Here are most of the emails on the subject in date order from oldest
to newest, with minor editing to keep on subject:
_________________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 11:37:08 -0800 (PST)
From: "John Farnsworth" <jfarnswo@yahoo.com>
Subject: As usual our Xmas cards have passed in the mail....
To: "GR Koonce" <gkoonce1@twcny.rr.com>
As I mention in my Xmas card, Jeanne's second son Mike (just
turned 38) is starting his dream of building a dragster. Two
nights ago, we constructed the first of four legs to hold the I
beam that the tube chassis will be built on........ I was the
step and fetch it guy. Many ideas abound on how to get extra
money to help the process with the starting point of "best
document what is being done". I plan on putting pictures on the
web with text written by Mike. Possible to generate a book from
this. Maybe you will have some ideas on publishing a
book..........
So, I was playing around with Mike's digital camera, took some
pictures of our cats and put them on the web as an exercise -
click on http://home.twcny.rr.com/jfarnswo/cameratest.html
to see the result.
I'll send a new link when something is available on the build
process.
Farnie
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From: "GR Koonce" <gkoonce1@twcny.rr.com>
To: "John Farnsworth" <jfarnswo@yahoo.com>
Subject: Response to your e-mail
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 14:56:43 -0500
Farnie,
So you are the "go-for" on a dragster project. Building a dragster
is a brave project. They have one of most sophisticated suspensions in the
racing business and as with a go kart (see below) it is the frame. Hopefully
the boys know what they are doing as dragsters do go a bit faster than karts.
(The boys probably won't believe it, but only about twice a fast. An enduro
C-open was clocked at 168 MPH at Mosport in the 1960's. Have no idea how fast
a current 250cc shifter kart can go.)
Speaking of karts, I got the surprise of my life this summer. The last thing
I had done in karting (about 1973) was to take my old Mac 100 (the same model you
had) and convert it to a sidewinder (engine along side the driver rather than behind
him). I cut off the back (where they always broke anyhow) and built a rear
assembly out of conduit and other tubing that mounted the engine sidewinder.
The rear frame was "suspended" by heim joints (using those fittings you
had machined) and rubber biscuit. I started using it with an MC-70 and it was
good. When went to a rotary-valve Komet with oil-clutch (clutch comes in at
11k and engine winds to 17k RPM) and the thing was a bear. Smooth ride and good handling.
When I retired I gave it to Mike Lanieu. This summer I was down to see Jim
Farrand at his shop and some kid happens to be riding around on my old kart!
He is the kid of the mechanic in the shop next to Jim and Mike had given him the
kart. The rear is no longer suspended as the same 30 year old rubber biscuits
were still in it! They promised to put in new biscuits and I took them some
pictures from when I built it. I had painted it in Hobby-Poxy(?) and that paint
was still on it. They have a four-cycle B&S on it. Old karts never
die. The kid was having as much fun as we used to!
On the book topic I can make only one recommendation. Do as I did and get an
experienced co-author! McGraw-Hill required all sorts of trash filled out that
I never could have done. You had to examine all current books in the field
and say why yours was better, different and needed. I would sure line up some
publisher interested in your book before I went to the trouble to write it.
It is more work than you think as you need an index, etc. You might make as
much money with a series of articles on the work in various magazines. Articles
for the speaker "hobby" magazine pay about $200 to $400 each, don't know
about car mags. With a book, the money comes in slowly (if at all) unless you
can get an advance. For the speaker book for MH, we each got a $2500 advance
and as yet nothing since. The money comes quicker with articles as they can
get to publication quicker. The trouble with dragsters (and speakers) is that
by the time the book gets out the information is about obsolete. I sure would
not put photos and text on the web if you plan to publish. Most publishers
don't like anyone else having the info they are going to publish. Someone could
easily use your web material in an article without your control or permission.
You normally have to assure your publisher that your material is "new and original"
so another article coming out with the same material could get you in trouble.
I once sent an e-mail to someone answering questions he had asked and he published
my e-mail in a magazine! I would consider anything you put on the web to be
in the "public domain" and lost to your use in paid publication.
