B. S. Levy Special - 1938 Mercedes-Benz Indy Car

[wisdonm]

I bought this glue bomb after seeing another kit like it on evil-bay. I'm not sure all the parts are there. Some of it had been painted and assembled in the best glue bomb tradition. Especially the wheels. These were made up of 5 or six pieces each. There was so much glue on them, the plastic started to melt and deform. Not to mention that the clear wire spoke pieces were clouded with excess glue.

The body was totally chrome plated with glue smudges and scratches all over. The bottom half of the body was warped and the decals were disintegrated and parts were coming off the backing sheet.

The kit has a 4 cam, 32 valve, supercharged, dry-sumped, 3 liter V-12 that made about 450-475hp. It is the right engine for this car. Upon fist impressions, I don't think this engine will fit in this body.

So, I put the body in the DIP, aka Purple Power degreaser, and stripped the chrome plating.

Next I sanded all the mismatched seams and blemishes. Then primed it with Dupli-Color sandable primer.

[Craig Irwin]

Interesting subject for sure, but those wheels aren't going to be fun.

[Dr. Cranky]

Wow, very cool, but it is going to require lots of work . . .

[Tonioseven]

This looks quite interesting! I'm anxious to see what happens with the wheels!

[imatt88]

Candidate for the Glue Bomb Invitational

Have you tried looking for aftermarket wire wheels, or are you going to try and restore them?

Cheers, Ian

[Scale-Master]

PE wires could help bring it to life...

[wisdonm]

I was going to do a variation of the Straitline method, Dave. But needed 80 spokes per wheel and basically chickened out due to lack of skill and time.

I'm under the gun and the parts are all messed up, so of course nothing is going right.

I painted the car last Wednesday. Usually my rattle can wet coats are too wet and cover details. I wasn't going to do that this time, because I don't have time to fix anything. You guessed it. Now the paint was too dry and I have orange peel to deal with. Worse than that, after 4+ days it still smells like paint, so it is not dry enough to fix. I've now set it out in the sun to bake.

The next problem was the wheels. These are big 21" x ~6". None of the original wheels were measurable for width. The original wheels were wire wheels. I thought I could make some from 1/2" PVC pipe caps. I bored out the centers to thin the rim wall thickness on a lathe at MG Ltd. Not sure what happened to one? Must have got too hot and deformed. My plan was to split each wheel into three 2" sections and make wire wheels out of them.

After rethinking this, I got cold feet. Since each wheel would be made out of about 90 separate pieces, I questioned their rigidity and my ability to get them done in time.

Plan B called for one piece disc wheels. So I went back to MG Ltd. on Thursday to make new rims.

I did not have time to work on it Friday, Sat., and Sunday, except for some preliminary decal designs Fri. morning. This brings things up to date, with nothing actually accomplished.

[wisdonm]

Remember when I said I was going to set the body out in the sun to dry? Well of course the wind blew it onto the cement and put two pits in the paint. I also used a liquid mask to cover the chrome grill while I painted the body. I have never had good luck with liquid mask. Didn't work well this time either. First it pulled the paint off the nose. Second it removed some of the chrome that I was trying to protect. title=

Made new wheels out of the PVC rims I turned and, after a lot of work, the kit's brake drums. Did the Glosscoat, decal, Dullcoat thing. Didn't turn out too bad.

I now know why this kit was originally abandoned. Many of the parts are handed and only go together one way. Well anything that could have been glued in the wrong place, was.

I am surprised by the detail of the brake cooling scoops and vents, considering that this is a 1962 Hawk kit. Here is the chassis with the simple suspension installed.

[sjordan2]

You might want to check out the Herb Deeks wire wheels. This is on the 1/24 Merit/SMER Talbot Lago.

Your model is the W154 Mercedes that was a Grand Prix racer in 1938 and was, indeed, raced at Indianapolis in 1946-47, but not with those kind of wheels. This car was almost always raced using typical wire wheels, BUT: The wheels you are showing are pretty close to correct for one car, but were run (in aluminum color) in the 1938 French Grand Prix car, which had wire outer parts with the slotted brake drums behind them (8 holes vs. your 10). This is the CMC diecast of that car, and I have never seen this kind of arrangement anywhere else.

Edited September 13, 2011 by sjordan2

[wisdonm]

I guess the kit's wheels were Hawk's poor attempt at the French GP car.

I made decals last night. Tried something new. I used genuine gold leaf. I printed the decals as usual and then applied them onto the gold leaf. All the white areas in the original decals are now gold leaf. Applied the composite decals to the body using Future for a fixative.

The #2 burst are from the Shorty Templeton 19 56 midget set made by Greg's Racing Graphics. He has a good product and his customer service is outstanding.

Painted the chrome dash and steering wheel spokes with Dullcoat. Then applied home made decals.

I've got big problems ahead.The body is so warped, it is almost impossible to line it up for gluing. Always something, never good.

[wisdonm]

The body was so warped it popped apart the first time I glued it. Sorry, I didn't take any more assembling pixs because of the rush. So here are a couple pixs of the B.S. Levy special. Don't you just love any car whose name ends with special?

[bigphoto]

Burt would be proud!!!!

[Lownslow]

its official i want a lathe, nice work