larchiefeng

Yeah, when I was doing that part of the build I tried to buy these from Marvin but, they were out of the steel acorn nuts and all they had was the brass ones and I didn’t want those. So, I just used steel bolts. But, actually what I was referring to is the two covers on the back of each head parts D11 and D12 and the little brass stud/nut combo that you used. That’s where I had to use the watch screws. I would probably change them out if I could get what you used. I couldn’t find anything like that when I was putting them on.

Yeah my muffler is already finished and painted. Those will be the next pictures that I post. When I soldered the brackets on the straps I got a little too much solder on and I had to file off the excess. I was slightly concerned about soldering the straps to the lip but it all held together fine. I do have a question about the studs and nuts that you used on the back of the cam covers. Where did you get them? I checked mine tonight and I had to use the stupid tiny watch screws supplied with the transkit. Looking at them, it’s as if I didn’t do anything there because they just disappear.

Here's some more on the muffler and heat shield assembly. The bottom brackets get a small nut soldered on the underside for the bolt to thread in to when the muffler gets attached to the rear transaxle bracket Here you get a better view of the gasket between the muffler halves that the straps will get soldered to Backtracking a little, I added the bungs on the bolts previously installed. Some reference pictures show two on each side of the header and others only show two on each header. I'm going to have to go to the parts reference and see what it shows. Who knows I might be adding four more. One other thing that, I've been looking for are a larger size of these and I can't seem to find them; does anyone know where I can find something like a 2.5mm / W3.0mm aeroquip nut like these 1.6/1.8mm / W 2.0mm nuts from Autograph?

Looks much cleaner than mine, nice work. I can see the additional hardware from Knupfer that, I don't have. The acorn nuts on the valve covers and small studs and nuts on the rear cam covers and a few here and there on the bell housing etc. I can stop posting on my thread now!

I just missed your starting thread when I was posting on mine, I just sort of answered and suggested that you start a your own thread or post on mine if you wanted. But, this is good and we can share notes! Looking forward to your pictures.

Thanks guys, great feedback!! I wasn't going to post again until I had the pictures re-sized but, I felt that I had to pop in for a quick comment or two; I will still post the pictures later. First off, good information from Pascal on the eye bolts and yes they are expensive. In my case I wasn't sure of the exact size that, I needed so, I know that I over bought. I'll have eye bolts for every build yet to come, lol. 😩 Welcome Terrible! I'm sure that everyone would love to see your build and progress. I too, have looked at just about every F-40 with the transkit build, in order to try and see what they did and where certain parts go etc. Those, along with the F-40 parts manual have been my best friend lately on the engine build. You should probably start your own thread but, you are welcome to post pictures here too. Originally, this thread was started as a two person build but, it turned into a one person build. Nobody's fault, just life, time, work space and a lot of other things stopped that and then, I went back to work which, has stalled me to a large degree. SB, I really like your comments and it is the best description of what the F-40 with a transkit build is about that, I've heard! I'm afraid that, I probably fall into the more money than brains category and I feel that, I only have moderate skills being brought to bear on this build. Sometimes, my pauses are due to trying to work things out in my head before continuing on and making a really big mistake. There's just too much money tied up to screw this up. However, I'm pretty certain it won't be a museum quality pristine build when finished. I never intended it to be that. If I can end up with a reasonably well built car that looks realistic then I'll be happy. So, onward and upward; I look forward to seeing Terrible's F-40 and working out some of the instructional issues together. There's nothing like someone else doing a similar build to inspire and push to to become better. More progress pics later today.

