1935 Delahaye 135 - Heller 1/24

Outstanding.

Don't know how I've been missing this one Mike. What a potentially beautiful car. Too bad about the wheel and the fitting issues. You are making great progress though and I really expect an exceptional finished project knowing your talents.

Finished the front end work.  Since one of the pins for the front wheels was snapped off, I removed the other one and drilled them for wire pins.  Amazingly, the chassis sits on all four wheels.  WooHoo!

Level stance?  Who knows - it's hard to mock up with the separate sections.


Amazing the direction and camber look good.


Wire pins are just a press fit for now to make sure it sat level.


The separate inner fenders for the rear.  


Luckily, I hit it right and the chassis sits in the contour nicely.



Body on looks good.  Thought the rear wheels were forward a bit, but when the fender is on it's good, and there's clearance for skirts.


Thanks for looking and for your comments,
Mike

That's sweet how its turning out Mike.

Nice work Mike it's coming together nicely. The front suspension has nice detail.

and two funny looking things. wrote:

Man I just love 'tech speke'....

Test fitting BEFORE painting is always a wise move.  Even so sometimes . . . !  Good luck on the next stage.

You want me to do what?!

I took a good look at what's up next - mounting of the front fenders.  First of all, I don't like the way they included a small portion of the fender molded on the body, apparently for proper location.  It doesn't make the painting of the two-tone scheme any easier.  Also, the mounting of the front fenders leave the mating at those points a matter of good luck.


The hood will sit in the recess of this blue piece.  That piece will also define the front edge where the grill will mount.



But at the same time, the little blue piece will mount in the frame at a certain point.  This is going to determine hood to body fit as well as fender location.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


The blue piece gets glued to the fender, but gets painted the body color.  Tricky.


Needless to say, there'll be a lot of studying, trial fitting and paint planning going on next.

Mike

wow that looks fiddly and tricky, good luck.

I know you can pull it off Mike. Does look tricky though.

Way to improve the kit Mike

Man I am tuned in to this one. Excellent OTB. I know you will over come all the little things.

So interesting how different that kit can be!  In your hands it's looking excellent.  Hope the front end comes together for you.

Back to the engine.  Fuel hose from carb to carb and hard tube from fuel pump to carb.  Got the wiring done from the dizzy to the tube to the plugs.  Coil is mounted on the firewall, so that'll come later.  Used some hot rod PE for the tiny linkage rail.




Thanks for the comments,

Mike

Lookin good !!

Nice engine, that would be right at home in a rat rod.

The engine looks great Mike.

Nice detailing.

Really nicely done so far Mike

It's obviously tough Mike, but you are making it look good.

Very good work on the engine.  It's basic look is boosted with the wiring and linkage.  The look of the body and frame with that engine make it a masterpiece in the process.

Great looking engine Mike!

This is really beginning to try my patience.  The alternative is to leave the front end off, throw a Jaguar V12 in it and mount some fat tires.  But that's not allowed in the GB, so I'll labor on.

The carb linkage is on and the engine is now done.


The small filler panels had to be trimmed to allow a proper lineup of the front mounting to the grill housing.



This is where I screwed up following Heller's instructions.  There's no sequence of assembly indicated anywhere - just an exploded view.  The instructions indicate that these small filler panels mount to the outside of the oil cooler uprights with a crazy squiggly line.  So, since those are the only pieces with a definite location of attachment, I decided to start there.  


Well, it looks like the panels should mount to the inside because of all the obvious clues you see here.
Not lining up correctly with the frame.


Being too wide at the front and stretching the fenders apart so they won't line up.  But note that if they're mounted to the inside of the uprights, the uprights might keep them from attaching flush to the fender edges.


This deffeinitely shows they should be mounted to the inside.


A little ungluing is necessary and then start over again.

Mike