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Pocher Mercedes 540K True Roadster Build


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Hi Wayne,

It looks like you had a nice visit to Paul Koo's Pocher museum, he certainly has a lot of finished models and I really liked the display cabinets.

I had a look at my windscreen surround today and the pocher one is definitely not really very nice. I'm now considering the MMC upgrade. So I'm interested to see how you get on with forming the lower channels.

I'm looking forward to your next update.

Best Regards

Keith.

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Thanks Keith, it's always fun and interesting to visit with Paul. He is always pulling something out to share. After talking with him, I don't think that the channel is going to be the problem; it's going to be getting the side posts in straight and more vertical. When we examined the bottom of the side posts we discovered that they are flat and that means they have to be mounted up higher on the cowl and not on the curve where I originally had the right one. I now have a good reference point after looking closer at his prototype. You can see it when looking at the pictures of the white Mercedes. I probably won't get back to it until next week but I will post pictures when I do.

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Thanks Keith, it's always fun and interesting to visit with Paul. He is always pulling something out to share. After talking with him, I don't think that the channel is going to be the problem; it's going to be getting the side posts in straight and more vertical. When we examined the bottom of the side posts we discovered that they are flat and that means they have to be mounted up higher on the cowl and not on the curve where I originally had the right one. I now have a good reference point after looking closer at his prototype. You can see it when looking at the pictures of the white Mercedes. I probably won't get back to it until next week but I will post pictures when I do.

You may be able to overcome that post problem Wayne.

I don't have the pieces you have but this is what some pros do. First, contour the bottom of the post (by filing) to the curved area you want. Procure some 3/8 long 00-90 bolts and take the heads off. You're making a stud. Determine if possible and with a #57 and #56 drill, drill into the post bottom. Insert the stud then silver solder a dab where they meet and clean up with a file. If the plastic's not too thick, you can put a 00-90 nut underneath.

May work for you too Keith.

Edited by Codger
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Thanks Codger but, that really isn't the issue, it already has a stud on the bottom of each side post. If it didn't have a stud on the bottom that would be the route to go. The real issue is trying to get each one positioned with the stud in the way. When I drilled the first hole I just eyeballed it and realized that the post was on an angle which, is due to the flat bottom and also mounting it on the curve. However, you are correct with the contour gauge being used on the cowl to determine where the hole should be drilled for the post. When it gets to the first section where it flattens out that is where the hole will go so the post will sit vertical and not on an angle; then I can either flip the contour gauge for the other side or use dividers. I already posted this picture but, here it is again for reference on the studs. It is the underneath section where the studs are soldered on that is flat. I just need to move the post up about 1/8" or 3-4mm from where it is now.

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Looking back at this picture you can see how low the Pocher W/S mounting hole is located and that is what I was going off of. So, I just went up a little further but where it really needs to go is up about where the raised part ends. There is where the cowl flattens out.

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It really doesn't have far to go, just a smidge. Once I get it figured out and mounted I will let you know the position but, remember your K74 cowl is more like Paul's K82 not my K91 so I would use those pictures as your reference point.

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I decided to play around with the positioning and I remembered that I had made a mark on the cowl when I was looking at the prototype and I drilled the hole and the positioning was right where it needed to be so, I drilled the other side. Here is what it looks like with the windshield frames in more of a proper position. I made a couple of cardboard windshield screens out of some scrap card and both are the same size so that is good. I just have things held in place with some tape but, you get the idea. Now I need to mark the positions of the three pieces and get some brass channel annealed and bent to shape for each bottom channel. I will need to cut a pair of windshield pieces form the plastic that came with the frames. Once I get everything in place with the bottom channel and plastic windscreens in place I'll make a permanent mount under the cowl for the three studs. When that's done I still need to solder the spotlights onto each side post and then wrap up the whole business and send it back to MMC for the chrome plating. It's kind of a pain in the ... but, it will look so much better than the stock windshield when done. So, here are a couple of pictures.

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I know it doesn't look totally centered in the middle but, it's just taped on and the body isn't completely bolted down either. You can barely see the faint line to the left of the center point on the cowl, that's where the center support will actually be.