Thanks Pascal, I ordered the same eye bolts as in your picture. It was the only size with the long non-threaded shoulder and in nickle plate. I had already ordered two sizes of brass eye bolts and they have a bore of 1.2mm with a 2mm threaded shaft and the diameter of the head of the eye are the only size differences with one being 3.85mm or 5/32" and the other being 3.10mm or 1/8" in diameter. The nickle plated ones from Knupfer have a 1.8mm bore with a 3mm threaded shaft and as far as I can tell the diameter of the head of the eye is 4mm. So, all in all the head size is about the same but the bore is a little larger on the nickle ones. Since the brass is pretty soft, I can always drill out the bore if needed. I am measuring the molded on bolt heads on the turbo fittings so, I can try and get the eye bolts and bolt head replacements as close to the right size as possible. The T-10 & T-11 brass collar sleeves are what go over the braided lines to create the end sleeve for the pressure tube look. I may have already mentioned this but, I plan on using the eye bolt on the end of the hose that connects to the turbo and just the collar sleeve on the other end. Go back a little and look at post 438 with the parts diagram and look at the green and pink hoses and you will see the hose ends that the eye bolts are meant to replicate. Tonight, I managed to cut the waste gate pipes apart and I'll be working on those while, I'm waiting on the parts from Uli and Knupfer to arrive. In the meantime, I have more pictures to load up and resize to be able to post that, continue showing the muffler assembly. I will probably get those done in the next couple of days. Even though I'm working ahead, I do have pictures of work already completed, to post so, more to come.

Shortly after Pascal's post showing the eye bolts, I started searching for them. I actually found the exact ones at the Knupfer.com website and I found two other sizes in brass from a company here in the US. I have already received those but, I'm still waiting on the the steel versions from Knupfer as well as the replacement parts from Uli at Autograph. I also received the 1mm nuts from MMC to continue working on the turbo and waste gate flanges. I'm still working on those and when I get caught up I'll be posting about that. I really need all the little associated parts for the turbos, pipes and braided lines to finish. In the mean time I have started drilling the holes in the turbos for the fittings and the braided lines haven't really progressed much since last time. I have the muffler started and a ways along now. So, here are those pictures. I kind of had to guess at the placement of the holes based on the parts diagram and pictures of other builds and the real car Starting on the muffler by removing the pipes to add the PE flanges and 1mm nuts and bolts Starting to add the PE to the muffler The various PE parts for the muffler heat shield or silencer The two main silencer parts Bending the bottom piece to shape around the plastic The exhaust pipes are just there to line up the PE when I glued it down The top side of the muffler Bending the PE brackets for the straps. A 1.5 mm nut gets soldered on the under side of the bracket for the bolt to screw into to hold the muffler to the transaxle The brass strips go over the stainless steel PE as brackets and get soldered to the large flat brass PE gasket. A bit tricky to keep from melting the plastic As you may recall, I've been rewriting and adding things to the instructions that aren't on the Autograph instructions and this is just one of those pages where I had typed it up and as I went along, more and more things came up. On another note, one of our group has asked me to to get out all of the finished pieces i.e. the body parts front suspension, rear frame and the engine progress to date. And, to put it all together, in sort of a group picture just as a reminder of how much has already been done and give an idea of where this is all going. When, I can clear enough room on the workbench and, get the various pieces out of the plastic storage containers, I will do this just for fun. I suppose that, I could also use a reminder of what the end goal is as well. Sometimes, when you are engrossed in all the small stuff, you kind of lose sight of the bigger picture and the ultimate goal.

Thanks Pascal! I’ve never seen eye bolts like these. When you get back home do you suppose that you could share where you can get them and any information about them? They look like the perfect solution for the hose ends. Thanks again

SB, I understand about the weathering. The majority of the F-40's with, the transkit, are all super clean showroom new without anything but, an as new look. I get that, and I like those but, I just wanted mine to be a little different. It may not be to everyone's liking but, it does seem to be kind of how they look after some wear and mileage. I've been referencing the DVD called "Back to Life" and the wrecked F-40 on the TV show Fast and Loud. Both were LM versions and had crashed. What I'm trying to replicate is what those engines looked like when being disassembled from the body. These cars were raced and used and abused and, even though the body might be clean, the engine and undercarriage definitely were not. I'm just going for a real life, driven F-40 and, I realize that my weathering skills aren't in the same realm as Ron's Ducati but, who's are. If I can get a close representation of the reference material, I'll be happy. Pascal, I appreciate you looking into the part number of the detail up kit from Autograph when you get back. You mentioned using an eye bolt and hex bolt; what type of eye bolt have you used? I know that there are some supplied in the transkit for something else and, they are just small ones with a coarse thread that, you would use to screw into a wood picture frame or something like that. Is this, what you are referring to? I know that, you use quite a variety of materials and supplies in doing your scratch building. For those of you who don't know, Pascal has practically made his own Pocher F-40 transkit out of plastic, brass and everything else, in building his yellow F-40 Barchetta convertible race car. He said that the price of the Autograph transkit was too expensive so, he made his own. There is a lot of talent here, on this thread and, we all benefit from the discussion. I don't mind if we go off topic now and again as long as we all can get something out of it. There's just too many smart and very skilled guys popping in to not, to benefit from everyone's input. Thanks guys!

