dino246gt

Nice work so far, all very clean and neat, sweet!

Sure is a cool car, that rear fan is ridiculous! In a good way, wow. Can't wait to follow your build.

Even with all the mods I've made to the interior floor/engine bay, I just had to separate them! Because of all the changes, the kit will not assemble in the suggested sequence, so I've glued the engine bay piece to the body. That interior is questionable, but for starters, those little tabs must go. They're gone!

The side scoop is one of the most notable features of the 308, having them molded closed is not cool, not cool at all! Opening them up was simple starting with a small drill and working my way up to larger bits, then files. The lower rear valance also has an opening that is molded closed, well not any more! Also the engine cover hinge, seriously? That thing is ridiculous, but now it's gone!

Hey Dann, you know with this kind of build the progress pictures will show some rather sloppy work as it keeps getting re-engineered and re-worked but in the end I will clean up and touch up anything that shows. The build is so much fun, in the end it has to look good, but during, it might not look so nice. Anyway, thank you for your kind words, Ciao!

Hey Sonny, thanks for the encouragement, but it's the 360 V8, not the Enzo V12. It is set up like the 288 but unlike that fabulous model, the 288, I'm keeping the wheelbase the same. The 288 moved the rear wheel openings further back while keeping the body length the same. I AM using a bunch of Enzo parts though, maybe that's why you thought I was using that engine, no matter, thank you for your interest in this weird, unusual project!

Over the top detail Steve, WOW!

I removed the wheel centers and foiled the large nut then re-applied the centers, as it should've been done in the first place. It's a little thing but it makes a difference.

Now that the engine is glued in I can start to make the body fit! Of course I've been test fitting and modifying as I go, but now it's getting to the final tweaks for fit. That luggage compartment will have to go to make room for the Tubi muffler from the Tamiya 360 kit. The engine top just barely clears, thanks to some plastic thinning! I want the stock 308 engine lid to fit, and it will!

I have the engine glued to the rear sub-frame with nuts and bolts, fake nuts and bolts, it's still glued together. Here's how the muffler and cats look installed. I'll paint those side brackets semi-gloss black acrylic by brush. Wheels and tires are not yet attached.

I used the Revell Enzo parts kit's axle shafts, but to fit them I had to cut off the boots and drill them to slip over the axle so I could put one end to the suspension then slide the boot to the transaxle. Then the muffler, it was open at the bottom so were the cats, so I filled them in, made some side brackets and painted it. I'm not that good at heat staining exhausts but for as much as can be seen, it'll do.

Man that looks great! I used to have a real one:

Greg that houndstooth pattern looks great in that Jeep pickup! Also in your Ford pickup, a very good tip but where can I find Washi tape in Winnipeg?

I hope you plan to drill out those and use clear lenses? It's just a pet peeve of mine. Of course you don't have to, it's your build! I'm liking it!

The Tamiya 360 kit exhaust headers are just too wide to fit the narrower 308 so I found some 3D big block headers that needed cutting to fit. I'll need to find headers for that big block Chevy motor when I decide to use it on another project. So for this project block huggers were made to fit, and now I can think about extending pipes up and over the half shafts to the pair of cats! You can see how tight the fit will be. Ahead of the wheel tubs there will be twin fuel tanks as the 308 comes with, but the kit doesn't so I'll scratch build those, eventually!

I want a removable panel along the bottom to access the coolant lines and clutch and throttle cables, so a sheet of .010 Evergreen was glued on, primed and painted. Then I made the rear crossmember and started making mounts for the transaxle.

Now I can start the difficult stuff! I started the rear lower frame with Evergreen Styrene, tubing and sheets. Each motor mount is 3 pieces, 3 tiny pieces, LOL After filling in the wheel tubs, I cut out enough for axle half shafts, yet to be sourced! I cut up some Revell Enzo shocks ($4 parts kit had two sets) and decided to do a "Countach-ish" set up with 2 shocks per rear wheel. It's slow going now though, however I hope to have the rear suspension finished soon so I can airbrush the chassis , mount the engine and start the upper rear frame.

WOW!

I'm really diggin' that old Dodge 4X4 pickup!

Remember when I said I have to finish the wheel/tire/brake combo before I can do anything with the engine/rear suspension/sub-frame? So I placed the rear wheel/tire/brakes in the body and cut a temporary axle the right width so I can start figuring out what to do next! I drilled through the transaxle and test fitted. I found that I needed more room at the rear. For the front of the engine, I also needed more room, and 308s access the engine from the passenger side rear wheel opening, but the 360 needs access behind the seats. I removed the required amount of plastic for that access panel. So now I have the engine where I want it but it's just floating in mid-air! Stay tuned for some sub-frame fabrication!

I ground the inside of the front wheel lips to get the plastic as thin as possible to get the front wheels to sit like this. I started to build the Tamiya 360 engine by airbrushing Alclad Aluminum and drilled for coil pack wires. TIP: Whenever possible, drill all the way through, then you can thread ONE wire through from behind to look like TWO wires. They won't come loose when you pull on them AND....... no glue showing from the top.

The kit has the rear window sitting on the interior package shelf, but behind the glass should be part of the body. So I cut away part of that interior tub and made a styrene replacement to be attached to the body. Then I made some little headliner ends in the rear butresses, as the kit was just empty. I removed the molded on emblems as I have these dry transfers to use instead, Ciao!

I know there's one with a Honda 4 cylinder engine that really rocks! I'm keeping my real one factory correct though, I've had it for 16 years.

I got these tires, and I had these large resin brakes, but I needed to adapt them to my kit bashed spindles, so some old MRC bits came to the rescue. I modified stir sticks to hold the calipers for airbrushing. I have these photo-etched rotor faces left over from my Aston Martin build but the centers need to be opened up, and that was difficult, took about an hour each! I use these metal valve stems, they're cheap and I bought 10 sets so shipping was also reasonable. I'll have to make some parking brakes for the rears, nothing fancy, just something, LOL. I'll glue the brakes to the rims because I have to figure out where to mount the new transaxle (Tamiya 360 Modena) and how to mount it! Ciao for now.

Something I've had in the works for over a decade!