slusher Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 I agree with Gene, love the wheels and tires Niko... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted November 26, 2015 Author Share Posted November 26, 2015 Sorry guys I'm a "little" late with the thanks, but better late than never I guess? Looking great Niko! I love the tires and wheels, especially the white wall front tires, great choices on the colors too. It's starting to take form now. Thank You Gene! Just as you said it's starting to take form the progress stalled for some reason. Just kidding, but for some reason this project got stalled back in January. I'm happy to be back with it though. I agree with Gene, love the wheels and tires Niko... Thanks Carl! I like how they look, too. And when I get those valve stems added, I guess they'll look a bit better. So I'm happy to say it... I'm back building this Fiat. I got inspired after seeing Ratican - Jackson - Stearns' Nitro Burning Fiat Topolino at NHRA Finals pit area. They fired it up and gave some RPMs to the engine. It looked and sounded fantastic, plus that Ron Stearns, the guy who had been driving it back in the day was a real nice guy. I have to disagree with him a bit though as he said that the car is a little beat up and needs some work... I couldn't see a single spot that needed work in it, that car was very nicely done and very close to what it was in the '50s when they built it. This is a tiny update, but you get the idea that it's back on the bench. Today while waiting for my gluings on my Street Altered Cortina I decided to do a little work on this. I got rear axle assembled together. Center piece is painted with "Chrome" spray paint, otherwise it's just Humbrol Metallic #56. Bolts and nuts are painted with Revell #90 silver that's a bit brighter than that Humbrol paint and I added minor black wash with The Detailer on where those bolts are to bring them out a bit better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gasser59 Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 Glad to see you're back on this one Niko. I've been missing your progress. Love me some fast Fiats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 Thanks Brad! Great to hear you enjoy the progress on my builds. I'm having a lot of fun with this project too as these Altereds are very interesting and this Fiat is probably one of the most legendary bodies for that use.My next step will be installing the rear axle to frame and then I can put wheels and tires on when a couple of parts come from chrome stripping. Hopefully I'll have an update soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 I added valve stems to the wheels. They were made from MIG welding wire that I just painted flat black, cut to correct length and glued to the little holes I drilled on wheels with super glue. Inner wheels & rear brakes came with the kit, but on front I had to dig proper inner wheels from my parts box and then I used kit's center parts that attach to front axle. Then I decided to put it on four wheels. Rear axle was glued on place first and it fit very nicely on place. Then I just simply glued all four wheels on their places. While I was in this point, I decided to try how engine and body fit on place. Engine fit fine, but looks like I'll need to do minor modifications to firewall to make it fit properly with that new clutch cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gasser59 Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Looks oh so right Niko. Me likes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedfreak Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 That looks great Niko, these cars a soooooo cool, I just love'em! The Moon Eyes background is perfect! Would look cool on the car too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 Thanks Brad and Gene, I appreciate it! Yes, these are very cool cars. Whenever I get this one finished, I have to move on to continue my other Fiat Altered (Fiat 500) and then I can display these together. That will take some time though... And on those pictures I just wanted to cover the mess I have on my workbench so I started looking for somekind of background for the pics. That Mooneyes decal sheet was the first one that I found as I just bought it from Mooneyes' shop a couple of weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted December 25, 2015 Author Share Posted December 25, 2015 Here's a little update to my Fiat. I started working with the roll cage by sanding mold lines off. There were a couple of major ejector pin marks that needed to be filled so I used some putty to smooth them out. I'll have to sand them tomorrow when putties are dry and then paint them gloss black. These two pics are before any putty, though. Here's a little mock up: To get a proper mounting point for seat belts I had to make a cross bar to the rear tubes of that roll cage. Now there is something I can actually mount the seat belts into and I don't have to mount them to the floor. Water Tank that will be glued to front end of the engine needed some work too. First I sanded mold lines off and filled one ejector pin mark with putty. Once that was smoothed out I shot some primer on and today I painted that water tank with Chrome Silver paint. I think I'll be installing it tomorrow once the paint is fully dry. Seat was painted, too. Upholstery is painted with Revell semigloss black and back of the seat is silver so it represents metal. Seat belts were painted with Revell brown and belt buckles are Revell silver. Oh boy, it looks like I should have cleaned that dust off from the seat before takin' this picture. Oh well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 This kit has mold lines to deal with too. Looks excellent. I'm really a fan of this car and appreciate the 1:1 pic above, showing the transverse leafs up front. A cool car for sure.Good detailing Niko, easy to see you like the car too.That old 392 with the log ram manifold and 8 carbs is a hit. I like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedfreak Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Nice work Niko, looks cool. I remember this kit well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 Michael... Thanks! Yep you're correct, this kit has pretty much mold lines, ejector marks etc that need to be cleaned. It sure is a bit of extra work, but all in all this kit is a lot of fun to work with. And yeah, the 1:1 