AES
Established Member
Update 10th June:
Title now edited to acknowledge the fact that this is NOT the "longest ever....."! And Part 4 plus latest (bad) news added on page 2 of this thread:
(Or: - "The story of a 1948 MG TC Midget pedal sports car for kids").
This is the story of probably the longest, and certainly one of the most drawn-out and exhausting (if not "exhaustive"!) project that has ever appeared on UK W - bar none!
At 9 years and counting, not only is it L-O-N-G, it's also definitely NOT a project involving any fine wood working or cabinet making at all - more likely, what's to be seen below is enough to make any even half-decent site chippy cry (or laugh)!
It consists mainly of ply (OK, it IS decent quality Birch ply, but still!); softwood glue blocks; PVA & epoxy; plus screws (though the screws are in the main stainless steel). And not even one proper joint in sight either! AND (as will be of little surprise to those who have read of my background in some of my earlier posts here) this project also consists of a fair bit of metal work, in mild steel, a little bit of brass and cast iron, plus aluminium.
ABOVE: What we found on the "Stephenson Projects" website (see text) .....
ABOVE: One example of the real thing
Anyway, here's the basic story:
Back in 2009 or 10, feeling flush after a lengthy overseas work project, and with SWMBO's agreement, I lashed out on a small Chinese metal working lathe that was on special offer at one of our local DIY Emporia - the type of lathe that has now become pretty familiar to many. In my case though, and purely without any prior knowledge, my particular lathe turns out to have come from the apparently slightly higher-quality of the two well know Chinese makers of these fairly capable little machines (the maker of mine's called "Red Dog" would you believe)?
After getting it properly set up and more or less fully tooled, I was looking for a "project" which would answer SWMBO’s question “Now what are you going to make with all that stuff down in the cellar?”
As I also like dabbling in woodwork and general DIY, and with me seeing full-time retirement appearing ever-nearer on the horizon, I soon got to looking on the internet for something to really get my teeth into. My wife was also doing much the same as she was interested in joining in, and to cut a long story short, we found a down-sized “semi-scale model” of a 1948 MG TC Midget two seater sports car, but this to be built as a single seater child’s pedal car. You can see an enlarged version of a picture of the toy found on the vendor's web site above, together with a reminder of what a real MG TC looks like.
The plans consisted of several photocopied pages of a magazine article describing “how we did it”, a couple of full-sized paper templates and 4 sheets of dimensioned drawings. They arrived quite quickly from the US vendor, though I did note that their standard postage charge was about double the value of the stamps actually applied.
Inevitably (for me), after looking all through the supplied info I've "upgraded" some of the "engineering" shown.
But before describing all that, a word or two about that term above, “semi-scale”. At about 1.80 M length overall (while the real car is, at a guess, at least 4.00 Metres long) this toy was clearly not going to be a true scale model.
In the model aircraft fraternity, which I inhabited for many years, there are two different classes of flying scale model. First is the "true scale" class (that's for the real contest-level expert, where a model is required to be an exact, scaled measurement-for-measurement replica of the original) - a "rivet counter's dream" in other words. Or perhaps a little simpler, there's the "semi scale" or "stand-off scale" class. The concept here is that while you will not see a true-scale relationship between the dimensions of the real thing and those of the model, when you look at the semi scale model from a distance of, say, a metre or two, you will immediately recognise exactly which aircraft the model represents - for example, a stand-off scale model Spitfire MUST have an elliptical wing and rounded tail surfaces, even if the dimensions are all more "proportional" than scaled actuals.
I applied exactly the same thinking here, because while there is clearly no “real-scale” relationship between any of the dimensions of the actual car and this “model”, all the characteristics which typify the real thing should be faithfully reproduced – to the extent that anyone who’s even vaguely familiar with the 1940s-series of MG Midgets will immediately recognise that this toy represents a MG Midget - in other words it's NOT just a generic kid’s pedal car.
That meant the important features such as those big, swooping front wings ("fenders" in US-speak?), the large headlights, the louvered bonnet sides, that distinctive radiator, the prominent hexagonal MG badges, the "strapped on separately" external fuel tank, and ideally, those wire wheels too - will all be present and correct, or at least present to some representational extent.
I'll leave it to all of you to judge how well we've achieved that overall "picture" (but I guess you'll have to wait to decide on that for the last post in this series)!
So, after initial "planning" and some major materials collection (mainly 22, 19, 12 and 6 mm birch ply, plus some special taps and dies - who knew that bicycles have a different screw thread standard all of their own? - the project started in earnest in 2012. Not quite finished yet, it MUST be finally handed over to its new owner in May 2019!!!! Yup, as I write this that's the end of next month.
