Harry P. Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 Nice! I didn't know about that site, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Most Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 I was thinking you could scratchbuild a new door out of metal or plastic, then I remembered you were going to go with polished plastic for the body. Looks like it's too short and warped a bit! Yikes! The window frame shouldn't be tough to fix. I'd imagine you could cut the base off one and reattach it with solder, or whatever method you prefer to join metal. That door thing would have me perplexed, as well! Funny thing is- I always thought Pocher kits had metal bodies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 I was thinking you could scratchbuild a new door out of metal or plastic, then I remembered you were going to go with polished plastic for the body. Looks like it's too short and warped a bit! Yikes! The window frame shouldn't be tough to fix. I'd imagine you could cut the base off one and reattach it with solder, or whatever method you prefer to join metal. That door thing would have me perplexed, as well! Funny thing is- I always thought Pocher kits had metal bodies! No, Pocher bodies are plastic like any other model. Many chassis parts are metal, but no body panels. The window frames can't be fixed, because I need a mirror-image set (one left and one right), but all I have are two lefts. I can't just flip one over... then the window opening would be backwards! It's like a left-handed and a right-handed baseball mitt. You can't take a left-handed mitt and flip it over to make a right-handed mitt. What I did was glue some Plastruct U-channel around the window edges to simulate the metal molding. I'll use BMF to "chrome" the moldings (God willing on the BMF part!) And hopefully the BMF won't get scraped off against the edges of the window opening as the window goes up and down in the door. If so I'll probably wind up just painting the moldings silver. As far as the doors... I think if I shim the body a little, the door latch will be able to hold the front of the door in place fairly well (the latch is right at the upper front corner of the door... right where the gap is, so that might just work to keep the door shut and the gap closed. Right now I'm making new convertible top hoops out of brass strap. The kit hoops are too small... they don't stretch out the top when the top is up, they need to be taller (longer side legs). That was a pretty easy fix... just use the kit hoops as a template but make the brass hoops slightly longer. If I can get this door alignment issue solved I'm home free. The hood will probably have to be finessed too... but that should be fairly easy. If the panels are too long it's no problem to sand them down a bit... and if they're too short I can adjust the position of the grille shell relative to the firewall by adjusting the nuts on the radiator bracing rods and the mounting bracket at the bottom of the radiator shell to bring the radiator closer to the firewall if needed. It's the doors that are the big stumbling block. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 Can't you get a replacement window frame from modelmotorcars? They must have tons of spare parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted January 22, 2010 Author Share Posted January 22, 2010 Can't you get a replacement window frame from modelmotorcars? They must have tons of spare parts. Actually they don't. I talked to Marvin about how he acquires his stock, and he does it just like anyone else... he buys it off ebay! Also people are constantly calling him and offering to sell him kits, but he doesn't have any spare parts. The only parts he would have to sell are his own aftermarket parts, and the window frames aren't ones that he makes. No problem though... the Plastruct U-channel I found fits the kit glass perfectly, like it was made for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxer Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 This is defiantly a learning experience for me. I've always heard of the difficulty putting a Pocher together, but never realized it was due to bad quality control. That is totally unforgivable for a kit of this level! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted January 22, 2010 Author Share Posted January 22, 2010 This is defiantly a learning experience for me. I've always heard of the difficulty putting a Pocher together, but never realized it was due to bad quality control. That is totally unforgivable for a kit of this level! It's actually pretty common for Pocher kits to sometimes have missing or wrong parts. After all, they were packed by humans, and there are a lot of parts trees in each box...and several dozen plastic bags of assorted hardware and misc. metal parts... so the occasional screw-up is to be expected, I guess. The worst part is, the company doesn't exist anymore, so you're on your own when it comes to solving problems. And "spare" parts are very hard to come by. It's sort of like restoring a rare old car. You can't just go to Pep Boys and buy a replacement fender... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoom Zoom Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 This is defiantly a learning experience for me. I've always heard of the difficulty putting a Pocher together, but never realized it was due to bad quality control. That is totally unforgivable for a kit of this level! Pocher kits are nothing like Tamiya kits. There's a good reason you don't see many Pocher kits built; and also a good reason that many of the ones you see built fall short of "museum quality" construction & craftsmanship because their builders simply are not up to the level of professional building required to do one of these kits justice. When I was younger I assumed Pocher meant "incredible quality". After seeing a few of them built or partially built (a lot of them never get very far before being sold when the cold realization sets in that the model is never going to get done), I realized if the finished model was of "incredible