28 replies to this topic

[Jairus]

One of the rarest (Only 33 cars produced between 1962 - '64) sports cars ever made and the most valuable today is the Ferrari 250 GTO.

Received a request to build a chassis and paint the body for this 1/32 scale body.  Yeah, that's pretty darned small!

 

Originally the plan is to make sure the motor space can fit either an FK or a 16D motor.  Bracket is so drilled and milled to accept either.

 

Wheels are "Racer" items and use a very small set screw fitted to 3/32" axles.

Mid section is done after many days of deliberation and crafting.



The extensions at the rear are for the very visible exhaust pipes found on the real 250 GTO.

 

 

Wheels, as I mentioned are "Racer" 1/32 items and beautifully crafted.  But, they needed a .035 drive hex tip to tighten them so... had to order one special.
No expense spared.

 

Now, attention is given to the interior....
The basic frame is from a 1/32 scale Monogram 250 LM to which I cut it down and added a rear deck. 
Still not found a good driver, as you can see, the Cox driver seems a bit undersized.

 

"To infinity and beyond!"

[Tex]

nice project.

 

from this angle, the driver doesn't look too small, to me anyway. mock up the interior, with the driver, in the body and see what it looks like. or, you may have already done that and decided he's too small, soooo...... I'll shut up now.  :^D

[Pablo]

[miko]

Love  the chassis ! 

[Martin]

getting small in a big way.

[Jairus]

The chassis is now a roller!
Guide is tilted back a correct 1 to 2 degrees.
The front axle is mounted to allow flush or recessed braid.
Track fits the body very tightly, but that can be adjusted later after mounting.
Mounting the body tho.... means some brass bat pans still have to be installed.

Work, work, work.....

 

 

 

[MattD]

What great skill and attention to detail you have.   All your work really impress's me and makes me  wonder about my abilities!!!!

[Jairus]

Surprising it took this long to get here. 
But other stuff got in the way, like... life!
Mostly Johnny Lightning designs, which are not yet done.  But I need to pay bills and got tired of drawing. So finished up the chassis.

 

Pan movement is exactly 1/16" (.062).
Front axle ISO movement up and down is exactly 1/16" (.062).
This allows running on flush or recessed braid tracks.


 

 

Took much of the day to get the assembly right.
Ran that fragile aluminum gear in till mesh is smooth.
TSR motor is one that I bought and never used.  Plenty power for this little car.

Now, I gotta get her mounted, which means poking holes in a vintage body. 

 

 

 

[Pablo]

Luv it That's gonna handle   

[Jairus]

Well now... mounting the body is not that easy.
Turns out, with the body at correct ride height, it sits right on the pins. 

 

Guess I should NOT have cut along the bottom cut line.
(IDIOT    )

 

Couple of options:
1) add an extension to the bottom of the body.
2) or move the tubes.
3) rather just add new pin tubes and paint the edge of the pan black...


 

[Martin]

Is lowering the body and raising the wheel arches an option? Slam that beauty.  Looks like that would work from my arm chair.

[Ecurie Martini]

Is lowering the body and raising the wheel arches an option? Slam that beauty.  Looks like that would work from my arm chair.

 

And I suppose you would suggest painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa?

 

EM

[Martin]

No. I am not talking about that much, just enough to reach the mounting holes. 1/8" maybe.  I would not suggest it if I thought it was defacing fine art. But not my call, just offering a suggestion.

Remember the chassis is a scale 2" of the ground so we are not talking perfect scale here otherwise you would lift the pans up to a scale 4"  or 1/8"

Jairus could the pans be angled up, or would the angles get weird?

[Ecurie Martini]

If you look at Ferraris of the period, many of them look rather like they were wearing " high water pants"  with the bottom of the coachwork not reaching much below the wheel centers.  If you bend over to get a car level view, there is a fair amount of oily business extending below the body line.  Most cars of the era had at least 4" of ground clearance, far more (in scale) than typical 1/32 chassis.  I faced this problem recently building up a pair of C type Jaguars which also had a very shallow shell. My solution: chassis and body mounting posts (resin shell) + flat black paint.

