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Pocher F40 with Autograph transkit upgrade challenge build


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Not much to report today, I spent a couple of hours finding and downloading reference pictures and then printed what I thought would be the most useful. After I started spreading some of the pictures out, I just looked at my workbench and decided that, it just wasn't working for me. 

So, I spent the late afternoon and early evening making a new workbench top that, I can just put on top of the existing workbench. My countertop was 2' deep and about 6' long right there but, realistically, I only use about four feet. I made a 3' x 4' new top and added 4 square feet more of usable work space. I just got it screwed on over the other one and put my tools and things back on and I think that I'm going to really like this. 

This is something that, I had been thinking about doing ever since working on the Mercedes but, I never got around to doing it. I think that, with the Ferrari and having to use a notebook on the bench was the tipping point. I feel much better about the space now and I feel like I'll be able to work much better. I will post some pictures in the morning before I get it too messy and get going on the rear frame work.

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Looking good, Wayne.

I always find it funny how the workspace seems to fill itself up. You do not have to do anything, but even then it seems to get cluttered when you look and more cluttered when you look again.

Weird!

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Thanks Poul. I'm still puzzling the rear frame together and trying to get as many pieces soldered on as I can before actually attaching the main pieces to the plastic frame. I'm still not clear on whether or not there's still a couple of sections have to be cut down some. I do know that, I cut out two braces that should have been left in place. So, I will be adding those back in with some plastic rod before finishing up the that section. Here's some minor progress on the small brackets on the rear.

 

IMG_6306_zpssp8px77k.jpg

IMG_6307_zpss2kqdtiw.jpg

 

This evening I decided to let the rear frame sit for a while and go back to the front and start mocking up the front suspension.

 

IMG_6301_zpsnotsrzyv.jpg

 

Nothing is actually connected yet except the body to the frame

 

IMG_6302_zps8nw9od3m.jpg

 

So, no matter how big the workbench top, it always seems to get filled up.

 

IMG_6304_zpsky6lcxix.jpg

 

Tomorrow, I'm going to get the suspension bolted on and get the tires and wheels on along with the front bonnet to see how the wheels fit under the body before I go any further. If I have to make any changes, now is the time to do it. Besides, it gives me a good excuse to try out the new MMC tires on the aluminum wheels. If everything goes well then, it's back to the rear frame gussets and brackets.

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The calipers and brake rotors look really incredible.  The rear frame is looking to be a real puzzle.  

 

I've been fiddling with the transmission a bit more and have some pics to share.  I wish the kit came with some strong glasses because they screws are a real eye strain.  The first is a normal Pocher bolt, the second is a 1mm bolt and the last is the watchmaker screw.  The watchmaker screws are supposed to be used to secure the corners of the PE parts (second pic) to the transmission housing.  I skipped the screws and CA'ed the PE.  I found that the fit of the PE part to the plastic was too tight (either the PE part was slightly too big or the plastic lip was too thin) to actually drill a hole for the screws.   

Screws_zpsl0r4wwse.jpg

 

PE%20parts_zpsayc1lpux.jpg

 

Here is the built up transmission.  There was 50+ molded bolts that had to be snipped off and replaced with real bolts and washers.  I discovered that the two screws on the bottom of the housing (the arrow) interfered with the fit of the plastic parts.  I removed them and the parts fit perfectly,  The bolts in the orange circle are actually long enough to pass through the plastic ring and allow a nut to attach to simulate a bolt on cover.  I like the look but it was a real PIA to do.  Those nuts are tiny and hard to hold - a combination of fingers and hemostatic clamps got me there.  

Transmission_zpsvjbvrg3u.jpg

 

I have started work on the engine.  The engine consists of a 6-8 plastic parts that do not fit particularly well.  There are a bunch of gaps where the plastic meets, some of which will be pretty noticeable on the final build.  I have it assembled now and am waiting for the glue to dry.  After that it will be putty time..