car was just what I needed to see to get my inspiration on this one back. That 8 carburetor setup is one of my favorites too, but I'm starting to see nightmares about making a carburetor linkage already... Gene... Thank You! Your build was a lot of fun to follow as well. I hope we can go Match Racing when mine is done. Here are a couple of more pictures. I glued transmission to the clutch cover and started searching for reference pictures how I should make the shift linkage. Soon I found a good picture of Borg & Warner T10 and I scratchbuilt something similar from metal wire and pieces of beer can aluminum. Shifter is straight from the box with just some minor cleanup and painting done. It's far from perfect, but I guess I can live with it. Then I moved on to the headers. Every header pipe had major mold lines in them so I started by filing them smooth. Every header pipe had an ejector pin mark in the curve so I sanded them off too. I didn't put much time into the header flanges, just filed them smooth briefly so that the headers are easy to glue on place. After all they can't be seen much from the finished model. Here other one is sanded smooth and other one is still waiting for that operation... After hard work sanding them smooth I headed to the paint booth. I wanted to spray them flat white and right away I knew I'd like them to look a bit old and possibly add a couple of rust spots on them here and there, but a disaster was really close when I shot some paint on them... The paint cracked all over. I knew that there was no way I could put them in the stripper to remove that paint off as the parts were so fiddle that they would have broken into pieces in that liquid. So the only way was to let them dry and sand them a bit smoother and then touch up with some Revell flat white and a brush. When I was done with that, I was surprised how good the headers looked. They look just like real headers that were painted long time ago so I left them as they were and glued them on. Some black was painted into the holes I drilled to the ends of those pipes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 I scratchbuilt a transmission mount/frame crossmember from pieces of square styrene rod. Now the engine fits properly on place and I'm quite sure driveshaft can be installed with no problems! Though before I can install that I have a few more things to do with that engine, plus that I have to make the driveshaft too... Well, slowly but surely this is coming together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nytrozilla Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Awesome looking headers and wheels man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 Thanks Joe, I appreciate it! Now I gotta get back on the engine and start working on that body too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 (edited) This update is pretty small one and the progress I've made is kind of invisible. Anyway I was going to install those rear inner fenders on place, but I noticed that there was no way I could fit them between frame rails and rear tires. Thinning plastic from those inner fenders wouldn't have been enough so I had to take rear tires off and with some sheet styrene I widened those wheels about two scale inches on both sides. Now everything fits properly on place and I can continue working on it again... Edited January 17, 2016 by W-409 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gasser59 Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Looks good Niko. Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do. Looking forward tho the next installment of progress notes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedfreak Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 (edited) Gene... Thank You! Your build was a lot of fun to follow as well. I hope we can go Match Racing when mine is done. I'll be waiting for you, my Fiat is ready You did a nice job on the tranny Niko, looks good. How did you like drilling the holes in the ends of the headers? Very tricky as they are very small and hard to work with because they are flimsy and can break easily at the flange. For the love of styrene and cars. Edited January 20, 2016 by Speedfreak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 Thanks Guys!I'm currently serving our country in Finnish Army so I only have time on the weekends (Most weekends are "vacation") so the progress is not very fast. My plan is to get this one done this year though...Gene, drilling holes to the headers was not an easy task for sure. I smoothed out those mold lines first and after that those flanges were already pretty fragile so it didn't make it any easier. I started by drilling a small hole to the center and then continued with a bigger drill bit that was just the right size. It wasn't easy but I'm glad I didn't screw it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooneyzs Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Niko.... You are doing some awesome work on this build. I am loving all of the detail you are adding to it. Very Nice build Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted January 24, 2016 Author Share Posted January 24, 2016 Thanks Chris! It's great fun to work on these older kits where you have to add a bit more detail than on some newer kits that might include some of the details already in the kit. Here's a very small update for this weekend just to show you that I've made some minor progress. Seat was glued on place and I "stretched" the kit's seat belts so that they connect to the roll bar. For this I used paper that I painted with the same brown paint that I used on the seat belts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyrichard Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 cool !! looks great ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davewilly Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gasser59 Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 (edited) Those schouder straps loo great Niko although I've never understood them. The ones on the bottom portion of the seat connect to each other, so where do the shoulder harnesses connect? Edited January 26, 2016 by gasser59 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Teresi Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Niko......Nice ,very nice indeed!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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