22 replies to this topic

[Martin]

The Don Sloan green Ferrari.

 

I bid on this one to get the body. Its the body I needed for a Bounty hunter project I have been wanting to do. My intention was to reproduce this body using this one as a starting point.

When it arrived I could see a lot of damage that was not visible in the add.

So plan B, fix it.

 

A nice surprise was a Thorp motor and the chassis was well made too.

The main damage was the split at the nose. The crack went almost half the way right to left at the separation line in front of the windshield.

I removed all the glue from the previous repair and then gave it a good clean. The new repair was done with a bit more care, this time on the underside of the body.

 

Chassis was cleaned and polished and reassembled. The gold drab numbers were not savable in the repair process and replaced with the white number 7.

Driver needed some help too so I gave it a upgrade as this car was starting to look pretty good. 

 

First pics are of the car as advertised.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a better shot of the damaged nose.

 

[Mark Onofri]

I thought this was the same but, it's newer. Or,a modified version of the same thing. The motor and exhaust system look very close. The top one is a BRM.

Attached Images

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[Martin]

Hey Mark, I would say the bodies you show are quite a bit smaller and an older generation.

 

The Bounty Hunter car has no nose grills (yes they are painted on), but the body mold is just like the green car. 

 

The one I was looking for was the one they used in the " bounty Hunter" build.  Like this. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Martin]

While working on the NOS Lancer driver insert I noticed something that I had never noticed before.

While fitting the driver to the car I noticed the drivers neck location is off center. I took a pic to understand what I was seeing. 

I have a hack 

 

 

Anyone else ever notice this? BTW they are all like this. At least all that I have.

[Mark Onofri]

The car is pulling 7G's! Your head would be offset too!!! Imagine what it would look like under breaking 😑!!!

[Martin]

Well Mark as this is a F1 car he goes left and right, so I put his head in the middle. You can just see where I cut the neck in a square off center and turned the neck 180. Using liquid weld  to melt together as one.

 

 

 

Then I added a dash and motor box to attach the cockpit to the motor. I made up gauges from aluminum welding rod.

To be pressed in after paint.

 

 

 

In front of the dash I cut and dropped the stock interior to look like the monocoque and accommodate the steering shaft.  

I did spend some time fitting his back as tight to the motor bushing as possible.

[Bill from NH]

Are these white interiors Betta?

[Martin]

Bill,

As I mentioned in post #4 these are NOS Lancer.I have a few and they are all offset in the way I described. Somebody at Lancer did a poor job.

 

The one I am doing is modified, the back half/motor box is from a repo Dynamic part. But basically original Lancer.

 

Finished painted with original driver's head cleaned up gauges installed and ready to to attach to chassis.

 

 

[Martin]

Some quick pics of the chassis with the interior, ready to assemble. A nice surprize was the 29 Thorp motor.

The finished car.

I herd Don Sloan was an active MESAC club member but also raced at comercial raceways. This car having a hot rewind and non scale and color wheels. I would say this is a car that would more at home on those fast banked tracks. 

 

My theory has one flaw. All the MESAC cars that I bought have cut down guides to run on the shallow MESAC track slot.

This car also has a cut down guide. 

[Bill from NH]

This car is clean as a new build Martin. Was there ever a 1:1 Ferrari that ran green paint or was this Don Sloan's way of being able to easily pick his own car out of a field of red Ferrari F1s? I had a Cox Ferrari F1 in '67. I painted mine fluorescent pink so it could be easily found whenever it de-slotted & went underneath the track.

[breese]

What is the secret to cleaning these chassis?

[Martin]

Bill, bold move with the pink Ferrari. But I could only find one Green Ferrari F1 race car, driving by a couple of Brits. So it was green, see pic.

Plenty of green Ferrari street cars of course. 

 

[Martin]

Bob, this one was an easy clean. No tight spots, no corrosion and all brass. 

My first step 1 is to take pics.

                    2 look for any brakes or damage.

                    3 check for flat and squareness.

