LR3

I mocked up the interior sub-assembly using masking tape to ensure all the bent surfaces fit as prescribed. This allowed me to spot any areas that might need adjustment. As the inside of the cockpit will be black, I masked off mating areas so I would have metal-to-metal surfaces for gluing. The rest of the pictures are the mounting sequence. It is much easier to use thick CA glue and a kicker spray rather then thin CA which can lock up before you have pieces properly aligned. Note: there are locating pins on the chassis floor and cockpit back brace. They can just be seen in the pictures. These are to be sanded down so they will barely show when the metal is in place. The nice thing is they will be white after sanding which helps them to be seen when placing the metal. I also think you might want to glue in the rear drive shaft universal joint at this time. The drive tunnel is long and thin and the drive shaft rides above the rear frame cross member. I managed to install it after mounting the engine much later in the build but it was a fiddly job.

The production sheet metal kit now includes a good-sized piece of extra metal for experimentation or if a part should be accidentally trashed, a new part can be produced with a pair of scissors. I made a new tunnel side with this pair of hobby scissors. The sheet metal parts have rough edges, some more than others. Here is an example of a worst case. The edge can be cleaned up with a micro file by filing the edges at an angle. It only takes a few seconds per part. The parts drawings are clear and detailed as to where to bend. Just to review: When you start to bend the parts, you will find that you get a much cleaner and sharper bend if you score the outside of the bend with an exacto knife. I found it important to double-check which side of a part to scribe (remember if you scribe both sides of a part accidentally it will probably break with a 90 degree bend.) I then marked front or back on the drawing before bending because at my age I don't remember things very long. Most of the scribe lines will be on the back of the part but as there are tabs it is easy to see where they go. Having a fine point sharpie available for marking helps where there is no tab for reference like in the back mid step of the drawing above. See below the actual step. On this particular part there is a bend sequence. It is best to bend the rear step before bending the tabs. I will photograph each bent part for clarity. There is a gray scale image page by each drawing but some of the gray scale images are hard to decipher.

Time to set the body aside and begin the final sheet metal assembly. I am hoping somehow I can develop a hood hinge in the mean time. The radiator is close to the hood where a hinge would normally mount so the hinge arms may be restricted. We will know more after the sheet metal is installed. The body may have more clearance then. I tried a hinge with small displacement but the rain gutter interfered with the front of the hood. The solution may be to have a much narrower hinge or to have longitudinal arms attaching the hood though styrene tubes so the hood can slide back as it is opened then slide forward to rest on the body in its final position.

I have pretty much finished cutting and sanding the body but I will not prime it until the new sheet metal arrives. I found it critical to leave a little meat on all the parts then use sanding boards to adjust the final fit. In the mean time I can pass on these suggestions from Tim about handling the fiberglass body: "The big thing is to leave a portion of the "cut away" section at the top of the door opening. If you cut this part away the body will become very weak at the door opening. Leave this reinforcing piece in place while finishing the body and remove it only when you are about to mount the body to frame for the last time. I found that using the fiber reinforced dremel cutting wheels works good for cutting fiberglass. Cut out the scrap sections with the cutoff wheel, leaving about 1/16" excess from the final body. Then come back with a dremel sanding drum and clean up the 1/16" excess you left. Use a good coarse wheel and it should eat through the glass pretty quick. Lastly, when you get everything sanded back to the final body, tilt your dremel and grind away the glass at an angle under the final body panel. Beveling this "meat" of the fiberglass back will help hide the thickness of the glass from the final product. It will make the body appear thinner at the body edges where the observer will be able to see the thickness". (Note: From my last post you can see I left a lot more meat which is why I wound up in a cloud of dust grinding it away.) "Lastly, flip the body over and with a flat sanding board, bevel back the bottom edge of the "meat" at the very bottom body line. This is important because it will aid in getting the body to fit over the cowl hoop. Sand these bottom edges back till they are pretty much a knife-edge at the finished body surface at the bottom edge. Don't sand away anything that is in grey gelcoat, just the raw fiberglass." I was chicken to sand the bottom to a knife-edge. We will see later if that is really necessary. The Madd Fabricator offered this suggestion for the smaller openings: "As for the air duct openings use a drill and very carefully open them up and then use a round fine toothed file, and sand paper wrapped around a dowel rod or stick that's just slightly smaller than the opening, to finish them off." One area the needs special attention is the side vent. Grinding to the edge of the opening makes a pretty good vent but to be perfect one might want to scribe inside the kit RP material lover holder and sand to that mark. I couldn't wait to try the body on the chassis. Things might look a little wobbly as everything is just pushed together.