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With a couple of quickly made cut out pieces to check that each side matches

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With the changes in the mounting locations it has moved each side in just about 4mm.

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Thanks Keith, I think you will appreciate how much nicer this W/S frame is compared to the one in the kit. When you compare the stamped steel frame with screws sticking out after installation to the almost jewelry like finish the replacement pieces you will be amazed at the difference. The extra work and fussing about trying to get it fitted properly will be worth the effort. As you move through your build and you see how nicely things are coming together I'm sure that you will be moved to make some other changes as well, especially the interior trim. This is just a suggestion but, if I were you having committed to the W/S I would also consider looking at the outside door handles and the rear deck grab bars. The grab bars will require some hole filling and re-drilling and the door handle require a bit of cutting on the door panel and inner door panel pieces. The rest are things that you can decide on later as there are no body modifications needed. When you get to the interior you will be tempted to make changes because it will be a focal point when finished. The outside door handles and grab bars are some pretty cheesy stamped steel pieces much like the W/S frame and if you spend the extra money now you will get the rest of the body changes out of the way now without fear of later wanting them and the body is painted and or finished. I almost forgot but, you also might want to consider replacing the W/S wipers too. I think they will require some drilling somewhere too but, big difference from kit parts. This kind of becomes a bit of a slippery slope where one piece leads to another piece but, if you get these now you'll have plenty of time to think about, save money, for the rest. Good luck.

Wayne

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Hi Wayne

Yes all of those items are on my shopping list along with the resin seats and steering wheel set as well.

The mmc parts do certainly bring a lot to the model.

I have now got my doors fitted so I'll post some progress soon.

I'm looking forward to your next update.

Best regards

Keith.

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Sage advice from Wayne. The MMC bits are the only way to NOT let down all your excellent workmanship by finishing with Pocher's blacksmith parts. And he has given you excellent guidance about their care and feeding.

As we speak, Marvin is sending Bug door handles and Rolls spotlight to me. I already have the dash switches, landaus, wipers and mirror. The outer handles are a fiddly installation but how can you NOT use them compared to Pocher?

Press on with patience and you'll get a BIG reward.

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Thanks Codger, as you know, this advice is really just a continuance of our conversation about making changes as we move through the building process and the importance of planning the build. It's kind of the, if I'd only known then what I know now scenario. All this is to say, learn from our mistakes or experience however you want to characterize it. It's the planning out of the build before you get too far along where making a change will undo too much hard work. I know that when I started this Mercedes I didn't really have a plan in mind for the finished model but, as I went along I discovered all sorts of after market parts and materials that made me want to enhance what I was building. That, along with the advance in my building skills, acquisition of new tools, increased confidence to try new things, advice and encouragement here, have all contributed to the evolution of this build.

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. That, along with the advance in my building skills, acquisition of new tools, increased confidence to try new things, advice and encouragement here, have all contributed to the evolution of this build.

All that plus your ability to make fabulous work tools add to the quality you bring to this build.

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Speaking of tools, I was going to glue some styrene tubes under the cowl as receiver/holders for the studs on the W/S posts. I cut the tubes and glued them to the under side and they worked sort of OK but, not really what I was looking for. Then I started looking at the studs and put my 2mm die on the post and started turning it; as it turns out the studs are 2mm rod or bolts that were soldered on much like Codger had suggested earlier I do. After cleaning up all three posts I put them through the holes and tightened them down with a regular 2mm nut and washer from the kit. Much better solution, and now I'm able to have the posts in place and tight while measuring to cut the C channel once it's bent, I can get exact positions. The tape is just too floppy and things are always moving around; same thing with the doors and hinges so, I decided to quit screwing around with them and super glue them in place and finish up the interior tub and the rest of the body work. Speaking of body work; I was almost done with the fenders today, almost. I was color sanding them down and I was down to 8000 grit when I went through the color on one of the rear fenders. So, another painting session and again another great smooth black finish was laid down; everything is glossy smooth. I set the Model Master Classic Black paint cans out in the sun for about 45 minutes and warmed up the enamel paint nicely, blew off any dust and quickly laid down the paint and covered it up. I did it in the garage again and there is still a fair amount of dust on the floor from the MDF I was cutting for another project; I'm building a CNC machine in my spare time to make parts for my jigs among other things. Enough of that, here are some shots of the mounting of the frame with the newly threaded studs. One last side note, the spotlights, when mounted are on the wrong angle and will need to be bent outward. There are studs on the posts that can be threaded and the spotlights have an open tube that can be tapped as well but, the studs are very short so, that may need to be addressed, we'll see.

