1935 Mercedes 500k (somewhat scratch built)

[Gumball]

So I got bored last night and started making a old school (30s-40s era) SOHC Inline 4 out of styreen, it was just for fun as I can't really do much right now because I'm waiting on some paint stripper I ordered in. Building this little 1/24th ish engine started to get me thinking about making a little straight 8 engine, this reminded me that I happened to have another one of my dad's old kits sitting on a display shelf. This kit I Remeber collecting dust for my intire life. As you can see in the pictures there's only a 4 piece body, and it's the only thing I can find that belongs to this kit. I have absolutely no idea what this thing is or who made it. But it was most likely made back in the mid-late 70s. I have a few different ideas on what to do with this thing, as I will have to build most of this from styreene. My ideas range from building this as a dragster, to a track beast, to building this to factory specifications, the last one being the hardest as I have no idea what kind of a car this is nore do I know the exact scale of the kit... But I like a challenge! Clearly my knolege of early 20s-40s era vehicles is a little lacking. Regardless at the end of the day I'm going to build this thing. I guess that makes this a question/build thread. I put a picture of the 4cyl I made so perhaps you guys could let me know if that engine (but 8cyl) would be exeptable in this vehicle. 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Gumball
Found out what kind of car it was

[Phildaupho]

It looks like a mid-1930's Mercedes to me. I found this photo of a Jo-Han kit that looks similar

[Gumball]

That looks just about spot on I'd say. After looking up the car a bit more I think I got a good idea for what I'm looking to do. I'm probably going to do a "what if" kinda car, as in what if mercades built the car for more of a track use, probably something with more of an inline 6, 7 or 8. 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Gumball

[Eric Macleod]

You definitely have a Johan Mercedes. If you need any spares I have a junkyard version with wheels, some chassis components and chrome bits I would be willing to contribute to the cause. I'll be watching this. 

[Jantrix]

It was originally a straight 8.

[89AKurt]

I could see kit bashing with a Mercedes F1 car, make a crazy hot rod.

[sjordan2]

16 hours ago, Phildaupho said:

It looks like a mid-1930's Mercedes to me. I found this photo of a Jo-Han kit that looks similar

That's the source of Gumball's kit. Probably the best kit Jo-Han made, along with their Special Roadster Limousine version. His is the reissue molded in red, which has more flash than the original shown here. The car it's based on is today languishing and rusting in the depths of an exotic car junkyard in East L.A.  The original 1:1 was a gift from MB to star race driver Carracciola. Contact me if you need reference.

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by sjordan2

[Gumball]

2 hours ago, Jantrix said:

It was originally a straight 8.

Wow that's perfect for what im already doing! My dad told me that when he originally built the kit it had a 4cyl in it as well as independent rear suspension. All I could find on google was the 4cyl so I figured that that was probably the only engine it came in. my original plan was to remake the 4cyl only longer (with perhaps some kind of 30s style supercharger or something performance wise of the like) its funny to see that not only did Mercedes make a straight 8 for the car, but its just a longer version of there 4cyl. kinda worked out eh?

[Gumball]

13 hours ago, Eric Macleod said:

You definitely have a Johan Mercedes. If you need any spares I have a junkyard version with wheels, some chassis components and chrome bits I would be willing to contribute to the cause. I'll be watching this. 

Thanks for the offer! I may need a grill and headlights, some interior parts, perhaps some stunning 30s style wheels to complement the beautiful bodywork. Although I will have to take a quick look around first, I think I have spotted the grill once before. I dont really know all that i need but ill keep in touch if i come across anything. once again I really appreciate the offer!

[Gumball]

1 hour ago, 89AKurt said:

I could see kit bashing with a Mercedes F1 car, make a crazy hot rod.

That sounds like a cool idea! Although I don't currently have the money neither the patience to wait a month or two to ship one in. On the flip side I happen to have a load of styrene calling my name, I can always scratch build any parts from a Mercedes F1 car given I know what they look like. After all I do enjoy an interesting challenge!

