02-14-2010, 01:54 PM
Sumpter250 Wrote:"the support brackets for the roofwalk and brake platform is .010"x.030" brass bar. I added .010"x.030" styrene tabs to represent the attachment points:"
I have to ask, did the .010" X .030" styrene tabs actually create a stronger attachment than simply extending the bras bar stock?
I am assuming the styrene to styrene bond was easier to achieve.
........careful "Doc", I'm learning from you.
The styrene tabs are simply for appearance - the brass, while only ca'ed to the underside of the running board, is inserted, on its lower ends, through the car's ends, bent-over, and ca'ed in place. You can see the bent-over tabs in the view showing the car's interior. The supports for the brake platform are also brass strip, both ends of which can also be seen in the same view (the two lower pairs). I found that strip styrene, while easier to get a stronger styrene-to-styrene bond with the car, sometimes can be more easily damaged, depending on how the car is stored when not on the layout.
I am not a big fan of ca unless I can also make a mechanical connection, as with these straps and the grab irons. The joint with the brass strip to the underside of the roofwalk end is a weak point, but should be easier to repair than strip styrene, which could be subject to breakage at a place other than the joint.
For attaching grabs, I bend and install all of them, then slip a spacer of suitable thickness between them and the car body, bending over the ends which protrude into the body shell. After all have been thus installed, I apply ca, using the tip of an otherwise-spent X-Acto #11 blade, to the area on the inside of the car. Capilliary action draws it into the joint (the same method is used for installing the sill steps - the steps are inserted into the pre-drilled holes, spaced at the correct height, then ca is applied to the point where the legs of the steps enter the holes - there is no excess to clean up and no struggle to get a ca-coated step or grab into the holes before the glue sets). By the way, the spacer should not be in place when the ca is applied - if it's at all in contact with the wire where it enters the hole, glue will be drawn through the hole and under the spacer, marring the visible surface of the car (and cementing the spacer to the car's side.
)Wayne