 

Rich

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Looks like you have a good start on the engine bolts and nuts. Just out of curiosity, couldn't you sand the mating edges of the engine parts flat on a piece of glass or something like that to get eliminate some of the gaps between the engine pieces? I know from the Testarossa engine that the fit wasn't the best either.

 I'm having to go back to the rear frame again and let the front sit for a while longer. I put the Koni shock decals on the shock bodies today and clear coated them on so, as with the Brembo scripts on the calipers, I have to let them sit for a while before I can handle them. 

So, my next update will be back on the rear again. Also, the weather is going to be pretty warm this week so, I might get busy on finishing the body prep and then shoot it the new color.

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Progress is looking great Wayne (and yours as well Rich). 

 

I'm almost sure it won't be of much use, but here are two less than inspired photos I took of two of the F40s that were present at Retromobile 2017. Note the minor differences. 

 

33593620603_fd6d43a23a_o.jpg

 

33561754694_67330df3aa_o.jpg 

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Really nice work, @rjfk2002!

 

A small tips for handling the small parts, I will recommend watch making tools!

Buy a magnifying glass and some small screw drivers.  I will also recommend the special tweezers for watch making. They have the precision and grip you need.

 

I have been doing some watchmaking stuff, and the tools have been really useful also for this hobby!

 

But be aware! Buy the brand Bergeron! You do not want any cheap china stuff!

 

8-)

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Nice work Wayne. I noticed something in this picture :

 

IMG_6307_zpss2kqdtiw.jpg

 

Lets say each side has a part of the frame that looks like the letter A. The horizontal bar (that has the brackets with the bolts and nuts) of the letter A, needs to be parallel with the bottom large part of the frame.

 

I hope this picture will explain what I mean :

 

Untitled-1.jpg

 

 

I would wait a bit longer to spray the body in the final color, as you have lots of dryfitting ahead of you with the window frames, door locks, mirrors, etc.

 

 

@ Rich :

Nice progress on the gearbox Rich. There's a couple of plastic studs on both sides of the gearbox that also have bolts and small details on them on the real engine. It's not mentioned in the instructions of the transkit, but It adds a little bit more detail : http://www.carbuildindex.com/37647/ferrari-f40-engine-and-gearbox-for-sale/

 

@ Roy

Hard to tell with just a picture of the front of both cars, but my guess is that the F40 in the first photo is an early production one, the F40 on the second photo is a late production version. The early production F40 had small sliding side windows, the late production had full size windows that could be lowered with a handle.

 

Sincerely

 

Pascal

 

 

 

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Thanks guys. I have to admit that, I'm kind of missing what you are referring to Pascal. The only thing that, I can see different is that, the upper control arm brackets are angled in on mine versus the drawing showing them more straight out and upright. Perhaps if you could circle the area so, I can see what you are referring to. Also, everything on my frame is just mocked up other than the brass being soldered to the brass "A" frames. Nothing else is permanent because, I'm still working my way through all the other builds using their pictures as reference.

I did take a break from this the last couple of days and started going through every step that, has anything to do with body panels. I ground down the high spots where there will be carbon fiber decals, paint or other things that will show. Here's what I spent most of the day doing on the inside of all the body panels. 

 

Ejector pin marks smoothed out some and taken back to bare metal.

 

IMG_6316_zpsnteybhdr.jpg

 

In addition to the decals, some of the parts have white metal pieces added like the side vents on the rocker panels and the front bonnet.

 

IMG_6317_zpsguzfuowh.jpg

 

Nothing like my trusty Bondo to fill in the gaps and grind marks.

 

IMG_6318_zpsessyfmuc.jpg

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Here's an example of an add on white metal piece on the bonnet. I have already painted the other side of the part so, when I paint the whole part it, will already have a color coat inside . The spray gun that, I'll be using has a much larger spray pattern and trying to get paint inside that opening would only result in runs and uneven coverage trying to get paint in there. 