The cat pictures look great. I agree with your conclusion that you save the
pictures with the highest possible resolution and then reduce it in software for
the web or publication. I have published pictures in the MH book and in Speaker
Builder (now called audioXpress) magazine. Both wanted B&W so I had to
grayscale them. I also sent some duplicate color versions to the magazine and
it was a good idea as they used one on the cover. In all cases the pictures
were not sent as files, but as prints! They might take the files, but preferred
prints that can be scanned. That means real photo prints from a dye-sublimation
printer so they have no dots or stripes. You can't scan a photo with dots or
stripes. The local camera shop cranks out a big (maybe 8 x 14") dye-sublimation
print for about $16 which I can get about 3 to 4 of my pictures on. During
developing and checking I get cheap prints from a repro house for about $1 each.
Only get the final prints when sure I have the pictures I need.
Let me tell you what I know about digital cameras; it won't take very long!
About 2 years ago I went out looking for some "good" Polaroid B&W film
to take photos for the book. Unfortunately the Polaroid B&W film is only
made for the cheap cameras. You want the pictures "now" in speaker
work as you can't put the box together unless you know the picture is good.
Thus they sold me a digital camera, an Olympus D-340L, which I think was a reasonably
good one at that time. The thing is a 1.3 Mpixel with a 1280 x 960 resolution.
It takes great pictures in full resolution and the depth of field is impressive.
I took all the photos for the book and magazine articles with this camera.
Of course it came with four expensive rechargeable AA cells, the charger, power pack,
the software, SERIAL cable to the computer and a very thick manual. The thick
manual is part of the problem. I have never loved the camera because:
1) It is a pain to use. It has so many options that I can never figure it out
and always have to start each photo session buried in the manual. Even worse
when you pull the batteries to charge them it goes dumb and when you put the batteries
back in you have to reset all the options you want. I once had to retake some
pictures as the camera reverted to low resolution and the pictures looked OK on the
LCD screen, but on the computer were clearly no good for publication.
2) While it has two distance ranges and the "close-up" (macro mode) says
it will focus to about 4", it really is not sharp at that distance. Thus
it really will not take a good and full picture of just a small driver.
The Olympus puts out a 1.3m (.PDD) file to the computer. When I grayscale them
and crop them as I want them for publication, the software writes a (.JPG) of about
200k. This is what I take to the store for the prints and the photos are good.
They look very good when published. One nice thing about digit cameras is the
ability to edit the pictures. My software (came with the Olympus) is not very
good, but at a local store I have been able to get editing done cheaply. One
photo for the book was a test baffle in the back room. Unfortunately in the
background of the baffle is shelving full of stuff like a beer bottle. For
a few bucks I got them to make the background black and that is how the picture was
published.
I just got a new digital camera. The way I discovered the camera is strange.
This summer my doctor did not like the look of a growth on the side of my nose.
He sent me to a plastic surgeon. The PS said the growth was nothing, but added
"the reason may be wrong, but you are at the right place." Seems
the end of my nose was covered with basal cell skin cancer. Showed none of
the seven signs they tell you to look for, so make sure you have a good doctor.
So I had my nose bobbed. The PS took pictures with a strange little Sony digital
camera that writes to a floppy. He took the pictures in low existing light
(no flash) and could get as close as he wanted. The camera has a 10:1 optical
Zoom and will focus down to 1/2". It is not a high resolution camera,
but the pictures looked good enough I recently got one, a Sony MVC-FD75. It
comes with a very thin manual! Sony was smart. In additional to the main
battery, which you remove to charge, it has a small lithium battery so it remembers
the date and the setup. The setup is a joy as it is a menu on the LCD display
rather than pushing various button combinations as on the older Olympus. It
does not take high resolution pictures and writes a file of about 38k to 73k (.JPG)
to the floppy. It will also write a 1M BITMAP file (one per floppy) but I have
not tried that yet. I just had some test prints of small drivers printed yesterday
and they are certainly good enough for publication. So they are not great photos
like the Olympus, but I agree with the PS, it so easy to use I find it fun and will
probably use it for future article photos and general photos of what I build.
You can drop a floppy full of photos for each project in its folder a lot cheaper
than you can just a couple of Polaroids. You don't really need a computer as
you can take the floppy right to the photo shop, but it does come with software to
work on the photos. My experience is I can't really tell if a photo is in focus
on the camera LCD screen so want to look at them on the computer. While I have
not tried it yet, the Sony will do grayscale right in the camera. And for those
without a computer it will actually do disk copies right in the camera, a questionable
feature I would think. I did take a close-up of the lens cap(about 1.5"
diameter) that fills the picture and it is in focus. It is great for close-up
work on small drivers.
