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67 Corvette Convertible Finished! Posted in Under Glass


microwheel

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Not sure how I missed this one, but it's looking good Jim, I love all the little detail touches you put into your builds

Thanks Geoff, and right back at ya. I Enjoy watching your builds as well. Especially how clean you build.

Edited by microwheel
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A tip for you on your axles that I first discovered when my "assistant", tossed out the small bag containing the axles to one of my new Mustang kits, I went to the hardware store and found some small nails that were the same size in diameter as the original metal axles and bought a small box, the length didn't matter because you can cut them to length with a Dremel cutoff wheel, or wire cutters and clean the end up with a file, or leave it, the slightly larger spots left by the wire cutters makes it easier for the wheel retainers to stay on the axle even without a small drop of super glue.

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A tip for you on your axles that I first discovered when my "assistant", tossed out the small bag containing the axles to one of my new Mustang kits, I went to the hardware store and found some small nails that were the same size in diameter as the original metal axles and bought a small box, the length didn't matter because you can cut them to length with a Dremel cutoff wheel, or wire cutters and clean the end up with a file, or leave it, the slightly larger spots left by the wire cutters makes it easier for the wheel retainers to stay on the axle even without a small drop of super glue.

Thanks for the info Del, but like I said, I've never been a fan of metal axles. The reason I like using plastic to make my axle pins with, when doing alot of modifying, like I am on this build, is because if I use metal pins, and then later find that I want or need to add plastic spacers to move the wheels out some, the only way to get plastic spacers to cement to metal pins is with CA or epoxy glue, and more times than not, for me in the past, after a while, the CA or epoxy glue tends to brake down and loosen up on the metal pins causing the wheels to get wabbley. Making the pins out of plastic rod, means that any spacers I make out of plastic, will weld nicely to the plastic pins with just a drop or two of basic model cement, and then the wheels can be glued onto the pins with the same model cement, causing a weld bond that very seldom loosens up over time, unlike how most of the metal ones have done to me everytime I've used them in the past. And making a pin out of plastic rod that will allow for rotating wheels is about as easy as it gets... Just heat one end of the rod up and tap it on a piece of metal, and it creats a flat pin head.

Edited by microwheel
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I never like using kit supplied coil springs whenever I can make my own . So I grabbed some craft wire and a screw the same diameter as the kit coil spring and made a couple of my own.

The craft wire was wrapped around the threads of the screw and then removed.

DSCF4620-vi.jpg

Once that was done they were cut to length to keep the scratch made ones the same length as the kit supplied ones.

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Once they were test fitted they were set aside for now...

Continued below in next post........

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!!! Way cool Jim!! Way cool!

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Howdy Guys... I have been having issues with uploading pics to fotki all day, which is where I usually upload my build photos to. So fir now I used google's photo share to at least upload this pic. I will try to have some better detail shots of the front suspension since I finally got to time today to get it painted and assembled.

For now here is a pic of the front pose-able suspension mounted to the chassis.. I did get the floor pan areas of the chassis painted in a dark grey that I custom mixed with tamiya acrylic flat white and flat black. It actually is a little lighter than the pic makes it look. I still have more detail work to do on the chassis and suspension yet, and hope to have better pics up of the front suspension as soon as Fotki's uploader starts working right again.

DSCF4653.JPG

More to come as soon as I can....

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Excellent!

Jim, did you add some micro-style bolts to the floor pan/frame? Way up front I see some bolts, or are they painted? Details like this really add to the general look of a model. I like!

Michael

Edited by 10thumbs
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Got a little worked done the past couple days on the vette. Not a lot, but what I did get done was time consuming.

First thing was to test fit the inner front fender liners and then paint and mount them to the chassis. I needed to get this done so I could start working on the front brake lines. It also helped me make sure the body was going to line up for the correct front wheel alignment.. It all worked out like it should on the alignment.

DSCF4655-vi.jpg

DSCF4659-vi.jpg

Sorry no after pics of the painted fenders with the body.

Continued in the post below................

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Next up was to get the front brake lines done.. I used plastruct I-beams to make the frame line brackets.. I scratched made a brake line transition block out of evergreen strip plastic, and then using a piece of detail master scale battery cable, I stripped the insulation off of it to make the front brake lines with. This was bent to shape to match where it will sit on the frame.. Then using some photo etched sprue I bent it around a piece of piano wire and cut it to length to make 4 brake line mounting brackets.

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Here is the line bent to fit the chassis area where it will sit.

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Here is the line mounting brackets CA glued on the lines and test fitted in place

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The lines were then CA glued to their location on the frame.

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With the transition block painted brass the front brake lines are complete except running the soft lines from the frame brackets to the calipers, once I get that far....

DSCF4689-vi.jpg

Next up will be the back brake lines and Parking brake cable.. I'll post progress as I get work on it.....

To be continued as I get more done..................

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Excellent work and detail..Jim, what did you use to glue the front inner fenders to the frame?? I am thinking they might come loose with the body pinch when installing the frame...

Hi Carl, After painting the inner fenders, and giving time for the paint to fully cure, I then scrapped the paint from the edges that would be cemented and applied good old testors model cement to allow the joint areas to weld bond.. once that was fully cured, I applied a little bit of CA glue along the glued seems to add strength and then touched up the glued areas with a little bit of semi-gloss black paint.. then the frame was test fitted into the body again to make sure everything was strong enough to hold up. It worked out just fine.

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Hi Jim, the brake lines look very good. I like the scale too. Could you tell me what size wire, maybe in mm?

Once again, the detailing work is just excellent.

Michael

Hi Michael, I really couldn't tell you in MM what the wire is.. I can tell you that all I did was strip the coating off of some Model Care Garage scale red battery cable wire and used that as the brake line.

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Jim, as one of the resident 'Vette nuts on the board, I like a lot of what I'm seeing in this build. That said, I may have missed a post or something, but where did the idea for red spindles come from?

Looking forward to seeing this completed soon.

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