A must have item for the Pochers- 2mm die

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Another good purchase; I use this thing all the time to hold things when I need two hands to do something.

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End result is a nice clean and solid installation for the three piece W/S frame. Easy to remove and reinstall when painting, kind of goes along the same lines with the body mount studs and nuts.

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Now with the frame mounted solid I can position the spotlights and see what needs to be corrected. I was able to tap and thread the driver's side spotlight on but the other side is a little short on the stud for a solid mount and both sides are pointing more toward the hood instead of straight ahead.

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This is a better angle that shows where the spots are pointing

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Like I said I'm tired of messing about with the doors so here we are clamping the hinges in place with super glue.

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All in all I'm pretty happy with the way the W/S frame mounting turned out and now I should be able to move along on the body fairly quickly. Getting the frame out of the way and committing to permanently mounting the door hinges allows me to move past the mock up stage with the interior tub and finish the body work so I can get some paint on the body soon and then maybe some leather! It will be good to actually show the vision in my head with some color other than primer and bare plastic.

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I don't look in on this website much these days, but when I do, I find stunning builds like this. It's then that I realise why I don't look in much now!

This is as much about engineering as it is modelling. It is turning out to be a magnificent build, and tied in with Codgers they make my head hurt!

I think I will just happily sit here sticking a few pieces of plastic together now and again, and praise myself for being just a tiny bit clever!!

Anyway, must go now, I can hear the matron doing the night rounds, and if she catches me awake it will be the dreaded little room in the dark..............

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I don't look in on this website much these days, but when I do, I find stunning builds like this. It's then that I realise why I don't look in much now!

This is as much about engineering as it is modelling. It is turning out to be a magnificent build, and tied in with Codgers they make my head hurt!

I think I will just happily sit here sticking a few pieces of plastic together now and again, and praise myself for being just a tiny bit clever!!

Anyway, must go now, I can hear the matron doing the night rounds, and if she catches me awake it will be the dreaded little room in the dark..............

It will be our loss if you go Friend. Please come by and chat with us. You have much to contribute.

You're part of this Pocher Club you know...

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Thanks for the kind comments Mr. Fox. Rjfk, as far as the windshield goes, I still have to get the spotlights positioned straight and secured more than likely with solder since there just isn't enough thread on the post to screw it on but, at least I have good solid base to take measurements from and I have a reference point when I pull it back off the car and actually solder it. I still need to get the channel done and drill the holes for the W/S wipers. In answer to your second question first, yes I have already acquired every interior upgrade for the Mercedes from MMC. These would be; the wiper motors and w/s wipers, rear view mirror, inside and outside door handles, metal dash with glove box handles, steering wheel, gauge faces and rings. I think that about covers the interior from MMC but, I also acquired a sheet of mother of pearl and cut my own dash insert; I couldn't bring myself to pay $50 for that when I could get a whole 9" x 11" sheet for $13 plus shipping. In addition to the interior upgrades I also have the flexible exhaust pipes, hood handles, grille guard, brass exhaust pipe hangers and fish tails, lighting kit which, doesn't come with the K91. On the hood I picked up a 12" long small piano hinge in place of the two larger ones that go on either end of the hood and leave a gap. The hinges you can get from RC plane and boat stores. I have pictures of that tonight below. I am measuring for placement of the handles and will drill those holes prior to gluing the other side of the hinge to the top of the hood and priming and painting the inner hood.

As far as your first question I've been rethinking the seat and I think I will mock one up using the reference material from Roy, Codger and foxfriend; and depending on how it comes out I will either use it or not. I did come to the realization that I need to at least cut the sides of the seat, if I reuse it, to allow enough clearance for the leather and any other material and paint thickness build up that will occur. I mean what the hell I've gone this far I might as well give it a shot. In the pictures below you will see the engine masked off and being sanded down; I need to fill some sink holes that are just too deep. I think that I'm going to cut off off all the molded bolt heads, drill out and replace with brass nuts and bolts. I know I've already taken, those of you who have followed this build, through at least two engine builds and I said I wouldn't bore you with a third but, if I decide to go into more detail I will show anything that is different. More than likely that will be the conversion to the 540K engine which involves moving parts from one side of the engine to the other.

