Mini Dooling/McCoy Teardrop Tether Car Cox .020 powered

You do great work there Ron. I still chuckle when I think of your airplane hotel build, leaving a small pile of sawdust and balsa shavings for room service to clean up! Is your new racer the Pinewood Derby class? Sure does look good.

It does look good! Will be interesting to see your finish.

Thanks everyone, staining would have been an option had I not screwed up on the engine cutout. That’s what happens when do everything by the TLAR method.

I broke down the TD .020 this evening. Glad I did as it was a mess inside. Every orifice was clogged and the crank was covered in congealed Castor. I still need to run it, my heatgun has a cool setting so I’ll use that to blow air over the head and cylinder.

Sounds just like a job for the ultrasonic Santa brought you!

Fill it with warm water, add some hand dishwashing detergent, dump the plastic parts in the water. Put the metal parts in a glass jar, fill jar with ethanol (full strength windshield wash fluid or ethanol based camping stove fluid will do). Put the jar in the water too.

Let it buzz for a while, wipe parts dry and inspect. If necessary, repeat with clean ethanol.

Cribbs74 wrote:Thanks everyone, staining would have been an option had I not screwed up on the engine cutout. That’s what happens when do everything by the TLAR method.

I was thinking stain, because...... Just look at the grain of the wood.  Follows like an airflow with wings on each side and perfectly positioned nose to tail.  The nose - (err tail) grain too just flows with the car.  

Coming from an old hobby carpenter, you couldn't have found a more perfect piece of wood.  It would be a shame to cover it up with just..............paint.



Edit add:

Maybe something clear, poly, varnish, sanded and polished. Or BLO five coats rubbed in. (I don't mind spending your time.)

+1 to what Bob said. Maybe you can cover up the fill piece with a strategically placed stripe, scallop or even a white racing number circle painted on? Or you could put an aluminum heat shield there to protect the surface from the exhaust of that fire breathing racing motor

Ethanol can rust aluminum, so don't wet the aluminum parts more than one day. I placed aluminum parts in ethanol in a jar, and after three days all parts covered with a black goo, it can be a kind of rust. I cleaned parts with wire brush and fine sandpaper. Hard work.

Ok, I’ll stain and poly it. I’ll have to figure out something else to do with the green can of paint.

The special wood selection was a piece of old scrap pine 2x4. I just cut off an 6” chunk and split it in 2.

My wife does vinyl decals so I’ll design something to cover up the mistake like Kari suggested.

Thanks everyone!

Ron

Cribbs74 wrote:Ok, I’ll stain and poly it. I’ll have to figure out something else to do with the green can of paint.

The special wood selection was a piece of old scrap pine 2x4. I just cut off an 6” chunk and split it in 2.

My wife does vinyl decals so I’ll design something to cover up the mistake like Kari suggested.

Thanks everyone!

Ron

Ok, I'm having second thoughts about stain.

Pine takes stain in different ways according to the grain of the wood.  Darker grains take it well but lighter grains not so.  It probably will not come out universal.  That said it may prove to be an interesting effect.  

If you have a similar piece cut from the same 2X4 you should try a test stain first to see if you like it.

Another option is, 3 or 4 coats of sanding sealer followed by some clear poly or varnish.  Highlights the grain while not changing tint.  

If you try another, a router hung on a router table with a round 3/4" router bit would make short work of scooping out the tub.  

Imitation being the sincerest sort of flattery, I'm looking for a similar piece of wood right now.  

Remember this one?




Bob

That is sure one sharp looking car there Bob. Very nice. Is it yours? I like the idea of the rollerblade wheels.

NEW222 wrote:That is sure one sharp looking car there Bob. Very nice. Is it yours? I like the idea of the rollerblade wheels.

Not mine. It was on ebay sometime last summer I believe. Didn't sell, then came back. I don't know the rest of the story.

But, it Ron's example that intrigues me. The simplicity of the design and construction is appealing, and I already have an engine for it pictured somewhere in this post.

Go for it Bob!

Just use a different wood. You could make it bigger for an .049 or make it really big for whatever engine you choose.

I will try and stain the remainder of the 2x4 and see how it turns out.

Those wheels look great Ron! Good luck with the engine-work. I have some Cox .020 questions that I'll pose in a separate thread.. if I can't find the answers in a search.

Regarding the engine/air-intake.. Consider a screen/filter of some sort, to avoid ingesting the grit thrown-up from that nearby drive-wheel..

a tobacco pipe-screen possibly..



or the screen from an old/used faucet-aerator.. (looks like a more "fine" mesh..)



Sharp scissors could cut a smaller circle to fit/glue-on? Maybe even a small square (1" x 1") of women's "nylon-stocking" material centered-over the venturi-stack and retained with a small rubber-band? Anything to keep grit/sand from finding its way into your engine.

I like the natural wood-grain too! Do you have any wood-stain leftover from what you used on the Laird "Super Solution" for the 1st CEF Speed Contest?



then maybe "brush-on" a few coats of clear-sealer/poly. Do you have any spar-urethane? Any decals would go-on easily over that.. then maybe one more top-coat brushed-on to seal them... just a few thoughts. A "Cox-Powered" decal would look great out-front.. IMHO  



or something like "this" might look cool/retro with the natural wood-tone..

Roddie , those are great ideas on the screen mesh filters.  I think if Ron is going racing he’ll need a sticker and a sponser.  Here is a selection of “small” air filters that might fit the little dirt racer he is building.  You know you can’t go fast without clean air!  



These are from the K & N catalog , heres a sticker:

You guys are funny.

I went ahead and stained it. I chose Ebony stain. It brings out the pattern and makes the engine show better. In my opinion anyway.

Great job and fast too!! It sure looks like the Streamliner you took inspiration from. They did look like they ran backward, the engines are up front with exposed head for cooling and most had some kind of ram air intake to the carb. When they came along they were breaking records in speed and some wanted them outlawed or special class cause they didn't look like the Midget models.
How bout Mr Horsepower or the Fink

here is one showing the exposed head and air tube

That has a canopy and a fin. Cool!

Good work Cribbs, here is an air filter made by Balogh:

https://www.coxengineforum.com/t11745-air-filter-on-tarno-rc-carb

Thanks guys. Not sure what i am going to trim it like. I won’t be using a filter though, I am a rebel like that...