fractalign

Here is how it looks with the body. With the bonnet finished I was able to gauge where the cowl will sit and where there nosecone will sit as well.

I made sure too keep the curve with the sides and the spine in alignment.

And here is how the bonnet looked afterwards.

Here are the three sections before they were glued together.

With the spine done the sides were next.

With that done, the two pieces were curved and glued together to make the spine.

Hey Guys. I put the bonnet together today. It was one of the easiest parts of the build and one of the quickest too. I still need to do the underside and that will be anything but easy or quick but finishing the exterior of the bonnet gave me a platform to work from in relation to getting the rest of the body in alignment. The first task was to cut the pieces and check them against the template.

I sanded down the outside of the panel some more to get it to sit flush with the cab sides. I was going to run a belt line along the bottom of the panel but I decided not to because I don't think the original ones had them. One thing I will have to do is find a way to lock in the cab to the chassis to stop it slip[ping down and that will be the next task.

Here is how the two fit up, the lower panel still needs tidying up and to do this I will reinforce the inside and smooth it out.

Later on I decided to add a rear flange to the cab, this was originally to go on the lower panel but I decided to put it on the cab to keep the build consistent.

Here is the result, you will notice the cab sits up straight now.

Hey Guys. I finally put the flange for the cab together. I started by cutting the pieces for the side.

10 out of 10 for thinking out side the box !

I wish, that would be a dream job.

Yeah I will try get some more of the build up in the next couple of days, but in the meantime here is the inspiration for the build.

Hey guys. Firstly thanks for all the comments and as Henry so rightly pointed out there was an alignment issue at the rear to deal with. The panel was a little wider than it should be. So I narrowed it slightly. Sorry there are no photos but I will put them up tomorrow. I have decided to attach the side flanges to the bottom of the cab rather than the panel so the panel will lock into place with the cab a lot easier. So that will be the next task.

In case you can't tell its the hood or as we call them over here the bonnet. Its a very complex structure and i spent at least a couple of hours measuring it rescaling the measurements and transferring them onto this piece of sheet styrene. This won't be the the actual bonnet, rather it will act as a buck of sorts, not to shape the curves but rather to measure the parts against. The bonnet has a curve that runs side to side and front to back and the centre spine rises slightly as well. Its quite a complex structure and to tackle this one I will be building it in Four stages. First and second stage will be the centre spine which will consist of the two halves. From here I will add the two flatter sides. I will be cutting the pieces to exactly the same dimensions as the ones on this buck. The only difference will be that I will be shaping the pieces longitudinally to get the correct curve. For the width curve I will bevel the edges on the sides until I get the desired angle. Next task will be to begin cutting the pieces and getting them ready for assembly.

In the meantime I have started working on this.

Here it is sitting in place. I am not sure I want to run these rails as they are a little thin so I have decided to to a break from the body for a while and move onto something else. When I have decided what thickness the rails will be I will order some more strips and attach them.

I made up a tab for the rail to slot into the gap between the door frame and a pillar.

Hey Guys. I finally put the remaining piece in for the window surrounds and moved onto the gutter rails.

The remaining task was to sand back the lower panel. The next task will be to create a belt line for the panel and continue refining it.

Here is how it turned out. Unfortunately I can't finish it due to the fact that I ran out of tubing, I will get some more at the end of the month in the meantime there are plenty of other things to finish including the cab.

While waiting for the putty to dry I got stuck into constructing the grill. I placed a piece of modelling clay at the end of the running board to hold the lengths of tube in place, at the other end used a scrap of balsa as a base to glue the lengths to.

I also test fitted over the chassis. You will notice these fenders have the floor removed, these will be the fenders I will be using for the COE's. The other fenders are for the the conventional truck.