Jumping right in I sanded down the mold lines. Some show a very slight indentation that I will to smooth over later. I moved a little too quickly on the trunk lid. I started beveling the underside edge and sanding at the front before fitting the lid at the back. I should have seated the rear of the lid first and moved up from there due to the truncated shape. Right now the lid sits a little low at the front left because I sanded too much off the underside, I will build up the underside edge to raise it back up. I also have a little more gap at the sides than I should have because I started fitting from the wider front. As the rear was seated the lid moved forward and the narrower rear edges moved into a slightly wider area. The key here is to sand the inside of the lid at the back until it seats properly then move forward sanding the sides and finally sand the front of the lid. As can be seen in the photos there is a cast in rain gutter (lip) around the openings, these could also be sanded down a little in areas where the lid needs to adjusted. Being new at this I had been apprehensive of cutting out the required body areas so worked on the trunk lid and hood first. I found it really is easier to work everything once the body is cut out. I made rough cuts with a Dremel. Later I will use the Dremel as a grinding tool to clean up the edges. Using safety glasses and a dust mask here is important. Some fiberglass bits do fly around when using a cutting disk. Don dropped me a note indicating he would have used a jewelers saw for cutting out these sections. I was able to do a better job of fitting the trunk deck and hood now that I had access to both sides of the parts when positioning.

Thanks for that information. When I paint the final sheet metal I will paint the foot boxes accordingly and not paint the upper sides of the trunk.

The fiberglass body arrived today! I have no experience with fiberglass so this will be a learning process. Hope I can keep the body looking this good when I have finished! The fiberglass finish is very smooth and true. There are no ripples on the surface as you can tell from the light reflection lines. The body is very lightweight and stiff. There will be a minimum of sanding required except where the panels are cut out. So far the kit consists of the body, hood, trunk, doors and their insides; the light bezels, lenses, etc, will follow later. I see no areas requiring putty. Looks like the only work to be done is to sand the front and back mold lines (barely visible), cut out the openings and prime for color. The 427 body compared to a Deuce.

Don has a sense of humor saying "If you could (being the body is fiberglass), perhaps pass a few basic (do's & don'ts) finishing tips on to the members that have never worked with a glass body before." seeing as I have never dealt with either fiberglass or sheet metal before but I will have some tips from the Madd Fabricator to pass on. As far as the sheet metal goes there has been a delay because when the prototype body met the prototype chassis (including sheet metal) there was some interference as one might expect with the body and chassis being developed in different locals. A new set of sheet metal was required and some body details were reworked. The new body is scheduled to arrive early next week and I will post pictures. The new sheet metal will arrive soon also. Knowing there would be new sheet metal I chose to bend what I had as a learning process. Most of the parts were straightforward but a few are tricky and the bends need to be made in a certain sequence. I also learned it is prudent to tape parts together as you go rather than glue each part as you finish. All this will be covered as I work with and post about the new metal. The pictured parts have some gaps as the tape let some pieces move around when handled but by using tape you do get a feel for adjusting bend angles as sub-assemblies go together.

Really wonderful build sequence pictures. With those pictures you should maybe post your plan drawings. I get the feeling others may want to try build something like this. It will make an outstanding display model even without the working water hose, etc.

The plug wires were a jumble because I used telephone wire. Multi strand wire is too stiff and difficult to lay down. I finally found some single strand wire that would allow me to group the plug wires more realistically. The red telephone wire was so stiff I would dislodge one end or the other when I tried to lay the wires together. The single strand wire was much more flexible.