Hopefully Olympus has made things easier on Mike's newer camera.
That is about all I know on dragsters, digital cameras and book publishing.
If you have any specific questions get back to me. A happy Holiday season to
all. Great luck come drag season. Herm
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 08:18:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:Fwd: Response to your e-mail
I think we may need him on the team. He is a wealth of information. I guess
we should take a shot at writing the first chapter or intro to a dragster
building book. Just to see if we can do it. Evaluate the time and effort
required, decide whether to pursue it and then seek out a publisher. Either
classic motorbooks, hot rod magazine, national dragster, or drag racing
magazine. I would prefer a book because then we wouldn't be pressured into
making subscription due dates on a monthly basis. With the book we may be
able to submit chapters as completed with an overall deadline when we're
finished.
We'll think about it, our main goal is building a dragster and having fun, if
we make money we make money, more so lets have fun and just try not to get too
broke.
Mike
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 12:55:19 -0800 (PST)
To: michael.fifield, mpeabody@borg.com
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: Fwd: Response to your e-mail
Mike,
Here is the response from my buddy in Syracuse. A wealth of
information.
My printer crapped out at the moment.
John
Message is actually above:::
______________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 12:23:16 -0800 (PST)
From: "John Farnsworth" <jfarnswo@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Thanks
To: "GR Koonce" <gkoonce1@twcny.rr.com>
CC: "Michael Fifield" <mpeabody@borg.com>, "Michael Fifield"
<michael.fifield@UticaNational.com>
Thank you for the insightful, informative reply. I forwarded it
to Mike and he was also appreciative. (I will forward his
response next.) Are you interested in involvement, being kept
up to date, or other?? Mike's goal is to build dragster chassis
with emphasis on the body, engine secondary (Hemi tho) -
expecting to see 150+ MPH in quarter with about 750 HP. He
would like to build / sell chassis / bodies.
Do you consider having information on the web, to work among the
concerned individuals, not linked to anything except its own
pages as being 'public'? (Like this:
http://home.twcny.rr.com/jfarnswo/Hobby%20Car/Legs/Legs.html
)
Mention of the times with go karts brings back the
memories......
Farnie
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 08:36:52 -0800 (PST)
From: "John Farnsworth" <jfarnswo@yahoo.com>
Subject: Leg Levelers pictures
To: "Michael Fifield" <mpeabody@borg.com>, "Michael Fifield"
<michael.fifield@UticaNational.com>
Here is the link to the leg levelers:
http://home.twcny.rr.com/jfarnswo/Hobby%20Car/Leg%20Levelers/Leg%20Levelers.html
As I mentioned on the phone, please think about writing or
actually writing an introduction to the project that talks about
where, what, how, whatever the general plan is today.
IE: tube chassis kit from_______ , engine (at least Chrysler
block - hemi, wedge, etc.)
Goals.
Gee, I hope this doesn't sound like a "Business Plan" or
something that is necessarily firm and unchangeable.....
John
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From: "GR Koonce" <gkoonce1@twcny.rr.com>
To: "John Farnsworth" <jfarnswo@yahoo.com>
Subject: More on writing
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 09:55:36 -0500
Farnie,
Glad my information was somewhat useful. Yes, do keep me informed on how "dragster
building" is going. I don't think I can be of much help, but I am interested.
I may be able to review portions of your writing as an "outsider" and make
comments if that would be useful.
Let me clarify one thing that, I think from Mike's response, was misunderstood.
When I used pleural for magazine articles I sure did not mean a serial of articles
in one magazine. I agree with Mike that you want to avoid anything where you
would have to be supplying finished articles while the work was in progress.
My experience is that before a magazine will publish the first of a series of articles
they want them all in hand so there is no chance you will leave them hanging.
What I was suggesting was selling the same material, in different form, to multiple
magazines. As with most hobbies, different car magazines take different view
points on any topic. It may thus be possible to take your dragster building
experience and present it in different ways to get multiple magazine articles from
it. This would mean all articles could occur after you are finished building.
Such an article might appeal to other than car magazines. For example, a magazine
that covered materials used in construction or a magazine covering welding techniques.
