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Caterham R500 Custom Build - 1/12


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Been cranking up the 4 year old 3D printer at work and trying a few things - not good enough to use, but may be a good base for casting something...after a lot of sanding and filling!

Turning would of course be ideal!

support plastic still on these bits....

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with tyre

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Edited by caterhamnut
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With both these cars being race cars, they need the race decals...so I used the self-print decal paper for the first time.

I'm using the laser printer type - I don't like the fact you seem to have to seal the ink-jet type to stop bleeding.

First I had to recreate all the decals in photoshop, then I printed on both clear and white background laser decal paper.

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I've been surprised how well these go on - they really help the car to look 'race' as well...

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Cage has scratched this one, so will replace...

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Top tip - don't mask off an area on the decal sheet (in order to save paper) and spray the already-printed decals with gloss coat (to seal/protect) and then feed the same sheet through the laser printer again to print on the unused part...the hot roller inside will melt the gloss coat and cause....issues!

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Luckily running some normal paper through the (work!) machine cleaned off the roll - lucky escape!

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  • 2 months later...

Got it - so sorry!

Not gone any further with mine as of yet.

The centre bits I had machined (10 years ago!) on a fancy milling machine, and recently I had just used our 3d printer at work to try some rim sizes - I think I am going to have to find someone to machine the ali-rims themselves....when I get to them I'll let you know what I find - maybe I try a Shapeways-type service...

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  • 4 weeks later...

No actual modelling updates, but took some pictures with my new light cube :)

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Note: many bits not actually fitted yet, just placed for pictures - hence poor fit of rear boot cover, for example...

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Edited by caterhamnut
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lol - I see your thinking!

Reality is that it would ruin the car - big heavy lump up front (like the Vauxhall engined cars!)

The newest cars now have just over 300bhp - but don't forget that is about 600 per ton :))

http://us.caterhamcars.com/cars/seven-620-r

I'd be first in the line to give it a go though!

Edited by caterhamnut
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lol - I see your thinking!

Reality is that it would ruin the car - big heavy lump up front (like the Vauxhall engined cars!)

The newest cars now have just over 300bhp - but don't forget that is about 600 per ton :))

http://us.caterhamcars.com/cars/seven-620-r

I'd be first in the line to give it a go though!

You can get one of those LS's down to around 400 pounds. Dunno what your Ford weighs but that's very nice power and power to weight. My Cobra is 4.8LB / HP at 2650 pounds.. But it's a blunderbus compared to yours.

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I love all your alterations and additions.

Mine is being built pretty much as the car on the box lid - no engine mods/body changes/customising although I'm adding a few details and missing bits...

Plenty of details I'll nobble from here though.

Great stuff.

Roy.

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Cheers Roy - both these cars are 'custom builds' for a friend, who raced both of them (a decade ago!) It is crazy how much 'stuff' one can now buy online, which may have existed 10 years ago when I started them, but I certainly didn't know - I might go back and change screw-heads for rivets etc, but that might be too big a job!

When I get round to it, I want to do my car properly - that will be like your kit, with the correct wings :)

Ours is a bit of a 'Q' car now - about R400 spec. (200bhbp) - wide track front suspension etc, but with the 'old fashioned' wings.

200bhp doesn't sound like much, but that's 400 per ton :)

Codger - those LS engines are pretty cool, I know. Used for engine transplants a lot I believe.

We actually have a 'K-Series' engine in ours - it was a Rover/MG engine, used in the first Lotus Elise amongst other things. It is a very light engine for its type - just a straight 4.

It wasn't sold in the States, which is one of the reasons it is almost impossible to bring my Caterham over to NY while I am here - hence the spend on MFH models instead - lol

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Codger - those LS engines are pretty cool, I know. Used for engine transplants a lot I believe.

We actually have a 'K-Series' engine in ours - it was a Rover/MG engine, used in the first Lotus Elise amongst other things. It is a very light engine for its type - just a straight 4.

It wasn't sold in the States, which is one of the reasons it is almost impossible to bring my Caterham over to NY while I am here - hence the spend on MFH models instead - lol

Nut,

Sadly I'm not too familiar with your home turf engines but I know 200HP and 400 per ton is a track star in the right hands.

I worked for a hi-perf engine castings company as marketing boffin 10 years ago. We regularly built our LS-7X's (427 sized) to 600 HP and 700 with 13:1 compression and race fuel. I wrote all the advert text and specs for our ads and magazine consumption. I weighed those combinations around 430 pounds. They were stout enough to get to 900+ for the Fastest Street Car race customers we had.

OH and you could get that here in NY; wanna bring it back here??

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It's awesome on track :)

Got some videos on youtube (same user name!)

https://youtu.be/oytXcEzS8No

(just an out lap, then the camera gave up!)

https://youtu.be/JFV4hbIGfsU

playing...damp track, helmet cam :)

I'm a Brit abroad, working in Manhattan for a few years - very difficult to import :(

Edited by caterhamnut
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