Wow, I didn’t realize that there were that many sold. I knew that some had the OZ wheels but, I didn’t realize that the transkits came in two specific versions. I have never heard of the special kit with the hoses and attachments, this is new information to me. This why some of the assembled transkit F-40’s look, a lot more refined at the fittings on the hoses. I have looked for those fittings and never found anything like them. I always thought to myself, where did that get those parts, did he make them? I’m looking forward to seeing if you can get me the part numbers so that I can ask Uli if he has a kit or maybe some of the fittings left. He seems to have a stash of parts from the kits left because every time I ask him, he seems to have a replacement for it. I thought that, I would probably be out of luck with the WM41 turbo fittings. And, he said no problem and, is sending them to me so, who knows maybe I’ll get lucky; for a price. lol 😆 Thanks Pascal

Thanks for the tip Ron. I just heard from Uli at Autograph today and he's going to be shipping some of the missing parts for the turbo fittings. I think that he switched the casting from white metal to nickle so, they might come out nice. Pascal, your comment really made me think about exact;y what it is that, I'm working on. I forget how many of these transkits were in the initial offering but, I think it was around 200 or so. I know when Rich I and I acquired our two, they were given a special serial number because they were made up of some spare parts that they had left. The demand was so great that he put together about 25 additional transkits; mine is SP 022 so, I got in on the tail end. Anyway, given the low number of transkits and low number of build threads and completed ones, you're right about it being a handful. When looked at in that new perspective, I do feel fortunate to be building this kit. I've known about these transkits for years and always thought of them in terms of the holy grail of kits. I don't think that I ever not thought about building it when I got it. Sometimes you hit a point when you have to let your skills catch up to what you are doing. I've hit that point once or twice along the way hence, the comment about making mistakes. I imagine that, I've probably spent many more hours working things out in my head than I've actually spent on the bench. I have probably gone over different aspects of how to do something 1- 15 times before I hit on the way to get something accomplished. It has been challenging and I guess that's really part of the fun of it. Continuing on, I added the rear mount for the muffler A little more work on the top end Added the alternator Getting ready for the turbo lines, gathering the materials to make all those braided lines The wire to strip and make this braided line. There will be six of this size on the two turbos With the core stripped out of the braid and solder inserted in its place. At this point, I don't know exactly how long to make them and they all have a slightly different connection to the engine. I need to see all of the white metal fitting to decide how I'm going to attach them to the turbos. This is where I spend some time trying to come up with a good connection that looks realistic. This is how the turbo piping looks. I don't have anything that looks like the pipe flange on the end of the orange line on the turbo side. None of the white metal parts allow a connection like the ends of the pink and green lines. I believe the yellow lines are solid piping. The other reason that the top of the engine is still not complete is because I don't want anything in the way when I make all the connections on the intake manifold area. Everything is a trade off.

Thanks for the welcome back guys! SB, I did look at that link and Goggle translates it into English so, no issues with reading it, thanks. His build seems to have a lot better hardware than is supplied in the transkit in some parts. It's another great build and it is the second that, I've seen on that forum. It has great reference for me to use, thanks. As a point of reference, I'm up to about the end of his page one on the engine and my rear frame is done onto his page two. I am seeing some things that I like that he did and if it's not too late I might borrow some of his ideas. Anyway, here's a few pictures from a while back. Remember yesterday when I said that the oil filter housing has been on and off several times? These holes are part of the reason. The water line off the side of the engine goes in the front one and, two turbo water lines go on either side of it. The turbo lines are where the hole that goes all the way through is. The fitting that's circled on the block is where the single water line starts The fitting on the left with the red circle is the other end and the parts that are circled are where the braided line connects. The longer pipe with the nut at the end is what goes into the housing on the oil filter A closer view of the pipe The next thing was to add the exhaust header head gaskets. Here's an example of where the transkit didn't supply the correct bolts. You get watch screws to put in there, screws don't go there! So, I had to use these bolts instead I also wasn't paying attention at first but, the gaskets are directional on how they go on Finally got them all installed with the .8mm bolts The headers have bungs and I drilled out two hole in each header and installed .080" bolts. Another non transkit bolt Again, another mistake that, I will be correcting in later upcoming posts I made a lot of mistakes and had to redo a few things. In this case, I didn't put bungs in, I just added the bolt heads. I also only put two on the top of each header instead of two on the top and two on the bottom. Each header has four which I go back and correct. Anyway, I don't mind showing my mistakes; this transkit is a real learning experience so, there's a lot of doing things over to get it right. Part of what makes this slow going is trying to think steps ahead and taking into account that if I install this part now, will it be in my way in the next step or two steps ahead. I spend a lot of time thinking about whether or not I'm ready to permanently ready to attach something.