So, there will be a lot more detail being added to this build than what I originally intended when I started this process, and it's been a process! The MMC upgrades are like crack cocaine you can't just get one and before you know you've spent, in my case,four times the cost of the kit for upgrades; and I still haven't got the headlights. Help!! Stop me before I buy again! In all fairness I only paid $199 for the kit back in 1996 or so. I did however, get some aluminum bar stock today so I can fabricate my own headlight bar, mainly because there are no after market ones available. That is part of the reason I'm building my own CNC machine so I can make more of my own parts and jigs going forward.

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Not glued but, just to show how much more area it covers. I didn't remove the locator pins where the stock hinges go just in case there is a problem, I can always go back.

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That's a lot of nuts and bolts to remove and holes to drill for real brass, and that's just part of the bottom end. The white card is where the 500K fuel pump has been cut off and the side of the block closed up. Fuel pump moves to the other side of the engine.

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I hope that answers most of your questions. i didn't really do much today but, tomorrow should be more productive.

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Thanks Roy, long time no hear. I figured you were either on vacation or being held prisoner in a secret room by your publisher. Good to have you back and working on your scratch build. I've only made minor progress today but, no pictures to post yet but, I managed to get the holes drilled out for the hood handles. I made a mistake on the first go round and didn't really check the mounting pins for being straight and I measured and drilled all the holes and realized the pins were spread too far apart so the holes were about 2 mm too far apart. I broke out the filler putty and filled the holes and re drilled four of the holes. After priming the hood after the filling was done I'm not sure they are all straight so, I might have to redo one or two more. That's what happens when you are distracted and in a hurry. I managed to put my distraction to bed this afternoon so hopefully I can stay focused tomorrow and get it right. I'm getting to the point in the build now where each day yields results so by tomorrow I will have some pictures and more progress to report.

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No, the plan is to paint the whole underside of the hood possibly an Alclad aluminum or a flat black finish. The idea was more to add a bit of extra strength to the side hood hinges, close the gap along the length and be more of a match to the center hinge. And really the only part you would want chrome is the hinge part that the rod runs through and it's mostly hidden when you open the hood.

Speaking of the hood, and I was going to talk about it later but, there is one more thing I discovered after I had drilled the handle holes wrong. The hood sides are not the same length, one side is about 2 mm longer than the other. When I was doing the body fitting and aligning the hood I don't remember there being any issue but, I need to assemble the body and fenders back on the frame and recheck all the alignment again before I go any further. I'll keep you posted.

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OK, I've been working on three things the last day or two. First, here is where I left the hood for the time being. I measured the handles for drilling and as I said above they got drilled in the wrong places on a couple so here is that sequence and the discovery that the hood side panels are different lengths and I haven't put the body on the frame to check it all out.

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One side a little longer or shorter depending on how you look at it

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These hood handles don't come in the kit so it was a bit of a guess on where to place them and have them be somewhat even side to side taking into account the side pipes from the engine and the hood latches.

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I went back and started to cut the "C" channel for the bottom of the W/S frame and get it sized and bent to fit. This turned out to be quite a pain in the a..! The channel needed to bend over the cowl and back toward each side post which, are set back farther than the center post. When I tried to get the channel to line up with the side post, it also needed to be angled back which, threw the whole thing out of alignment. What you see here is pretty much a K91 problem as the other Mercedes don't have this raised ridge on the cowl. I started cutting down the profile and grooving a channel in the cowl for the "C" channel to fit in. I'm not done with this yet but, here is the progress and I will need to cut a longer piece or two of "C" channel because when I was done cutting and digging the channel turned out to be now too short. After annealing the brass channel it was easy to bend and form by hand, almost too easy so be careful when working with annealed brass. Below are a few pictures of the fitting process.