The sheet metal panels are thin aluminum allowing them to be easily bent and shaped. Use care when cleaning or bending the aluminum as it can be easily scratched. The panels can be cleaned with paint thinner or mineral spirits. Be aware that while cleaning if your cleaning cloth accidentally catches an edge or corner it will bend the material. Accidental bends are almost impossible to remove completely. Key tools are a pair of duck billed pliers, a door hinge, metal ruler, x-acto knife or scribe, small vice or C clamps, pencil and possibly a triangle and protractor to help visualize angles by drawing them out. If confused about the angles the patterns could be transferred to thin card stock and a mock-up made before bending the aluminum. The door hinge acts as a poor man's brake held either in the vise or C clamps. Masking tape or similar on the surface of the pliers and vice jaws will help prevent scratching or marring. The drawings show where to scribe bend lines and the angle of the bend. The arrows on the assembly sheet indicate the direction of the bend where there might be confusion. Generally bends will be 90 degrees in the obvious direction. The scribe line must be on the backside of a bend. Scribe lightly as a deep cut might break the material during the bending process. The scribed line produces a clean sharp bend edge. If a mistake is made and it is required to scribe the other side for the same line, the odds are the material will break away when bent. One thing that is very important on making these bends is that you need to start with the internal bends first and work your way out to the edges. You need to bend the stair step in the pan before you bend the perimeter flanges. If you don't, the perimeter bends get in the way of making the stair step bends. A second set of drawings is provided to cut out and use as a pattern to locate bend lines. Do not use high tack tape to affix the pattern to the aluminum. Scotch tape will bond too tightly to the metal, be very difficult to remove and in most cases leave a residue. If one feels the pattern would be more effective taped to the metal use low tack masking or blue painter's tape available at most hardware stores, tape sparingly. Actually it is best if the pattern is loose as some items require some lines on alternate sides depending on the bend direction. The bend lines for tabs could be drawn on the aluminum with a soft lead pencil before scribing. At times you may find it's beneficial to fold the paper pattern first to insure you know how the bends interact. One thing that is really nice about this metal is that it can be easily cut with a pair of scissors. Since the modeler already has patterns included in the instruction manual, all they need to do if they damage a part, is to go to Lowes, or any hardware store that sells roofing materials, purchase some aluminum flashing that is about .007" thick and cut out a new part using scissor and/or and x-acto knife. I wont say it will be the easiest thing to do but I am sure it is possible. Although a natural aluminum cockpit and trunk will look really nice, the real cars had the metal painted. To get the natural aluminum finish the modeler will have to work very carefully and make sure that all seams are completely closed up. If they decide to paint the metal then they should use some sort of "seam sealer" just like what the real cars would have had. I think this could be simulated by using water-soluble kids school glue or similar. The modeler could fill any cracks and voids with this, let it dry, and then paint the panels.

Steps 17 and 18 are used to install the radiator and drive train then check the assemblies for fit before starting on the sheet metal. The engine is not permanently mounted at this time; just positioned to be sure there are appropriate clearances. It is said the fit between the sheet metal and engine is very tight and further adjustments might be needed later.

Step 16 mates the transmission/bell housing to the motor and adds the exhaust manifold. This is also a good time to add finishing details like the wiring and transmission arms.

Steps 14 and 15 assemble the bell housing/transmission and starter. The transmission mount has an offset. Be sure the holes in the bottom of the mount are facing forward.

Steps 11, 12 and 13 add the rest of the engine components. There will be a remote oil filter added shortly. There will also be an option for an oil cooler. If the cooler is desired one oil line will go to the cooler first, if no cooler is desired both lines will go straight to the filter. A V belt is in the works to replace the black tape simulating a belt.

Step 10 adds the manifold, distributor and carburetor to the block. If the manifold is being bolted down instead of glued down, be sure to bolt the manifold before attaching the carburetor and distributor. Something I forgot to do while dealing with two different type assemblies. I added brass fuel inlet blocking bolts, distributor wire boots and throttle linkage (the boots and rod end are from RB Motion.) The fuel line to the carburetor distribution will be flex (the AN fittings are from RB motion, the elbow and T fittings are just styrene tube.) The competition manifold features extremely detailed Weber carburetors. I don't have the talent yet to work out the fuel distribution or throttle linkage at this time. Here is a reference picture of a Weber layout.

Not being a mechanic I forgot all about spark plugs until I found the next step included the distributor. I looked back at the head and found there were dimples cast in to show where to drill for spark plugs. Be sure to accomplish this before attaching the head as it is difficult to drill them after assembly. The plugs should reside at about 35 degrees or so based on a reference photo. The hole size is not specified because 1/8 after market plugs have different base sizes depending on the vendor.

