microwheel

Nice start Richard, looking forward to following along. I've seen some of your other builds and really like the subjects you choose.

Welcome to the site Dave and wanted to say, you picked a great subject to start out with.. Looking forward to watching your build.

Nice work so far Joe. Sorry I havent had alot of time to come on and check everyone's builds out the past few weeks.. Heck I'm not even getting the time to spend on my vette project as much as I would like lol. But I thought I would at least try to catch up on where you are at with yours tonight. I like how your clear coat came out and your exhaust is looking good as well. Keep up the great work my friend.

Thank ya kindly Joe Sir... I'm starting to tinker with this engine this morning.. Not very far along yet, just some basic assembly, parts clean up, test fitting and detail planning lol. When I get into it full bore I'll be posting more pics.

Thanks Monty, with all the personal issues going on around here, there isnt much choice but to work on this build slow and steady. The Agony on this build had come along many times, and had my share of redos so far lol.. But your right.. the Ecstasy when it's worked has been well worth it.

Next up I started work on the firewall. I painted the firewall Tamiya semi gloss black and the wire detail got dry brushed with a dark grey. I then drilled a hole in the brake booster for the brake booster vacuum line, and gave a paint coat of testors metalizer brass. The windshield wiper motor was done in metalizer aluminum. I gave the master brake cylinder a coat of metalizer gunmetal and left the master cylinder lid chrome plated. Next up was to make the brake booster assembly's brake line transition block for the brake lines.. I made this out of evergreen plastic strip and round rod drilled out for the brake lines and detail painted with testors steel and brass metalizers The transition to master cylinder lines were made from Model Car Garage scale detail brake line. I will add the transition block lower lines that run to the main brake lines transition block before the firewall gets installed into the car. And that's pretty much as far as I am for today. I'll post more as I get things done. Thanks for all the great comments everyone and for watching my build.

Hey thanks alot guys, Sorry updates are slow in coming, the vette construction is going alot slower than I had planned when I started out with it. But then I wasnt planning to do as much detail as I am, but you know how that goes.. these things speak to you as you go along lol. Finally got time to get a little bit more done last night and this morning. Finished up getting the front suspension brake and wheel work done.. It pretty much went the same way as the rear brake work so I didn't take pics of each step in the process since it was the same as the back brakes. But at least now one of the major conversions I wanted to do to the vette is pretty much done.. It now has 4 wheel disc brakes, possible front suspension, and rotating rear end half shafts. Here's a couple pics of the front suspension work.. sorry some may seem a little dark.. Lighting in the hobby room is a little crappy today. Sorry if things look a little dusty, it will all get a final clean up before final assembly. About all I got left to do on the front suspension is paint detail and install the steering gear box. That will get done over the weekend I hope, as well as getting started on the engine. Left turned Right turned.... Here is the final chassis mock up.. my plan is to wait till I mate the chassis, interior, and body together before permanently cementing the rear suspension into place.. that's why you dont see the rear shocks and some of the brake detail for the rear suspension isn't mated up . This is so I can make sure the rear wheels sit correctly to the body and adjust the rear end with shims if need be to get the correct centering of the rear wheels. It will make sense when I get that far. Continued in the following post.. ...

Hi John, I just wanted to say not bad for your first build. If you don't mind, I'd like to give a little advice on this kit in case you try to build another one. I just recently finished up building one of these myself, so maybe I can give you some info on your fit issues. To start with here is the link to my WIP topic on my build if you want to use it as a guide http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=94747 . And a link to my finished build in the under glass area http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=95918#entry1307641 . One thing you need to know about this kit, though it is a great kit and very well detailed, AMT molded it with very tight tolerances and if not assembled and adjusted carefully it will not go together easily.. The most common issues for fit are with the glass and dashboard and where they mate up during final assembly. And the next biggest issue with fit is not getting the interior side panels lined up perfect which tends to create a bulge and not allow the body to flex enough over them. These things can be corrected though. The body chassis and interior will fool you into thinking they fit perfect until you get everything painted and the sub assemblies put together and then install the glass.. and that's when you'll find that things dont fit anymore. If you build this kit again.. spend plenty of time cleaning up any flash and test fitting alot... and I mean alot.. once you get to the point of assembling the interior make sure the side panels mate to the chassis flush and even and also especially make sure the dash sits perfect in the side panel slots for it.. And here is the biggest thing to do for the fit issue.. Sand and trim about a 1/16 of a inch off along the entire firewall edge of the dash board.. and also before setting the glass in place sand the tops and bottom edges of the front and back rear glass so that you have just the bare minimum of a edge to catch the body to tack them into place. These mods to the dash and glass with allow the interior and chassis to sit up into their proper places. As for why the chassis and interior would not slide up into the body when you were assembling it.. you should have left the rear body panel off and slid the top edges of the interior side panels from the back of the car toward the front, starting at the point of where the rear body panel sits.. once the interior and chassis is in place, apply a small amount of glue with a toothpick around the inner area of the body where the rear body panel sits and then slide the rear panel up between the chassis and body from the bottom. Also the rear spoiler, the front and rear bumpers, and the tires and wheels should be installed after the body and chassis are glued together.. the Spoiler will flex on the body and pop loose otherwise when you try to flex the body and chassis together. And lastly, the radiator assembly was not molded evenly and tends to sit on a slight angle from one side to the other.. A lot of test fitting and sanding will help you correct this issue, which can keep the front inner fenders form sitting in their proper place if you don't correct it, and can even cause the model to not sit properly on all four wheels. Hope I was able to provide you with some helpful info if you decide to try this build again. Jim

Just plain outstanding scratch building skills.

Nice work and detailing so far. Your color choice is spot on.

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. 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. 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....

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

Your interior is coming along fantastic Geoff. I like your color choices. I know the feeling about trying to rearrange the hobby room. I have to do the same thing this coming spring. The wife and I are planning to gut this room out and completely redo it. When that happens, the projects will go on hold for a few weeks.

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.

Using the Model Car Garage stock brake rotors.. One was slipped on a wheel and rotor assembly for the back suspension. 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. 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. This is the mount after it was glued into place and the wheel removed. 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. 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. 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.

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. I started by roughly marking the evergreen tubing to the size I needed 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 I sanded it down just a tad bit more than flush to allow for the rotor thickness. Once the sanding was done, the hub ring was removed and the rotor was glued to it using medium CA glue. This is how it should look and fit when completed.. I had to make 4 of these for all 4 wheels Now it's time to move on to more work on the back brakes Continued in the following post..............

Thanks Art Thanks alot Joe and glad I could help ya out

Yup that's pretty much the same stuff as in the can.. sorry I had forgotten about that bottle lol. It should work fine.

Hi Joe. sorry I should have told you the type of tamiya pimer I use.. it's the type in the can.. the bottle is acrylic and wont stick as well.. the can is a lacquer base and is what I use. But if you use the acrylic and it works, let me know and I'll make a note for future use myself lol.

Nice work so far Joel, I've been following along with you an really enjoying your progress with this one. Love the color choice and the level of detail.

Actually you can paint teflon tape. just use Tamiya ultra fine white primer to coat it with first and then use any brand of black or grey paint you want over it. I've done it a ton of times. If you get the least little bit of cracking in it from bending it in place, just touch it up afterword with a fine tipped paint brush with your color of choice. By the way outstanding work so far Joe.

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. 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. I also added the brake line where it should run along the chassis side rail. 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. 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. That's pretty much it for the past few days. I hope to have more done to share in a after the weekend.

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

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.

Nice work on the wheels Fred, by the way, how's the duster coming along?