Anglia105E Posted July 4 Author Share Posted July 4 Having detached the front forks of the upper body, by breaking the super glue bond where the forks join the lower body, I sat down to examine the rear of the car where the luggage compartment bay meets the rear seat parcel shelf . . . The only option for removing plastic was the two upper corners of the luggage bay itself. This was done using the mini drill and grind stone attachment, and I then proceeded to test fit the upper body . . . While I have noticed a slight improvement with the closing of the four doors, the overall fit of the body is still not satisfactory . . . The rear arches of the upper body are almost making contact with the rear wings, but the gaps above the doors remain clearly visible. The boot lid is now closing fully, after I had cut off a small amount of the steel rod that forms one of the two boot lid hinges . . . I am absolutely certain that the division at the centre of the car, along with the precise positioning of the inner and outer door posts, is perfectly correct . . . Of course, if these were too high they would account for the rear end of the upper body not being to lower sufficiently. I can only assume that the roof panel might be warped in some way, and it would only need to be out by one millimetre in order to create this problem. I find myself almost there, but there doesn't seem to be much more that can be done . . . I may be forced to throw in the towel, which goes against my natural inclination ! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 5 Author Share Posted July 5 The rear seat was glued back in place, having become detached during the problematic body fitting. Then styrene glue was applied to the location slots for the front forks of the upper body, as well as the undersides of the wheel arches at the rear . . . Very carefully, the upper body was lowered into place, while keeping all four doors in the open position, also both bonnet panels were in the open position, and the boot lid was in the fully closed position . . . Following a period of nearly two hours to allow the glue to set, each of the four doors were carefully closed. Both of the front doors closed well, and there was hardly any gap between the top edge of those doors and the roof . . . However, the rear doors are only almost closed, and they have a slightly larger gap visible, I had avoided using excessive force up to this point, but when I attempted to close the rear doors more fully, the glue joints on both sides of the upper body broke away from the lower body at the arches . . . Several of the component parts of the body are in tension, so they are springing apart, even after glue is applied. I don't think that I can improve the fit of this Phantom III body any further . . . This is a most unfortunate conclusion to reach, at 25 weeks into the build. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 I'm at a loss for words David. To have invested so much time and effort only to have it take such a bad turn... Maybe it's time to put this one back into the box and "clear your palate" with a couple of quick and easy builds. I've had to do juts such a thing quite a number of times myself. My Chevy Proton took me more than 170 hours over an eight year period to complete. There was a span of about four years when I thought I'd never finish it. I couldn't even look at it. I hope you can find a way to bring this one across the line, I believe you can. Until then, it's okay to set it aside for a while. I often have to remind myself that this is just a hobby and when it ceases being fun, it's no longer that. David G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 (edited) I’m sorry this is proving such a challenge, given how good the work you’ve done so far is. Just looking at one detail though… in the picture that shows the underside of the yellow roof with the upper bulkhead mounting in grey, it looks as though there are square sockets at each end and a long rectangular slot between them for the top of the window. But the top of the bulkhead has the window joined straight onto the square pegs. It looks from that one picture that if you remove the “walls” between the outer square sockets and the central slot on the roof, so you have a continuous slot shaped like this: [::========::] You might then find the top of the bulkhead will slot in to the full depth. HTH, best, M. Edited July 7 by Matt Bacon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 7 Author Share Posted July 7 3 hours ago, Matt Bacon said: I’m sorry this is proving such a challenge, given how good the work you’ve done so far is. Just looking at one detail though… in the picture that shows the underside of the yellow roof with the upper bulkhead mounting in grey, it looks as though there are square sockets at each end and a long rectangular slot between them for the top of the window. But the top of the bulkhead has the window joined straight onto the square pegs. It looks from that one picture that if you remove the “walls” between the outer square sockets and the central slot on the roof, so you have a continuous slot shaped like this: [::========::] You might then find the top of the bulkhead will slot in to the full depth. HTH, best, M. Well Matt, just like you have noticed this, I keep coming back to the central division and the way it fits into the roof channel . . . All of what you say is very observant, and 99% correct. The one aspect of the structure that I must explain is this . . . At the top of the outer door posts there were originally two lugs, and I ended up cutting them off. These were only half lugs, that were intended to slot into half of the square socket . . . The Gunze Sangyo idea was for the top edge of the division window glass frame to be inserted into the channel on the underside of the roof, and then the two half lugs would be inserted into the square sockets . . . I am hoping that the following photos explain this better than I can . . . ! Based upon your excellent suggestion Matt, I think I shall have a go at removing those ' walls ' between the outer square sockets and the central slot, and then see what difference that makes . . . It would be wonderful if that actually worked, and I would be very happy ! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 The ' walls ' between the square sockets and the underside roof channel have been removed, using a mini drill and grind stone . . . Also, some further material has been removed from the top surfaces of the door posts. Test fitting revealed a slight improvement, but not really anything significant . . . All four doors are closing more satisfactorily, apart from the passenger side rear door, which almost closes. Forcing that door closed results in the rear section of the upper body lifting slightly . . . I would say that the driver's side doors do fit better than those on the passenger side. This might be as far as I can go for now . . . David 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 That is certainly an improvement David! It's beginning to look like a good outcome is a distinct possibility! David G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOBLNG Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 What is this circled in red? I don’t see it on pictures I’ve googled. I’m not sure I’ve googled the exact same car though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 2 hours ago, NOBLNG said: What is this circled in red? I don’t see it on pictures I’ve googled. I’m not sure I’ve googled the exact same car though. Hi Greg . . . Your photo does show a Rolls-Royce Phantom III, but the body is not by Freestone and Webb . . . The part that you have circled in red actually a ' dummy ' hinge, because although there appears to be three door hinges on each side of the car, there are only two in fact. The hinge at the top of the door is not a real hinge, so it just matches the other two lower hinges . . . Also, your photo shows the front and rear doors being ' suicide ' doors, so both are rear hinged,whereas the model that I am building has suicide doors at the front, and conventional front hinged doors at the rear . . . Well spotted ! