Post by blues90 on Apr 6, 2014 14:35:50 GMT -5
The stock tank is 19 scale feet Milw used 16 foot fuel tanks. I can see if I do this and remove 3 scale feet from the front of the tank there will be little left of the frames strength . I saw fellow who milled off the three feet and I could see the opening at the rear of the front fly wheel and the motors front. Since the fuel tank faces are not 90 degrees to the frame rails the tank at the top is 19' 3" . I don't want a weak frame and see I can maybe just remove 2.5 scale feet for the affect . Or do the 3 feet which will leave at least no opening into the motor /fly wheel adding a bit more metal there. Or fabricate long U shaped reinforcement bars and screw mount them on either side of the motor to the large thick area of the frame ahead of the fly wheel and where the trucks electrical arm of the truck fits through the frame . it is about 3/8" wide . I would need to mount the motor first then screw mount the U reinforcement bars that would just clear the top of the motor so they fit inside the shell and not hit the inside of the roof of the shell . I have 3/16"" thick aluminum and 3/16" hard ABS plastic . On the bottom of the frame the area ahead of the fly wheels is tapered but seems doable .
Any thoughts , has anyone done this . I have seen this done with Kato frames a different animal .
The motor sits 13/16" " above the frame where the shell rests which leaves just enough room to clear the inside roof and the 3/16" thick U frames I need to make allow enough room for the old style athearn fly wheel female spline drive shafts to clear if not i can add a bit of clearance to avoid the expense of the newer Hex drive flywheels and dog bone drive shafts. One SD40-2 does have the later style BB hex drive .
I have one extra BB athearn SD40-2 frame so if all fails I still have nothing lost and may just go with C&NW SD40-2 's . I would go with C&GW yet they didn't have SD40-2's . I have already changed the older SD40-2 to the correct 81" nose need to do the later model with a cannon short hood . I have removed the BB older SD40-2 shell to body mounting pins and used a details west buffer plate added some block styrene to the underside of the porches , thinned the coupler pads and screw mounted the couples to the body to hold the frame.
Any thoughts , has anyone done this . I have seen this done with Kato frames a different animal .
The motor sits 13/16" " above the frame where the shell rests which leaves just enough room to clear the inside roof and the 3/16" thick U frames I need to make allow enough room for the old style athearn fly wheel female spline drive shafts to clear if not i can add a bit of clearance to avoid the expense of the newer Hex drive flywheels and dog bone drive shafts. One SD40-2 does have the later style BB hex drive .
I have one extra BB athearn SD40-2 frame so if all fails I still have nothing lost and may just go with C&NW SD40-2 's . I would go with C&GW yet they didn't have SD40-2's . I have already changed the older SD40-2 to the correct 81" nose need to do the later model with a cannon short hood . I have removed the BB older SD40-2 shell to body mounting pins and used a details west buffer plate added some block styrene to the underside of the porches , thinned the coupler pads and screw mounted the couples to the body to hold the frame.
