Projects Replica of the Ivo's Showboat dragster

They still make really small spark plugs for 4 stroke model airplane engines, kinda pricey @ $29 each

 

Yes, I have seen these at the Model Engineering Shows and are used a great deal in 1/4 scale working car engines. The thread size for the 1/8 scale plugs are 3-56 which I used for the Model T posted earlier here. Yes they are a little pricey.

 

Wheels completed by Dancing Bear Components. These are CNC cut with split in the center for assembly to tires. These are 1-11/16” in diameter. He did a fantastic job.

 

In these photos the fronts look more spun aluminum with no slots. Could be the photos .

More photos here in the later pages :https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tv-tommy-ivo-the-early-years.1041976/

 

It is the photos and not aluminum. On page 2 of this thread is this picture from the builder of the Showboat. He built his own wheels. I am sure he could comment further with more details.l

 

Here is a better picture showing the front wheel.

 

Talk about perfection a perfect press fit into and mating to the tires. These are as good as one can ask for and would recommend him to anyone.

 

Who made the tires?

 

The tires are originally from the 1/8 scale Monogram Big T model kits. I purchased them from a model parts supplier. However, there are two different materials one a rubber like the other a hard PVC plastic. The picture shows the latter PVC.

 

OK, thanks for the reply. You are doing an excellent job on the details!

 

When asked about the dimples (pie-crust) on the side walls, Marv Rifchin (M&H) stated is was used to eliminate the amount of rubber used in molding the tire and had no other purpose

 

Yes,I am sure that feature did save some rubber material.One of the challenges of model building is replicating small details of the real subject. To that end I pondered the way to make the spark plug boots. I then remembered a material from my past, Plasti Dip used to put vinyl grips on tools. A trip to the local Ace Hardware and a purchase of a small can of black. I then turned brass mandrels to form the boots. Here is a series of pictures showing the process.

Mandrels were hung vertically to set.



Test fitted to engine with 1/32" wire in place.

They will be set aside until wire harness assembly.

 

the screws to bolt the heads on available in SS, saves having to chrome them, just a quick buff

 

I think I have some SS but they are metric I think, will have to check. Could you please share the frame/chassis tube diameters if possible?

 

The chassis was delivered to me about 85% complete, but I seem to recall that the bottom rails were 2.5" and the cage was 1.75". Fuller used that same bend for the cage, and they were all 1.75

 

Thanks! Those are great reference pictures. Any chance that you have any showing the front end and axle connection? Right now I have disassembled all the engines and painting the various parts.

 

Incredible thread! I'd seen the @dreracecar avatar, but the picture story is amazing.
And Ken's doing a model.
Engineering and jewelry.

 

Great pictures!! They explain about a dozen or so questions in the chassis structure I would have had. Just hope I can do as good a job with the model. Thanks again for your efforts in posting them!

 

I broke down the engines and painted parts, made aluminum block plugs and cleaned up and polished the brass parts for chrome plating using the Caswell Plug n' Plate Copy Chrome kit. I found that the best results were to polish the parts with pumice then copper plating to fill any scratches and pumice again. Here are pictures showing the steps on various parts. This was done on the work bench.









Once the parts were chrome plated they were then gently polished with Mothers Aluminum polish. Now back to more plating. Plating has a luster finish that paint just cannot attain. Also hard to show in photographs closeup on the small parts.

 

Get some light blue thin cardboard and cut out some Felpro head gaskets. The block plugs were painted with the block. The oil filter adapter was a block of aluminum with the stock filter mount turned 90*. For the filters, I used "Baldwins" because they were red

 

Well looks like I guessed wrong on the plugs. I had taken the thin cardboard from the back of my wife's writing pad but brown, what shade of blue perhaps? I can color the cardboard edges maybe. On the T racer I used copper. I have the Oil Filters done in Red but have also seen blue ones in a couple of pictures. I am in the process of plating all the exhaust pipes, then I will make the flanges to bolt them to the engine. Still sorting out the best way to do this due to the orientation of the pipes. Do you have a closeup of the pipes to the block showing the mounting flanges?

 

What ever works, When I did the resto, I bought Felpro gasket sets and were the same color as the Blue "post reply" tab, copper would have been too expensive to use. Any color for the filter works just as long as its the same for all of them or you could have them each a different color to throw people off and say that you found a picture of them different because of what was available at the time they needed to be changed. and the colors deliberate

 

Thanks that helps a great deal. I was not sure if the flanges were like you showed or squared off to follow the exhaust port shape. Just back from the hardware store and bought all the brass tube they had for the chassis and frame. Any images of the chassis would help. I see a bend up and in at the front of the engines as well as behind. Any info on them would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for feedback!

 

All I have are pictures, the frame was brought to me semi complete , so at that point there was no need for me to do drawings, but when I get home I will look into some of the original sketches Tommy gave me to see if anything is there, I did not use them because I had the original car to go off of

 

It is great getting to follow along with you Ken, I find the detail to be amazing. A question popped up here a day or so ago, and I want to see if my memory is correct. Was the car painted with 1956 Oldsmobile Fiesta Red?

 

The paint color would be a good question for the builder to answer. I am using Rustoleum Banner Red. I tried several different spray can colors and it came the closest.

 

'56 Olds Fiesta red, the paint is still available thru the R-M paint brand, their color codes go back far enough where all the others do not

 

Thanks, I was pretty certain I had read that someplace.