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Post by sd40dash2 on Mar 7, 2021 8:27:43 GMT -8
Since they are no longer listed by Walthers Alloy Forms and many other detail parts brands just aren't on my think list. Don't make that mistake of going through Walthers for everything. A few years ago they delisted many of their detail parts suppliers. Those suppliers still exist and yes you will need to pay shipping and buy direct to maintain the healthiest supply of parts. But what choice is there, besides doing without? Walthers doesn't have most of the parts anymore, as you've discovered. |
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Post by ncrc5315 on Mar 7, 2021 8:30:50 GMT -8
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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on Mar 8, 2021 18:18:08 GMT -8
Only comment the roof equipment is it’s WAY too clean but I’m sure that’s in your plans. You model is really nice. The building is so very much more interesting than the horrible looking, drably painted boxes I see around here in Michigan.
Keep up the great progress. 2 soft taco supremes and mild sauce please...
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Post by Christian on Mar 9, 2021 2:23:33 GMT -8
Don't make that mistake of going through Walthers for everything. A few years ago they delisted many of their detail parts suppliers. Those suppliers still exist and yes you will need to pay shipping and buy direct to maintain the healthiest supply of parts. But what choice is there, besides doing without? Walthers doesn't have most of the parts anymore, as you've discovered. You are preaching to the crowd. BUT, I gotta know the parts exist before I can dash off an order. Yes, I should have remembered the Alloy Forms parts - I have used lots of them over the years. But, I didn't remember. The HVAC unit would have worked well for the dining room. wp8thsub's link to Dimensional Modeling Concepts opened up a whole new source of very interesting parts. BUT, I'm done ordering parts for this project. I've got a few other things in the pile and I'm not so young anymore! Both time and money. One of the useful things about this sort of build thread is uncovering all sorts of ideas and links that are going to be useful to the next modeler building this kit. |
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Post by Christian on Mar 9, 2021 2:30:22 GMT -8
Only comment the roof equipment is it’s WAY too clean but I’m sure that’s in your plans. You model is really nice. The building is so very much more interesting than the horrible looking, drably painted boxes I see around here in Michigan. Keep up the great progress. 2 soft taco supremes and mild sauce please... Yeah, the roof stuff is still unpainted and weathered. When I get to it later this morning there will be a new post which also covers the roof details with the usual sort or rambeling commentary. But the paint on those details will have to wait until I accumulate a few more things to justify bring out the airbrush. My order is usually whatever limited time stuff Taco Bell is pushing. With a fall back to anything that has "Dorito" in the name! I have a feeling that lots of us have a refrigerator collection of extra Taco Bell sauce packs. I prefer Fire! sauce which is available by the bottle. A pack of Diablo sauce drizzled over my breakfast eggs makes my day start with a smile.  |
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Post by Christian on Mar 9, 2021 3:58:44 GMT -8
Chapter 21 – Back at it
Waiting for an additional HVAC unit I took some time to binge read. And I watched FedEx tracking of the parts which was entertaining! I got the Walthers Roof Details kit which contains ½ sprue from the two sprue air-conditioner kit and a half sprue from the two sprue ventilation kit that I’ve had for years. Unfortunately, the new kit contained only one of the smaller HVAC units that are needed in the project. That was fine for me, but followers of this build are SOL unless they buy a second Walthers kit. The Alloy Forms cast metal unit referenced by amtk1007 would be a good choice for the dining room HVAC unit, but I hadn’t remembered it. I bought the Blair Line laser cut plywood HVAC kit, but the unit looked to me to be too small. With both the Blair Line and Allow Forms kits there is a problem matching the crispness of the plastic parts. Rather than wait for the Allow Forms kit – I'm done spending money on this project – I assembled the new Walthers unit. I piled the parts on the roof – photograph one – and it looked good enough for me. A digression here. (What, a digression? That’s new!) Fast food chain places are clean. Not only for health inspections, but also for customer appeal. The buildings are frequently washed down and repainted almost annually. Trash, vomit and other debris is removed immediately. Eyesores are hidden. Dumpsters and grease recycling