Psychographic

The slots I cut in the motors are big enough that some detail will be needed so they don't look like empty cans. I sliced the ends off the motors and made some simple locators to make assembling them easier. I took a smaller diameter tube and notched it to fit inside the motors. I bent some mesh to fit the inside the cans of the motors. Now I can paint the motors inside and out, then assemble them.

As I didn't take pics when I made the first three, I thought I would show you how I made the brake ducts with the last one to be built. I used 1/8" tube, .080x .125 rectangle stock, and some scrap .030 sheet. Here are the pieces, cut and ready to assemble. The tube gets split lengthwise , take one half and split that in two. The short pieces make up the top and bottom of the scoop, the long piece will be the front of the base. Notice one side of the long tube half is notched. Cement one piece of the .030 to one side of the tube and repeat, you should have two "J" shaped parts. Now cement the two "J" pieces to make a hoop. Cement the hoop to the top of the .080x.125 stock. Cement the final piece to the front of the .080 with the notch fitting into the scoop. After a little sanding to shape and clean things up, you should have a decent looking duct. Cut it to the length you need and it's ready for body work.

IIRC the brake works by shorting out the motor.

Unless James is doing a commission job here, the only person he has to please on this build is himself. If others, such as myself care to follow along and enjoy this build, all the better. The point has been made about the term "Gasser" and the allowable ride height to be legal for racing. James has decided to build what he wants and it's pretty clear to me that he doesn't care about ride height, please drop it and move on. This back and forth is doing nothing to help this thread. I love your building style and look forward to seeing this to completion.

Fitting the rear bulkhead. After cementing the bulkhead in place, I noticed that the angles of the rear body no longer lined up with the main body and it was narrower also. I must have spread the body a bit putting the bulkhead in. After thinking the easiest plan of attack, I decided to just split it down the middle and spread it until it lines up. Then the body was temporarily cemented back together to keep things lined up. Filled with some .030 and Styrene Bondo. Now that the body fit, the back of the bubble was off. I thought about once again splitting the panel, just not as far back to bring the bubble back into shape. I was afraid when I cut the back off again it would spring into the shape it want's, not what I want and things would not line up. I can't just sand it smooth as there was not enough to work with. Out came the SB and after two coats on the inside, I had enough to roughly sand into shape. After a buttload of tedious sanding, the inside is pretty close to being ready for primer. A shot of the tailights and rear vent.

You can watch it on Youtube, but it's a screen in a screen deal (about 1/4 screen) and the voices are distorted.

The fabrication of the drivetrain is done. I don't look forward to cleaning this up for paint as it's one assembly, not counting the rear pods. I used the same method for aligning the rear suspension as I did in the front, this meant cementing all the parts together to get everything to line up. I also cut the back off so you can see the motors and suspension and started working on the hinges for it. I originally didn't plant to do any more on the rear suspension than I did on the front, but when I looked at the model it was just too plain and needed some detail. I think this will add just enough. As I didn't plan to see any parts of the underside of the body, I didn't worry about it being very smooth. I've got a lot of sanding to do to get it cleaned up.

I did some quick research on electric drivetrains and found something to follow as a guide. The setup is two motors, an inverter and the batteries. The batteries and inverter are water cooled. The batteries for this will be under the floor of the interior, they won't be seen, so again scratch work that won't need to be done. Here's the start.

Thanks for the comments everyone. It may look like a lawn mower, but it's a fast lawn mower. I've seen quite a few of Colani's designs, most of them are pretty wild. As for the aerodynamics of the pods, I couldn't tell you. I just build what looks good to me. and yes it will have a rear diffuser.

My inspiration at this point is a modern Indy car. The first year of the new Indy car to most people were ugly, they hated the rear and side pods. I liked the way they looked, that is until they allowed for the aero packages with the multi tiered spoilers and wings. The trailing wheel pods. With the axle already held in place, positioning the front suspension pieces was a breeze. first up is the lower control arms. After the cement set up I added the upper control arms and the outer cantilever rods for the coilovers. The completed front suspension. As you won't see any of it, I was able to leave off the shocks and linkage other than the outer rod.

I started on the the base for the body to sit on. The car should seal up visually once the body and base are together which means I don't have to deal with a lot of detailing and scratchbuilding. The wheels and tires are from the 39 Wagonrod.