 

IMG_6320_zpsu9bnrk0r.jpg

 

As Pascal mentioned the doors are somewhat tricky in the way the transkit instructions want you to remove most of the mounting screws for the inner door panel and window frame. I haven't removed all of them yet and I'm going to explore a different method for doing them. As with everything, once you remove it you can't really put it back the same way so, before I go down that road, I'm going to make sure I can't do it a different way. 

Here's the PE piece to be added and you can see a lot would have to be removed to open up the pocket and add the horizontal vents.

 

IMG_6315_zpsudol4rc4.jpg

 

I'm already taking into account that the lock mechanism might not be working, by drilling a 3mm hole in the bottom of the doors and in the rocker panel sill for small magnets to be inserted, in order to hold the doors closed. Tomorrow will be spent working on making sure all of the insides of the body panels are prepped for the decals and paint. The first thing that, I would be painting the body color is, the insides so, I'll spend whatever time that I need to in order to get them right. I just like taking a break from one part of the car and working on another. Everything still moves forward but, it seems like I'm getting farther along this way.

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You are covering a lot of ground and getting much done. Massive project requiring much forethought - and you're staying 1 step ahead of it. Good thinking on pre-spraying with smaller a/b to get complete coverage without overspray.

Great job Wayne.

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2 minutes ago, Codger said:

You are covering a lot of ground and getting much done. Massive project requiring much forethought - and you're staying 1 step ahead of it. Good thinking on pre-spraying with smaller a/b to get complete coverage without overspray.

Great job Wayne.

 

And so say I :)

 

Respect

 

Ron

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Thanks guys. I spent a bit of time sanding down all the Bondo from the inner sections of the body to try and get as smooth of a surface as possible. Mostly this, is for the decals to lay down smooth and not have the ejector pin marks show through. I know that on the 1:1 car the inside surfaces aren't perfect but, there's definitely not ejector pin marks so, that is the main reason to spend this much time getting it right. I think that, just because of how difficult it is to get at things on the under side, I've spent way more time on the inside of the body than the exterior which, is kind of funny when you think about it. I can't think of any other model that, I've concentrated so much on under side of a body. 

So, here we have the parts after sanding down the Bondo.

 

IMG_6321_zps30djrar9.jpg

 

Now, I had to get a coat of primer down to see what still needs to be fixed. For the most part they came out pretty good.

 

IMG_6322_zpsvoynj8t1.jpg

 

Any ejector pin marks still showing are going to be covered up by other body pieces so, there was no need to deal with them. Here's some close up shots to show some of the areas, circled in red that, I need to patch with some more Bondo.

 

IMG_6323_zpshvdqhs7p.jpg

IMG_6324_zpsxzxkzrlw.jpg

IMG_6325_zpsnrtgexzh.jpg

 

The doors are quite a bit trickier because of the interior door panel modifications that have to be made. I concentrated on cleaning up the opening that will show when the carbon fiber decal is applied to the inside of the outer door. As you can see, the doors didn't come out quite as clean as the larger panels.

 

IMG_6326_zpsex1sviut.jpg

IMG_6327_zpsvg0w1cfv.jpg

 

I'm looking at the components of the door and trying to figure out just how much actually needs to be removed to get the look of the 1:1 car. First of all the main door trim panel opening needs to be opened up more to match the PE piece. See the outline of the PE piece showing what should be opened up.

 

IMG_6329_zpsrbxummkn.jpg

 

Then there's the horizontal vents in the PE panel. looking at those when laid over the door with just the hinge in place, it's pretty apparent that, they really can't be cut open with the big door hinge there.

 

IMG_6332_zps0xsmdepv.jpg

IMG_6331_zps9qkxbjpq.jpg

 

So, if that part can't be opened, why remove the entire window frame marked in red as the instructions show? There's got to be another way, even if it's doing some more scratch building on the inner part of the door by just cutting out the section outlined in black and building a frame around the opening. I think that, this is what I'm going to do first and see what happens; I can always cut the whole thing off later if it doesn't work. 

