Harry P.

Do you think you posted enough photos?

That's a beauty, Jim.

The fender unit can't be installed on the engine/chassis assembly if the firewall is already in place, because the engine fit is so tight that there's no way to maneuver it into place if the firewall is already there. So I'll glue the engine/chassis in place now, before I glue the cowl/firewall in place. I also added the front sear at this point, to sort of "lock" that wall behind it in a perfectly vertical position... so that the wall can then lock the door posts in a perfectly vertical position. It almost looks like a car here!

Nicely done! But where are the mirrors?

Google search. If it exists, you'll find it.

The next step is to make the door posts. I determined their height by laying a strip of basswood across the tops of the rear panels and windshield frame. Now I can mark and cut the door posts to the correct height... Next, I need to cut a slot into the insides of the posts. These slots will receive the ends of the interior wall behind the front seat, and will lock the door posts into position. I made the slots with a razor saw, then widened the slots with a small file until the posts slipped easily over the interior wall without forcing them... Now, with the posts temporarily in position, the size of the rear doors is determined, and I can start building those doors. (I actually went with posts slightly smaller dimensionally than those in the first photo. Those first ones were a bit too bulky).

Yeah, right. That's a real common occurrence...

Wow! That's real nice...

Is your rear axle falling off an "accident?" Or the result of some really, really bad "DIY" work?

I doubt there was any chrome on a 1912 Henderson...

1. How do you know nobody stopped to help? 2. How do you know this happened in America?

The inspiration for the "Auto World panel cutter?"

I was originally going to use the metal door hinges in the kit, as they're obviously in scale, and very nicely engineered, too. But this being a "junkyard" kit, some of the hinge pieces were missing: I only had enough pieces to make four hinges. I need twelve (each door gets three). So I went on ebay and found some brass hinges similar to the ones I used on the tailgates. The problem is, the seller is in Hong Kong and delivery is estimated to be some time in late June... So I might be taking an unexpected break from this project.

I know what you mean about the amber look... that's why I stained the wood to the color I want, sort of a warm yellowish tint to it. I'll use the Future just for the shine, not the color.

And I used that template to cut a floor out of thicker cardboard. Again, why waste expensive sheet styrene when cardboard will work just as well? I painted the floor flat black and glued it in place, then I glued the sheet styrene wall in place. Sheet styrene instead of cardboard this time because this will be a structural element... it's what will hold the door posts in place. I reinforced the joint between wall and floor with some hefty square styrene stock: Here's how it will work with the seat in place. The unpainted edges of the wall will fit into slots that I'll cut into the wooden door posts, locking everything together and holding the door posts perfectly vertical...

I notice the car you posted is a two-door, which makes sense, since those side benches can be longer without rear doors. But mine is a four-door, and if I went with the side benches they would have to be pretty short. We'll see... Moving forward (literally... )... to prepare for that wall that will span between the door posts that I mentioned earlier... some scrap styrene was used to fill in the depressions in the floor, and the position of the wall was marked: Then I made a cardstock template of the floor...

Or how about the warning on hair dryers: "Do not use while sleeping"...

Well, we've all heard of those "tragic farming accidents" where Farmer Jones lost an arm in the thresher, right?

I have a bunch of photos of a RR woody undergoing restoration that I'm using as a reference for several details, like the back seat here: I was going to do a simple bench seat in back similar to this, but even simpler (no pleats in the upholstery), but I like your idea a lot. I just might do that. Skip, if you can find any photos of what you described, can you post them here?

No, I'm just a fast worker. Thanks, I'll check that out.

Moving on... The location of the door hinge posts is determined by the front seat, and once these posts are positioned, I will know exactly what size the doors need to be. The front seat on this car did not move forward or back, it was fixed in position. When placed in position, the seat back aligns with the door posts... so that's how the position of the posts is determined. That position will be the same as the stock body. Here I've cut a new seat back panel out of styrene sheet. This panel is slightly wider than the floor, because the ends of this panel will fit into vertical slots in the door posts, holding the posts perfectly vertical and reinforcing them left to right, as the seatback panel and the door posts will be locked together.

And I finally figured out the engineering for the lower gun tray (here just temporarily laid in place for the photo, I'll install it at the end of the building process). In order for that lower door to open, the walls of the tray need to angle inward for clearance as the door swings open and shut. That leaves me just enough room for two scale shotguns. I took the photo Skip posted on page two of this thread and sized it so that the barrels are 30 inches long in scale. Then I printed out the photo and used it as a template to build the guns. The barrels are styrene tubing, and the stocks are carved from basswood, stained and "varnished" with Future. The triggers and trigger guards are thin silver solder and the "metal" fittings are paper painted metallic gray. The fitted tray compartment dividers are little chunks of basswood cut to shape. I still need to add the lid to the tray that will keep the guns in place when the tailgate is closed. I thin this is a really cool detail on this model. Now if I could only find some 1/16 scale pheasants...

I revised my design in back. Originally I was going to go with a one-piece lift-up tailgate, but changed that to a two-piece. The lower part seen here will swing down, while the upper part (the glass area) will swing up...

Progress slowly but surely... I scratchbuilt the taillights. The bases are styrene, the bezels are brass tubing, the "chrome" is Spaz Stix, and the lenses are 5-minute epoxy painted with transparent red: