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Pocher Mercedes 540K True Roadster Build


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This is my first thread on this forum so, bear with me while I try and figure out the posting format, picture size and Photobucket! At any rate, I started this build a while back and it is fairly far along now but, I will start this thread closer to the beginning of the build. As far as expectations go let me dispel any notions that, I am anywhere close in the class of Roy and Codger. So, with that being said here are some pictures early on with the engine.

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OK, I think I'm getting the hang of it but, I'm going to need to go into Photobucket and do some re-sizing and arranging of the pictures so this doesn't take too long!

The next two pictures are for Codger. Pocher Overload and the beginnings of a Pocher Rat Rod!

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Another Pocher on the grid....

Brilliant.

My Merc is stashed away for the future some time so I'm watching with great interest.

In the last pic - I love the idea of a hot-rod at this size.

Am I right in guessing the front suspension is upside down to lower the ride?

Roy.

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Oh dear!! You have started something now, you do realise that us Pocher builders will keep hounding you for more posts on here.

Welcome to the Pocher madhouse. Looking forward to seeing more of this build.

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Thanks guys! I will be posting some more pictures probably later today or tonight. I need to go into Photobucket and resize the lot so they will be the right size for posting.

Roy, the rat rod chassis is a standard Alfa Spider chassis at the moment and I haven't decided which way to go with it yet. That is whether or not to pull the Alfa engine and put the V-8 in and I actually have 3 different bodies to choose from. I think no matter which way I go the frame is going to need to be narrowed in the back its just a matter of where that starts which depends on the engine. I like the Alfa suspension set up so I want to keep that intact bot front and rear. Right now it's not my main focus its just more of a diversion from the Mercedes. Well, got to go to a doctor appointment now so I'll come back later with some more pics.

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I'm late to your party Wayne due to big life issues here but the work is terrific.

You said in my thread: "...who would have the balls to take a kit as expensive as these are and make it look like a real used Rolls. That is confidence in yourself and a commitment to stay the course because I know this has been a tough build."

Well right back at YOU: a RatRod from a Pocher takes balls, $$, and plenty of spare parts - as well as confidence.

You see you already have the attention of the small group of us Pocherphiles; the floor is yours so continue to dazzle us. I hope someday coming to join you in my WIP and for sure Mr. Roy will have the next BIG project on these pages.

I'll drop in as often as I can; it's therapy for me.

C

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Thanks guys for your kind words. I am back from my doctor appointment yesterday at the Neurologist where I was poked and prodded with multiple electro shocks to test my reflexes. After about 3 hours and 70-80 shocks in my legs my hands were tingling. Now I'm trying to re-size more pictures; at any rate here are some more of the in progress pictures I took of the engine build. I tried to take each section like a model unto itself. So, I wound up put all these little completed models together when done.

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Some of the pictures are a little out of sequence but, there was a lot test fitting with pieces being taken off and put back on throughout the engine build. This kit being the newer 540K True Roadster the engine had the supercharger linkage deleted but, I got the PE fret from Model Motor Cars with the levers and made and threaded the linkage rods. As you can see there is a fairly complete K74 500K engine I used for comparison. It came in pretty handy as use as a prototype and as positive reinforcement that a painted and detailed engine is the only way to go when building these kits. I personally can't stand molding seam lines and unpainted models; it just somehow seems wrong. It reminds me of when I was a kid and all we wanted to do was get the model put together as fast as possible so we could play with it. I know these kits are probably the most difficult model anyone will build and some feel that it is just an accomplishment to get it finished. I know it will be that but, when my kit is done I want to at least have some pride in the work I've done. I don't have any illusions that my building skills are on the level as some of you out there but, I'm going to give it my best shot. I'm glad to hear that there a couple of interior experts out there to query when I get to that point. Truth be told that is the one part I'm the most apprehensive about; probably because it is something I've never done. On the up side I am lucky to live only about 40 miles from Paul Koo and he is always helpful. I've been to his house and seen his collection and we talked models for hours; it was a lot of fun to see all the Pochers that are on the DVD's in person. I am actually almost completely done with the rolling chassis at this point but, I am going to post this as I went through the steps. I used a lot of Alclad colors on the engine and I tried to create some contrast and visual interest in the engine compartment. I have 3 different air brushes which I use for different things but, on the engine when I sprayed the Alclad I used my old siphon feed single action Badger primarily because I purchased a screw on cap that fits the Alclad paint bottle so it was easy to switch from color to color without having add color to a cup and clean a lot in between. And since Alclad is properly thinned for airbrush painting there is virtually no waste when painting straight out of the bottle.

