Reo Gold Comet

[Chariots of Fire]

The construction of the doors for the body is now done.  Each one is hinged and with a bit of effort I'll add some tiny magnets to each one to keep them closed.  I'll have to craft an opener for them after the compartment bottoms are added as they are then completely closed.  Got some equipment to stow in them.

Openings are all cut the doors are trimmed to fit.  The small door on the end is made slightly different with simple notches to put the stainless pin after painting.  Once in place the small cuts will be filled in to hide the pin.  On the right is the stack of small magnets that I'll use for holding the doors closed.  They are really strong for their size.  Across the top of each opening is a strip of brass angle to act as a drip edge.

The doors open easily on the tubing and pin hinges.  The trick will be to keep them opening freely after painting the body.  I'll have to do it in steps, first by painting the body, fitting the unpainted doors and then again after the doors are painted.  I'm expecting that there will have to be some sanding to shrink the doors down a bit so they will not bind.

All the doors are open.  Don Mills Models square slam locks will fill the openings in the doors in the rear and in the front of each double door at the front of the body.

[Mopar - D]

Nice progress on your doors Charles. 

[gotnitro?]

Stellar work as always. ! Your builds definitely inspire me to try new things 

[Chariots of Fire]

Just when you think you have things under control you decide to add primer and this is the result.  I washed the body in soap and water to get all of the finger prints and dirt and dust off.  Primer went on great.  But there is a nice line just above the body windows that needs filling and the corner is not round.  Primer brings out all of the little flaws that you think are not there!  And there's a spot on top of the rear fender flair that needs attention!😆

Edited March 10, 2021 by Chariots of Fire

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Looks great! I’m sure that you will find more flaws with the first coat of primer on one of my builds than you will on one of yours.😀

[Chariots of Fire]

I tried very hard to make sure the joints are well filled in but they just don't show up sometimes.  I did something else with this build as well.  Inside the body at the corners I poured in some two part resin and let it set.  It made all of the inside corners nice and smooth and sealed up a lot of places besides.  In the photo below on the right inside those upper corners are nicely rounded with resin.

[Mopar - D]

Nice progress Charles. 

[Chariots of Fire]

The body work is about done.  Little places that needed touchup have been taken care of.  First coat of primer is on the cab and hood.  The blue panel at the right is what the truck color will be.  I found a nice shade of blue at Auto Zone that is intended as engine paint but it is close to the actual color on the real truck.  It goes on slick.  Next up is to fit the small magnets in place on the compartment doors and give them a coat of primer.

[Mopar - D]

Charles your morning right along with this one looks awesome. 

[Kromolly]

Looking great.  Fun to watch your progress.  I am impressed with the quality of your work and the obvious thorough planning you do prior to launching into a project.  Just outstanding.

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Charles, you are the master!

[HJK]

Hello Charles, what else can I do than joining the chorus of praise of all the other forum members. And you absolutely deserve that. I can't remember any built model I followed here in the forum that wasn't a stunning piece of art. Do I feel a tiny little sting of jealousy? Hmm,......yes! But it's just wonderful to follow your WIPs and see the finished builds. And I learned a lot from you. But there are still some questions. For example, how did you do the rubber beads around the window openings of the body above the compartments? Thanks very much, Juergen

[Bronzekeg]

looking great.

[Biggu]

MASTER CLASS in every respect... this is just plain awesome  !!

Jeff

[Chariots of Fire]

Hello, Juergen:   Will try and explain.  Once the window was opened up I placed a piece of 0.020 thick sheet stock on the inside and traced the opening.   While it was on the inside I drew pencil marks on the stock and a similar mark on the outside on the body to give me positive location points.   Then I drew concentric lines around the outside the thickness of what I wanted the gasket to be and trimmed it to shape.  After shaping I rounded off the outside edges and sanded them smooth.  Using the pencil locator lines, the gasket is placed on the body and glued all around the outside.  See the photo below.  When the glue was set I cut out the inside being careful to follow the interior lines and keeping them parallel to the outside.   This process leaves a small ledge on the inside of the gasket for the clear window glass to rest against.  I use 5 minute epoxy to set them in place  but allowing the epoxy to set up until it is tacky before I do.  Doing this eliminates the chance of the epoxy running onto the clear window glass.  Hope this helps.

[leafsprings]

4 hours ago, Biggu said:

MASTER CLASS in every respect... this is just plain awesome  !!

Jeff

X2!

[gotnitro?]

Very nice! 

[redneckrigger]

Utterly fantastic work Charles. Haven't had much time for anything these days, but whenever I can, I MAKE the time to check your posts out. You teach others so well, for example, on the window gaskets. It works perfectly, and saved me many hours of hair pulling on the Galion crane I built. Thank you, as always for sharing so much!

[HJK]

Charles,  thank you so much for the explanation on the window gaskets. Tom Decker is right. Your way to explain is excellent and very good to understand. Although I'm not sure whether I'm enough a craftsman to perform the gaskets this way but I nevertheless will certainly try that on a next project. In the end I can't think of a better way to do it, so again thanks very much again. Juergen 

[Chariots of Fire]

This has been paint week.  I say week because it has taken me all week to get it somewhere near right!  My work area is very dry and as a result static electricity really builds up.  So after each sanding the parts had to be scrubbed with detergent and allowed to air dry.  Then I could paint the pieces.  

One of the things that always crops up when doing models with opening doors is that paint builds up around the edges and makes it difficult to put the parts back together.  I found a solution for the compartment doors that helped some.  I sanded the paint off the brass tubing used as the hinge.  Using a blue magic marker I "repainted" the tubing to color it with a thin film of color.  This made it possible to open and close the doors without rubbing the paint off the hinge point.

And I got a bit of chrome work done as well.  I used a 2mm Molotow pen to do the headlight trim rings but not the REO letters or hood ornament.  Instead I dropped a blob of the Molotow paint on a piece of paper and used a fine brush to apply it.  The brush works really well.  The two bars at the bottom of the hood were done with the pen.

[Chariots of Fire]

Here's what the magnets look like.  Those are half inch long pins in the photo and a stack of the magnets to the right.  I couldn't get the two individual ones closer without them snapping together!  In the second photo you can see one of the magnets that have been embedded in the edge of the door.

[Mopar - D]

Nice painting Charles those Molotow pens are awesome. 

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Very interesting project.

[Chariots of Fire]

Just a little bit more done.  Got some decal work done on the hood and it is now attached to the firewall.  Dash is finished and awaiting installation.  After that is done the steering wheel, shift lever, brake lever, pedals etc will be done.  The seat still needs some work but it has been primed and is ready for final paint.  Lots of small detail stuff from now on.

[Mopar - D]

Charles your details are always very interesting to watch to see what you do. Looking forward to seeing more progress.