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67 Corvette Convertible Finished! Posted in Under Glass


microwheel

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Jim, as one of the resident 'Vette nuts on the board, I like a lot of what I'm seeing in this build. That said, I may have missed a post or something, but where did the idea for red spindles come from?

Looking forward to seeing this completed soon.

Hi Monty, and thanks. As for the red spindles, by the time the front end is permanently fixed in place, the spindles will be steel colored except for the very top and bottom of them as seen in the pic below. The reason why they arent done that way yet, is I still have to make the brake caliper mounts for the spindles yet and I want them steel as well, so the spindles will get done in steel when the caliper mounts get added, leaving just the top and bottom of the spindles red. This vette is going to be a 4 wheel disc brake and air condition optioned vette. Hope that helps ya understand where I'm going with it.

vf_05_02_14003-vi.jpg

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Morning Guys, Personal issues have had me on my toes the past couple of weeks so build time has been few and far between. I do try to get out to the workbench and fiddle with a few odds and ends as time allows.

That being said, I did get time last night and this morning to work on the e-brake setup for the corvette. I want to say right off the bat, excuse me if I dont listscale sizes of the materials I used. I'm not good at keeping track of stuff like that. But what I will do is try to use things in the pics to give you some idea of the sizes. If you compare tools and such to the materials for scale, it should give you a pretty good idea of the scale sizes of the materials.

Also this process may take a couple of posts to get everything in, so if you pop into this thread and don't see the completed panted e-brake system, check back in a few minutes to give me time to complete the next post.

These first 2 pics are reference pics to give you a idea of how the e-brake should pretty much look and the design I was going for.

ebrake-vi.jpg

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For the cables I will be using Sulky Metallic bead thread that can be bought at most craft stores. It's bright metallic in color but when painted makes for great brake cable. Sorry I forgot to include it in the pics of the materials used.

In this pic you will see the tools and materials I used to make the basic hardware for the E-brake system.

DSCF4698-vi.jpg

I used the smallest hole punch of a leather punch to make the pulley that mounts near the trans mount crossover. This was drilled out and a piece of craft wire was use to make the mounting bracket for it.

A piece of scale plug were was stripped of it's coating and wrapped around a straight pin to make the return spring that mounts on the back frame crossover.

DSCF4700-vi.jpg

A piece of evergreen plastic I beam was used to make 2 frame rail mounting brackets for the left and right sides. These were drilled out and shaped to sit in a angle in on the frame cross rail just in front of the rear suspension assembly.

DSCF4701-vi.jpg

Next three pieces of evergreen plastic round rod were cut to different lengths and drill through to make the cable and spring mounting point hardware., one of these will also get a piece of piano wire that will work as the spring's pull rod. This will make sense when you see the pic of everything mocked up.

DSCF4703-vi.jpg

Continued on in the following post..........

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Once all the hardware was made and shaped to size, It was all glued together with medium CA glue and then the thread was cut to length and glued to the parts to make the cables.. then all this was tacked into place on the chassis..

Here is the final result before it was detail painted. In this pic you can also see the Metallic thread used as the cable.

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Once it was given time for the glue to cure, everything was detail painted using various shades of model masters metalizer paints. The metallic thread also got a wash of steel metalizer to give it more of a cable look.

DSCF4695-vi.jpg

The flex cable from the mounting brackets to the rear brake assembles will get added once the rear suspension is added to the chassis.

Next process will be to start work on the rear main brake lines.

More to come as I get it done..... Thanks for looking guys...

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Amazing work Jim! The level of detail is mind blowing.

Thanks Jonathan, At first I wasn't gonna go with as much detail on this build as I had on my last couple builds, but the further into the build I get, the more it seems to dictate the amount of detail It wants. I hope to get the basic rear brake lines done in the next few days. I only had one set of disc brake rotors, so I had to order another set and they should be here any day now, once they do it should allow me to get most of the chassis work done. Then I can more on to the engine assembly.