bins are hidden behind an enclosure. Roof machinery is all but hidden behind a high parapet. I’ve accumulated a large collection of Taco Bell photos for this project. Only in a few of the photos are any roof details visible. A vent in one, the top of an HVAC in another and the top of a microwave antenna in a couple. After lots of looking and some measuring I think that this Summit Customcuts Taco Bell is missing a couple feet of height between the windows and the roof lines. I’ve put the back roof lower than the build instructs and it is about as low as plausible given the kitchen and dining areas. But it should be a couple feet lower. Because viewing the model is from a different perspective than viewing a prototype building I think that this is something that won’t really be noticed. Except by me because I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at this kit. Photos two through six show a grease vent I cobbled up fro the Walthers parts. I used the photo of the Dimensional Modeling Concepts vent posted above by wp8thsub as inspiration. I cut apart a vent in the Walthers collection and then put it back together inside out. I think the photographs show how to do this. The base, photographs five and six, is another vent cut apart. In another life I would order the DMC part and also browse the DMC catalogue for other goodies. Photograph seven shows the parts on the roof roughly where they will go after they are painted. Although a large microwave dish seems common in the mid eighties I’m not going to model one. I did model one on another restaurant and I get too many questions about the antenna at the expense the the really difficult parts of the modeling in that project. I will add some wiring and pipe work on the roof as well as drains in diagonal corners. But, that’s in the future. Next up. Those constructions on the sides that I’ve been putting off. While I was bingeing I came up with many ways of cutting and assembling those parts. Hopefully, next time I’ll have figured it out.       
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Post by Christian on Mar 9, 2021 9:40:42 GMT -8
Chapter 22 – Punt
What? A second post in the same day? Are there pigs out there flapping around? It seems like just this morning I was suggesting that the Summit Customcuts Taco Bell kit had side walls that were too low. Wait a minute. It was just this morning. Well, it bit me. Folks with a long memory can recall that early in the build I rejected the kit supplied quarter cylinder awnings because I couldn’t find any prototype photos of them in or about 1985. Including on the prototype that Summit used for their model. And I didn't want to make them anyway. I had intended to use a bit of carpenter gothic that I saw on a lot of the restaurants. Photograph one. I worked out the geometry this morning with photos illustrating every pencil line on paper. (Well, maybe not every line!) I built one side piece as a proof of concept to have a look before I set up the NWSL Chopper to do the work. It didn’t fit – not even close. Photo two. Even though there are a lot of places I could have made a dimension assumption that was wrong, no way I was this far off. Back to the photos. Photograph three is a Taco Bell about as small as the one I’m making. The trim pieces are ten bricks high and set six bricks below the top of the wall. The bottom of the trim is even with the top of the opening for the door. My piece was/is twelve blocks high and is posed six blocks down from the top of the wall. The bottom of the proof of concept piece is at about door handle height. Nope. No way. Compare photograph three to photo four which is the kit. You can see the different height above the windows and above the door. That trim was very common on Taco Bells built with the stucco look siding and also on Taco Bells that had been renovated in the eighties. But there were other trims showing up in my photos. Dates get a bit wonky. Photograph five shows a common treatment – nothing. This photo is also interesting because it shows a Taco Bell that is shabby. It had closed at about the time the photos were taken. I can’t do this no-trim because the Summit kit has those slots in the walls for the awnings. More photos from this Taco Bell later in the project. Photo six is another closed Taco Bell in a recent photo. The striped pieces on the sides and front appear on other Bells in photos. But the photos are all later than my 1985 cut-off. None the less, this look is now back in play because I can do these trim pieces on photo paper. They do add color and they do say “Taco Bell.” Photograph seven is a treatment I have on a couple photos. Much easier to build than what I started out to do today. Stay tuned. I’m done building for today and really do need to think about this.       
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Post by sd40dash2 on Mar 12, 2021 6:51:31 GMT -8
Any updates?
