Harry P.

Well, sort of. I'm liking this kit because I don't have to worry about scratchbuilding a body! My plan is to get this one as far as finished chassis up on wheels, then putting it aside and finishing up the RR woody... then back to the Bugatti. I don't want to leave the woody unfinished for too long.

Like Ray said, you have to watch shipping costs... a lot of ebayers make a profit on that by jacking up the shipping to ridiculous levels. I don't buy from people who do that. If I buy on ebay, I filter by lowest price including shipping. I don't want the lowest price for the item only, I want the lowest price total.

And if you drive 50 miles to buy a kit, you're paying for gas plus sales tax on the kit. Plus your time. Let's see... I want a specific kit. My choices are to drive a 50 mile round trip to the LHS to buy it, plus my time, the cost of gas, and sales tax... or I can sit here and order the same kit with a few clicks of the keyboard and have the item arrive at my door in a few days. Don't know about you, but the choice is obvious to me. I like to make things as simple as possible. And besides... the internet never closes, it has the largest inventory in the world, and I can search literally the entire world for the lowest price on the item I want. Try hopping in your car and driving from store to store to compare prices, and see how well that goes. And how long it takes you. I'll take the internet any day, thank you very much!

I think the grille is in serious need of a black wash to take away that "modelish" look.

Uh, did you read the post about where he went to the store and came away empty?

Amazing how different the color looks in the indoor shots... completely wrong.

Oh, ok... that would explain it. I bought some tubing that was very soft and very thin... must be the "bendable" type that I bought instead of the rigid kind. My mistake.

No kidding! You drive 50 miles to buy a kit? And you come away empty-handed, and you're willing to make the trip again? Dude. Seriously. There's this new thing these days called the internet. Go to ebay, buy the dang kit, and have it shipped to your door. Use the money you saved on gas by not driving 50 miles to the hobby shop and back for a nice six-pack of craft beer or a pizza. You're welcome...

You barbarians just don't understand art...

Not sure yet. I might even wind up leaving the sweep if it turns out to be too much of hassle to get rid of it. But if I do leave it, I'm going with a subtle two-tone scheme, not the black/yellow or black/red or black/blue this car was typically painted. Maybe gunmetal with a silver sweep... something a little understated.

Is there an app for that?

A long, long time ago... (thank you, Don Mclean)... A long, long time ago in this WIP I described how I used a razor saw to remove the molded-in water pipe flanges on the engine's valley cover. I have no idea why Pocher molded those flanges onto the valley cover–they are part of the water pipe. I could have left them there, and just detail-painted them to match the water pipe, but there were sink marks in the cover and it would have been a nightmare to try and work around those molded-in flanges to fix the sink marks. Much easier to just remove the flanges and sand the valley cover surface smooth. But I saved the flanges (I can see Dan Aykroyd doing his Julia Child impression here... "save the liver!"... )... sprayed them "chrome" to match the water pipe, then slipped each one up onto each of the four "legs" of the water pipe, glued the pipe in place, then pushed the flanges down flush to the valley cover. I don't think I could have gotten as sharp and clean a break on the flanges if I had left them in place and tried to detail paint them. This was definitely the better way to go... a little extra work, but worth it.

Hmmm.... you're adding cladding to the body to create a sweep, and on my Bugatti I'm trying to figure out an easy way to get rid of the molded-in cladding/sweep! Oh, the irony...

This kit is by far the most I've ever spent on a Pocher kit, but I have to admit, I'm liking this kit a lot. Loads of cool detail, lots of metal parts (much more so than the typical Pocher "Classic" kit), metal frame as opposed to the RR flimsy plastic frame. It cost me a ton of $$$, but I'm glad I finally bit the bullet and coughed up the cash for a Pocher Bugatti.

Here are the various components of the steering box... some brass, some steel, some plastic... typical Pocher mix of materials... And also typical of Pocher... fit issues. The steering box cap doesn't fit into the opening. Simple solution: ream out the opening. Parts that Pocher engineered for a friction fit, like the steering box cap, are almost always engineered too tightly to fit. If you force things, I guarantee something is gonna break... And the finished item installed on the right frame rail...

I have no idea how much time I have into it... I don't keep track. No idea.

My guess... and just a guess, but seems pretty plausible to me... They're using thinner metal then they used to for the cans to save a few cents per can. Thinner metal = more susceptible to leaking while under pressure. Add to that, lacquers and metalizers are much thinner paints than enamels, so they can leak through a tinier opening in the can. I've noticed the same "use thinner material to save a few cents" with newer K&S aluminum tubing. Same O.D. as an older pack, but the walls of the tube are much thinner and much more prone to bending and denting. It's more like working with aluminum foil tubing than aluminum tubing. Sheesh...

Here's how the rear shocks are installed..

The front shocks were a real pain! I tried mounting them to the front axle and frame rails, but they didn't fit. It took me a while to figure out that the inner two leaves on the shock had to be bent outward, in order for the shock mounting stud to fit between the frame rail and the shock. No mention of that little trick anywhere in the instructions, though. And there's no easy, foolproof way to know exactly how much to bend those leaves. You have to eyeball it, sort of take a guess, bend them, and try installing the shock. If it doesn't fit, take off the shock, re-bend the leaves, reinstall the shock... etc. But once I got them to fit, I have to admit they look pretty cool!

I doubt there are any regulations that call for manufacturing cans that leak.

The left side of the engine, bolted to the frame. You can see the modified exhaust manifolds with added mounting flanges and "bolts" that are cut from hex-shaped styrene rod, and some of the scratchbuilt external oil lines and fittings. That round gizmo at the left front of the engine is the water pump... the round hole in the center is where the hose to the radiator will go... And the right side, with scratchbuilt linkages...

Bugattis were known for their "clean" engine compartments. Things were neat, tidy, and uncluttered under a Bugatti's hood, and they had a few tricks to make it that way. For example, here is the unique position of the generator, mounted to the inside of the frame rail, and driven by a belt off the driveshaft. Doing it this way obviously kept the generator out of the engine bay and kept the Bugatti's engine looking clean and uncluttered.

Before hydraulic shock absorbers came along, cars had friction shocks. Each shock absorber consisted of a series of metal plates sandwiched with discs of friction material between them. The amount of stiffness in the shock was adjusted by how much you tightened the outside cap. The more the plates and friction discs were compressed, the tighter or "harder" the shock action. Here are the parts for the four friction shocks... And here, with the shocks assembled, you get a better idea how they worked. Two of the arms were atached to the axle, the other two arms to the chassis...

Sometimes you'll find a "tool" in the strangest place. My bottle of liquid cement just happened to be the perfect diameter to fit the front recess in the gas tank perfectly!

Speaking of the gas tank... the metal straps that hold the tank in place come flat, the builder has to bend them to shape. Would have been nice if Pocher had supplied a template or diagram, but nooooooo. You're on your own! Kinda tricky to get the correct bends in the exact right places to wrap neatly and tightly around the tank without gaps, but eventually I got it. Here we are looking at the chassis upside-down with the straps ready for the tank...