How about a magazine covering digital cameras and what they can be used for?
Many such magazines love articles that are a little "off beat" from their
normal material and will catch the reader's attention because of the action or danger
involved. Good photos can make all the difference here on whether an article
is accepted.
One thing I have found very useful with speaker articles it to write them, in rough
form, as you progress even if nothing is submitted until the end of the work.
My memory is just not good enough now to go back six months and recall details.
You will also tend to forget to include details that could be critical to someone
trying to use your work. I actually now write the basics of the article before
I start the work! This allows me to know what has to be documented, what pictures
I will need and what software I may have to write to plot curves or whatever I may
need for the article. It also indicates what test results (plots) I am going
to need at the end of the project. I highly recommend doing at least an outline
of what you plan to write before the work starts. It avoids that "I should
have taken a picture of that before I installed it" problem at the end.
Rather than writing the first chapter, as Mike proposes, you may be better off with
an outline of the whole book. This is both in terms of helping to do the writing
work and helping to sell it to a publisher. It tells the publisher what the
final material will cover and that you have thought through what you plan to do and
write about. Most publishers, book or magazine, will have some idea of what
they want in terms of words (or pages) and number of figures/photos. You have
to figure how to get your work spread over that requirement.
Let me discuss the differences in writing a magazine article versus a book based
on my experience. I have only written (co-authored) one book but have contributed
speaker articles for over 30 years. For a book you must first sell the idea
to a publisher. I guess you could write a book and then submit it around for
publication, but that could be a frustrating way to go. Once you sell the book
you will have a reasonable time to produce it. We had a year, which sounds
long but that included designing and building several speaker projects and we got
rushed at the end. You submit your book material with basic table of contents
(chapter titles), photos and figures in the format that the publisher wants.
Sometime later they return the edited version, possible chapter by chapter.
McGraw-Hill took about six months for this and then got in a super rush sending each
chapter FedEx and wanting the "changes" back in no time. Note that
if you make changes that were not due to something they did, they will charge you
for that by deducting their production costs from what they owe you. Thus make
sure your original work is in good shape. You will not believe how bad they
can screw up your meaning and jumble equations, so be careful on your review.
Part of the review process is correcting the table of contents as you now have page
numbers. You will also now have to create an index (if they want one) and that
is not easy. M-H offered to do this for us, but again you have to pay them.
You may want to update your "file" of the work to agree with the publisher
edits so you can do a search on it to create the index. Once we had returned
all edited chapters they had the book out in a couple of months.
Generally for a new author, magazine article MSs are submitted "cold".
You generally want to contact the magazine first and get their "guide to writers"
that tells you how they want something written. Some want you to write in first-person
("I then welded the bracket..."), some in third-person ("The bracket
was then welded...."). Also they can tell you what abbreviations they
want you to use. You probably will not get any final "Yes" or "No"
until you submit your MS. If your MS is accepted you will suddenly one day
get the edited version to review. Usually you will only have a couple
of weeks for such review and you will at the time have gone on to other things.
Once again you may be surprised how their editors can change the meaning of your
words and you will have to be clever in correcting things as they want a minimum
of changes as your review material may already be laid out in pages. For timing,
an article I submitted in about July, which they liked, arrived here in about November
for review and will be published in January next year. If this is your first
MS with that magazine things would probably go slower as they would probably send
your MS to their "experienced people" to see if it trash or really valuable.
If you have years of experience with a magazine you can contact the editor about
whether they are interested in an article on a specific topic and get some feeling
if such an effort would be successful. I have written for Speaker Builder (now
AudioXpress) magazine long enough I am now one of the "experienced people"
sent MSs for review of technical content. Magazines do not pay for this service!
Once your article is published, most magazines have a "letters" column
where your work may receive questions or criticism. You generally will be offered
the opportunity to respond to such letters, again a free service.
Be it book or article, be very careful to make sure you give proper reference to
work by others that you use/discuss. You may have to get permission from the
original author and publisher to use such material if quoted directly or using a
figure. Remember you will be required to assure to your publisher that your
material is original and really yours. If you have used someone else's work
without the proper written permission and your publisher gets sued, he will sue you
to recover his losses. Also avoid the use of trade marked names or carefully
mark them as such (instead of saying "RTV" I say "silicon rubber")
. If you discuss an item that is patented you must include a patent warning
to the readers. If you want to include software with a book things can really
get messy as to who "supports" and who owns that software. Be sure
to alert the publisher to such things and work out the approach before things get
published. Do not assume the publisher will alert you of impending problems.
