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Pocher Volvo F12 Build


rjfk2002

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Fixing Hoses

 

Minor update.  I have been wrestling with getting a hose fitted between the fan/radiator and the engine.  The first hose was too soft and kinked when I tried to bend it.  In Paul Koo's DVD he recommends using cutting a piece of a Nintendo GameCube controller cord to stuff in the tube to keep it solid and flexible.  Unfortunately I don't have a controller to sacrifice so I dug around to find another tube.  I had one that was much thicker than the kit hose and didn't kink.  Unfortunately this one is slightly bigger and doesn't cut as cleanly.  My scissors didn't work well so I used sprue cutters which left an uneven kit.  I decided to go with this instead of the kinked kit hose.  You can see the results below and the gap caused by the poor cut.  After staring at it for a while a solution popped to mind - black electrical tape to cover the gap and metal foil tape to fake a hose clamp.  This did the trick.  The metal foil hides the top seam of the electrical tape and breaks up the black to hide the different shades.  I thought it was a neat trick and worth sharing.  

 

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Edited by rjfk2002
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Nice save on the hose. I assume that, now you are going to be making hose clamps for the other end and for the lower hose? It's always something but, it does look better with the clamp. I'm looking forward to seeing the chassis with the engine in it and ready for the body.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Engine Installation

 

I decided to paint the transmission a different color to break up the green a bit.  Here is the engine, ready to be dropped into the frame.  I didn't put a clamp on hose going into the top of the radiator as the tube is a bit squished.  It's not noticeable in black but when I added the foil it became apparent.  Also I left the turbo charger off in this pic (more on that later).

 

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Here is the engine in the frame.  It dropped in OK and only required some slight left/right adjustments to get it to fit under the cab floor.  For a moment I thought I was going to avoid the typical Pocher fit problem.  But remember the turbo charger?  That was a harsh reminder that nothing fits on a Pocher the first time.  There is a black corrugated hose that attaches from the turbo charger to the muffler.  There isn't a lot of space to work with to get the hose on the muffler and it was a tight squeeze.  Eventually it slipped on.  When I attached the other to the turbo charger that is where I ran into some issues.  The whole assembly popped off the engine and took out one of the oil lines :rage:

The oil line proved to be a lost cause.  To reinstall I would need to take the engine out again to reattach.  I worried that I would potentially damage something else in the process for an oil line that is almost entirely hidden by the frame and supercharger.  I used stronger glue to get the assembly reattached and anchored to the engine (should have used epoxy the first time).  I left the hose on the supercharger and stretched it back to fit.  That seemed to work.  

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Edited by rjfk2002
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That's a whole lot of truck there! It's looking good. The truck might be larger than the F40 but, I bet that the F40 will be heavier! I like the color combinations of all the silvers, black, gray and gunmetal with the green engine.

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Pity that you lost the oil line, but I can imagine that you didn't want to run the risk for more damage by taking the engine out again.

This is a real beast. Huge..

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Thanks gents.  I wasn't sure how the various colors would look but it came out nicely.  Haha I don't want to think about what I am getting myself into with the F40. It probably could close to fitting on the back of the beast...

 

As I was trying to fit the hose and using strong adult language I didn't notice that the oil line had popped off. It wasn't until I finished with the hose and moved the model that I noticed it lying there on the table...  in retrospect I should have glued both ends down.  I had drilled a hole for a peg which I glued, but the other end was taped down (simulated bracket).  Oh well...  

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The Fifth Wheel

 

After getting the engine square away it was time to add the fifth wheel / trailer hook up.  The assembly was pretty straight forward but you need to be careful with the screws that hold the wheel to the frame.  The screws are way too long and will punch through the plastic.  I cut and sanded down each screw to be a better length and very gingerly threaded them prior to painting.  I learned my lesson from the Bugatti about going to fast with these shallow parts.  One extra quarter turn and the screw will damage the part...  Here's the frame with the fifth wheel installed and the catwalk resting in place (not painted or cleaned up)

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Also here's a close up of the hose and engine parts that gave me so grief earlier.  I didn't appreciate how much of the airtank would be hidden by the catwalk eventually.  

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Edited by rjfk2002
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22 minutes ago, rjfk2002 said:

 The screws are way too long and will punch through the plastic.

 

True...so very true :(

 

Having this problem...and the opposite (too short) on the Ducati....arrrrrrrrgh!

 

Looking great tho Rich....some very nice work going on here mate :)

 

Ron

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That always seems to be the case when layering details; you spend so much time getting them right only to cover it all up with something else! After a while the thought that, "it's OK, I know it's in there" kind of loses its meaning. It's looking great and in the pictures you kind of forget just how big it is. I need a bigger clean table! 