Before getting to the real meat of the thing though, some final introductory words of "explanation" are probably in order - to at least try and explain why a single toy would need a 7 to 9-year timescale to produce! (The following are all just weak excuses really)!
First off, this wasn't a full-time job. When first started I was still running my own company and was often disappearing at short notice to all sorts of weird and (often not quite so) wonderful corners of the globe for weeks - sometimes months - at a time. And I didn't finally close my company and retire until after my 3rd back operation in December 2014.
And after 2 separate hospital and rehab stays, plus numerous Out-patients visits in that same 2012 to 2019 period - not to mention 3 separate hospital stays for my wife also - you'll begin to see how the years have simply rolled by. Then there's the inevitable house and garden maintenance, plus significant time to set up a half-decent work shop in the cellar - I THINK you begin to see that perhaps we haven't done SO badly for time after all!
BUT I must also freely admit that my "production rate" down in the cellar would make a snail look like Concorde in the midst of a supersonic Trans-Atlantic trip! So there's no real excuses for a 7/9 year delay - except to admit that I am a bit of an "over-engineering perfectionist" - as well being a complete Klutz sometimes. For example it took me 4 tries before I'd produced a satisfactory pair of those "flippin" front wings!
ABOVE: My LAST go at the LH Front Wing (now with first colour coat too)
AND I need time to "think things through" too. That meant some sketches on the back of an envelope, then some measuring up of the work so far, references to the plans, then following that up with a cup of coffee and a fag while thinking about things yet again - PLUS reading of any relevant UKW topics - then some (more) time to scratch my backside while thinking a bit more, accompanied by another cup of coffee and (of course), another fag! All that took up more than just a little time you know!
Anyway, what follows is picture heavy, each separate section being a .pdf pictures file (to allow bigger pictures) along with extended captions, all without this Forum's restrictions on layout, formatting, etc. As ever, clicking on the link will open the .pdf section which will then appear on a separate screen. You can either view that on line or download separately, as you prefer.
Last for now, here's another pic, this time the more or less complete carcass - by way of an appetite wetter (or off-putter, just as you like).
I hope you all enjoy the following posts and will be pleased to try and answer any questions that come up.
Now on to Part Two (also the first .pdf file) - "Holzbaukaste". I'll probably add this tomorrow, with other "finished" .pdfs to add each day or so - IF members show interest.
Cheers for now.
Title now edited to acknowledge the fact that this is NOT the "longest ever....."! And Part 4 plus latest (bad) news added on page 2 of this thread:
(Or: - "The story of a 1948 MG TC Midget pedal sports car for kids").
This is the story of probably the longest, and certainly one of the most drawn-out and exhausting (if not "exhaustive"!) project that has ever appeared on UK W - bar none!
At 9 years and counting, not only is it L-O-N-G, it's also definitely NOT a project involving any fine wood working or cabinet making at all - more likely, what's to be seen below is enough to make any even half-decent site chippy cry (or laugh)!
It consists mainly of ply (OK, it IS decent quality Birch ply, but still!); softwood glue blocks; PVA & epoxy; plus screws (though the screws are in the main stainless steel). And not even one proper joint in sight either! AND (as will be of little surprise to those who have read of my background in some of my earlier posts here) this project also consists of a fair bit of metal work, in mild steel, a little bit of brass and cast iron, plus aluminium.
ABOVE: What we found on the "Stephenson Projects" website (see text) .....
ABOVE: One example of the real thing
Anyway, here's the basic story:
Back in 2009 or 10, feeling flush after a lengthy overseas work project, and with SWMBO's agreement, I lashed out on a small Chinese metal working lathe that was on special offer at one of our local DIY Emporia - the type of lathe that has now become pretty familiar to many. In my case though, and purely without any prior knowledge, my particular lathe turns out to have come from the apparently slightly higher-quality of the two well know Chinese makers of these fairly capable little machines (the maker of mine's called "Red Dog" would you believe)?
After getting it properly set up and more or less fully tooled, I was looking for a "project" which would answer SWMBO’s question “Now what are you going to make with all that stuff down in the cellar?”
As I also like dabbling in woodwork and general DIY, and with me seeing full-time retirement appearing ever-nearer on the horizon, I soon got to looking on the internet for something to really get my teeth into. My wife was also doing much the same as she was interested in joining in, and to cut a long story short, we found a down-sized “semi-scale model” of a 1948 MG TC Midget two seater sports car, but this to be built as a single seater child’s pedal car. You can see an enlarged version of a picture of the toy found on the vendor's web site above, together with a reminder of what a real MG TC looks like.