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Post by Christian on Mar 12, 2021 8:46:10 GMT -8
Springtime - the grass is sighing in relief, the crocuses are poking up and the refrigerator died. An hour later my computer monitor died with a whimper. An update on Taco Bell is in the works, but not written up. A math error on the striped beam that I decided to use on the side walls bummed me out. With a new monitor I can now fix the error, print out the parts and get on with duplicating a day's modeling. Hopefully before the Springtime clouds of pollen make their way across the Appalachians. |
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Post by jonklein611 on Mar 12, 2021 9:13:16 GMT -8
FYI, for detailed aerial photography try Bing Maps. They have aircraft based imaging that's at low level.
Right click on the map and select "View bird's eye".
Might help for roof shots.
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Post by Christian on Mar 16, 2021 3:52:33 GMT -8
Still dealing with home issues. Should be back later this week with model building. Seeing lots of nice builds from other folks all over the Atlas Rescue Forum. Sunday Photos are really a great part of the new and also the old Atlas Forums. Makes me antsy to get back to the Bell.
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Post by Christian on Mar 19, 2021 17:15:50 GMT -8
Chapter 23 – Reefer Madness
No, not musician’s courage. Or something that ran in blocks out of California. More later. I decided use the striped beams shown photo six. Now that they are done and ready for a write up, I know what they are! But you’ll have to wait. I measured the length (height) of the notches in the walls for the cylinder awning and went into CorelDraw to make my stripes. I was really careful with my arithmetic, I thought. Just in case I also made and printed a wider set. Photograph one. Also on the sheet are pairs of Illinois 1985 passenger and light truck/van plates for the customers that I think will be in the lot. I laminated a strip of stripes onto two layers of 2mm EVA foam. Photo two. I used a spread of Weldbond and put the pile under weight over night. Photograph three. Photo four. The next day I cut the strips with a steel rule and a single edge razor blade. I held the pieces against the wall and figured that only one layer of EVA looked better. It peeled right off. The single layer looked pretty good. Photograph five. I should have been suspicious at how cleanly the two layer of foam came apart. But I wasn’t because I got distracted by the width. Too narrow to cover the notches. I had made an arithmetic error. The wide strips were too wide to look right. So, everything you’ve seen up to now went into the trash. The next morning my coffee cream was a solid glob in the carton. Hummm. Expiration date is a long time away. I tried the milk which expired in April. It came out gravel. I’ll spare you the saga of the next few days. 150 lb of ice kept the damage quite low. Monday morning, right on schedule, Jason and Carlos carried in a mammoth block of stainless steel. Photo six. The saga wasn't over yet. The stainless steel monolith which paid homage to 2001, A Space Odyssey, was dented at the warehouse. Documented by Jason and Carlos who gave me the lowdown on how to proceed. Yesterday, Thursday, the replacement arrived and all is well on the coffee cream and milk front. Oh yes, a little box from Tangent also arrived. I mean, there is more to life than refrigerators, isn’t there? Back to Taco Bell. Weldbond did not want to stick to the EVA. Much to my surprise because this is the first time in decades that Weldbond didn’t make a joint in lots and lots of models and other uses. I did a test with CA onto a painted surface. Photograph seven. I use slow setting gel CA which gives me wiggle time. Not in this case. It grabbed instantly. I’m glad I did the test and found that out. I smeared CA onto the EVA piece and carefully pressed it on the wall. Flexing from one end to the other. The first piece came out fine. (Of course!) Photo eight. The short piece didn’t. Photograph nine shows what remained after peeling off the stripes. I cleaned up the rubble, made, and attached a new piece. Correctly this time. In retrospect I was using the foam because I didn't want to cut 0.10" styrene sheet. EVA cuts really easy and clean. If I was to do it again I think I would use the closest Evergreen strip and not worry about the proportions. The prototype photograph showed plain white end caps that were larger than the section of the striped beam. I used scale 2X10” cut long. Probably 1X8 cut not so long would have been better. Photo ten shows the end caps on the drive through side. While looking at photos trying to figure out those brown beams on the roof edges of many Taco Bells of this vintage I happened onto a photograph that showed what those beams did. By extrapolation I now am confident about the purpose of the striped build outs on the sides of many Bells. Next time I’ll tell! a          
