Fiat Topolino '60s Altered & Finished Slingshot Dragster

[krazyglu]

Hey Niko no big deal buddy, like I said it looks much better with plug wires than without. I do think it looks better with that top on there so way to adapt and keep on going. The things you made are called wire looms and I have been thinking about making some myself. After seeing yours installed I like the look a lot. Did you say you were putting this engine in one of the dragster's?

[brett]

Looking really good Niko!

[W-409]

Thanks Steven and Brett!

I like this engine too, it's much better with that top part. And wire looms were helpful to get ignition wiring to look "right". This engine will be in Dragster, yes. In the Open Rail version, I will build that Streamliner later, but don't know yet, if I must do some modifications before it really looks good to my eye. That Topolino has been still waiting too.

[W-409]

Little update for the engine. Those blower parts were on MR Muscle to remove chrome plating. After that I removed few mold seams and painted them silver. I assembled everything together, only those "tubes" are missing. (First picture, parts number 23) Those parts didn't fit at all, so I'm going to make new ones from solder.

[John Teresi]

Niko.......looks GREAT!!!!!!

[W-409]

Thanks so much, John!

Those parts number 23, what didn't fit at all, are built now from solder. I believe, I must do some little things, before I can call them 100% finished, but anyway, they turned out pretty good.

[1zebra3]

Great job on the engine Niko. If the rest of the build looks this good you will have a couple of great models.

[W-409]

Thanks, Matt! I'll try to build as good build as this engine.. I've messed few builds with bad finishing. But this is not going to be one of them, I'm sure about it, since this is one of my all time favorite kits, and subject is more than interesting...

[W-409]

Little update, some detailing for the engine. Those fuel line (?) parts are made from ignition wire and two piece of styrene. Next I must continue detailing, and frame needs to be built too.

[W-409]

Finally an Update...

Not so much done today, but something anyway. I removed mold lines and other trash from the frame, and then I primered it. Primer dried fast so I managed to paint them too. Tomorrow I'm going to spray some Metal Flake- Clear on those parts. Also painted those spokes of front wheels, and glued them together. Rear Wheels are in the paint stripper, I'm removing the chrome plating so I can paint them Magnesium.

[W-409]

Sorry guys, it has been a while, but I forgot to paint one part of the frame, and it took some time to primer, paint and clearcoat it. But today I was able to do some work with the Dragster too, I assembled the frame together. There were no big fit issues at that point, everything went together pretty well.

I painted white walls to rear slicks too. It was bit risky to do with white "Marker Pen" and Circle Template. Anyway those White Walls turned out okay, there are some little spots to fix, but otherwise I'm pretty happy.

Then I installed front and rear axles. They went together..... Well somehow. I had some problems with the front axle, but I got it installed. There are some parts still missing, and I'm going to continue building tomorrow. Hope to have more updates soon.

Mock Up With Engine:

You can see some white spots on the frame, they came when I test fitted the body. It was pretty tight fit, but I'm going to fix those white spots soon.

[BOSWELL891]

Great work so far

[W-409]

Thanks, Cole!

Very Small update, but something done anyway. I have also painted some primer for the body parts, but I don't have pictures of them yet. Anyway here is the "Dashboard", it needed little putty before it was ready to be painted. Also the seat is painted. Hope to have more soon.

[W-409]

As I said in the last post, body parts are primered too. Here is a picture of them, I'm hoping to get them painted tomorrow but let's see what the weather says.

[W-409]

I painted the body and Belly Pan yesterday from inside, since the weather was good. The color is Green, it just fits nicely on this kind of Dragster. Hopefully I can get outside of body painted today.

The frame is waiting for parts. I need some 6-Angled plastic tubing to make these fittings. Of course they are available in Photo Etched parts, but they are more expensive for my budget.

And here's the picture of Body and Belly Pan.

[W-409]

I had bit problems with the painting, but after one wetsanding and repaint, I was happy about the paint job. Now I put the decals on, and it looks pretty good. Then clearcoat, and polishing.

[Davewilly]

Looks great so far! Keep up the great work!

[W-409]

Thank You!

Little more progress with this one too. I'm planning to finish this today also, there are pretty much things to do, but at least I'm gonna try. BUT if I can't make it, I'm not going to rush the finish on this one.

Body and Belly Pan have been polished. I'm really happy about how they turned out. The chassis is pretty much done exept few little parts and some important details.

[W-409]

Gettin' There! These are the final WIP pictures of the Dragster, it's close of being completed. Glued the body and some other parts too. I had a bit fit issues with the body, but I managed to make it fit somehow. It should be done in few hours.

[Burnout]

Nice looking digger, Niko. Good luck at the model car show.

[W-409]

Thanks Ken! Luck is needed there, so I don't break anything while driving to Lahti.

It's FINISHED too. I'll post pictures tomorrow after that Show. I'll tell you more information and final thoughts about this tomorrow, now I must get some sleep.

[John Teresi]

Niko......this is just a GREAT model........very well done.......love the color combo.

[Mooneyzs]

Niko... Looking great man. This is sure coming together

[W-409]

Thanks John And Chris!

The First build of Double Dragster kit is completed. Next one will be the Fiat Topolino Altered. Anyway, I had little problems with the final assembly. Body didn't fit well, it was too high all the time. Because of that I had to sand some material off from the "Dashboard" and frame parts to get the body fit. Now it fits Okay. Otherwise I had no problems, very fun build over all.

[W-409]

Well it looks like it's finally time to start hacking with the Fiat Topolino. The inspiration came from a Primer CBP on TRaK which means of course that the Fiat will be left in Grey Primer. My plan is to use the kit tires, but I will paint white walls to the rear slicks. Rear wheels will be used from the AMT kit but I'm not sure what to do with the fronts. The ones in Double Dragster kit look really good, but I'm not sure if I want to use them here. I will have to look what I can come up with. The engine will be an Early Hemi with Hilborn Fuel Injection, also from the kit.

I'm building this at the same time as I'm building the '55 Chevy so the progress won't be super fast. I try to work on both of these builds as much as I can though.

The reason why I hadn't started the Fiat earlier was that my kit was missing the Rear Engine Mount (Part F6 on the first picture). Rather than trying to locate one of those parts somewhere, I thought I should modify something similar from one I had in my parts boxes. I had to cut some material off from the engine to get it fit, but after cutting the piece that originally goes inside the clutch cover / rear engine mount, the new part fits perfectly. I must strip the chrome plating off though.