I have not yet looked at the web site you listed, but will. I don't know what
the law is, but my feeling is anything you put on the web is beyond your control
and could be lost to your use for publication. A great picture in a article
has no punch if the reader has already viewed it on the web. I have learned
to be very careful about sending advance copies of what I'm working on to people
unless I know they can be trusted. It turns out most of those I trust are others
who write articles and thus know the problem. I have even learned not to send
"progress reports" to the editor of a hobby magazine as they sometimes
get excited and start to introduce your results piecemeal (they publish your letter/e-mail)
which can destroy the impact of your article and start others on the topic before
you can publish. Such "leaks" will generally put you under pressure
to publish earlier than you had anticipated. I just believe there is nothing
like a "copyright" for anything you put on the web. Remember things
like copyright and patents are only as good as the money you have to enforce them.
The individual is much better off by simply keeping what he is doing secret until
it gets published. Certainly e-mail is very useful for communication during
work on building or the book and we used this for our book. I had developed
sofware that allowed us to send speaker response files back as forth as attachments,
such files being useless to those without the software. I would worry about
any web site that is available to the public and try to keep communications more
private than that. Have you considered encryption for communications?
Also remember if you plan to patent anything you have a fixed amount of time (I think
1.5 years) to patent it after it has been made public.
I tried to add Mike to my address book to send him a CC, but my address book would
not accept his e-mail address. Old software I suspect.
Happy Holidays. Herm
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From: "GR Koonce" <gkoonce1@twcny.rr.com>
To: "John Farnsworth" <jfarnswo@yahoo.com>
Subject: Web site
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 10:16:11 -0500
Farnie,
I looked at the web site and those are great pictures for a book or article, except
No. 15 which lost a corner. I still worry about controlling access to the web
site such that readers have not seen the pictures before your work is published.
I do not know what is right here or where to find the answer. I would just
be careful.
Herm
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 11:51:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:Fwd: More on writing
Good info,
You probably don't know this, but I spent the last 10 years writing documents
for the EPA to remediate hazardous waste sites. All of these were technical
documents that were developed, edited, written by many people including
lawyers, EPA representatives, professional editors, etc. i am familiar with
reviewing edits (redline/strikeouts) and rewrites performed by others and
checking them to evaluate their impact to the "technical correctness".
I
believe that a majority of the technical incorrectness that you see is
misinterpretation by the word processors and somewhat related to technical
editors. Overall I'm used to it. The whole thing, 1 day deadlines to edit
500 page documents, working around the clock with lawyers. I could be wrong,
but I can't believe that publishing companies could be more demanding than
GE's legal counsel and the EPA.
No, were not patenting anything, and I'm not worried about keeping it top
secret. I'll contact a few publishers this week and see if anyone is
interested and then we'll know our limitations on looking at pictures on the
web. If somebody got wind of what we were doing and beat us to it, fine.
This isn't like speaker technology or writing in a science journal. I was
involved with research that involved submitting a patent application only to
have someone in another country publish their findings in a journal and low
and behold we were working on the same project - it happens. For us its the
fun of what we're doing and how well it comes across in our writing and
presentation, its our ability to tell an entertaining story and one that may
have some technical usefulness for others. That comes from our experiences
and our interpretation, joy, excitement of what we are doing. If someone else
can get pleasure out of it great ,if someone else does it too, great we'll
read theirs.
Herm has great advice! Thanks for passing it along.
We'll also need him to prepare the quantum wave generator for the front of the
car to break up the air so we can go faster.
Thanks
Mike.
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 08:03:41 -0800 (PST)
To: michael.fifield, mpeabody@borg.com
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: Fwd: More on writing
Mike,
This looks like real good information to save and savor.
John
See above::::
________________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 08:38:41 -0800 (PST)
From: "John Farnsworth" <jfarnswo@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Web site
To: "GR Koonce" <gkoonce1@twcny.rr.com>
CC: "Michael Fifield" <mpeabody@borg.com>, "Michael Fifield"
<michael.fifield@UticaNational.com>
Thanks again for the incitefull replies.
