Alfa Romeo Coupe Elegant 1/8

[Roy vd M.]

Although I really like the general look of the engine and your eye to detail (I think you were a bit modest in your first post) there is one thing that I think might be a bit 'much' and that is the coloring of the exhaust manifolds. Did you use reference photos of this particular engine to replicate this affect? Frankly it looks to me as if the engine is brand new and the engine is currently running, showing a pair of extremely hot exhaust manifolds. 

 

But as said, the rest looks excellent. 

[larchiefeng]

Nice work on the engine and your machined parts. Between you and Endeavor, you guys are providing inspiration for me to start doing more work on my Monza. Like you, I started out with the shiny aluminum block and bottom end but, after doing some research and reading through sections of the Simon Moore books, I decided to make a change to the engine block. Here are two pictures of what the engine looked like before I made the changes and as it is now. I went with a cast aluminum look for the block instead of the shiny aluminum. The changes are the addition of the linkage tunnels through the rear engine mounts. 

 

Before

 

After:

[CrazyCrank]

@Pouln I really apprecicate your great job to give a new life to this fantastic car. Your build and choices are unique and amazing....

Thanks for the link to special wire 

[Pouln]

Is looking really good, Wayne.

I also saw different material and colours on the engine. I understand that the race blocks were built with different material compared to the touring versions.

Anyway, I'm not looking for a 100% copy of the truth. Mine maybe a bit to shiny and yes I do need to wheather the block more (thanks for the hint, Chas).

 

Roy, thank for your comments. I agree that the colour does look quite strong in the picture, but I think it has to do with the flash. I will inspect this part again and tone it down a bit, if needed.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Pouln

[Pouln]

Ok next is the rear axle.

Primed it and decided it should be black, but not too shiny. I also painted every bolt on the axle.

Didn't have too much to clean up on these parts.

By the way, I had troubles with the Vallejo primer. It was nearly impossible to sand it. It acted more like a rubber layer that was being rolled up than a primer that was sanded.

I have bought a bottle of Stynylrez primer. Funny stuf but works really well. It is very thick and I therefore use it with a .4 needle, but the result is great and it does allow proper sanding.

 

 

I also did the front axle. Sorry, I have no pictured but the end result. I painted all the connecting rods in black.
I will paint all the plated stuff either in a suitable colour or in clear. Don't want to find those parts discoloured or worse in a few years time.

 

Edited December 16, 2016 by Pouln

[Pouln]

As the handle of the handbreak lever split in one of the previous attempts to build the engine (didn't have the Paul Koo DVD at the time), I scratched a new one.

This Alfa being a luxury car, I decided that it should be done in white instead of the normal black. Was an easy job.

I furthermore painted a bit more bolts and other protrusions on the gearbox in brass.

 

 

I was wondering how the carburator was operated from the accelerator pedal.

Came up with the following solution (executed using solder wire, some spun tin wire.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2016 by Pouln

[Pouln]

Next up is the firewall.

I trial fitted it to decide where it should be located.

 

 

For paint I tried something new

 

Then I decided that the firewall needed a lot of additional work.

In the pictures on the DVD I found some examples that I thought would be nice to scratch, so, here it goes:

 

 

The ribs on the firewall are wrong, they should be inward instead of outward, so I shaved them off and made new ones. In hindsight I should have used a smaller mill, but this is what how it turned out. I also filled the holes for the wires in the firewall as they were not located correctly. I drilled new holes but in hindsight (again) the top rows of holes are too high. All these errors are put in my box of experiences, so that next time I can do better.

Next time?

Yes next time. I have 2.5 Pocher Alfa wrecks in my stash. At least one of the will be a highly detailed rolling chassis at a certain point in time.

 

The wiring is again spun tin wire, this time in yellow and in green. As I said the holes for the top rows are a bit too high on the FW.

I scratched new fuse boxes.

 

Edited December 16, 2016 by Pouln

[Dr. Fiat]

Beautiful firewall!  You didn't steal those guitar strings from Roy's collection, did you? 

[Pouln]

LOL, no those aren't guitar strings but spun tin wire. But later on you'll see that I have stolen some from him. I've seen that he has more than enough, so he won't mind..

 

Thanks for the compliment

[Pouln]

Next up is the floor board.

As delivered in the kit, it is easy to make it look like a metal frame with rubber matts on the floor.

It would then look like this:

 

 

Welll, this is a luxury car, so rubber on the floor is a nogo. Woolen carpeting is needed.

 

 

 

I'm quite leased with the result so I decided that extra leather piped overrugs were needed.

 

 

As I moved the firewall forward (about 1 cm), I created some challenges for later. One being the gap between the crossmember and the rear of he floor board, but also the way he floorboard fits into the "wings" that are attached outside the chassis rails. These wings are unique to the Coupes, as their bodies are wider than those of the spider, the Monza and he Muletto.