Starting to dig out the channel for the brass to sit in

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Better view of how much material is being removed

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Now the bottom channel is lining up with the side and center channels so the windshield will be able to slide into all the three channels straight but, as you can see they are now a little short; this doesn't worry me its all about getting the bottom channel to line up with the sides and center at this point.

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Just a test fit to check for alignment; I know the center one is not straight.

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So, now that I know what I need to do to finish this, I figured I would get started playing around with the headlight bar. First idea is to make one out of aluminum bar stock so, I drew a rough outline of the stock light bar on the aluminum so I could rough it out and get it to where I could finish shaping it with files etc. Here are some pictures of that process. When I say rough it out I mean rough, as the pictures will show.

Rough drawing

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Saw cuts thinking I could just use my Dremel with a diamond cut off wheel, wrong! Sabre saw, wrong, hacksaw, wrong, finally my pneumatic cut off grinder. I left it on the long bar to make it easier to work on rather than the short piece.

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Getting there

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Cut it off the bar

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As you can see this is a fairly thick bar to start with. I wanted enough material to start with so I had something to work with. I think this was a 1/2" x 3/16" x 12" bar. Half the bar starting to get filed down and the other half as it was with the grinder.

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Still rough but, you can see what I started with and where it is now after filing it down some.

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Now that I look at the kit light bar it isn't looking so bad.

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Plan B, or as I said earlier my other idea. Add a brass rod to the inside of the bar and fill it in with solder. here is the back side with the brass rod in the valley.

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Well, that's it for tonight. I'm going to sleep on it and see how I feel about all this tomorrow. I will be so glad to actually be able to just paint something and put it on and not have to take it back off 20 times.

Edited by larchiefeng
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An opus of difficult work, well done Wayne.

Not settling for what comes in the box and grappling with ideas, methods and materials makes these models a special building experience. You will have an outstanding accomplishment.

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Paul used the Pocher kit part for the light bar. This afternoon I trimmed the outside door panel and got it ready for the new MMC door handles. Not much to show now but, I will show it all when I actually do the installation because most of the work is there. I did cut a groove along the edge of the top of the door panel to give the leather a little something to fold over into and I masked off that upper portion and painted the first coat of the black finish color. I finished attaching the hood hinges and priming the under hood and another coat to the top of the hood. Tomorrow I'll do a quick sand and shoot the gloss black on both sides of the hood. I am also going to solder the brass rod into the back of the kit light bar and see if that fills the space enough before I decide on going back to the fabricated aluminum bar. While I'm at it, I'll more than likely solder the spotlights on the windshield posts and drill a couple of holes in the bottom of each channel and send them back to MMC to be chromed. I remade the floor pan so, I will be working on that as well. I got the brass hex head bolts for the engine so, I can play round with that if i get bored. I ordered the seat side bars but I only received one so, waiting on the other to be shipped. Once I get the floor pan figured out I can deal with the seat and I believe I will also be able to lay down a coat of gloss black on the body. Every single piece needed some kind of new fabrication so, that's why it's getting painted a piece at a time which, in retrospect is probably a good thing. I post pictures of the progress next time.

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Here are some pictures to go with yesterday's text.

Final alignment and windshield frame fitting before sending out for chrome plating.

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Had to remake both channels longer. I still need to drill two holes through the bottom of each channel for locating pins.

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The center post will line up straight when installed, it twisted a little when I was trying to get the wipers positioned and the spotlight on without taking anything off.

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Here is the new floor pan being checked without using the seat to hold the front pan in place. I need to figure out a transition between the pan and the sill plate sides and clean those up as well.

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Here is where I grooved out the upper section of the door panel to give the leather a bit more space to tuck into when attached to exterior of the panel. And all I did so far to outside of the door to attach the MMC exterior door handles; most of the work is on the inner panel that won't be seen; more on that later.

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Finishing the attachment of the piano hinges on the hood in place of the puny Pocher hinges.

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A bit of primer and they disappear. I really didn't want chrome or brass hinges running the length as most cars the hinges are body color anyway.

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Color coat and it went down nice and smooth with a great shine as you can see by the reflection.

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I didn't do a lot of prep on the under hood but it still shines nicely after just one coat of paint.

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