quality", it was due primarily to the builder's talent and not the model itself. There may very well be easier 1:1 cars to build from box of parts than a Pocher kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted January 24, 2010 Author Share Posted January 24, 2010 Sort of a "good news, bad news" day... The good news is that the doors actually do fit fairly well... once I glued the hinges, the latches seem to pull everything into line when the doors are closed. Not perfect... not even close to perfect... but better than I initially thought it would be. More good news... despite the tiny pieces and sloppy tolerances, the door latches do work–at least for now. I have no idea what their "life cycle" is, but I'm not about to try and find out. I will be using the door handles as little as possible. The bad news is that there's a huge gap between the top of the door windows and the sides of the top. You can see the gap here, between the window glass and the convertible top arm. The glass in this photo is rolled up all the way... it doesn't go any higher. The problem is that the glass is just too small... it should have been taller and bigger front to back. Of course, now that I know this it's way too late to go back and do anything about it. The door hinges are epoxied into place, the inner door panels are epoxied to the door skins, and the window glass mechanism is permanently installed. There's no going back. Guess I won't be displaying this with the top up and the windows rolled up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plasticfanatic Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 This is project is amazing and your srcrachtbuilt detailing is just superb!! About this particular Pocher model, I should tell you that is better to make some brass rod supports from the chassis to the body for the back area of the car, as they are build out of the box is a "floating part", when you add the spare tires to this area it will put some weight on it and eventually warp even more the body. About the roof, don't worry, actualy the windows are the right size, is the top structure and part desing that is at fault, in fact it has the wrong profile when is "up", look at the pictures of the real car and you will see, also by moving the front windscreen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plasticfanatic Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 By moving the front windscreen frame back from the pocher factory attachemnt points, you will get a better and much closer fit with the door frame, also it will be prototipicaly correct, since the position on the front windows frame in the model is also wrong and that's why you get the gap with the frame. With the art and patience you are showing with this great build, this will be an an easy fix for you if you desided to change them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted January 25, 2010 Author Share Posted January 25, 2010 It's a Pocher miracle!!! I have nothing but good news this time (sorry... been too busy with my pesky clients to take new photos, but I will as soon as I get the chance. Also, I shouldn't call them pesky... as their work pays the bills!). First of all... the doors fit really well. Who'd a thunk it from how things looked a few days ago, but once everything is screwed together and the body parts are in their "final" configuration, everything fits surprisingly well. In fact, the door fit is so good that you might not ever notice any problem if I hadn't told you anything. And the tiny little latches actually do latch the doors closed! And the windows really crank up and down! Hallelujah!!! Also installed the fenders, and lo and behold, all the mounting screws lined up to the holes in the body and chassis! That tells me that I installed the body correctly in relation to the chassis. The fenders wrap around the lower edges of the grille shell tight as a drum... it looks really good. I also test fit the hood panels, and it looks like they will need some very minor shortening... which is a whole lot easier to do than lengthening them! All in all, things are looking up and the frustration level is greatly reduced these days... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 The doors wound up fitting pretty well. Not perfect, but better than I thought they would. The whitewalls are painted on with acrylic paint, the black ring on the knockoff is painted on, too. The Mercedes emblem is kit-supplied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Most Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Wow- sounds like Pocher kits are actually pretty poor, quality-wise! No wonder that Wingrove dude rolls his own! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzTom Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Coming along very nice. That tire and wheel is just AWESOME! AzTom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted February 24, 2010 Author Share Posted February 24, 2010 It's beginning to come together. Excuse the mess and the dust... the old girl is still in the shop awaiting a few finishing touches... but it's getting close! How do you like that high-tech parking brake in the photo above? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario lucchini Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 It's beginning to come together. Excuse the mess and the dust... the old girl is still in the shop awaiting a few finishing touches... but it's getting close! How do you like that high-tech parking brake in the photo above? Harry, this Merc is a jewell!...........I have the same kit in standby....if you have more pics or reference photos, I would be eternally grateful if you could mail them to me... Best regards & thanks....................... Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted February 26, 2010 Author Share Posted February 26, 2010 Harry, this Merc is a jewell!...........I have the same kit in standby....if you have more pics or reference photos, I would be eternally grateful if you could mail them to me... Best regards & thanks....................... Mario Send me a PM with your email address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzTom Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 Looking great Harry. AzTom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-hermit Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 How do you like that high-tech parking brake in the photo above? What ???? You mean the parking brakes on Pochers don't work ?????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted March 13, 2010 Author Share Posted March 13, 2010 What ???? You mean the parking brakes on Pochers don't work ?????? You know it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vizio93 Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Its been a while since i've looked at this thread, and I gotta say, it looks awesome !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Gibbons Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 (edited) You know it! I just found and joined this forum, and enjoyed the progress and pictures of the 500K. I built one of these (and the Fiat) in the mid 80's. An incredible amount of work and a lot of adjustments were needed to make things work. I had to dismantle and rebuild the rear swing axle about 5 or 6 times till it was satisfactory. As with you, I spent more time bending and adjusting the spokes than building the wheels. I did use the kit seats and upholstery, but backed the "leather" and foam padding with pieces of cut up bed sheet material, then hand stitched the "tuck and roll" effect. I then glued thick tan carpet thread at the seams to simulate piping. It came out pretty well, but I do like your resin seats as they are more prototypical. I also hand stitched the top, but wasn't satisfied with the top up appearance, so left it down all the time. A few years ago, a friend of mine started building the Pocher Porsche 993, and gave up. I'm going to finish it for him at some time, and paint the body Arena Red as with his own 1:1 car, plus cut out and simulate an open sunroof. The fit of that kit is appalling, and you could tell that Pocher had limited funds at the end; the head and taillight reflectors are self adhesive stickers and look terrible. I'm going to attempt to scratchbuild some decent ones. They also didn't flock the interior carpeting, but supplied diecut individual self adhesive sections that were applied to the surfaces. Ugh. Wish he hadn't put then on. The seats and dash are molded in an awful lipstick pinkish red. I'm going to do grey seats w/ black dash per his real car, and flock the chassis base in black. The supplied seat belts and hardware are also poorly done, so will figure that one out. The engine detail is very poor, and hope I can dress it up a bit using some added detail. Nuts, the more I think about the amount of work I have to do, the less I want to do it! Again, you're doing a magnificent job on the 500K, and am looking forward to pics of the finished product! Edited March 31, 2010 by Jim Gibbons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 I just found and joined this forum, and enjoyed the progress and pictures of the 500K. I built one of these (and the Fiat) in the mid 80's. An incredible amount of work and a lot of adjustments were needed to make things work. I had to dismantle and rebuild the rear swing axle about 5 or 6 times till it was satisfactory. As with you, I spent more time bending and adjusting the spokes than building the wheels. I did use the kit seats and upholstery, but backed the "leather" and foam padding with pieces of cut up bed sheet material, then hand stitched the "tuck and roll" effect. I then glued thick tan carpet thread at the seams to simulate piping. It came out pretty well, but I do like your resin seats as they are more prototypical. I also hand stitched the top, but wasn't satisfied with the top up appearance, so left it down all the time. A few years ago, a friend of mine started building the Pocher Porsche 993, and gave up. I'm going to finish it for him at some time, and paint the body Arena Red as with his own 1:1 car, plus cut out and simulate an open sunroof. The fit of that kit is appalling, and you could tell that Pocher had limited funds at the end; the head and taillight reflectors are self adhesive stickers and look terrible. I'm going to attempt to scratchbuild some decent ones. They also didn't flock the interior carpeting, but supplied diecut individual self adhesive sections that were applied to the surfaces. Ugh. Wish he hadn't put then on. The seats and dash are molded in an awful lipstick pinkish red. I'm going to do grey seats w/ black dash per his real car, and flock the chassis base in black. The supplied seat belts and hardware are also poorly done, so will figure that one out. The engine detail is very poor, and hope I can dress it up a bit using some added detail. Nuts, the more I think about the amount of work I have to do, the less I want to do it! Again, you're doing a magnificent job on the 500K, and am looking forward to pics of the finished product! Thanks, Jim! And welcome aboard. I also built the Pocher Porsche. It's a "Pocher" in name only, the kit is nowhere near the caliber of the Pocher "classic" kits. The engine is just a vague blob of plastic with less detail than many 1/24 scale engines! I spent a lot of time reworking and detailing the engine, but the overall low quality of the kit kind of limited my enthusiasm. I did finish it, and it's on my shelf... looks ok, I guess. I have to get my aftermarket spotlights chromed, then I can install them and do some final photos of the Mercedes all cleaned up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hot ford coupe Posted April 5, 2010 Share Posted April 5, 2010 Hey Harry. Looks like I've been asleep at the wheel here. I've been busy over at the other place having a ball over there too. That's a great job on the Mercedes. I really love the uphostery you've done. It's one of the best I've seen. I'll be following this build a lot more closely. Catch you later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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