 

IMG_6333_zpshyxw4fbx.jpg

 

Just too much fun here but, at least it's keeping me occupied while the shock parts drying out for the front suspension. By being able to move around from the front suspension to the rear suspension and body it allows me to keep working while other things are setting up and I'm thinking about it.

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Dedicated drudgery work on the undersides; you have discipline. The :devil:'s in the details...

 

Regarding the slots over the hinge in the door panel; I'd try a bit of black .005 glued to the back side of the slots. Would still give a 3 dimension look to them but hide the hinge.

 

That primer looks really nice Wayne; what brand and is it etching primer? :clap2:

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That, Mr. C is a good idea and,if I decide to go with the PE piece I might do something along those lines. But, Rich and I were talking this morning and he told me that, he had done a search on the 1:1 F40 doors and it seems the the PE door part is for the LM version and not the regular road version of the F40 with roll up windows. This is kind of interesting because, as Pascal pointed out, a while back, this transkit does not contain any racing version upgrades for the engine, body or interior. If it was intended strictly as an upgrade for the road car version what, are the racing version PE door panels doing in the transkit? I'm getting a bit of a mixed message here with regards to the intent of the transkit. 

The plastic that, is provided for the stationary door windows is some very thin 0.010" clear acetate to be used with PE and inserted into the kit window frames. I think before I make any decisions regarding the type of door panels that, I'm going to go with, I'm going to make a couple of the stationary windows first. This will kind of push the doors to the back of the line as far as body work goes for a while. 

Nothing is easy with this! Lol

 

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Pascal thanks for the links to the reference materials.  I will need to take a closer look and see what I can add.  

 

On 5/2/2017 at 8:31 AM, Major_Error said:

But be aware! Buy the brand Bergeron! You do not want any cheap china stuff!

Thanks for the suggestion Major_Error!  I will need to look into these tools.  

 

I will update some engine pics this weekend to show the flaws I'm dealing with.  

 

Good luck with the windows Wayne.  I noticed Pascal referenced an early and late model of the road car earlier.  The early has stationary windows with a sliding pane and the late had full roll down windows.  I think Autograph suggests the sliding pane version.  

 

Rich

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I'm working on the drivers side window now which, is the only one that has the sliding section. I think that I've found the use for the micro watch screws on the window frame. We'll see how it goes since, it looks like I'll be inside for the next three days or so. We're expecting snow through Monday night; go figure!

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The first 50 cars produced had sliding Lexan windows. Cars produced later on were fitted with wind down windows.  There were 2 main reasons for this :

 

1. The F40 was designed as a race car, the Lexan windows saved weight.

 

2. Customers were not happy with the Lexan windows. The F40 has no airconditioning and it got very hot in the cockpit.

 

 

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Thanks Pascal, I didn't know that about the windows.  

 

As promised here are some pics of the trouble areas on the engine.  I circled in orange some of the prominent spots.  The Pocher engineers made some strange choices in designing the engine.  There are lots of gaps where the pieces fit.  Many of them will be pretty prominent on the completed engine too.  I am using some putty to fill in the gaps.  I may use some plastic card to partially reskin the top of the engine to fill in the tabs (left of the orange circle in the second picture).  

Engine%20Gap%202_zpsc7hgujho.jpg

Engine%20Gap%201_zpseixlir2i.jpg

 

 

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Hmmmm.....quite a rudimentary casting of the engine block there Rich.

 

Lots of scope for improvement though....which I am sure you will handle with great skill and aplomb as always.

 

Ron

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Hi Rich,

 

You might want to fill in these too, they're not on a real F40 engine :

 

6005657ec0159c84fd2a2db76cf9ce21.jpg

 

The entire rectangular openings inside the red squares need to be filled. All the way to the top where the oval pieces are. The cutouts in the oval pieces are also not on the real engine.

Edited by Pascal
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