Mock up question

[blair]

For my next project I am going to attempt to modify the stance on the car for the first time. I'm building the Foose firebird. From what I've read the ride height is too high.

my question is when I mock it up there is nothing to locate the chassis inside the body. How do I know how it will sit in the body?

Thanks for any advice.

[b-body fan]

I take a couple pieces of sprue and tape them inside of the body with masking tape. Just something to rest the body on the frame.

[Matt T.]

The interior tub (or floorpan w/ firewall & rear package shelf) can be placed inside the body, then the chassis will rest on that. That's how the kit will assemble in the end, and will allow you to see where you want your wheels in the wheel opening.

I use stacks of pennies front and rear, under the chassis, to shim the car to the stance I want on my workbench, then figure out how to make it happen with the suspension pcs, etc.

HTH.

[blair]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll give them a try

[gtx6970]

I 'm not familiar with the Firebird kit in question.

But something to keep in mind if its a kit based on an old annual ,,,, the chassis rests against the interior floorpan. and the interior tub rests against the glass , so make sure the glass is in when doing your mockup

[Ace-Garageguy]

Depending on how low you want to go, with the frame assembled to the body with the glass and interior in place, you may also find that the kit wheel wells simply will not allow you to drop the car as much as you might want.

It's easy enough to cut the tops of the wheel wells off (in the rear, you can sometimes just leave them missing if they don't show much) and raise them to get enough clearance. Some guys just cut the tops of the tires off, but I'm not a fan of that particular approach.

It's interesting that, on a model car in 1/25 scale, just 1/16 of an inch lower or higher can make a huge difference in the stance of a car, and in how good (or goofy) it looks on first impression. That 1/16" is about 1.5" in full scale, and that's a lot when you're building real cars.

To get the stance I wanted on this one, I had to cut rather a lot off of the tops of the rear wheel wells, and provide a 'bump' for the frame rails to be notched in to.

This shot shows the rear wheelwells reassembled and raised, with spacers of strip styrene inserted. I also had to make a new central floor section to clear the axle pumpkin.