Harry P.

Now that I had the firewall in pieces, it was time to rebuild it to look more like the real thing. Here is the rebuilt firewall with sheet styrene added to "fill in the gaps" resulting from cutting it away from the shroud...

The firewall as done by Pocher is wrong. The bonnet rub strips are in the wrong place, and the "walls" of the firewall are incorrect... the firewall itself is only a thin piece that gets bolted to that "shroud" that should actually be part of the cowl sheetmetal. First step was to sand down those incorrectly placed bonnet panel rub strips and fill in that incorrect channel with styrene strip. Also, that "cutout" at the top is wrong and needed to be filled in as well... Next, a razor saw was used to cut the "shroud" away from the firewall. Due to the shape of the firewall and how it's molded, I also had to use the back of my knife blade to scribe certain areas to release the firewall from that shroud...

Not a bad way to go...

I'm here, but not active on the forum much lately. As Bill said, I'm having some big time eye problems. Waiting for lab tests to come back, but in the meantime I have a hard time seeing clearly... so not much computer time. It's no fun when you can't see the screen clearly. Also, just clear up the "where are the moderators" question... Dave Ambrose is out tech guy, has been for a long time. He's technically a moderator, but he really doesn't do that. He solves members' technical problems, like why can't I post photos, why am I not getting email notifications, etc., etc. And Casey stepped down as a moderator a while ago. That leaves me as the moderating "team."

Here is the floorboard, with the extended rear floor and finished wheelwells, with fenders installed. A little Bondo on the fenderwells to smooth things out. And I covered the floor with some corrugated styrene sheet to represent ribbed rubber flooring. All of this will eventually be painted flat black (except the fenders, which will be gloss black) This is the stuff I used to simulate the ribbed rubber floors...

Lots of progress to report. I'll have new photos up tomorrow. BTW... I was at the opthamologist last Tuesday... she used a swab to take culture samples from my eyes to send to the lab so they could figure out exactly what it is I have. That was last Tuesday. The doctor called me Friday, said the lab results hadn't come back yet. Called me just a little while ago (Saturday evening) to tell me the lab never received the cultures. So another whole week goes by with no treatment. My eyes are a mess... red, swollen, teary, can hardly see a darn thing. And the lab "lost" the cultures. Now I have to go back to the doc on Monday and do it all over again... and hope the lab doesn't screw up again. Man, I can't catch a break on this whole eye thing. Going on nearly two months now, and no end in sight. The doc says it's probably viral, but wanted lab tests just to be sure it wasn't anything worse. And they won't prescribe anything until they get the lab results... so here I am with two practically useless eyes. Sheesh...

Thank you.

I don't have a big stash of unbuilt kits like a lot of you guys have, but even if I did I couldn't care less what happens to them after I'm gone. They're just plastic pieces in cardboard boxes. But what I have thought about is what happens to my built models after I'm gone? I have put a lot of time and effort into my built models, and I really wish there was some way they could find a home after I'm gone besides the garbage can. It's not so much their "value" I worry about, but the fact that they represent a large chunk of my life. I guess I hope that my kids will realize the value of my models (not the $$$ value) and act appropriately. Kind of morbid, I know... but I do think about that from time to time.

A little quick surgery. Cowl: keep. All the rest: trash. This is the only part of the kit body I need...

Here's a shot that shows what I'm talking about. I only need the part of the body ahead of the white line, so that lower "strip" of body had to be replaced with strip styrene in order for the fenders to mount in the correct way...

The rear fenders are shaped to meet up with the kit body and trunk. I don't need them to do that, so I have to remove the unnecessary parts of the fenders. Fenders before (left) and after (right). I also ground away the raised ridge that runs along the centers of the fenders, as they would get in the way of the woody body panels... And here is a shot of the floorboard with wheelwells and rear floor made of sheet styrene. I made new fender mounting flanges out of sheet styrene and glued the fenders in place. Also, the kit body has a thin strip that runs from cowl to rear fenders below the doors. The fenders, kit body, and floorboard piece are all sandwiched together in final assembly, but because I am only using the kit body cowl and not the rest, I have to make up that missing "layer" of thickness between fenders and floorboard, otherwise the fenders would mount too far inwards. A strip of styrene the same thickness as the missing body strip was glued to the floorboards to make up for that missing body strip.

