Fiat Topolino '60s Altered & Finished Slingshot Dragster

[W-409]

I did some minor work with the Fiat. The Kit had a Hilborn intake manifold that was good otherwise, but it had two huge ejector pin marks on it. I thought they should be removed even if I was a bit afraid of doing it. Overall it was very easy to do though and the end result looks good to me. I also removed the chrome plating from the clutch cover and intake.

[Speedfreak]

Looks good Niko, nice job on the clutch cover! And yes, those ejector marks had to go.

[Speedfreak]

Niko, here's a pic of the 'original' Walt's Puffer (the car the AMT Double Dragster Fiat is primarily based on), so you can see the stance of the car, which I've never seen anyone get right (including me), the front ends are always 'too high', there's a slight drop on the front of the original car which I think looks really cool. I thought you could pull it off if you were so inclined. Gene

Edited November 25, 2014 by Speedfreak

[AZ Boy]

Real nice job on the dragster, Niko! I can't wait to see what you'll do with the fiat.

[W-409]

Thanks Gene and Aaron! I appreciate the kind words.

Gene: That would be a great stance to shoot for. I think I like the high stance, but since every Fiat I've seen has the front end high I might do something different. Maybe something between those two, a bit higher than in the picture but a bit lower than what is it when built box stock. Thanks for the picture, it's a great reference shot for that stance for sure.

[W-409]

This update seems to be disappeared because of the forum's crash, so here are a couple of older pics first... I painted the engine with Humbrol Orange using a brush. Intake was painted with Revell's silver as well as the clutch cover. Frame is Humbrol Gloss Black painted with a brush as well. I didn't want to make it as smooth as spray painted frame would be, because probably the young Hot Rodders who built this one in the early '60s on their backyard did that as well.

New valve covers arrived as well, they are resin cast by a friend of mine and they're very good quality as usual with his products. I ordered two sets of them, and the other one will be used on another build later. I also got a set of hubcaps as a bonus. So a Big Thank You, Marko! I ran into a problem with the intake though. It is meant to work with a SBC and it's way too narrow for the Hemi. I don't undestand why I didn't test fit it earlier, but now when I did, I thought it's not a good idea to start making major modifications on that one. So I went with Plan B and took an eight carburetor setup from my parts box. I unassembled it and did some smoothing and sanding for the parts. Except for the bottom plate the parts are now in paint stripping. The bottom plate was shot with Primer at the same time as the valve covers.

And I drilled holes to the front axle to make it a bit lighter. Here in the picture it's still before final cleanup, but now it is ready for paint.

[Speedfreak]

Looking good Niko! Engine looks great, that Humbrol orange is nice color.

[1 bad55 stan]

Another great build coming up!

[W-409]

Thanks Gene! Yes I like that color as well. The shade of orange is just correct and it lays down really nicely and doesn't leave major brush strokes visible.

Stan - Thank You! I hope I can turn this into a good looking model as the kit is a bit simple and I'm not going to go as far as I'm going with the modifications on my '55 Chevy.

Here's a little update. First I painted the valve covers and bottom plate of the intake manifold with chrome silver spray paint and they turned out pretty good. Then I assembled the main components of the engine together. As this build presents a car that definitely is not a show car, rather a budget racer, I thought the engine looked a bit too clean. I know I'm not very good at weathering, but I decided to try my hand at it anyway. Using The Detailer's black wash and Tamiya Weathering Master I added some oil / grease marks to the engine. I think it looks decent. I'm still debating on wether I should add some minor weathering to the valve covers or not.

I also painted the front axle. That leaf spring is really simple, but I think I will go with it anyway.

[Speedfreak]

Niko, I think the weathering on the block is just about right, the valve covers and bottom plate look fine as they are. I found that making this AMT Fiat DD look 'real' took a 'LOT' of prep work. Do you have a body color yet?

[W-409]

Thanks Gene! I think I will leave those valve covers and that bottom plate alone, as you said they look pretty good like that. I wanted really light weathering on this one and I think it's looking decent even if I'm not the best in that area of model building. Yes, you're right, lots of prep work is needed in order to make it look realistic. But we like challenges I guess.

As for the paint color I'm not completely sure. I planned that since I'm building this for a Primer Build on TRaK, I'm going for probably semigloss red as a base color with some overspray with grey primer. I'm not sure if I can make it, but I'll need to practise on a plastic spoon or something first.

[Speedfreak]

Not familiar with the effect you're going for, but, would like to see. Maybe you can show a spoon when you get one done.

[W-409]

Not familiar with the effect you're going for, but, would like to see. Maybe you can show a spoon when you get one done.

I've never tried it either and I'm really interested in seeing if I can make it or not. But yep I really have to try that effect somewhere before shooting paint on the Fiat body.

Here's a good chance to post an update, too. Nothing much done but I thought these pics might be worth posting anyway. I got the intake manifold and carburetors installed. The fitment was really good, except that the carburetors were a bit problematic to get straight. I'm pretty happy about them though. Paint on the carbs is Revell #91 Silver and over that I mixed some Humbrol's Clear Orange and dirty thinner to give those carburetors a light golden look.