Jim

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Just amazing Jim! I may give that a whirl on something. And you know how that goes, once you add it once you won't ever stop! Lol

Thanks Fred, Yup. always seems to go that way for me as well. I find a new cool trick that I try once and the next thing ya know, it ends up in alot of builds lol.

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I understand this......................completely!!!! Man that detail is beyond words Jim!

Thanks alot Joe, It sure seems to take awhile to get some of it the way I want it though.

Hi Jim,

This is wonderful modelling !!! Keep it up :):)

Randy

Thanks Randy, sorry the updates are slow in coming, I got alot on my plate so I'm not getting out on the workbench as much as I want to.

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Evening Guys, Sorry for the slow going in this build. We have alot going on the past few weeks and it's cut my build time way down.

I did manage to get some time to get a few things done the past few days.

I got the main rear suspension brake crossover line done, though I forgot to take pics of the the work in process, I do have some of the line installed on the chassis.

First here is a reference shot I found on how the brake line runs along the rear chassis cross frame. As well as the mounting brackets and transition connecting blocks.

rearbrakelines-vi.jpg

I managed to duplicate the look using scale brake line from the model car garage, and then scratch made the transition blocks and mounting brackets out of evergreen plastic stock. This was all detail painted and then the soft lines were made out of black scale plug wire, the soft lines will get mounted to the rear suspension and continue on to the brake calipers once I get that far.

DSCF4706-vi.jpg

I also added the brake line where it should run along the chassis side rail.

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I mocked up the rear suspension into place just to give you an idea of how it's gonna look. I still have to finish up the brake lines once I get the wheels and calipers done.

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I also took some time today to get the tires and wheels done. I used the kit supplied outer wheels and gave them a black wash. I then applied a light coat of model masters clear coat over the tires and applied the kit supplied red line decals. The decals were brushed with a coat of micro scale's micro sol to get the decals to lay nice, and once the decals dried the tires got a coat of model masters clear flat lacquer. The rim backings were something I found in my parts box that just seemed to look right when matched up to the tires and outer rims, so they were sprayed with model masters metalizer aluminum plate. The disc rotor in the pic is just sitting in place to give you a idea of how it will look with the wheels. I did have a little bit of outer edge wheel damage on one of the wheels when cutting it off the sprue, My sprue cutters are getting dull I guess. You can see it in the pic. It will get repaired with a little bit of 5 minute epoxy mixed with baking soda and covered with a tad bit of BMF before it goes on the car. The backs of the tires will also get a lite spray of clear flat to knock off the shine before the wheel parts get glued together.

DSCF4723-vi.jpg

That's pretty much it for the past few days. I hope to have more done to share in a after the weekend.

Edited by microwheel
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I'm sorry for this Jim................Which one of those is the real life photo??????????icon_wow20a_zpsv7z7bvbg.gif

BTW, thanks for the tip on the Tamiya primer over teflon tape. I used the Tamiya Gray primer in the bottle and it does stick. Looks like we're on our way to replicating mummified electrical harnesses with teflon tape after all.sSig_Muahaha_zps56835599.gif

Edited by mustang1989
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Well got some time this morning to play around some more with the vette rear brake system.

First up was to finish making all the brake rotors for the car. I needed to make sure they were going to sit on the reconfigured wheels and still rotate with the wheels and axles.

To do this I had to make lip over hubs for them. The pic below shows the materials and tools used to do this.

Large evergreen tubing for the slip hubs.. Model Car Garage photo etched brake rotors..A pencil, emery board and my exacto knife.

DSCF4738-vi.jpg

I started by roughly marking the evergreen tubing to the size I needed

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I sat the cut off piece of tubing over the wheel area, and using the emery board began sanding it down until it was flush with the axle mount on the back of the wheel

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I sanded it down just a tad bit more than flush to allow for the rotor thickness.

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Once the sanding was done, the hub ring was removed and the rotor was glued to it using medium CA glue.

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This is how it should look and fit when completed.. I had to make 4 of these for all 4 wheels

DSCF4736-vi.jpg

Now it's time to move on to more work on the back brakes

Continued in the following post..............

