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Roger Zimmermann

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Everything posted by Roger Zimmermann

  1. That's correct. They look good, and are used to open each door individually. So, you can have only half open or the number you feel is needed. To close them, just push on the door. There is no axle, the doors are staying in place just with the push of the spring. If a spring should break, you would have probably to search for another one! When I did the holes on that flat pieces, everything was under control. When I soft soldered the flanges, it was a nightmare! I could correct more or less the diformations; some bondo will be needed! So you can see that I have sometimes unexpected difficulties...like most humans!
  2. Don, thanks for your comments! Hopefuly, your cold is now gone. Good luck with your Alfa engine! Ah! The scale models...Recently, I bought a 1:24 1932 Cadillac V-16 dual cowl phaeton. I did know that the back is irrelevant, but I had problems with the front. Even if some details are skipped, some dimensions are rather accurate. And, having front fenders in 3 dimensions will facilitate the day I will begin them. In between, I did some progress on the hood: When I began the hood’s sides with the ventilation doors, I expected that that idea would come to a good end. I got some thinking how to do the anchor point for the spring and, when I’m unsure about something, I’m delaying and delaying (somebody in your country is champion for that) until I’m packing the thing and do it. Fortunately, it went rather well. Then, I soldered the hinge I had with the various holes to a door and inserted the assembly, together with the female hinge. I shortened a bit the spring I did before and tried…I had to do a deeper notch at the frame because it interfered with the spring’s end. The function is as I expected; the sole critic I could do is that the aperture could be more generous. For that I should redo all 14 male hinges; as the overheating from the model is questionable, I will let the things like they are. Now, I can continue with the 13 other ventilation doors …
  3. The RH hood side panel is more or less ready. I still have to ad the pivot point for the spring at each aperture. When these details will be added, I will be ready to make the door’s installation. For the moment, I have to bring the LH hood side in the same shape.
  4. That's correct, the plates are from Switzerland. Neat vehicle!
  5. For the moment, the windsplits are unfinished as I wanted to do something larger: the hood’s sides. I cut two brass pieces, somewhat larger as the finished parts because that can only be done when the radiator grille and cowl are ready. It will take some time to get that… After making a flange at the top from both pieces, I began the holes for the ventilator doors. The positive die I used for the flanges is the right tool to get the proper dimension of the holes. I had the ides to make a guide of wood to locate the flange for soldering; if the first flange was correctly soldered, the next flanges will use an aluminum guide because the high temperature was not necessarily good for the wood! Now I can do the holes on the second hood’s side…
  6. @ Pat: Most of the time, I'm just using regular reading glasses. However, for most of the operations done on the windbreaks, I had to use also a magnifying glass usually used by watchmaker. @ Jeff: I don't really like exagerated titles (which are usual in your country!); I prefer factual statement. Thanks to both for your comments!
  7. I hope everybody is comfortable with the new title! The 15 windbreaks are more or less ready: I still have to file the sides to have a concave surface. As those parts were not good for the eyes, I will do something else in between.
  8. Martin, I asked West to modify the title with one of your suggestions: Roger's handcrafted 1:12 scale models Probably I will loose some followers because they will not see the originasl title anymore, but who cares?
  9. @ Randy: There is just isolation material between both firewalls. All electrical are inside the car. With the hood open, there is just a black flat surface to be seen. On the V-12 and V-16, both air cleaners are attached to the firewall which is just a stamped steel plate. @ Martin: Your sugestion is interesting! I cannot modify the title myself; I contacted West Peterson two days ago; maybe he will come with a suggestion. I don't intend to split the thread.
  10. The name Cadillac is giving for those tiny parts: “Windbreak, hood panel ventilator port”. 15 pieces are in work now; in case something goes bad with one, a spare is always welcome! The location pins are silver soldered, the threaded hole for the “bolt” is already done. As you can imagine, the hole is not very deep, about 0.8 mm or 0.03” for a screw diameter 0.5 mm (0.02”). What you see now is the side profile; the square element at the right is to maintain the part(s) in the vice for the next steps. It will be cut in due time.
  11. Yes, they are, not too much because of the "large" screw. The original parts are, according to the pictures, more concave. All is done with filing because nothing is parallel, to my dismay! I though to do something similar to the wheel cover's vanes from the Mark II; they were easier to do. Just the quantity was not fun...
  12. Amazing man? Maybe! Skillful? Probably when I'm reading comments from other people. Anyway, thanks for yours and your fidelity!
  13. Today, I received the piano hinge from Micro-Mark; I will not use it. The outside hinge diameter is 2 mm; the maximum I can "accept" is 1 mm or less. Don, the tubes you could get from the other store are also too large, the smaller one is also 2 mm. A supplier in Germany has what I need; I will buy one or two tubes and silver solder a proper tube's length on a base. That assembly, once reworked, will be soft soldered on the hood's sides and upper panels. I'm still unsure about how the hinges from the upper panels are functioning. It seems there is one piece inside another one; will ask either Alex D. or Johan for how this is done on original cars. Each ventilation door from the hood has a garnish molding acting also has a handle to open the door (each door is to open or close individually). I had a whole afternoon to imagine how I could do those tiny chromed parts. Then, how to attach them on the doors? To glue them is a no-go. I could also solder them on the doors and have the assembly plated; it was an option to have chromed doors, but I don’t especially like it. Original parts are attached with two nuts; as I’m afraid that the part is too narrow at the front for a screw, I decided for a silver soldered pin which will also help to attach the parts to the tree for plating. One screw will be used at the rear of the part(s) as it’s wider. Bolts with a diameter of 0.5 mm will be used. To have some uniformity among the parts, I will do each needed operation on all parts at once and then go to the next task. As all operations will be manually done, there will be differences, but I hope they will be minor enough that they will not be noticed. I’m attaching a picture from the original handle plus my prototype which will not be used unless I can drill the needed holes at the exact same position.
