




It's getting better I think.  A few details yet to come.  In the pic below, it shows a blower on the engine.  I'm not decided on this or an injector manifold with velocity stacks.  Each one continues the verticle and horizontal look from other places on the model. It's a wip so we'll see.  Note also the radiator shroud is squared up and almost ready for paint.  A couple of eye type mounts to be added to the spring/frame assembly as well for the shock absorbers to relocate to.


Comments and observations welcome.

[farmboy]

This is how the brakes are done. I cut the caliper(s) away from the disc brakes I scrounged from the parts box. As the man said, nothing looks more like metal than metal.  In this instance, the disc is made with a #6 washer, my preferred size for brakes. I have #8's, but it filled up the entire inside rim on the rear slicks.  Normally I would use a small hex nut and jam the washeragainst the head underside of a bolt head, chuck in a drill and let it spin against some emery paper.  There's enough happening up front so I left it as is.



The shocks were just blobs, represented as the bottom of the Kleig light stand connected to the spring.  Despite the busy look up front, there's lots of clearance between shock and wheel, and using a puny shock, well, I thought bulked up oversize units would look better.  The shocks were entirely scratchbuilt from brass and aluminum to keep with the brass/gold/chrome/bronze theme.  The end pivot covers are made from small gold sequins capped by adhesive half-round chrome domes (ha!) from ye local craft store



....and a mockup as per usual.  Here it's with a single Kleig.  The other one was a casualty of disassembly and I simply haven't cemented it back together yet. This shot gives a good look at the re-located spring mount for the shock top attachment and the new frame mount to accommodate the bottom.  There's only one frame mount and that is the original light stand mounting.  I'll be adding a horizontal brace from the radiator shroud to the light for further support.



Comments and observations welcome.

[stevielewis]

Looking really good and functional. Great improvements!

[farmboy]

Thanks Steve, only two more shocks and the brake lines and she's up on 4 wheels.

[farmboy]

Sorry for the delay.  Think I'll dedicate this build to Rosie my 15 year old Dachshund who died last week.  Whew, rough year!  Anyway, on we go....

Started with the sink assembly.  Did a bit of cleaning up and removing a small amount of tube glue residue.  Turned out nicer than I thought it was going to.  A light coat of Tamya white primer followed with some Krylon Gloss (the 'clean with mineral spirits' kind, not the newer 'clean with acetone' type) and voila.  One thing I did try was experiment by adding a narrow black vinyl stripe around the sink body.  It looked very 1940's retro, but stood out way too much and didn't relate to anything so off it came.



The sink was then outfitted with kit taps and faucet.  I also added a brass sequin as the drain surround, and, though not a real good rendering of it here, is a drain plug (...it hides a nasty stain that's lying there...)  it's painted Acrylic antique white and looks like it belongs.  Hope to get a better shot of it in the next few posts.



Still to come are two brass water pipes that will go straight down behind the axle and disappear under the car.  In the real world they would be copper and hidden out of sight behind the sink stand.  
Note the squared radiator shroud is a leather type of finish.  I like it.  it started as rattle can gold.  The gold changed under a coat of matte clear.  The shroud has been fitted with a screened front and radiator.  It's only sitting there to help with sink alignment for now.  Details next time.

Comments and observations welcome.

[rodsnracin]

Sorry to hear of your pet loss, always a tough time. Been thru it quite a few times, sometimes thought "That's it, no more, can't go thru this again", but our retired vet said it best "There's always another one in need of rescue", so on we go. Our latest was adopted by us in January, he was 9 months old, had been taken and returned by FIVE previous families. He's now stuck with us, despite his quirks. Not sure what happened with the other families, maybe just not dog people!

Back to the topic! Your sink looks like a.....sink! This one may rival your Raider's Coach in number of modified and scratch-built parts!

[farmboy]

Nov 17, 2023 20:50:31 GMT -6 rodsnracin said:

 "There's always another one in need of rescue"

Hey Rn'R, how true.

[farmboy]

Got the front section finished. Looking at the radiator shroud, I've installed screening in the front (visible in the 2nd and 3rd shots in this post), and added a radiator from the parts box.



The next two photos show the screening, as well as the hot/cold water pipes.  Two short but slightly larger diameter pieces of tubing were cemented on the underside of the sink where the taps were attached for pipe alignment.  The actual piping was made by bending each one into and L shape.  The longer vertical section was trimmed to length to allow the short section to rest snugly up against the underside of the chassis where it was cemented.  A small amount of super glue was added to the sink tubing for a secure install.





Next in line will be the kit supplied HiPo 289.  I'll clean it up a bit with starter, coil, better pulleys, fuel pump and a fuel injection manifold.  That's the plan anyway.

Comments and observations welcome.

[farmboy]

...but before that, we need lights. Forgot them somehow. The real machine has Kleig lights mounted on monopods. They were obviously simplified for the kit as part of the mount was attached to the suspension spring. Of all the photos I could find, none of them showed the complete light stand and it's attachment points, but I did manage to find a couple of partial shots that gave enough visual info to allow for some believable imagineering. Presenting my always-there friend, the 3/8" staple gun staple. Incidentally, I also tried small diameter solder for the next step, but the staple looked more at home.



Taking a look at the real kleig light on the actual showrod you'll see a cradle affair between the light case and the stand. None on the kit part. Trying a a staple as the cradle piece, it was the right size....sort of. A quick snip of both legs to get them the right length to end up on the sides of the light, and a very light squeeze...we have a cradle! Though the stand should have been separated and rebuilt with the cradle mounted between the light/stand it was cemented to the flat portion on the bottom of the light. Hard to notice and I'm not telling anybody. And we're good to go.



There will be tiny slices of small small diameter styrene rod applied to appear as the pivots....but there's more.



It seems from what I could gather photo-wise that the light itself would be just too heavy to be self supporting. Then |I notice a horizontal support bolted to the side of the radiator shroud headed in the light's direction. I have yet to see where it ends up in reality, but on this build, it helps steady the Kleig. It will start at the side of the radiator shroud, squeak thru the gap between the sink and the light, and attach to the cradle pivit to act as the support. In some small way, it probably does help on the model too.



The light lenses are drying under their coat of Future or whatever name it is today. I'm using a couple of hi intensity spot lenses with a chrome center dot found in the parts box. I believe they came from a Pontiac Catalina kit but I won't swear to it.



Hopefully I'll have photos of the completed light installation next post.



Comments and observations welcome