LFMForum

I have been painstakingly aligning the front structure and making good progress. As I mentioned last time, I added a styrene strip to the front edge of the door openings to give the front edges of the door skins something to rest on.







The wart on the door skin is just a magnet holding the inner and outer door skins together. There’s more of a gap than I would like between the cowl and the top edge of the door skin. I will probably fill that with some styrene. The black sharpie line on the kick panel is a roughly drawn outline of where the inner door skin sits.

Here’s the other side…







The fit on the other side was worse, so I carefully adjusted the front edge of the cowl to make sure it was aligned with the firewall and then “oops!” the door doesn’t want to fit! I assumed it was my fault and measured the openings on both sides. They were the same. But then I put the door skins side-by-side…



Aaaaaaarrrrghh. I’m going to have to shave almost 2mm off the front edge of the right door skin, maybe round up to 2mm to give the edge a little clearance. Oh well, more plastic surgery needed.

Ed Bird
Sweet!!

Ed Bird
Wow Chris, I thought I was bad having a couple of spare rear bodies and hoods and a few other miscellaneous parts. But with what you are doing think that is probably the safest way to go!!

Chris Craddock
Yes Ed, I bought the kit new and started building it OOB, but then I discovered I had a few missing parts. I got in touch with Revell and they sent replacements. I screwed up the original kit door handles (my fault) and so I eventually started picking up parts on eBay. Then Colin sent me a body and some doors (thanks again Colin!). My friend Rudy runs a (great) hobby shop and he had a kit on the back shelf that a customer had started but then lost interest when it got difficult. It was missing a few major parts and Rudy knew what I was doing and just gave it to me! So here I am with 5 at least partially complete kits that I pick over for parts. It’s actually pretty liberating knowing I have a stash of spares to fall back on.

Chris Craddock
Ok, I’m in luck. These door skins from one of my donor kits are the same size AND with a quick dry-fit test, they fit in the openings. So they will work with at most a little massaging. I do have to rework their interiors again to accept hinges, assuming I figure out how to squeeze functional hinges into that tiny space.



Gilles
What a job !!! I don’t know if I would have as much patience as you. In any case it progresses even if you encounter difficulties with each step.

I checked my doors, they are the same length. It’s strange that yours are different.

Chris Craddock
I have (I think) 4, or maybe 5, donor kits. Some fit better than others. I may end up using a better fitting pair of donor doors if I can find a good set. I need to build some internal structure within the door to accept the free end of the hinges. I had planned to glue a strip of tin inside the door skin and attach the hinge ends to that with magnets. I use a lot of magnets during construction to pin things together temporarily while I align, prime, paint etc. Sometimes the magnets stay in if it’s convenient or necessary. Otherwise I remove them before buttoning up the parts. Almost everything you see in these pictures is either captured by styrene parts and removable sliding up/out, or held together by magnets during construction. This project has been a beast. If I build another I will either build the coupe, or perhaps scratch build another roadster using material from the donor kits.

smillervette4
I am always fascinated when you discuss resolution of fitment issues, Chris. I am learning much from you, Gilles and Ed Bird. I will not be diving quite so deep with my modifications. I am seeing a huge improvement over standard kit parts in many areas. I will do what I can to keep up. Steve Miller