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Thanks guys.  This build is forcing me to create my own hardware store I have so many bolts, nuts, tools now haha.  The truck is starting to get quite large and heavy.  I'm building everything sequentially now because I just don't have space to start and keep large sub-assemblies.  Ideally I would be monkeying around with the cab while I finish off the exhaust tower and cab support but I ran out of shelves!  Speaking of the exhaust stack, I was attaching a metal tube to the plastic part and managed to crack a seem.  I have to sand down, reputty and then repaint.  This is just a reminder that despite how large these models can be, they are still models and quite fragile.  Handle with care!

 

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Edited by rjfk2002
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  • 2 weeks later...

Some Shiny Bits...

 

Well I stripped the top of the exhaust stack and fixed the cracked seam with some putty and Mr. Surfacer.  Here is stack with the guard in place.  There is an aluminum tube that fits on top (the non-silver plastic) which I have left off for the time being.  The bottom fits into the air muffler.  It was a bit short so I had to use a few rings from the corrugated plastic tube to fill it in.  

 

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Here it is installed along with the top of the battery box.  I used Tamiya Black Rubber spray for the box to give it a rubber look and add some contrast to the frame.  

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Next up is the cab support.  There were some really nasty sink marks on the part that required some clean up.  I will show some pics of the process in the next update

Edited by rjfk2002
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When Primer Goes Bad

 

These big Pocher's feel like they eat paint by the bucket full.  I have gone through countless cans of primer and color.  Along the way I came up with the result below.  I had primed the part and then used Duplicolor but got this mottled finish.  At first I thought that perhaps my Duplicolor was running low.  Checked the can and it was full.  I tested it on a white plastic spoon and the color was fine.  I thought perhaps the Pocher plastic was bad.  The answer came several days later when I grabbed the primer, popped the top and noticed there was gunk/leakage around the nozzle.  The primer was bad.  It sprayed gray and seemed fine until the color coat.  So now I know if I see this outcome, bin the primer and get a fresh can

 

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Edited by rjfk2002
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Cab Support

 

As promised I'm adding a few work in process pics to this update.  Below are the sink marks I alluded to in a prior update.  More good old Pocher quality control...

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They were pretty deep and highly noticeable.  I filled them in with putty and sanded down using some very thin sanding blocks with varying grits of sand paper.  There were also similar marks on top, back and edges of the part.  It was a mess.  I filled in everything that would be visible on the final build.  Here is a pic of the full fully assembled cab support.  For fellow Pocher builders out there the springs are the same ones used on the Mercedes shocks.  It's kind of fun to see where Pocher reused parts from the classics on the Volvo in random spots.

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As an aside the speckled effect above is a combo of the lighting and the pearl paint and not orange peel.  

 

Last up is the installed part.  I needed to remove a little bit of material from the frame to get the cab support to fit.  The air hoses are heavy-cored wires.  I wrapped around the handle of an Xacto knife (minus the blade for safety) to coil it.  I plan to create scratch some nozzles for the end of the hoses.  Once the cat walk is installed I will shape the hoses a bit to make it look more natural.  

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Edited by rjfk2002
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Preview of the Fun Ahead

 

I'm inching closer to the last big assembly - the cab!

 

Unlike the Bugatti, the Volvo's body is constructed from a series of panels that are screwed and glued together.  I will probably paint the interior of each panel and apply one coat of color before I start to glue panels together.  If I have a glue mishap I can easily repaint without losing a lot of ground.  If it all works then I have a nice base to add additional color layers and eventually a clear coat.  

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Edited by rjfk2002
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Dry Fit

 

I cleaned up the body panels and did a dry fit of everything this weekend.  I'm glad I did as it brought a few issues to my attention.  There were the normal fit issues, many of which were highlighted in the Paul Koo DVD.  The tan door inserts that fit into the red door panels needed a lot of work.  Some ribs needed to be removed so the two pieces would fit and the door lock opening needed to be extended so the mechanism could move fully.  The doors also hit the dash preventing a clean close so some modification to both areas are necessary.  Fortunately if I pull out the dash the doors close nicely so there is no warping of the major body parts.  I will need to remove some material from the dash and perhaps the door to get it all to fit.  

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I'm quite happy that I did the dry fit as it also highlighted that my original painting plans are problematic.  The fit between the roof and the front panel is poor.  An eagle eyed viewer will see a light line in the second picture at the top right corner of the body.  That is a gap, not a reflection/light effect...  I will need to paint the interior of both panels, glue them together and then work on the external paint.  Some effort will be necessary to get everything to fit - hopefully it is just some shape work and strong glue but who knows. Once it fits then I will paint.  So much for my plan of painting all the body panels individually and then assembling...

 

 

Edited by rjfk2002
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