jaymcminn Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Porsche is unusual among sports car marques in that there has been a thriving mod scene for decades. In the 70s there were the "canyon carver" 911s that were modified to handle like they were on rails. The 80s brought flat noses, whale tails, and big flares. The 90s saw the tuner market explode as the water-cooled engines started to come into their own. The big trend now is toward that 70s retro design. The look is usually inspired by the '73 Carrera RS, with its "ducktail" rear spoiler and smooth front fascia. Paint colors range from vintage racing livery to wild original color combinations. Interiors tend to be Spartan, even by early 911 standards. Engines generally receive modest tweaks to bump up power- it's all about getting the whole package, and overpowering an early 911 ruins that package. Fuchs wheels are almost mandatory (Minilites or BBS are okay, too) and the suspension needs to sit LOW. These cars are generally referred to as "hot rod" or "outlaw" 911s. Here are a couple of examples... I started my build with the Fujimi/Testors '73 RS kit. The nice thing about the Fujimi Enthusiast 911s is that you receive parts in the box to do a LOT of different touches to the car- three different types of mirror, a couple of different headlights, racing and street seats, etc. The first order of business with the kit was to set up the ride height- out of the box these tend to sit like Bigfoot. Fortunately, the design of the suspension allows for a lot of tweaking to get it to sit just right. I narrowed the spindles to tuck the tires into the wheelwells and moved the brake/hub assemblies up to get it sitting just right... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaymcminn Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 Next came the color choice. I was originally going to do Gulf livery, but that's reached the point where it's completely played. I was also limited by the stripe color choices in the Fujimi kit- red, green, or navy blue. Fortunately, Hobby Design released a set of Carrera stripes last month in colors including white, yellow, orange, red, and black. The stripes are beautifully registered and look amazing! The original plan was to do bright green with the Carrera stripe in yellow, but that looked a little too "agricultural" (think John Deere!), so I went with something a little different... The color is Tamiya Metallic Green. THe orange fascias are Tamiya Brilliant Orange... they're a pretty good match for the orange stripe. Since these pics were taken the paint has been cleared and polished and it looks amazing,. I'm going to wind up doing the window trim in chrome rather than black (went back and forth on that one a while) which should look really hot with the green. The interior will have body-colored floorboards and rear shelf with a rollbar I'm modifying from the Revell '68 Firebird kit. I'm going to do diamond-plate floormats and kick plates on the interior as well. The competition seats and door cards will be finished in saddle tan- I want to try a finish on them that will look like distressed leather. I'm thinking about doing aluminum velocity stacks on the engine as well. Keep an eye out for updates and, as always, questions and comments are welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o-man Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Looking forward to this! Cool builld so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PowerPlant Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Is that the Fujimi Enthusiast series kit? It looks great so far! I'm liking the color-combo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyGirl Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 very cool color combo you have there !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Edman Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 nice idea can you show pics of the suspension so i could see how you lowered it please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantrix Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Very cool! More ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaymcminn Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 Is that the Fujimi Enthusiast series kit? It looks great so far! I'm liking the color-combo Yes, it's the Fujimi Enthusiast kit. It's actually the Testors re-box from the '80s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaymcminn Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 nice idea can you show pics of the suspension so i could see how you lowered it please Bill, I'll post up some pics of the modified suspension parts tomorrow. It's actually pretty easy to get this kit to sit low due to the way Fujimi designed the suspension to accommodate the different variants of the 911. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Jon Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 (edited) Cool build! The 2.7L Carrera RS is in my top ten favorites list! Check out the modified 911s that Magnus Walker has been doing too, they're "Outlaw" style too Edited May 23, 2013 by Jeremy Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scanduhless Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 very cool. That color looks brilliant! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Edman Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 Bill, I'll post up some pics of the modified suspension parts tomorrow. It's actually pretty easy to get this kit to sit low due to the way Fujimi designed the suspension to accommodate the different variants of the 911. cool appreciate it cannot wait i am going to be building a testers/fujimi 356 and i wanna get it low so seeing others work will help me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaymcminn Posted May 23, 2013 Author Share Posted May 23, 2013 Cool build! The 2.7L Carrera RS is in my top ten favorites list! Check out the modified 911s that Magnus Walker has been doing too, they're "Outlaw" style too That was actually a lot of my inspiration for this build. Magnus's cars are wild! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Edman Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 his red one with empi's is awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaymcminn Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 (edited) Lowering the suspension on the Fujimi Enthusiast 911s is pretty easy due to the modular nature of the kits. The brake/hub assembly is designed to be mounted at different heights on the upright to accommodate the different ride height of the variants. By gluing the hub assembly higher on the upright, you can lower the ride height. The main thing to watch out for is not going too low- the mockup in the original post has about 2 scale inches of ground clearance! Fortunately all 1/24 roads are flat... It's also necessary to narrow the track to tuck the wheels up into the wells. Due to the design of the suspension, it's easy to take about 1/16 of an inch out of the hub spacer to get the wheels tucked. The swing-arm rear suspension is easy, too- by cutting the tops off of the rear shocks and repositioning the hub assembly on the swing axle to center it in the well, you can get the rear end down. It's also necessary to narrow the rear track as well, I found that I needed to grind out the wheelwell lip and the interior tub to get the wheels not to rub. Here's the modified front suspension... and the rear suspension, showing how much the hub spacer needs to be shortened to tuck the wheels into the fenders. Before... After... And finally, a pic of the body shell now that it's been cleared and polished... Edited May 24, 2013 by jaymcminn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarana-X Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 The paint looks great, and it certainly isn't a played out color combo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMSANUT Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Very cool project. Looking forward to this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Edman Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 thanks well appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
om617 Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Great tip on the suspension. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaymcminn Posted June 5, 2013 Author Share Posted June 5, 2013 I haven't abandoned this one... I finally sat down long enough to download some pics and post an update on this one. I built a street-style roll bar from Evergreen styrene using some on-line 911 roll bar pics as a guide... here it is mocked up in the body shell before being painted body color: Various bits and pieces mounted for priming and painting... And here are some of the interior panels, with the distressed leather finish applied using washes over a custom-mixed saddle brown. I used my natural aniline-dyed living room sofa for inspiration! Finally, here's the (mostly) completed engine... I did the airbox in a crackle finish and painted the engine shield in Tamiya orange. F.I. lines are silver beading wire. Finally, I did a quick mockup of the painted body on the chassis- since I took this picture I actually raised the front ride height by about 1/16 of an inch. It looks much more "right" now. Next I'll finish up the interior, finish and install the engine, and get some Alclad applied to the exterior chrome trim. More updates coming soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOBBS Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Excellent looking build. I've always had a soft spot for the 911. I may have to step outside of my GM pro-touring box and take one of these on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Edman Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 nice job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonioseven Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Beautiful work!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaymcminn Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 A couple more progress pics- this one is done and I'm posting the finished pics in Under Glass soon. Here's the interior installed with four-point harnesses- I like the brown leather against the body-color floorboards and roll bar. I decided to keep the stock 911 steering wheel. And the final assembled chassis/interior. I didn't add the trunk detail up front... I never cut the trunk lid off the body! Here's a shot of the finished model... more will be added in Under Glass soon! 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.