Your software may have had a problem with Mike's email address
because it is actually two in series with a separator - work and
home. You may be able to separate them manually if you wish.
I agree that once something is available to be seen by anyone on
the web, even if it is a specific address that even a web bot
can not get to (as is the case here since it is not in the top
tier or linked to the top tier), once anyone knows the address,
the possibility exists that the address will become known to
others. I do think that the risk is slight with the three of us
since we know that if we let the cat out of the bag, we will not
be able to control the cat. (That is my finger blocking the
lens in shot #15.) I'll talk to Mike about password protection
of the site with encryption - but I do not know how to do that
presently. (Maybe that will be my contribution to the fun,
learning experience.) But even if the site is password
protected - if the password gets out.........
We are still working on the legs - here is a link to our working
document - use 'Back' to return to the main page:
http://home.twcny.rr.com/jfarnswo/Hobby%20Car/Hobby%20Car.html
There is one photo that the focus is fuzzy on - #20 in Leg
Levelers.
Farnie
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 12:00:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:Latest info link
Wow, they look alot better with the blue tarp behind them. You know the
pictures are just advertising that could generate interest in the story. But
again, I will contact a few people and see what they think about us having our
own web page, but for now its a work in progress and has not been officially
published. Its more like a private FTP site.
No matter what, we're going racing.
Mike
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 08:43:33 -0800 (PST)
To: michael.fifield, mpeabody@borg.com
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: Latest info link
Here is a new top link to get to all of the pictures done so
far.
http://home.twcny.rr.com/jfarnswo/Hobby%20Car/Hobby%20Car.html
Let's discuss how to limit access of others to this work in
progress - your call....
Assume you have read the messages from/to Herman that I have
sent to you this morning.
John
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 12:06:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:Latest info link
Have you ever read any of the how to books from Lindsay Publishing. I have
some of them on forge building, green sand molding, etc. These were all done
by independents that are very poorly written, yet Lindsay stays in business
publishing them. I'll work on the outline and as of now i can think of
several publishers. I'll also check my Lindsay books and see who originally
published them if it wasn't Lindsay. Remind me to show you my home built
sports car how to book from England. that would be a good example.
check out irvansmith.com
Mike.
P.S. I can write a vb program to encrypt our emails if you like, it would be
easy.
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 08:43:33 -0800 (PST)
To: michael.fifield, mpeabody@borg.com
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: Latest info link
Here is a new top link to get to all of the pictures done so
far.
http://home.twcny.rr.com/jfarnswo/Hobby%20Car/Hobby%20Car.html
Let's discuss how to limit access of others to this work in
progress - your call....
Assume you have read the messages from/to Herman that I have
sent to you this morning.
John
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Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 13:10:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:Fwd: RE:Fwd: More on writing
I got all the bolts that we needed. i think 3/8" should hold the i-beam down.
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 08:58:39 -0800 (PST)
To: gkoonce1@twcny.rr.com
Cc: michael.fifield, mpeabody@borg.com
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: Fwd: RE:Fwd: More on writing
Herm,
Here is some background and general information from Mike. (I
have cut your original material from the end.)
Mike,
I have forwarded your response below to Herm as noted above.
John
See Above::::
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Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 10:21:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Irvan Smith
I'm not sure which is the proper way to go here. I have several sets of
plans. I was also looking at the slip roll machine. may be an easier way to
construct the curved panels for the sides of the car. If we machined
everything ourselves it would take longer. The metal for it would be
approximately 200. So for 1400 you have a full size EW. I am going to look
at the slip roll machine plan that I have to see if it is do-able.
You know we could have also built an engine stand and hoist, but we didn't.
Why? Thinking about things now - I would have probably bought a sheet-metal
break. Mine does rather large radius bends - should be good for some things,
but production ones have really dropped in price.
I would also have to get a face plate for the smithy to make the large wheel.
And so far I have not gotten a good polish - a grinder would be needed.
The kit is probably the way to go. The small one would work, but for 500 more
you get a large one. Also, the small one only comes with one anvil and
additional ones are $80 apiece. so for 900 or so you might get what you have
with the large kit.
