Roger Zimmermann

Material changed over the years. As long as you can install them, no worry.

As the screw it treaded into the lever, the locked nut can prevent any movement from the screw, either from the spring side or the other one. As first I thought that you are right and two nuts are needed, but the lever is acting like a nut...

The air cleaners were finished by adding the cover on the top. As first glance, an easy part to turn on the lathe but...by better looking, there are fins! Way before the 1949 model, Cadillac had already fins. I suppose they were here for the look, nothing else, but complicated my task. On the real car, the cover is attached to the body with two nuts; on the model, they are fake because all elements are either soft soldered or glued.

Once all the rings were soft soldered, I could mill the excess material and soften the edges between the grooves. The illusion to have openings should be more or less right.

We continue with the air cleaners: I soft soldered each ring separately because for the next operation, the rings must not move. If I had the proper cutting tool I could have done the upper part very quickly; unfortunately for me, I'm not equipped to shape cutting tools. Either you have the needed machines or time!

Well...The joy of a relative recent convertible!

With some details still missing, the project of the frame and engine is coming to its end. I'm searching what I still could do before trying to do some body parts like grille or fenders. One thing is need to complete the engine: the air cleaners. Fortunately, Alex D. gave me the vital dimensions and I could begin the parts which are looking like that: One detail is the main difficulty: the apertures for the air. On a flat part, I could try to do that, but on a cylinder? I found a solution which should create a good illusion. For the moment, I'm showing what I have, the explanation will come later, if all is going as planed!

Really bad luck, sorry for you!

It's to avoid full throttle with a fresh rebuilt engine!

Probably the could not weld but attached the patch with silver soldering...

It's not the first time I'm seeing such "repair"!

This is also what I will probably do!

Interesting that you are aware about the process of plating! As you probably saw with my other models, the parts which have to be plated are attached like a tree, so the plater has only one pice to handle. Otherwise, I don't know how many would be lost or out of shape! It was certainly a better shop than average: usually hood ornaments are polished with no care for the details...

The other five rings are now finished. The main issue was to bring the outside diameter as the rings are not at all stable. Polishing them for plating will not be easy either! The two other rings missing on the picture are temporarily on the spare wheels. On the right of the picture: the tools to shape the rings; they were first used for the Mark II's wheel covers, then modified for the hub caps and finally for the rings.

Thanks for your comments! I suppose that the movie or television does not need such a detailed model(s). As the action is usually rather quick, the eyes are not retaining all aspects, therefore only the the ground shape must be right. No need for electric widow lifts (for a car) or other futile detail! You had certainly an interesting job...

Right now, its the friction which help it to stay in place. Once the wheel are painted and the trim ring plated, maybe the friction will be hich enough to keep it in place. But maybe not if the model is driving at 100 MPH!

Since I did the wheels for the model, I wondered how I could do the "beauty rings" which are installed on the rims. Turning from stock was not an option as the section is so small it cannot be held on jaws. Soldering on a support could be done, but for that some turning would be anyway difficult. On day, I got the idea to do them with flat brass pressed between two dies. However, this system would produce a lot of waste. I came with the idea to use band shaped like a donut. To validate my idea, I did two tentative: one with a brass band 0.2mm thick and the other one with 0.3mm thick brass. Both were not easy to shape at the right diameter, but the thinner one was too delicate. The first prototype shown is with the thicker brass. The second picture is showing the bands ready to be shaped; one is half way finished.

But, Keith, it was jut a simple hub cap! Anyway, thanks for the comment.

Thanks to Keiser31, drhach and Pat for your comments. @drhach: thanks for the tip regarding the decals. I was not aware about that product. I hope it will still exist when I'm will be ready to apply the decals!

Finally, all hubcaps are more or less ready for plating. Some decals will be added later: the one in the middle and the black lines near the outside diameter. Maybe I will have to paint the lines because a flat decal will not go well on a curved surface...

After the summer break, it was time to resume the hub caps story. As the center part was unpractical to stamp, I did separate octagons and silver soldered them to the cap. Thanks to the possibility to use a small quantity of paste, no rework was needed and the joints were perfect without voids. To achieve that, the backs of the octagons had to be hollow, following that way the shape of the caps. Once soldered, the shaft was milled away. Now, I have to soft solder the attaching flanges to the caps.

It's funny: the other wheel covers I did were larger and more complicated, but just circular. Once both dies were done, it was "easy"! And now, that small hub cap is creating more problems than anticipated! Since years, I'm going to a large company which is mostly working for the watch industry. The boss (Owner, may be) is younger than me, I hope that I will have no problem!

Some time ago, I began the hub caps. Small, just an octagon décor on the center...will be quickly done. For the dies, I recycled old wheel cover ones, therefore I had not too much brass waste. The issue with the octagon became such a difficulty I had to change my plan. As you can see from the picture, the LH lower hub cap has two problems: the octagon is not centered and the brass is teared. The centering could be solved; with more play between the male and female dies I could avoid the tearing, but the lines would not be sharp. The new plan: the octagon will be full brass, silver soldered on the dish. Then, the excess material at the back will be milled away as the hub caps are a tight fit with the central nut at each wheel. This method will allow to have sharp lines compensating the extra work.

Bad explanation from me: this is the sentence I don't understand: Those filler caps are really cool, Roger. But, then didn't we know they were gonna be? When I did the radiator, I never gave an indication about the small hole, so your memory is not at fault!

Ah, ah! Small hole...For what? It's my understanding that the coolant temperature unit should go there. There is nothing on the wiring diagram from the shop manual, but there is a temp gauge on the dash. Unfortunately, I don't understand the second part from the first line...