Step 9 of the instructions covers the initial assembly of the block. There will be two production engine offerings: a street version and a competition version. This version of the engine was done in the original RP material, the parts that will be cast in resin are in progress . The block, bell housing and transmission will be RP but the smaller parts will be resin. The block only needs sanding where there are machined surfaces. I lightly sanded the RP heads and inlet manifolds as reference pictures seem to show those castings have finer grain finish than the block. I sanded the pan and valve covers to a smooth surface. The quarter is for size comparison. The drawing details what size bolts are required and the pilot holes are indicated on the parts. Mating holes always line up perfectly from the CAD drawings so individual parts can be drilled knowing the bolts will fit when the parts are assembled. But if you sand too aggressively as I did on the front of the block you can always drill through the mating part as a pattern. Most of the surfaces that require drilling will have an opposing surface for a base making it easy to drill bolt holes but the competition manifold has the carburetor mounts canted slightly requiring the manifold to be tilted a bit. These are the pan, manifold and valve covers for the competition engine. I have just placed the parts on the block for photos as I want to show how each will look. When I finish with the carburetors I will bolt the engine assembly together in the street version.

Assembly of the rear end and spindles completes the frame part of the chassis. In the instructions there is a detail on sheet (step) 7 to pay close attention to. The rear of the frame is at an angle and the lower A arm end needs to have the mounting hole enlarged slightly as the 0-80 bolt goes through at an angle. The arm goes between the two brackets. Tim used a #54 drill for the brackets and just threaded the bolt right into the forward most bracket. I did it the hard way. One of the nice things about this model is the mechanical assembly. This is another area where I had jumped into assembly before the instructions were available and I had mistakenly mounted the arm between the last bracket and the tube frame. Just another time it was nice to take something apart that is bolted instead of glued. The flex brake lines are not part of the kit but I couldn't just leave the calipers hanging out there. Once the wheels and body are attached they will never be seen again. Tim has helped me a number of times with explanations of the mechanics of this model. For instance: There are basically 3 sizes of bolts/nuts used in automotive applications. They are ½", 3/8", and ¼" bolts/nuts (in 1:1 scale). In 1/8th scale these equate to 000-120, 00-90 and 0-80. Due to availability we are substituting 1mm for the 000-120. The TDR 427 Roadster chassis was designed to take 0-80 bolts at all major suspension locations. Two lengths of bolts are required to assemble the chassis, they are ½" long and ¾" long. Some cutting will be required on some bolts but by getting the two sizes this cutting will be minimized. Also, a decision has to be made about the type of head on the bolt (hex or Allen) and the material ( brass or steel). Brass might have to be nickel plated or blackened. I stuck with hex head and found problems more than once due to lack of a ¾" length in hex. There are no 3/4" 0-80 hex bolts, only Allen head. There also were areas where an 0-80 wrench did not have room to seat a bolt. Allen head, at least in some places, might be the way to go. Bolt vendors are www.scalemotorcars, www.mcmaster, www.jimorrisco and www.scalehardware. Although Scalehardware does not list them, he will nickel plate his brass 0-80 and 00-90 bolts free of charge when asked so he can supply all the hex head requirements plus wrenches to fit all.

The instruction manual in Step 6 calls for assembling the rear drive. The differential provided by the Madd Fabricattor is resin. He suggests the following finish process to insure removal of the mold release: Initially clean the parts before you primer them with an automotive prep cleaner, which is supposed to remove any wax, silicone, or the like. Then wash the parts in a mild dish washing detergent, rinse well, and let air dry. It might be well to scuff sand the parts with 360 or 400 grit wet/dry sand paper. Primer the parts using a good lacquer based high fill sandable primer such as Dupli-Color High Fill. Once the primer is thoroughly dry any tiny defects can be handled with putty like 3M Bondo, a professional glazing and spot putty. The axles are a series of universals. Note: Tim advises that the universals on the two half shafts should be 90 degrees apart from each other rather than as I pictured them. This is the way the real drive shafts are made, it gets rid of some weird harmonic vibrations. I had rushed ahead before receiving the instructions so the mounted assembly is a little further along than the drawing.