  14. The idea to make the hood’s doors operative is opening a can of worms. Even if my test’s door was successful, I’m not sure if all doors will open or close flawlessly. After doing the doors and the flanges, I had to do the hinges: the ones soldered at the doors and the other ones attached to the hood. For both types, I had to create tools to have some uniformity among the parts. This is what can be seen on the first picture, together with two corners on which the hood’s hinges will be soldered. The profile from a male hinge is on the next picture; without tools to shape the parts, no one would be looking the same as the next. As I finally got the 0.3mm brass, I did also the first firewall, the one which contributes to the structure of the body. On those cars (V-8, V-12 and V-16), there is a second firewall installed ahead from the first one. This was a method to isolate the passenger cell from heat and noise as well as having a clean surface to be seen when the hood was open.
  15. Well, thanks for the suggestion. I will have to check, but when I began with the Toronado, the consensus was to continue with the same thread. At that period, I had no intention to do another model...until I saw that I was missing a good occupation. I will think about the changes.
  16. Don, je ne crois pas que ce soit une bonne idée: comme je suis pasresseux, je fais "copier-coller" mes aventures dans trois forums!
  17. McVey is selling those. Unfortunately, they are in back-order. Maybe other Cadillac vendors have them.
  18. To Don: yes paint can create issues. When the parts are created, for example the hood's doors, to get a good look, the play between hood and door should be 0.1 mm (0.004") With paint on both parts, no more movement will be possible! I'm doing a 0.2mm play (0.008") and will be careful with paint thickness! The rolled edges are indeed necessary as I'm using a 0.2mm thick brass. Without those edges, they could not be flat. I asked Johan, the man who restored the V-16 frame and engine, plus a '32 V-8 car; he said that the doors are individually opened/closed. Indeed, on the detailled pictures I have from him, there is no provision for a link or connector. To Pat: sorry if my adventures in brass (and other materials) is stealing your time! On the other side, those who really appreciate the details or the "how to do" are the minority. At one time, I published my adventures in a French forum, now inactive. I had the same observation: lot of views and few who asked questions, and usually all the time the same persons. The difference between my answers to that forum and here: in my native language, I can explain way better than in English! Those questions and comments are indeed the reason why I do continue to show what I'm doing in my small room!
  19. Could you please tell me what's a HVLP gun? Maybe you had not enough thinner. Severe orange peel requires more sanding and only then can you see if the surface is good enough for your liking.
  20. Clever, me? No! Just stubborn! In fact, if I had that issue 20 years earlier, I would have used the same solution like you...because then, I had no time! It seems to be a paradox, but in fact, I'm no more rushing things. Need to make a special tool for this or that? I'll do it! On my previous models, I was much more restrictive, because, as I just wrote, I had no time to spend on a tool... Usually, the turnaround is 3 to 4 weeks. I'm lucky that the plating company is doing work also for the watch industry, so they are not afraid to handle my trees. Of course, they don't have to polish or handle the parts mechanically, they "just" put each tree in various bathes. No mater if the tree is large or small, the price was the same for the Mark II: CHF 50.00 per tree. (about $ 60.00 at the actual rate). The price will probably be higher this time!
  21. It seems that Randy and Don are near an excellent supplier...For the moment I'm well set, but for how long? The hinge has been sent; it will be interesting to see if that will be OK with my requirements. Regardin the screws and nuts: I have a good supplier in Germany and, for metric stainless steel bolts and nuts, in the USA (Model Motorcars)! I could hate the designer who wanted 7 doors each side of the hood! I began by doing a female and male die for the doors. The idea was to stamp the doors, but I rejected that idea: for that, the dies must be perfectly aligned, requiring an elaborate construction. Then, I was not sure if my thin female die would be strong enough to shape the brass at the corners. Finally, I shaped each door on the mal die (a small hammer is a wonderful tool!) and pushed the assembly through the female die to have some uniformity. Then I did another male die and enlarged the female one to shape the flanges which will be soldered to the hood’s sides. To press the flanges into the hood’s side would be perfect, but here too, a complex set-up should be created. Therefore, the flanges will be soft soldered to the hood’s sides. On the first picture, there are 13 doors and 14 flanges, plus the dies at the bottom. The flanges are looking like grown doors because the holes are not yet done. They will be shaped once the flanges are soldered to ease the work. The big question was the operation of the doors. From Johan, I have plenty of pictures from the doors, but the question was about the spring which should keep open or close each door. I did a construction on which a door was installed (in fact, the doors are just pushed into a “pocket”, the spring is keeping them in place). I had difficulties to understand how that spring could to that job. At first, either the testing door would not stay open, then could not stay closed…I did another “hinge” (a stamped piece of brass, requiring several die changes) and did 3 holes at various positions. The spring was too strong, I had inconsistent results. Finally, I did a narrower and shorter spring and saw that when the open ends of the springs are installed into the hinge’s middle hole, I have a wonderful door operation, staying either closed or open at will. Now, I can continue my mass production!
  22. Well...there are so many threads on this forum, it's easy to miss one or more! Myself, I don't take the time to look at all for for various reasons. Thanks to follow my adventures!
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