Don Branson's 1962 Mid-Continent Spl. Finished 8/13/16

[kip]

I am currently working on the Mid-Continent Securities Spl. that Don Branson drove in the 1962 Indy 500. The car was a Quinn Epperly laydown roadster that was owned by Lindsey Hopkins. It appeared in three Indy 500s. The first was 1961 as the Autolite #5. Tony Bettenhausen was to be the driver and was expected to break the 150 MPH barrier. He was killed testing Paul Russo’s car and Lloyd Ruby got the ride—qualifying 25th (146.9 MPH) and finishing 8th. Branson was in the car in 1962 (with Jack Beckley as the chief mechanic), qualified 11th at 147.3 MPH and finished the race in 12th. Its last appearance was 1963 as the Econo Car Rental #5 with Bobby Marshman at the wheel, qualifying 7th (149 MPH) and finishing 16th.



I am starting with Gary Doucette’s recently released 1961 Epperly.



I am going to add an engine and frame to this build. This was a laydown engine, but unlike other laydowns, the cam tower and much of the head stuck out through the side of the frame. The part of the engine that was outside the frame was covered by a separate bulge on the side.  There is a nice video about this car on YouTube.  This photo is from that video.



The bulge provided in the kit is solid resin.



To install an engine this bulge has to be hollow. I could either hollow out the kit piece or vacu-form a new one. Hollowing out resin did not appeal so I made a new bulge panel. Also, on the real car the rear of the bulge panel is open and has a bigger dip at the top than the kit piece. Some minor reshaping was done.

When I used the modified kit bulge piece as a mold, the vacu-formed result was too large. So instead I made a “female” mold of the modified kit bulge. The vacuum sucked the plastic into the mold and the overall dimensions are now correct.






The body needed modified. The fuel filler openings are in the wrong position so I filled them with Apoxy and drilled new holes in the proper places.. Fuel hardware to be added after painting. I also cut an opening in the side for the “top” of the engine and opened up the hood.

The tail piece is also shaped differently than the kit. It comes to a sharper edge at the back and is more sloped on the sides than the other Quinn Epperlys. I made a template and sanded the tail to shape.







The piece between the hood opening and the engine cutout will be removed when I put the frame in.

kip

[Calvin]

OMGosh! Yes!!!!!!!!

Its always a BIG thrill whenever I see Kip starting another WIP!!!!!!

People drop what they are doing when they see a WIP from Kip! Becuase we know we are about to see something special!

BTW no pressure! LOL!

[2lapsdown]

I totally agree with Calvin.

John

[indy]

Great start, Kip. This will be a fun one to see coming together. I think your work so far is very interesting and well done.

Jordan

[clm1545]

Kip's projects are always great. I'm looking forward to this one.

[racerbrown]

guaranteed to put a smile on your face!
duane

[Deleted]

IMO, this car in any year in which it ran looked great.

Lot of work on this one eh?

[bobbyc]

I love to see you do neat things like this. Please keep us posted on the progress.

[Art Laski]

Looking forward to watching, Kip!

[kip]

The Offy engine is about 95% done. I will add some more plumbing and lines when it is dropped in the car.  This is what I was working from. 



I started with the ARM/Etzel Offy. Since it’s a laydown, I had to change the velocity stacks to run along the side of the engine.   (The photo makes the finish look grainy for some reason.  Its not.)



I scratch built the breather and added it to the side of the engine and added fuel lines and coolant hoses and spark plug wires.



kip

[Calvin]

Nov 21, 2015 17:45:10 GMT -5 kip said:

  (The photo makes the finish look grainy for some reason.  Its not.)

Low light and your camera is auto bumping up the ISO which will add noise to your picture.

Everything looks absolutely awesome!

[Deleted]

I agree with Calvin, this looks very, very nice.

You guys make me want to scrap my built collection and start over!

[kip]

Low light and your camera is auto bumping up the ISO which will add noise to your picture.

I took Calvin's advice and retook the photos of the engine with a different camera and more light. I think they turned out a bit better. So here is the post with the new photos.


The Offy engine is about 95% done. I will add some more plumbing and lines when it is dropped in the car.



I started with the ARM/Etzel Offy. Since it’s a laydown, I had to change the velocity stacks to curve along the side of the engine.




I scratch built the breather and added it to the side of the engine and added fuel lines and coolant hoses and spark plug wires.




kip

[Calvin]

Nov 21, 2015 19:40:22 GMT -5 kip said:

Low light and your camera is auto bumping up the ISO which will add noise to your picture.

I took Calvin's advice and retook the photos of the engine with a different camera and more light. I think they turned out a bit better. So here is the post with the new photos.

