Roger Zimmermann

Thank you pontiac1953 and longman for your wishes; I hope that you will have an excellent year 2012! (the other readers too!)

It's not a fancy one: I managed to do 2 pieces: the A/C pulley and the compressor's cylinder head. Next year will see the birth of the compressor's case. Happy New Year to all!

Interesting car, John! Quite different from an Avanti; both are special vehicles!

The drive shaft required a lot of machining to do the universal joints. As you can see on the pictures below, there is a central bearing. At first I did it solid, the shaft turning into a large brass part. Then I realized that the shaft is not parallel with the frame, but the outer shell of that support is squarely attached to the frame. The only solution was a rubber insulator which allows the drive shaft to be at an angle. If the drive shaft would transmit some power, I would need another manufacturing method, as the shaft now is not quite turning true!

I have another point of view about the demise of Saab: I'm almost glad they are gone. Outch! I will have lot of ennemies! My explanation: it was probably a company which was complicated to deal with. Cadillac sold in Europe the BLS which was a Saab model with some modifications. I heard from Swiss dealers that the car itself was quality wise not bad, but GM went the wrong route with the marketing. The model is discontinued since 2009; parts availablity is now real bad as done by Saab suppliers. The warranty system, even if it was a "GM" product, was all Saab system. Either GM was not able to persuade Saab to have the same system as Opel or GM (now there is at least an unique system coming for all brand over most of the world) did not care. It happens that I'm doing the warranty admisnistration for some Swiss dealer. Each time I have a warranty work to submit for a BLS it's a nightmare and it pays almost nothing compared to GM products. Many years ago, Saab was a make in Europe for individualist and strange people. Obviously there were not enough such people to let survive that make.

The scenery is more or less the same as it was many years ago. There are new buildings down to the village; however, the Jungfrau-Victoria Hotel is still there, still magnificent. Another greetings from Switzerland! Despite my name, my monther tongue is French...

In fact Steve, I appreciate the inputs. They show me different ways to do things as one alone cannot know everything. Your suggestion about plating is tempting; it's always a risk to have parts outside, they can be lost or whatever can happens when no more under our own control. This forum has so many people from different horizons; the various knowledges are shared to the benefit of all!

John, paint is expensive. If you let it paint for $ 2000, you will regret it; this is a quick paint job for resale and good to see at 10 feet! I'm glad you choose the other way; your car deserve it. Merry Christmas!

It seems that there is a conspiration that I have to do my plating myself! Thank you Matthew for this info about the transformer!

Thank you for comments and the link Steve. I know that Eastwood is (or was) selling a kit to "chrome" parts; I'm always a little bit sceptical about the results and durability. A test would be fine, but spend more than $ 200.00 to find that the end result is not acceptable is questionable! The next hurdle is that we have 220 volts, USA 110 and the system is certainly not available for 220 volts. Anyway, I'm years away to chrome other parts for this model; I will keep your suggestion; who knows, maybe something similar is available in Europe. By the way, the plater I'm giving my chrome parts is giving a coat of copper for better adhesion and quality of the chrome .

Thank you for your comments Larry. There are activities from people in this forum which are beyond my abilities too; to each his own skill or talent! Merry Chritmas to you and to all from this forum!

Now, imagine the shipping costs for those 6 boxes to Europe (or Australia)! For 2 days, I got back 2 carbs from a good rebuilder in the USA; shipping costs were about $ 150.00...

Thank you straight shooter for your comments and doing your first post to this thread! Have a prosperous year 2012!

A braking from 60 MPH would be difficult! What is the max. speed of such a vehicle? I'm totally ignorant of those very antique vehicles... About thermal expansion: which metal expands more? steel or bronze? The fact is that the steel will get first hot, less than the bronze partly due to the limited thermal conductivity between both. A sleeve into a drum has not such problems but an external sleeve may effectively be a difficult task. The positive aspect of it: you could choose a better lining material. If I can correctly interpret an old technical book, bronze expansion is more important than steel: the expansion value for bronze is 17.5 and the one for plain steel 11.5. Something to study...

It will be no more original, but a solution would be to modify the brass drum with a steel sleeve.

Thank you Frank and jdome. Google had a good search result with woods metal; wismuth leaded to bismuth which is the base metal for the woods metal. I even found a store in Switzerland where I can buy it.. Not cheap, 100 grams for about $ 90.00. I will give it a try; I may use that metal for other applications for the scale model. Everyday there is a chance to learn something!

Interesting what is coming on this forum! Could you please tell me more about that wood's metal? It could be the solution to fabricate the exhaust lines of my Continental scale 1:12. Don't tell me that I can buy it at this or that store, I'm located in Switzerland...