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Post by Christian on Mar 21, 2021 6:37:17 GMT -8
Chapter 24 – More Lights and a Gutter
I’ve been looking at those brown beams on the roof edges since almost the first. They never made much since because they hang off the edge and the length wasn't related to anything. Photograph one is an example – a greatly enlarged detail from an internet photo. I came across a photo from the other direction. Photo two. Gosh, darn, those beams were actually channels covering fluorescent tubes to light the exterior walls! I've been looking at the full picture of photograph three for much of the coloring of my model. Clearly seen (now) are the fluorescent tubes without the cover. I’m pretty sure that the striped panels that I installed in the last chapter are also covers for exterior lighting. I pulled out 1X6” and 2X4” scale styrene along with a length of 0.015” rod to make a channel with the tubes. Before making a cut I figured out that absolutely no one would see this gee whiz bit of model building once I took and posted a photograph. So I put those strips away and pulled out a length of 6X6” scale styrene. I brush painted enough to make the left and right right channels while I could still hold it in my fingers. I used Scale75 Scalecolor Decayed Metal. Scale75 is yet another Spanish model paint manufacturer. This color looks like that dark bronze color used in so many architectural applications. Door frames, windows, gutters and so forth. Photo four. While I was in a bronze mood I decided to do the gutter and down spout over the entry at the drive up. I used a bit of 1/8” Evergreen channel for the gutter and plugged the ends with scale 1X4” strip. Yes, way too wide for a gutter. But this gutter would be mostly hidden by the tile overhang and the excess width let me firmly cement it to the under-roof. Photograph five. Photo six. I got myself out of order and decided to do the roof spotlights before doing the down spout. I’m not a sprue hoarder, but I do save transparent sprues that are interesting. Walthers/Heljan window glass sprues often have interesting cross-sections. One common shape is rounded with a flat side. Sliced it gives the profile of a common halogen floodlight. Photograph seven. I sliced off two pieces that result in a square face. I decided to go with just these pieces as a roof flood. Electrical codes call for a riser of at least a foot off the roof for halogen lights. This could have been made with a bit of wire and a couple tedious holes drilled into the fixtures. (Lighting design vocabulary: “fixture” is a whole assembly that produces light. “Lamp” is what lay persons call call a “bulb.” A lamp consists of a connector, filament, gas, and a bulb. “Bulb” is the glass or quartz/glass enclosure that is part of a lamp. For the rest you’ll need to sign up for my fundamentals of stage lighting.)
Photo eight. I snagged a downspout from my future Walthers tract house. I’ll have my regrets later when I build that kit. Photograph nine shows the downspout after I cut off the bottom and attached it back to the down pipe at ninety degrees. A length of solder would have been just fine and traditional but I wanted a square down spout. Photo ten. I used a bit of green FrogTape as a paint fixture because I didn’t want paint seeping onto the face of the flood lights. Everything was brushed with Scale75 Decayed Metal. Photograph eleven shows the floods cemented to the roof tiles and you are looking at the clear faces. In retrospect I should have primed the floods with aluminum paint and followed with the bronze. For a model trope that would have looked better. As a representation of “real life,” the floods as I made them look correct. Photos twelve and thirteen are beauty shots from this point in the assembly. It’s looking more and more like a Taco Bell. The wall height has been bugging me ever since I discovered that they were too low. It’s far to late to fix and the kit is too expensive to start over. I think what I would do for a mid eighties Taco Bell is to assemble the walls inside out. Namely, bricks inside the restaurant. That would let me splice in about 30” scale inches of height. The walls could then be sheeted with 0.005” styrene scored for the sheets of the fake stucco on the prototypes from the eighties. There are lots of ways of making stucco finishes. The raised brick window surrounds would be a bit of a challenge. Next up – who knows?            
