Dann Tier Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 Brilliant adjustments! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 Next rod for my own back... the original I'm building is a right hand drive, like about half the 289 Sports built. So, time to start changing the kit over. There's more to it than "just" flipping the dash... The easy bit... that three pronged box between the outriggers at the right is the pedal booster set-up. It snipped out neatly from the left and slotted into place on the right with no issues. The left footwell is shortened and the right extended by 4mm to give room for the pedals so they will sit over the booster box. The firewall has a reasonable amount of moulded in detail. That will clearly need to be redistributed and probably adapted, because the 289 Sports I have found online have a different layout of bits and pieces in the engine bay. That said, really good, clear pictures are hard to come by. With the help of a good razor saw, I've got most of them off more or less intact and started to shape the firewall itself. I can't finally glue it in place until I've sorted out the "carpets" and fitted the pedals at the far end of the foot well. First check of the engine position. Getting that in place is the next big challenge of swapping out the power plants. I think it will need to be higher so the starter motor when fitted clears the transverse chassis tube, and probably a bit further forward as a result so the bell housing doesn't clash with the transmission tunnel moulded into the tub. Who knows, the engine mounts might even line up and save me a job! best, M. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 This is just mocked up rather than assembled... there's more painting to do before I get to actually put it together, but I wanted to reassure myself that the engine would fit in the chassis. And it does: I moved the locating pin on the transmission back by a 1/16" or so and put a shim on the mounting point to lift the tail end by a similar amount, which then meant that the sockets on the engine lined up with the mounts already on the chassis. That seemed to indicate design, though it might be blind luck. A couple of short lengths of square plastic rod formed new lugs on the block that would drop into the mounts. The bell housing is right behind the transverse chassis tube, but I only had to reshape the lower rear edge of the sump to get it all to fit and align horizontally, rather than having to shorten the sump significantly. I also had to shave the bottom of the starter motor, but not so's you'd notice. Boy, that 427 is shoehorned in... best, M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 (edited) A bout with COVID starting last weekend has put a bit of a dent in progress. Just about starting to feel normal now... I should have taken a proper "before" picture, but I didn't think about it in time. I pondered how best to the flip the dash for a while. It's made easier by being a flat panel. In the end I decided just to _actually_ flip it. I cut the ends off cleanly, then punched the two big dials out with a leather hole-punch. I drilled the smaller dials through, and small holes in the locations of each of the switches. I scribed out the glovebox door. Then I flipped it over and glued the big dials back in place. I made switches from plastic rod, and a new glovebox door from card traced through the hole. I backed the whole thing with plastic card, and textured the main dash with liquid cement. Then a coat of matt black, scratch out the dial markings on the small dials with a pin, dry brush the raised detail in the big dials, and add "glass" to all using Citadel 'ardcoat varnish. Finally the switches with an SMS Hyperchrome pen and a black paint maker. Tub finished with textured paint and then Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue. The pedals actually stay the same way round as the LHD version. Gear lever surround done in BMF. Moving forward, if slower than I would have liked! best, M. Edited March 23 by Matt Bacon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted March 29 Author Share Posted March 29 (edited) Got the engine wired, which is another good excuse for a mock-up to see if it will all fit together eventually... I think it's going to need some (at least vestigial) engne bay walls. The coil and various ancillary electrical and fluid components are mounted on them along with some cable runs, so that's this weekend's detailing project! best, M. Edited March 29 by Matt Bacon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoMoCo66 Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Cool! You never need a excuse for a moch up 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LennyB Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 Coming along nice Matt👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted April 10 Author Share Posted April 10 I haven't stopped working on this, but progress was slowed down by building a big Lego motorbike with the family... The cockpit is pretty much complete, though I wont be finally fixing the seats and steering wheel until the final assembly stage. I'm quite pleased with the AC badge on the wheel! The box of the kit that I bought had wire wheels with two-ear knock-off hubs. When I looked at them closely, they were AC branded, and Revell had moulded tiny but exquisite badges on the hubs. I sliced them off very carefully with a razor saw and one is now the steering wheel boss. You'll see the other two below, replacing the Cobra badges on the body... Finished the final details on the engine. Now I need some air filter decals.... The other two badges in place, along with the other details. The "bumpers" are cut out of the kit parts, cleaned up, and repainted with SMS Hyperchrome. Fixing the rear lights and fuel filler cap was nerve-wracking -- the sockets they recess into need to be created right on the seam line of the narrowed fenders, and I was very worried about opening up a crack somewhere visible. But I got away with it! I've made a hood stay with some guitar string socketed into a bit of brass tube under the right hand fender. You can also see the radiator header tank relocated from the firewall to the front of the engine, replacing the flat rectangular tank on the 427 Cobra. The top water hose needs to wait until the chassis and body are fully fixed together. best, M. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOBLNG Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Looking mighty fine Matt.👍 Great job on flipping the dashboard. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted Tuesday at 09:04 PM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 09:04 PM Apologies... I know it's been a while since the last progress report. A combination of going away for a long weekend somewhere hot and having to take several goes to get the next bit right has slowed things down somewhat... not to mention the fact the lawn is growing at a ridiculous rate and needs repeated attention! You need some kind of engine bay walls to hang some of the key components off. The base kit gets away with none, mostly by not including things like a battery or coil. The boxing in of the wheel wells provides the walls, but it took several attempts. In the end I used White Tak to take a profile of the body interior to get the shape of the end wall right and let that set in place, and then drew the bonnet edge profile onto plastic card to get the top curve of the inner fender. Finally some careful measurements along the chassis tubes sorted out where I needed gaps for the suspension components. The battery is sourced from spares and I built a tray for it to sit in. Trying to get everything to fit in and join up the plumbing and wiring is complicated by the fact that you have three main assemblies to bring together, and many bits of cable and tube that connect from one to another. For example, the upper radiator hose runs from the black "rubber" tube on the left hand end of the shroud over the hood hinge to the front of the engine, which is attached to the chassis. The battery cable runs round the firewall and down to the starter motor on the bell housing.... etc. The eagle-eyed will notice I've relocated the coil; on my reference pictures it's clearly alongside or ahead of the distributor, so it needed to move further forward. I hope I won't need to separate the assemblies again now, and can just start joining things up. It'll be interesting to see if I can run the steering column in something vaguely approximating the right place, and fit the two frame braces that connect the transverse hoop at the firewall to the front suspension frame uprights.... somehow. best, M. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott8950 Posted Wednesday at 11:30 AM Share Posted Wednesday at 11:30 AM Very nice work 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted Wednesday at 09:09 PM Author Share Posted Wednesday at 09:09 PM So it did have to come apart again one more time..... access to the firewall wasn't good for attaching all the little boxes and greeblies... but now, I think I'm calling this engine bay done, and moving along. The top radiator "hose" is some aluminium florists wire I bought in several sizes for things like this and exhaust pipes. It's very flexible but not floppy, and goes where you put it and stays there. The rubber ends are heat-shrink tube. The characteristic and brightly-coloured "289 High Power" label on the air cleaner is a home printed decal... I found some old "Lazertran" paper lying around which promises that the inkjet colours dry and don't need a clearcoat, and to be on the safe side I freed the decal by putting the paper down on a damp cloth for a while rather than dropping it into water. The little boxes around the firewall, foot-wells and wheel wells are a combination of parts sliced from the original kit, some reading of a handy 289 Cobra wiring diagram and a Mustang parts supplier's online catalogue (want to know what the starter solenoid switch looks like? pretend you're buying one...), and some creative "gizmology". I should probably put a wash bottle in there somewhere. There is a steering column that runs almost to the right place, and I did manage to slip in the two diagonal frame braces in a way that looks reasonably convincing, thanks to the flexibility of styrene rod and the reasonable amount of wiggle room through the frame as I was working them into final positions. Time to get the wheels and exhausts on and then finish up the cockpit... best, M. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LennyB Posted Wednesday at 10:10 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 10:10 PM Looking good. I like the paint detail around the opening for the weatherstripping 😀 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted Thursday at 08:16 PM Author Share Posted Thursday at 08:16 PM Well, this feels like a milestone.... she's now sitting firmly on all four wheels. Next job will be the exhausts, since that's the last reason I'll need to turn it upside down, and then windscreen and chrome details... best, M. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted Friday at 10:09 PM Author Share Posted Friday at 10:09 PM First time in a long while I've got this out: "Rotisserie" adapted from an eBay "PCB soldering station" with a 50cm pice of steel rectangular tube to mke it usable for 1/24, 1/25 scale cars and trucks, and 1/35 armour... Exhaust components stolen from a "spares or repairs" E-Type and finished with some aluminum "bootlace ferrules" of the right size. Note, I have NO idea how the actual exhaust run on the Girardo and Co AC289 Sports Mk III that I'm using for reference. Sadly they didn't put it on a lift for the auction photo shoot. I can see some silencer components under the cabin and everything is under the chassis, with no side pipe or out-turn. I can see that the outlets are under the rear wings at each side. But I can't find any reference for how they get round the rear axle. I'm assuming (though I haven't tried to model this) that the pipes go up and over the suspension, like on a Mustang, or around the diff, like an E-Type. I know where they come out, and a bit of what they look like from the side, but much like the suspension and engine mounts, it's my best shot at what the real thing might be like, not an accurate model. Taking advantage of being on four wheels to open up the hood. Just the shiny details to go now... best, M. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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