Milwaukee Midget

[38flattie]

Chris, it's looking good! Crank looks awesome.

You might talk to Russ Meeks, at Finish Line Coatings, about getting some coating done. He promised us a 2-3 day turn around.

[Milwaukee Midget]

Everything is measuring up, but I don't want to commit to coating until I've done a dry build.  It would suck to coat a piston that I may need to do a cut on. 

Fast turnaround would be necessary - I can work around 2-3 days.

Chris, it's looking good! Crank looks awesome.

And with the short stroke, the inside arc of the throw falls within the outside circumference of the main journals.  I'm thinking this is going to be a pretty darned stout little crank.

Thanks, Buddy!

[Milwaukee Midget]

Side windows are in - pics will follow when I remember to bring my camera back from work.

I'm doing a slow burn on the crank.  He put it in the chuck in mid May, after I was told he'd be able to source the material for a February delivery, and it's SUPPOSEDLY going to nitride tomorrow - HOPEFULLY???  He had the deposit check LAST YEAR!

If this were a newspaper, we'd just be getting the news on the Council of Trent.

I know, he has long standing arrangements with regular customers and limited capacity, but this is threatening my ability to get this very weird combination dialed in before WOS, and I'm not pleased.  

[Anvil*]

SUPPOSEDLY going to nitride tomorrow...  

Double check that the people doing the Nitride are informed of the need for prompt service on an already late part. Sometimes important bits of information like that can fall throught the cracks.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Chris, I suppose you don't want to hear about the hassle I had in getting a billet crank made (for my ZX12N Kawasaki).  Because of the specs we set forth, nobody in this country wanted to make it - so we found Farndon, in the UK.  They quoted 5-7 weeks, as I remember, with cash in advance, thank you very much.  I sent the check (which I had made sure would work well overseas) and started waiting.  Sure enough, their 5 - 7 weeks was almost, but not quite, correct. 

It took sixteen (16!) months for the crank to arrive.  Many phone calls and emails didn't do much - as far as we could tell, but then, who knows?  We were at the point of having a friend, who was going visiting over there, stop by the plant (up in the Midlands, I think it was) to see and maybe touch the danged thing.  He didn't go.  We were about at the point of asking for consular help - thinking that maybe we had been scammed - when they finally announced that it had shipped.  It was going for final polish (or was it heat-treating or nitriding?) for about 6 months.

May your adventure end much sooner.  We look forward to seeing you at WoS.

[RichFox]

I and others that I know of, have had no disappointment with Crower in delivery of billet cranks and rods. I really don't look elsewhere. No for the new cam, crank, aux shaft gears on my Dodge Bros. I went to a w4ell known local gear cutter who advertises in the FAST book. Dan McEachern. Just after New Years. Still waiting. I have heard some creative apologys though, when I hear anything at all. I'm sure he is doing his best. But that isn't much help to me. 

[Stan Back]

"The dog ate your homework?"

[Milwaukee Midget]

"The dog ate your homework?"

Stan, I've had the specs for this engine laid out since 2006. 

MY homework was done a long, long time ago, and in the basket in December.

That was two semesters ago.

No, I'm hanging this one on my crank guy.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . . .

(Now I know why people build small block Chevy's.  )

[38flattie]

Chris, that's a bummer!

Oh, and I don't think Stan's comment was directed towards you- I believe it was in reference to Rich's comment about 'creative apologies'!

[Stan Back]

Chris --

Can you show us how you've come along on the I/GT emblem outta the Midget chrome strip.  You could always work on it to get ready for the show season -- with or without a crank.  Just stuff some angel hair in there where the crank belongs.

Stan

[Milwaukee Midget]

Oh, and I don't think Stan's comment was directed towards you- I believe it was in reference to Rich's comment about 'creative apologies'!

Stan's the man - No issue there - I knew where he was coming from.  I guess my last comment did read as defensive.

Chris --

Can you show us how you've come along on the I/GT emblem outta the Midget chrome strip.  You could always work on it to get ready for the show season -- with or without a crank.  Just stuff some angel hair in there where the crank belongs.

Stan

 

I have the M I D G E T lettering left over from when I stripped the car down.  Seeing as I need to include the class in the lettering, all I'll need to do is remove the M, the D, and the E, and SHAZZAMM - I've got IGT.

Stan, I need to find something humorous this weekend - I'll post pics when they're applied.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Chris, how 'bout if I try to do something with the emblem for you?  What are you putting it on - something so big I can't get it into the laser engraver?  I've started trying to engrave on a Moon disc - so far with poor success, but I keep trying different etching materials and laser power settings.

[Milwaukee Midget]

Jon, I'm grateful for the offer, but what I'm trying to achieve is to keep as many stock cues as possible - So what I'll have is from this -



to this -



Don't worry - I've no doubt I'll be calling you for something - probably sooner than later.

[Milwaukee Midget]

It appears that on the right car, you can completely replace all of your windows with Lexan for less than $150.00.

Key to that, of course, is having windows that are essentially flat.

When I overlaid my firewall, I covered all the original cockpit venting with .060 steel, which meant I had no “forward pointing fresh air intake or breathing system directed to the driver”  (3.E).  I bought a Butler NACA duct, thinking I’d install it in the driver’s window -

 

Photo courtesy of the Butlerbuilt website.

The problem wound up being that in the window, it sat so far back that it would interfere with the net.  The vent window, on the other hand, sat up in the sweet spot, just in front of where the net will fall.  This is where my skills as a former hobby shop clerk and 1/25 scale model hacker came into play –

I cut the bung and flange so it would fit over a hole I drilled through the window –
 


And then I trimmed up the rest of the duct and created a “forward pointing fresh air intake” -



A little duct tape (imagine that – using duct tape for a duct), a few pop rivets and BINGO.

[Schruiber]

NACA air inlet source found - check   We are considering them too for fresh air in our Urban LSR car - last year we had 2" pop-out vents used on airplanes like a Piper Cub etc.
Thanks Chris