Codger, I hope things improve for you and your wife. I will endeavor to provide if nothing else some comic relief. And at one point I will probably start a post on the rat rod when I start working on it. I need to sit down and look at the frame and engine and body combinations in order to decide which direction I am going in. i have the 3 bodies and 3 different engines all from 1/8 scale models so this is really a spare parts box build. I know the frame is going to be narrowed to accommodate any body and I really like the Alfa shock set up so I want to keep that.

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Hey guys,

I thought I'd take a break from the Merc and do a little frame work and try a decide on which engine and body combination I want to go with on my Pocher Rat Rod. Here are three possible bodies and the only assembled mock up engine I have at the moment. Let me know what you think.

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This was my first choice but, it's going to take a lot of frame surgery for this body.

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This was my second option and it requires a little less work on the frame but, it's not what I'm looking for.

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This is a little more like it. Most rat rods I've seen are usually coupes or sedans or something with a roof so this may just wind up being a roadster. I'm going to probably swap out the Alfa rear end for something like a Jag or Corvette rear end with inboard rear disc brakes and I'm going to modify the Alfa front end to take front disc brakes as well. I also have another engine with a blower so, even more options. Anyway, I just thought I would throw this up for fun. When I get to actually building this a little more seriously I'll start a new thread for it by itself.

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Yea, me too! I really like the look so, now it's a matter of working the frame for suspension, body mounts, engine mounts etc. I also want to keep it Pocher in the tradition of lots of detail so there will have to be a fair bit of scratch building.

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With most of the main engine components painted and fit it was time to move on to some of the fiddly bits like the spark plug wires and the wire holder on the side of the engine. Here are some more pictures of that along with some of the smaller parts that were painted.

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The spark plug wires were cut a little longer than needed and the boots were cut off the kit wires and drilled out so the new wire would fit inside the boot.

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The chrome ignition wire loom was very shallow and even when drilled to make small holes for the wires to go in, it was not really deep enough and caused problems when running the wires from the distributor to the loom and later when attaching the wire from the spark plugs to it. You can see from this picture that I had to add a small piece of styrene tubing to accommodate all the wiring from the distributor. I also drilled holes for the loom tabs to insert small hex head bolts.

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Here is a little better shot of the bolts on the loom tabs

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And here is a little better picture of the added styrene tube for the distributor wires

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Here is where I made a small mistake by gluing on the plug wires to the plugs with the intention of connecting them after the head was installed. In hindsight I should have glued the wires to the loom and the boots to the plugs and then brought each wire up to each boot and cut to fit and then just glued the wire into the boot hole. That would have saved me all kinds of aggravation.

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Here is most of the engine parts ready for assembly

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This is where I realized the problem with bending the wires and gluing them into the loom holes that were too shallow and cutting them to size

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Backing up a bit here is the copper line being added to the engine. I didn't think it looked quite right so I added 1.4 mm brass nuts on each end to give the appearance of an actual bolted on fitting rather than a piece of wire stuck in a hole. I actually had purchased the 1.4 mm brass nuts in anticipation of removing all of the molded on nuts and bolts on the engine and replacing them with brass nuts and bolts but, I was too far along with the engine and I didn't want to tear it apart and start over so I painted as many nuts and bolts as possible. I varied the color between steel and anthracite grey on the bolt heads. I also used mostly all Alclads on the engine except the black. I used air frame aluminum, white metal, gunmetal- dark and light, chrome and copper. I also used various bottle paints to pick out the really small details.