[sjordan2]

[Gumball]

33 minutes ago, sjordan2 said:

That's the source of Gumball's kit. Probably the best kit Jo-Han made, along with their Special Roadster Limousine version. His is the reissue molded in red, which has more flash than the original shown here. The car it's based on is today languishing and rusting in the depths of an exotic car junkyard in East L.A.  The original 1:1 was a gift from MB to star race driver Carracciola. Contact me if you need reference.

 

Wow its a beautiful car, sad to hear that the car is kinda forgotten to time. Reminds me of when I heard about the Peter Max VH1 giveaway, or that time I went to my local scrap yard to find out that some crazy person decided to scrap there car collection. sad to see that someone never got to enjoy those cars.

[Gumball]

Thanks for the reference pictures btw! looks like ill have to make some adjustments to my styrene block, now that I can see the bottom half of the engine. I don't know why but many of the pictures I find on google are of every other car Mercedes made around that time, i cant seem to find any pictures of the chassis from the 1935, only the 36. is there a difference between the two? Ill post some pictures of the block soon.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Gumball

[sjordan2]

This is the last known shot of the car as a manager from the Mercedes Classics center in Irvine, CA tried unsuccessfully to negotiate its purchase. Mercedes offered to totally restore the car at their cost without taking ownership, but the eccentric brothers who own the car refused.

[Gumball]

Man, that's disappointing for such a nice car.

[sjordan2]

[Gumball]

Here's the block so far, still needs some work. 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Gumball

[Gumball]

Wow! Thanks for the reference photos! hopefully the engine is mostly to scale although I think it needs to be a hint longer, the firewall does looks like it comes out a hint more, as well the grill on the original starts farther back coming to a point. let me know if it needs to be a bit longer, i'm kinda eyeballing it right now. Any suggestions for race car addons?

I found this image of a 37 Benz W125, i thought it might be interesting to make a rear end resembling this to fit under the 500K.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Gumball

[Gumball]

Here's some more picture of my progress on the block. It's hard to see in some of the pictures of there is any expansion pugs or anything like that, it seems mostly round and smooth. Hopefully im getting it right so far. 

[Gumball]

Some more progress

[NOBLNG]

Cool looking cars! Good luck with it. Here’s a couple pics of the engine from a Monogram 540K kit

[DonW]

16 hours ago, Gumball said:

Wow that's perfect for what im already doing! My dad told me that when he originally built the kit it had a 4cyl in it as well as independent rear suspension. All I could find on google was the 4cyl so I figured that that was probably the only engine it came in. my original plan was to remake the 4cyl only longer (with perhaps some kind of 30s style supercharger or something performance wise of the like) its funny to see that not only did Mercedes make a straight 8 for the car, but its just a longer version of there 4cyl. kinda worked out eh?

The 5OOK never had anything but a 5 litre straight eight engine, hence the name - the 540K had a 5.4 litre engine.

So where the 4 cyl. engine that had been in the car came from who knows?

Great project 

Cheers,

-Don.

[sjordan2]

If it's of any value, here are the instructions for the Special Roadster version of the kit. The mechanical parts and chassis should be the same.

https://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/johan-instructions/foreign--exotic/johan-1934-mercedes/cci0929200800001.html#media

[Gumball]

1 hour ago, sjordan2 said:

If it's of any value, here are the instructions for the Special Roadster version of the kit. The mechanical parts and chassis should be the same.

https://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/johan-instructions/foreign--exotic/johan-1934-mercedes/cci0929200800001.html#media

That helps a whole bunch thanks! once again I guess im changing a few things from what I currently made, good thing styrene is easy to work with, id lose my marbles if this was brass!

[Gumball]

7 hours ago, DonW said:

The 5OOK never had anything but a 5 litre straight eight engine, hence the name - the 540K had a 5.4 litre engine.

So where the 4 cyl. engine that had been in the car came from who knows?

Great project 

Cheers,

-Don.

My best guess to what happened is that my dad is just mistaken and it did indeed have a i8, after all he built the kit back when it was new. On the other hand, maybe some little green men could have come out of hiding to mess with his model kits? sadly right now this isn't a possibility to me, I left my tinfoil hat back at home...