The gap between crossmember and rear floorboard will be dealt with later, but there is also a gap between gearbox and the tunnel in the floor board. I filled that with a rolled piece of brass sheet. 

 

Below you also see that I changed the gear lever knob to match the hand brake handle and that I filled the gap between gearbox and tunnel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to completer the carpeting I needed to take a pattern

 

 

 

And then on with overrugs

 

 

 

This is how it looks with the body trial fitted

 

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2016 by Pouln

[Pouln]

In the picture above You could have seen that the gap between floor board en crossmembers was closed.

But that is a much wider gap to close on the other side of the crossmember. The kit does not include a floor board section for that location. I scratched it from brass sheet.

 

 

Moving the floorboard forward brought some more consequences:

1. the location of the seats changes in relation to the floorboard

2. the same goes for the oil cooler at the under side.

 

I will deal with that later on.

[Pouln]

Talking about seats. Left and right seat are molded together. One part for the backrest and one for the seat itself.

I seperated them as I wanted to have two separate seats.

 

 

Seats will be done in leather. But that's for later

I hope I do not overfeed you with pictures.

If I do, let me know.

 

Anyway, again, if you have questions or comments, post them here.

[larchiefeng]

I didn't know that the firewall sat so far back on the coupe compared with the Monza and Spyder where it's mounted right on the front of the body. This build is sure moving along quickly; are you ahead of your postings?

[Pouln]

Hi Wayne, yes, I am indeed already a bit further.

I will post like this until I reach the current status. From then on I will most probably move in to "dead-slow" gear (hopefully forward).

 

The firewall is indeed too far back. I brought it forward as far as possible, but still it is not correct. I'm still debating (with myself) pro's and con's to move it further forward.

[Pouln]

Here is a picture of the radiator. It did leak in the past, which it shows.

I used coloured charcoal pencils for this. Afterwards I have blended the calcium deposit on the crossmember a bit to make it more natural.

 

 

[Pouln]

A few shots of engine and firewall

 

[Pouln]

On to the seats.

This is the result of my work on the seats

 

Later on I will show in more detail how I did this.

I'm quite happy with results, this being the first set of seats I ever upholstered.

[Roy vd M.]

If the radiator leaked like that I can imagine the rest of the radiator would have some discoloring at the least. While I like the coolant-running-down traces I wonder if the base of the radiator could be improved, weathering-wise. To be frank, to me this weathering subtly shows the way it was applied. I'd try making it a bit smoother (for the sake of clarity, I only mean the part below the cooling fins). 

 

I really like your upholstery job, kudos on that. 

[Pouln]

Thanks Roy, I agree with your remark on the wheatering of the radiator support. I have smoothed it out a bit, so you don't see the individual pencil lines. I didn't take a picture, so I can't show the final result.

[Mpfiend]

Very nice work Poul, I really like the upholstery.

 

Regards

 

Keith.

[Pouln]

Thanks, Keith

[harveyb258]

Lovely work on this, Poul.

You're making great progress!

 

Cheers, H

[Pouln]

Thanks Harvey, actually I'm just catching up with the current status of the build. Therefore it looks like I'm going through this build with lightning speed. In reality all this happened from the beginning of summer till now.

[CrazyCrank]

36 minutes ago, Pouln said:

Thanks Harvey, actually I'm just catching up with the current status of the build. Therefore it looks like I'm going through this build with lightning speed. In reality all this happened from the beginning of summer till now.

 

I was a bit frightened by yourbuilding speed. It looked like you was under amphetamin's power  Now iI understand better and am reassured about your health

Splendid job you did, Pouln 

A little criticism (constructive of course):perhaps you should weather your (amazing) upholstery....This is a luxury car indeed, but your radiator is weathered, so, why not the rest of the car ?

 

 

[Pouln]

So, how did I do the seats?
First of all I cut small strips of the thinnest foam I could find and glued that on the seat.
I strictly only use contact glue because when using this there is no risk in bleeding through the leather.
This is the rubbery type glue that you put on both parts, let it dry and then press the parts together.
It is ideal for the leather work and also for the carpeting. If some glue gets on the leather, no problem, you can roll it off with your fingers. It will not leave a trace.
If something goes wrong, you just take the part off, put new glue on and try again.

 

So I smeared the glue on the seat surface and the underside of the leather.

 

 

I then stretched the leather and folded it such that I was able to bring together just a small area in the middle of the seat.

 

This series of pictures are actually of two different seats. Easiest is to smear the glue on the underside of the leather just on the middle part of the leather. You then don't run the risk that the sides get stuck before you want it.

 

 

 

 

Then I smeared the glue to the first wing

 

 

In the picture below you see the polished bone that I use to press the leather in the grooves of the molded seat. Make sure you stretch the leather before you press it down. When doing this you will get the smooth surface that you see on the pictures. I stretched the leather to the max to pull it around the corner of the seat. No creases around the corner because of this.