Thanks Ron, I appreciate your input on the weathering. Coming from a master of painting realistic figures and just about everything else, it’s very motivational. I just did some work on the muffler with a few layers of weathered build up using a real F-40 exhaust as a reference. I’m pretty happy with it but, that post is a little bit down the line.

Hey guys! It's been a while and I kind of lost track of where I was on the thread and the build. I did do some work on the Alfa and as with the F-40, work got in the way and I had to put things a way for a while. Once it got off the workbench it also kinda got off my mind as well. Winter came and went as did spring and now most of summer. I have been working a lot more than I ever expected I would and to tell the truth, when I get home I'm just plain tired and not too motivated to work on any models. However, having said that, I have been working on the Ferrari for the last month or so and documenting but, not posting. I wanted to make sure that, I was actually making some progress and that, I would be able to maintain some continuity. I didn't want to start and then stop again for months at a time. I have about 150 pictures worth of progress that, I will be posting over the next few weeks as well as continuing to work and take more pictures of what I'm working on now to post in the future. Right now I'm waiting on Uli at Autograph to get back from vacation in order for them to ship me some parts that I found were missing from the transkit. At this point I'll be picking from where I left off on the engine. I'm still working on the engine but, when I got everything back out of the boxes, I found some damage to the paint on the main body and one of the doors so, I'm going to have to go back and do some color sanding and shoot some more clear coats to fix it. This water manifold on the intake gets two sets on brass PE gaskets Later on, I discovered that, I shouldn't have paint the red on the fittings because the turbo water lines connection slips over them When I was looking for where the other end of the blue hose connects I found that it's supposed to go to the back of the outlet housing. So, I drilled a hole in it and attached a piece of rod to fit the ID of the hose. You can see the hole I drilled in the t-stat housing. Fitting the water manifold Test fit to make sure it's going to be the right length Hose clamps on the water hose and a piece of tubing inside with a hole to insert into the rod on the outlet housing. I find myself doing a lot inserting rods and ways to hold things in place without relying on just glue alone. It's always good to have a mechanical connection as well as a glue joint. The paint really likes to chip off the white metal even with the metal primer. Everything hooked up and you probably noticed that, I have decided to weather the engine to give it a little more interest. It is supposed to be a car that is track raced on weekends so, the body will be shiny but the engine isn't quite as clean. The front cam covers were just placed on here for the picture but, get permanently attached later on. The oil filter and housing have been on and off multiple times dealing with the four line per turbo connections. More later.

Great work Harvey! I’m also in the Codger camp on the way it’s looking. The whole hand hammered 30’s look evokes just how the real car must have looked. Nothing was perfect back in the day and it looks all the more realistic for it! 🤔

Hi Mike, Unfortunately as these Pochers get older the “chrome” tarnishes and the interior “leather” starts to come loose and peel away from the plastic and most of the metal on the frame and suspension gets rusty. On the upside, if they were assembled correctly they are easily taken apart by unscrewing the nuts and bolts. There might be a couple of things that were glued together but probably not many other than the interior parts. If you want to restore it, you will probably have to take it apart and clean them thoroughly and paint the metal parts. The interior can be replaced by using leather which can be purchased on eBay in any color fairly cheap. For a quick way to get the fuzzy stuff off get, a can of compressed air that, is used to clean computers and keyboards. You can use this to get into small tight places and blow it out. And, another quick fun fact, all the Mercedes engine and chassis’s are the same on all of the different kits with the only difference being the wheel hubs between the plastic and metal wire wheels. So, if you run across a Mercedes kit on eBay that is a basket case you can pick up cheap, you can use it for spare parts or to do a rebuild using both cars. I’ll be interested to see what you decide and how you progress.