This week-end, I could temporary install the rear axle on the car as the rear springs were done. However, I may replace them: the spring steel I used is a bit too thick and, for the moment, there is just one leaf each side, like Novas and Toronados had in the past. If I'm adding 7 other leafs with the same material, the suspension will be too stiff! As I have no idea regarding the weight when completed, I'm keeping for the moment the rear suspension as is; if I have to do new springs it will just add a couple hours to the project, not a big deal. What next? The drive shaft is in the pipe-line!

When I restored my '56 Biarritz, I had also to fabricate some body parts. As you mention in your comments about my scale model, it's more difficult to work on something small than a large piece. However, the technique I used on scale models can be useful on real cars. For example, to do the part you described, I would have done about the same as you, with one exception: all cold working! Steel is very forgiving, especially with a small flange like you had to do. The ultimate would be to stamp the form directly form the wheel well by doing the male form and a femeale one, then pressing the male form into the femeale one. No welding, no metal cleaning, almost factory like! The sole difficulty is to aligh perfectly both tools. As the well is in between, it's not easy but it could be done, especially when a hole must be done. The hole could be used for a guide for both tools. My method has a big inconvenient: it's time consuming and, as you are not doing that repair for your pleasure, time is a big factor. Anyway, I really enjoy to see what your are doing on that '58 car!

I'm really sorry if you went so late to bed! Thank you for your comments and remarks; I will try to answer your questions as far as my English allows it...Yes, I'm working almost only from measures and, of course, pictures (which are dangerous as usually there is some irregular stretching due to the lens of the camera). From one member of the Mark II forum, I got about 70 ot 80 pages from original blueprints. The drawings are only showing dome details, but they were great for the dimension of the frame (section and spacing of the side members). They will be useful for the body as some measures cannot be taken, especially when there is no space around the original vehicle. When I did the Toronado, I had the good fortune to get original drawins for the frame and the floor. The only problem I had was to find a space large enough to unfold the frame's drawing, scale 1:1! Templates are not possible except for body parts; I will certainly use that technique for the side window aperture, like I did on the Toronado 40 years ago (!). Then I have my own method to scale it down. A pantograph would be a fine tool, but I have no space for that. Remember, all is done in a flat's room! You are right, I don't use aluminum. I cannot weld it, so it's for me useless. I don't like to work with it either: on the lathe, it's doing very long chips. Paint adhesion is also specific for that metal. Yes, brass is heavier and more expensive; I spent about $ 200.00 for brass and some more for brazing rods and paste, but all that for a construction span of 10 years, it gives a very small amount for each year... You did a small piece lately; I will do some comments about it in your thread.

Since I began the frame, the rear spring's hangers were a concern. I cannot do them in brass, the material is too weak for the task. Sure, by using a thick bit of brass there will be no problem, but that thickness will be out of proportion. Stainless steel? It's strong, and here, I will have problem with my drilling bits as the material is not kind with them. As I was searching for a suitable material, I came across a broken hacksaw blade. Bingo! It is not too thick and obviously strong enough. Of course, I had to heat it to remove the hardening. The sole question was if the steel would be soft enough to let form the eye without breaking? The first attempt was positive, although I saw one or two tiny cracks. The steel was also soft enough to be drilled, but strong enough for the task. The next problem was the shackle. On Continentals it is like a "U" with bushings screwed into the hanger and spring. I had to do it differently. Of course, brass is again the wrong metal as one end is staying open. In my shop, I would certainly have some iron wire of the proper diameter, but I had no envy to drive one hour just for 50 mm of wire! Finally, I found "Pop-rivets" I had in a box since certainly 30 years (why I had them, no idea, I don't have the tool...) I noticed that the steel shaft is hardened; it probably the most valuable part of those rivets and it gets discarded! The diameter was not exactly what I was looking for; a little machining did the trick. I did some examples without machining first, to evaluate the process. At the end, the result is quite satisfying.

You are welcome! Thank you too for your comments about the model I'm doing. I have certainly advantages over you: no time pressure, except that I should finish the model before I'm unable to continue and the costs are rather low. Time at disposal is the most precious element; fortunately, I have almost enough!

It's always interesting to know what the competition is charging for a similar job!

As you can see on the pictures, the rear axle is now ready. Missing are the brake shields; they will come later as I don't have enough data to do them now. The end cover will get more screws; they will be added during final assembly. The next few days will be devoted to the rear spring hangers and the material to do the springs.

When the pictures are too large, a text in that box is coming saying it. Most of the time, I don't notice it and my comments about adding pictures are not neat!