To build the body, I need a solid reference point that I can take all my measurements from. Now that I have the chassis finished, I temporarily bolted the floorboard and fenders to it. Everything fit perfectly, all mounting holes lined up and the floorboard and fenders all were in correct positions. The cowl (which I cut away from the rest of the body as it's the only part of the kit body I will use) also fit perfectly. Holy cow! A Pocher first! Ok, so now that I know that I can reliably base my measurements off the floorboard, I can finish up the floorboard revisions and be confident that everything will align correctly when I am ready for final assembly.

Given the extreme complexity of the chassis, it's amazing that it went together as well as it did. I did run onto a few problems, though. The battery box interferes with the driveshaft's rear U-joint. The fix was easy... use a razor saw to cut off the front mounting tab and glue the tab further to the left, which in effect moves the battery box to the right (the rear of the box slides on a chassis crossmember, so no further changes needed there). Also, the driveshaft's front U-joint interferes with another chassis crossmember. Can't move the crossmember, as it has connection points for the brake rods, and moving that crossmember would throw off the whole brake assembly. Can't lower the engine/trans, as it's already bolted in place. So I drilled out the front of the U-joint off center and inserted a short length of styrene rod to fit into the rear of the trans. That means the driveshaft now sits slightly lower in front, off center to the trans mounting point, but you can't see that when viewed from below, only if you look at the side. And once the fenders are installed, you won't be able to see it from the side. So it's fixed!

I have the chassis finished, and it sits nice and flat on all fours, no problem. The lever arms kind of interfere with each other once the clevises are attached, but I did manage to get everything together and in relatively the correct place. But as far as making the brake system functional, as Pocher would have you believe is possible...HAH ! No way on Earth that the braking system can be built to actually function.

The kit floor pan is shaped to accommodate the stock body and trunk. Since my model will have a custom body and no trunk, the entire rear part of this piece will have to be reworked... The first step is to cut away everything that I won't need... Now I'll have to extend the floor rearward and finish those remaining partial wheelwells.

And here is the completed rear axle assembly. This took me a whole day to build! The front axle is a whole lot less complicated...

The springs on this kit are real, individual spring steel leaves, just like the real car. They are covered with rubber "gaiters" that were meant to keep grit and gunk out from between the leaves and preserve that quiet RR ride. Here are the pieces for one of the rear springs all laid out and ready to be assembled...

Still fighting pinkeye... I've been waiting for the lab test results since Tuesday, the opthamologist just called to apologzie for the delay. Nothing he can do about it, though. Oh well... I do have progress. The mounting hardware for the springs are all plated metal pieces. Obviously none of these parts would have been plated on the real car, so they each had to be painted black. Same with all the brake linkage parts. A tedious process for sure...

Do they make you look like Ben Franklin?

The ironic thing is, I had just gotten a routine eye exam and a brand new pair of contacts, then this whole pinkeye thing came along and threw everything out of whack, I will definitely try to post some progress photos tomorrow. These old glasses aren't much help, but they at least make it possible for me to post. But I miss my contacts!

I have been taking photos all along the way, so maybe tomorrow I can post some progress... if these old glasses don't drive me crazy first!

I've been having some medical issues... a really bad case of conjunctivitis (pinkeye)... doc says I can't wear my contacts until it clears up. Without contacts I can't see the computer screen, so I can't post. And the only "backup" pair of glasses I have are over 10 years old, and while they are better than nothing, I really can't function very well with them. But I have been able to keep building, even without contacts or glasses, and I actually have a TON of progress to show you guys. But I still need some time for these old eyeballs to get back to normal before I can spend any time on the computer. Stay tuned. I will be back eventually.

Final vote: 26 REAL, 10 MODEL. And the answer is... REAL!

Hey C... what did you use as reference for your firewall details?

Yeah, I actually ground away the inside of the radiator first, like you did. Also shortened the fan pulley shaft, like you did. But I still wasn't happy with how close the fan was to the backside of the radiator... that's when I moved the grille shell holes on the crossmember forward. But I think you're right, I should just go with the original mounting position for the radiator. Aren't Pochers fun?