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Using the Model Car Garage stock brake rotors.. One was slipped on a wheel and rotor assembly for the back suspension.

DSCF4739-vi.jpg

Next the wheel was slipped on the rear suspension axle pin.. (nothing is glued on at this point). I configured the back caliper so that it had the correct rake angle for the rear brakes.

DSCF4743-vi.jpg

Next I made the rear caliper mounting bracket using a piece of evergreen strip plastic. I cut it on a slight angle and to the proper length to fit between the rear suspension and the caliper. This will give the Caliper something to mount to once I get that far.

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This is the mount after it was glued into place and the wheel removed.

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Next up was to make the soft brake line mounting bracket and fittings. These were made out of evergreen L shaped plastic and drilled out with a pin vice to accept the diameter of the brake lines. I also added a couple of small pieced of drilled out round rod to simulate fittings.

DSCF4754-vi.jpg

I detail painted the line mount and the caliper mount and then test fitted the suspension on the chassis, and here is how it will look. And though you cant see the painted caliper mount in the following pic, you can kinda see it in the pic above.

DSCF4756-vi.jpg

One side down and one to go, I'll clean up the paint on the line fitting once I get the other side made.

That's pretty much it for today guys.. thanks for checking out the build so far.

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Wow Jim, that is some very fine detailing! Love it.

Just a question. Are the 1:1 cars black underneath? One of the above pics shows a darker gray color along with black. The detailing would stand out even more if dark gray wouldn't they?

Michael

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Wow Jim, that is some very fine detailing! Love it.

Just a question. Are the 1:1 cars black underneath? One of the above pics shows a darker gray color along with black. The detailing would stand out even more if dark gray wouldn't they?

Michael

Hi Michael, The 1:1 cars had semi-gloss frames with the rest of the chassis being a dark grey fiberglass. The only thing I did in semi gloss black on the chassis was the frame work and spare tire area.. The rest of the chassis is a custom mixed dark grey. In some of the pics it looks almost flat black.. this is due to the lighting in my hobby room and the way the camera adjusts for it. Its cold and snowy up here in Northern Michigan otherwise I would take some outdoor shots of the chassis so you could see the difference in the color.

Edited by microwheel
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Morning everyone,

I got more work on the rear suspension disc brake detail the past few days.

I started by setting the brake calipers on the wheel rotors and then cemented the rear wheels to their axle pins. I then added a dab of CA glue to the scratch made rear caliper mounts and then sliding the rear calipers into place. I then made the rear caliper hardline brake lines that run from the calipers to the scratch made transition brackets on the trailing arms, in the same fashion as I did the chassis cross over hard line.The fittings for the lines where made from evergreen round rod and painted metalizer brass and then CA glued into position.

DSCF4760-vi.jpg

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Next up was to make the flex line for the Emergency brake cable ends.

I used a piece of black ignition wire, and a strand of copper wire pulled out of a old extension cord. I wrapped the copper strand around the black ignition wire giving myself plenty of extra. I made two of these one for each wheel.

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These were then painted with model masters metalizer magnesium and then a light coat of model masters lacquer semi gloss clear coat, and set aside to dry.

DSCF4771-vi.jpg

Once dry, these where then mounted in place with CA glue to each wheel and cut roughly to length.

DSCF4776-vi.jpg

Continued on in the following post.........

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The rear end suspension was mocked up into place and then the e-brake flex cables were bent to shape and cut to their final proper length.

DSCF4779-vi.jpg

DSCF4780-vi.jpg

Finally the rear brake fluid soft lines were bent and cut to length to meet at the trailing arm brackets and tie the rear brake line system together.

DSCF4788-vi.jpg

That pretty much finishes up the rear disc brake conversion and rear suspension detail work and only leaves tacking everything into place and adding the rear shocks.

Next up will be to finish up the front wheels and disc brakes detail and then it will be time to finally move on to working on the power plant and engine bay.

More to come as I get things done.. thanks for checking out my build so far....

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