 

 

 

Angled or stepped pans might work.

 

EM

[Jairus]

Already moved the pin tubes and re-assembled the chassis.
Also added some tips to the exhaust pipes.



Not too bad.
Wish it had taillights molded in.  Going to have to do something about that.

[dc-65x]

Hi Jairus..........she's looking good.
 

Well now... mounting the body is not that easy.
Turns out, with the body at correct ride height, it sits right on the pins.

 

The old scale bodies hadn't been......ah........messaged into "handling bodies" yet.

Like my friend Dave used to say, "That's vintage!" 

[Jairus]

Screwed up my courage and poked holes in the body this morning.

 

 

Learned something.  The pins, due to the thickness and material of the body, tend to lock up the pan movement. 
To that end, the pins need to be slightly away from the body for full pan movement.

 

 

Other side needs the wheel opening (front) re-arched slightly.  
Then paint, decals and done!

Funny how I love soldering, but hate assembly.
Love painting but hate the mounting of the body.
3 hurdles done, one to go!

[Don Weaver]

Learned something.  The pins, due to the thickness and material of the body, tend to lock up the pan movement. 

 

 

 

I've had that same problem with some "pinned" hardbodies too.

 

Don

[miko]

Looks great Jairus!

[Ecurie Martini]

"The pins, due to the thickness and material of the body, tend to lock up the pan movement. 
To that end, the pins need to be slightly away from the body for full pan movement."

 

Seen a similar problem on hard body cars with mounting post and pans - my solution: leave the up/down stops on the pans relatively wide and fine tune the amount of motion by adjusting the body screws.  I use 2-56 screws with stopper spots into threaded brass inserts so there is no problem with them coming loose.  If ground clearance is an issue, I press  recesses into the pans so the screw heads are flush.  

 

For my application, scale hard body 1/32 cars running on routed home tracks, I find little to choose between hinged pans and a single "rattle" pan.  The latter is easier to fabricate

 

EM

[Jairus]

Alan, that makes sense on a sidewinder, but the motor takes up a huge amount of room in the chassis.  Even the small FK motor.
How do you connect the pans at the back I wonder, is what keeps me up at night.
 

[Ecurie Martini]

One example - a very small car - 4CLT Maserati:

 

 

In this particular case a commercial laser cut steel chassis was used.  Originally designed for an FC/FK motor, this one was adapted to an FF 050 can. You can see the plate aluminum adapter (like the old plates made to use a Zephyr transmission with a non-Ford engine) at the rear of the motor.  The rattle plate was "hooked" over the chassis rails at the rear by the two wire "L"s and at the front, the smaller plate was flipped and the chassis rails sandwiched between upper and lower.

 

In other instances, particularly when using a machined bracket, commercial or scratch, I have drilled holes for 1/16" wire in the sides of the bracket and hung the rear with wire loops or drilled "L" brackets.

 

The pans can be pure rattle pans like the one above with separate body mounts on the chassis or the pan can be extended fore and aft and body mounts incorporated.  I will typically use 2 mounts for a monoposto like this one and 3, 1 rear and 2 just behind the front wheels, for sports cars. I do not leave a lot of play - typically a total of 0.040" total vertical movement and perhaps 0.030" fore and aft, both subject to tire/body clearance on envelope bodied cars.

 

Incidentally, I loaned the 4CLT  to a much better driver than I for a race on the BPR small track some years ago and he absolutely smoked the opposition,

 

Al

[Jairus]

I am calling this one done!

Unless someone points out a flaw before Monday's mail. 
Been working on it for too long and need to get her little 1/32 *** out of here.

 

 

 

 

 

Is not that the most beautiful rear end Ferrari ever made?  Makes anyone following behind something to admire.  (woof)

 

 

 

Endo'

[Geary Carrier]

Sweet ride and then some...

[Noose]

Sweet job!