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Showing results for tags 'Biting off more than I can chew?'.
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Time to unveil the next car which will be getting some paint on it this summer. But this one is going to be a bit more of a challenge than the others... If we go way back in time to Christmas 1988, 12 year old me received this kit as a present. At that time I didn't have such useful stuff as paint, and I think this may have been the first time I used cement rather than UHU (I thought it was UHU, but judging by the strip down performance it seemed as though some parts had been cemented - damned if I can remember after all this time though). Anyway, as is usual at that age I leapt straight into it whenever I was allowed space on the kitchen table, and set about gluing bits together. No paint meant the whole thing was yellow, but never mind, I could make up for that by using all the decals for both the #7 and #8 cars - that'll make up for the lack of paint right? 🤣 Anyay, after 10+ years sitting on a shelf, and another 20+ sitting in a box it was looking a bit sorry for itself. First job was stripping it down which I always find quite a depressing part of the job - it almost feels like you're destroying it rather than rebuilding it. And this one didn't all want to come apart easily; there are some parts where the plastic preferred to break rather than the glue come unstuck so I'm just hoping I can get those repaired something like ok. And then there are a few pieces gone missing over the years, but as far as I can tell there's no more than 5 missing parts, none are clear and all should be capable of being replaced. So time to go ahead. And, after attacking it with vinegar, IPA, the freezer, hot water (accidentlly too hot for half of the engine block but I'm hoping I can salvage that) and the ultrasonic bath I ended up with a load of pieces: Not that really does look depressing doesn't it, seeing a model housed in some margarine containers. It gets worse if you look close-up and see the broken bits too. But no point dwelling on that, it won't fix itself so better get started. First bit to try and get ready for paint is the chassis. I've brushed some acetone over the bits of glue on the surface which oftened it to aid removal - I avoided using that during the strip down as I was worried about melting the plastic rather than the glue, but it looks as though I would have been better using that than all the other things I did. So with the glue softened, careful scraping with a #17 blade and som esanding has left it almost in a position to spray the primer and see how bad it looks. Just two problems - firstly I'm still spraying the Micra and Pontiac... And the second problem goes all the way back to 1988 when I didn't have sprue snippers and instead used the kitchen scissors. And when I removed the chassis from the sprue it looks as though my aim was off and I took a chunk out of the side of the chassis. I decided it would be better to try and fix than now rather than leave it, so first step was to put some plastic card in there to give a base: Once that was set I applied some spare sprue dissolved in acetone (well I say dissolved, it has actually turned into a gloop) as I wanted something a bit stronger in there than thinner. But I got it applied and sanded back, only to discover that I hadn't quite got it built up enough. But as I had got enough strength into the repair I was able to add filler today... at which point I realised I hadn't got a pic of the repair. But hopefully you don't need a photo to imagine it all straighted out. So that's the start of my scary Porsche restoration challenge, expect it to be slow and painful but hopefully you get the picture. Thanks to all who drop in to look at it.
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