Got up this morning, ran to the butcher shop and picked up a couple of 16oz T-Bones for tonight and to Lowe’s for some for 4-40 threaded rod. My race track shop didn’t have any and Hobbytown USA was out. Slide your butcher a 6 pack of Heineken(or whatever he/she likes every once in a while and they hook you up with the best cuts)

. The 4-40 rod is going to be ran thru copper tubing(painted black) for the tie-rods and steering. If I like the results I’m going to go on-line and order some steel tubing to add strength. Titanium rods would be stronger and more easily available, but I’m curious to see how it looks with this method. It will inevitably make adjustments much more of a task, but this will unfortunately not be a serious racer since there really isn’t much interest in the class(yet).
I normally dye the parts right in the pan after bringing it to a boil, but this time I decided to try a different method. I brought water to a boil and then poured it over the dye in smaller plastic container, stirred it and then threw the parts in and stirred for about 10 minutes straight. Then stirred every 10 minutes for about 90 minutes. Decent results, but not perfect. There’s always one stubborn piece that resists being dyed(left hand side). Actually as I type this I realized that I should have just sealed the lid and shaken it a little every 10 minutes. Would be slightly easier I guess. Live and learn I suppose…
To paint the copper tubing I just ran fishing line thru it, tied a piece of stick to the end and tied the other end to a tree branch in the woods. Just give the stick at the bottom a light twirl and the tubing rotates for smooth even painting. I have a bit of a leaf issue as I now take a closer look at this pic and the leaves have really barely started to fall. One downfall of where I live. I just wait for them all to fall, buy a case of beer and invite a couple of buddies over. We just blow them into the woods that surround the yard. Beats the hell out of raking and bagging. Helps stop erosion too. Burning is legal out in the county, but there’s just too many.
I got a pm from someone about a year ago stating that I add too much irrelevant information to my posts. He never visits anymore(maybe because of my posts!). To him I said “Everything is relevant to something.”. Most people just look at the pictures anyway…
Parts should be close to dry.