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Here is the supercharger in the air frame aluminum with the copper fuel line and brass nuts

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Withe the engine mostly done I started on the chassis next

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Here are some of the chassis pictures. I started with the gas tank and covering the seam lines following a tip from the Paul Koo DVD but, I also added some thin styrene strip around the edges and along the front and back seams.

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Here is the tank with the styrene around the edge of the flat piece in order to clean it up.

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Next I decided to paint and detail the brakes even though normally they wouldn't be seen. I thought that some day I would pull a wheel and display the car with it off just to show it was done completely.

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Here is the completed rear end assembly

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Here is the frame with the rear end installed

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Here is a little better shot of the entire frame

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I will post more next time with the engine mounted etc.

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Thanks Roy, that's what we're all here for. To help others learn from our mistakes and successes. Every little trick we learn from each other may not be exactly the model we're working on but, will help down the road or on another model; the principle being the same.

Wayne

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Today I decided to take a bit of a break on the K91 Mercedes and go back and finish taking apart the K74 Mercedes Cabriolet that I used as reference when I started building the True Roadster. So while my mind is on Mercedes I figured it would be easy to take the other one down to the frame and paint everything and reassemble it like the subject of this post. You have seen pictures of the assembled engine sitting next to the K91 engine in some of the progress pictures. So, now I will be building the 540K and rebuilding the 500K side by side. I will post some pictures of the K74 when I bought it and some of where I started last night. I actually sprayed the frame last night and tore the engine down as far as can without breaking things. All I need to do is get the cylinder head off and then I should be good to go. Anyway, I will post the pictures a bit later on the now double Mercedes build.

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Here are the pictures of the Mercedes 500K Cabriolet K74 when I first bought it. It had been started and was built OK but, there was no painting or any detail beyond what the kit provided plus it was pretty dirty having sat in a garage or attic for many years. I knew it was going to have to be cleaned and dis-assembled for it to look very good. When I started on the 540K True Roadster I decided that I could use the assembled pieces of the Cabriolet as a good reference for how things were assembled and where they went. Now, I'm almost done with the K91 so, I decided that now was a good time to finish taking apart the Cabriolet and clean it up and paint it. Also, I now have a built up K91 for reference and I also have the experience of having just built that rolling chassis so this should go pretty fast. The first set of pictures are of how it arrived and the condition it was in.

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This is where I'm at with the parts dis-assembled from the frame and engine. I'm starting with the frame and then I'll work on engine, rear end and transmission. I want to get this rolling chassis to the same finished state that my other one is and then I can move on from there.

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Here is the frame with the front suspension masked off and the frame primered

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Here is the frame with the finish coat of Tamiya gun metal on it.

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Tonight, I'm going to let the frame paint set up and try and finish removing the cylinder head from the engine and then mask and paint it.

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Nice work so far but I hope you got all the crud off before primer. A bath in Simple Green or similar degreaser followed by rinse should do it.

That's a good sized booth you shoot in.

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Yep, I scrubbed it down with an old toothbrush and dish washing soap before I primed and painted it. Thanks, the booth is one I built and it is 32" wide x 22" deep x 20" high; all inside dimensions. When I built it I never really planned on painting Pochers in it and most of the parts fit OK. I will probably need to shoot the body out in the garage but, we'll see. The main reason I'm doing this other Mercedes engine and chassis now is because it is so cold I can't paint the roadster body yet and I am waiting on an independent rear suspension set up for the 32 Ford Roadster build on the Pocher frame. So, I need to stay busy and it kind of makes sense to do this Mercedes while everything is fresh in my mind after working through all the issues with first one.

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Frame is mostly done now. I just need to do little touch up and detail painting around the A-arms on the frame. And I think I'll hand paint the upper and lower control arms just so it looks cleaner. I finally got the head off so, now it's on to sanding and cleaning it up a bit. If I have enough I may drill through all the bolt heads molded on the block and replace them with brass hex bolts of the same size; I need to check my inventory first though.

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