Making Realistic 1/24-1/25 Scale Throttle Return Springs

[mustang1989]

I stumbled onto this several months ago when I was building my '56 Ford F-100. I had seen all examples of homemade return springs from wire wound around a small needle so I gave it a shot. I'm a pretty patient guy so I gave it several tries and just couldn't get uniform wraps to get a realistic "spring" look out of it. I needed something small enough that would look more like a spring than a botched attempt by me. That night I changed a turn signal bulb in my truck and "DING".............the light bulb turned on..........literally.


Take a 3157 Turn Signal Bulb (You've got two different size "springs" to choose from here) and break the glass:




Then just rob the filament out of it.





a little closer:




This technique in use on my 429 Boss engine in my 1970 Maverick.

[JCON]

What a cool idea!!!

[mustang1989]

Apr 23, 2022 22:22:09 GMT -6 JCON said:

What a cool idea!!!

Thanks. It seems to work and if enough of the filament is remaining at the ends you can make little hooks out of them to attach to the linkage and bracket on the manifold pretty convincingly. 

[JED]

What a result!

[BUCKY]

This is one of the best ideas I've seen in quite a while! How sturdy are the filaments in those bulbs? Will they stand up under any rough handling?

A NOTE FROM OUR RESIDENT SAFETY MAN: Always wear eye protection when deciding to smash a piece of glass.