Posting has slowed while waiting for the resin differential but Tim sent me a draft copy of the manual. It is only 100 pages so far; about 1/3rd being B sized drawings. It is a mind-blowing manual. How he conjured up the individual parts, sized and mentally fitted them together to complete the car as a whole is beyond me. I will post individual pages as I progress through the steps. Just as an example I picked future step 28 to show here. It consists of a B sized drawing then 4 pages showing how to bend the two foot boxes for the interior of the cockpit. The aluminum pieces are to be bonded together with epoxy or possibly CA glue. I am not sure how much of the aluminum I will paint if any. I get the feeling the aluminum will look quite sharp surrounding other painted parts like the motor, radiator, master cylinders, etc. Along with the manual he sent about 50 dozen aluminum parts just to scare me. In the back of the manual is a second copy of all the aluminum patterns. This second copy will be used to cut out and tape directly on the metal part to be bent. I will use the lines on the paper cutout to guide in scoring the backside of the bend with an exacto knife and the actual bending of the parts with pliers. This is also a good place to mention tools that might not be in your arsenal. One might need to purchase a pair of "duck billed" smooth jaw, needle nose pliers. These pliers will be used like a sheet metal brake to bend the sheet metal parts. The duck bill is necessary because this will give you a nice square and straight tip to bend the small taps and the smooth jaw is needed to keep from marring the aluminum surfaces during the bending process. Also there are over 100 places where you can use 1mm bolts for detailing so one might want to consider purchasing a 1.4mm wrench (Flats are 1.4mm). 00-90 and 0-80 wrenches are handy too.

Adding the fan motors, fan blades and the sway bar is step 5. The fan motors are resin with detailed holes for connector posts. I added 0.08 mm bolts for the wiring because this will be seen through the front grill opening. The fan blades are cut out of thin aluminum sheet. They can just be glued to the motor shaft or a hole can be drilled for a 1mm bolt. I used a #38 drill. I then shaped the blades over a dowel and gave them a gentle bend. The sway bar completed the activity so far. It is attached to the radiator frame with 00-90 bolts and then the radiator frame is attached to the chassis frame. The sway bar in the real world would have an articulated connection to the front spindle assembly. In the 1/8th world the best we can do is simulate the attachment with a 0-80 bolt that just reaches into the recess hole in the bottom A arm. This hole should be drilled out with 1/16th drill but not penetrate the top surface of the A arm. We don't want a solid connection as we want to be sure of the ride height when we attach the wheels. We may need to slightly modify the coil spring lengths.

The Rack and Pinion steering assembly and installation is Step 4. The parts consist of the rack and pinion mechanism, the outer rod ends and the steering arms plus modeler supplied 0.1" styrene rod cut to the length required to attach the rod ends. You can see the disadvantage of jumping ahead of the instructions when accessing the mounting bolts behind the radiator frame. The bolts will be a press fit as there is no room for a wrench at the bolt head and no room for nuts on the bottom due to bolts proximity to the frame braces. The steering arms are bolted to the spindle assembly bracket with 00-90 bolts as shown in Step 3.

Plans – who needs plans? TDR has started a complete and detailed set of instructions for the project and I have found it is important to follow the sequence or you will find real interference problems when trying to get to certain bolt or assembly areas. This is a "shake down" build as TDR is looking for all the pit falls that a modeler may fall into in an effort to steer them clear of these problems such as attaching the radiator mount before installing the front spindle assemblies. I am one of the designated pioneers and certainly not as experienced as many on this site. Any suggestions or comments from other members would certainly be appreciated by TDR. The nice thing about a bolt together mechanical build is the ability to regroup so even though I had forged ahead building out of sequence I can regroup by unbolting areas where I went astray. I just can't unglue the radiator frame from the chassis frame or the pedal assembly. The radiator frame makes it difficult to get at the front spindle assembly mounting bolts but the attaching the pedal assembly will create a problem later with the aluminum pedal box. I had used 1 mm bolts (Scale ¼" for 1:1) to attach all the brake calipers and the two steering brackets. Tim pointed out the proper scale bolt should have been 00-90 (Scale 3/8" for 1:1) as pictured following the three plans. Disassembly and rebuild was no problem. Here are plan sheets 1 through 3.

The front spindle assembly consists of the spindle, rotor, caliper and steering bracket. There is a subtle difference in the size of the rotors. The front spindle uses the larger rotor. There is a subtle difference in the steering brackets. There is a left and right. The calipers and rotors can be glued to the spindles but I chose to use two 1mm steel bolts for attaching the calipers. The nylon RP is strong enough to hold threads at least once if the holes are cleaned up with a slightly undersized drill. For detail overkill I used a copper wire and two 1mm steel nuts to simulate a cross over for the caliper pistons. I also used 1mm bolts to attach the steering bracket. The rear spindle assembly consists of the spindle, rotor and caliper. Note the front spindles have the calipers mounted to the inside of the spindle bracket while the back spindles have the calipers mounted to the outside of the spindle bracket.