[Anthony B]

One of my current builds along with the Connaught


       

Ferrari 500 TRC

[chrisguyw]

I have been asked to see if I can make this into a better runner/looker,.....it will definitely need a new chassis, motor, wheels/tires etc.,etc., and bodywork/paint/decals. I will start by cutting the sills, and rear bodywork from the lower "clamshell" chassis piece and attaching them to the upper body section,........to be honest, this project really does not excite me, but, the customer is a good friend, so I had little choice 

Cheers
Chris Walker

[chrisguyw]

Step 1 (from above post),........all stripped down. and given a quick clean,....good news, no cracks/splits, and no missing bits.

Now to cut the necessary body bits from the chassis, and glue them to the main body.

Cheers
Chris Walker

[BAracer]

Now to cut the necessary body bits from the chassis, and glue them to the main body.

Is that for appearance or performance reasons?

[chrisguyw]

Now to cut the necessary body bits from the chassis, and glue them to the main body.

Is that for appearance or performance reasons?

Hello Jeremy,....the answer to your question is , both !!

All "clamshell" designs results in visible seams  where  the upper and lower body (chassis)  bits meet , and in order to to have any movement between both, the screws generally have to be  fairly loose, enough to result in rather large gaps between the upper and lower,..worse, the mouldings of the time were never particularly straight/flat so the gaps varied along their length,.... so esthetically not very pleasing at all,....

Secondly, and every bit (actually more ) as important to me is to try and improve the performance of the car, and the twisted/flimsy chassis in this SCX car (and many older vintage plastic chassis cars), does not cut it, so a new brass/wire chassis will be built. Fitting the newly built chassis does require that the front/rear valences, and the side sills of the body be cut off of the chassis plate in order to fit.

Cheers
Chris Walker

The chassis will be a simple design, and, similar the the ones I build for all vintage 1/32 Strombecker/Monogram etc. bodies.

This one under a Strombecker McLaren Mk1B



And this under a Strombecker Chaparral 2D

[BAracer]

Got it...I missed the earlier reference to providing a new chassis.

[chrisguyw]

Got it...I missed the earlier reference to providing a new chassis.

Even if not replacing the chassis, and, if your rules allow, converting a "clamshell" into a separate body/chassis is a very useful modification, as it it is much easier to get, and adjust movement between chassis/body.

Here is a "Clamshell" Scaley Ferrari P4 I did for a club member ages ago,....this was done after the gears/wheels bushings etc. etc. were done and it did make a noticeable  difference,.......looks a ton better too !!

Cheers
Chris Walker

[chrisguyw]

Got the body bits cut off the clamshell chassis, and attached to the main body,........a real pain   , as not much was square/even.

Still need to apply some putty along the back end seams/joins, and a fair bit of sanding to get everything even/aligned. but, even as it is, it  looks better !

Cheers
Chris Walker

[Kevan]

Which is the easiest way?  remove the windows, interior and all the running gear, screw the top and bottom together, glue along the joins inside where you can reach, using a dremel with a cutoff disc carefully cut along the bottom where you want the 'new chassis' to be, remove the screws, take away the 'new chassis', reinforce the glued joins inside, clean up the cut edges.

[chrisguyw]

Which is the easiest way?  remove the windows, interior and all the running gear, screw the top and bottom together, glue along the joins inside where you can reach, using a dremel with a cutoff disc carefully cut along the bottom where you want the 'new chassis' to be, remove the screws, take away the 'new chassis', reinforce the glued joins inside, clean up the cut edges.

I would generally agree,...however. this SCX Chaparral had the rear lights/mesh/exhaust panel fitted into slots in both the upper and lower rear body pieces, so I had to perform some serious grinding/cutting on the rear end bits in order to replace the panel once the 2 rear body panels were cemented together,.....as mentioned previously, way more work/aggro. than I had anticipated, and no where as easy as the Monograms/Revells/Nincos/Scaleys I have done.

Cheers
Chris Walker

PS In post #833 you can see the "slots" (at the rear of the chassis part) that hold the rear light/exhaust/screen panel,....the factory would slide this panel into the slots on the chassis, slide the slots in the top body section over this panel, and screw the whole mess together,...... without some very serious grinding there is no way the panel could be inserted from the inside, once the top/bottom body section were glued.