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January 2012
1/8 '32 Ford "Big Deuce"

Building the "Exterminator" dragster

On the net I found going for a good price a re-make of an early Linberg 1/8 twin engined dragster called "The Exterminator".  Looking at the box art I think the original was early 60's.  On opening the large box I could see a mass of chrome & lots of wire/piping.  Looking at the instructions these are direct scans of the original, so the pictures have lost some detail.  The car can be built with one or two engine set up (my choice) I hope this guide will aid fellow kit builders.

SECTION 1 :- Engine block

I found it best to work on both engines at the same time to save on drying time & when it comes to painting them.  The rear engine looks like it was motor driven in the original & the 1st thing is to build the main drive shaft unit up.  This then is glued into one side of the engine casing & the other side of casing then put on. 

While this is setting I built up the front engine block which is hollow.

When these had dried I fitted both sets of headers.  When these had dried the 1st stage of sanding was needed on the whole blocks & then the gaps filled & then smoothed down to remove the joins.

   When test fitting the engine manifold bases I could see a very large gap that would take a lot of work with just filler due the angles, so in my scratch box I had thin strips of plastic (from Evergreen .5mm X 1.5mm)  & I put these on the angled edges of the manifold base. After drying these were cut & filed to allow the manifold to sit correctly.

The mounting frame that go on both engines were put on & as the whole engine will be sprayed in a metallic anyway, I thought too much chrome would detract, so I de-chromed the parts that goes on this mount.  I did one of my usual tips of painting parts where I think more sanding is needed with a single coat of visible paint hen with a very fine sanding stick rub the paint away.  Any gaps that need more work will still have this paint showing, so you can see where more is needed.  As you can in the photo this showed me the join of the engine block & manifold still needed some work.

NOTE :_ Don't try to find the engine mounts 61-b & 71-b.  I looked all round the sprue's & could not see them, but they are not needed when you mount the engines.

SECTION 2 :- Engine superchargers & clutch assembly

To chrome or not to chrome? as I am going to leave headers & belt covers in chrome I de-chromed all the parts of both superchargers & glued both at the same time.  No filling was needed on them.

The rear engine has the clutch housing & an arrangement for connecting the drive from this motor to the drive shaft in the gearbox.  As this isn't motorised it won't be needed, but is a fair amount of work to fill in the holes & then later work on the body, so I left it in.  I found it best to glue both parts of the universal coupling before you start.  I then fitted the bell fixing ring to the rear of the engine. The bar goes into the bell housing & coupling sits between 2 lugs on the bar.  I found this was then easy to glue the assembly to the bell plate allowing the universal joint to move. A small lever was then glues to the shaft coming out of the clutch.

The superchargers were then fitted to both engines. I then fitted just the bases for the oil filters (93s & 102s) and the air inlets on the top of the superchargers. These engines are now ready to be painted.  I primed both in Halfords grey primer & when dry gave it a smoothing down before the top coat of Halfords Rover Storm Grey.  Both engine were put to one side ready for more work later on....

COMING NEXT:-

Part 2 will be more work on the engines & the gearbox assembly Now Online