Remember also, that when buying steel I usually have to buy entire lengths.
so to make wheels and anvils out of solid steel I would have to buy an entire
length - very expensive when you only need small sections. I usually find
stuff to do with the extra. Some of the steel from the sheet-metal brake went
into the trailer and some is being used for the frame jig. eventually it
would get used. But at this point does it outweigh the expense of the kit. I
don't mind extra tubing or channel laying around, but special stuff that has
limited use is a bit of a waste.
Mike
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 06:36:50 -0800 (PST)
To: Michael.Fifield
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Irvan Smith
Mike (Mr. Fabricator),
What capacity is desired - 22" throat or 44" throat (to center
of 44" or 88" part)?
Assuming the floor unit is desired:
After our experience with the I-Beam legs, the U-Weld It kit
looks like an achievable way to go for somewhere over 1/2 the
cost of the assembled unit.
$2350 + freight shipping on 500#
VS
$1195 + UPS shipping on two 45# boxes (castors included) +
$$ for the square tubing, Nuts and Bolts for portability if
desired, misc. and time
$1500? vs $2500? Delivered (time is free).
But:::: that vice mounted unit looks real simple.....
What am I missing??? Clearly the anvils can be made on the
Smithy, heated with the trorch and cooled to harden them and
then polished in the Smithy. What is the max. diameter that can
be turned on the Smithy? 8", 12" ?? Even if this had to be
sent out to be hardened..... Isn't there a junk yard of
machinery parts around somewhere???
Just thinking that we could do it all....
John
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Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 07:57:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:Here are some links I found.
found it
http://www.all-pro-automotive.com/allpro/mep.html
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 18:18:51 -0800 (PST)
To: michael.fifield, mpeabody@borg.com
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: Here are some links I found.
Stories and parts:
Read this one::: http://rsorak.dyndns.org/engine.htm
Links to everywhere and info::
http://roadsters.com/hemi/#Intro
Engines and parts:
http://www.campbellenterprises.com/brbengineparts.htm
http://www.hensonmotors.com/mopar_parts.htm
http://www.mopartsracing.com/parts/a.html
http://www.rpmmoparts.com/mp/hemi.html
John
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 06:22:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:Here are some links I found.
http://www.musclemotorsracing.com/muscle/indexold.html
Check out the bracket killer 440, thats what I wanted, Ross pistons, BME
aluminum rods. about 2000 plus about 1700 for the 440 service block, another
1000 for gaskets, timing chain, cam and lifters, oil pump, and pan. then 500
to 600 for rockerarms and pushrods, 2500 for stage VI cnc ported heads, then
1000 - 1500 for carb, ignition, manifold. We should end up with a 650 to 700
hp 440 with good torque and alot left to bore for around 9300 plus another 500
or so for miscellaneous machine work, plugs, etc. Easily under 10,000 and we
built it ourselves.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 06:31:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:Here are some links I found.
Go to their head page too, either the bracket killer cast heads for 1599 or
the stage 6 heads for 2299 plus the 125 spacer.
saved money already - I think we can bring it in for 9500 and go real fast.
Use the solid lifter super comp mopar cam with after market roller rockers.
Should be solid to 7000 plus.
Mike
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 18:18:51 -0800 (PST)
To: michael.fifield, mpeabody@borg.com
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: Here are some links I found.
Stories and parts:
Read this one::: http://rsorak.dyndns.org/engine.htm
Links to everywhere and info::
http://roadsters.com/hemi/#Intro
Engines and parts:
http://www.campbellenterprises.com/brbengineparts.htm
http://www.hensonmotors.com/mopar_parts.htm
http://www.mopartsracing.com/parts/a.html
http://www.rpmmoparts.com/mp/hemi.html
John
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 11:06:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Home built engine
Service block part #P5007482 is 1608.00, finish bored at 4.32 inches
siamese block part # P4876169 is 2325.63, finish honed at 4.50
Right now I'd prefer the service block, but that could change depending on the
cost of machining. The honing plate is almost 300 if we would have to buy one
for the machine shop - DeJohn doesn't have one - he's GM only - the people in
Utica may or maybe can rent one. He was concerned about that when I talked to
him a few months back.
I don't know which of these contains cam bearings or if main caps are included
and are align honed
need to call the hot line.
I'll call on the way to Syracuse.