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Post by Christian on Mar 22, 2021 15:07:41 GMT -8
Chapter 25 – Drive Thru Window
Remember the early drive thru windows that had a drawer that came out for your cash and then came back out with your order and change? Well and good if you didn’t drive a compact or sports car. You had to reach up and fumble around the drawer to get your stuff and, hopefully, your change. Or if you were driving the schools 16 passenger van. Then you had to reach down, but it was too far to reach! Another early window was a bump out. A bay window that made a great target for vans. These bays typically had two windows that flipped horizontally. There are lots of these still around. Photograph one is an example on a recently abandoned Taco Bell. Photo two sorta shows the flippers open. Photograph three shows the now common sliding pane. This gives the most reach up and down. Photo four shows a bay that was retrofitted to a restaurant that originally had no drive through. Not particularly elegant. And photograph five shows yet another way to get drive thru service. Summit Customcuts doesn’t really model a drive thru window. There is a slightly larger window with a single sealed pane of glass. The quickest way to model a drive thru window is to simply add a vertical 2X2” scale post in the center of the window to hint at a sliding window. If I had been on the ball weeks ago I would have modeled this window half open with a crew member hanging out with a bag of tacos. I decided to do a bay window. My solution below isn’t much like the real thing, but, somehow, I kinda like it. I went to the scrap box. Don’t you just hate it when an author goes to the scrap box for a crucial part? First up is a bay window from a Walthers caboose sold a long time ago. Photo six. Yep, a New York Central restaurant. Next is an all weather window from a Life-Like Proto 2000 SD9. It fits nicely into the window opening. Photograph seven. Photo eight shows a Details Associates all weather window which is available without a scrap box. It also fits nicely. Neither of these all weather windows suggests a sliding pane. The all weather windows look pretty good and you could just glaze and glue one on. There may be other all weather windows out there but I’m bewildered by all the new small parts folks and their offerings. Well, contrary to my gut feeling to use the diesel window, I went with the New York Central. I liked it because the sloped roof could be a fairly common sloped bottom. Photograph nine shows the cuts I made – photo ten – and where I sanded. I used 0.010” styrene to make new ends and clopped them flush. Photographs eleven and twelve. I do a lot of cutting with flush cutters rather than with a chopper or knife. I could have come closer to a prototype width by taking 3/16" out of the middle and rejoining the parts. I didn't do that. I painted it bronze and flat coated it. Photograph thirteen. I found (in my scrap box!) a strip of 0.010” clear styrene that was already the right width for the back of the window and for a sliding window. You can see what cutting with a knife does to clear styrene and what a flush cutter does. Photo fourteen. I glued the glazing with clear gloss and touched up with flat. Photograph fifteen. I cemented it to the wall and touched up as needed. Photo sixteen. It looks awfully big in this photo. But, photograph seventeen, with a customer it suddenly looks OK. The customer just came from the Union 76 car wash. The car is probably still dripping. We are getting close to the end of the building. All the roof stuff needs to be painted and installed. And there is a short punch list before we turn to the site.                 
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Post by sd40dash2 on Mar 22, 2021 15:16:21 GMT -8
Excellent research and supporting detail photos. You are certainly doing a great job of walking us through this interesting build. I like how you are applying the principles we all use on engine and freight car modelling and applying it to a structure. Very creative use of a leftover caboose bay window or all-weather loco window! I think the final result looks great alongside the boring brown Ford Maverick that was so common in the 1980s but seems to have vanished today. Your replication of the eaves downspout looks good but someone should tell their engineering folks that without spider-like extensions, the type of drainage they have isn't really keeping the water away from the foundation. I realize that proper extensions would get in the way, maybe a good time for use of a french drain.
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Post by lvrr325 on Mar 22, 2021 15:50:33 GMT -8
What is that car in the last photo? I'm thinking the little cars Chrysler imported before they built their own subcompacts.
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Post by Christian on Mar 22, 2021 16:02:52 GMT -8
Your replication of the eaves downspout looks good but someone should tell their engineering folks that without spider-like extensions, the type of drainage they have isn't really keeping the water away from the foundation. I realize that proper extensions would get in the way, maybe a good time for use of a french drain. My prototype photos are about half french drain and about half dump onto the driveway. I'm going to convert to french drain because the bend at the bottom is yet another target for drive thru cars and vans. |
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Post by Christian on Mar 22, 2021 16:05:45 GMT -8
What is that car in the last photo? I'm thinking the little cars Chrysler imported before they built their own subcompacts. The Chryslers were rebadged Mitsubishi. The car in the photo is Rust Belt Iron. Ford Maverick. Herpa a long time ago. |
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Post by lvrr325 on Mar 22, 2021 17:15:07 GMT -8
It's not a Maverick, but it's not a Mitsubishi Lancer (or US variant) either. Datsun B210? Window shape is right for one of those.
OK I found one on eBay, it's a Ford Taunus TC, a German model from about 1974.
Not likely to be sold in the US but not impossible either, I've run across some older English Fords in salvage yards.
And I bought a couple of HO Opel ... I forget what they're called but in the US they deleted the trunk and sold it as a Chevy Monza, with Buick Olds and Pontiac all getting versions too.
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Post by schroed2 on Mar 22, 2021 17:25:34 GMT -8
What is that car in the last photo? I'm thinking the little cars Chrysler imported before they built their own subcompacts. The Chryslers were rebadged Mitsubishi. The car in the photo is Rust Belt Iron. Ford Maverick. Herpa a long time ago. if it is Herpa, the prototype is most likely a german-built Ford Taunus TC Fastback ("coupe") from 1973-1975 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Taunus_TC |
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Post by Christian on Mar 22, 2021 17:50:57 GMT -8
Taunus it is. But, until someone starts making late seventies/early eighties ordinary cars it will have to be a Maverick in my little world.
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Post by lvrr325 on Mar 22, 2021 18:49:38 GMT -8
Just off the top of my head, here are some decent HO 1975-1985 cars:
Fresh Cherries/Motor Max HO cars which came out 10-15 years ago:
1970 Ford Maverick
1973 Ford Mustang
1977 Ford Granada
1977 Ford Pinto wagon
1979 Mercury Bobcat (Pinto)
1981 Ford Escort
1984 Ford Tempo
1974 AMC Hornet
1974 AMC Gremlin
1978 AMC Pacer
1975 Honda Civic
1982 Honda Accord
A few of these could stand new wheels/tires, particularly the Civic.
Malibu International/Reel Rides series (again about 2006):
1981 Cadillac Eldorado (side windows need some work)
1977 Pontiac Trans-Am Bandit Edition
I want to say they did a 1982 Trans Am also but I cannot confirm it online. The others in this series are older (67 Plymouth, 70 GTO, 70 Chevy pickup) or newer. They're related to the autos Model Power has sold at various points, made in Hong Kong by the same outfit.
Classic Metal Works
1977 Chevrolet Impala sedan
1970 Chevelle
1970 El Camino
1974 Buick Estate Wagon (came out last year)
Euromodel
Opel Manta (stand in for 77-80 Chevy Monza as noted previously)
Monogram Mini-Exacts (later sold to Herpa) -
1988 Pontiac Gran Prix
1989 Ford Thunderbird
BMW 325I
1985 Buick Regal
1984 Corvette (sold now as a 1990)
Atlas
1980 Ford Fairmont
Williams Brothers (kit, clear plastic body)
1977 El Camino
1975 Dodge Monaco sedan (not the same as the one made by Busch)
Busch
1974-76 Trans Am (side proportions are bad)
1976 Dodge Monaco sedan
Roco has a decent 75-ish Dodge pickup
Herpa has a lot of US-appropriate cars, BMW, Mercedes, etc.
I think there's a thread here on this board with lists of what cars have been done in HO and who made them. This is a side track for sure but I was just confused why have a stand-in Maverick when there's an actual model of a Maverick. Some of these were sold by the dozens in Wal-marts for like $5 a shot.
