Harry P.

It would vary from kit to kit. Depending on the shape and configuration of the doors, it might be possible to create hinge mortises in the body and doors with a very fine-tipped Dremel grinding bit... it might be easier to scratchbuild styrene door posts by layering thinner pieces together but leaving gaps to create the mortises... it might be possible to cut away the jamb and replace with sheet styrene pieces cut to shape, etc... it all depends on the specific kit, how it's engineered, and how/where the doors are hinged. On this particular kit it's relatively easy to hinge the doors, because the hinge posts are separate pieces (as they also were with the stock body), and because the doors are straight on the hinge side. Doors with curved openings on the hinge side would be trickier to do.

The door posts are easy to work with... they're just solid pieces of wood, very sturdy. I can carve the mortises in them without worrying about breaking them. But the doors are another story. They are made of many separate parts, and are not necessarily "fragile" but still, I worry about snapping a glue joint while carving the mortises... so I use two thick scraps of wood and clamp the door between them, just exposing the door's edge where the mortises will go. Now I can hold the door between the wood pieces and not have any chance of snapping or breaking the door as I carve.

The hinges have arrived from Hong Kong... Now I can hinge the doors and finish up this project. The trick here is to cut the mortises for the hinges just deep enough so that the hinge leaves will sit exactly flush with the surface of the post. If I was working on a real woody, I'd make these mortises with a router, but in 1/16 scale world, a sharp X-acto and a steady hand are what's needed. Each door has three hinges... that's 12 mortises I'll have to cut into the doors (3 per door) and 12 into the door posts (6 per post). So I have to cut 24 individual mortises, each one perfect (or as close to perfect as I can get). I have some woodworking to do!

A few front end details. All "chrome" is Spaz Stix. The radiator hoses aren't connected to the radiator yet... still waiting for the radiator/shell to dry completely first.

You can't let what a kit does or doesn't have stop you.

It needs all the missing mirrors.

An underappreciated band, IMO. That's one of my favorites of theirs. Another of my all-time favorite BoDeans tunes (they have so many!):

"Well, that's the story of Mary and the gun. You know she's a lot tougher now, she's livin' on the run"...

You think anyone on this show had any idea what the song was actually about?

Rats! You beat me!

See post #126...

The Pocher RR Sedanca has a fully covered spare. I think they modeled the kit on a specific car, so that may not be "typical," but I guess there were covers like that. I already made the covered spares, so too late to take you up on your offer. But I can still do the part about cleaning up the gauges and steering wheel hub.

Oops. Done.

Remember, don't post any hints or answers here. PM me with year, make, and model. The answer: 1989-91 Autech Stelvio

"On a morning from a Bogart movie, in a country where they turn back time, you go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime"...

"I'm gonna be leaving at the break of dawn. Wish you could come, but I don't need no woman tagging along"...

"Been away, haven't seen you in a while. How've you been, have you changed your style?"

John Mellencamp, but not "Jack and Diane."

"Life sweeps away the dreams that we have planned. You are young and you are the future, So suck it up and tough it out and be the best you can"...

"No, I cannot forget from where it is that I come from. I cannot forget the people who love me"...

That roof structure detail can't be seen unless you turn the model upside down, but for what it's worth... it's in there.

I decided to go with covered spares, no wheel showing. The easy way out!