49 Merc, Redo/Detail

After my recent suprise class win with this car at a regional show I decided I want to take it to bigger shows. The problem is it's current level of detail is limited to the engine bay and the obvious paint and chrome work. It needs some chassis goodies such as fuel and brake lines, and e brake cable. I think I will also put lake pipes on it.

I'd like to also add in some interior detailing, window cranks, dash bezels, etc,  a colour change to something richer/classier looking is needed, gone will be the in your face blue/orange.

Another idea I have is to build a hood hinge configuration that will allow the hood to flip forward. With the current configuration the hood does not allow much light or viewing of the engine details. I will use one of my other 49 Merc kits as the mock up build mule to achieve the end result for this shell.

I know this may sound ludacris and perhaps I should just build something  else but that paint took soooo long to do and it really is key to the look.

The process has been started.

I'm thinking lots of peering, squinting, head scratching and nail biting. The fearful hobbyist in me wants you to be oh soooo careful with that wonderful paint scheme, the adventurous experimenter can't wait to see how you work the stuff out. Looking forward to it.

Good luck to you, Curt.

And all these years, I've been gluing the parts together!! LOL

Thanks once again fellas. I am excited to get on with this.

I won't be touching the paint at all Kats, so no stress there. The challenge is going to be fitting the flip forward hood hinges once I configure the with the mock up kit.

Lol Mike, I try and use the least amount of glue possible. Oddly enough for some reason when I built this I intentionally did not glue the shell in place. Sometimes my subconscious mind has much more forward thinking then my conscious mind appears to have. This type of thing constantly happens to me.

Small update.

Well the house is finally done and listed so it's bench time and some desperately needed decompression for the next 10days.

I 'think', this configuration is going to work. 90 mins to bend up both hinge rods. I snapped the first attempt at making the second one, these are mirror images of each other I got a bit anal with trying to match them. I am using spring steel rod that is .014" dia.

The actual hinge protion of this configuration will be a floating setup at the 'hinge' or pivot end. The rods will be secured permanently to the hood. I had to cut the rad support to provide clearance for the rods. All in all it has been rather simple so far.

The mocked up shell/chassis and hood seem to work pretty well.

Hi guys, not much more of an update but progress none the less.

After some more fiddling around and trimming I have the proof of concept completed. The hood opens and closes without a hitch and sits flush when closed, as it should. Next will be transferring all this onto the actual model. This kit was nothing more then a test mule, and proof of concept.

I think I will bend up another set of hing rods to use on the finished model, these have been tweaked so many times they are no so crisp anymore. The hing rods and anchors points can be for this kit to be used when ever I actually build this up.

The last pic shows the anchor points, again, these will all be cleaned up on the finished shell. Both hing anchor points float, the anchors at the chassis end are a half moon rod configuration, allowing that end to pivot and move as need at the same time. The hood anchor point can float back and forth just enough so that when the hood is open the bottom swings out just enough to clear the grill.

Thanks for looking in on the progress.

This is good stuff Curt

Thanks Shay.

Looks brilliant Curt, very innovative.

Great work on the concept, it's definitely worth the time to work it out prior to trying it on the actual.

Very nice!

Thanks for checking in on the progress and the kind words guys.

I have been messing around with this some more. I have started to scratch build some rear leaf springs. I am not sure if I will use them on this or not. It was more of a need then a want, I find building parts from scratch very relaxing. Relaxing is the hardest thing for me to do, especially when sitting at the bench.

The wheels/tire's will be switched up. The original wheel/tire combo never actually fit properly. The rear's were literally stuffed in place and held with sculpting expoy. The new wheels being an open design and slightly narrower allow me to install brakes and rotors. The brake/rotors are from a 90's 1/20 F1 kit. The calipers have been narrowed and fitted for clearance.

The kit rear axle has had back spacers for the rotors and a locating pins added.

I personaly don't like re-working completed models Curt but you are doing sterling work on this one buddy.

Thanks Al, I appreciate the interest and comments.

A bit more done. I am happy with how the springs turned out, although I won't be using them. More work and fiddling around then I am willing to put in at this point in time to make them work with this wheel/tire combo. I will use them on another build. The kit springs will simply get some dry brushing.

I also decided the wheels needed some colour detailing. It is a slow/slow process to mask and paint the blue, then remark and paint the chrome. Which I messed up, good thing I can hide the smudge up in the rear wheel well.

Beautiful rework of the wheel.

As Mike said, the wheels look great Curt.

Awesome work! The re-detailing is impressive and the new wheels look fantastic.

really enjoying the pro touring/ larger diameter wheels and the stance, going to be a stunner when you finally get all the fancy trick bits like you want

Nice work on the wheels Curt. Must have been tedious methinks.

Thanks for following and the words of support and encouragement guys. This will be back on the bench soon.

Small update.

Looking good

Admiring your crisp and clean build style and great paint work. Well Done!!