[Speedfreak]

Niko, Those carbs look awsome! Great job! That engines gonna look fantastic when you're done! Once again, great job on that intake system, can't get over how good those carbs look! I'm definately going to try that recipe on my next carb set-up.

[Snake45]

As for the paint color I'm not completely sure. I planned that since I'm building this for a Primer Build on TRaK, I'm going for probably semigloss red as a base color with some overspray with grey primer. I'm not sure if I can make it, but I'll need to practise on a plastic spoon or something first.

I've found that Model Master Rust enamel does a convincing impression of red oxide primer. Have used it on that for several things. It's real easy to work with, too--a real nice paint.

[W-409]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the comments!

Gene: Yep I like those carburetors too. When I tried painting them that way I had been looking for a good shade of color for carbs for a long time. After my first try painting them like this I really liked the look and after that most of my carbs have been painted that way. I think it brings out the details really nicely and the shade is excellent in my opinion.

Snake: That's a great information... Thanks! I will have to see if I can find Model Master enamels here in Finland. I know they are not the easiest ones to find, but that could be worth trying if I found a bottle of that color somewhere.

I'm slowly working on the fuel lines. I should have an update in a couple of days, but another build I got as a Christmas Present is slowing me down a bit. Another WIP thread will be coming soon, but it doesn't mean that I have boxed this one and put it back on the shelf... This one is still on the bench and I'm making some progress.

[Speedfreak]

Niko, in the background of your last post I see the '55 Chevy, is it done? It sure looks good sitting back there.

[W-409]

Thanks for asking the situation with that '55, Gene. I'm happy to say it that it's finally back on the bench and I'm going to mask those blue areas away tomorrow and spray some white as the 2nd color on. But it has been sitting just like I left it in early November: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=90198&page=1

Anyway today I did minor progress with this Fiat. I started working with the fuel lines and I made the lines from carburetors to a junction block on bottom plate of the intake manifold. That junction block was made out of beer can aluminum, fuel lines are Scale Dreams' spark plug wire material and fuel line fittings are made out of the rubber part of an electric wire that I painted silver. Next step would be painting the fuel pump and its belt & pulleys. Then I can continue working with those fuel lines.

[Speedfreak]

Niko, that is awsome work! It looks great! Really. Very inventive the way you came up with the parts, i'm impressed!

[W-409]

Thanks so much, Gene! I always try to look for new materials to scratchbuild parts from. Maybe the same parts could be bought as aftermarket items, but I have realized that I don't have the money to buy everything and it's a lot of fun when I can build things from raw materials and especially I'm happy if they look like they should.

Today I was able to work on this a little. There was a driveshaft molded in to the Quick Change rear end and because I have different clutch cover and a transmission on my build, it would not work anyway. And actually it didn't look too good either so I will be making a new one later on. I removed mold seams from that rear end, removed chrome plating and shot some Primer on it. I have no picture of the part in Primer though.

I removed mold lines from Radius Rods, too. Also there were a couple of ejector pin marks to get rid of. Then the chrome plating was stripped off. In the next picture other radius rod is cleaned up, other one is just like I cut it from the parts tree. In the picture after that one, both of them are cleaned up. But when looking at the pics I noticed I missed two more ejector pin marks on those radius rods. They will be removed before painting as well.

I also found a suitable pair of front wheels to work on this. They are from Lindberg '64 Dodge 330 kit - The Ramchargers version. I stripped the chrome plating from them as well.

[Speedfreak]

The Fiat lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[slusher]

Nice work on the fuel lines Niko...

[10thumbs]

Looking good Niko!

Michael

[W-409]

Thanks Gene, Carl and Michael! Your kind comments are really appreciated!

Here is a little update on the progress. I shot some Primer on the Quick Change rear end. There was a highly visible ejector mark and a couple of other flaws that needed to be smoothed out. So I smoothed out that ejector pin mark using a file and sandpaper. After taking the picture I smoothed out all the rest mold problems and it looks really smooth now - ready for the second coat of Primer.

I painted wheels as well. Rear wheels are taken from this kit, front wheels are from Lindberg's '64 Dodge 330 (Ramchargers version). Both ended up being in chrome stripping first to remove that chrome plating and then I painted the wheels with Humbrol Metallic 53. Bolts were painted with Humbrol Polished Aluminum and center knobs from front wheels with Humbrol Gloss Black. I still need to add valve stems to the wheels and maybe slight black washing around the bolts and lug nuts. Rear tires are also from the kit, fronts are taken from AMT Firestone Tire Parts Pack, which means that white walls are pad printed.

Front axle was glued on place, too. Radius Rods were painted Humbrol Metallic 56 and first I glued that front axle on place. It fit really nicely. However, those radius rods were a pain to install as they were too long. After lots of filing to make them shorter, they fit better now. I need to do a couple of paint touchups here and there.

[Speedfreak]

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.