OK, here is where I take a radical turn in what direction this is going. I filled the gills and replaced them with deep vents, then I filled the wheel wells using plastic spoons to keep the rounded shape. After a round or two with filler and some priming I had a cross between a Corvette and an old Bonneville Streamliner. I really toyed with going with the streamliner look, but then found the right wheels and tires and off in another direction we will go.

Time to drop the front a little. I'm going to take about 1/8" out of the grille. First a rough cut to see if my idea to do this will even work. Along with the cuts already made, I will be cutting the top off completely along the pencil lines. Clamping this together was looking like it wouldn't hold, the tapered nose made the clamps slide off. I then got the idea to use some sandpaper for extra grip. I make my own sanding sticks using rolls of sticky back sandpaper and craft sticks. I used these to clamp the parts.

The rear part of the bubble was too long, so I reworked it and added filler panels. Looks much better.

Both!

I decided a few days ago to clean up and organize most of my kits and supplies. While doing so, I ran across two things that just seemed as if they needed to go together. First was a Scorpion space ship that I was converting into a car. The other was a 68 Vette convertible.I thought the long bubble top of the Scorpion would look cool on the Vette. Out came the saws and other implements of destruction and a little later I had a body 3/4" narrower and a bubble top roughly mounted in place. If you look at the picture above you will see the pencil marks just below the top edge of the fender and door. This needs to be cut out to fit the bottom edge of the bubble surround. In the pic below it has been cut and put back together. This will add to the curves of the body. In my opinion the 68 body style was the nicest looking Corvette ever made. So I want to slightly exaggerate these curves without going over board. I cut a section of a "clear egg holder tray thing" from the dollar store to make the section behind the bubble. I also thought the back hung too far back, so I cut it off and slid the back inside the the front of the body. When sanded it once again will add to the curves of the body.

Green. What shade(s)of it? I have no idea right now. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/116287-der-beetle-bus/ Thanks for the comments everyone. Work has been slow in this as I got a bit sidetracked on a pretty wild (well, I think it's pretty wild) looking 68 Corvette. When the door opened it would ride up the curve of the bottom edge. I decided to cut a notch into the bottom for clearance. The minute I had it all pieced back together, I looked at it and said "You fool, why not just make the cut higher and follow the curve". As blind luck was with me, I opened the door and the notch fit into the fender perfectly. For once, one of my screw ups was for the good. I then cut and hung the other door. I added the bottom corners from the Vette along with some strips of half round to fill in the back a little more. I also made a frame for a back window along with a pattern for a clear window, and a lip over the engine shroud.

1928 Porter

The tape trick works with crepe masking tape also, but the styrene bondo sticks to the the crepe tape much stronger than it does the aluminum. Foil would give a slightly better fit, but the cost of BMF to a roll of flashing tape makes it a better choice for me. I'm going to finish hanging the other door today, then I'm going to have to take a break on this build and finish the last one. The last build needs to have the interior finished and I've been putting off dealing with the PE seatbelt hardware, but it needs to be done before I damage something as I have a very small area I'm working in.

It was time to get the roof to fit the body properly. I laid down two strips of aluminum flashing tape, put a liberal amount of styrene bondo on the bottom edge of the roof, set it in place and left it alone to dry. Once it's dry I work an exacto knife between the tape and the body and carefully pry it off, it usually pops right off.That leaves you with an almost exact fit to the contour of the body. I let this dry another day and sand to shape. Hey look at that, an opening door. It doesn't work properly, but it does open and close. The backbone and pan are one piece and ready for a little bondo.

I added some flanges to the header, this really made it look better as the plastic is somewhat tapered and rounded on the ends of the kit part. The additional height I added to the body made the seats look tiny. I added to the backs of them to start out with. In this pic you can get an idea of just how green the wheels are by looking at the front wheel.

I painted some more parts and screwed up the wheels. To get the paint even and to flow out, I had to give them some heavy coats. They came out darker than I wanted, if you look at them in direct light they are a really nice shade of green. Unfortunately they get very little light are almost look black when mounted on the car. I also painted the valve covers, pulleys, and oil pan. Does anyone know what the belt is supposed to represent on this kit? The area inside the belt was solid and raised. A cover maybe? I cut it out so it's just a belt and pulleys, I still need to paint the belt black and touch up some green on the block and oil pan..