Thanks CC, I’m glad that my thread was of interest and got you thinking about what could be done with one. The True Roadster was produced well after the K74 and was “simplified” by using plastic wheels instead of the metal wire wheels. During the time I was building mine, I was buying and selling some Pocher kits on eBay and I picked up one of the kits that had chrome plastic wire wheels. I could have used the metal ones but the hubs on the spindles have to be the ones for the metal wires and I had already assembled the frame and I didn’t want to take it apart again. However, at some point in my thread I did build a second chassis, engine and metal wire wheels which, had nothing to do with the roadster. So, there’s another complete K74 chassis build within the K91 roadster build. I also did a lot of body modification because I wanted my roadster to different from everyone else’s. Anyway, if you have any questions or need any help just ask and I will be happy to assist. My roadster would not have turned out as well as it did without the help, badgering, cajoling and pushing me to try new things and stretch myself as a builder from a lot people here on this thread. But, I must call out one in person in particular, Codger, really pushed me and was of immense help in the journey of building the Pocher. If you haven’t read it, you really should read Codger/Chas’s build of his Pocher Rolls Royce. That is one of the true master class Pocher builds here on the forum. Building a Pocher really is a marathon and not a sprint and I’m sure that’s why there’s so many unfinished or poorly built ones available on eBay and elsewhere. If you do decide to take it apart you should probably invest in Paul Koo’s dvd for the Mercedes. When you do take it apart and after reading some of the information on the dvd you will see why things were so badly fit or assembled. I’m sorry that, I’m going on here but, I do have one question to ask; have you decided what you are going to do with it? Are you just going to lightly clean it up or are you going to dive in and make it something special? Speaking of getting back to the bench, I think that I might sit down today and get back to my trans kit rebuild of my F40 and continue watching The Open. I’m looking forward to seeing what you decide. I also know that Chas is hoping that you decide to go for a complete rebuild so, he will have another Pocher build to watch! Good luck!

If you decide to take your Mercedes apart here is a build thread that might give you some info. It's not the Cabriolet body but, everything else is pretty much the same.

I’ve been popping in now and again to keep up on your build and I must apologize for not commenting more. You are giving all of us a master course on how to scratch build a model. I’m not going to limit it to just saying a car because what you are doing transcends just automobiles. Anyway, today, I felt it necessary to comment and say that, this build is truly mind boggling to think that everything in front of us started out as raw material which has been transformed into this work of art! I’m in awe of your talent!! 🤩 😵 Great work!!

Wow, milling the engine block and adding the holes on that machine really makes me feel like a shade tree mechanic with the way I did it! This is why I don’t feel any need to start a thread for my Alfa. This thread and others are so much better than anything that I could offer. Great work David!

Thanks Pascal, Once again, another very talented builder that, I have learned a lot about scratch building from, makes my point about it being a great sharing experience here on the forum. So, Noel you have come to the right place to get inspired and motivated to get back to the workbench! All these guys bring a lot to the table for you to get going!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the support. Welcome aboard Noel, I will look forward to hearing your thoughts and contributions. I agree Jan, I also wander into other topics just to see some of the great work other guys are doing. It’s not that I don’t like armor and airplanes and dioramas, I just don’t have some of the skills those guys employ. The other big reason is space for completed models and probably the fact that I have a few hundred car models sitting in boxes. I started acquiring a lot of 1/24 and 1/25 models of my favorite cars with the intention of having sort of a “hobby shop” stash for when I retired and then I could just happily work my way through the pile. I also started picking up a few 1/16 and then all the 1/12 Tamiya F-1 cars and pretty much all the 1/12 cars I could find. But, in the bottom of the pile I had a 1/8 Pocher Mercedes True Roadster that I bought back in the 1990’s which I started but quickly realized that it was beyond my skill level. I had already built the Pocher F-40 which made me think that I could build the Mercedes; completely different animal! After I hurt on the job and sort of retired, I found this forum through Roymattblack and met Chas, Codger, when I decided to go back to the Mercedes. I had a lot of time on my hands but not the confidence and skills that I acquired from seeing what these guys were doing. When things really took off was when we became friends and I was persuaded to take some risks with the build. Once I finished my Mercedes I went pretty much all 1/8 Pochers and sadly all my previous acquisitions are now mostly wall art in boxes. I also started looking at other guys like Hendie who, has built some remarkable helicopters and is scratch building a train car. Both are not the normal subject matter that I would normally gravitate to but, his incredible skills are what drew me in. I have learned a lot about scratch building from him. All this is just to illustrate the point that Jan was making, you never know where you will get new information from without opening up your options and look at other types of builds and disciplines. In my own small way I’m just trying to share what I’m doing in the hope that it will inspire, inform and at least be of moderate interest to all who read my thread. It’s a hobby and this forum is meant to share ideas and techniques not, just showcase how good you are and show pictures and nothing else. I know that without all these guys and a couple in particular, I would not be doing this build so, thanks to you all for the confidence to make the attempt!

