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The Smallest Project We’ve Ever Covered: Here’s The Mini-Max – A Scale Model With A Twist


The Smallest Project We’ve Ever Covered: Here’s The Mini-Max – A Scale Model With A Twist

Readers of BangShift know the name Mike Casella from his awesome work at Then and Now Automotive in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Mike is the guy who makes stuff from scratch and saves unobtanium parts that you literally cannot buy no matter how rich you are. Mike’s had hot rods and drag cars over the years but he’s since sold that stuff and spends his off time cruising the countryside with his wife in their motor home. Mike, being the fidgety guy that he is wanted a winter project. So what did he decide to do? He is building a scale replica of his life sized motor home. We don’t mean buying a kit and gluing it together, we mean making actual rubber tires from scratch, machining aluminum wheels and lug nuts, welding up a frame, putting hardwood flooring in, etc. This dude doesn’t go half way on anything. Mike has been sending us photos of his progress and we’re going to get you up to speed from jump street to the condition of the “build” right now. No, it won’t have an engine, but it will look totally neat when finished and all the detail work that Mike is going through is what makes this thing really neat.

Here’s the first load of photos we have to share. As Mike makes more and more progress we’ll keep you updated. This is a neat little rig!

So Mike made these tires from scratch. Since he makes lots of motor mounts at work, he has the skills to make the molds to form these tires and he did. They are cool as hell and look real!

 

If you are going to have real looking tires you need real looking wheels, right? Watch this...

Here are the front wheels. Seriously, they look perfect. Think he just duplicated these for the rears? Hell no.

Look at them! Awesome and completely hand made.

Front tire mounted.

Rear dually tires mounted!

Can't have wheels without lug nuts, right?

 

We can barely tie our shoes and Mike is hand making tiny lug nuts. Sad face.

 

Picture freaking perfect.

Here's the cab and frame Mike fabbed up...


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7 thoughts on “The Smallest Project We’ve Ever Covered: Here’s The Mini-Max – A Scale Model With A Twist

  1. TheSilverBuick

    I’m with you Brian. I can barely tie my shoes, and when I do they don’t stay that way long, and Mike is making tiny lug nuts. Sad face indeed.

    Looks good Mike, that’s some skill at work there.

  2. Mike Casella

    This thing got wayh out of hand, but I’m too far into it to turn back now. Besides, when it’s completed, it will be a nice cool place for our two little Yorkies to go to rest while we’re at a campground.

    1. Al Sheehan

      Mike, does mean we will see you towing the mini – Max’s behind the big – Max’s.
      Can’t wait to see it at the campgrounds… just around the Conner we’ll be back camping.

      1. Mike Casella

        I’m stopping at a friends shop on the way home today to pick up a carrier for the back of the big max. I didn’t make the front wheels steerable for two reasons. One being I didn’t want the dogs to get anyh ideas about going for a ride around the campgrounds, and the other is it would have taken too much time to fabricate all the steering linkage. Maybe that can be next year’s upgrade?

        1. Mike Casella

          Change of plan. Seeing as how I’m building the Mini-Max from scratch, why not just build the carrier from scratch too.

  3. Mustang13 Jeremy George

    That’s a loooooong ways from making a replacement motor mount for some old heap!

    Nice work Mike, you have lucky dogs indeed!

    1. Mike Casella

      Actually I’m making molds for mounts at the same time. This gets 2 hours of my time every morning, then it’s back to doing my regular work.

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