Scale-Master

Thanks Noel, I think it was a really good kit in it's day, but it hasn't kept up with the times. I have no idea about GSL winners until they are announced, but if I get it done in less than three years I'll put in the show. I'll be there either way since I'm supposed to do a seminar on the Gulf Seven. After I made the front wheel, (different offset), I designed the outer rims even though they will made of aluminum on the finished project. This way I can use them for mocking up the car.

Thanks Kurt! It was nice to talk with you and your wife at the GSL.

I designed the wheels for it in SolidWorks. Because seven spokes… They will be a combination of 3D grown masters and machined aluminum parts.

More shimming and shoring up to try to true out the tub and body. I added several support ribs to the tub in the side pods and the rear of the side pods are now anchored to the tub with screws too.

A little sheet styrene and reshaping remedied most of the discrepancy at the cowl/hood panel line.

I procured what I need for the engine block over the weekend, but that facet of the project is not what has my attention at this time. Yes, symmetry is a problem on this one too. I reshaped the fender openings and flares to try to make them more even. The real cars were also hand-built and I've noticed have some issues in common with the kit... I agree on the idea of re-engineering the kits; too costly in all likelihood, but it sure would be cool to have fresh ones that fit like modern kits. There is a possibility of selling some of the parts, it depends on if there is a market for them. For example, I'm working on making new wheels, but they will be a custom variation of the 6 spoke Lola wheels that will use machined aluminum outer rims. Not much use for them without the metal parts and I the price I've have to charge to machine more is not going to be competitive.

Thanks Mike! I am designing several parts for this in SolidWorks. I have a printer that I'm working with for the 3D parts and he's in the 40 micron range right now. I'm planning to replace the engine with a more accurate SB Chevy. When I mounted the front roll bar to the cowl/windshield frame I paid attention to get a good fit for the windshield. But now the hood/fenders/nose doesn't fit very well to it. Not a surprise and an easy tradeoff. But it also turns out the dark blue plastic the body is molded in is really brittle. A goal from the start was to not have the body panels under tension when assembled, but now it is very important due to how many cracks and parts have broken under just modest stress. Brass reinforcements have been added along the way including the pins and machined tubes for mounting points at the cowl. To cut down on the load/stress I had to add mounting points to the front of the tub and hood too.

I sawed the oil and fuel fill columns off the tub. I doubt I'll reuse them; probably machine new ones, but they are not very visible with the dash installed either…

Until the doors are modified and installed the work on the bulkhead and engine cover is on hold. The front roll bar was made the same way as the rear one.

Thanks Chris, it is getting closer, but so many things have to match up that each step forward brings in more things that have to play along. I thinned the left inside of the bulkhead with a Dremel and hand sanding for continuity then added some .010 sheet styrene to bring it up to the engine cover. At this point I'm using the doors as guides to shape the body line in the bulkhead as well as the engine cover.

The right side of the bulkhead needed to be fattened up too, both to thicken the cross-section and to bring it up to the height of the engine cover. I used .018 sheet styrene.

Thanks Chris! I hand filed the opening and reshaped where it meets the bulkhead. Better, but still more fine tuning needed.

Now that the mating surfaces of the engine cover are getting close I noticed shapes at the bottom of the scoop openings in the engine cover are very different, and the one on the right does not match the contour of the bulkhead at all. At least the one on the left follows the bulkhead even if it doesn't align to it…

After dry-fitting the engine cover and massaging the fit, I averaged out most of the ill-fitting areas and then shimmed the bottom edges with a couple blocks of styrene that were shaped to fill the gaps.

To fix the discrepancies at the scoops the outside of the bulkhead was built up with sheet styrene. I also trued up where the bulkhead meets the side pods.