Roger Zimmermann

To continue with the hood, two elements are missing: the firewall and the radiator surround. Obviously, the first element which will lead the body construction is the firewall. On this car, it was mainly made with steel and some metallic structure. As a convertible, the firewall/cowl must be as rigid as possible; the outer panels will contribute to that goal. On the short brass sill, there is a “pocket”; the sill will be made with wood and will start into that pocket till the end of the car. I will use soft wood as on the model as the sill will have almost no real function.

It seems that you have the proper tools for that kind of job...

It’s always more interesting to begin something new than to continue and finish an existing project…The hood vertical panels were put on hold while I was playing with the wood. Now, I had to finish this “project” by soldering the hinges to the doors and inside the hood. Not a difficult job, however requiring some attention to have the proper gap at the doors as once soldered, an adjustment is rather problematic. The most annoying task was to make the tiny springs which allow the doors to stay closed or open. I did a jig to bend the spring steel at the right place, but it was a flop. I used the proven method with some tweezers which gave 14 more or less different springs! Anyway, the ventilations doors are built as I intended.

Is the paint one stage or base/clear coat?

For once, no wood from a wine crate! I ordered some wood from a woodwork, it's beech. The same kind of wood I used for the Mark II...

During our stay at the vacation house, I took two pieces of wood to remove the excess material, giving that way a rough shape of the finished pattern. For that model, the body construction will differ to what I did before. Here, the first element to be ready will be the cowl, then the radiator surround. The exact length of the hood will be dictated by those two elements and will certainly differs compared to the original dimension. The wood block on the frame has to be trimmed till I can shape the brass around it; the rough nose is in the background. As the hood’s sides are flat, only the top and the small end will be used to shape the brass.

As the cooling system was maybe not too efficient, the option to open or close the vents was probably accepted by the customers. A single lever to open or close the vents would add the weight of the hood; was that a concern? As I always write, I don't know well cars from that time; I like to see them in pictures, but I would never own one. However, I like them as scale models and, as I had to study the details from that V-16 frame, the solutions used during that time are very interesting.

Gunsmoke, thanks for your pictures. Randy, you are forgotting something important: the above vent doors are located into the cowl. Easy to do a system to open/close them with a single lever. Imagine now the hood which is a movable element only attached to the cowl with a double hinge...How will you actuate the vent doors with this configuration? I don't know well the Chrysler products, especially from this period, but I doubt that this company could engineer a system to move the vent doors at the hood with a lever located into the car!

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!

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 …

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.

Thanks for the comment about the title!

That's correct, the plates are from Switzerland. Neat vehicle!

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…

@ 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!

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.

Thanks Martin! As you can see, the title is new!

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?

@ 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.

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.

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...

Amazing man? Maybe! Skillful? Probably when I'm reading comments from other people. Anyway, thanks for yours and your fidelity!

I also hate such bad surprises!

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.

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.