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 4 hours ago, David G. said: That is certainly an improvement David! It's beginning to look like a good outcome is a distinct possibility! David G. Mixed feelings really David . . . This might be as good as it is going to get, but I would prefer to achieve a better fit ! David W. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 On 7/9/2024 at 8:18 AM, Anglia105E said: The ' walls ' between the square sockets and the underside roof channel have been removed, using a mini drill and grind stone . . . Also, some further material has been removed from the top surfaces of the door posts. Test fitting revealed a slight improvement, but not really anything significant . . . All four doors are closing more satisfactorily, apart from the passenger side rear door, which almost closes. Forcing that door closed results in the rear section of the upper body lifting slightly . . . I would say that the driver's side doors do fit better than those on the passenger side. This might be as far as I can go for now . . . David Fabulous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 18 Author Share Posted July 18 This topic is almost ready to move over to the ' Under Glass ' section of the forum, and here is a link to the YouTube video that shows the model car at the current stage . . . The video is best viewed full screen, and with audio on, as there is some background music. Even if you don't watch the whole 7 minutes and 52 seconds of this video, have a look at the changes that happen at 2 minutes and 4 minutes into the video . . . Many thanks for following my Phantom III build, and I hope you find the video interesting also . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gOcKwcgl8Q David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 20 Author Share Posted July 20 By the middle of next week I shall be producing an outdoor photo shoot of the Rolls-Royce Phantom III, featuring the ' forced perspective ' technique. This will be carried out around sunrise, at a local rural location . . . Here is a small preview at the preparation stage . . . David 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 22 Author Share Posted July 22 Two days before the planned photo shoot, and I picked up the Phantom III model, only to notice that the suspension on the front passenger side had become detached from the main body of the car . . . This was repaired today, using super glue, and at the same time I paid some attention to the spokes of the wire wheels. Quite a few of the gloss black spokes were showing chrome from underneath, as well as some small areas of the wheel rims. Using some Vallejo Glossy Black acrylic, the visible chrome was blacked out . . . All ready to go now, with a 5:00 am start on Tuesday morning, when the weather is forecast to be sunny, dry, no wind and 14°C - 16°C temps. David 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 23 Author Share Posted July 23 Well, the early morning photo shoot did not go quite as well as I would have liked . . . I did manage to get 76 shots of the model car between the hours of 6:00 am and 8:00 am, but this turned out to be too early in the day. The sun did not rise over the treetops by the river, so there was no sunlight on the pathway . . . Despite early shots being too dark, there were some later ones that had the car nicely in focus. Although I did try many different combinations of manual settings on my camera, the background was not in focus, so forced perspective did not happen basically . . . Unfortunately the grey board that I was using was not grey enough, and it didn't blend in with the pathway as I had wanted. On the positive side, I did gather some useful information . . . For those MCM forum members who are keen photographers, the optimum settings for the NIKON D3000 were as follows . . . 1 / 60 shutter speed, and f / 25 aperture, ISO set at 800, and focal length was 34 mm. Here are the best 7 photos from the shoot, but none of these are good enough for what I was seeking to achieve . . . David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milo1303s Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 (edited) Looks like it is out ready to take the children to their private school and take father to the office for the day return home take mom shopping you get the idea !! LOL !!! Edited July 23 by milo1303s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted July 24 Author Share Posted July 24 12 hours ago, milo1303s said: Looks like it is out ready to take the children to their private school and take father to the office for the day return home take mom shopping you get the idea !! LOL !!! I think you have it exactly Bob ! This would be an owner driver, rather than a chauffeur driven motor car . . . Thanks for your positive comments. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 In spite of all the difficulties this kit gave you David, It seems to have turned out quite nicely in the end. The most recent photos you posted look good and seem appropriate for an English motorcar set in the English countryside. As I understand it, the sun does occasionally shine on Olde Albion but overcast skies are more the norm. I'm looking forward to seeing the final photos in the Under Glass section. Cheers! David G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglia105E Posted August 1 Author Share Posted August 1 5 hours ago, David G. said: In spite of all the difficulties this kit gave you David, It seems to have turned out quite nicely in the end. The most recent photos you posted look good and seem appropriate for an English motorcar set in the English countryside. As I understand it, the sun does occasionally shine on Olde Albion but overcast skies are more the norm. I'm looking forward to seeing the final photos in the Under Glass section. Cheers! David G. Thanks for taking a look at the sections of this topic that you may have missed David, and I hope you had an enjoyable holiday . . . There is a YouTube video link in my new topic ' Under Glass ' for this car, and I am working on some final photos also . . . David W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David G. Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 1 hour ago, Anglia105E said: Thanks for taking a look at the sections of this topic that you may have missed David, and I hope you had an enjoyable holiday . . . There is a YouTube video link in my new topic ' Under Glass ' for this car, and I am working on some final photos also . . . David W. I did have a great holiday, a cross-country trip. Everything went as well as I could have hoped, even the couple difficult turns worked out well for us. I'll have a look at your YouTube video later. David G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.