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Post by Christian on Mar 23, 2021 2:07:10 GMT -8
This is a side track for sure but I was just confused why have a stand-in Maverick when there's an actual model of a Maverick. Some of these were sold by the dozens in Wal-marts for like $5 a shot. Set one beside a Herpa or Busch. It's mixing Tyco with Tangent. In this specific case the Taunus looks more like a Maverick than does the Fresh Cherries Maverick. I'd forgotten the Atlas Fairmont. But, I just looked, eBay sellers price them in the $40's. Nope. That's a different hobby. Others on your list are possibly going to make an appearance. I hoard them. Don't forget the Ford Probe! |
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Post by sd40dash2 on Mar 23, 2021 2:57:53 GMT -8
*new thread created for off topic content*
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Post by Christian on Mar 23, 2021 2:58:06 GMT -8
Look - I'm not trying to thumb my nose at the motorheads in the railroad modeling hobby. Not at all. When I look through the updates on the 1-87 Vehicles Club site I dribble lots of slobber onto my keyboard. But its like everything else in the hobby - or all other hobbies, like photography - what I do is a matter of time, skill, and $$$. At 75 I've got to do models that I have a passion to do. Money has never been generous for a hobby. Skills are dropping off every day that I age. And there are skills I never had. (Wire work, for example.) Time, skill and $$$ when it comes to vehicles is the good old mantra of "good enough." And, yes, it really hurts to type that. Here's a skill example; I put this in my Taco Bell detail box. It's been in the detail box for a lot of building scenes. But, masking off the inside of the windows for painting has stopped my every time. And will likely stop me this time. Even though it's a quintessential and best selling vehicle (that everyone forgets in their lists) for mid eighties modeling and not available otherwise. If an RTR Taurus became available from one of the "good" makers, today's vehicle pricing would likely put it into my carefully consider and probably not buy range. So, here it sits, today. I just gave it a look and I'm still not certain I can carry it off. Besides, it would turn this building construction thread into something else altogether.  |
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Post by Christian on Mar 25, 2021 10:33:49 GMT -8
Chapter 26 – Paint Party
Back to the roof. I painted the ventilators various shades of light gray. The prototype I was working with had no two roof machines the same shade of gray. Photograph one is everything in place for a paint party. Photo two. Party on. What’s that blue thing on a stick? I started with white primer dribbled into the airbrush color cup. When that ran out I dribbled in gray primer without cleaning. And that was the process as I worked around. As a color ran out I dribbled another color into the airbrush finishing with aluminum on the taller round vent. And then cleaning and reloading with light blue for the thing on a stick. Short post today. I darkened the grills with a wash, badly. Photograph three show the air handles and vents placed on the roof, not cemented. I want to work with the positioning and clean up the grill paint work, but I’m done thinking for today!   
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Post by sd40dash2 on Mar 25, 2021 10:46:53 GMT -8
Why do these places have such large roof hardware?
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Post by Christian on Mar 25, 2021 14:42:07 GMT -8
Why do these places have such large roof hardware? (Did some Google work to remind me of what I needed to know for a project 25 years ago) Restaurant air has to be replaced every five minutes. Customer area need to maintain a positive pressure, but not blow the doors open. Back of the counter should be about 70 degrees and also maintain a negative flow. Using some online references this boils down to about a three ton unit for front and also for the back of this small Taco Bell. Size of those HVACs should be 2/3rd of the Walthers units I used. But, there really aren't a lot of other choices for modern HVAC units out there. |
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Post by sd40dash2 on Mar 25, 2021 15:33:32 GMT -8
Interesting technical requirements that I never realized. I guess we're off topic again. Thanks for the answer, keep up the great research and modelling work.  |
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Post by Christian on Mar 25, 2021 16:46:46 GMT -8
Interesting technical requirements that I never realized. I guess we're off topic again. Thanks for the answer, keep up the great research and modelling work. Believe me I'm not a ventilation engineer. I spent time with one during a building renovation and learned just enough to blunder through this with help from Google. I'm sure that someone with much more knowledge will add to this and correct my work. I do have those darned prototype photos of Taco Bell roofs and am interpreting them as best I can given what's out there. In the time since my previous posts I've stared at those HVAC units thinking about ways of cutting them down a bit. Probably not. |
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