I picked up a scale 540 motor cover from GCM's Shapeways store, the straight six, the only thing different was the air filter which was also from GCM but meant for the 22R
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/gcmracing?section=Scale+Motors&s=0
I dont plan on making the hood open but I still think it'd be nice to see an engine mated up to the scale transmission.
I had the motor all assembled and glued up, slid the motor in and thats when I noticed that it was too tight of a fit and it was splaying out the head. So I tore it back down and made up a little sanding drum out of a 24mm socket and a few adapters so I could chuck it up in a cordless drill.
80 grit sandpaper taped to the socket, what you dont see is the first bit of sandpaper is taped in place before wrapping it around a few more times. the tape on the outside just keeps it from flapping around but its this first piece of tape that does the holding.
The pieces are white SLS material but dyed black, so the white areas are where I've thinned it out enough to get through the dyed portion. The dye was actually pretty helpful when thinning it out, it went from black to white and when it was so thin I was close to the other side black again. I ended up removing the sticker on the motor for clearance sake, I also bent the solder tabs in so they didn't stick past the can.
I sanded for a while and got it to the point where it could fit the motor and flex a bit so than I could line up all of the seems in the print.
I found some M2 scale hardware from some SSD wheels worked well in the holes for the oil pan, I love the way they look too. I drilled out the holes on the block side to keep the plastic from splitting though it still wanted to split a bit. The threads are hardly biting into it but enough to hold it tight while I glue the rest with E6000.
I also drilled a hole for a oil drain plug (also 2mm scale hardware) and I put 1 hole up front to help locate the front piece (with the accessories).
More scale hardware (just since I had it) to locate the exhaust and intake manifolds.
I was lucky to find 2 very small black rubber bands to use as the accessory belts, which I think i haven't routed correctly since I wasn't able to use the tensioner.
I took a 1mm bit and drilled holes in the distributor cap and the coil so I could run spark plug wires. Theres very little room for error when drilling the distributor cap since its so small so locate the center as best as you can. I used a punch to dimple the center and then drill. On the spark plug end I opted not to drill them out for wire as they're even smaller and instead use small pieces of heat shrink to connect the wire to the plugs. To get the wires in place on the cap I stripped off the wire casing and tinned the wire with solder to keep it together, that way I could fit the wire into the tiny 1mm holes, it simply wouldn't fit with the wire casing on it. Then I used some E6000 to glue them into the holes and a little heat shrink to finish it off on the cap end.
I also made up the rest of the header with a merge pipe (from styrene) to connect to the shapeways piece. I drilled some small locating holes in the manifold and down pipe and inserted some wire to make mocking it up simpler.
Masking for paint was going to be a pain as nothing likes to stick to the SLS texture very well or for long so I ended up using some Testors paint pens which worked a treat.
The only part I couldn't do with the paint pens was the air filter pleating, which I used a ball point pen for.
To get the wiring to fit I had to move the positive lead to the middle of the positive "tab" (not the solder tab), basically right on top of the brush slot. I very carefully soldered it on since too much solder could really mess up things, you definitely dont want to solder the brush or spring in place. I also aimed the wire so I could remove the brushes without having to unsolder anything.
Moving the positive wire then gave me the space to route the negative wire up and out, If I had soldered the positive lead to the normal spot I dont think I'd have room to route it or the other wire.
One last thing I just noticed I need to do is shrink down the oil filter a bit as its hitting the frame rail. Hard to see and get a picture of but its painted green
And heres one with it just set in place, my front body mounts are a bit more prominent than I'd like when looking at the engine but I can live with it.
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/gcmracing?section=Scale+Motors&s=0
I dont plan on making the hood open but I still think it'd be nice to see an engine mated up to the scale transmission.
I had the motor all assembled and glued up, slid the motor in and thats when I noticed that it was too tight of a fit and it was splaying out the head. So I tore it back down and made up a little sanding drum out of a 24mm socket and a few adapters so I could chuck it up in a cordless drill.
80 grit sandpaper taped to the socket, what you dont see is the first bit of sandpaper is taped in place before wrapping it around a few more times. the tape on the outside just keeps it from flapping around but its this first piece of tape that does the holding.
The pieces are white SLS material but dyed black, so the white areas are where I've thinned it out enough to get through the dyed portion. The dye was actually pretty helpful when thinning it out, it went from black to white and when it was so thin I was close to the other side black again. I ended up removing the sticker on the motor for clearance sake, I also bent the solder tabs in so they didn't stick past the can.
I sanded for a while and got it to the point where it could fit the motor and flex a bit so than I could line up all of the seems in the print.
I found some M2 scale hardware from some SSD wheels worked well in the holes for the oil pan, I love the way they look too. I drilled out the holes on the block side to keep the plastic from splitting though it still wanted to split a bit. The threads are hardly biting into it but enough to hold it tight while I glue the rest with E6000.
I also drilled a hole for a oil drain plug (also 2mm scale hardware) and I put 1 hole up front to help locate the front piece (with the accessories).
More scale hardware (just since I had it) to locate the exhaust and intake manifolds.
I was lucky to find 2 very small black rubber bands to use as the accessory belts, which I think i haven't routed correctly since I wasn't able to use the tensioner.
I took a 1mm bit and drilled holes in the distributor cap and the coil so I could run spark plug wires. Theres very little room for error when drilling the distributor cap since its so small so locate the center as best as you can. I used a punch to dimple the center and then drill. On the spark plug end I opted not to drill them out for wire as they're even smaller and instead use small pieces of heat shrink to connect the wire to the plugs. To get the wires in place on the cap I stripped off the wire casing and tinned the wire with solder to keep it together, that way I could fit the wire into the tiny 1mm holes, it simply wouldn't fit with the wire casing on it. Then I used some E6000 to glue them into the holes and a little heat shrink to finish it off on the cap end.
I also made up the rest of the header with a merge pipe (from styrene) to connect to the shapeways piece. I drilled some small locating holes in the manifold and down pipe and inserted some wire to make mocking it up simpler.
Masking for paint was going to be a pain as nothing likes to stick to the SLS texture very well or for long so I ended up using some Testors paint pens which worked a treat.
The only part I couldn't do with the paint pens was the air filter pleating, which I used a ball point pen for.
To get the wiring to fit I had to move the positive lead to the middle of the positive "tab" (not the solder tab), basically right on top of the brush slot. I very carefully soldered it on since too much solder could really mess up things, you definitely dont want to solder the brush or spring in place. I also aimed the wire so I could remove the brushes without having to unsolder anything.
Moving the positive wire then gave me the space to route the negative wire up and out, If I had soldered the positive lead to the normal spot I dont think I'd have room to route it or the other wire.
One last thing I just noticed I need to do is shrink down the oil filter a bit as its hitting the frame rail. Hard to see and get a picture of but its painted green
And heres one with it just set in place, my front body mounts are a bit more prominent than I'd like when looking at the engine but I can live with it.
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