                    4 pre polish with a metal polish to gauge the tumble time.

                    5 put temporary axles in place so tumble media does not get lodged there.

                    6 minimum amount of time in the tumbler 2-3 hours should do it.

                    7 rinse off and check.

                    8 if happy with results I dry with a paper towel then lightly with a heat gun just to make sure it is dry.

                    9 optional hand polish with a soft rag with a small amount of metal polish.

                    10 oil hinges and reassemble lighty oiling axles.

This one was easy most have issues and I try to do these chassis operations while paint and or epoxy is curing on the body.

 

 

 

[Mike Patterson]

While fitting the driver to the car I noticed the drivers neck location is off center.

The human body is approximately symmetrical, not 100%. For instance, my feet are two different sizes, my legs are different lengths, etc. For a head to be a few centimeters offset one way or the other, is normal. Expected, even.

 

BTW, I've got some of those gold numbers. PM me.

[Martin]

Thanks Mike, I did think I should have replaced the gold numbers and the number 8 as that would have been Dons MESAC number. 

At the time of buying this car I had no idea I could attribute it to Don or the MESAC club. So I just restored to my taste.

So to be as original I should change the numbers back to the gold. I preferer the contrast of the white and gold were dull and the whole body was coated in clear that had yellowed over time. 

So that all had to go. 

Thanks for the offer, I will PM you.

[breese]

Bob, this one was an easy clean. No tight spots, no corrosion and all brass. 

My first step 1 is to take pics.

                    2 look for any brakes or damage.

                    3 check for flat and squareness.

                    4 pre polish with a metal polish to gauge the tumble time.

                    5 put temporary axles in place so tumble media does not get lodged there.

                    6 minimum amount of time in the tumbler 2-3 hours should do it.

                    7 rinse off and check.

                    8 if happy with results I dry with a paper towel then lightly with a heat gun just to make sure it is dry.

                    9 optional hand polish with a soft rag with a small amount of metal polish.

                    10 oil hinges and reassemble lighty oiling axles.

This one was easy most have issues and I try to do these chassis operations while paint and or epoxy is curing on the body.

 

 

 

Thank you!

What are you using in the tumbler? I have always worried about damaging something.

[Martin]

Wish I could help with your question.  I was gifted my tumbler with the media. Best I can do is take a pic of it if you would like?.

Its mixed ceramic shapes of various sizes. 

[Dave Crevie]

 Was there ever a 1:1 Ferrari that ran green paint or was this Don Sloan's way of being able to easily pick his own car out of a field of red Ferrari F1s? 

 

Here ya go, Bill. A green Ferrari raced by the Rosso (red) Ferrari team. (Not F-1, but weird just the same.)

 

[Mark Onofri]

What about David Piper?

[Martin]

Good one Mark.

For Piper, the colour was all about sponsorship. Before painting his cars green, Piper got his fuel, oil and bonuses from ESSO. But the 1957 Suez Oil Crisis meant they could no longer back him. One oil company that was not very affected by the crisis was BP. Piper took interest in the British oil company’s green logo, and soon the two parties came to an agreement where Piper painted his cars green in exchange for BP sponsorship. The colour was called BP Green.

 

 

 

Read more here...

https://rossoautomob...-green-ferraris

[Mark Onofri]

Unfortunate about what happened to him in the movie Lemans.

[Martin]

Please tell me more Mark.

[Martin]

Found it, I did not know this...

“The making of the film was, in many ways, a lot more dangerous than the race itself,” says Derek Bell, five-time winner of the famous 24-hour race and part of McQueen’s on-screen driving crew.

Yet despite being a sports car veteran, it was only when Bell was pretending to race that he suffered his worst accident, when his car caught fire on location. He escaped, but suffered nasty burns to his face. Another British driver, David Piper, lost half a leg in a crash during filming. McQueen himself suffered only emotional damage, but that was arguably harder to stomach in the long run.

More here.

https://www.topgear....mentary-reveals