The plans consisted of several photocopied pages of a magazine article describing “how we did it”, a couple of full-sized paper templates and 4 sheets of dimensioned drawings. They arrived quite quickly from the US vendor, though I did note that their standard postage charge was about double the value of the stamps actually applied.
Inevitably (for me), after looking all through the supplied info I've "upgraded" some of the "engineering" shown.
But before describing all that, a word or two about that term above, “semi-scale”. At about 1.80 M length overall (while the real car is, at a guess, at least 4.00 Metres long) this toy was clearly not going to be a true scale model.
In the model aircraft fraternity, which I inhabited for many years, there are two different classes of flying scale model. First is the "true scale" class (that's for the real contest-level expert, where a model is required to be an exact, scaled measurement-for-measurement replica of the original) - a "rivet counter's dream" in other words. Or perhaps a little simpler, there's the "semi scale" or "stand-off scale" class. The concept here is that while you will not see a true-scale relationship between the dimensions of the real thing and those of the model, when you look at the semi scale model from a distance of, say, a metre or two, you will immediately recognise exactly which aircraft the model represents - for example, a stand-off scale model Spitfire MUST have an elliptical wing and rounded tail surfaces, even if the dimensions are all more "proportional" than scaled actuals.
I applied exactly the same thinking here, because while there is clearly no “real-scale” relationship between any of the dimensions of the actual car and this “model”, all the characteristics which typify the real thing should be faithfully reproduced – to the extent that anyone who’s even vaguely familiar with the 1940s-series of MG Midgets will immediately recognise that this toy represents a MG Midget - in other words it's NOT just a generic kid’s pedal car.
That meant the important features such as those big, swooping front wings ("fenders" in US-speak?), the large headlights, the louvered bonnet sides, that distinctive radiator, the prominent hexagonal MG badges, the "strapped on separately" external fuel tank, and ideally, those wire wheels too - will all be present and correct, or at least present to some representational extent.
I'll leave it to all of you to judge how well we've achieved that overall "picture" (but I guess you'll have to wait to decide on that for the last post in this series)!
So, after initial "planning" and some major materials collection (mainly 22, 19, 12 and 6 mm birch ply, plus some special taps and dies - who knew that bicycles have a different screw thread standard all of their own? - the project started in earnest in 2012. Not quite finished yet, it MUST be finally handed over to its new owner in May 2019!!!! Yup, as I write this that's the end of next month.
Before getting to the real meat of the thing though, some final introductory words of "explanation" are probably in order - to at least try and explain why a single toy would need a 7 to 9-year timescale to produce! (The following are all just weak excuses really)!
First off, this wasn't a full-time job. When first started I was still running my own company and was often disappearing at short notice to all sorts of weird and (often not quite so) wonderful corners of the globe for weeks - sometimes months - at a time. And I didn't finally close my company and retire until after my 3rd back operation in December 2014.
And after 2 separate hospital and rehab stays, plus numerous Out-patients visits in that same 2012 to 2019 period - not to mention 3 separate hospital stays for my wife also - you'll begin to see how the years have simply rolled by. Then there's the inevitable house and garden maintenance, plus significant time to set up a half-decent work shop in the cellar - I THINK you begin to see that perhaps we haven't done SO badly for time after all!
BUT I must also freely admit that my "production rate" down in the cellar would make a snail look like Concorde in the midst of a supersonic Trans-Atlantic trip! So there's no real excuses for a 7/9 year delay - except to admit that I am a bit of an "over-engineering perfectionist" - as well being a complete Klutz sometimes. For example it took me 4 tries before I'd produced a satisfactory pair of those "flippin" front wings!
ABOVE: My LAST go at the LH Front Wing (now with first colour coat too)
AND I need time to "think things through" too. That meant some sketches on the back of an envelope, then some measuring up of the work so far, references to the plans, then following that up with a cup of coffee and a fag while thinking about things yet again - PLUS reading of any relevant UKW topics - then some (more) time to scratch my backside while thinking a bit more, accompanied by another cup of coffee and (of course), another fag! All that took up more than just a little time you know!
Anyway, what follows is picture heavy, each separate section being a .pdf pictures file (to allow bigger pictures) along with extended captions, all without this Forum's restrictions on layout, formatting, etc. As ever, clicking on the link will open the .pdf section which will then appear on a separate screen. You can either view that on line or download separately, as you prefer.
Last for now, here's another pic, this time the more or less complete carcass - by way of an appetite wetter (or off-putter, just as you like).
I hope you all enjoy the following posts and will be pleased to try and answer any questions that come up.
Now on to Part Two (also the first .pdf file) - "Holzbaukaste". I'll probably add this tomorrow, with other "finished" .pdfs to add each day or so - IF members show interest.
Cheers for now.