You do realize that after the frame is welded and before the body is built we
have to have the engine done - why - because we have to run all the wires,
plumbing and brakes so we allow room for the body to go around these.
probably also have to have the headers done. I'm assuming that we need to run
all wiring (in conduit) under the chassis or maybe on each side in the space
in the curvature of the body. It will all come together at the right time.
Basically, we will build a rolling chassis, mount batteries, brakes, fuel
cell, radiators, water tank, etc. Hook up all gages and controls, and then
build the body last. Then take the whole thing apart and paint it.
Sounds like fun doesn't it.
Mike
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 07:09:29 -0800 (PST)
To: Michael.Fifield
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Home built engine
Think you got most of the parts that mount on or in the block -
how much for the block?
Engine accessories: Radiators, fans, water pumps, thermostats,
hoses, couplings, water temperature sender and guage, wiring.
Oil, oil filter, oil pressure sender and guage, oil temperature
sender and guage. Gas, fuel pump, fuel pressure sender and
guage, fuel filter. Rev limiter, switches, etc.
MSD Ignition: This is the idea, but I assume that the ignition
desired would be breakerless, CD, etc.
http://www.driverfx.com/products/productDetails.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=95063&
FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=733015&affID=2958&bmUID=1009552051140
John
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 11:40:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Home built engine
See if he knows anything about Chryslers or wait until I talk to Mopar tech
and see what we need - your call!
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 08:24:30 -0800 (PST)
To: Michael.Fifield
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Home built engine
OK - I reviewed the #1 Email and see the service block
included.......
Tell me when and I will contact Jim Farrand in Syracuse - old
friend from high school times and on - he is Farrand's Engines.
His shop is located on ...... right across from the old Loblaws
warehouse, West end, on the same street that Syracuse Supply -
Cat. supplier is on. OK consulted Yahoo Maps - Ainsley Drive at
Ball Circle - NW corner. He may be able to help with
machining/information. In the old days, he was a Ford man -
this is the guy that started out with 6 cylinder '51 Ford and
won the NYS hill climb crossing the finish line in the air
before the car rolled. Turned into chopped and channeled and
eventually V8 powered..... Last car dragged was Blown Ford V8
in comp coupe as I remember. He may be retired now.....
Another real interesting guy.....
See
http://home.twcny.rr.com/jfarnswo/Hobby%20Car/Hobby%20Car.html
for updates.
John
_________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 11:50:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Home built engine
looks good - tempory is spelled temporary - I think.
I thought we got pictures of the 2 45's going together before we welded them,
if not don't worry about it. I will also do a blueprint of the whole thing
for the book any way.
I will start writing this weekend - I've been planning it out in my head for a
while. I'm more of a think about it for a while, compare approaches, write
some sections in my head, then go write kind of guy. I'm about done thinking
about it. I think building the engine is going to be a neat chapter.
"Building Your First Race Car"
or
"Amateurs Guide to Race Car Construction"
or
"We Have No Idea What We're Doing, But Making Sparks Is Fun"
or
"After Thousands of Dollars and Hours, Race Car Parts Garage Sale"
you pick the title
Mike
------------------( Forwarded letter 1 follows )---------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 08:24:30 -0800 (PST)
To: Michael.Fifield
From: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Home built engine
OK - I reviewed the #1 Email and see the service block
included.......
Tell me when and I will contact Jim Farrand in Syracuse - old
friend from high school times and on - he is Farrand's Engines.
His shop is located on ...... right across from the old Loblaws
warehouse, West end, on the same street that Syracuse Supply -
Cat. supplier is on. OK consulted Yahoo Maps - Ainsley Drive at
Ball Circle - NW corner. He may be able to help with
machining/information. In the old days, he was a Ford man -
this is the guy that started out with 6 cylinder '51 Ford and
won the NYS hill climb crossing the finish line in the air
before the car rolled. Turned into chopped and channeled and
eventually V8 powered..... Last car dragged was Blown Ford V8
in comp coupe as I remember. He may be retired now.....
Another real interesting guy.....
See
http://home.twcny.rr.com/jfarnswo/Hobby%20Car/Hobby%20Car.html
for updates.
John
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2001 11:53:00 -0500
From: Michael.Fifield@uticanational.com
To: jfarnswo@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Home built engine
When we get to car construction - should keep a journal at the shop of the
important things that we had to do, change, consider - so we have a step by
step.
Mike
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