HOW TO: Add a “Working” dip stick to your engine
I’ve been playing around with doing some scratch built detailing on my 2CV build and I thought that you might be interested in seeing how I added a “working” dip stick to the engine.
It’s pretty quick and easy and fun to do – if you like that kind of thing
Here’s what I used:
2 hypodermic needles.
Pin vise to drill the engine block
Butane torch
Punch tool
Pliers
I used 0,8mm and 0,5mm needles but you can use anything that will fit better to your scale.
The idea is that one needle fits inside the other like this:
Alternatively you could use thin wire and rod.
The first step is to make your main pipe with the larger needle.
SAFETY FIRST – either Dremmel off the sharp end or bury it in a piece of cork!!
Drill out a hole in the engine block where the pipe will be placed. Insert the needle to establish out what length you will need and then cut it to size.
I recommend using a Dremmel to do this. If you cut the steel needle with e.g. pliers, you will squeeze and deform the needle and won’t be able to insert the thinner needle - I know from experience!!
You should have something like this
Now we make the actual dip stick. For this we use the thinner needle which is first cut to an appropriate length.
Most dipsticks seem to have a flat loop for a handle so after cutting the needle to length I used pliers to close and flatten the needle.
Hypo needles are made of a high grade steel and are VERY hard which makes them difficult to bend - this is where you need the burner.
Holding the needle in pliers place it in the flame until it gets red hot and then let it cool down. This process is called annealing and makes the steel soft enough to bend quite easily. An added benefit is that it discolors the metal and you won’t need to paint it afterwards
You should have something like this:
Now you can start shaping and detailing the dipstick.
I bent the loop and used a belt hole punch to make a small disk and slipped it onto the dip stick like this:
Finally I used a black permanent marker to make the plastic disc look like a rubber sealing plug. In my case the feeder pipe will get painted together with the engine block.
I’m sure that you guys can think of many different and better ways to do this but I hope that this will maybe give the general idea.
HTH