I'm just trying to help....
I'm going to picky but now the white balance is off. Your lighting has changed or your camera white balance is not set correctly?

[kip]

 I'm just trying to help....
I'm going to picky but now the white balance is off. Your lighting has changed or your camera white balance is not set correctly? 

Made some adjustments.  Hope the photos are now easier on the eyes.

kip

[sandysixtysfan]

Kip, this is just amazing!

Sandy

[1961redlegs]

I'm loving this, Kip! You're a master of WIPs and roadsters. I'm following this one closely!

[kip]

Made a new grill from copper tubing and brass rod. Not the best solder job I’ve ever done. Needs to be cleaned up with a file, sandpaper, and steel wool.



Tried something new for the finish. Used Micro-Mark’s electroplating kit to chrome the grill.



Wasn’t very hard to use and with a little steel wool, it came out pretty shiny.

kip

[Calvin]

That looks fantastic! Thank you for sharing your awesome WIP today as most everyone is miserably out hanging with their families, when they should be on here model building like they should!

[kip]

That looks fantastic! Thank you for sharing your awesome WIP today as most everyone is miserably out hanging with their families, when they should be on here model building like they should!

I agree totally. Come on guys, build something!

kip

[clm1545]

Nov 29, 2015 14:34:18 GMT -5 Calvin said:

That looks fantastic! Thank you for sharing your awesome WIP today as most everyone is miserably out hanging with their families, when they should be on here model building like they should!

And, your last W I P was when?

[kip]

Just a quick update. I have not put this on the back burner. I am waiting for the blue paint to arrive. I ordered it on November 28 and it was supposed to arrive Monday the 7th. However, UPS has managed to lose the package so I need to reorder. Probably be another couple of weeks until I can make any progress. I've been doing a few little things with it but not enough for an update.

kip

[kip]

The 1965 Novi is on the back burner until the decals arrive so its back to the Branson 1962 Epperly. I finally found a color that appeared close to the original and painted the body (twice as usual—I use a lot of paint stripper). I also installed frame rails on the far side of the engine opening (can't be seen in the photo; was made from brass tubing and is painted the body color), the air scoop in front of the cockpit, and the engine. The engine is plumbed and wired. The little tab at the top right above the engine will be removed when the engine cover is installed. I am trying to figure out how to make the engine cover removable. I like seeing the engine too much to cover the “top” of it for eternity.



I put on a decal stripe to see what it looked like. It is actually orange—my lighting is poor. The decals are very thin and snuggle down well, but require a white base (provided) under the orange decal.



kip

[2lapsdown]

The work on the engine is amazing. I don't know how you can even see what you're doing on details that small. Incredible work.

John

[Calvin]

I'm sure glad Kip, gets in there and gets things done! Becuase it's just so impressive.

[lance]

Love the engine & grill, looking forward to more of this build.

[indy]

The engine is fabulous, I understand you not wanting to hide all of that great work.

Jordan

[jamesharvey]

Your work is really special. I find your ingenuity amazing along with the detail you add. Maybe you need a tiny hidden speaker to play Offy engine sounds.
Have you considered putting a pin in the bottom of the hood where you have the tab that could help hold it in place but would allow the hood to be removed? Just a thought; you are a much better problem solving that I am.
Good luck.
Jim

[kip]

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments.

Have you considered putting a pin in the bottom of the hood where you have the tab that could help hold it in place but would allow the hood to be removed? Just a thought; you are a much better problem solving that I am.

Actually what I am good at is creating problems. Solving them--not so much.   Jim, using some kind of pin is something that I had not considered. It makes a lot of sense. I have some extra Epperly engine covers I vacuformed and I think I will try to do a mock up using a pin and see if I can figure something out. Thanks for the idea.   

Maybe you need a tiny hidden speaker to play Offy engine sounds.

I really like this idea, Jim.  Only what I would really like to do would be to put the NOVI sound in the 65 Tombstone I am working on.  Anybody know where I can get a miniature speaker??

On the subject of help obtained from forum members, I have learned so much and had so much help (photos, parts, advice, encouragement. etc.) from you all. Some of the stuff I have worked into my builds I never would have thought of or dared to try before I joined the forum.  The quality of the builds you guys do has driven me to try to improve my models.  Many, many thanks to all of you.

I am currently putting decals on the Branson car.  I have to put white base decals on under all the orange scallops.  Lots of curves and trying to match up edges.  I should have some photos in a day or two.

kip 

[elruddick]

For small speakers check the model railroad sites for "sugar cube" speakers or do a Google search for them. They are about the size of a real sugar cube, hence the name.