There seems to be a lot of debate on moving the engine and how much. I’m only going 3mm-5mm which isn’t much. I think going back a minimal amount is best just because of everything else that would need to be addressed. If I remember correctly, you can go back somewhere in that range and still be able to use all the linkage as is. But, I like your solution and it’s good to know that I’m not the only one who didn’t want to have the engine in place when working on the rest of the frame.

Thanks guys! Because these two builds are similar in nature or least they are both Pochers. The Monza is probably one of the easier Pochers and, the addition of MMC parts doesn’t really complicate it much. They just add detail where it’s needed and improve the kit quality. The F-40 is a really simple kit made into something intensely more complex with the addition of the Autograph transkit. Sometimes, I just have to take a step back and think about the next step and am I overlooking anything. Sometimes it might be about having my skills improve enough to move forward. I have been pretty quiet about the Alfa build only because it was easier to just work on it without feeling any pressure to post progress and feel like I have to work on it. Like SB said, it is a hobby and meant to be fun. If I do start a thread for the Alfa it will probably only be to not be adding it to the F-40 thread; I don’t want to mix up the thread with two different cars. My intentions on the F-40 thread is to try and show all the issues, problems and what I did to address them for the very few that will probably ever be able to acquire the transkit and actually attempt the conversion. During all my research of all the other guys that did the build and posted it on the various forums what, I found was a lot of good information but, not a lot about how they worked their way through the lack of good instructions etc. I now know of two of you guys that, actually have the transkit and both of you have new F-40’s to convert. Other than the entertainment value to everyone else, if there really is any entertainment here, this is really aimed at you two guys for future use. I’m not trying to bore everyone else with some of the minutiae, I’m really trying help anyone else build a better conversion than mine. Information is your best friend on this build. Poul, I had somehow acquired a variety of MMC Alfa parts in other kits or the occasional separate purchase and it was on my bench to be built after the Mercedes but, when I got the Autograph transkit I back burnered the Alfa. Every time I got stuck on the F-40 I went back to it because I just couldn’t let all those MMC parts go to waste and not get used. So, the main build became the Ferrari and the Alfa was my secret retreat build. The springs, shocks, brass front axle and various other parts really make a difference on the suspension. I’m hoping to get the frame pretty much assembled these parts will show up. I read up on how David solved body to frame fit by doing some cutting the body in the arch of the frame and I was going to do the same thing. But, the more I sanded and worked on the body after removing the molded rivets and drilled them out and added the metal rivets, the body started to conform and fit better on the frame without cutting it. I guess we’ll see if it turns out in the end. The other thing that I decided to do along with moving the engine back is to lightly trim the edges of the rear engine mount that is a main frame member. I don’t want the completed engine in the frame while trying to do all that fitting and suspension work. I’m making it so that I can slide it into the frame later on. I don’t think that I’ve seen anyone else do that but, I think it’s pretty easy and makes more sense than trying to work around a detailed engine when doing the rest of the assembly. Well, hopefully I will get back the Ferrari some this weekend in between painting the Alfa. Sorry guys I didn’t intend to ramble on, especially without any pictures to break up the monologue 🤖